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diff --git a/27400.txt b/27400.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5dca2ab --- /dev/null +++ b/27400.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16767 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Martian, by George Du Maurier + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Martian + +Author: George Du Maurier + +Release Date: December 3, 2008 [EBook #27400] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARTIAN *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Christina and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: GEORGE DU MAURIER] + + + + +THE MARTIAN + + +A Novel + + +BY +GEORGE DU MAURIER + + +AUTHOR OF "TRILBY" "PETER IBBETSON" + + + + +_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR_ + + + + + "_Apres le plaisir vient la peine; + Apres la peine, la vertu_"--Anon + + + + +NEW YORK +HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS +1897 + + + + +By GEORGE DU MAURIER. + + +TRILBY. Illustrated by the Author. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, +$1 75; Three-quarter Calf, $3 50; Three-quarter Crushed Levant, +$4 50. + +PETER IBBETSON. With an Introduction by his Cousin, Lady ***** +("Madge Plunket"). Edited and Illustrated by George du Maurier. Post +8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 50; Three-quarter Calf, $3 25; +Three-quarter Levant, $4 25. + +ENGLISH SOCIETY. Sketched by George du Maurier. With an Introduction +by William Dean Howells. Oblong 4to, Cloth, Ornamental, $2 50. + + + + +Published BY HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. + + +Copyright, 1896, 1897, by Harper & Brothers. + + +_All rights reserved._ + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PORTRAIT OF GEORGE DU MAURIER _Frontispiece_ + INSTITUTION F. BROSSARD 7 + THE NEW BOY 11 + A LITTLE PEACE-MAKER 17 + LOUD RUNSWICK AND ANTOINETTE JOSSELIN 29 + "'QUEL AMOUR D'ENFANT!'" 33 + "AMIS, LA MATINEE EST BELLE" 51 + "TOO MUCH 'MONTE CRISTO,' I'M AFRAID" 55 + LE PERE POLYPHEME 71 + FANFARONNADE 79 + MEROVEE RINGS THE BELL 85 + "WEEL MAY THE KEEL ROW" 107 + A TERTRE-JOUAN TO THE RESCUE! 113 + MADEMOISELLE MARCELINE 115 + "'IF HE ONLY KNEW!'" 117 + "'MAURICE AU PIQUET!'" 121 + "QUAND ON PERD, PAR TRISTE OCCURRENCE," ETC. 127 + THREE LITTLE MAIDS FROM SCHOOL (1853) 139 + SOLITUDE 149 + "'PILE OU FACE--HEADS OR TAILS?'" 153 + "A LITTLE WHITE POINT OF INTERROGATION" 159 + "'BONJOUR, MONSIEUR BONZIG'" 171 + "'DEMI-TASSE--VOILA, M'SIEUR'" 179 + PETER THE HERMIT AU PIQUET 187 + "THE CARNIVAL OF VENICE" 197 + "'A VOUS, MONSIEUR DE LA GARDE!'" 207 + "'I AM A VERY ALTERED PERSON!'" 213 + "THE MOONLIGHT SONATA" 227 + ENTER MR. SCATCHERD 237 + BARTY GIVES HIMSELF AWAY 243 + SO NEAR AND YET SO FAR 245 + "'HELAS! MON JEUNE AMI ...'" 251 + "'YOU ASK ME WHY I LOOK SO PALE?'" 277 + "'YOU DON'T MEAN TO SAY YOU'RE GOING TO PAINT FOR HIRE!'" 281 + "'HE MIGHT HAVE THROWN THE HANDKERCHIEF AS HE PLEASED'" 287 + DR. HASENCLEVER AND MRS. BLETCHLEY 305 + "'MARTIA, I HAVE DONE MY BEST'" 311 + AM RHEIN 315 + "'DOES SHE KNOW YOU'RE VERY FOND OF HER?'" 319 + "LEAH WAS SUMMONED FROM BELOW" 333 + "BETWEEN TWO WELL KNOWN EARLS" 341 + "LE DERNIER DES ABENCERRAGES" 345 + "SARDONYX" 355 + "'RATAPLAN, RATAPLAN'" 359 + "'HE PRESENTS ME FIRST TO MADAME JOSSELIN'" 387 + "'I DON'T THINK I EVER HEARD HIM MENTION YOUR NAME'" 401 + "'I'M A PHILISTINE, AND AM NOT ASHAMED'" 411 + "'ZE BRINCESS VOULD BE SO JARMT'" 431 + MARTY 453 + + + + +THE MARTIAN + + + + +"BARTY JOSSELIN IS NO MORE...." + + +When so great a man dies, it is generally found that a tangled +growth of more or less contentious literature has already gathered +round his name during his lifetime. He has been so written about, so +talked about, so riddled with praise or blame, that, to those who +have never seen him in the flesh, he has become almost a tradition, +a myth--and one runs the risk of losing all clew to his real +personality. + +This is especially the case with the subject of this biography--one +is in danger of forgetting what manner of man he was who has so +taught and touched and charmed and amused us, and so happily changed +for us the current of our lives. + +He has been idealized as an angel, a saint, and a demigod; he has +been caricatured as a self-indulgent sensualist, a vulgar Lothario, +a buffoon, a joker of practical jokes. + +He was in reality the simplest, the most affectionate, and most +good-natured of men, the very soul of honor, the best of husbands +and fathers and friends, the most fascinating companion that ever +lived, and one who kept to the last the freshness and joyous spirits +of a school-boy and the heart of a child; one who never said or did +an unkind thing; probably never even thought one. Generous and +open-handed to a fault, slow to condemn, quick to forgive, and +gifted with a power of immediately inspiring affection and keeping +it forever after, such as I have never known in any one else, he +grew to be (for all his quick-tempered impulsiveness) one of the +gentlest and meekest and most humble-minded of men! + +On me, a mere prosperous tradesman, and busy politician and man of +the world, devolves the delicate and responsible task of being the +first to write the life of the greatest literary genius this century +has produced, _and of revealing the strange secret of that genius_, +which has lighted up the darkness of these latter times as with a +pillar of fire by night. + +This extraordinary secret has never been revealed before to any +living soul but his wife and myself. And that is _one_ of my +qualifications for this great labor of love. + +Another is that for fifty years I have known him as never a man can +quite have known his fellow-man before--that for all that time he +has been more constantly and devotedly loved by me than any man can +ever quite have been loved by father, son, brother, or bosom friend. + +Good heavens! Barty, man and boy, Barty's wife, their children, +their grandchildren, and all that ever concerned them or concerns +them still--all this has been the world to me, and ever will be. + +He wished me to tell the _absolute truth_ about him, just as I know +it; and I look upon the fulfilment of this wish of his as a sacred +trust, and would sooner die any shameful death or brave any other +dishonor than fail in fulfilling it to the letter. + +The responsibility before the world is appalling; and also the +difficulty, to a man of such training as mine. I feel already +conscious that I am trying to be literary myself, to seek for turns +of phrase that I should never have dared to use in talking to Barty, +or even in writing to him; that I am not at my ease, in short--not +_me_--but straining every nerve to be on my best behavior; and +that's about the worst behavior there is. + +Oh! may some kindly light, born of a life's devotion and the happy +memories of half a century, lead me to mere naturalness and the use +of simple homely words, even my own native telegraphese! that I may +haply blunder at length into some fit form of expression which Barty +himself might have approved. + +One would think that any sincere person who has learnt how to spell +his own language should at least be equal to such a modest +achievement as this; and yet it is one of the most difficult things +in the world! + +My life is so full of Barty Josselin that I can hardly be said to +have ever had an existence apart from his; and I can think of no +easier or better way to tell Barty's history than just telling my +own--from the days I first knew him--and in my own way; that is, in +the best telegraphese I can manage--picking each precious word with +care, just as though I were going to cable it, as soon as written, +to Boston or New York, where the love of Barty Josselin shines with +even a brighter and warmer glow than here, or even in France; and +where the hate of him, the hideous, odious odium theologicum--the +_saeva indignatio_ of the Church--that once burned at so white a +heat, has burnt itself out at last, and is now as though it had +never been, and never could be again. + +P. S.--(an after-thought): + +And here, in case misfortune should happen to me before this book +comes out as a volume, I wish to record my thanks to my old friend +Mr. du Maurier for the readiness with which he has promised to +undertake, and the conscientiousness with which he will have +performed, his share of the work as editor and illustrator. + +I also wish to state that it is to my beloved god-daughter, Roberta +Beatrix Hay (nee Josselin), that I dedicate this attempt at a +biographical sketch of her illustrious father. + + Robert Maurice. + + + + +Part First + + "De Paris a Versailles, loo, la, + De Paris a Versailles-- + Il y a de belles allees, + Vive le Roi de France! + Il y a de belles allees, + Vivent les ecoliers!" + + +One sultry Saturday afternoon in the summer of 1847 I sat at my desk +in the junior school-room, or _salle d'etudes des petits_, of the +Institution F. Brossard, Rond-point de l'Avenue de St.-Cloud; or, as +it is called now, Avenue du Bois de Boulogne--or, as it was called +during the Second Empire, Avenue du Prince Imperial, or else de +l'Imperatrice; I'm not sure. + +There is not much stability in such French names, I fancy; but their +sound is charming, and always gives me the nostalgia of Paris--Royal +Paris, Imperial Paris, Republican Paris!... whatever they may call +it ten or twelve years hence. Paris is always Paris, and always will +be, in spite of the immortal Haussmann, both for those who love it +and for those who don't. + +All the four windows were open. Two of them, freely and frankly, on +to the now deserted play-ground, admitting the fragrance of lime and +syringa and lilac, and other odors of a mixed quality. + +Two other windows, defended by an elaborate network of iron wire and +a formidable array of spiked iron rails beyond, opened on to the +Rond-point, or meeting of the cross-roads--one of which led +northeast to Paris through the Arc de Triomphe; the other three +through woods and fields and country lanes to such quarters of the +globe as still remain. The world is wide. + +In the middle of this open space a stone fountain sent up a jet of +water three feet high, which fell back with a feeble splash into the +basin beneath. There was comfort in the sound on such a hot day, and +one listened for it half unconsciously; and tried not to hear, +instead, Weber's "Invitation a la Valse," which came rippling in +intermittent waves from the open window of the distant _parloir_, +where Chardonnet was practising the piano. + + "Tum-te-dum-tum-tum ... + Tum-te-dum-di, diddle-iddle um!" + +_e da capo_, again and again. Chardonnet was no heaven-born +musician. + +Monsieur Bonzig--or "le Grand Bonzig," as he was called behind his +back--sat at his table on the estrade, correcting the exercises of +the eighth class (huitieme), which he coached in Latin and French. +It was the lowest class in the school; yet one learnt much in it +that was of consequence; not, indeed, that Balbus built a wall--as +I'm told we learn over here (a small matter to make such a fuss +about, after so many years)--but that the Lord made heaven and earth +in six days, and rested on the seventh. + +He (Monsieur Bonzig) seemed hot and weary, as well he might, and +sighed, and looked up every now and then to mop his brow and think. +And as he gazed into the green and azure depths beyond the north +window, his dark brown eyes quivered and vibrated from side to side +through his spectacles with a queer quick tremolo, such as I have +never seen in any eyes but his. + +[Illustration: INSTITUTION F. BROSSARD] + +About five-and-twenty boys sat at their desks; boys of all ages between +seven and fourteen--many with closely cropped hair, "a la malcontent," +like nice little innocent convicts; and nearly all in blouses, mostly +blue; some with their garments loosely flowing; others confined at the +waist by a tricolored ceinture de gymnastique, so deep and stiff it +almost amounted to stays. + +As for the boys themselves, some were energetic and +industrious--some listless and lazy and lolling, and quite languid +with the heat--some fidgety and restless, on the lookout for +excitement of any kind: a cab or carriage raising the dust on its +way to the Bois--a water-cart laying it (there were no hydrants +then); a courier bearing royal despatches, or a mounted orderly; the +Passy omnibus, to or fro every ten or twelve minutes; the marchand +de coco with his bell; a regiment of the line with its band; a +chorus of peripatetic Orpheonistes--a swallow, a butterfly, a +humblebee; a far-off balloon, oh, joy!--any sight or sound to +relieve the tedium of those two mortal school-hours that dragged +their weary lengths from half past one till half past three--every +day but Sunday and Thursday. + +(Even now I find the early afternoon a little trying to wear through +without a nap, say from two to four.) + +At 3.30 there would come a half-hour's interval of play, and then +the class of French literature from four till dinner-time at six--a +class that was more than endurable on account of the liveliness and +charm of Monsieur Durosier, who journeyed all the way from the +College de France every Saturday afternoon in June and July to tell +us boys of the quatrieme all about Villon and Ronsard, and Marot and +Charles d'Orleans (_exceptis excipiendis_, of course), and other +pleasant people who didn't deal in Greek or Latin or mathematics, +and knew better than to trouble themselves overmuch about formal +French grammar and niggling French prosody. + +Besides, everything was pleasant on a Saturday afternoon on account +of the nearness of the day of days-- + + "And that's the day that comes between + The Saturday and Monday".... + +in France. + +I had just finished translating my twenty lines of Virgil-- + + "Infandum, regina, jubes renovare," etc. + +Oh, crimini, but it _was_ hot! and how I disliked the pious AEneas! I +couldn't have hated him worse if I'd been poor Dido's favorite +younger brother (not mentioned by Publius Vergilius Maro, if I +remember). + +Palaiseau, who sat next to me, had a cold in his head, and kept +sniffing in a manner that got on my nerves. + +"Mouche-toi donc, animal!" I whispered; "tu me degoutes, a la fin!" + +Palaiseau always sniffed, whether he had a cold or not. + +"Taisez-vous, Maurice--ou je vous donne cent vers a copier!" said M. +Bonzig, and his eyes quiveringly glittered through his glasses as he +fixed me. + +Palaiseau, in his brief triumph, sniffed louder. + +"Palaiseau," said Monsieur Bonzig, "si vous vous serviez de votre +mouchoir--hein? Je crois que cela ne generait personne!" (If you +were to use your pocket-handkerchief--eh? I don't think it would +inconvenience anybody!) + +At this there was a general titter all round, which was immediately +suppressed, as in a court of law; and Palaiseau reluctantly and +noisily did as he was told. + +In front of me that dishonest little sneak Rapaud, with a tall +parapet of books before him to serve as a screen, one hand shading +his eyes, and an inkless pen in the other, was scratching his +copy-book with noisy earnestness, as if time were too short for all +he had to write about the pious AEneas's recitative, while he +surreptitiously read the _Comte de Monte Cristo_, which lay open in +his lap--just at the part where the body, sewn up in a sack, was +going to be hurled into the Mediterranean. I knew the page well. +There was a splash of red ink on it. + +It made my blood boil with virtuous indignation to watch him, and I +coughed and hemmed again and again to attract his attention, for his +back was nearly towards me. He heard me perfectly, but took no notice +whatever, the deceitful little beast. He was to have given up _Monte +Cristo_ to me at half-past two, and here it was twenty minutes to three! +Besides which, it was _my Monte Cristo_, bought with my own small +savings, and smuggled into school by me at great risk to myself. + +"Maurice!" said M. Bonzig. + +"Oui, m'sieur!" said I. I will translate: + +"You shall conjugate and copy out for me forty times the compound +verb, 'I cough without necessity to distract the attention of my +comrade Rapaud from his Latin exercise!'" + +"Moi, m'sieur?" I ask, innocently. + +"Oui, vous!" + +"Bien, m'sieur!" + +Just then there was a clatter by the fountain, and the shrill small +pipe of D'Aurigny, the youngest boy in the school, exclaimed: + +"He! He! Oh la la! Le Roi qui passe!" + +[Illustration: THE NEW BOY] + +And we all jumped up, and stood on forms, and craned our necks to see +Louis Philippe I. and his Queen drive quickly by in their big blue +carriage and four, with their two blue-and-silver liveried outriders +trotting in front, on their way from St.-Cloud to the Tuileries. + +"Sponde! Selancy! fermez les fenetres, ou je vous mets tous au pain +sec pour un mois!" thundered M. Bonzig, who did not approve of kings +and queens--an appalling threat which appalled nobody, for when he +forgot to forget he always relented; for instance, he quite forgot +to insist on that formidable compound verb of mine. + +Suddenly the door of the school-room flew open, and the tall, portly +figure of Monsieur Brossard appeared, leading by the wrist a very +fair-haired boy of thirteen or so, dressed in an Eton jacket and +light blue trousers, with a white chimney-pot silk hat, which he +carried in his hand--an English boy, evidently; but of an aspect so +singularly agreeable one didn't need to be English one's self to +warm towards him at once. + +"Monsieur Bonzig, and gentlemen!" said the head master (in French, +of course). "Here is the new boy; he calls himself Bartholomiou +Josselin. He is English, but he knows French as well as you. I hope +you will find in him a good comrade, honorable and frank and brave, +and that he will find the same in you.--Maurice!" (that was me). + +"Oui, m'sieur!" + +"I specially recommend Josselin to you." + +"Moi, m'sieur?" + +"Yes, _you_; he is of your age, and one of your compatriots. Don't +forget." + +"Bien, m'sieur." + +"And now, Josselin, take that vacant desk, which will be yours +henceforth. You will find the necessary books and copy-books inside; +you will be in the fifth class, under Monsieur Dumollard. You will +occupy yourself with the study of Cornelius Nepos, the commentaries +of Caesar, and Xenophon's retreat of the ten thousand. Soyez diligent +et attentif, mon ami; a plus tard!" + +He gave the boy a friendly pat on the cheek and left the room. + +Josselin walked to his desk and sat down, between d'Adhemar and +Laferte, both of whom were _en cinquieme_. He pulled a Caesar out of +his desk and tried to read it. He became an object of passionate +interest to the whole school-room, till M. Bonzig said: + +"The first who lifts his eyes from his desk to stare at '_le +nouveau_' shall be _au piquet_ for half an hour!" (To be _au piquet_ +is to stand with your back to a tree for part of the following +play-time; and the play-time which was to follow would last just +thirty minutes.) + +Presently I looked up, in spite of piquet, and caught the new boy's +eye, which was large and blue and soft, and very sad and +sentimental, and looked as if he were thinking of his mammy, as I +did constantly of mine during my first week at Brossard's, three +years before. + +Soon, however, that sad eye slowly winked at me, with an expression +so droll that I all but laughed aloud. + +Then its owner felt in the inner breast pocket of his Eton jacket +with great care, and delicately drew forth by the tail a very fat +white mouse, that seemed quite tame, and ran up his arm to his wide +shirt collar, and tried to burrow there; and the boys began to +interest themselves breathlessly in this engaging little quadruped. + +M. Bonzig looked up again, furious; but his spectacles had grown +misty from the heat and he couldn't see, and he wiped them; and +meanwhile the mouse was quickly smuggled back to its former nest. + +Josselin drew a large clean pocket-handkerchief from his trousers +and buried his head in his desk, and there was silence. + +"La!--re, fa!--la!--re"-- + +So strummed, over and over again, poor Chardonnet in his remote +parlor--he was getting tired. + +I have heard "L'Invitation a la Valse" many hundreds of times since +then, and in many countries, but never that bar without thinking of +Josselin and his little white mouse. + +"Fermez votre pupitre, Josselin," said M. Bonzig, after a few +minutes. + +Josselin shut his desk and beamed genially at the usher. + +"What book have you got there, Josselin--Caesar or Cornelius Nepos?" + +Josselin held the book with its title-page open for M. Bonzig to +read. + +"Are you dumb, Josselin? Can't you speak?" + +Josselin tried to speak, but uttered no sound. + +"Josselin, come here--opposite me." + +Josselin came and stood opposite M. Bonzig and made a nice little +bow. + +"What have you got in your mouth, +Josselin--chocolate?--barley-sugar?--caoutchouc?--or an India-rubber +ball?" + +Josselin shrugged his shoulders and looked pensive, but spoke never +a word. + +"Open quick the mouth, Josselin!" + +And Monsieur Bonzig, leaning over the table, deftly put his thumb +and forefinger between the boy's lips, and drew forth slowly a large +white pocket-handkerchief, which seemed never to end, and threw it +on the floor with solemn dignity. + +The whole school-room was convulsed with laughter. + +"Josselin--leave the room--you will be severely punished, as you +deserve--you are a vulgar buffoon--a jo-crisse--a paltoquet, a +mountebank! Go, petit polisson--go!" + +The polisson picked up his pocket-handkerchief and went--quite +quietly, with simple manly grace; and that's the first I ever saw of +Barty Josselin--and it was some fifty years ago. + + * * * * * + +At 3.30 the bell sounded for the half-hour's recreation, and the +boys came out to play. + +Josselin was sitting alone on a bench, thoughtful, with his hand in +the inner breast pocket of his Eton jacket. + +M. Bonzig went straight to him, buttoned up and severe--his eyes +dancing, and glancing from right to left through his spectacles; and +Josselin stood up very politely. + +"Sit down!" said M. Bonzig; and sat beside him, and talked to him +with grim austerity for ten minutes or more, and the boy seemed very +penitent and sorry. + +Presently he drew forth from his pocket his white mouse, and showed +it to the long usher, who looked at it with great seeming interest +for a long time, and finally took it into the palm of his own +hand--where it stood on its hind legs--and stroked it with his +little finger. + +Soon Josselin produced a small box of chocolate drops, which he +opened and offered to M. Bonzig, who took one and put it in his +mouth, and seemed to like it. Then they got up and walked to and fro +together, and the usher put his arm round the boy's shoulder, and +there was peace and good-will between them; and before they parted +Josselin had intrusted his white mouse to "le grand Bonzig"--who +intrusted it to Mlle. Marceline, the head lingere, a very kind and +handsome person, who found for it a comfortable home in an old +bonbon-box lined with blue satin, where it had a large family and +fed on the best, and lived happily ever after. + +But things did not go smoothly for Josselin all that Saturday +afternoon. When Bonzig left, the boys gathered round "le nouveau," +large and small, and asked questions. And just before the bell +sounded for French literature, I saw him defending himself with his +two British fists against Dugit, a big boy with whiskers, who had +him by the collar and was kicking him to rights. It seems that Dugit +had called him, in would-be English, "Pretty voman," and this had so +offended him that he had hit the whiskered one straight in the eye. + +Then French literature for the _quatrieme_ till six; then dinner for +all--soup, boiled beef (not salt), lentils; and Gruyere cheese, +quite two ounces each; then French rounders till half past seven; +then lesson preparation (with _Monte Cristos_ in one's lap, or +_Mysteries of Paris_, or _Wandering Jews_) till nine. + +Then, ding-dang-dong, and, at the sleepy usher's nod, a sleepy boy +would rise and recite the perfunctory evening prayer in a dull +singsong voice--beginning, "Notre Pere, qui etes aux cieux, vous +dont le regard scrutateur penetre jusque dans les replis les plus +profonds de nos coeurs," etc., etc., and ending, "au nom du Pere, +du Fils, et du St. Esprit, ainsi soit-il!" + +And then, bed--Josselin in my dormitory, but a long way off, between +d'Adhemar and Laferte; while Palaiseau snorted and sniffed himself +to sleep in the bed next mine, and Rapaud still tried to read the +immortal works of the elder Dumas by the light of a little oil-lamp +six yards off, suspended from a nail in the blank wall over the +chimney-piece. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: A LITTLE PEACE-MAKER] + +The Institution F. Brossard was a very expensive private school, +just twice as expensive as the most expensive of the Parisian public +schools--Ste.-Barbe, Francois Premier, Louis-le-Grand, etc. + +These great colleges, which were good enough for the sons of Louis +Philippe, were not thought good enough for me by my dear mother, who +was Irish, and whose only brother had been at Eton, and was now +captain in an English cavalry regiment--so she had aristocratic +notions. It used to be rather an Irish failing in those days. + +My father, James Maurice, also English (and a little Scotch), and by +no means an aristocrat, was junior partner in the great firm of +Vougeot-Conti et Cie., wine merchants, Dijon. And at Dijon I had +spent much of my childhood, and been to a day school there, and led +a very happy life indeed. + +Then I was sent to Brossard's school, in the Avenue de St.-Cloud, +Paris, where I was again very happy, and fond of (nearly) everybody, +from the splendid head master and his handsome son, Monsieur +Merovee, down to Antoine and Francisque, the men-servants, and Pere +Jaurion, the concierge, and his wife, who sold croquets and pains +d'epices and "blom-boudingues," and sucre-d'orge and nougat and pate +de guimauve; also pralines, dragees, and gray sandy cakes of +chocolate a penny apiece; and gave one unlimited credit; and never +dunned one, unless bribed to do so by parents, so as to impress on +us small boys a proper horror of debt. + +Whatever principles I have held through life on this important +subject I set down to a private interview my mother had with le pere +et la mere Jaurion, to whom I had run in debt five francs during the +horrible winter of '47-8. They made my life a hideous burden to me +for a whole summer term, and I have never owed any one a penny +since. + +The Institution consisted of four separate buildings, or "corps de +logis." + +In the middle, dominating the situation, was a Greco-Roman pavilion, +with a handsome Doric portico elevated ten or twelve feet above the +ground, on a large, handsome terrace paved with asphalt and shaded +by horse-chestnut trees. Under this noble esplanade, and ventilating +themselves into it, were the kitchen and offices and pantry, and +also the refectory--a long room, furnished with two parallel tables, +covered at the top by a greenish oil-cloth spotted all over with +small black disks; and alongside of these tables were wooden forms +for the boys to sit together at meat--"la table des grands," "la +table des petits," each big enough for thirty boys and three or four +masters. M. Brossard and his family breakfasted and dined apart, in +their own private dining-room, close by. + +In this big refectory, three times daily, at 7.30 in the morning, at +noon, and at 6 P.M., boys and masters took their quotidian +sustenance quite informally, without any laying of cloths or saying +of grace either before or after; one ate there to live--one did not +live merely to eat, at the Pension Brossard. + +Breakfast consisted of a thick soup, rich in dark-hued garden +produce, and a large hunk of bread--except on Thursdays, when a pat +of butter was served out to each boy instead of that Spartan +broth--that "brouet noir des Lacedemoniens," as we called it. + +Everybody who has lived in France knows how good French butter can +often be--and French bread. We triturated each our pat with +rock-salt and made a round ball of it, and dug a hole in our hunk to +put it in, and ate it in the play-ground with clasp-knives, making +it last as long as we could. + +This, and the half-holiday in the afternoon, made Thursday a day to +be marked with a white stone. When you are up at five in summer, at +half past five in the winter, and have had an hour and a half or two +hours' preparation before your first meal at 7.30, French +bread-and-butter is not a bad thing to break your fast with. + +Then, from eight till twelve, class--Latin, Greek, French, English, +German--and mathematics and geometry--history, geography, chemistry, +Physics--everything that you must get to know before you can hope to +obtain your degree of Bachelor of Letters or Sciences, or be +admitted to the Polytechnic School, or the Normal, or the Central, +or that of Mines, or that of Roads and Bridges, or the Military +School of St. Cyr, or the Naval School of the Borda. All this was +fifty years ago; of course names of schools may have changed, and +even the sciences themselves. + +Then, at twelve, the second breakfast, meat (or salt fish on +Fridays), a dish of vegetables, lentils, red or white beans, salad, +potatoes, etc.; a dessert, which consisted of fruit or cheese, or a +French pudding. This banquet over, a master would stand up in his +place and call for silence, and read out loud the list of boys who +were to be kept in during the play-hour that followed: + +"_A la retenue_, Messieurs Maurice, Rapaud, de Villars, Jolivet, +Sponde," etc. Then play till 1.30; and very good play, too; +rounders, which are better and far more complicated in France than +in England; "barres"; "barres traversieres," as rough a game as +football; fly the garter, or "la raie," etc., etc., according to the +season. And then afternoon study, at the summons of that dreadful +bell whose music was so sweet when it rang the hour for meals or +recreation or sleep--so hideously discordant at 5.30 on a foggy +December Monday morning. + +Altogether eleven hours work daily and four hours play, and sleep +from nine till five or half past; I find this leaves half an hour +unaccounted for, so I must have made a mistake somewhere. But it all +happened fifty years ago, so it's not of much consequence now. + +Probably they have changed all that in France by this time, and made +school life a little easier there, especially for nice little +English boys--and nice little French boys too. I hope so, very much; +for French boys can be as nice as any, especially at such +institutions as F. Brossard's, if there are any left. + +Most of my comrades, aged from seven to nineteen or twenty, were the +sons of well-to-do fathers--soldiers, sailors, rentiers, owners of +land, public officials, in professions or business or trade. A dozen +or so were of aristocratic descent--three or four very great swells +indeed; for instance, two marquises (one of whom spoke English, +having an English mother); a count bearing a string of beautiful +names a thousand years old, and even more--for they were constantly +turning up in the Classe d'Histoire de France au moyen age; a +Belgian viscount of immense wealth and immense good-nature; and +several very rich Jews, who were neither very clever nor very +stupid, but, as a rule, rather popular. + +Then we had a few of humble station--the son of the woman who washed +for us; Jules, the natural son of a brave old caporal in the +trente-septieme legere (a countryman of M. Brossard's), who was not +well off--so I suspect his son was taught and fed for nothing--the +Brossards were very liberal; Filosel, the only child of a small +retail hosier in the Rue St.-Denis (who thought no sacrifice too +great to keep his son at such a first-rate private school), and +others. + +During the seven years I spent at Brossard's I never once heard +paternal wealth (or the want of it) or paternal rank or position +alluded to by master, pupil, or servant--especially never a word or +an allusion that could have given a moment's umbrage to the most +sensitive little only son of a well-to-do West End cheese-monger +that ever got smuggled into a private suburban boarding-school kept +"for the sons of gentlemen only," and was so chaffed and bullied +there that his father had to take him away, and send him to Eton +instead, where the "sons of gentlemen" have better manners, it +seems; or even to France, where "the sons of gentlemen" have the +best manners of all--or used to have before a certain 2d of +December--as distinctly I remember; nous avons change tout cela! + +The head master was a famous republican, and after February, '48, +was elected a "representant du peuple" for the Dauphine, and sat in +the Chamber of Deputies--for a very short time, alas! + +So I fancy that the titled and particled boys--"les nobles"--were of +families that had drifted away from the lily and white flag of their +loyal ancestors--from Rome and the Pope and the past. + +Anyhow, none of our young nobles, when at home, seemed to live in +the noble Faubourg across the river, and there were no clericals or +ultramontanes among us, high or low--we were all red, white, and +blue in equal and impartial combination. All this _par parenthese_. + +On the asphalt terrace also, but separated from the head master's +classic habitation by a small square space, was the _lingerie_, +managed by Mlle. Marceline and her two subordinates, Constance and +Felicite; and beneath this, le pere et la mere Jaurion sold their +cheap goodies, and jealously guarded the gates that secluded us from +the wicked world outside--where women are, and merchants of tobacco, +and cafes where you can sip the opalescent absinthe, and libraries +where you can buy books more diverting than the _Adventures of +Telemachus_! + +On the opposite, or western, side was the gymnastic ground, enclosed +in a wire fence, but free of access at all times--a place of +paramount importance in all French schools, public and private. + +From the doors of the refectory the general playground sloped gently +down northwards to the Rond-point, where it was bounded by double gates +of wood and iron that were always shut; and on each hither side of these +rose an oblong dwelling of red brick, two stories high, and capable of +accommodating thirty boys, sleeping or waking, at work or rest or play; +for in bad weather we played indoors, or tried to, chess, draughts, +backgammon, and the like--even blind-man's-buff (_Colin Maillard_)--even +puss in the corner (_aux quatre coins!_). + +All the class-rooms and school-rooms were on the ground-floor; +above, the dormitories and masters' rooms. + +These two buildings were symmetrical; one held the boys over +fourteen, from the third class up to the first; the other (into the +"salle d'etudes" of which the reader has already been admitted), the +boys from the fourth down to the eighth, or lowest, form of +all--just the reverse of an English school. + +On either side of the play-ground were narrow strips of garden +cultivated by boys whose tastes lay that way, and small arbors +overgrown with convolvulus and other creepers--snug little verdant +retreats, where one fed the mind on literature not sanctioned by the +authorities, and smoked cigarettes of caporal, and even colored +pipes, and was sick without fear of detection (_piquait son renard +sans crainte d'etre colle_). + +Finally, behind Pere Brossard's Ciceronian Villa, on the south, was +a handsome garden (we called it Tusculum); a green flowery +pleasaunce reserved for the head master's married daughter (Madame +Germain) and her family--good people with whom we had nothing to do. + +Would I could subjoin a ground-plan of the Institution F. Brossard, +where Barty Josselin spent four such happy years, and was so +universally and singularly popular! + +Why should I take such pains about all this, and dwell so +laboriously on all these minute details? + +Firstly, because it all concerns Josselin and the story of his +life--and I am so proud and happy to be the biographer of such a +man, at his own often expressed desire, that I hardly know where to +leave off and what to leave out. Also, this is quite a new trade for +me, who have only dealt hitherto in foreign wines, and British party +politics, and bimetallism--and can only write in telegraphese! + +Secondly, because I find it such a keen personal joy to evoke and +follow out, and realize to myself by means of pen and pencil, all +these personal reminiscences; and with such a capital excuse for +prolixity! + +At the top of every page I have to pull myself together to remind +myself that it is not of the Right Honorable Sir Robert Maurice, +Bart., M.P., that I am telling the tale--any one can do that--but of +a certain Englishman who wrote _Sardonyx_, to the everlasting joy +and pride of the land of his _fathers_--and of a certain Frenchman +who wrote _Berthe aux grands pieds_, and moved his _mother_-country +to such delight of tears and tender laughter as it had never known +before. + +Dear me! the boys who lived and learnt at Brossard's school fifty +years ago, and the masters who taught there (peace to their ashes!), +are far more to my taste than the actual human beings among whom my +dull existence of business and politics and society is mostly spent +in these days. The school must have broken up somewhere about the +early fifties. The stuccoed Doric dwelling was long since replaced +by an important stone mansion, in a very different style of +architecture--the abode of a wealthy banker--and this again, later, +by a palace many stories high. The two school-houses in red brick +are no more; the play-ground grew into a luxuriant garden, where a +dozen very tall trees overtopped the rest; from their evident age +and their position in regard to each other they must have been old +friends of mine grown out of all knowledge. + +I saw them only twenty years ago, from the top of a Passy omnibus, +and recognized every one of them. I went from the Arc de Triomphe to +Passy and back quite a dozen times, on purpose--once for each tree! +It touched me to think how often the author of _Sardonyx_ has stood +leaning his back against one of those giants--_au piquet_! + +They are now no more; and Passy omnibuses no longer ply up and down +the Allee du Bois de Boulogne, which is now an avenue of palaces. + +An umbrageous lane that led from the Rond-point to Chaillot (that +very forgettable, and by me quite forgotten, quarter) separated the +Institution F. Brossard from the Pensionnat Melanie Jalabert--a +beautiful pseudo-Gothic castle which was tenanted for a while by +Prince de Carabas-Chenonceaux after Mlle. Jalabert had broken up her +ladies' school in 1849. + +My mother boarded and lodged there, with my little sister, in the +summer of 1847. There were one or two other English lady boarders, +half-pupils--much younger than my mother--indeed, they may be alive +now. If they are, and this should happen to meet their eye, may I +ask them to remember kindly the Irish wife of the Scotch merchant of +French wines who supplied them with the innocent vintage of Macon +(ah! who knows that innocence better than I?), and his pretty little +daughter who played the piano so nicely; may I beg them also not to +think it necessary to communicate with me on the subject, or, if +they do, not to expect an answer? + +One night Mlle. Jalabert gave a small dance, and Merovee Brossard +was invited, and also half a dozen of his favorite pupils, and a +fair-haired English boy of thirteen danced with the beautiful +Miss ----. + +They came to grief and fell together in a heap on the slippery +floor; but no bones were broken, and there was much good-natured +laughter at their expense. If Miss ---- (that was) is still among +the quick, and remembers, it may interest her to know that that +fair-haired English boy's name was no less than Bartholomew +Josselin; and that another English boy, somewhat thick-set and +stumpy, and not much to look at, held her in deep love, admiration, +and awe--and has not forgotten! + +If I happen to mention this, it is not with a view of tempting her +into any correspondence about this little episode of bygone years, +should this ever meet her eye. + +The Sunday morning that followed Barty's debut at Brossard's the +boys went to church in the Rue de l'Eglise, Passy--and he with them, +for he had been brought up a Roman Catholic. And I went round to +Mlle. Jalabert's to see my mother and sister. + +I told them all about the new boy, and they were much interested. +Suddenly my mother exclaimed: + +"Bartholomew Josselin? why, dear me! that must be Lord Runswick's +son--Lord Runswick, who was the eldest son of the present Marquis of +Whitby. He was in the 17th lancers with your uncle Charles, who was +very fond of him. He left the army twenty years ago, and married +Lady Selina Jobhouse--and his wife went mad. Then he fell in love +with the famous Antoinette Josselin at the 'Bouffes,' and wanted so +much to marry her that he tried to get a divorce; it was tried in +the House of Lords, I believe; but he didn't succeed--so +they--a--well--they contracted a--a _morganatic_ marriage, you know; +and your friend was born. And poor Lord Runswick was killed in a +duel about a dog, when his son was two years old; and his mother +left the stage, and--" + +Just here the beautiful Miss ---- came in with her sister, and there +was no more of Josselin's family history; and I forgot all about it +for the day. For I passionately loved the beautiful Miss ----; I was +just thirteen! + +But next morning I said to him at breakfast, in English, + +"Wasn't your father killed in a duel?" + +"Yes," said Barty, looking grave. + +"Wasn't he called Lord Runswick?" + +"Yes," said Barty, looking graver still. + +"Then why are you called Josselin?" + +"Ask no questions and you'll get no lies," said Barty, looking very +grave indeed--and I dropped the subject. + +And here I may as well rapidly go through the well-known story of +his birth and early childhood. + +His father, Lord Runswick, fell desperately in love with the +beautiful Antoinette Josselin after his own wife had gone hopelessly +mad. He failed to obtain a divorce, naturally; Antoinette was as +much in love with him, and they lived together as man and wife, and +Barty was born. They were said to be the handsomest couple in Paris, +and immensely popular among all who knew them, though of course +society did not open its doors to la belle Madame de Ronsvic, as she +was called. + +She was the daughter of poor fisher-folk in Le Pollet, Dieppe. I, +with Barty for a guide, have seen the lowly dwelling where her +infancy and childhood were spent, and which Barty remembered well, +and also such of her kin as was still alive in 1870, and felt it was +good to come of such a race, humble as they were. They were +physically splendid people, almost as splendid as Barty himself; +and, as I was told by many who knew them well, as good to know and +live with as they were good to look at--all that was easy to +see--and their manners were delightful. + +When Antoinette was twelve, she went to stay in Paris with her uncle +and aunt, who were concierges to Prince Scorchakoff in the Rue du +Faubourg St.-Honore; next door, or next door but one, to the Elysee +Bourbon, as it was called then. And there the Princess took a fancy +to her, and had her carefully educated, especially in music; for the +child had a charming voice and a great musical talent, besides being +beautiful to the eye--gifts which her son inherited. + +Then she became for three or four years a pupil at the +Conservatoire, and finally went on the stage, and was soon one of +the most brilliant stars of the Parisian theatre at its most +brilliant period. + +Then she met the handsome English lord, who was forty, and they fell +in love with each other, and all happened as I have told. + +[Illustration: LORD RUNSWICK AND ANTOINETTE JOSSELIN] + +In the spring of 1837 Lord Runswick was killed in a duel by +Lieutenant Rondelis, of the deuxieme Spahis. Antoinette's dog had +jumped up to play with the lieutenant, who struck it with his cane +(for he was "_en pekin_," it appears--in mufti); and Lord Runswick +laid his own cane across the Frenchman's back; and next morning they +fought with swords, by the Mare aux Biches, in the Bois de +Boulogne--a little secluded, sedgy pool, hardly more than six inches +deep and six yards across. Barty and I have often skated there as +boys. + +The Englishman was run through at the first lunge, and fell dead on +the spot. + +A few years ago Barty met the son of the man who killed Lord +Runswick--it was at the French Embassy in Albert Gate. They were +introduced to each other, and M. Rondelis told Barty how his own +father's life had been poisoned by sorrow and remorse at having had +"la main si malheureuse" on that fatal morning by the Mare aux +Biches. + +Poor Antoinette, mad with grief, left the stage, and went with her +little boy to live in the Pollet, near her parents. Three years +later she died there, of typhus, and Barty was left an orphan and +penniless; for Lord Runswick had been poor, and lived beyond his +means, and died in debt. + +Lord Archibald Rohan, a favorite younger brother of Runswick's (not +the heir), came to Dieppe from Dover (where he was quartered with +his regiment, the 7th Royal Fusileers) to see the boy, and took a +fancy to him, and brought him back to Dover to show his wife, who +was also French--a daughter of the old Gascon family of +Lonlay-Savignac, who had gone into trade (chocolate) and become +immensely rich. They (the Rohans) had been married eight years, and +had as yet no children of their own. Lady Archibald was delighted +with the child, who was quite beautiful. She fell in love with the +little creature at the first sight of him--and fed him, on the +evening of his arrival, with crumpets and buttered toast. And in +return he danced "La Dieppoise" for her, and sang her a little +ungrammatical ditty in praise of wine and women. It began: + + "Beuvons, beuvons, beuvons donc + De ce vin le meilleur du monde ... + Beuvons, beuvons, beuvons donc + De ce vin, car il est tres-bon! + Si je n'en beuvions pas, + J'aurions la pepi-e! + Ce qui me...." + +I have forgotten the rest--indeed, I am not quite sure that it is +fit for the drawing-room! + +"Ah, mon Dieu! quel amour d'enfant! Oh! gardons-le!" cried my lady, +and they kept him. + +I can imagine the scene. Indeed, Lady Archibald has described it to +me, and Barty remembered it well. It was his earliest English +recollection, and he has loved buttered toast and crumpets ever +since--as well as women and wine. And thus he was adopted by the +Archibald Rohans. They got him an English governess and a pony; and +in two years he went to a day school in Dover, kept by a Miss Stone, +who is actually alive at present and remembers him well; and so he +became quite a little English boy, but kept up his French through +Lady Archibald, who was passionately devoted to him, although by +this time she had a little daughter of her own, whom Barty always +looked upon as his sister, and who is now dead. (She became Lord +Frognal's wife--he died in 1870--and she afterwards married Mr. +Justice Robertson.) + +Barty's French grandfather and grandmother came over from Dieppe +once a year to see him, and were well pleased with the happy +condition, of his new life; and the more Lord and Lady Archibald saw +of these grandparents of his, the more pleased they were that he had +become the child of their adoption. For they were first-rate people +to descend from, these simple toilers of the sea; better, perhaps, +_caeteris paribus_, than even the Rohans themselves. + +All this early phase of little Josselin's life seems to have been +singularly happy. Every year at Christmas he went with the Rohans to +Castle Rohan in Yorkshire, where his English grandfather lived, the +Marquis of Whitby--and where he was petted and made much of by all +the members, young and old (especially female), of that very ancient +family, which had originally come from Brittany in France, as the +name shows; but were not millionaires, and never had been. + +Often, too, they went to Paris--and in 1847 Colonel Lord Archibald +sold out, and they elected to go and live there, in the Rue du Bac; +and Barty was sent to the Institution F. Brossard, where he was soon +destined to become the most popular boy, with boys and masters +alike, that had ever been in the school (in any school, I should +think), in spite of conduct that was too often the reverse of +exemplary. + +Indeed, even from his early boyhood he was the most extraordinarily +gifted creature I have ever known, or even heard of; a kind of +spontaneous humorous Crichton, to whom all things came easily--and +life itself as an uncommonly good joke. During that summer term of +1847 I did not see very much of him. He was in the class below mine, +and took up with Laferte and little Bussy-Rabutin, who were +first-rate boys, and laughed at everything he said, and worshipped +him. So did everybody else, sooner or later; indeed, it soon became +evident that he was a most exceptional little person. + +[Illustration: "'QUEL AMOUR D'ENFANT!'"] + +In the first place, his beauty was absolutely angelic, as will be +readily believed by all who have known him since. The mere sight of +him as a boy made people pity his father and mother for being dead! + +Then he had a charming gift of singing little French and English +ditties, comic or touching, with his delightful fresh young pipe, +and accompanying himself quite nicely on either piano or guitar +without really knowing a note of music. Then he could draw +caricatures that we boys thought inimitable, much funnier than +Cham's or Bertall's or Gavarni's, and collected and treasured up. I +have dozens of them now--they make me laugh still, and bring back +memories of which the charm is indescribable; and their pathos, to +me! + +And then how funny he was himself, without effort, and with a fun +that never failed! He was a born buffoon of the graceful kind--more +whelp or kitten than monkey--ever playing the fool, in and out of +season, but somehow always _a propos_; and French boys love a boy +for that more than anything else; or did, in those days. + +Such very simple buffooneries as they were, too--that gave him (and +us) such stupendous delight! + +For instance--he is sitting at evening study between Bussy-Rabutin +and Laferte; M. Bonzig is usher for the evening. + +At 8.30 Bussy-Rabutin gives way; in a whisper he informs Barty that +he means to take a nap ("_piquer un chien_"), with his Gradus opened +before him, and his hand supporting his weary brow as though in deep +study. "But," says he-- + +"If Bonzig finds me out (si Bonzig me colle), give me a gentle +nudge!" + +"All right!" says Barty--and off goes Bussy-Rabutin into his snooze. + +8.45.--Poor fat little Laferte falls into a snooze too, after giving +Barty just the same commission--to nudge him directly he's found out +from the _chaire_. + +8.55.--Intense silence; everybody hard at work. Even Bonzig is +satisfied with the deep stillness and studious _recueillement_ that +brood over the scene--steady pens going--quick turning over of +leaves of the Gradus ad Parnassum. Suddenly Barty sticks out his +elbows and nudges both his neighbors at once, and both jump up, +exclaiming, in a loud voice: + +"Non, m'sieur, je n'dors pas. J'travaille." + +Sensation. Even Bonzig laughs--and Barty is happy for a week. + +Or else, again--a new usher, Monsieur Goupillon (from Gascony) is on +duty in the school-room during afternoon school. He has a peculiar +way of saying "_oe, vo!_" instead of "_oui, vous!_" to any boy who +says "moi, m'sieur?" on being found fault with; and perceiving this, +Barty manages to be found fault with every five minutes, and always +says "moi, m'sieur?" so as to elicit the "_oe, vo!_" that gives him +such delight. + +At length M. Goupillon says, + +"Josselin, if you force me to say '_oe, vo!_' to you once more, you +shall be _a la retenue_ for a week!" + +"Moi, m'sieur?" says Josselin, quite innocently. + +"_Oe, vo!_" shouts M. Goupillon, glaring with all his might, but +quite unconscious that Barty has earned the threatened punishment! +And again Barty is happy for a week. And so are we. + +Such was Barty's humor, as a boy--mere drivel--but of such a kind +that even his butts were fond of him. He would make M. Bonzig laugh +in the middle of his severest penal sentences, and thus demoralize +the whole school-room and set a shocking example, and be ordered _a +la porte_ of the salle d'etudes--an exile which was quite to his +taste; for he would go straight off to the lingerie and entertain +Mlle. Marceline and Constance and Felicite (who all three adored +him) with comic songs and break-downs of his own invention, and +imitations of everybody in the school. He was a born histrion--a +kind of French Arthur Roberts--but very beautiful to the female eye, +and also always dear to the female heart--a most delightful gift of +God! + +Then he was constantly being sent for when boys' friends and parents +came to see them, that he might sing and play the fool and show off +his tricks, and so forth. It was one of M. Merovee's greatest +delights to put him through his paces. The message "on demande +Monsieur Josselin au parloir" would be brought down once or twice a +week, sometimes even in class or school room, and became quite a +by-word in the school; and many of the masters thought it a mistake +and a pity. But Barty by no means disliked being made much of and +showing off in this genial manner. + +He could turn le pere Brossard round his little finger, and Merovee +too. Whenever an extra holiday was to be begged for, or a favor +obtained for any one, or the severity of a _pensum_ mitigated, Barty +was the messenger, and seldom failed. + +His constitution, inherited from a long line of frugal seafaring +Norman ancestors (not to mention another long line of well-fed, +well-bred Yorkshire Squires), was magnificent. His spirits never +failed. He could see the satellites of Jupiter with the naked eye; +this was often tested by M. Dumollard, maitre de mathematiques (et +de cosmographie), who had a telescope, which, with a little +good-will on the gazer's part, made Jupiter look as big as the moon, +and its moons like stars of the first magnitude. + +His sense of hearing was also exceptionally keen. He could hear a +watch tick in the next room, and perceive very high sounds to which +ordinary human ears are deaf (this was found out later); and when we +played blind-man's-buff on a rainy day, he could, blindfolded, tell +every boy he caught hold of--not by feeling him all over like the +rest of us, but by the mere smell of his hair, or his hands, or his +blouse! No wonder he was so much more alive than the rest of us! +According to the amiable, modest, polite, delicately humorous, and +even tolerant and considerate Professor Max Nordau, this perfection +of the olfactory sense proclaims poor Barty a degenerate! I only +wish there were a few more like him, and that I were a little more +like him myself! + +By-the-way, how proud young Germany must feel of its enlightened +Max, and how fond of him, to be sure! Mes compliments! + +But the most astounding thing of all (it seems incredible, but all +the world knows it by this time, and it will be accounted for later +on) is that at certain times and seasons Barty knew by an infallible +instinct _where the north was_, to a point. Most of my readers will +remember his extraordinary evidence as a witness in the "Rangoon" +trial, and how this power was tested in open court, and how +important were the issues involved, and how he refused to give any +explanation of a gift so extraordinary. + +It was often tried at school by blindfolding him, and turning him +round and round till he was giddy, and asking him to point out where +the north pole was, or the north star, and seven or eight times out +of ten the answer was unerringly right. When he failed, he knew +beforehand that for the time being he had lost the power, but could +never say why. Little Doctor Larcher could never get over his +surprise at this strange phenomenon, nor explain it, and often +brought some scientific friend from Paris to test it, who was +equally nonplussed. + +When cross-examined, Barty would merely say: + +"Quelquefois je sais--quelquefois je ne sais pas--mais quand je +sais, je sais, et il n'y a pas a s'y tromper!" + +Indeed, on one occasion that I remember well, a very strange thing +happened; he not only pointed out the north with absolute accuracy, +as he stood carefully blindfolded in the gymnastic ground, after +having been turned and twisted again and again--but, still +blindfolded, he vaulted the wire fence and ran round to the +refectory door which served as the home at rounders, all of us +following; and there he danced a surprising dance of his own +invention, that he called "La Paladine," the most humorously +graceful and grotesque exhibition I ever saw; and then, taking a +ball out of his pocket, he shouted: "A l'amandier!" and threw the +ball. Straight and swift it flew, and hit the almond-tree, which was +quite twenty yards off; and after this he ran round the yard from +base to base, as at "la balle au camp," till he reached the camp +again. + +"If ever he goes blind," said the wondering M. Merovee, "he'll never +need a dog to lead him about." + +"He must have some special friend above!" said Madame Germain +(Merovee's sister, who was looking on). + +_Prophetic words!_ I have never forgotten them, nor the tear that +glistened in each of her kind eyes as she spoke. She was a deeply +religious and very emotional person, and loved Barty almost as if he +were a child of her own. + +Such women have strange intuitions. + +Barty was often asked to repeat this astonishing performance before +sceptical people--parents of boys, visitors, etc.--who had been told +of it, and who believed he could not have been properly blindfolded; +but he could never be induced to do so. + +There was no mistake about the blindfolding--I helped in it myself; +and he afterwards told me the whole thing was "aussi simple que +bonjour" if once he felt the north--for then, with his back to the +refectory door, he knew exactly the position and distance of every +tree from where he was. + +"It's all nonsense about my going blind and being able to do without +a dog"--he added; "I should be just as helpless as any other blind +man, unless I was in a place I knew as well as my own pocket--like +this play-ground! Besides, _I_ sha'n't go blind; nothing will ever +happen to _my_ eyes--they're the strongest and best in the whole +school!" + +He said this exultingly, dilating his nostrils and chest; and looked +proudly up and around, like Ajax defying the lightning. + +"But what _do_ you feel when you feel the north, Barty--a kind of +tingling?" I asked. + +"Oh--I feel where it is--as if I'd got a mariner's compass trembling +inside my stomach--and as if I wasn't afraid of anybody or anything +in the world--as if I could go and have my head chopped off and not +care a fig." + +"Ah, well--I can't make it out--I give it up," I exclaimed. + +"So do I," exclaims Barty. + +"But tell me, Barty," I whispered, "_have_ you--have you _really_ +got a--a--_special friend above?_" + +"Ask no questions and you'll get no lies," said Barty, +and winked at me one eye after the other--and went +about his business. And I about mine. + +Thus it is hardly to be wondered at that the spirit of this +extraordinary boy seemed to pervade the Pension F. Brossard, almost +from the day he came to the day he left it--a slender stripling over +six feet high, beautiful as Apollo but, alas! without his degree, +and not an incipient hair on his lip or chin! + +Of course the boy had his faults. He had a tremendous appetite, and +was rather greedy--so was I, for that matter--and we were good +customers to la mere Jaurion; especially he, for he always had lots +of pocket-money, and was fond of standing treat all round. Yet, +strange to say, he had such a loathing of meat that soon by special +favoritism a separate dish of eggs and milk and succulent vegetables +was cooked expressly for him--a savory mess that made all our mouths +water merely to see and smell it, and filled us with envy, it was so +good. Aglae the cook took care of that! + +"C'etait pour Monsieur Josselin!" + +And of this he would eat as much as three ordinary boys could eat of +anything in the world. + +Then he was quick-tempered and impulsive, and in frequent fights--in +which he generally came off second best; for he was fond of fighting +with bigger boys than himself. Victor or vanquished, he never bore +malice--nor woke it in others, which is worse. But he would slap a +face almost as soon as look at it, on rather slight provocation, I'm +afraid--especially if it were an inch or two higher up than his own. +And he was fond of showing off, and always wanted to throw farther +and jump higher and run faster than any one else. Not, indeed, that +he ever wished to _mentally_ excel, or particularly admired those +who did! + +Also, he was apt to judge folk too much by their mere outward +appearance and manner, and not very fond of dull, ugly, commonplace +people--the very people, unfortunately, who were fondest of him; he +really detested them, almost as much as they detest each other, in +spite of many sterling qualities of the heart and head they +sometimes possess. And yet he was their victim through life--for he +was very soft, and never had the heart to snub the deadliest bores +he ever writhed under, even undeserving ones! Like ----, or ----, or +the Bishop of ----, or Lord Justice ----, or General ----, or +Admiral ----, or the Duke of ----, etc., etc. + +And he very unjustly disliked people of the bourgeois type--the +respectable middle class, _quorum pars magna fui_! Especially if we +were very well off and successful, and thought ourselves of some +consequence (as we now very often are, I beg to say), and showed it +(as, I'm afraid, we sometimes do). He preferred the commonest +artisan to M. Jourdain, the bourgeois gentilhomme, who was a very +decent fellow, after all, and at least clean in his habits, and +didn't use bad language or beat his wife! + +Poor dear Barty! what would have become of all those priceless +copyrights and royalties and what not if his old school-fellow +hadn't been a man of business? And where would Barty himself have +been without his wife, who came from that very class? + +And his admiration for an extremely good-looking person, even of his +own sex, even a scavenger or a dustman, was almost snobbish. It was +like a well-bred, well-educated Englishman's frank fondness for a +noble lord. + +And next to physical beauty he admired great physical strength; and +I sometimes think that it is to my possession of this single gift I +owe some of the warm friendship I feel sure he always bore me; for +though he was a strong man, and topped me by an inch or two, I was +stronger still--as a cart-horse is stronger than a racer. + +For his own personal appearance, of which he always took the +greatest care, he had a naive admiration that he did not disguise. +His candor in this respect was comical; yet, strange to say, he was +really without vanity. + +When he was in the Guards he would tell you quite frankly he was +"the handsomest chap in all the Household Brigade, bar three"--just +as he would tell you he was twenty last birthday. And the fun of it +was that the three exceptions he was good enough to make, splendid +fellows as they were, seemed as satyrs to Hyperion when compared +with Barty Josselin. One (F. Pepys) was three or four inches taller, +it is true, being six foot seven or eight--a giant. The two others +had immense whiskers, which Barty openly envied, but could not +emulate--and the mustache with which he would have been quite +decently endowed in time was not permitted in an infantry regiment. + +To return to the Pension Brossard, and Barty the school-boy: + +He adored Monsieur Merovee because he was big and strong and +handsome--not because he was one of the best fellows that ever +lived. He disliked Monsieur Durosier, whom we were all so fond of, +because he had a slight squint and a receding chin. + +As for the Anglophobe, Monsieur Dumollard, who made no secret of his +hatred and contempt for perfidious Albion.... + +"Dis donc, Josselin!" says Maurice, in English or French, as the +case might be, "why don't you like Monsieur Dumollard? Eh? He always +favors you more than any other chap in the school. I suppose you +dislike him because he hates the English so, and always runs them +down before you and me--and says they're all traitors and sneaks and +hypocrites and bullies and cowards and liars and snobs; and we can't +answer him, because he's the mathematical master!" + +"Ma foi, non!" says Josselin--"c'est pas pour ca!" + +"Pourquoi, alors?" says Maurice (that's me). + +"C'est parce qu'il a le pied bourgeois et la jambe canaille!" says +Barty. (It's because he's got common legs and vulgar feet.) + +And that's about the lowest and meanest thing I ever heard him say +in his life. + +Also, he was not always very sympathetic, as a boy, when one was +sick or sorry or out of sorts, for he had never been ill in his +life, never known an ache or a pain--except once the mumps, which he +seemed to thoroughly enjoy--and couldn't realize suffering of any +kind, except such suffering as most school-boys all over the world +are often fond of inflicting on dumb animals: this drove him +frantic, and led to many a licking by bigger boys. I remember +several such scenes--one especially. + +One frosty morning in January, '48, just after breakfast, Jolivet +trois (tertius) put a sparrow into his squirrel's cage, and the +squirrel caught it in its claws, and cracked its skull like a nut +and sucked its brain, while the poor bird still made a desperate +struggle for life, and there was much laughter. + +There was also, in consequence, a quick fight between Jolivet and +Josselin; in which Barty got the worst, as usual--his foe was two +years older, and quite an inch taller. + +Afterwards, as the licked one sat on the edge of a small stone tank +full of water and dabbed his swollen eye with a wet pocket-handkerchief, +M. Dumollard, the mathematical master, made cheap fun of Britannic +sentimentality about animals, and told us how the English noblesse were +privileged to beat their wives with sticks no thicker than their ankles, +and sell them "_au rabais_" in the horse-market of Smissfeld; and that +they paid men to box each other to death on the stage of Drury Lane, and +all that--deplorable things that we all know and are sorry for and +ashamed, but cannot put a stop to. + +The boys laughed, of course; they always did when Dumollard tried to +be funny, "and many a joke had he," although his wit never +degenerated into mere humor. + +But they were so fond of Barty that they forgave him his insular +affectation; some even helped him to dab his sore eye; among them +Jolivet trois himself, who was a very good-natured chap, and very +good-looking into the bargain; and he had received from Barty a sore +eye too--_gallice_, "un pochon"--_scholastice_, "un oeil au beurre +noir!" + +By-the-way, _I_ fought with Jolivet once--about AEsop's fables! He +said that AEsop was a lame poet of Lacedaemon--I, that AEsop was a +little hunchback Armenian Jew; and I stuck to it. It was a Sunday +afternoon, on the terrace by the lingerie. + +He kicked as hard as he could, so I had to kick too. Mlle. Marceline +ran out with Constance and Felicite and tried to separate us, and +got kicked by both (unintentionally, of course). Then up came Pere +Jaurion and kicked _me_! And they all took Jolivet's part, and said +I was in the wrong, because I was English! What did _they_ know +about AEsop! So we made it up, and went in Jaurion's loge and stood +each other a blomboudingue on tick--and called Jaurion bad names. + +"Comme c'est bete, de s'battre, hein?" said Jolivet, and I agreed +with him. I don't know which of us really got the worst of it, for +we hadn't disfigured each other in the least--and that's the best of +kicking. Anyhow he was two years older than I, and three or four +inches taller; so I'm glad, on the whole, that that small battle was +interrupted. + +It is really not for brag that I have lugged in this story--at +least, I hope not. One never quite knows. + +To go back to Barty: he was the most generous boy in the school. If +I may paraphrase an old saying, he really didn't seem to know the +difference betwixt tuum et meum. Everything he had, books, clothes, +pocket-money--even agate marbles, those priceless possessions to a +French school-boy--seemed to be also everybody else's who chose. I +came across a very characteristic letter of his the other day, +written from the Pension Brossard to his favorite aunt, Lady +Caroline Grey (one of the Rohans), who adored him. It begins: + + "My Dear Aunt Caroline,--Thank you so much for the + magnifying-glass, which is not only magnifying, but magnifique. + Don't trouble to send any more gingerbread-nuts, as the boys are + getting rather tired of them, especially Laferte and + Bussy-Rabutin. I think we should all like some Scotch + marmalade," etc., etc. + +And though fond of romancing a little now and then, and embellishing +a good story, he was absolutely truthful in important matters, and +to be relied upon implicitly. + +He seemed also to be quite without the sense of physical fear--a +kind of callousness. + +Such, roughly, was the boy who lived to write the _Motes in a +Moonbeam_ and _La quatrieme Dimension_ before he was thirty; and +such, roughly, he remained through life, except for one thing: he +grew to be the very soul of passionate and compassionate sympathy, +as who doesn't feel who has ever read a page of his work, or even +had speech with him for half an hour? + +Whatever weaknesses he yielded to when he grew to man's estate are +such as the world only too readily condones in many a famous man +less tempted than Josselin was inevitably bound to be through life. +Men of the Josselin type (there are not many--he stands pretty much +alone) can scarcely be expected to journey from adolescence to +middle age with that impeccable decorum which I--and no doubt many +of my masculine readers--have found it so easy to achieve, and find +it now so pleasant to remember and get credit for. Let us think of +_The Footprints of Aurora_, or _Etoiles mortes_, or _Dejanire et +Dalila_, or even _Les Trepassees de Francois Villon!_ + +Then let us look at Rajon's etching of Watts's portrait of him (the +original is my own to look at whenever I like, and that is pretty +often). And then let us not throw too many big stones, or too hard, +at Barty Josselin. + +Well, the summer term of 1847 wore smoothly to its close--a happy +"trimestre" during which the Institution F. Brossard reached the +high-water mark of its prosperity. + +There were sixty boys to be taught, and six house-masters to teach +them, besides a few highly paid outsiders for special classes--such +as the lively M. Durosier for French literature, and M. le +Professeur Martineau for the higher mathematics, and so forth; and +crammers and coachers for St.-Cyr, the Polytechnic School, the Ecole +des Ponts et Chaussees. + +Also fencing-masters, gymnastic masters, a Dutch master who taught +us German and Italian--an Irish master with a lovely brogue who +taught us English. Shall I ever forget the blessed day when ten or +twelve of us were presented with an _Ivanhoe_ apiece as a +class-book, or how Barty and I and Bonneville (who knew English) +devoured the immortal story in less than a week--to the disgust of +Rapaud, who refused to believe that we could possibly know such a +beastly tongue as English well enough to read an English book for +mere pleasure--on our desks in play-time, or on our laps in school, +_en cachette_! "Quelle sacree pose!" + +He soon mislaid his own copy, did Rapaud; just as he mislaid my +_Monte Cristo_ and Jolivet's illustrated _Wandering Jew_--and it was +always: + +"Dis donc, Maurice!--prete-moi ton _Ivanhoe_!" (with an accent on +the e), whenever he had to construe his twenty lines of Valtere +Scott--and what a hash he made of them! + +Sometimes M. Brossard himself would come, smoking his big +meerschaum, and help the English class during preparation, and put +us up to a thing or two worth knowing. + +"Rapaud, comment dit-on '_pouvoir_' en anglais?" + +"Sais pas, m'sieur!" + +"Comment, petit cretin, tu ne sais pas!" + +And Rapaud would receive a _pincee tordue_--a "twisted pinch"--on +the back of his arm to quicken his memory. + +"Oh, la, la!" he would howl--"je n' sais pas!" + +"Et toi, Maurice?" + +"Ca se dit '_to be able_,' m'sieur!" I would say. + +"Mais non, mon ami--tu oublies ta langue natale--ca se dit, '_to +can_'! Maintenant, comment dirais-tu en anglais, '_je voudrais +pouvoir_'?" + +"Je dirais, '_I would like to be able._'" + +"Comment, encore! petit cancre! allons--tu es Anglais--tu sais bien +que tu dirais, '_I vould vill to can_'!" + +Then M. Brossard turns to Barty: "A ton tour, Josselin!" + +"Moi, m'sieur?" says Barty. + +"Oui, toi!--comment dirais-tu, '_je pourrais vouloir_'?" + +"Je dirais '_I vould can to vill_,'" says Barty, quite unabashed. + +"A la bonne heure! au moins tu sais ta langue, toi!" says Pere +Brossard, and pats him on the cheek; while Barty winks at me, the +wink of successful time-serving hypocrisy, and Bonneville writhes +with suppressed delight. + +What lives most in my remembrance of that summer is the lovely +weather we had, and the joy of the Passy swimming-bath every +Thursday and Sunday from two till five or six; it comes back to me +even now in heavenly dreams by night. I swim with giant side-strokes +all round the Ile des Cygnes between Passy and Grenelle, where the +Ecole de Natation was moored for the summer months. + +Round and round the isle I go, up stream and down, and dive and +float and wallow with bliss there is no telling--till the waters all +dry up and disappear, and I am left wading in weeds and mud and +drift and drought and desolation, and wake up shivering--and such is +life. + +As for Barty, he was all but amphibious, and reminded me of the seal +at the Jardin des Plantes. He really seemed to spend most of the +afternoon under water, coming up to breathe now and then at +unexpected moments, with a stone in his mouth that he had picked up +from the slimy bottom ten or twelve feet below--or a weed--or a +dead mussel. + + + + +Part Second + + "Laissons les regrets et les pleurs + A la vieillesse; + Jeunes, il faut cueillir les fleurs + De la jeunesse!"--Baif. + + +Sometimes we spent the Sunday morning in Paris, Barty and I--in +picture-galleries and museums and wax-figure shows, churches and +cemeteries, and the Hotel Cluny and the Baths of Julian the +Apostate--or the Jardin des Plantes, or the Morgue, or the knackers' +yards at Montfaucon--or lovely slums. Then a swim at the Bains +Deligny. Then lunch at some restaurant on the Quai Voltaire, or in +the Quartier Latin. Then to some cafe on the Boulevards, drinking +our demi-tasse and our chasse-cafe, and smoking our cigarettes like +men, and picking our teeth like gentlemen of France. + +Once after lunch at Vachette's with Berquin (who was seventeen) and +Bonneville (the marquis who had got an English mother), we were +sitting outside the Cafe des Varietes, in the midst of a crowd of +consommateurs, and tasting to the full the joy of being alive, when +a poor woman came up with a guitar, and tried to sing "Le petit +mousse noir," a song Barty knew quite well--but she couldn't sing a +bit, and nobody listened. + +"Allons, Josselin, chante-nous ca!" said Berquin. + +And Bonneville jumped up, and took the woman's guitar from her, and +forced it into Josselin's hands, while the crowd became much +interested and began to applaud. + +Thus encouraged, Barty, who never in all his life knew what it is to +be shy, stood up and piped away like a bird; and when he had +finished the story of the little black cabin-boy who sings in the +maintop halliards, the applause was so tremendous that he had to +stand up on a chair and sing another, and yet another. + +"Ecoute-moi bien, ma Fleurette!" and "Amis, la matinee est belle!" +(from _La Muette de Portici_), while the pavement outside the +Varietes was rendered quite impassable by the crowd that had +gathered round to look and listen--and who all joined in the chorus: + + "Conduis ta barque avec prudence, + Pecheur! parle bas! + Jette tes filets en silence + Pecheur! parle bas! + Et le roi des mers ne nous echappera pas!" (_bis_). + +and the applause was deafening. + +Meanwhile Bonneville and Berquin went round with the hat and +gathered quite a considerable sum, in which there seemed to be +almost as much silver as copper--and actually _two five-franc pieces +and an English half-sovereign_! The poor woman wept with gratitude +at coming into such a fortune, and insisted on kissing Barty's hand. +Indeed it was a quite wonderful ovation, considering how +unmistakably British was Barty's appearance, and how unpopular we +were in France just then! + +[Illustration: "AMIS, LA MATINEE EST BELLE"] + +He had his new shiny black silk chimney-pot hat on, and his Eton +jacket, with the wide shirt collar. Berquin, in a tightly fitting +double-breasted brown cloth swallow-tailed coat with brass buttons, +yellow nankin bell-mouthed trousers strapped over varnished boots, +butter-colored gloves, a blue satin stock, and a very tall hairy hat +with a wide curly brim, looked such an out-and-out young gentleman of +France that we were all proud of being seen in his company--especially +young de Bonneville, who was still in mourning for his father and wore a +crape band round his arm, and a common cloth cap with a leather peak, +and thick blucher boots; though he was quite sixteen, and already had a +little black mustache like an eyebrow, and inhaled the smoke of his +cigarette without coughing and quite naturally, and ordered the waiters +about just as if he already wore the uniform of the Ecole St.-Cyr, for +which he destined himself (and was not disappointed. He should be a +marshal of France by now--perhaps he is). + +Then we went to the Cafe Mulhouse on the Boulevard des Italiens (on +the "_Boul. des It._," as we called it, to be in the fashion)--that +we might gaze at Senor Joaquin Eliezegui, the Spanish giant, who was +eight feet high and a trifle over (or under--I forget which): he +told us himself. Barty had a passion for gazing at very tall men; +like Frederic the Great (or was it his Majesty's royal father?). + +Then we went to the Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, where, in a painted wooden +shed, a most beautiful Circassian slave, miraculously rescued from some +abominable seraglio in Constantinople, sold pen'orths of "galette du +gymnase." On her raven hair she wore a silk turban all over sequins, +silver and gold, with a yashmak that fell down behind, leaving her +adorable face exposed: she had an amber vest of silk, embroidered with +pearls as big as walnuts, and Turkish pantalettes--what her slippers +were we couldn't see, but they must have been lovely, like all the rest +of her. Barty had a passion for gazing at very beautiful female +faces--like his father before him. + +There was a regular queue of postulants to see this heavenly Eastern +houri and buy her confection, which is very like Scotch butter-cake, +but not so digestible; and even more filling at the price. And three +of us sat on a bench, while three times running Barty took his place +in that procession--soldiers, sailors, workmen, chiffonniers, people +of all sorts, women as many as men--all of them hungry for galette, +but hungrier still for a good humanizing stare at a beautiful female +face; and he made the slow and toilsome journey to the little wooden +booth three times--and brought us each a pen'orth on each return +journey; and the third time, Katidjah (such was her sweet Oriental +name) leaned forward over her counter and kissed him on both cheeks, +and whispered in his ear (in English--and with the accent of +Stratford-atte-Bowe): + +"You little _duck_! _your_ name is _Brown_, _I_ know!" + +And he came away, his face pale with conflicting emotions, and told +us! + +How excited we were! Bonneville (who spoke English quite well) went +for a pen'orth on his own account, and said: "My name's Brown too, +Miss Katidjah!" But he didn't get a kiss. + +(She soon after married a Mr. ----, of ----, the well-known ---- +Of ----shire, in ----land. She may be alive now.) + +Then to the Palais Royal, to dine at the "Diner Europeen" with M. +Berquin pere, a famous engineer; and finally to stalls at the +"Francais" to see the two first acts of _Le Cid_; and this was +rather an anticlimax--for we had too much "Cid" at the Institution +F. Brossard already! + +And then, at last, to the omnibus station in the Rue de Rivoli, +whence the "Accelerees" (en correspondence avec les Constantines) +started for Passy every ten minutes; and thus, up the gas-lighted +Champs-Elysees, and by the Arc de Triomphe, to the Rond-point de +l'Avenue de St.-Cloud; tired out, but happy--happy--happy _comme on +ne l'est plus_! + +Before the school broke up for the holidays there were very severe +examinations--but no "distribution de prix"; we were above that kind +of thing at Brossard's, just as we were above wearing a uniform or +taking in day boarders. + +Barty didn't come off very well in this competition; but he came off +anyhow much better than I, who had failed to be "diligent and +attentive"--too much _Monte Cristo_, I'm afraid. + +At all events Barty got five marks for English History, because he +remembered a good deal about Richard Coeur de Lion, and John, and +Friar Tuck, and Robin Hood, and especially one Cedric the Saxon, a +historical personage of whom the examiner (a decorated gentleman +from the College de France) had never even heard! + + * * * * * + +And then (to the tune of "Au clair de la lune"): + + "Vivent les vacances-- + _Denique tandem_; + Et les penitences-- + _Habebunt finem_! + Les pions intraitables, + _Vultu Barbaro_, + S'en iront aux diables, + _Gaudio nostro_." + +N.B.--The accent is always on the last syllable in French Latin--and +_pion_ means an usher. + +[Illustration: "TOO MUCH 'MONTE CRISTO,' I'M AFRAID"] + +Barty went to Yorkshire with the Rohans, and I spent most of my holidays +with my mother and sister (and the beautiful Miss ----) at Mademoiselle +Jalabert's, next door--coming back to school for most of my meals, and +at night to sleep, with a whole dormitory to myself, and no dreadful +bell at five in the morning; and so much time to spare that I never +found any leisure for my holiday task, that skeleton at the feast; no +more did Jules, the sergeant's son; no more did Caillard, who spent his +vacation at Brossard's because his parents lived in Russia, and his +"correspondant" in Paris was ill. + +The only master who remained behind was Bonzig, who passed his time +painting ships and sailors, in oil-colors; it was a passion with +him: corvettes, brigantines, British whalers, fishing-smacks, +revenue-cutters, feluccas, caiques, even Chinese junks--all was fish +that came to his net. He got them all from _La France Maritime_, an +illustrated periodical much in vogue at Brossard's; and also his +storms and his calms, his rocks and piers and light-houses--for he +had never seen the sea he was so fond of. He took us every morning +to the Passy swimming-baths, and in the afternoon for long walks in +Paris, and all about and around, and especially to the Musee de +Marine at the Louvre, that we might gaze with him at the beautiful +models of three-deckers. + +He evidently pitied our forlorn condition, and told us delightful +stories about seafaring life, like Mr. Clark Russell's; and how he, +some day, hoped to see the ocean for himself before he died--and +with his own eyes. + +I really don't know how Jules and Caillard would have got through +the hideous _ennui_ of that idle September without him. Even I, with +my mother and sister and the beautiful Miss ---- within such easy +reach, found time hang heavily at times. One can't be always +reading, even Alexandre Dumas; nor always loafing about, even in +Paris, by one's self (Jules and Caillard were not allowed outside +the gates without Bonzig); and beautiful English girls of eighteen, +like Miss ----s, don't always want a small boy dangling after them, +and show it sometimes; which I thought very hard. + +It was almost a relief when school began again in October, and the +boys came back with their wonderful stories of the good time they +had all had (especially some of the big boys, who were "en +rhetorique et en philosophie")--and all the game that had fallen to +their guns--wild-boars, roebucks, cerfs-dix-cors, and what not; of +perilous swims in stormy seas--tremendous adventures in +fishing-smacks on moonlight nights (it seemed that the moon had been +at the full all through those wonderful six weeks); rides _ventre a +terre_ on mettlesome Arab steeds through gloomy wolf-haunted forests +with charming female cousins; flirtations and "good fortunes" with +beautiful but not happily married women in old mediaeval castle +keeps. Toujours au clair de la lune! They didn't believe each other +in the least, these gay young romancers--nor expect to be believed +themselves; but it was very exciting all the same; and they +listened, and were listened to in turn, without a gesture of +incredulity--nor even a smile! And we small boys held our tongues in +reverence and awe. + +When Josselin came back he had wondrous things to tell too--but so +preposterous that they disbelieved him quite openly, and told him +so. How in London he had seen a poor woman so tipsy in the street +that she had to be carried away by two policemen on a stretcher. How +he had seen brewers' dray-horses nearly six feet high at the +shoulder--and one or two of them with a heavy cavalry mustache +drooping from its upper lip. + +How he had been presented to the Lord Mayor of London, and even +shaken hands with him, in Leadenhall Market, and that his Lordship +was quite plainly dressed; and how English Lord Mayors were not +necessarily "hommes du monde," nor always hand in glove with Queen +Victoria! + +Splendide mendax! + +But they forgave him all his mendacity for the sake of a new +accomplishment he had brought back with him, and which beat all his +others. He could actually turn a somersault backwards with all the +ease and finish of a professional acrobat. How he got to do this I +don't know. It must have been natural to him and he never found it +out before; he was always good at gymnastics--and all things that +required grace and agility more than absolute strength. + +Also he brought back with him (from Leadenhall Market, no doubt) a +gigantic horned owl, fairly tame--and with eyes that reminded us of +le grand Bonzig's. + +School began, and with it the long evenings with an hour's play by +lamp-light in the warm salle d'etudes; and the cold lamp-lit ninety +minutes' preparation on an empty stomach, after the short +perfunctory morning prayer--which didn't differ much from the +evening one. + +Barty was still _en cinquieme_, at the top! and I at the tail of the +class immediately above--so near and yet so far! so I did not have +many chances of improving my acquaintance with him that term; for he +still stuck to Laferte and Bussy-Rabutin--they were inseparable, +those three. + +At mid-day play-time the weather was too cold for anything but +games, which were endless in their variety and excitement; it would +take a chapter to describe them. + +It is a mistake to think that French school-boys are (or were) worse +off than ours in this. I will not say that any one French game is +quite so good as cricket or football for a permanency. But I +remember a great many that are very nearly so. + +Indeed, French rounders (la balle au camp) seems to me the best game +that ever was--on account of the quick rush and struggle of the +fielders to get home when an inside boy is hit between the bases, +lest he should pick the ball up in time to hit one of them with it +before the camp is reached; in which case there is a most exciting +scrimmage for the ball, etc., etc. + +Barty was good at all games, especially la balle au camp. I used to +envy the graceful, easy way he threw the ball--so quick and straight +it seemed to have no curve at all in its trajectory: and how it +bounded off the boy it nearly always hit between the shoulders! + +At evening, play in the school-room, besides draughts and chess and +backgammon; M. Bonzig, when _de service_, would tell us thrilling +stories, with "la suite au prochain numero" when the bell rang at 7.30; +a long series that lasted through the winter of '47-'48. _Le Tueur de +Daims_, _Le Lac Ontario_, _Le Dernier des Mohicans_, _Les Pionniers_, +_La Prairie_--by one Fenimore Coupere; all of which he had read in M. +Defauconpret's admirable translations. I have read some of them in their +native American since then, myself. I loved them always--but they seemed +to lack some of the terror, the freshness, and the charm his fluent +utterance and solemn nasal voice put into them as he sat and smoked his +endless cigarettes with his back against the big stone stove, and his +eyes dancing sideways through his glasses. Never did that +"ding-dang-dong" sound more hateful than when le grand Bonzig was +telling the tale of Bas-de-cuir's doings, from his innocent youth to his +noble and Pathetic death by sunset, with his ever-faithful and +still-serviceable but no longer deadly rifle (the friend of sixty years) +lying across his knees. I quote from memory; what a gun that was! + +Then on Thursdays, long walks, two by two, in Paris, with Bonzig or +Dumollard; or else in the Bois to play rounders or prisoners' base +in a clearing, or skate on the Mare aux Biches, which was always so +hard to find in the dense thicket ... poor Lord Runswick! _He_ found +it once too often! + +La Mare d'Auteuil was too deep, and too popular with "la flotte de +Passy," as we called the Passy voyous, big and small, who came there +in their hundreds--to slide and pick up quarrels with well-dressed +and respectable school-boys. Liberte--egalite--fraternite! ou la +mort! Vive la republique! (This, by-the-way, applies to the winter +that came _next_.) + +So time wore on with us gently; through the short vacation at +New-year's day till the 23d or 24th of February, when the Revolution +broke out, and Louis Philippe premier had to fly for his life. It +was a very troublous time, and the school for a whole week was in a +state of quite heavenly demoralization! Ten times a day, or in the +dead of night, the drum would beat _le rappel_ or _la generale_. A +warm wet wind was blowing--the most violent wind I can remember that +was not an absolute gale. It didn't rain, but the clouds hurried +across the sky all day long, and the tops of the trees tried to bend +themselves in two; and their leafless boughs and black broken twigs +littered the deserted playground--for we all sat on the parapet of +the terrace by the lingerie; boys and servants, le pere et la mere +Jaurion, Mlle. Marceline and the rest, looking towards Paris--all +feeling bound to each other by a common danger, like wild beasts in +a flood. Dear me! I'm out of breath from sheer pleasure in the +remembrance. + +One night we had to sleep on the floor for fear of stray bullets; +and that was a fearful joy never to be forgotten--it almost kept us +awake! Peering out of the school-room windows at dusk, we saw great +fires, three or four at a time. Suburban retreats of the +over-wealthy, in full conflagration; and all day the rattle of +distant musketry and the boom of cannon a long way off, near +Montmartre and Montfaucon, kept us alive. + +Most of the boys went home, and some of them never came back--and +from that day the school began to slowly decline. Pere Brossard--an +ancient "Brigand de la Loire," as the republicans of his youth were +called--was elected a representative of his native town at the +Chamber of Deputies; and possibly that did the school more harm than +good--ne sutor ultra crepidam! as he was so fond of impressing on +_us_! + +However, we went on pretty much as usual through spring and +summer--with occasional alarms (which we loved), and beatings of _le +rappel_--till the July insurrection broke out. + +My mother and sister had left Mlle. Jalabert's, and now lived with +my father near the Boulevard Montmartre. And when the fighting was +at its height they came to fetch me home, and invited Barty, for the +Rohans were away from Paris. So home we walked, quite leisurely, on +a lovely peaceful summer evening, while the muskets rattled and the +cannons roared round us, but at a proper distance; women picking +linen for lint and chatting genially the while at shop doors and +porter's lodge-gates; and a piquet of soldiers at the corner of +every street, who felt us all over for hidden cartridges before they +let us through; it was all entrancing! The subtle scent of gunpowder +was in the air--the most suggestive smell there can be. Even now, +here in England, the night of the fifth of November never comes +round but I am pleasantly reminded of the days when I was "en pleine +revolution" in the streets of Paris with my father and mother, and +Barty and my little sister--and genial _piou-pious_ made such a +Conscientious examination of our garments. Nothing brings back the +past like a sound or a smell--even those of a penny squib! + +Every now and then a litter borne by soldiers came by, on which lay +a dead or wounded officer. And then one's laugh died suddenly out, +and one felt one's self face to face with the horrors that were +going on. + +Barty shared my bed, and we lay awake talking half the night; +dreadful as it all was, one couldn't help being jolly! Every ten +minutes the sentinel on duty in the court-yard below would +sententiously intone: + +"Sentinelles, prenez-garde a vous!" And other sentinels would repeat +the cry till it died away in the distance, like an echo. + +And all next day, or the day after--or else the day after that, when +the long rattle of the musketry had left off--we heard at intervals +the "feu de peloton" in a field behind the church of St.-Vincent de +Paul, and knew that at every discharge a dozen poor devils of +insurgents, caught red-handed, fell dead in a pool of blood! + +I need hardly say that before three days were over the irrepressible +Barty had made a complete conquest of my small family. My sister (I +hasten to say this) has loved him as a brother ever since; and as +long as my parents lived, and wherever they made their home, that +home has ever been his--and he has been their son--almost their +eldest born, though he was younger than I by seven months. + +Things have been reversed, however, for now thirty years and more; +and his has ever been the home for me, and his people have been my +people, and ever will be--and the God of his worship mine! + +What children and grandchildren of my own could ever be to me as +these of Barty Josselin's? + +"Ce sacre Josselin--il avait tous les talents!" + +And the happiest of these gifts, and not the least important, was +the gift he had of imparting to his offspring all that was most +brilliant and amiable and attractive in himself, and leaving in them +unimpaired all that was strongest and best in the woman I loved as +well as he did, and have loved as long--and have grown to look upon +as belonging to the highest female type that can be; for doubtless +the Creator, in His infinite wisdom, might have created a better and +a nicer woman than Mrs. Barty Josselin that was to be, had He +thought fit to do so; but doubtless also He never did. + +Alas! the worst of us is that the best of us are those that want the +longest knowing to find it out. + +My kind-hearted but cold-mannered and undemonstrative Scotch father, +evangelical, a total abstainer, with a horror of tobacco--surely the +austerest dealer in French wines that ever was--a puritanical hater +of bar sinisters, and profligacy, and Rome, and rank, and the army, +and especially the stage--he always lumped them together more or +less--a despiser of all things French, except their wines, which he +never drank himself--remained devoted to Barty till the day of his +death; and so with my dear genial mother, whose heart yet always +yearned towards serious boys who worked hard at school and college, +and passed brilliant examinations, and got scholarships and +fellowships in England, and state sinecures in France, and married +early, and let their mothers choose their wives for them, and train +up their children in the way they should go. She had lived so long +in France that she was Frencher than the French themselves. + +And they both loved good music--Mozart, Bach, Beethoven--and were +almost priggish in their contempt for anything of a lighter kind; +especially with a lightness English or French! It was only the +musical lightness of Germany they could endure at all! But whether +in Paris or London, enter Barty Josselin, idle school-boy, or dandy +dissipated guardsman, and fashionable man about town, or bohemian +art student; and Bach, lebewohl! good-bye, Beethoven! bonsoir le bon +Mozart! all was changed: and welcome, instead, the last comic song +from the Chateau des Fleurs, or Evans's in Covent Garden; the latest +patriotic or sentimental ditty by Loisa Puget, or Frederic Berat, or +Eliza Cook, or Mr. Henry Russell. + +And then, what would Barty like for breakfast, dinner, supper after +the play, and which of all those burgundies would do Barty good +without giving him a headache next morning? and where was Barty to +have his smoke?--in the library, of course. "Light the fire in the +library, Mary; and Mr. Bob [that was me] can smoke there, too, +instead of going outside," etc., etc., etc. It is small wonder that +he grew a bit selfish at times. + +Though I was a little joyous now and then, it is quite without a +shadow of bitterness or envy that I write all this. I have lived for +fifty years under the charm of that genial, unconscious, +irresistible tyranny; and, unlike my dear parents, I have lived to +read and know Barty Josselin, nor merely to see and hear and love +him for himself alone. + +Indeed, it was quite impossible to know Barty at all intimately and +not do whatever he wanted you to do. Whatever he wanted, he wanted +so intensely, and at once; and he had such a droll and engaging way +of expressing that hurry and intensity, and especially of expressing +his gratitude and delight when what he wanted was what he got--that +you could not for the life of you hold your own! Tout vient a qui ne +sait pas attendre! + +Besides which, every now and then, if things didn't go quite as he +wished, he would fly into comic rages, and become quite violent and +intractable for at least five minutes, and for quite five minutes +more he would silently sulk. And then, just as suddenly, he would +forget all about it, and become once more the genial, affectionate, +and caressing creature he always was. + +But this is going ahead too fast! revenons. At the examinations this +year Barty was almost brilliant, and I was hopeless as usual; my +only consolation being that after the holidays we should at last be +in the same class together, _en quatrieme_, and all through this +hopelessness of mine! + +Laferte was told by his father that he might invite two of his +school-fellows to their country-house for the vacation, so he asked +Josselin and Bussy-Rabutin. But Bussy couldn't go--and, to my +delight, I went instead. + +That ride all through the sweet August night, the three of us on the +imperiale of the five-horsed diligence, just behind the conductor +and the driver--and freedom, and a full moon, or nearly so--and a +tremendous saucisson de Lyon (a l'ail, bound in silver paper)--and +petits pains--and six bottles of biere de Mars--and cigarettes ad +libitum, which of course we made ourselves! + +The Lafertes lived in the Department of La Sarthe, in a delightful +country-house, with a large garden sloping down to a transparent +stream, which had willows and alders and poplars all along its both +banks, and a beautiful country beyond. + +Outside the grounds (where there were the old brick walls, all +overgrown with peaches and pears and apricots, of some forgotten +mediaeval convent) was a large farm; and close by, a water-mill that +never stopped. + +A road, with thick hedge-rows on either side, led to a small and +very pretty town called La Tremblaye, three miles off. And hard by +the garden gates began the big forest of that name: one heard the +stags calling, and the owls hooting, and the fox giving tongue as it +hunted the hares at night. There might have been wolves and +wild-boars. I like to think so very much. + +M. Laferte was a man of about fifty--entre les deux ages; a retired +maitre de forges, or iron-master, or else the son of one: I forget +which. He had a charming wife and two pretty little daughters, +Jeanne et Marie, aged fourteen and twelve. + +He seldom moved from his country home, which was called "Le Gue des +Aulnes," except to go shooting in the forest; for he was a great +sportsman and cared for little else. He was of gigantic stature--six +foot six or seven, and looked taller still, as he had a very small +head and high shoulders. He was not an Adonis, and could only see +out of one eye--the other (the left one, fortunately) was fixed as +if it were made of glass--perhaps it was--and this gave him a stern +and rather forbidding expression of face. + +He had just been elected Mayor of La Tremblaye, beating the Comte de +la Tremblaye by many votes. The Comte was a royalist and not +popular. The republican M. Laferte (who was immensely charitable and +very just) was very popular indeed, in spite of a morose and gloomy +manner. He could even be violent at times, and then he was terrible +to see and hear. Of course his wife and daughters were gentleness +itself, and so was his son, and everybody who came into contact with +him. _Si vis pacem, para bellum_, as Pere Brossard used to impress +upon us. + +It was the strangest country household I have ever seen, in France +or anywhere else. They were evidently very well off, yet they +preferred to eat their mid-day meal in the kitchen, which was +immense; and so was the mid-day meal--and of a succulency!... + +An old wolf-hound always lay by the huge log fire; often with two or +three fidgety cats fighting for the soft places on him and making +him growl; five or six other dogs, non-sporting, were always about +at meal-time. + +The servants--three or four peasant women who waited on us--talked +all the time; and were _tutoyees_ by the family. Farm-laborers came +in and discussed agricultural matters, manures, etc., quite +informally, squeezing their bonnets de coton in their hands. The +postman sat by the fire and drank a glass of cider and smoked his +pipe up the chimney while the letters were read--most of them out +loud--and were commented upon by everybody in the most friendly +spirit. All this made the meal last a long time. + +M. Laferte always wore his blouse--except in the evening, and then +he wore a brown woollen vareuse, or jersey; unless there were +guests, when he wore his Sunday morning best. He nearly always spoke +like a peasant, although he was really a decently educated man--or +should have been. + +His old mother, who was of good family and eighty years of age +lived in a quite humble cottage in a small street in La Tremblaye, +with two little peasant girls to wait on her; and the La Tremblayes, +with whom M. Laferte was not on speaking terms, were always coming +into the village to see her and bring her fruit and flowers and +game. She was a most accomplished old lady, and an excellent +musician, and had known Monsieur de Lafayette. + +We breakfasted with her when we alighted from the diligence at six +in the morning; and she took such a fancy to Barty that her own +grandson was almost forgotten. He sang to her, and she sang to him, +and showed him autograph letters of Lafayette, and a lock of her +hair when she was seventeen, and old-fashioned miniatures of her +father and mother, Monsieur and Madame de something I've quite +forgotten. + +M. Laferte kept a pack of bassets (a kind of bow-legged beagle), and +went shooting with them every day in the forest, wet or dry; +sometimes we three boys with him. He lent us guns--an old +single-barrelled flint-lock cavalry musket or carbine fell to my +share; and I knew happiness such as I had never known yet. + +Barty was evidently not meant for a sportsman. On a very warm August +morning, as he and I squatted "a l'affut" at the end of a long +straight ditch outside a thicket which the bassets were hunting, we +saw a hare running full tilt at us along the ditch, and we both +fired together. The hare shrieked, and turned a big somersault and +fell on its back and kicked convulsively--its legs still +galloping--and its face and neck were covered with blood; and, to my +astonishment, Barty became quite hysterical with grief at what we +had done. It's the only time I ever saw him cry. + +"_Cain! Cain! qu'as-tu fait de ton frere?_" he shrieked again and +again, in a high voice, like a small child's--like the hare's. + +I calmed him down and promised I wouldn't tell, and he recovered +himself and bagged the game--but he never came out shooting with us +again! So I inherited his gun, which was double-barrelled. + +Barty's accomplishments soon became the principal recreation of the +Laferte ladies; and even M. Laferte himself would start for the +forest an hour or two later or come back an hour sooner to make +Barty go through his bag of tricks. He would have an arm-chair +brought out on the lawn after breakfast and light his short black +pipe and settle the programme himself. + +First, "_le saut perilleux_"--the somersault backwards--over and +over again, at intervals of two or three minutes, so as to give +himself time for thought and chuckles, while he smoked his pipe in +silent stodgy jubilation. + +Then, two or three songs--they would be stopped, if M. Laferte +didn't like them, after the first verse, and another one started +instead; and if it pleased him, it was encored two or three times. + +Then, pen and ink and paper were brought, and a small table and a +kitchen chair, and Barty had to draw caricatures, of which M. +Laferte chose the subject. + +"Maintenant, fais-moi le profil de mon vieil ami M. Bonzig, que j' +n' connais pas, que j' n'ai jamais vu, mais q' j'aime beaucoup." +(Now do me the side face of my old friend M. Bonzig, whom I don't +know, but am very fond of.) + +And so on for twenty minutes. + +Then Barty had to be blindfolded and twisted round and round, and +point out the north--when he felt up to it. + +Then a pause for reflection. + +Then: "Dis-moi que'q' chose en anglais." + +"How do you do very well hey diddle-diddle Chichester church in +Chichester church-yard!" says Barty. + +"Que'q' ca veut dire?" + +"Il s'agit d'une eglise et d'un cimetiere!" says Barty--rather +sadly, with a wink at me. + +"C'est pas gai! Que vilaine langue, hein? J' suis joliment content +que j' sais pas I'anglais, moi!" (It's not lively! What a beastly +language, eh? I'm precious glad _I_ don't know English.) + +Then: "Demontre-moi un probleme de geometrie." + +Barty would then do a simple problem out of Legendre (the French +Euclid), and M. Laferte would look on with deep interest and +admiration, but evidently no comprehension whatever. Then he would +take the pen himself, and draw a shapeless figure, with A's and B's +and C's and D's stuck all over it in impossible places, and quite at +hazard, and say: + +"Demontre-moi que A + B est plus grand que C + D." It was mere +idiotic nonsense, and he didn't know better! + +But Barty would manage to demonstrate it all the same, and M. +Laferte would sigh deeply, and exclaim, "C'est joliment beau, la +geometrie!" + +Then: "Danse!" + +And Barty danced "la Paladine," and did Scotch reels and Irish jigs +and break-downs of his own invention, amidst roars of laughter from +all the family. + +Finally the gentlemen of the party went down to the river for a +swim--and old Laferte would sit on the bank and smoke his +brule-gueule, and throw carefully selected stones for Barty to dive +after--and feel he'd scored off Barty when the proper stone wasn't +found, and roar in his triumph. After which he would go and pick the +finest peach he could find, and peel it with his pocket-knife very +neatly, and when Barty was dressed, present it to him with a kindly +look in both eyes at once. + +"Mange-moi ca--ca t' fera du bien!" + +Then, suddenly: "Pourquoi q' tu n'aimes pas la chasse? t'as pas +peur, j'espere!" (Why don't you like shooting? you're not afraid, I +hope!) + +[Illustration: LE PERE POLYPHEME] + +"'Sais pas,'" said Josselin; "don't like killing things, I +suppose.'" + +So Barty became quite indispensable to the happiness and comfort of +Pere Polypheme, as he called him, as well as of his amiable family. + +On the 1st of September there was a grand breakfast in honor of the +partridges (not in the kitchen this time), and many guests were +invited; and Barty had to sing and talk and play the fool all +through breakfast; and got very tipsy, and had to be put to bed for +the rest of the day. It was no fault of his, and Madame Laferto +declared that "ces messieurs" ought to be ashamed of themselves, and +watched over Barty like a mother. He has often declared he was never +quite the same after that debauch--and couldn't feel the north for a +month. + +The house was soon full of guests, and Barty and I slept in M. +Laferte's bedroom--his wife in a room adjoining. + +Every morning old Polyphemus would wake us up by roaring out: + +"He! ma femme!" + +"Voila, voila, mon ami!" from the next room. + +"Viens vite panser mon cautere!" + +And in came Madame L. in her dressing-gown, and dressed a blister he +wore on his big arm. + +Then: "Cafe!" + +And coffee came, and he drank it in bed. + +Then: "Pipe!" + +And his pipe was brought and filled, and he lit it. + +Then: "Josselin!" + +"Oui, M'sieur Laferte." + +"Tire moi une gamme." + +"Doremifasollasido--Dosilasolfamiredo!" sang Josselin, up and down, +in beautiful tune, with his fresh bird-like soprano. + +"Ah! q' ca fait du bien!" says M. L.; then a pause, and puffs of +smoke and grunts and sighs of satisfaction. + +"Josselin?" + +"Oui, M'sieur Laferte!" + +"'La brune Therese!'" + +And Josselin would sing about the dark-haired Theresa--three verses. + +"Tu as change la fin du second couplet--tu as dit '_des comtesses_' au +lieu de dire '_des duchesses_'--recommence!" (You changed the end of the +second verse--you said "countesses" instead of "duchesses"--begin +again.) + +And Barty would re-sing it, as desired, and bring in the duchesses. + +"Maintenant, 'Colin, disait Lisette!'" + +And Barty would sing that charming little song, most charmingly: + + "'Colin,' disait Lisette, + 'Je voudrais passer l'eau! + Mais je suis trop pauvrette + Pour payer le bateau!' + 'Entrez, entrez, ma belle! + Entrez, entrez toujours! + Et vogue la nacelle + Qui porte mes amours!" + +And old L. would smoke and listen with an air of heavenly beatitude +almost pathetic. + +"Elle etait bien gentille, Lisette--n'est-ce pas, +petiot?--recommence!" (She was very nice, Lisette; wasn't she, +sonny?--being again!) + +"Now both get up and wash and go to breakfast. Come here, +Josselin--you see this little silver dagger" (producing it from +under his pillow). "It's rather pointy, but not at all dangerous. +My mother gave it me when I was just your age--to cut books with; +it's for you. Allons, file! [cut along] no thanks!--but look +here--are you coming with us a la chasse to-day?" + +"Non, M. Laferte!" + +"Pourquoi?--t'as pas peur, j'espere!" + +"Sais pas. J' n'aime pas les choses mortes--ca saigne--et ca n' sent +pas bon--ca m'fait mal au coeur." (Don't know. I'm not fond of dead +things. They bleed--and they don't smell nice--it makes me sick.) + +And two or three times a day would Barty receive some costly token +of this queer old giant's affection, till he got quite unhappy about +it. He feared he was despoiling the House of Laferte of all its +treasures in silver and gold; but he soothed his troubled conscience +later on by giving them all away to favorite boys and masters at +Brossard's--especially M. Bonzig, who had taken charge of his white +mouse (and her family, now quite grown up--children and +grandchildren and all) when Mlle. Marceline went for her fortnight's +holiday. Indeed, he had made a beautiful cage for them out of wood +and wire, with little pasteboard mangers (which they nibbled away). + +Well, the men of the party and young Laferte and I would go off with the +dogs and keepers into the forest--and Barty would pick filberts and +fruit with Jeanne and Marie, and eat them with bread-and-butter and jam +and _cernaux_ (unripe walnuts mixed with salt and water and +verjuice--quite the nicest thing in the world). Then he would find his +way into the heart of the forest, which he loved--and where he had +scraped up a warm friendship with some charcoal-burners, whose huts were +near an old yellow-watered pond, very brackish and stagnant and deep, +and full of leeches and water-spiders. It was in the densest part of the +forest, where the trees were so tall and leafy that the sun never fell +on it, even at noon. The charcoal-burners told him that in '93 a young +de la Tremblaye was taken there at sunset to be hanged on a giant +oak-tree--but he talked so agreeably and was so pleasant all round that +they relented, and sent for bread and wine and cider and made a night of +it, and didn't hang him till dawn next day; after which they tied a +stone to his ankles and dropped him into the pond, which was called "the +pond of the respite" ever since; and his young wife, Claire Elisabeth, +drowned herself there the week after, and their bones lie at the bottom +to this very day. + +And, ghastly to relate, the ringleader in this horrible tragedy was +a beautiful young woman, a daughter of the people, it seems--one +Seraphine Doucet, whom the young viscount had betrayed before +marriage--le droit du seigneur!--and but for whom he would have been +let off after that festive night. Ten or fifteen years later, +smitten with incurable remorse, she hanged herself on the very +branch of the very tree where they had strung up her noble lover; +and still walks round the pond at night, wringing her hands and +wailing. It's a sad story--let us hope it isn't true. + +Barty Josselin evidently had this pond in his mind when he wrote in +"Ames en peine": + + Sous la berge hantee + L'eau morne croupit-- + Sous la sombre futaie + Le renard glapit, + Et le cerf-dix-cors brame, et les daims viennent boire a l'Etang du + Repit. + "Lachez-moi, Loupgaroux!" + Que sinistre est la mare + Quand tombe la nuit; + La chouette s'effare-- + Le blaireau s'enfuit! + L'on y sent que les morts se reveillent--qu'une ombre sans nom vous + poursuit. + "Lachez-moi, Loup-garoux!" + +Foret! foret! what a magic there is in that little French +dissyllable! Morne foret! Is it the lost "s," and the heavy "^" that +makes up for it, which lend such a mysterious and gloomy +fascination? + +Forest! that sounds rather tame--almost cheerful! If _we_ want a +forest dream we have to go so far back for it, and dream of Robin +Hood and his merrie men! And even then Epping forces itself into our +dream--and even Chingford, where there was never a were-wolf within +the memory of man. Give us at least the _virgin_ forest, in some far +Guyana or Brazil--or even the forest primeval-- + + "... where the murmuring pines and the hemlocks, + Bearded with moss and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, + Stand like druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic, + Stand like harpers hoar"-- + +that we may dream of scalp-hunting Mingoes, and grizzly-bears, and +moose, and buffalo, and the beloved Bas-de-cuir with that magic +rifle of his, that so seldom missed its mark and never got out of +repair. + + "Prom'nons nous dans les bois + Pendant que le loup n'y est pas...." + +That's the first song I ever heard. Celine used to sing it, my +nurse--who was very lovely, though she had a cast in her eye and +wore a black cap, and cotton in her ears, and was pitted with the +smallpox. It was in Burgundy, which was rich in forests, with plenty +of wolves in them, and wild-boars too--and that was only a hundred +years ago, when that I was a little tiny boy. It's just an old +nursery rhyme to lull children to sleep with, or set them +dancing--pas aut' chose--but there's a deal of Old France in it! + +There I go again--digressing as usual and quoting poetry and trying +to be literary and all that! C'est plus fort que moi.... + +One beautiful evening after dinner we went, the whole lot of us, +fishing for crayfish in the meadows beyond the home farm. + +As we set about waiting for the crayfish to assemble round the bits +of dead frog that served for bait and were tied to the wire scales +(which were left in the water), a procession of cows came past us +from the farm. One of them had a wound in her flank--a large tumor. + +"It's the bull who did that," said Marie. "Il est tres mechant!" + +Presently the bull appeared, following the herd in sulky dignity. We +all got up and crossed the stream on a narrow plank--all but +Josselin, who remained sitting on a camp-stool. + +"Josselin! Josselin! venez donc! il est tres mauvais, le taureau!" + +Barty didn't move. + +The bull came by; and suddenly, seeing him, walked straight to +within a yard of him--and stared at him for five minutes at least, +lashing its tail. Barty didn't stir. Our hearts were in our mouths! + +Then the big brindled brute turned quietly round with a friendly +snort and went after the cows--and Barty got up and made it a +courtly farewell salute, saying, "Bon voyage--au plaisir!" + +After which he joined the rest of us across the stream, and came in +for a good scolding and much passionate admiration from the ladies, +and huggings and tears of relief from Madame Laferte. + +"I knew well he wouldn't be afraid!" said M. Laferte; "they are all +like that, those English--le sang-froid du diable! nom d'un +Vellington! It is we who were afraid--we are not so brave as the +little Josselin! Plucky little Josselin! But why did you not come +with us? Temerity is not valor, Josselin!" + +"Because I wanted to show off [_faire le fanfaron_]!" said Barty, +with extreme simplicity. + +"Ah, diable! Anyhow, it was brave of you to sit still when he came +and looked at you in the white of the eyes! it was just the right +thing to do; ces Anglais! je n'en reviens pas! a quatorze ans! hein, +ma femme?" + +"Pardi!" said Barty, "I was in such a blue funk [j'avais une venette +si bleue] that I couldn't have moved a finger to save my life!" + +At this, old Polyphemus went into a Homeric peal of laughter. + +"Ces Anglais! what originals--they tell you the real truth at any +cost [ils vous disent la vraie verite, coute que coute]!" and his +affection for Barty seemed to increase, if possible, from that +evening. + +[Illustration: FANFARONNADE] + +Now this was Barty all over--all through life. He always gave +himself away with a liberality quite uncalled for--so he ought to +have some allowances made for that reckless and impulsive +indiscretion which caused him to be so popular in general society, +but got him into so many awkward scrapes in after-life, and made him +such mean enemies, and gave his friends so much anxiety and distress. + +(And here I think it right to apologize for so much translating of +such a well-known language as French; I feel quite like another +Ollendorf--who must have been a German, by-the-way--but M. Laferte's +grammar and accent would sometimes have puzzled Ollendorf himself!) + + * * * * * + +Towards the close of September, M. Laferte took it into his head to +make a tour of provincial visits _en famille_. He had never done +such a thing before, and I really believe it was all to show off +Barty to his friends and relations. + +It was the happiest time I ever had, and shines out by itself in +that already so unforgettably delightful vacation. + +We went in a large charabancs drawn by two stout horses, starting at +six in the morning, and driving right through the Forest of la +Tremblaye; and just ahead of us, to show us the way, M. Laferte +driving himself in an old cabriolet, with Josselin (from whom he +refused to be parted) by his side, singing or talking, according to +order, or cracking jokes; we could hear the big laugh of Polyphemus! + +We travelled very leisurely; I forget whether we ever changed horses +or not--but we got over a good deal of ground. We put up at the +country houses of friends and relations of the Lafertes; and visited +old historical castles and mediaeval ruins--Chateaudun and +others--and fished in beautiful pellucid tributaries of the +Loire--shot over "des chiens anglais"--danced half the night with +charming people--wandered in lovely parks and woods, and beautiful +old formal gardens with fishponds, terraces, statues, marble +fountains; charmilles, pelouses, quinconces; and all the flowers and +all the fruits of France! And the sun shone every day and all day +long--and in one's dreams all night. + +And the peasants in that happy country of the Loire spoke the most +beautiful French, and had the most beautiful manners in the world. +They're famous for it. + +It all seems like a fairy tale. + +If being made much of, and petted and patted and admired and +wondered at, make up the sum of human bliss, Barty came in for as +full a share of felicity during that festive week as should last an +ordinary mortal for a twelvemonth. _Figaro qua, Figaro la_, from +morning till night in three departments of France! + +But he didn't seem to care very much about it all; he would have +been far happier singing and tumbling and romancing away to his +charbonniers by the pond in the Forest of la Tremblaye. He declared +he was never quite himself unless he could feel the north for at +least an hour or two every day, and all night long in his sleep--and +that he should never feel the north again--that it was gone forever; +that he had drunk it all away at that fatal breakfast--and it made +him lonely to wake up in the middle of the night and not know which +way he lay! "depayse," as he called it--"desoriente--perdu!" + +And laughing, he would add, "Ayez pitie d'un pauvre orphelin!" + + * * * * * + +Then back to Le Gue des Aulnes. And one evening, after a good supper +at Grandmaman Laferte's, the diligence de Paris came jingling and +rumbling through the main street of La Tremblaye, flashing right and +left its two big lamps, red and blue. And we three boys, after the +most grateful and affectionate farewells, packed ourselves into the +coupe, which had been retained for us, and rumbled back to Paris +through the night. + +There was quite a crowd to see us off. Not only Lafertes, but +others--all sorts and conditions of men, women, and children--and +among them three or four of Barty's charcoal-burning friends; one of +whom, an old man with magnificent black eyes and an immense beard, +that would have been white if he hadn't been a charcoal-burner, +kissed Barty on both cheeks, and gave him a huge bag full of some +kind of forest berry that is good to eat; also a young cuckoo (which +Barty restored to liberty an hour later); also a dormouse and a +large green lizard; also, in a little pasteboard box, a gigantic +pale green caterpillar four inches long and thicker than your thumb, +with a row of shiny blue stars in relief all along each side of its +back--the most beautiful thing of the kind you ever saw. + +"Pioche bien ta geometrie, mon bon petit Josselin! c'est la plus +belle science au monde, crois-moi!" said M. Laferte to Barty, and +gave him the hug of a grizzly-bear; and to me he gave a terrific +hand-squeeze, and a beautiful double-barrelled gun by Lefaucheux, +for which I felt too supremely grateful to find suitable thanks. I +have it now, but I have long given up killing things with it. + +I had grown immensely fond of this colossal old "bourru +bienfaisant," as he was called in La Tremblaye, and believe that all +his moroseness and brutality were put on, to hide one of the +warmest, simplest, and tenderest hearts in the world. + +Before dawn Barty woke up with such a start that he woke me: + +"Enfin! ca y est! quelle chance!" he exclaimed. + +"Quoi, quoi, quoi?" said I, quacking like a duck. + +"Le nord--c'est revenu--it's just ahead of us--a little to the +left!" + +We were nearing Paris. + +And thus ended the proudest and happiest time I ever had in my life. +Indeed I almost had an adventure on my own account--_une bonne +fortune_, as it was called at Brossard's by boys hardly older than +myself. I did not brag of it, however, when I got back to school. + +It was at "Les Laiteries," or "Les Poteries," or "Les Crucheries," +or some such place, the charming abode of Monsieur et Madame +Pelisson--only their name wasn't Pelisson, or anything like it. At +dinner I sat next to a Miss ----, who was very tall and wore blond +side ringlets. I think she must have been the English governess. + +We talked very much together, in English; and after dinner we walked +in the garden together by starlight arm in arm, and she was so kind +and genial to me in English that I felt quite chivalrous and +romantic, and ready to do doughty deeds for her sake. + +Then, at M. Pelisson's request, all the company assembled in a group +for evening prayer, under a spreading chestnut-tree on the lawn: the +prayer sounded very much like the morning or evening prayer at +Brossard's, except that the Almighty was addressed as "toi" instead +of "vous"; it began: + +"Notre Pere qui es aux cieux--toi dont le regard scrutateur penetre +jusque dans les replis les plus profonds de nos coeurs"--and ended, +"Ainsi soit-il!" + +The night was very dark, and I stood close to Miss ----, who stood +as it seemed with her hands somewhere behind her back. I was so +grateful to her for having talked to me so nicely, and so fond of +her for being English, that the impulse seized me to steal my hand +into hers--and her hand met mine with a gentle squeeze which I +returned; but soon the pressure of her hand increased, and by the +time M. le Cure had got to "au nom du Pere" the pressure of her hand +had become an agony--a thing to make one shriek! + +"Ainsi soit-il!" said M. le Cure, and the little group broke up, and +Miss ---- walked quietly indoors with her arm around Madame +Pelisson's waist, and without even wishing me good-night--and my +hand was being squeezed worse than ever. + +"Ah ha! Lequel de nous deux est vole, petit coquin?" hissed an angry +male voice in my ear--(which of us two is sold, you little rascal?). + +And I found my hand in that of Monsieur Pelisson, whose name was +something else--and I couldn't make it out, nor why he was so angry. +It has dawned upon me since that each of us took the other's hand by +Mistake for that of the English governess! + +All this is beastly and cynical and French, and I apologize for +it--but it's true. + + * * * * * + +October! + +It was a black Monday for me when school began again after that +ideal vacation. The skies they were ashen and sober, and the leaves +they were crisped and sere. But anyhow I was still _en quatrieme_, +and Barty was in it too--and we sat next to each other in "L'etude +des grands." + +There was only one etude now; only half the boys came back, and the +pavillon des petits was shut up, study, class-rooms, dormitories, +and all--except that two masters slept there still. + +[Illustration: MEROVEE RINGS THE BELL] + +Eight or ten small boys were put in a small school-room in the same +house as ours, and had a small dormitory to themselves, with M. +Bonzig to superintend them. + +I made up my mind that I would no longer be a _cancre_ and a +_cretin_, but work hard and do my little best, so that I might keep +up with Barty and pass into the _troisieme_ with him, and then into +_Rhetorique_ (seconde), and then into _Philosophie_ (premiere)--that +we might do our humanities and take our degree together--our +"_Bachot_," which is short for _Baccalaureat-es-lettres_. Most +Especially did I love Monsieur Durosier's class of French +Literature--for which Merovee always rang the bell himself. + +My mother and sister were still at Ste.-Adresse, Havre, with my +father; so I spent my first Sunday that term at the Archibald +Rohans', in the Rue du Bac. + +I had often seen them at Brossard's, when they came to see Barty, +but had never been at their house before. + +They were very charming people. + +Lord Archibald was dressing when we got there that Sunday morning, +and we sat with him while he shaved--in an immense dressing-room +where there were half a dozen towel-horses with about thirty pairs +of newly ironed trousers on them instead of towels, and quite thirty +pairs of shiny boots on trees were ranged along the wall. James, an +impeccable English valet, waited on "his lordship," and never spoke +unless spoken to. + +"Hullo, Barty! Who's your friend?" + +"Bob Maurice, Uncle Archie." + +And Uncle Archie shook hands with me most cordially. + +"And how's the north pole this morning?" + +"Nicely, thanks, Uncle Archie." + +Lord Archibald was a very tall and handsome man, about fifty--very +droll and full of anecdote; he had stories to tell about everything +in the room. + +For instance, how Major Welsh of the 10th Hussars had given him that +pair of Wellingtons, which fitted him better than any boots Hoby +ever made him to measure; they were too tight for poor Welsh, who +was a head shorter than himself. + +How Kerlewis made him that frock-coat fifteen years ago, and it +wasn't threadbare yet, and fitted him as well as ever--for he hadn't +changed his weight for thirty years, etc. + +How that pair of braces had been made by "my lady" out of a pair of +garters she wore on the day they were married. + +And then he told us how to keep trousers from bagging at the knees, +and how cloth coats should be ironed, and how often--and how to fold +an umbrella. + +It suddenly occurs to me that perhaps these little anecdotes may not +be so amusing to the general reader as they were to me when he told +them, so I won't tell any more. Indeed, I have often noticed that +things look sometimes rather dull in print that were so surprisingly +witty when said in spontaneous talk a great many years ago! + +Then we went to breakfast with my lady and Daphne, their charming +little daughter--Barty's sister, as he called her--"m'amour"--and +who spoke both French and English equally well. + +But we didn't breakfast at once, ravenous as we boys were, for Lady +Archibald took a sudden dislike to Lord A.'s cravat, which, it +seems, he had never worn before. It was in brown satin, and Lady A. +declared that Loulou (so she called him) never looked "_en beaute_" +with a brown cravat; and there was quite a little quarrel between +husband and wife on the subject--so that he had to go back to his +dressing-room and put on a blue one. + +At breakfast he talked about French soldiers of the line, and their +marching kit (as it would be called now), quite earnestly, and, as +it seemed to me, very sensibly--though he went through little +mimicries that made his wife scream with laughter, and me too; and +in the middle of breakfast Barty sang "Le Chant du Depart" as well +as he could for laughing: + + "La victoire en chantant nous ouvre la carriere! + La liberte-e gui-i-de nos pas" ... + +while Lord A. went through an expressive pantomime of an overladen +foot-soldier up and down the room, in time to the music. The only +person who didn't laugh was James--which I thought ungenial. + +Then Lady A. had _her_ innings, and sang "Rule Britannia, Britannia +rule de vaves"--and declared it was far more ridiculous really than +the "Chant du Depart," and she made it seem so, for she went through +a pantomime too. She was a most delightful person, and spoke English +quite well when she chose; and seemed as fond of Barty as if he were +her own and only son--and so did Lord Archibald. She would say: + +"Quel dommage qu'on ne peut pas avoir des crompettes [crumpets]! +Barty les aime tant! n'est-ce pas, mon chou, tu aimes bien les +crompettes? voici venir du buttered toast--c'est toujours ca!" + +And, "Mon Dieu, comme il a bonne mine, ce cher Barty--n'est-ce pas, +mon amour, que tu as bonne mine? regarde-toi dans la glace." + +And, "Si nous allions a l'Hippodrome cette apres-midi voir la belle +ecuyere Madame Richard? Barty adore les jolies femmes, comme son +oncle! n'est-ce pas, mechant petit Barty, que tu adores les jolies +femmes? et tu n'as jamais vu Madame Richard? Tu m'en diras des +nouvelles! et vous, mon ami [this to me], est-ce que vous adorez +aussi les jolies femmes?" + +"O oui," says Daphne, "allons voir M'ame Richard; it'll be _such_ +fun! oh, bully!" + +So after breakfast we went for a walk, and to a cafe on the Quai +d'Orsay, and then to the Hippodrome, and saw the beautiful ecuyere +in graceful feats of la haute ecole, and lost our hearts--especially +Lord Archibald, though him she knew; for she kissed her hand to him, +and he his to her. + +Then we dined at the Palais Royal, and afterwards went to the Cafe +des Aveugles, an underground coffee-house near the Cafe de la +Rotonde, and where blind men made instrumental music; and we had a +capital evening. + +I have met in my time more intellectual people, perhaps, than the +Archibald Rohans--but never people more amiable, or with kinder, +simpler manners, or who made one feel more quickly and thoroughly at +home--and the more I got to know them, the more I grew to like them; +and their fondness for each other and Daphne, and for Barty too, was +quite touching; as was his for them. So the winter sped happily till +February, when a sad thing happened. + +I had spent Sunday with my mother and sister, who now lived on the +ground-floor of 108 Champs Elysees. + +I slept there that Sunday night, and walked back to school next +morning. To my surprise, as I got to a large field through which a +diagonal footpath led to Pere Jaurion's loge, I saw five or six boys +sitting on the terrace parapet with their legs dangling outside. +They should have been in class, by rights. They watched me cross the +field, but made no sign. + +"What on earth _can_ be the matter?" thought I. + +The cordon was pulled, and I came on a group of boys all stiff and +silent. + +"Qu'est-ce que vous avez donc, tous?" I asked. + +"Le Pere Brossard est mort!" said De Villars. + +Poor M. Brossard had died of apoplexy on the previous afternoon. He +had run to catch the Passy omnibus directly after lunch, and had +fallen down in a fit and died immediately. + +"Il est tombe du haut mal"--as they expressed it. + +His son Merovee and his daughter Madame Germain were distracted. The +whole of that day was spent by the boys in a strange, unnatural +state of _desoeuvrement_ and suppressed excitement for which no +outlet was possible. The meals, especially, were all but unbearable. +One was ashamed of having an appetite, and yet one had--almost +keener than usual, if I may judge by myself--and for some +undiscovered reason the food was better than on other Mondays! + +Next morning we all went up in sorrowful procession to kiss our poor +dear head-master's cold forehead as he lay dead in his bed, with +sprigs of boxwood on his pillow, and above his head a jar of holy +water with which we sprinkled him. He looked very serene and +majestic, but it was a harrowing ceremony. Merovee stood by with +swollen eyes and deathly pale--incarnate grief. + +On Wednesday afternoon M. Brossard was buried in the Cimetiere de +Passy, a tremendous crowd following the hearse; the boys and masters +just behind Merovee and M. Germain, the chief male mourners. The +women walked in another separate procession behind. + +Beranger and Alphonse Karr were present among the notabilities, and +speeches were made over his open grave, for he was a very +distinguished man. + +And, tragical to relate, that evening in the study Barty and I fell +out, and it led to a stand-up fight next day. + +There was no preparation that evening; he and I sat side by side +reading out of a book by Chateaubriand--either _Atala_, or _Rene_ or +_Les Natchez_, I forget which. I have never seen either since. + +The study was hushed; M. Dumollard was _de service_ as _maitre +d'etudes_, although there was no attempt to do anything but sadly +read improving books. + +If I remember aright, Rene, a very sentimental young Frenchman, who +had loved the wrong person not wisely, but too well (a very wrong +person indeed, in his case), emigrated to North America, and there +he met a beautiful Indian maiden, one Atala, of the Natchez tribe, +who had rosy heels and was charming, and whose entire skin was +probably a warm dark red, although this is not insisted upon. She +also had a brother, whose name was Outogamiz. + +Well, Rene loved Atala, Atala loved Rene, and they were married; and +Outogamiz went through some ceremony besides, which made him blood +brother and bosom friend to Rene--a bond which involved certain +obligatory rites and duties and self-sacrifices. + +Atala died and was buried. Rene died and was buried also; and every +day, as in duty bound, poor Outogamiz went and pricked a vein and +bled over Rene's tomb, till he died himself of exhaustion before he +was many weeks older. I quote entirely from memory. + +This simple story was told in very touching and beautiful language, +by no means telegraphese, and Barty and I were deeply affected by +it. + +"I say, Bob!" Barty whispered to me, with a break in his voice, +"some day I'll marry your sister, and we'll all go off to America +together, and she'll die, and _I_'ll die, and you shall bleed +yourself to death on my tomb!" + +"No," said I, after a moment's thought. "No--look here! _I_'ll marry +_your_ sister, and _I_'ll die, and _you_ shall bleed over _my_ +tomb!" + +Then, after a pause: + +"I haven't got a sister, as you know quite well--and if I had she +wouldn't be for _you_!" says Barty. + +"Why not?" + +"Because you're not good-looking enough!" says Barty. + +At this, just for fun, I gave him a nudge in the wind with my +elbow--and he gave me a "twisted pinch" on the arm--and I kicked him +on the ankle, but so much harder than I intended that it hurt him, +and he gave me a tremendous box on the ear, and we set to fighting +like a couple of wild-cats, without even getting up, to the scandal +of the whole study and the indignant disgust of M. Dumollard, who +separated us, and read us a pretty lecture: + +"Voila bien les Anglais!--rien n'est sacre pour eux, pas meme la +mort! rien que les chiens et les chevaux." (Nothing, not even death, +is sacred to Englishmen--nothing but dogs and horses.) + +When we went up to bed the head-boy of the school--a first-rate boy +called d'Orthez, and Berquin (another first-rate boy), who had each +a bedroom to himself, came into the dormitory and took up the +quarrel, and discussed what should be done. Both of us were +English--ergo, both of us ought to box away the insult with our +fists; so "they set a combat us between, to fecht it in the +dawing"--that is, just after breakfast, in the school-room. + +I went to bed very unhappy, and so, I think, did Barty. + +Next morning at six, just after the morning prayer, M. Merovee came +into the school-room and made us a most straightforward, manly, and +affecting speech; in which he told us he meant to keep on the +school, and thanked us, boys and masters, for our sympathy. + +We were all moved to our very depths--and sat at our work solemn and +sorrowful all through that lamp-lit hour and a half; we hardly dared +to cough, and never looked up from our desks. + +Then 7.30--ding-dang-dong and breakfast. Thursday--bread-and-butter +morning! + +I felt hungry and greedy and very sad, and disinclined to fight. +Barty and I had sat turned away from each other, and made no attempt +at reconciliation. + +We all went to the refectoire: it was raining fast. I made my ball +of salt and butter, and put it in a hole in my hunk of bread, and +ran back to the study, where I locked these treasures in my desk. + +The study soon filled with boys: no masters ever came there during +that half-hour; they generally smoked and read their newspapers in +the gymnastic ground, or else in their own rooms when it was wet +outside. + +D'Orthez and Berquin moved one or two desks and forms out of the way +so as make a ring--l'arene, as they called it--with comfortable +seats all round. Small boys stood on forms and window-sills eating +their bread-and-butter with a tremendous relish. + +"Dites donc, vous autres," says Bonneville, the wit of the school, +who was in very high spirits; "it's like the Roman Empire during the +decadence--'_panem et circenses_!'" + +"What's that, _circenses_? what does it mean?" says Rapaud, with his +mouth full. + +"Why, _butter_, you idiot! Didn't you know _that_?" says Bonneville. + +Barty and I stood opposite each other; at his sides as seconds were +d'Orthez and Berquin; at mine, Jolivet trois (the only Jolivet now +left in the school) and big du Tertre-Jouan (the young marquis who +wasn't Bonneville). + +We began to spar at each other in as knowing and English a way as we +knew how--keeping a very respectful distance indeed, and trying to +bear ourselves as scientifically as we could, with a keen expression +of the eye. + +When I looked into Barty's face I felt that nothing on earth would +ever make me hit such a face as that--whatever he might do to mine. +My blood wasn't up; besides, I was a coarse-grained, thick-set, +bullet-headed little chap with no nerves to speak of, and didn't mind +punishment the least bit. No more did Barty, for that matter, though +he was the most highly wrought creature that ever lived. + +At length they all got impatient, and d'Orthez said: + +"Allez donc, godems--ce n'est pas un quadrille! Nous n'sommes pas a +La Salle Valentino!" + +And Barty was pushed from behind so roughly that he came at me, all +his science to the winds and slogging like a French boy; and I, +quite without meaning to, in the hurry, hit out just as he fell over +me, and we both rolled together over Jolivet's foot--Barty on top +(he was taller, though not heavier, than I); and I saw the blood +flow from his nose down his lip and chin, and some of it fell on my +blouse. + +Says Barty to me, in English, as we lay struggling on the dusty +floor: + +"Look here, it's no good. I _can't_ fight to-day; poor Merovee, you +know. Let's make it up!" + +"All right!" says I. So up we got and shook hands, Barty saying, +with mock dignity: + +"Messieurs, le sang a coule; l'honneur britannique est sauf;" and +the combat was over. + +"Cristi! J'ai joliment faim!" says Barty, mopping his nose with his +handkerchief. "I left my crust on the bench outside the refectoire. +I wish one of you fellows would get it for me." + +"Rapaud finished your crust [ta miche] while you were fighting," +says Jolivet. "I saw him." + +Says Rapaud: "Ah, Dame, it was getting prettily wet, your crust, and +I was prettily hungry too; and I thought you didn't want it, +naturally." + +I then produced _my_ crust and cut it in two, butter and all, and +gave Barty half, and we sat very happily side by side, and +breakfasted together in peace and amity. I never felt happier or +hungrier. + +"Cristi, comme ils se sont bien battus," says little Vaissiere to +little Cormenu. "As-tu vu? Josselin a saigne tout plein sur la +blouse a Maurice." (How well they fought! Josselin bled all over +Maurice's blouse!) + +Then says Josselin, in French, turning to me with that delightful +jolly smile that always reminded one of the sun breaking through a +mist: + +"I would sooner bleed on your blouse than on your tomb." (J'aime +mieux saigner sur ta blouse que sur ta tombe.) + +So ended the only quarrel we ever had. + + + + +Part Third + + "Que ne puis-je aller ou s'en vont les roses, + Et n'attendre pas + Ces regrets navrants que la fin des choses + Nous garde ici-bas!"--Anon. + + +Barty worked very hard, and so did I--for _me_! +Horace--Homer--AEschylus--Plato--etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., and +all there was to learn in that French school-boy's encyclopaedia--"Le +Manuel du Baccalaureat"; a very thick book in very small print. And +I came to the conclusion that it is good to work hard: it makes one +enjoy food and play and sleep so keenly--and Thursday afternoons. + +The school was all the pleasanter for having fewer boys; we got more +intimate with each other, and with the masters too. During the +winter M. Bonzig told us capital stories--_Modeste Mignon_, by +Balzac--_Le Chevalier de Maison-rouge_, by A. Dumas pere--etc., etc. + +In the summer the Passy swimming-bath was more delightful than ever. +Both winter and summer we passionately fenced with a pupil (un +prevot) of the famous M. Bonnet, and did gymnastics with M. Louis, +the gymnastic master of the College Charlemagne--the finest man I +ever saw--a gigantic dwarf six feet high, all made up of lumps of +sinew and muscles, like.... + +Also, we were taught equitation at the riding-school in the Rue +Duphot. + +On Saturday nights Barty would draw a lovely female profile, with a +beautiful big black eye, in pen and ink, and carefully shade it; +especially the hair, which was always as the raven's wing! And on +Sunday morning he and I used to walk together to 108 Champs Elysees +and enter the rez-de-chaussee (where my mother and sister lived) by +the window, before my mother was up. Then Barty took out his lovely +female pen-and-ink profile to gaze at, and rolled himself a +cigarette and lit it, and lay back on the sofa, and made my sister +play her lightest music--"La pluie de Perles," by Osborne--and +"Indiana," a beautiful valse by Marcailhou--and thus combine three +or four perfect blisses in one happy quart d'heure. + +Then my mother would appear, and we would have breakfast--after +which Barty and I would depart by the window as we had come, and go +and do our bit of Boulevard and Palais Royal. Then to the Rue du Bac +for another breakfast with the Rohans; and then, "_au petit +bonheur_"; that is, trusting to Providence for whatever turned up. +The programme didn't vary very much: either I dined with him at the +Rohans', or he with me at 108. Then, back to Brossard's at +ten--tired and happy. + +One Sunday I remember well we stayed in school, for old Josselin the +fisherman came to see us there--Barty's grandfather, now a widower; +and M. Merovee asked him to lunch with us, and go to the baths in +the afternoon. + +Imagine old Bonzig's delight in this "_vieux loup de mer_," as he +called him! That was a happy day for the old fisherman also; I shall +never forget his surprise at M. Dumollard's telescope--and how +clever he was on the subject. + +He came to the baths, and admired and criticised the good swimming +of the boys--especially Barty's, which was really remarkable. I +don't believe he could swim a stroke himself. + +Then we went and dined together at Lord Archibald's, in the Rue du +Bac--"Mon Colonel," as the old fisherman always called him. He was a +very humorous and intelligent person, this fisher, though nearer +eighty than seventy; very big, and of a singularly picturesque +appearance--for he had not _endimanche_ himself in the least; and +very clean. A splendid old man; oddly enough, somewhat Semitic of +aspect--as though he had just come from a miraculous draught of +fishes in the Sea of Galilee, out of a cartoon by Raphael! + +I recollect admiring how easily and pleasantly everything went +during dinner, and all through the perfection of this ancient +sea-toiler's breeding in all essentials. + +Of course the poor all over the world are less nice in their habits +than the rich, and less correct in their grammar and accent, and +narrower in their views of life; but in every other respect there +seemed little to choose between Josselins and Rohans and +Lonlay-Savignacs; and indeed, according to Lord Archibald, the best +manners were to be found at these two opposite poles--or even wider +still. He would have it that Royalty and chimney-sweeps were the +best-bred people all over the world--because there was no possible +mistake about their social status. + +I felt a little indignant--after all, Lady Archibald was built out +of chocolate, for all her Lonlay and her Savignac! just as I was +built out of Beaune and Chambertin. + +I'm afraid I shall be looked upon as a snob and a traitor to my +class if I say that I have at last come to be of the same opinion +myself. That is, if absolute simplicity, and the absence of all +possible temptation to try and seem an inch higher up than we really +are--But there! this is a very delicate question, about which I +don't care a straw; and there are such exceptions, and so many, to +confirm any such rule! + +Anyhow, I saw how Barty _couldn't help_ having the manners we all so +loved him for. After dinner Lady Archibald showed old Josselin some +of Barty's lovely female profiles--a sight that affected him +strangely. He would have it that they were all exact portraits of +his beloved Antoinette, Barty's mother. + +They were certainly singularly like each other, these little +chefs-d'oeuvre of Barty's, and singularly handsome--an ideal type of +his own; and the old grandfather was allowed his choice, and +touchingly grateful at being presented with such treasures. + +The scene made a great impression on me. + + * * * * * + +So spent itself that year--a happy year that had no history--except +for one little incident that I will tell because it concerns Barty, +and illustrates him. + +One beautiful Sunday morning the yellow omnibus was waiting for some +of us as we dawdled about in the school-room, titivating; the +masters nowhere, as usual on a Sunday morning; and some of the boys +began to sing in chorus a not very edifying _chanson_, which they +did not "Bowdlerize," about a holy Capuchin friar; it began (if I +remember rightly): + + "C'etait un Capucin, oui bien, un pere Capucin, + Qui confessait trois filles-- + Itou, itou, itou, la la la! + Qui confessait trois filles + Au fond de son jardin-- + Oui bien-- + Au fond de son jardin! + Il dit a la plus jeune-- + Itou, itou, itou, la la la! + Il dit a la plus jeune + ... 'Vous reviendrez demain!'" + Etc, etc., etc. + +I have quite forgotten the rest. + +Now this little song, which begins so innocently, like a sweet old +idyl of mediaeval France--"_un echo du temps passe_"--seems to have +been a somewhat Rabelaisian ditty; by no means proper singing for a +Sunday morning in a boys' school. But boys will be boys, even in +France; and the famous "esprit Gaulois" was somewhat precocious in +the forties, I suppose. Perhaps it is now, if it still exists (which +I doubt--the dirt remains, but all the fun seems to have +evaporated). + +Suddenly M. Dumollard bursts into the room in his violent sneaky +way, pale with rage, and says: + +"Je vais gifler tous ceux qui ont chante" (I'll box the ears of +every boy who sang). + +So he puts all in a row and begins: + +"Rubinel, sur votre parole d'honneur, avez-vous chante?" + +"Non, m'sieur!" + +"Caillard, avez-vous chante?" + +"Non, m'sieur!" + +"Lipmann, avez-vous chante?" + +"Non, m'sieur!" + +"Maurice, avez-vous chante?" + +"Non, m'sieur" (which, for a wonder, was true, for I happened not to +know either the words or the tune). + +"Josselin, avez-vous chante?" + +"_Oui, m'sieur!_" + +And down went Barty his full length on the floor, from a tremendous +open-handed box on the ear. Dumollard was a very Herculean +person--though by no means gigantic. + +Barty got up and made Dumollard a polite little bow, and walked out +of the room. + +"Vous etes tous consignes!" says M. Dumollard--and the omnibus went +away empty, and we spent all that Sunday morning as best we might. + +In the afternoon we went out walking in the Bois. Dumollard had +recovered his serenity and came with us; for he was _de service_ +that day. + +Says Lipmann to him: + +"Josselin drapes himself in his English dignity--he sulks like +Achilles and walks by himself." + +"Josselin is at least a _man_," says Dumollard. "He tells the truth, +and doesn't know fear--and I'm sorry he's English!" + +And later, at the Mare d'Auteuil, he put out his hand to Barty and +said: + +"Let's make it up, Josselin--au moins vous avez du coeur, vous. +Promettez-moi que vous ne chanterez plus cette sale histoire de +Capucin!" + +Josselin took the usher's hand, and smiled his open, toothy smile, +and said: + +"Pas le dimanche matin toujours--quand c'est vous qui serez de +service, M. Dumollard!" (Anyhow not Sunday morning when _you_'re on +duty, Mr. D.) + +And Mr. D. left off running down the English in public after +that--except to say that they _couldn't_ be simple and natural if +they tried; and that they affected a ridiculous accent when they +spoke French--not Josselin and Maurice, but all the others he had +ever met. As if plain French, which had been good enough for William +the Conqueror, wasn't good enough for the subjects of her Britannic +Majesty to-day! + +The only event of any importance in Barty's life that year was his +first communion, which he took with several others of about his own +age. An event that did not seem to make much impression on +him--nothing seemed to make much impression on Barty Josselin when +he was very young. He was just a lively, irresponsible, +irrepressible human animal--always in perfect health and exuberant +spirits, with an immense appetite for food and fun and frolic; like +a squirrel, a collie pup, or a kitten. + +Pere Bonamy, the priest who confirmed him, was fonder of the boy +than of any one, boy or girl, that he had ever prepared for +communion, and could hardly speak of him with decent gravity, on +account of his extraordinary confessions--all of which were +concocted in the depths of Barty's imagination for the sole purpose +of making the kind old cure laugh; and the kind old cure was just as +fond of laughing as was Barty of playing the fool, in and out of +season. I wonder if he always thought himself bound to respect the +secrets of the confessional in Barty's case! + +And Barty would sing to him--even in the confessional: + + "Stabat mater dolorosa + Juxta crucem lachrymosa + Dum pendebat fllius" ... + +in a voice so sweet and innocent and pathetic that it would almost +bring the tears to the good old cure's eyelash. + +"Ah! ma chere Mamzelle Marceline!" he would say--"au moins s'ils +etaient tous comme ce petit Josselin! ca irait comme sur des +roulettes! Il est innocent comme un jeune veau, ce mioche anglais! +Il a le bon Dieu dans le coeur!" + +"Et une boussole dans l'estomac!" said Mlle. Marceline. + +I don't think he was quite so _innocent_ as all that, perhaps--but +no young beast of the field was ever more _harmless_. + +That year the examinations were good all round; even _I_ did not +disgrace myself, and Barty was brilliant. But there were no +delightful holidays for me to record. Barty went to Yorkshire, and I +remained in Paris with my mother. + +There is only one thing more worth mentioning that year. + +My father had inherited from _his_ father a system of shorthand, +which he called _Blaze_--I don't know why! _His_ father had learnt +it of a Dutch Jew. + +It is, I think, the best kind of cipher ever invented (I have taken +interest in these things and studied them). It is very difficult to +learn, but I learnt it as a child--and it was of immense use to me +at lectures we used to attend at the Sorbonne and College de France. + +Barty was very anxious to know it, and after some trouble I obtained +my father's permission to impart this calligraphic crypt to Barty, +on condition he should swear on his honor never to reveal it: and +this he did. + +With his extraordinary quickness and the perseverance he always had +when he wished a thing very much, he made himself a complete master +of this occult science before he left school, two or three years +later: it took _me_ seven years--beginning when I was four! It does +equally well for French or English, and it played an important part +in Barty's career. My sister knew it, but imperfectly; my mother not +at all--for all she tried so hard and was so persevering; it must be +learnt young. As far as I am aware, no one else knows it in England +or France--or even the world--although it is such a useful +invention; quite a marvel of simple ingenuity when one has mastered +the symbols, which certainly take a long time and a deal of hard +work. + +Barty and I got to talk it on our fingers as rapidly as ordinary +speech and with the slightest possible gestures: this was _his_ +improvement. + + * * * * * + +Barty came back from his holidays full of Whitby, and its sailors +and whalers, and fishermen and cobles and cliffs--all of which had +evidently had an immense attraction for him. He was always fond of +that class; possibly also some vague atavistic sympathy for the +toilers of the sea lay dormant in his blood like an inherited +memory. + +And he brought back many tokens of these good people's regard--two +formidable clasp-knives (for each of which he had to pay the giver +one farthing in current coin of the realm); spirit-flasks, leather +bottles, jet ornaments; woollen jerseys and comforters knitted for +him by their wives and daughters; fossil ammonites and coprolites; a +couple of young sea-gulls to add to his menagerie; and many old +English marine ditties, which he had to sing to M. Bonzig with his +now cracked voice, and then translate into French. Indeed, Bonzig +and Barty became inseparable companions during the Thursday +promenade, on the strength of their common interest in ships and the +sea; and Barty never wearied of describing the place he loved, nor +Bonzig of listening and commenting. + +"Ah! mon cher! ce que je donnerais, moi, pour voir le retour d'un +baleinier a Ouittebe! Quelle 'marine' ca ferait! hein? avec la +grande falaise, et la bonne petite eglise en haut, pres de la +Vieille Abbaye--et les toits rouges qui fument, et les trois jetees +en pierre, et le vieux pont-levis--et toute cette grouille de +mariniers avec leurs femmes et leurs enfants--et ces braves filles +qui attendent le retour du bien-aime! nom d'un nom! dire que vous +avez vu tout ca, vous--qui n'avez pas encore seize ans ... quelle +chance!... dites--qu'est-ce que ca veut bien dire, ce + + 'Ouile me sekile ro!' + +Chantez-moi ca encore une fois!" + +And Barty, whose voice was breaking, would raucously sing him the +good old ditty for the sixth time: + + "Weel may the keel row, the keel row, the keel row, + Weel may the keel row + That brings my laddie home!" + +which he would find rather difficult to render literally into +colloquial seafaring French! + +He translated it thus: + + "Vogue la carene, + Vogue la carene + Qui me ramene + Mon bien aime!" + +"Ah! vous verrez," says Bonzig--"vous verrez, aux prochaines +vacances de Paques--je ferai un si joli tableau de tout ca! avec la +brume du soir qui tombe, vous savez--et le soleil qui disparait--et +la maree qui monte et la lune qui se leve a l'horizon! et les +mouettes et les goelands--et les bruyeres lointaines--et le vieux +manoir seigneurial de votre grand-pere ... c'est bien ca, n'est-ce +pas?" + +"Oui, oui, M'sieur Bonzig--vous y etes, en plein!" + +And the good usher in his excitement would light himself a cigarette +of caporal, and inhale the smoke as if it were a sea-breeze, and +exhale it like a regular sou'-wester! and sing: + + "Ouile--me--sekile ro, + Tat brinn my ladde ome!" + +Barty also brought back with him the complete poetical works of +Byron and Thomas Moore, the gift of his noble grandfather, who +adored these two bards to the exclusion of all other bards that ever +wrote in English. And during that year we both got to know them, +possibly as well as Lord Whitby himself. Especially "Don Juan," in +which we grew to be as word-perfect as in _Polyeucte_, _Le +Misanthrope_, _Athalie_, _Philoctete_, _Le Lutrin_, the first six +books of the AEneid and the Iliad, the _Ars Poetica_, and the _Art +Poetique_ (Boileau). + +Every line of these has gone out of my head--long ago, alas! But I +could still stand a pretty severe examination in the now +all-but-forgotten English epic--from Dan to Beersheba--I mean from +"I want a hero" to "The phantom of her frolic grace, Fitz-Fulke!" + +Barty, however, remembered everything--what he ought to, and what he +ought not! He had the most astounding memory: wax to receive and +marble to retain; also a wonderful facility for writing verse, +mostly comic, both in English and French. Greek and Latin verse were +not taught us at Brossard's, for good French reasons, into which I +will not enter now. + +We also grew very fond of Lamartine and Victor Hugo, quite +openly--and of De Musset under the rose. + + "C'etait dans la nuit brune + Sur le clocher jauni, + La lune, + Comme un point sur son i!" + +(not for the young person). + +[Illustration: "WEEL MAY THE KEEL ROW"] + +I have a vague but pleasant impression of that year. Its weathers, +its changing seasons, its severe frosts, with Sunday skatings on the +dangerous canals, St.-Ouen and De l'Ourcq; its genial spring, all +convolvulus and gobeas, and early almond blossom and later +horse-chestnut spikes, and more lime and syringa than ever; its warm +soft summer and the ever-delightful school of notation by the Isle +of Swans. + +This particular temptation led us into trouble. We would rise before +dawn, Barty and Jolivet and I, and let ourselves over the wall and +run the two miles, and get a heavenly swim and a promise of silence +for a franc apiece; and run back again and jump into bed a few +minutes before the five-o'clock bell rang the reveille. + +But we did this once too often--for M. Dumollard had been looking at +Venus with his telescope (I _think_ it was Venus) one morning before +sunrise, and spied us out _en flagrant delit_; perhaps with that +very telescope. Anyhow, he pounced on us when we came back. And our +punishment would have been extremely harsh but for Barty, who turned +it all into a joke. + +After breakfast M. Merovee pronounced a very severe sentence on us +under the acacia. I forget what it was--but his manner was very +short and dignified, and he walked away very stiffly towards the +door of the etude. Barty ran after him without noise, and just +touching his shoulders with the tips of his fingers, cleared him at +a bound from behind, as one clears a post. + +M. Merovee, in a _real_ rage this time, forgot his dignity, and +pursued him all over the school--through open windows and back +again--into his own garden (Tusculum)--over trellis railings--all +along the top of a wall--and finally, quite blown out, sat down on +the edge of the tank: the whole school was in fits by this time, +even M. Dumollard--and at last Merovee began to laugh too. So the +thing had to be forgiven--but only that once! + +Once also, that year, but in the winter, a great compliment was paid +to la perfide Albion in the persons of MM. Josselin et Maurice, +which I cannot help recording with a little complacency. + +On a Thursday walk in the Bois de Boulogne a boy called out "A bas +Dumollard!" in a falsetto squeak. Dumollard, who was on duty that +walk, was furious, of course--but he couldn't identify the boy by +the sound of his voice. He made his complaint to M. Merovee--and +next morning, after prayers, Merovee came into the school-room, and +told us he should go the round of the boys there and then, and ask +each boy separately to own up if it were he who had uttered the +seditious cry. + +"And mind you!" he said--"you are all and each of you on your 'word +of honor'--_l'etude entiere_!" + +So round he went, from boy to boy, deliberately fixing each boy with +his eye, and severely asking--"Est-ce _toi_?" "Est-ce _toi_?" +"Est-ce _toi_?" etc., and waiting very deliberately indeed for the +answer, and even asking for it again if it were not given in a firm +and audible voice. And the answer was always, "Non, m'sieur, ce +n'est pas moi!" + +But when he came to each of _us_ (Josselin and me) he just mumbled +his "Est-ce toi?" in a quite perfunctory voice, and didn't even wait +for the answer! + +When he got to the last boy of all, who said "Non, m'sieur," like +all the rest, he left the room, saying, tragically (and, as I +thought, rather theatrically for _him_): + +"Je m'en vais le coeur navre--il y a un lache parmi vous!" (My heart +is harrowed--there's a coward among you.) + +There was an awkward silence for a few moments. + +Presently Rapaud got up and went out. We all knew that Rapaud was +the delinquent--he had bragged about it so--overnight in the +dormitory. He went straight to M. Merovee and confessed, stating +that he did not like to be put on his word of honor before the whole +school. I forget whether he was punished or not, or how. He had to +make his apologies to M. Dumollard, of course. + +To put the whole school on its word of honor was thought a very +severe measure, coming as it did from the head master in person. "La +parole d'honneur" was held to be very sacred between boy and boy, +and even between boy and head master. The boy who broke it was +always "mis a la quarantaine" (sent to Coventry) by the rest of the +school. + +"I wonder why he let off Josselin and Maurice so easily?" said +Jolivet, at breakfast. + +"Parce qu'il aime les Anglais, ma foi!" said M. Dumollard--"affaire +de gout!" + +"Ma foi, il n'a pas tort!" said M. Bonzig. + +Dumollard looked askance at Bonzig (between whom and himself not +much love was lost) and walked off, jauntily twirling his mustache, +and whistling a few bars of a very ungainly melody, to which the +words ran: + + "Non! jamais en France, + Jamais Anglais ne regnera!" + +As if we wanted to, good heavens! + +(By-the-way, I suddenly remember that both Berquin and d'Orthez were +let off as easily as Josselin and I. But they were eighteen or +nineteen, and "en Philosophie," the highest class in the school--and +very first-rate boys indeed. It's only fair that I should add this.) + +By-the-way, also, M. Dumollard took it into his head to persecute me +because once I refused to fetch and carry for him and be his +"moricaud," or black slave (as du Tertre-Jouan called it): a mean +and petty persecution which lasted two years, and somewhat embitters +my memory of those happy days. It was always "Maurice au piquet pour +une heure!"... "Maurice a la retenue!"... "Maurice prive de bain!"... +"Maurice consigne dimanche prochain!" ... for the slightest +possible offence. But I forgive him freely. + +First, because he is probably dead, and "de mortibus nil +desperandum!" as Rapaud once said--and for saying which he received +a "twisted pinch" from Merovee Brossard himself. + +Secondly, because he made chemistry, cosmography, and physics so +pleasant--and even reconciled me at last to the differential and +integral calculus (but never Barty!). + +He could be rather snobbish at times, which was not a common French +fault in the forties--we didn't even know what to call it. + +For instance, he was fond of bragging to us boys about the golden +splendors of his Sunday dissipation, and his grand acquaintances, +even in class. He would even interrupt himself in the middle of an +equation at the blackboard to do so. + +"You mustn't imagine to yourselves, messieurs, that because I teach +you boys science at the Pension Brossard, and take you out walking +on Thursday afternoons, and all that, that I do not associate _avec +des gens du monde_! Last night, for example, I was dining at the +Cafe de Paris with a very intimate friend of mine--he's a +marquis--and when the bill was brought, what do you think it came +to? you give it up?" (vous donnez votre langue aux chats?). "Well, +it came to fifty-seven francs, fifty centimes! We tossed up who +should pay--et, ma foi, le sort a favorise M. le Marquis!" + +To this there was nothing to say; so none of us said anything, +except du Tertre-Jouan, _our_ marquis (No. 2), who said, in his +sulky, insolent, peasantlike manner: + +"Et comment q'ca s'appelle, vot' marquis?" (What does it call +itself, your marquis?) + +Upon which M. Dumollard turns very red ("pique un soleil"), and +says: + +"Monsieur le Marquis Paul--Francois--Victor du Tertre-Jouan de +Haultcastel de St.-Paterne, vous etes un paltoquet et un rustre!..." + +And goes back to his equations. + +Du Tertre-Jouan was nearly six feet high, and afraid of nobody--a +kind of clodhopping young rustic Hercules, and had proved his mettle +quite recently--when a brutal usher, whom I will call Monsieur +Boulot (though his real name was Patachou), a Meridional with a +Horrible divergent squint, made poor Rapaud go down on his knees in +the classe de geographie ancienne, and slapped him violently on the +face twice running--a way he had with Rapaud. + +It happened like this. It was a kind of penitential class for dunces +during play-time. M. Boulot drew in chalk an outline of ancient +Greece on the blackboard, and under it he wrote-- + + "Timeo Danaos, et dona ferentes!" + +"Rapaud, translate me that line of Virgil!" says Boulot. + +"J'estime les Danois et leurs dents de fer!" says poor Rapaud (I +esteem the Danish and their iron teeth). And we all laughed. For +which he underwent the brutal slapping. + +[Illustration: A TERTRE-JOUAN TO THE RESCUE!] + +The window was ajar, and outside I saw du Tertre-Jouan, Jolivet, and +Berquin, listening and peeping through. Suddenly the window bursts wide +open, and du Tertre-Jouan vaults the sill, gets between Boulot and his +victim, and says: + +"Le troisieme coup fait feu, vous savez! touchez-y encore, a ce +moutard, et j'vous assomme sur place!" (Touch him again, that kid, +and I'll break your head where you stand!). + +There was an awful row, of course--and du Tertre-Jouan had to make a +public apology to M. Boulot, who disappeared from the school the +very same day; and Tertre-Jouan would have been canonized by us all, +but that he was so deplorably dull and narrow-minded, and suspected +of being a royalist in disguise. He was an orphan and very rich, and +didn't fash himself about examinations. He left school that year +without taking any degree--and I don't know what became of him. + +This year also Barty conceived a tender passion for Mlle. Marceline. + +It was after the mumps, which we both had together in a +double-bedded infirmerie next to the lingerie--a place where it was +a pleasure to be ill; for she was in and out all day, and told us +all that was going on, and gave us nice drinks and tisanes of her +own making--and laughed at all Barty's jokes, and some of mine! And +wore the most coquettish caps ever seen. + +Besides, she was an uncommonly good-looking woman--a tall blonde +with beautiful teeth, and wonderfully genial, good-humored, and +lively--an ideal nurse, but a terrible postponer of cures! Lord +Archibald quite fell in love with her. + +"C'est moi qui voudrais bien avoir les oreillons ici!" he said to +her. "Je retarderais ma convalescence autant que possible!" + +[Illustration: MADEMOISELLE MARCELINE] + +"Comme il sait bien le francais, votre oncle--et comme il est +poli!" said Marceline to the convalescent Barty, who was in no +hurry to get well either! + +When we did get well again, Barty would spend much of his play-time +fetching and carrying for Mlle. Marceline--even getting Dumollard's +socks for her to darn--and talking to her by the hour as he sat by +her pleasant window, out of which one could see the Arch of Triumph, +which so triumphantly dominated Paris and its suburbs, and does so +still--no Eiffel Tower can kill that arch! + +I, being less precocious, did not begin my passion for Mlle. +Marceline till next year, just as Bonneville and Jolivet trois were +getting over theirs. Nous avons tous passe par la! + +What a fresh and kind and jolly woman she was, to be sure! I wonder +none of the masters married her. Perhaps they did! Let us hope it +wasn't M. Dumollard! + +It is such a pleasure to recall every incident of this epoch of my +life and Barty's that I should like to go through our joint lives +day by day, hour by hour, microscopically--to describe every book we +read, every game we played, every _pensum_ (_i.e._, imposition) we +performed; every lark we were punished for--every meal we ate. But +space forbids this self-indulgence, and other considerations make it +unadvisable--so I will resist the temptation. + +La pension Brossard! How often have we both talked of it, Barty and +I, as middle-aged men; in the billiard-room of the Marathoneum, let +us say, sitting together on a comfortable couch, with tea and +cigarettes--and always in French whispers! we could only talk of +Brossard's in French. + +"Te rappelles-tu l'habit neuf de Berquin, et son chapeau +haute-forme?" + +[Illustration: "'IF HE ONLY KNEW!'"] + +"Te souviens-tu de la vieille chatte angora du pere Jaurion?" etc., +etc., etc. + +Idiotic reminiscences! as charming to revive as any old song with +words of little meaning that meant so much when one was +four--five--six years old! Before one knew even how to spell them! + + "Paille a Dine--paille a Chine-- + Paille a Suzette et Martine-- + Bon lit a la Dumaine!" + +Celine, my nurse, used to sing this--and I never knew what it meant; +nor do I now! But it was charming indeed. + +Even now I dream that I go back to school, to get coached by +Dumollard in a little more algebra. I wander about the playground; +but all the boys are new, and don't even know my name; and silent, +sad, and ugly, every one! Again Dumollard persecutes me. And in the +middle of it I reflect that, after all, he is a person of no +importance whatever, and that I am a member of the British +Parliament--a baronet--a millionaire--and one of her Majesty's Privy +Councillors! and that M. Dumollard must be singularly "out of it," +even for a Frenchman, not to be aware of this. + +"If he only knew!" says I to myself, says I--in my dream. + +Besides, can't the man see with his own eyes that I'm grown up, and +big enough to tuck him under my left arm, and spank him just as if +he were a little naughty boy--confound the brute! + +Then, suddenly: + +"Maurice, au piquet pour une heure!" + +"Moi, m'sieur?" + +"Oui, vous!" + +"Pourquoi, m'sieur!" + +"Parce que ca me plait!" + +And I wake--and could almost weep to find how old I am! + +And Barty Josselin is no more--oh! my God! ... and his dear wife +survived him just twenty-four hours! + + * * * * * + +Behold us both "en Philosophie!" + +And Barty the head boy of the school, though not the oldest--and the +brilliant show-boy of the class. + +Just before Easter (1851) he and I and Rapaud and Laferte and +Jolivet trois (who was nineteen) and Palaiseau and Bussy-Rabutin +went up for our "bachot" at the Sorbonne. + +We sat in a kind of big musty school-room with about thirty other +boys from other schools and colleges. There we sat side by side from +ten till twelve at long desks, and had a long piece of Latin +dictated to us, with the punctuation in French: "un point--point et +virgule--deux points--point d'exclamation--guillemets--ouvrez la +parenthese," etc., etc.--monotonous details that enervate one at +such a moment! + +Then we set to work with our dictionaries and wrote out a +translation according to our lights--a _pion_ walking about and +watching us narrowly for cribs, in case we should happen to have one +for this particular extract, which was most unlikely. + +Barty's nose bled, I remember--and this made him nervous. + +Then we went and lunched at the Cafe de l'Odeon, on the best omelet +we had ever tasted. + +"Te rappelles-tu cette omelette?" said poor Barty to me only last +Christmas as ever was! + +Then we went back with our hearts in our mouths to find if we had +qualified ourselves by our "version ecrite" for the oral examination +that comes after, and which is so easy to pass--the examiners having +lunched themselves into good-nature. + +There we stood panting, some fifty boys and masters, in a small, +whitewashed room like a prison. An official comes in and puts the +list of candidates in a frame on the wall, and we crane our necks +over each other's shoulders. + +And, lo! Barty is plucked--_colle_! and I have passed, and actually +Rapaud--and no one else from Brossard's! + +An old man--a parent or grandparent probably of some unsuccessful +candidate--bursts into tears and exclaims, + +"Oh! que malheur--que malheur!" + +A shabby, tall, pallid youth, in the uniform of the College +Ste.-Barbe, rushes down the stone stair's shrieking, + +"Ca pue l'injustice, ici!" + +One hears him all over the place: terrible heartburns and tragic +disappointments in the beginning of life resulted from failure in +this first step--a failure which disqualified one for all the little +government appointments so dear to the heart of the frugal French +parent. "Mille francs par an! c'est le Pactole!" + + * * * * * + +Barty took his defeat pretty easily--he put it all down to his nose +bleeding--and seemed so pleased at my success, and my dear mother's +delight in it, that he was soon quite consoled; he was always like +that. + +To M. Merovee, Barty's failure was as great a disappointment as it +was a painful surprise. + +[Illustration: "'MAURICE AU PIQUET!'"] + +"Try again Josselin! Don't leave here till you have passed. If you are +content to fail in this, at the very outset of your career, you will +never succeed in anything through life! Stay with us as my guest till +you can go up again, and again if necessary. _Do_, my dear child--it +will make me so happy! I shall feel it as a proof that you reciprocate +in some degree the warm friendship I have always borne you--in common +with everybody in the school! Je t'en prie, mon garcon!" + +Then he went to the Rohans and tried to persuade them. But Lord +Archibald didn't care much about Bachots, nor his wife either. They +were going back to live in England, besides; and Barty was going +into the Guards. + +I left school also--with a mixture of hope and elation, and yet the +most poignant regret. + +I can hardly find words to express the gratitude and affection I +felt for Merovee Brossard when I bade him farewell. + +Except his father before him, he was the best and finest Frenchman I +ever knew. There is nothing invidious in my saying this, and in this +way. I merely speak of the Brossards, father and son, as Frenchmen +in this connection, because their admirable qualities of heart and +mind were so essentially French; they would have done equal honor to +any country in the world. + +I corresponded with him regularly for a few years, and so did Barty; +and then our letters grew fewer and farther between, and finally +left off altogether--as nearly always happens in such cases, I +think. And I never saw him again; for when he broke up the school he +went to his own province in the southeast, and lived there till +twenty years ago, when he died--unmarried, I believe. + +Then there was Monsieur Bonzig, and Mlle. Marceline, and others--and +three or four boys with whom both Barty and I were on terms of warm +and intimate friendship. None of these boys that I know of have +risen to any world-wide fame; and, oddly enough, none of them have +ever given sign of life to Barty Josselin, who is just as famous in +France for his French literary work as on this side of the Channel +for all he has done in English. He towers just as much there as +here; and this double eminence now dominates the entire globe, and +we are beginning at last to realize everywhere that this bright +luminary in our firmament is no planet, like Mars or Jupiter, but, +like Sirius, a sun. + +Yet never a line from an old comrade in that school where he lived +for four years and was so strangely popular--and which he so filled +with his extraordinary personality! + + * * * * * + +So much for Barty Josselin's school life and mine. I fear I may have +dwelt on them at too great a length. No period of time has ever been +for me so bright and happy as those seven years I spent at the +Institution F. Brossard--especially the four years I spent there +with Barty Josselin. The older I get, the more I love to recall the +trivial little incidents that made for us both the sum of existence +in those happy days. + +La chasse aux souvenirs d'enfance! what better sport can there be, +or more bloodless, at my time of life? + +And all the lonely pathetic pains and pleasures of it, now that _he_ +is gone! + +The winter twilight has just set in--"betwixt dog and wolf." I +wander alone (but for Barty's old mastiff, who follows me +willy-nilly) in the woods and lanes that surround Marsfield on the +Thames, the picturesque abode of the Josselins. + +Darker and darker it grows. I no longer make out the familiar trees +and hedges, and forget how cold it is and how dreary. + + "Je marcherai les yeux fixes sur mes pensees, + Sans rien voir au dehors, sans entendre aucun bruit-- + Seul, inconnu, le dos courbe, les mains croisees: + Triste--et le jour pour moi sera comme la nuit." + +(This is Victor Hugo, not Barty Josselin.) + +It's really far away I am--across the sea; across the years, O +Posthumus! in a sunny play-ground that has been built over long ago, +or overgrown with lawns and flower-beds and costly shrubs. + +Up rises some vague little rudiment of a hint of a ghost of a sunny, +funny old French remembrance long forgotten--a brand-new old +remembrance--a kind of will-o'-the-wisp. Chut! my soul stalks it on +tiptoe, while these earthly legs bear this poor old body of clay, by +mere reflex action, straight home to the beautiful Elisabethan house +on the hill; through the great warm hall, up the broad oak stairs, +into the big cheerful music-room like a studio--ruddy and bright +with the huge log-fire opposite the large window. All is on an ample +scale at Marsfield, people and things! and I! sixteen stone, good +Lord! + +How often that window has been my beacon on dark nights! I used to +watch for it from the train--a landmark in a land of milk and +honey--the kindliest light that ever led me yet on earth. + +I sit me down in my own particular chimney-corner, in my own +cane-bottomed chair by the fender, and stare at the blaze with my friend +the mastiff. An old war-battered tomcat Barty was fond of jumps up and +makes friends too. There goes my funny little French remembrance, trying +to fly up the chimney like a burnt love-letter.... + +Barty's eldest daughter (Roberta), a stately, tall Hebe in black, +brings me a very sizable cup of tea, just as I like it. A well-grown +little son of hers, a very Ganymede, beau comme le jour, brings me a +cigarette, and insists on lighting it for me himself. I like that +too. + +Another daughter of Barty's, "la rossignolle," as we call +her--though there is no such word that I know of--goes to the piano +and sings little French songs of forty, fifty years ago--songs that +she has learnt from her dear papa. + +Heavens! what a voice! and how like his, but for the difference of +sex and her long and careful training (which he never had); and the +accent, how perfect! + +Then suddenly: + + "A Saint-Blaize, a la Zuecca ... + Vous etiez, vous etiez bien aise! + A Saint-Blaize, a la Zuecca ... + Nous etions, nous etions bien la! + Mais de vous en souvenir + Prendrez-vous la peine? + Mais de vous en souvenir, + Et d'y revenir? + A Saint-Blaize, a la Zuecca ... + Vivre et mourir la!" + +So sings Mrs. Trevor (Mary Josselin that was) in the richest, +sweetest voice I know. And behold! at last I have caught my little +French remembrance, just as the lamps are being lit--and I transfix +it with my pen and write it down.... + +And then with a sigh I scratch it all out again, sunny and funny as +it is. For it's all about a comical adventure I had with Palaiseau, +the sniffer at the fete de St.-Cloud--all about a tame magpie, a +gendarme, a blanchisseuse, and a volume of de Musset's poems, and +doesn't concern Barty in the least; for it so happened that Barty +wasn't there! + + * * * * * + +Thus, in the summer of 1851, Barty Josselin and I bade adieu forever +to our happy school life--and for a few years to our beloved +Paris--and for many years to our close intimacy of every hour in the +day. + +I remember spending two or three afternoons with him at the great +exhibition in Hyde Park just before he went on a visit to his +grandfather, Lord Whitby, in Yorkshire--and happy afternoons they +were! and we made the most of them. We saw all there was to be seen +there, I think; and found ourselves always drifting back to the +"Amazon" and the "Greek Slave," for both of which Barty's admiration +was boundless. + +And so was mine. They made the female fashions for 1851 quite +deplorable by contrast--especially the shoes, and the way of +dressing the hair; we almost came to the conclusion that female +beauty when unadorned is adorned the most. It awes and chastens one +so! and wakes up the knight-errant inside! even the smartest French +boots can't do this! not the pinkest silken hose in all Paris! Not +all the frills and underfrills and wonderfrills that M. Paul Bourget +can so eloquently describe! + +My father had taken a house for us in Brunswick Square, next to the +Foundling Hospital. He was about to start an English branch of the +Vougeot-Conti firm in the City. I will not trouble the reader with +any details about this enterprise, which presented many difficulties +at first, and indeed rather crippled our means. + +[Illustration: + + "'QUAND ON PERD, PAR TRISTE OCCURRENCE, + SON ESPERANCE, + ET SA GAITE, + LE REMEDE AU MELANCOLIQUE + C'EST LA MUSIQUE + ET LA BEAUTE'" +] + +My mother was anxious that I should go to one of the universities, +Oxford or Cambridge; but this my father could not afford. She had a +great dislike to business--and so had I; from different motives, I +fancy. I had the wish to become a man of science--a passion that had +been fired by M. Dumollard, whose special chemistry class at the Pension +Brossard, with its attractive experiments, had been of the deepest +interest to me. I have not described it because Barty did not come in. + +Fortunately for my desire, my good father had great sympathy with me +in this; so I was entered as a student at the Laboratory of +Chemistry at University College, close by--in October, 1851--and +studied there for two years, instead of going at once into my +father's business in Barge Yard, Bucklersbury, which would have +pleased him even more. + +At about the same time Barty was presented with a commission in the +Second Battalion of the Grenadier Guards, and joined immediately. + +Nothing could have been more widely apart than the lives we led, or +the society we severally frequented. + +I lived at home with my people; he in rooms on a second floor in St. +James's Street; he had a semi-grand piano, and luxurious furniture, +and bookcases already well filled, and nicely colored lithograph +engravings on the walls--beautiful female faces--the gift of Lady +Archibald, who had superintended Barty's installation with kindly +maternal interest, but little appreciation of high art. There were +also foils, boxing-gloves, dumbbells, and Indian clubs; and many +weapons, ancient and modern, belonging more especially to his own +martial profession. They were most enviable quarters. But he often +came to see us in Brunswick Square, and dined with us once or twice +a week, and was made much of--even by my father, who thoroughly +disapproved of everything about him except his own genial and +agreeable self, which hadn't altered in the least. + +My father was much away--in Paris and Dijon--and Barty made rain and +fine weather in our dull abode, to use a French expression--_il y +faisait la pluie et le beau temps_. That is, it rained there when he +was away, and he brought the fine weather with him; and we spoke +French all round. + +The greatest pleasure I could have was to breakfast with Barty in +St. James's Street on Sunday mornings, when he was not serving his +Queen and country--either alone with him or with two or three of his +friends--mostly young carpet warriors like himself; and very +charming young fellows they were. I have always been fond of +warriors, young or old, and of whatever rank, and wish to goodness I +had been a warrior myself. I feel sure I should have made a fairly +good one! + +Then we would spend an hour or two in athletic exercises and smoke +many pipes. And after this, in the summer, we would walk in +Kensington Gardens and see the Rank and Fashion. In those days the +Rank and Fashion were not above showing themselves in the Kensington +Gardens of a Sunday afternoon, crossing the Serpentine Bridge again +and again between Prince's Gate and Bayswater. + +Then for dinner we went to some pleasant foreign pot-house in or +near Leicester Square, where they spoke French--and ate and drank +it!--and then back again to his rooms. Sometimes we would be alone, +which I liked best: we would read and smoke and be happy; or he +would sketch, or pick out accompaniments on his guitar; often not +exchanging a word, but with a delightful sense of close +companionship which silence almost intensified. + +Sometimes we were in very jolly company: more warriors; young +Robson, the actor who became so famous; a big negro pugilist, called +Snowdrop; two medical students from St. George's Hospital, who boxed +well and were capital fellows; and an academy art student, who died +a Royal Academician, and who did not approve of Barty's mural +decorations and laughed at the colored lithographs; and many others +of all sorts. There used to be much turf talk, and sometimes a +little card-playing and mild gambling--but Barty's tastes did not +lie that way. + +His idea of a pleasant evening was putting on the gloves with +Snowdrop, or any one else who chose--or fencing--or else making +music; or being funny in any way one could; and for this he had +quite a special gift: he had sudden droll inspirations that made one +absolutely hysterical--mere things of suggestive look or sound or +gesture, reminding one of Robson himself, but quite original; +absolute senseless rot and drivel, but still it made one laugh till +one's sides ached. And he never failed of success in achieving this. + +Among the dullest and gravest of us, and even some of the most +high-minded, there is often a latent longing for this kind of happy +idiotic fooling, and a grateful fondness for those who can supply it +without effort and who delight in doing so. Barty was the precursor +of the Arthur Robertses and Fred Leslies and Dan Lenos of our day, +although he developed in quite another direction! + +Then of a sudden he would sing some little twopenny love-ballad or +sentimental nigger melody so touchingly that one had the lump in the +throat; poor Snowdrop would weep by spoonfuls! + +By-the-way, it suddenly occurs to me that I'm mixing things +up--confusing Sundays and week-days; of course our Sunday evenings +were quiet and respectable, and I much preferred them when he and I +were alone; he was then another person altogether--a thoughtful and +intelligent young Frenchman, who loved reading poetry aloud or being +read to; especially English poetry--Byron! He was faithful to his +"Don Juan," his Hebrew melodies--his "O'er the glad waters of the +deep blue sea." We knew them all by heart, or nearly so, and yet we +read them still; and Victor Hugo and Lamartine, and dear Alfred de +Musset.... + +And one day I discovered another Alfred who wrote verses--Alfred the +Great, as we called him--one Alfred Tennyson, who had written a +certain poem, among others, called "In Memoriam"--which I carried +off to Barty's and read out aloud one wet Sunday evening, and the +Sunday evening after, and other Sunday evenings; and other poems by +the same hand: "Locksley Hall," "Ulysses," "The Lotos-Eaters," "The +Lady of Shalott"--and the chord of Byron passed in music out of +sight. + +Then Shelley dawned upon us, and John Keats, and Wordsworth--and our +Sunday evenings were of a happiness to be remembered forever; at +least they were so to me! + +If Barty Josselin were on duty on the Sabbath, it was a blank day +for Robert Maurice. For it was not very lively at home--especially +when my father was there. He was the best and kindest man that ever +lived, but his businesslike seriousness about this world, and his +anxiety about the next, and his Scotch Sabbatarianism, were deadly +depressing; combined with the aspect of London on the Lord's +day--London east of Russell Square! Oh, Paris ... Paris ... and the +yellow omnibus that took us both there together, Barty and me, at +eight on a Sunday morning in May or June, and didn't bring us back +to school till fourteen hours later! + +I shall never forget one gloomy wintry Sunday--somewhere in 1854 or +5, if I'm not mistaken, towards the end of Barty's career as a +Guardsman. + +Twice after lunch I had called at Barty's, who was to have been on +duty in barracks or at the Tower that morning; he had not come back; +I called for him at his club, but he hadn't been there either--and I +turned my face eastward and homeward with a sickening sense of +desolate ennui and deep disgust of London for which I could find no +terms that are fit for publication! + +And this was not lessened by the bitter reproaches I made myself for +being such a selfish and unworthy son and brother. It was precious +dull at home for my mother and sister--and my place was _there_. + +They were just lighting the lamps as I got to the arcade in the +Quadrant--and there I ran against the cheerful Barty. Joy! what a +change in the aspect of everything! It rained light! He pulled a new +book out of his pocket, which he had just borrowed from some fair +lady--and showed it to me. It was called _Maud_. + +We dined at Pergolese's, in Rupert Street--and went back to +Barty's--and read the lovely poem out loud, taking it by turns; and +that is the most delightful recollection I have since I left the +Institution F. Brossard! + +Occasionally I dined with him "on guard" at St. James's Palace--and +well I could understand all the attractions of his life, so +different from mine, and see what a good fellow he was to come so +often to Brunswick Square, and seem so happy with us. + +The reader will conclude that I was a kind of over-affectionate +pestering dull dog, who made this brilliant youth's life a burden to +him. It was really not so; we had very many tastes in common; and +with all his various temptations, he had a singularly constant and +affectionate nature--and was of a Frenchness that made French +thought and talk and commune almost a daily necessity. We nearly +always spoke French when together alone, or with my mother and +sister. It would have seemed almost unnatural not to have done so. + +I always feel a special tenderness towards young people whose lives +have been such that those two languages are exactly the same to +them. It means so many things to me. It doubles them in my +estimation, and I seem to understand them through and through. + +Nor did he seem to care much for the smart society of which he saw +so much; perhaps the bar sinister may have made him feel less at his +ease in general society than among his intimates and old friends. I +feel sure he took this to heart more than any one would have thought +possible from his careless manner. + +He only once alluded directly to this when we were together. I was +speaking to him of the enviable brilliancy of his lot. He looked at +me pensively for a minute or two, and said, in English: + +"You've got a kink in your nose, Bob--if it weren't for that you'd +be a deuced good-looking fellow--like me; but you ain't." + +"Thanks--anything else?" said I. + +"Well, I've got a kink in my birth, you see--and that's as big a +kill-joy as I know. I hate it!" + +It _was_ hard luck. He would have made such a splendid Marquis of +Whitby! and done such honor to the proud old family motto: + +"Roy ne puis, prince ne daigne, Rohan je suis!" + +Instead of which he got himself a signet-ring, and on it he caused +to be engraved a zero within a naught, and round them: + +"Rohan ne puis, roi ne daigne. Rien ne suis!" + +Soon it became pretty evident that a subtle change was being wrought +in him. + +He had quite lost his power of feeling the north, and missed it +dreadfully; he could no longer turn his back-somersault with ease +and safety; he had overcome his loathing for meat, and also his +dislike for sport--he had, indeed, become a very good shot. + +But he could still hear and see and smell with all the keenness of a +young animal or a savage. And that must have made his sense of being +alive very much more vivid than is the case with other mortals. + +He had also corrected his quick impulsive tendency to slap faces +that were an inch or two higher up than his own. He didn't often +come across one, for one thing--then it would not have been +considered "good form" in her Majesty's Household Brigade. + +When he was a boy, as the reader may recollect, he was fond of +drawing lovely female profiles with black hair and an immense black +eye, and gazing at them as he smoked a cigarette and listened to +pretty, light music. He developed a most ardent admiration for +female beauty, and mixed more and more in worldly and fashionable +circles (of which I saw nothing whatever); circles where the +heavenly gift of beauty is made more of, perhaps, than is quite good +for its possessors, whether female or male. + +He was himself of a personal beauty so exceptional that incredible +temptations came his way. Aristocratic people all over the world +make great allowance for beauty-born frailties that would spell ruin +and everlasting disgrace for women of the class to which it is my +privilege to belong. + +Barty, of course, did not confide his love-adventures to me; in this +he was no Frenchman. But I saw quite enough to know he was more +pursued than pursuing; and what a pursuer, to a man built like that! +no innocent, impulsive young girl, no simple maiden in her +flower--no Elaine. + +But a magnificent full-blown peeress, who knew her own mind and had +nothing to fear, for her husband was no better than herself. But for +that, a Guinevere and Vivien rolled into one, _plus_ Messalina! + +Nor was she the only light o' love; there are many naughty "grandes +dames de par le monde" whose easy virtue fits them like a silk +stocking, and who live and love pretty much as they please without +loss of caste, so long as they keep clear of any open scandal. It is +one of the privileges of high rank. + +Then there were the ladies gay, frankly of the half-world, +these--laughter-loving hetaerae, with perilously soft hearts for such +as Barty Josselin! There was even poor, listless, lazy, languid +Jenny, "Fond of a kiss and fond of a guinea!" + +His heart was never touched--of that I feel sure; and he was not vain of +these triumphs; but he was a very reckless youth, a kind of young John +Churchill before Sarah Jennings took him in hand--absolutely non-moral +about such things, rather than immoral. + +He grew to be a quite notorious young man about town; and, most +unfortunately for him, Lord (and even Lady) Archibald Rohan were so +fond of him, and so proud, and so amiably non-moral themselves, that +he was left to go as he might. + +He also developed some very rowdy tastes indeed--and so did I! + +It was the fashion for our golden youth in the fifties to do so. +Every night in the Haymarket there was a kind of noisy saturnalia, +in which golden youths joined hands with youths who were by no means +golden, to give much trouble to the police, and fill the pockets of +the keepers of night-houses--"Bob Croft's," "Kate Hamilton's," "the +Piccadilly Saloon," and other haunts equally well pulled down and +forgotten. It was good, in these regions, to be young and big and +strong like Barty and me, and well versed in the "handling of one's +daddles." I suppose London was the only great city in the world +where such things could be. I am afraid that many strange people of +both sexes called us Bob and Barty; people the mere sight or hearing +of whom would have given my poor dear father fits! + +Then there was a little public-house in St. Martin's Lane, kept by +big Ben the prize-fighter. In a room at the top of the house there +used to be much sparring. We both of us took a high degree in the +noble art--especially I, if it be not bragging to say so; mostly on +account of my weight, which was considerable for my age. It was in +fencing that he beat me hollow: he was quite the best fencer I ever +met; the lessons at school of Bonnet's prevot had borne good fruit +in his case. + +Then there were squalid dens frequented by touts and betting-men and +medical students, where people sang and fought and laid the odds and +got very drunk--and where Barty's performances as a vocalist, comic +and sentimental (especially the latter), raised enthusiasm that +seems almost incredible among such a brutalized and hardened crew. + +One night he and I and a medical student called Ticklets, who had a +fine bass voice, disguised ourselves as paupers, and went singing +for money about Camden Town and Mornington Crescent and Regent's +Park. It took us about an hour to make eighteen pence. Barty played +the guitar, Ticklets the tambourine, and I the bones. Then we went +to the Haymarket, and Barty made five pounds in no time; most of it +in silver donations from unfortunate women--English, of course--who +are among the softest-hearted and most generous creatures in the +world. + + "O lachrymarum fons!" + +I forget what use we made of the money--a good one, I feel sure. + +I am sorry to reveal all this, but Barty wished it. Forty years ago +such things did not seem so horrible as they would now, and the word +"bounder" had not been invented. + + * * * * * + +My sister Ida, when about fourteen (1853), became a pupil at the +junior school in the Ladies' College, 48 Bedford Square. She soon +made friends--nice young girls, who came to our house, and it was +much the livelier. I used to hear much of them, and knew them well +before I ever saw them--especially Leah Gibson, who lived in +Tavistock Square, and was Ida's special friend; at last I was quite +anxious to see this paragon. + +One morning, as I carried Ida's books on her way to school, she +pointed out to me three girls of her own age, or less, who stood +talking together at the gates of the Foundling Hospital. They were +all three very pretty children--quite singularly so--and became +great beauties; one golden-haired, one chestnut-brown, one +blue-black. The black-haired one was the youngest and the tallest--a +fine, straight, bony child of twelve, with a flat back and square +shoulders; she was very well dressed, and had nice brown boots with +brown elastic sides on arched and straight-heeled slender feet, and +white stockings on her long legs--a fashion in hose that has long +gone out. She also wore a thick plait of black hair all down her +back--another departed mode, and one not to be regretted, I think; +and she swung her books round her as she talked, with easy +movements, like a strong boy. + +"That's Leah Gibson," says my sister; "the tall one, with the long +black plait." + +Leah Gibson turned round and nodded to my sister and smiled--showing +a delicate narrow face, a clear pale complexion, very beautiful +white pearly teeth between very red lips, and an extraordinary pair +of large black eyes--rather close together--the blackest I ever saw, +but with an expression so quick and penetrating and keen, and yet so +good and frank and friendly, that they positively sent a little warm +thrill through me--though she was only twelve years old, and not a +bit older than her age, and I a fast youth nearly twenty! + +And finding her very much to my taste, I said to my sister, just for +fun, "Oh--_that's_ Leah Gibson, is it? then some day Leah Gibson +shall be Mrs. Robert Maurice!" + +From which it may be inferred that I looked on Leah Gibson, at the +first sight of her, as likely to become some day an extremely +desirable person. + +She did. + +The Gibsons lived in a very good house in Tavistock Square. They +seemed very well off. Mrs. Gibson had a nice carriage, which she +kept entirely with her own money. Her father, who was dead, had been +a wealthy solicitor. He had left a large family, and to each of them +property worth L300 a year, and a very liberal allowance of good +looks. + +Mr. Gibson was in business in the City. + +[Illustration: THREE LITTLE MAIDS FROM SCHOOL (1853)] + +Leah, their only child, was the darling of their hearts and the apple of +their eyes. To dress her beautifully, to give her all the best masters +money could procure, and treat her to every amusement in +London--theatres, the opera, all the concerts and shows there were, and +give endless young parties for her pleasure--all this seemed the +principal interest of their lives. + +Soon after my first introduction to Leah, Ida and I received an +invitation to a kind of juvenile festivity at the Gibsons', and +went, and spent a delightful evening. We were received by Mrs. +Gibson most cordially. She was such an extremely pretty person, and +so charmingly dressed, and had such winning, natural, genial +manners, that I fell in love with her at first sight; she was also +very playful and fond of romping; for she was young still, having +married at seventeen. + +Her mother, Mrs. Bletchley (who was present), was a Spanish +Jewess--a most magnificent and beautiful old person in splendid +attire, tall and straight, with white hair and thick black eyebrows, +and large eyes as black as night. + +In Leah the high Sephardic Jewish type was more marked than in Mrs. +Gibson (who was not Jewish at all in aspect, and took after her +father, the late Mr. Bletchley). + +It is a type that sometimes, just now and again, can be so +pathetically noble and beautiful in a woman, so suggestive of +chastity and the most passionate love combined--love conjugal and +filial and maternal--love that implies all the big practical +obligations and responsibilities of human life, that the mere term +"Jewess" (and especially its French equivalent) brings to my mind +some vague, mysterious, exotically poetic image of all I love best +in woman. I find myself dreaming of Rebecca of York, as I used to +dream of her in the English class at Brossard's, where I so pitied +poor Ivanhoe for his misplaced constancy. + +If Rebecca at fifty-five, was at all like Mrs. Bletchley, poor old +Sir Wilfred's regrets must have been all that Thackeray made them +out to be in his immortal story of _Rebecca and Rowena_. + +Mr. Gibson was a good-looking man, some twelve or fifteen years +older than his wife; his real vocation was to be a low comedian; +this showed itself on my first introduction to him. He informally +winked at me and said: + +"Esker voo ker jer dwaw lah vee? Ah! kel Bonnure!" + +This idiotic speech (all the French he knew) was delivered in so +droll and natural a manner that I took to him at once. Barty himself +couldn't have been funnier! + +Well, we had games of forfeits and danced, and Ida played charming +things by Mendelssohn on the piano, and Leah sang very nicely in a +fine, bold, frank, deep voice, like a choir-boy's, and Mrs. Gibson +danced a Spanish fandango, and displayed feet and ankles of which +she was very proud, and had every right to be; and then Mr. Gibson +played a solo on the flute, and sang "My Pretty Jane"--both badly +enough to be very funny without any conscious effort or straining on +his part. Then we supped, and the food was good, and we were all +very jolly indeed; and after supper Mr. Gibson said to me: + +"Now, Mister Parleyvoo--can't _you_ do something to amuse the +company? You're _big_ enough!" + +I professed my willingness to do _anything_--and wished I was as +Barty more than ever! + +"Well, then," says he--"kneel to the wittiest, bow to the +prettiest--and kiss the one you love best." + +This was rather a large order--but I did as well as I could. I went +down on my knees to Mr. Gibson and craved his paternal blessing; and +made my best French bow with my heels together to old Mrs. +Bletchley; and kissed my sister, warmly thanking her in public for +having introduced me to Mrs. Gibson: and as far as mere social +success is worth anything, I was the Barty of that party! + +Anyhow, Mr. Gibson conceived for me an admiration he never failed to +express when we met afterwards, and though this was fun, of course, +I had really won his heart. + +It is but a humble sort of triumph to crow over--and where does +Barty Josselin come in? + +Pazienza! + +"Well--what do you think of Leah Gibson?" said my sister, as we +walked home together through Torrington Square. + +"I think she's a regular stunner," said I--"like her mother and her +grandmother before her, and probably her _great_-grandmother too." + +And being a poetical youth, and well up in my Byron, I declaimed: + + "She walks in beauty, like the night + Of cloudless climes and starry skies; + And all that's best of dark and bright + Meet in her aspect and her eyes."... + +Old fogy as I am, and still given to poetical quotations, I never +made a more felicitous quotation than that. I little guessed then to +what splendor that bony black-eyed damsel would reach in time. + + * * * * * + +All through this period of high life and low dissipation Barty kept +his unalterable good-humor and high spirits--and especially the +kindly grace of manner and tact and good-breeding that kept him from +ever offending the most fastidious, in spite of his high spirits, +and made him many a poor grateful outcast's friend and darling. + +I remember once dining with him at Greenwich in very distinguished +company; I don't remember how I came to be invited--through Barty, +no doubt. He got me many invitations that I often thought it better +not to accept. "Ne sutor ultra crepidam!" + +It was a fish dinner, and Barty ate and drank a surprising +amount--and so did I, and liked it very much. + +We were all late and hurried for the last train, some twenty of +us--and Barty, Lord Archibald, and I, and a Colonel Walker Lindsay, +who has since become a peer and a Field-Marshal (and is now dead), +were all pushed together into a carriage, already occupied by a +distinguished clergyman and a charming young lady--probably his +daughter; from his dress, he was either a dean or a bishop, and I +sat opposite to him--in the corner. + +Barty was very noisy and excited as the train moved off; he was rather +tipsy, in fact--and I was alarmed, on account of the clerical gentleman +and his female companion. As we journeyed on, Barty began to romp and +play the fool and perform fantastic tricks--to the immense delight of +the future Field-Marshal. He twisted two pocket-handkerchiefs into human +figures, one on each hand, and made them sing to each other--like Grisi +and Mario in the _Huguenots_--and clever drivel of that kind. Lord +Archibald and Colonel Lindsay were beside themselves with glee at all +this; they also had dined well. + +Then he imitated a poor man fishing in St. James's Park and not +catching any fish. And this really was uncommonly good and true to +life--with wonderful artistic details, that showed keen observation. + +I saw that the bishop and his daughter (if such they were) grew +deeply interested, and laughed and chuckled discreetly; the young +lady had a charming expression on her face as she watched the +idiotic Barty, who got more idiotic with every mile--and this was to +be the man who wrote _Sardonyx_! + +As the train slowed into the London station, the bishop leant +forward towards me and inquired, in a whisper, + +"May I ask the name of your singularly delightful young friend?" + +"His name is Barty Josselin," I answered. + +"Not of the Grenadier Guards?" + +"Yes." + +"Oh, indeed! a--yes--I've heard of him--" + +And his lordship's face became hard and stern--and soon we all got +out. + + + + +Part Fourth + + "La cigale ayant chante + Tout l'ete, + Se trouva fort depourvue + Quand la bise fut venue."... + + --Lafontaine. + + +Sometimes I went to see Lord and Lady Archibald, who lived in +Clarges Street; and Lady Archibald was kind enough to call on my +mother, who was charmed with her, and returned her call in due time. + +Also, at about this period (1853) my uncle Charles (Captain Blake, +late 17th Lancers), who had been Lord Runswick's crony twenty years +before, patched up some feud he had with my father, and came to see +us in Brunswick Square. + +He had just married a charming girl, young enough to be his +daughter. + +I took him to see Barty, and they became fast friends. My uncle +Charles was a very accomplished man, and spoke French as well as any +of us; and Barty liked him, and it ended, oddly enough, in Uncle +Charles becoming Lord Whitby's land-agent and living in St. Hilda's +Terrace, Whitby. + +He was a very good fellow and a thorough man of the world, and was +of great service to Barty in many ways. But, alas and alas! he was +not able to prevent or make up the disastrous quarrel that happened +between Barty and Lord Archibald, with such terrible results to my +friend--to both. + +It is all difficult even to hint at--but some of it must be more +than hinted at. + +Lord Archibald, like his nephew, was a very passionate admirer of +lovely woman. He had been for many years a faithful and devoted +husband to the excellent Frenchwoman who brought him wealth--and +such affection! Then a terrible temptation came in his way. He fell +in love with a very beautiful and fascinating lady, whose birth and +principles and antecedents were alike very unfortunate, and Barty +was mixed up in all this: it's the saddest thing I ever heard. + +The beautiful lady conceived for Barty one of those frantic passions +that must lead to somebody's ruin; it led to his; but he was never +to blame, except for the careless indiscretion which allowed of his +being concerned in the miserable business at all, and to this +frantic passion he did not respond. + +"_Spretae injuria formae._" + +So at least _she_ fancied; it was not so. Barty was no laggard in +love; but he dearly loved his uncle Archie, and was loyal to him all +through. + + "His honor rooted in dishonor stood, + And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true." + +Where he was unfaithful was to his beloved and adoring Lady +Archibald--his second mother--at miserable cost of undying remorse +to himself for ever having sunk to become Lord Archibald's confidant +and love-messenger, and bearer of nosegays and _billets doux_, and +singer of little French songs. He was only twenty, and thought of +such things as jokes; he had lived among some of the pleasantest, +best-bred, and most corrupt people in London. + +The beautiful frail lady told the most infamous lies, and stuck to +them through thick and thin. The story is not new; it's as old as +the Pharaohs. And Barty and his uncle quarrelled beyond recall. The +boy was too proud even to defend himself, beyond one simple denial. + +Then another thing happened. Lady Archibald died, quite suddenly, of +peritonitis--fortunately in ignorance of what was happening, and +with her husband and daughter and Barty round her bedside at the +end. She died deceived and happy. + +Lord Archibald was beside himself with grief; but in six months he +married the beautiful lady, and went to the bad altogether--went +under, in fact; and Daphne, his daughter of fourteen or fifteen, was +taken by the Whitbys. + +So now Barty, thoroughly sick of smart society, found himself in an +unexpected position--without an allowance, in a crack regiment, and +never a penny to look forward to! + +For old Lord Whitby, who loved him, was a poor man with a large +family; and every penny of Lady Archibald's fortune that didn't go +to her husband and daughter went back to her own family of +Lonlay-Savignac. She had made no will--no provision for her beloved, +her adopted son! + +So Barty never went to the Crimea, after all, but sold out, and +found himself the possessor of seven or eight hundred pounds--most +of which he owed--and with the world before him; but I am going too +fast. + + * * * * * + +In the winter of 1853, just before Christmas, my father fitted up for me +a chemical laboratory at the top of the fine old house in Barge Yard, +Bucklersbury, where his wine business was carried on, a splendid +mansion, with panelled rooms and a carved-oak staircase--once the abode +of some Dick Whittington, no doubt a Lord Mayor of London; and I began +my professional career, which consisted in analyzing anything I could +get to analyze for hire, from a sample of gold or copper ore to a +poisoned stomach. + +Lord Whitby very kindly sent me different samples of soil from +different fields on his estate, and I analyzed them carefully and +found them singularly like each other. I don't think the estate +benefited much by my scientific investigation. It was my first job, +and brought me twenty pounds (out of which I bought two beautiful +fans--one for my sister, the other for Leah Gibson--and got a new +evening suit for myself at Barty's tailor's). + +When this job of mine was finished I had a good deal of time on my +hands, and read many novels and smoked many pipes, as I sat by my +chemical stove and distilled water, and dried chlorate of potash to +keep the damp out of my scales, and toasted cheese, and fried +sausages, and mulled Burgundy, and brewed nice drinks, hot or +cold--a specialty of mine. + +I also made my laboratory a very pleasant place. My father wouldn't +permit a piano, nor could I afford one; but I smuggled in a guitar +(for Barty), and also a concertina, which I could play a little +myself. Barty often came with friends of his, of whom my father did +not approve--mostly Guardsmen; also friends of my own--medical +students, and one or two fellow-chemists, who were serious, and +pleased my father. We often had a capital time: chemical experiments +and explosions, and fearful stinks, and poisoned waters of +enchanting hue; also oysters, lobsters, dressed crab for lunch--and +my Burgundy was good, I promise you, whether white or red! + +[Illustration: SOLITUDE] + +We also had songs and music of every description. Barty's taste had +improved. He could sing Beethoven's "Adelaida" in English, German, +and Italian, and Schubert's "Serenade" in French--quite charmingly, +to his own ingenious accompaniment on the guitar. + +We had another vocalist, a little Hebrew art-student, with a +heavenly tenor (I've forgotten his name); and Ticklets, the bass; +and a Guardsman who could yodel and imitate a woman's voice--one +Pepys, whom Barty loved because he was a giant, and, according to +Barty, "the handsomest chap in London." + +These debauches generally happened when my father was +abroad--always, in fact. I'm greatly ashamed of it all now; even +then my heart smote me heavily at times when I thought of the pride +and pleasure he took in all my scientific appliances, and the money +they cost him--twenty guineas for a pair of scales! Poor dear old +man! he loved to weigh things in them--a feather, a minute crumb of +cork, an infinitesimal wisp of cotton wool!... + +However, I've made it all up to him since in many ways; and he has +told me that I have been a good son, after all! And that is good to +think of now that I am older than he was when he died! + + * * * * * + +One fine morning, before going to business, I escorted my sister to +Bedford Square, calling for Leah Gibson on the way; as we walked up +Great Russell Street (that being the longest way round I could think +of), we met Barty, looking as fresh as a school-boy, and resplendent +as usual. I remember he had on a long blue frock-coat, check +trousers, an elaborate waistcoat and scarf, and white hat--as was +the fashion--and that he looked singularly out of place (and +uncommonly agreeable to the eye) in such an austere and learned +neighborhood. + +He was coming to call for me in Brunswick Square. + +My sister introduced him to her friend, and he looked down at Leah +with a surprised glance of delicate fatherly admiration--he might +have been fifty. + +Then we left the young ladies and went off together citywards; my +father was abroad. + +"By Jove, what a stunner that girl is! I'm blest if I don't marry +her some day--you see if I don't!" + +"That's just what _I_ mean to do," said I. And we had a good laugh +at the idea of two such desperadoes, as we thought ourselves, +talking like this about a little school-girl. + +"We'll toss up," says Barty; and we did, and he won. + +This, I remember, was before his quarrel with Lord Archibald. She +was then about fourteen, and her subtle and singular beauty was just +beginning to make itself felt. + +I never knew till long after how deep had been the impression +produced by this glimpse of a mere child on a fast young man about +town--or I should not have been amused. For there were times when I +myself thought quite seriously of Leah Gibson, and what she might be +in the long future! She looked a year or two older than she really +was, being very tall and extremely sedate. + +Also, both my father and mother had conceived such a liking for her +that they constantly talked of the possibility of our falling in +love with each other some day. Castles in Spain! + +As for me, my admiration for the child was immense, and my respect +for her character unbounded; and I felt myself such a base unworthy +brute that I couldn't bear to think of myself in such a +connection--until I had cleansed myself heart and soul (which would +take time)! And as for showing by my manner to her that such an idea +had ever crossed my mind, the thought never entered my head. + +She was just my dear sister's devoted friend; her petticoat hem was +still some inches from the ground, and her hair in a plait all down +her back.... + +Girlish innocence and purity incarnate--that is what she seemed; and +what she was. "La plus forte des forces est un coeur innocent," said +Victor Hugo--and if you translate this literally into English, it +comes to exactly the same, both in rhythm and sense. + + * * * * * + +When Barty sold out, he first thought he would like to go on the +stage, but it turned out that he was too tall to play anything but +serious footmen. + +Then he thought he would be a singer. We used to go to the opera at +Drury Lane, where they gave in English a different Italian opera +every night;--and this was always followed by _Acis and Galatea_. + +We got our seats in the stalls every evening for a couple of weeks, +through the kindness of Mr. Hamilton Braham, whom Barty knew, and +who played Polyphemus in Handel's famous serenata. + +I remember our first night; they gave _Masaniello_, which I had +never seen; and when the tenor sang, "Behold how brightly breaks the +morning," it came on us both as a delicious surprise--it was such a +favorite song at Brossard's--"_amis! la matinee est belle_...." +Indeed, it was one of the songs Barty sang on the boulevard for the +poor woman, six or seven years back. + +The tenor, Mr. Elliot Galer, had a lovely voice; and that was a +moment never to be forgotten. + +Then came _Acis and Galatea_, which was so odd and old-fashioned we +could scarcely sit it out. + +[Illustration: "'PILE OU FACE--HEADS OR TAILS?'"] + +Next night, _Lucia_--charming; then again _Acis and Galatea_, +because we had nowhere else to go. + +"Tiens, tiens!" says Barty, as the lovers sang "the flocks shall +leave the mountains"; "c'est diantrement joli, ca!--ecoute!" + +Next night, _La Sonnambula_--then again _Acis and Galatea_. + +"Mais, nom d'une pipe--elle est _divine_, cette musique-la!" says +Barty. + +And the nights after we could scarcely sit out the Italian opera +that preceded what we have looked upon ever since as among the +divinest music in the world. + +So one must not judge music at a first hearing; nor poetry; nor +pictures at first sight; unless one be poet or painter or musician +one's self--not even then! I may live to love thee yet, oh +_Tannhaeuser_! + +Lucy Escott, Fanny Huddart, Elliot Galer, and Hamilton Braham--that +was the cast; I hear their voices now.... + +One morning Hamilton Braham tried Barty's voice on the empty stage +at St. James's Theatre--made him sing "When other lips." + +"Sing _out_, man--sing _out_!" said the big bass. And Barty shouted +his loudest--a method which did not suit him. I sat in the pit, with +half a dozen Guardsmen, who were deeply interested in Barty's +operatic aspirations. + +It turned out that Barty was neither tenor nor barytone; and that +his light voice, so charming in a room, would never do for the +operatic stage; although his figure, in spite of his great height, +would have suited heroic parts so admirably. + +Besides, three or four years' training in Italy were needed--a +different production altogether. + +So Barty gave up this idea and made up his mind to be an artist. He +got permission to work in the British Museum, and drew the +"Discobolus," and sent his drawing to the Royal Academy, in the hope +of being admitted there as a student. He was not. + +Then an immense overwhelming homesickness for Paris came over him, +and he felt he must go and study art there, and succeed or perish. + +My father talked to him like a father, my mother like a mother; we +all hung about him and entreated. He was as obdurate as Tennyson's +sailor-boy whom the mermaiden forewarned so fiercely! + +He was even offered a handsome appointment in the London house of +Vougeot-Conti & Co. + +But his mind was made up, and to my sorrow, and the sorrow of all +who knew him, he fixed the date of his departure for the 2d of May +(1856),--this being the day after a party at the Gibsons'--a young +dance in honor of Leah's fifteenth birthday, on the 1st--and to +which my sister had procured him an invitation. + +He had never been to the Gibsons' before. They belonged to a world +so different to anything he had been accustomed to--indeed, to a +class that he then so much disliked and despised (both as +ex-Guardsman and as the descendant of French toilers of the sea, who +hate and scorn the bourgeois)--that I was curious to see how he +would bear himself there; and rather nervous, for it would have +grieved me that he should look down on people of whom I was getting +very fond. It was his theory that all successful business people +were pompous and purse-proud and vulgar. + +I admit that in the fifties we very often were. + +There may perhaps be a few survivals of that period: _old_ nouveaux +riches, who are still modestly jocose on the subject of each other's +millions when they meet, and indulge in pompous little pleasantries +about their pet economics, and drop a pompous little _h_ now and +then, and pretend they only did it for fun. But, dear me, there are +other things to be vulgar about in this world besides money and +uncertain aspirates. + +If to be pompous and pretentious and insincere is to be vulgar, I really +think the vulgar of our time are not these old plutocrats--not even +their grandsons, who hunt and shoot and yacht and swagger with the +best--but those solemn little prigs who have done well at school or +college, and become radicals and agnostics before they've even had time +to find out what men and women are made of, or what sex they belong to +themselves (if any), and loathe all fun and sport and athletics, and +rave about pictures and books and music they don't understand, and would +pretend to despise if they did--things that were not even _meant_ to be +understood. It doesn't take three generations to make a prig--worse +luck! + +At the Gibsons' there was neither pompousness nor insincerity nor +pretension of any kind, and therefore no real vulgarity. It is true +they were a little bit noisy there sometimes, but only in fun. + +When we arrived at that most hospitable house the two pretty +drawing-rooms were already crammed with young people, and the +dancing was in full swing. + +I presented Barty to Mrs. Gibson, who received him with her usual +easy cordiality, just as she would have received one of her +husband's clerks, or the Prime Minister; or the Prince Consort +himself, for that matter. But she looked up into his face with such +frank unabashed admiration that I couldn't help laughing--nor could +he! + +She presented him to Mr. Gibson, who drew himself back and folded +his arms and frowned; then suddenly, striking a beautiful stage +attitude of surprised emotion, with his hand on his heart, he +exclaimed: + +"Oh! Monsewer! Esker-voo ker jer dwaw lah vee?--ah! kel bonnure!" + +And this so tickled Barty that he forgot his manners and went into +peals of laughter. And from that moment I ceased to exist as the +bright particular star in Mr. Gibson's firmament of eligible young +men: for in spite of the kink in my nose, and my stolid gravity, +which was really and merely the result of my shyness, he had always +looked upon me as an exceptionally presentable, proper, and goodly +youth, and a most exemplary--that is, if my sister was to be trusted +in the matter; for she was my informant. + +I'm afraid Barty was not so immediately popular with the young +cavaliers of the party--but all came right in due time. For after +supper, which was early, Barty played the fool with Mr. Gibson, and +taught him how to do a mechanical wax figure, of which he himself +was the showman; and the laughter, both baritone and soprano, might +have been heard in Russell Square. Then they sang an extempore +Italian duet together which was screamingly droll--and so forth. + +Leah distinguished herself as usual by being attentive to the +material wants of the company: comfortable seats, ices, syrups, +footstools for mammas, and wraps; safety from thorough draughts for +grandpapas--the inherited hospitality of the clan of Gibson took +this form with the sole daughter of their house and home; she had no +"parlor tricks." + +We remained the latest. It was a full moon, or nearly so--as usual +on a balcony; for I remember standing on the balcony with Leah. + +A belated Italian organ-grinder stopped beneath us and played a tune +from _I Lombardi_, called "La mia letizia." Leah's hair was done up +for the first time--in two heavy black bands that hid her little +ears and framed her narrow chinny face--with a yellow bow plastered +on behind. Such was the fashion then, a hideous fashion enough--but +we knew no better. To me she looked so lovely in her long white +frock--long for the first time--that Tavistock Square became a broad +Venetian moonlit lagoon, and the dome of University College an old +Italian church, and "La mia letizia" the song of Adria's gondolier. + +I asked her what she thought of Barty. + +"I really don't know," she said. "He's not a bit romantic, _is_ he?" + +"No; but he's very handsome. Don't you think so?" + +"Oh yes, indeed--much too handsome for a man. It seems such waste. +Why, I now remember seeing him when I was quite a little girl, three +or four years ago, at the Duke of Wellington's funeral. He had his +bearskin on. Papa pointed him out to us, and said he looked like +such a pretty girl! And we all wondered who he could be! And so sad +he looked! I suppose it was for the Duke. + +"I couldn't think where I'd seen him before, and now I remember--and +there's a photograph of him in a stall at the Crystal Palace. Have +you seen it? Not that he looks like a girl now! Not a bit! I suppose +you're very fond of him? Ida is! She talks as much about Mr. +Josselin as she does about you! _Barty_, she calls him." + +"Yes, indeed; he's like our brother. We were boys at school together +in France. My sister calls him _thee_ and _thou_; in French, you +know." + +[Illustration: "A LITTLE WHITE POINT OF INTERROGATION"] + +"And was he always like that--funny and jolly and good-natured?" + +"Always; he hasn't changed a bit." + +"And is he very sincere?" + +Just then Barty came on to the balcony: it was time to go. My sister +had been fetched away already (in her gondola). + +So Barty made his farewells, and bent his gallant, irresistible look +of mirthful chivalry and delicate middle-aged admiration on Leah's +upturned face, and her eyes looked up more piercing and blacker than +ever; and in each of them a little high light shone like a point of +interrogation--the reflection of some white window-curtain, I +suppose; and I felt cold all down my back. + +(Barty's daughter, Mary Trevor, often sings a little song of De +Musset's. It is quite lovely, and begins: + + "Beau chevalier qui partez pour la guerre, + Qu'allez-vous faire + Si loin d'ici? + Voyez-vous pas que la nuit est profonde, + Et que le monde + N'est que souci?" + +It is called "La Chanson de Barberine," and I never hear it but I +think of that sweet little white virginal _point d'interrogation_, +and Barty going away to France.) + +Then he thanked Mrs. Gibson and said pretty things, and finally called +Mr. Gibson dreadful French fancy-names: "Cascameche--moutardier du pape, +tromblon-bolivard, vieux coquelicot"; to each of which the delighted Mr. +G. answered: + +"Voos ayt oon oter--voos ayt oon oter!" + +And then Barty whisked himself away in a silver cloud of glory. A +good exit! + +Outside was a hansom waiting, with a carpet-bag on the top, and we +got into it and drove up to Hampstead Heath, to some little inn +called the Bull and Bush, near North-end. + +Barty lit his pipe, and said: + +"What capital people! Hanged if they're not the nicest people I ever +met!" + +"Yes," said I. + +And that's all that was said during that long drive. + +At North-end we found two or three other hansoms, and Pepys and +Ticklets and the little Hebrew tenor art student whose name I've +forgotten, and several others. + +We had another supper, and made a night of it. There was a piano in +a small room opening on to a kind of little terrace, with geraniums, +over a bow-window. We had music and singing of all sorts. Even _I_ +sang--"The Standard-bearer"--and rather well. My sister had coached +me; but I did not obtain an encore. + +The next day dawned, and Barty had a wash and changed his clothes, +and we walked all over Hampstead Heath, and saw London lying in a +dun mist, with the dome and gilded cross of St. Paul's rising into +the pale blue dawn; and I thought what a beastly place London would +be without Barty--but that Leah was there still, safe and sound +asleep in Tavistock Square! + +Then back to the inn for breakfast. Barty, as usual, fresh as paint. +Happy Barty, off to Paris! + +And then we all drove down to London Bridge to see him safe into the +Boulogne steamer. All his luggage was on board. His late +soldier-servant was there--a splendid fellow, chosen for his length +and breadth as well as his fidelity; also the Snowdrop, who was +lachrymose and in great grief. It was a most affectionate farewell +all round. + +"Good-bye, Bob. _I_ won that toss--_didn't_ I?" + +Oddly enough, _I_ was thinking of that, and didn't like it. + +"What rot! it's only a joke, old fellow!" said Barty. + +All this about an innocent little girl just fifteen, the daughter of +a low-comedy John Gilpin: a still somewhat gaunt little girl, whose +budding charms of color, shape, and surface were already such that +it didn't matter whether she were good or bad, gentle or simple, +rich or poor, sensible or an utter fool. + +C'est toujours comme ca! + +We watched the steamer pick its sunny way down the Thames, with +Barty waving his hat by the man at the wheel; and I walked westward +with the little Hebrew artist, who was so affected at parting with +his hero that he had tears in his lovely voice. It was not till I +had complimented him on his wonderful B-flat that he got consoled; +and he talked about himself, and his B-flat, and his middle G, and +his physical strength, and his eye for color, all the way from the +Mansion House to the Foundling Hospital; when we parted, and he went +straight to his drawing-board at the British Museum--an anticlimax! + +I found my mother and sister at their late breakfast, and was +scolded; and I told them Barty had got off, and wouldn't come back +for long--it might not be for years! + +"Thank Heaven!" said my dear mother, and I was not pleased. + +Says my sister: + +"Do you know, he's actually stolen Leah's photograph, that she gave +me for my birthday. He asked me for it and I wouldn't give it +him--and it's gone!" + +Then I washed and put on my work-a-day clothes, and went straight to +Barge Yard, Bucklersbury, and made myself a bed on the floor with my +great-coat, and slept all day. + + * * * * * + +Oh heavens! what a dull book this would be, and how dismally it +would drag its weary length along, if it weren't all about the +author of _Sardonyx_! + +But is there a lost corner anywhere in this planet where English is +spoken (or French) in which _The Martian_ won't be bought and +treasured and spelt over and over again like a novel by Dickens or +Scott (or Dumas)--for Josselin's dear sake! What a fortune my +publishers would make if I were not a man of business and they were +not the best and most generous publishers in the world! And all +Josselin's publishers--French, English, German, and what not--down +to modern Sanscrit! What millionaires--if it hadn't been for this +little busy bee of a Bob Maurice! + +Poor Barty! I am here! a bon chat, bon rat! + +And what on earth do _I_ want a fortune for? Barty's dead, and I've +got so much more than I need, who am of a frugal mind--and what I've +got is all going to little Josselins, who have already got so much +more than _they_ need, what with their late father and me; and my +sister, who is a widow and childless, and "riche a millions" too! +and cares for nobody in all this wide world but little Josselins, +who don't care for money in the least, and would sooner work for +their living--even break stones on the road--anything sooner than +loaf and laze and loll through life. We all have to give most of it +away--not that I need proclaim it from the house-tops! It is but a +dull and futile hobby, giving away to those who deserve; they soon +leave off deserving. + +How fortunate that so much money is really wanted by people who +don't deserve it any more than I do; and who, besides, are so weak +and stupid and lazy and honest--or so incurably dishonest--that they +can't make it for themselves! I have to look after a good many of +these people. Barty was fond of them, honest or not. They are so +incurably prolific; and so was he, poor dear boy! but, oh, the +difference! Grapes don't grow on thorns, nor figs on thistles! + +I'm a thorn, alas! in my own side, more often than not--and a +thistle in the sides of a good many donkeys, whom I feed because +they're too stupid or too lazy to feed themselves! But at least I +know my place, and the knowledge is more bother to me than all my +money, and the race of Maurice will soon be extinct. + + * * * * * + +When Barty went to foreign parts, on the 2d of May, 1856, I didn't +trouble myself about such questions as these. + +Life was so horribly stale in London without Barty that I became a +quite exemplary young man when I woke up from that long nap on the +floor of my laboratory in Barge Yard, Bucklersbury; a reformed +character: from sheer grief, I really believe! + +I thought of many things--ugly things--very ugly things indeed--and +meant to have done with them. I thought of some very handsome things +too--a pair of beautiful crown-jewels, each rare as the black +tulip--and in each of them a bright little sign like this:? + +I don't believe I ever gave my father another bad quarter of an hour +from that moment. I even went to church on Sunday mornings quite +regularly; not his own somewhat severe place of worship, it is true! +But the Foundling Hospital. There, in the gallery, would I sit with +my sister, and listen to Miss Dolby and Miss Louisa Pyne and Mr. +Lawler the bass--and a tenor and alto whose names I cannot recall; +and I thought they sang as they ought to have sung, and was deeply +moved and comforted--more than by any preachments in the world; and +just in the opposite gallery sat Leah with her mother; and I grew +fond of nice clean little boys and girls who sing pretty hymns in +unison; and afterwards I watched them eat their roast beef, small +mites of three and four or five, some of them, and thought how +touching it all was--I don't know why! Love or grief? or that touch +of nature that makes the whole world kin at about 1 P.M. on Sunday? + +One would think that Barty had exerted a bad influence on me, since +he seems to have kept me out of all this that was so sweet and new +and fresh and wholesome! + +He would have been just as susceptible to such impressions as I; +even more so, if the same chance had arisen for him--for he was +singularly fond of children, the smaller and the poorer the better, +even gutter children! and their poor mothers loved him, he was so +jolly and generous and kind. + +Sometimes I got a letter from him in Blaze, my father's shorthand +cipher; it was always brief and bright and hopeful, and full of +jokes and funny sketches. And I answered him in Blaze that was long +and probably dull. + +All that I will tell of him now is not taken from his Blaze letters, +but from what he has told me later, by word of mouth--for he was as +fond of talking of himself as I of listening--since he was droll and +sincere and without guile or vanity; and would have been just as +sympathetic a listener as I, if I had cared to talk about Mr. Robert +Maurice, of Barge Yard, Bucklersbury. Besides, I am good at hearing +between the words and reading between the lines, and all that--and +love to exercise this faculty. + + * * * * * + +Well, he reached Paris in due time, and took a small bedroom on a +third floor in the Rue du Faubourg Poissonniere--over a cheap +hatter's--opposite the Conservatoire de Musique. + +On the first night he was awoke by a terrible invasion--such +malodorous swarms of all sizes, from a tiny brown speck to a +full-grown lentil, that they darkened his bed; and he slept on the +tiled floor after making an island of himself by pouring cold water +all round him as a kind of moat; and so he slept for a week of +nights, until he had managed to poison off most of these invaders +with _poudre insecticide_ ... "mort aux punaises!" + +In the daytime he first of all went for a swim at the Passy +baths--an immense joy, full of the ghosts of bygone times; then he +would spend the rest of his day revisiting old haunts--often sitting +on the edge of the stone fountain in the rond-point of the Avenue du +Prince Imperial, or de l'Imperatrice, or whatever it was--to gaze +comfortably at the outside of the old school, which was now a +pensionnat de demoiselles: soon to be pulled down and make room for +a new house altogether. He did not attempt to invade these precincts +of maiden innocence; but gazed and gazed, and remembered and +realized and dreamt: it all gave him unspeakable excitement, and a +strange tender wistful melancholy delight for which there is no +name. Je connais ca! I also, ghostlike, have paced round the haunts +of my childhood. + +When the joy of this faded, as it always must when indulged in too +freely, he amused himself by sitting in his bedroom and painting +Leah's portrait, enlarged and in oils; partly from the very vivid +image he had preserved of her in his mind, partly from the stolen +photograph. At first he got it very like; then he lost all the +likeness and could not recover it; and he worked and worked till he +got stupid over it, and his mental image faded quite away. + +But for a time this minute examination of the photograph (through a +powerful lens he bought on purpose), and this delving search into +his own deep consciousness of her, into his keen remembrance of +every detail of feature and color and shade of expression, made him +realize and idealize and foresee what the face might be some +day--and what its owner might become. + +And a horror of his life in London came over him like a revelation--a +blast--a horrible surprise! Mere sin is ugly when it's no more; and _so_ +beastly to remember, unless the sinner be thoroughly acclimatized; and +Barty was only twenty-two, and hated deceit and cruelty in any form. Oh, +poor, weak, frail fellow-sinner--whether Vivien or Guinevere! How sadly +unjust that loathing and satiety and harsh male contempt should kill +man's ruth and pity for thee, that wast so kind to man! What a hellish +after-math! + +Poor Barty hadn't the ghost of a notion how to set to work about +becoming a painter, and didn't know a soul in Paris he cared to go +and consult, although there were many people he might have +discovered whom he had known: old school-fellows, and friends of the +Archibald Rohans--who would have been only too glad. + +So he took to wandering listlessly about, lunching and dining at +cheap suburban restaurants, taking long walks, sitting on benches, +leaning over parapets, and longing to tell people who he was, his +age, how little money he'd got, what lots of friends he had in +England, what a nice little English girl he knew, whose portrait he +didn't know how to paint--any idiotic nonsense that came into his +head, so at least he might talk about something or somebody that +interested him. + +There is no city like Paris, no crowd like a Parisian crowd, to make +you feel your solitude if you are alone in its midst! + +At night he read French novels in bed and drank eau sucree and +smoked till he was sleepy; then he cunningly put out his light, and +lit it again in a quarter of an hour or so, and exploded what +remained of the invading hordes as they came crawling down the wall +from above. Their numbers were reduced at last; they were +disappearing. Then he put out his candle for good, and went to sleep +happy--having at least scored for once in the twenty-four hours. +Mort aux punaises! + +Twice he went to the Opera Comique, and saw _Richard Coeur de Lion_ +and _le Pre aux Clercs_ from the gallery, and was disappointed, and +couldn't understand why _he_ shouldn't sing as well as that--he +thought he could sing much better, poor fellow! he had a delightful +voice, and charm, and the sense of tune and rhythm, and could please +quite wonderfully--but he had no technical knowledge whatever, and +couldn't be depended upon to sing a song twice the same! He trusted +to the inspiration of the moment--like an amateur. + +Of course he had to be very economical, even about candle ends, and +almost liked such economy for a change; but he got sick of his +loneliness, beyond expression--he was a fish out of water. + +Then he took it into his head to go and copy a picture at the +Louvre--an old master; in this he felt he could not go wrong. He +obtained the necessary permission, bought a canvas six feet high, +and sat himself before a picture by Nicolas Poussin, I think: a +group of angelic women carrying another woman though the air up to +heaven. + +They were not very much to his taste, but more so than any others. +His chief notion about women in pictures was that they should be +very beautiful--since they cannot make themselves agreeable in any +other way; and they are not always so in the works of the great +masters. At least, _he_ thought not. These are matters of taste, of +course. + +He had no notion of how to divide his canvas into squares--a device +by which one makes it easier to get the copy into proper proportion, +it seems. He began by sketching the head of the principal woman +roughly in the middle of his canvas, and then he wanted to begin +painting it at once--he was so impatient. + +Students, female students especially, came and interested themselves +in his work, and some _rapins_ asked him questions, and tried to +help him and give him tips. But the more they told him, the more +helpless and hopeless he grew. He soon felt conscious he was +becoming quite a funny man again--a centre of interest--in a new +line; but it gave him no pleasure whatever. + +After a week of this mistaken drudgery he sat despondent one +afternoon on a bench in the Champs Elysees and watched the gay +people, and thought himself very down on his luck; he was tired and +hot and miserable--it was the beginning of July. If he had known +how, he would almost have shed tears. His loneliness was not to be +borne, and his longing to feel once more the north had become a +chronic ache. + +A tall, thin, shabby man came and sat by his side, and made himself +a cigarette, and hummed a tune--a well-known quartier-latin +song--about "Mon Aldegonde, ma blonde," and "Ma Rodogune, ma brune." + +Barty just glanced at this jovial person and found he didn't look +jovial at all, but rather sad and seedy and out at elbows--by no +means of the kind that the fair Aldegonde or her dark sister would +have much to say to. + +Also that he wore very strong spectacles, and that his brown eyes, +when turned Barty's way, vibrated with a quick, tremulous motion and +sideways, as if they had the "gigs." + +Much moved and excited, Barty got up and put out his hand to the +stranger, and said: + +"Bonjour, Monsieur Bonzig! comment allez-vous?" + +Bonzig opened his eyes at this well-dressed Briton (for Barty had +clothes to last him a French lifetime). + +"Pardonnez-moi, monsieur--mais je n'ai pas l'honneur de vous +remettre!" + +"Je m'appelle Josselin--de chez Brossard!" + +"Ah! Mon Dieu, mon cher, mon tres-cher!" said Bonzig, and got up and +seized Barty's both hands--and all but hugged him. + +"Mais quel bonheur de vous revoir! Je pense a vous si souvent, et a +Ouittebe! comme vous etes change--et quel beau garcon vous etes! Qui +vous aurait reconnu! Dieu de Dieu--c'est un reve! Je n'en reviens +pas!" etc., etc.... + +And they walked off together, and told the other each an epitome of +his history since they parted; and dined together cheaply, and spent +a happy evening walking up and down the boulevards, and smoking many +cigarettes--from the Madeleine to the Porte St.-Martin and +back--again and again. + +[Illustration: "'BONJOUR, MONSIEUR BONZIG'"] + +"Non, mon cher Josselin," said Bonzig, in answer to a question of +Barty's--"non, I hare not yet seen the sea ..; it will come in time. But +at least I am no longer a damned usher (un sacre pion d'etudes); I am an +artist--un peintre de marines--at last! It is a happy existence. I fear +my talent is not very imposing, but my perseverance is exceptional, and +I am only forty-five. Anyhow, I am able to support myself--not in +splendor, certainly; but my wants are few and my health is perfect. I +will put you up to many things, my dear boy.... We will storm the +citadel of fame together...." + +Bonzig had a garret somewhere, and painted in the studio of a +friend, not far from Barty's lodging. This friend, one Lirieux, was +a very clever young man--a genius, according to Bonzig. He drew +illustrations on wood with surprising quickness and facility and +verve, and painted little oil-pictures of sporting life--a garde +champetre in a wood with his dog, or with his dog on a dusty road, +or crossing a stream, or getting over a stile, and so forth. The dog +was never left out; and these things he would sell for twenty, +thirty, even fifty francs. He painted very quick and very well. He +was also a capital good fellow, industrious and cultivated and +refined, and full of self-respect. + +Next to his studio he had a small bedroom which he shared with a +younger brother, who had just got a small government appointment +that kept him at work all day, in some ministere. In this studio +Bonzig painted his marines--still helping himself from _La France +Maritime_, as he used to do at Brossard's. + +He was good at masts and cordage against an evening sky--"l'heure ou +le jaune de Naples rentre dans la nature," as he called it. He was +also excellent at foam, and far-off breakers, and sea-gulls, but +very bad at the human figure--sailors and fishermen and their wives. +Sometimes Lirieux would put one in for him with a few dabs. + +As soon as Bonzig had finished a picture, which didn't take very +long, he carried it round, still wet, to the small dealers, bearing +it very carefully aloft, so as not to smudge it. Sometimes (if there +were a sailor by Lirieux) he would get five or even ten francs for +it; and then it was "Mon Aldegonde" with him all the rest of the +day; for success always took the form, in his case, of nasally +humming that amorous refrain. + +But it very often happened that he was dumb, poor fellow--no supper, +no song! + +Lirieux conceived such a liking for Barty that he insisted on taking +him into his studio as a pupil-assistant, and setting him to draw +things under his own eye; and Barty would fill Bonzig's French sea +pieces with Whitby fishermen, and Bonzig got to sing "Mon Aldegonde" +much oftener than before. + +And chumming with these two delightful men, Barty grew to know a +clean, quiet happiness which more than made up for lost past +splendors and dissipations and gay dishonor. He wasn't even funny; +they wouldn't have understood it. Well-bred Frenchmen don't +understand English fun--not even in the quartier latin, as a general +rule. Not that it's too subtle for them; _that's_ not why! + +Thus pleasantly August wore itself away, Bonzig and Barty nearly +always dining together for about a franc apiece, including the +waiter, and not badly. Bonzig knew all the cheap eating-houses in +Paris, and what each was specially renowned for--"bonne friture," +"fricassee de lapin," "pommes sautees," "soupe aux choux," etc., +etc. + +Then, after dinner, a long walk and talk and cigarettes--or they +would look in at a cafe chantant, a bal de barriere, the gallery of +a cheap theatre--then a bock outside a cafe--et bonsoir la +compagnie! + +On September the 1st, Lirieux and his brother went to see their +people in the south, leaving the studio to Bonzig and Barty, who +made the most of it, though greatly missing the genial young +painter, both as a companion and a master and guide. + +One beautiful morning Bonzig called for Barty at his cremerie, and +proposed they should go by train to some village near Paris and +spend a happy day in the country, lunching on bread and wine and +sugar at some little roadside inn. Bonzig made a great deal of this +lunch. It had evidently preoccupied him. + +Barty was only too delighted. They went on the imperiale of the +Versailles train and got out at Ville d'Avray, and found the kind of +little pothouse they wanted. And Barty had to admit that no better +lunch for the price could be than "small blue wine" sweetened with +sugar, and a hunch of bread sopped in it. + +Then they had a long walk in pretty woods and meadows, sketching by +the way, chatting to laborers and soldiers and farm-people, smoking +endless cigarettes of caporal; and finally they got back to Paris +the way they came--so hungry that Barty proposed they should treat +themselves for once to a "prix-fixe" dinner at Carmagnol's, in the +Passage Choiseul, where they gave you hors-d'oeuvres, potage, three +courses and dessert and a bottle of wine, for two francs fifty--and +everything scrupulously clean. + +So to the Passage Choiseul they went; but just on the threshold of +the famous restaurant (which filled the entire arcade with its +appetizing exhalations) Bonzig suddenly remembered, to his great +regret, that close by there lived a young married couple of the name +of Lousteau, who were great friends of his, and who expected him to +dine with them at least once a week. + +"I haven't been near them for a fortnight, mon cher, and it is just +their dinner hour. I am afraid I must really just run in and eat an +_aile de poulet_ and a _peche au vin_ with them, and give them of my +news, or they will be mortally offended. I'll be back with you just +when you are '_entre la poire et le fromage_'--so, sans adieu!" and +he bolted. + +Barty went in and selected his menu; and waiting for his +hors-d'oeuvre, he just peeped out of the door and looked up and +down the arcade, which was always festive and lively at that hour. + +To his great surprise he saw Bonzig leisurely flaning about with his +cigarette in his mouth, his hands in his pockets, his long +spectacled nose in the air--gazing at the shop windows. Suddenly the +good man dived into a baker's shop, and came out again in half a +minute with a large brown roll, and began to munch it--still gazing +at the shop windows, and apparently quite content. + +Barty rushed after and caught hold of him, and breathlessly heaped +bitter reproaches on him for his base and unfriendly want of +confidence--snatched his roll and threw it away, dragged him by main +force into Carmagnol's, and made him order the dinner he preferred +and sit opposite. + +"Ma foi, mon cher!" said Bonzig--"I own to you that I am almost at +the end of my resources for the moment--and also that the prospect +of a good dinner in your amiable company is the reverse of +disagreeable to me. I thank you in advance, with all my heart!" + +"My dear M'sieur Bonzig," says Barty, "you will wound me deeply if +you don't look on me like a brother, as I do you; I can't tell you +how deeply you _have_ wounded me already! Give me your word of honor +that you will share ma mangeaille with me till I haven't a sou +left!" + +And so they made it up, and had a capital dinner and a capital +evening, and Barty insisted that in future they should always mess +together at his expense till better days--and they did. + +But Barty found that his own money was just giving out, and wrote to +his bankers in London for more. Somehow it didn't arrive for nearly +a week; and they knew at last what it was to dine for five sous each +(2-1/2_d._)--with loss of appetite just before the meal instead of +after. + +Of course Barty might very well have pawned his watch or his +scarf-pin; but whatever trinkets he possessed had been given him by +his beloved Lady Archibald--everything pawnable he had in the world, +even his guitar! And he could not bear the idea of taking them to +the "Mont de Piete." + +So he was well pleased one Sunday morning when his remittance +arrived, and he went in search of his friend, that they might +compensate themselves for a week's abstinence by a famous dejeuner. +But Bonzig was not to be found; and Barty spent that day alone, and +Gorged in solitude and guzzled in silence--moult tristement, a +l'anglaise. + +He was aroused from his first sleep that night by the irruption of +Bonzig in a tremendous state of excitement. It seems that a certain +Baron (whose name I've forgotten), and whose little son the ex-usher +had once coached in early Latin and Greek, had written, begging him +to call and see him at his chateau near Melun; that Bonzig had +walked there that very day--thirty miles; and found the Baron was +leaving next morning for a villa he possessed near Etretat, and +wished him to join him there the day after, and stay with him for a +couple of months--to coach his son in more classics for a couple of +hours in the forenoon. + +Bonzig was to dispose of the rest of his time as he liked, except +that he was commissioned to paint six "marines" for the baronial +dining-room; and the Baron had most considerately given him four +hundred francs in advance! + +"So, then, to-morrow afternoon at six, my dear Josselin, you dine +with _me_, for once--not in the Passage Choiseul this time, good as +it is there! But at Babet's, en plein Palais Royal! un jour de +separation, vous comprenez! the dinner will be good, I promise you: +a calf's head a la vinaigrette--they are famous for that, at +Babet's--and for their Pauillac and their St.-Estephe; at least, I'm +told so! nous en ferons l'experience.... And now I bid you +good-night, as I have to be up before the day--so many things to buy +and settle and arrange--first of all to procure myself a 'maillot' +and a 'peignoir,' and shoes for the beach! I know where to get these +things much cheaper than at the seaside. Oh! la mer, la mer! Enfin +je vais piquer ma tete [take my header] la dedans--_et pas plus tard +qu'apres-demain soir_.... A demain, tres-cher camarade--six +heures--chez Babet!" + +And, delirious with joyful anticipations, the good Bonzig ran +away--all but "piquant sa tete" down the narrow staircase, and +whistling "Mon Aldegonde" at the very top of his whistle; and even +outside he shouted: + + "Ouile--me--sekile ro, + sekile ro, + sekile ro ... + Ouile--me--sekile ro + Tat brinn my ladde ome!" + +He had to be silenced by a sergent de ville. + +And next day they dined at Babet's, and Bonzig was so happy he had +to beg pardon for his want of feeling at seeming so exuberant "un +jour de separation! mais venez aussi, Josselin--nous piquerons nos +tetes ensemble, et nagerons de conserve...." + +But Barty could not afford this little outing, and he was very +sad--with a sadness that not all the Pauillac and St.-Estephe in M. +Babet's cellars could have dispelled. + +He made his friend a present of a beautiful pair of razors--English +razors, which he no longer needed, since he no longer meant to +shave--"en signe de mon deuil!" as he said. They had been the gift +of Lord Archibald in happier days. Alas! he had forgotten to give +his uncle Archie the traditional halfpenny, but he took good care to +extract a sou from le Grand Bonzig! + +So ended this little episode in Barty's life. He never saw Bonzig +again, nor heard from him, and _of_ him only once more. That sou was +wasted. + +It was at Blankenberghe, on the coast of Belgium, that he at last +had news of him--a year later--at the cafe on the plage, and in such +an odd and unexpected manner that I can't help telling how it +happened. + +One afternoon a corner of the big coffee-room was being arranged for +private theatricals, in which Barty was to perform the part of a +waiter. He had just borrowed the real waiter's jacket and apron, and +was dusting the little tables for the amusement of Mlle. Solange, the +dame de comptoir, and of the waiter, Prosper, who had on Barty's own +shooting-jacket. + +Suddenly an old gentleman came in and beckoned to Barty and ordered a +demi-tasse and petit-verre. There were no other customers at that +hour. + +[Illustration: "'DEMI-TASSE--VOILA, M'SIEUR'"] + +Mlle. Solange was horrified; but Barty insisted on waiting on the +Old gentleman in person, and helped him to his coffee and +pousse-cafe with all the humorous grace I can so well imagine, and +handed him the _Independance Belge_, and went back to superintend +the arrangements for the coming play. + +Presently the old gentleman looked up from his paper and became +interested, and soon he grew uneasy, and finally he rose and went up +to Barty and bowed, and said (in French, of course): + +"Monsieur, I have made a very stupid mistake. I am near-sighted, and +that must be my apology. Besides, you have revenged yourself 'avec +tant d'esprit,' that you will not bear me _rancune_! May I ask you to +accept my card, with my sincere excuses?..." + +And lo! it was Bonzig's famous Baron! Barty immediately inquired +after his lost friend. + +"Bonzig? Ah, monsieur--what a terrible tragedy! Poor Bonzig, the +Best of men--he came to me at Etretat. I invited him there from +Sheer friendship! He was drowned the very evening he arrived. + +"He went and bathed after sunset--on his own responsibility and +without mentioning it to any one. How it happened I don't +know--nobody knows. He was a good swimmer, I believe, but very blind +without his glasses. He undressed behind a rock on the shore, which +is against the regulations. His body was not found till two days +after, three leagues down the coast. + +"He had an aged mother, who came to Etretat. It was harrowing! They +were people who had seen better days," etc., etc., etc. + +And so no more of le Grand Bonzig. + +Nor did Barty ever again meet Lirieux, in whose existence a change +had also been wrought by fortune; but whether for good or evil I +can't say. He was taken to Italy and Greece by a wealthy relative. +What happened to him there--whether he ever came back, or succeeded +or failed--Barty never heard! He dropped out of Barty's life as +completely as if he had been drowned like his old friend. + +These episodes, like many others past and to come in this biography, +had no particular influence on Barty Josselin's career, and no +reference to them is to be found in anything he has ever written. My +only reason for telling them is that I found them so interesting +when he told _me_, and so characteristic of himself. He was "bon +raconteur." I'm afraid I'm not, and that I've lugged these good +people in by the hair of the head; but I'm doing my best. "La plus +belle fille au monde ne peut donner que ce qu'elle a!" + +I look to my editor to edit me--and to my illustrator to pull me +through. + + * * * * * + +That autumn (1856) my father went to France for six weeks, on +business. My sister Ida went with the Gibsons to Ramsgate, and I +remained in London with my mother. I did my best to replace my +father in Barge Yard, and when he came back he was so pleased with +me (and I think with himself also) that he gave me twenty pounds, +and said, "Go to Paris for a week, Bob, and see Barty, and give him +this, with my love." + +And "this" was another twenty-pound note. He had never given me such +a sum in my life--not a quarter of it; and "this" was the first time +he had ever tipped Barty. + +Things were beginning at last to go well with him. He had arranged +to sell the vintages of Bordeaux and Champagne, as well as those of +Burgundy; and was dreaming of those of Germany and Portugal and +Spain. Fortune was beginning to smile on Barge Yard, and ours was to +become the largest wine business in the world--comme tout un chacun +sait. + +I started for Paris that very night, and knocked at Barty's bedroom +door by six next morning; it was hardly daylight--a morning to be +remembered; and what a breakfasting at Babet's, after a rather cold +swim in the Passy school of natation, and a walk all round the +outside of the school that was once ours! + +Barty looked very well, but very thin, and his small sprouting beard +and mustache had quite altered the character of his face. I shall +distress my lady readers if I tell them the alteration was not an +improvement; so I won't. + +What a happy week that was to me I leave to the reader's +imagination. We took a large double-bedded room at the Hotel de +Lille et d'Albion in case we might want to smoke and talk all night; +we did, I think, and had our coffee brought up to us in the morning. + +I will not attempt to describe the sensations of a young man going +back to his beloved Paris "after five years." Tout ca, c'est de +l'histoire ancienne. And Barty and Paris together--that is not for +such a pen as mine. + +I showed him a new photograph of Leah Gibson--a very large one and +an excellent. He gazed at it a long time with his magnifying-glass +and without, all his keen perceptions on the alert; and I watched +his face narrowly. + +"My eyes! She _is_ a beautiful young woman, and no mistake!" he +said, with a sigh. "You mustn't let her slip through your fingers, +Bob!" + +"How about that toss?" said I, and laughed. + +"Oh, I resign _my_ claim; she's not for the likes o' me. You're +going to be a great capitalist--a citizen of credit and renown. I'm +Mr. Nobody, of nowhere. Go in and win, my boy; you have my best +wishes. If I can scrape together enough money to buy myself a white +waistcoat and a decent coat, I'll be your best man; or some left-off +things of yours might do--we're about of a size, aren't we? You've +become tres bel homme, Bob, plutot bel homme que joli garcon, hein? +That's what women are fond of; English women especially. I'm nowhere +now, without my uniform and the rest. Is it still Skinner who builds +for you? Good old Skinner! Mes compliments!" + +This simple little speech took a hidden weight off my mind and left +me very happy. I confided frankly to the good Barty that no Sally in +any alley had ever been more warmly adored by any industrious young +London apprentice than was Leah Gibson by me! + +"Ca y est, alors! Je te felicite d'avance, et je garde mes larmes +pour quand tu seras parti. Allons diner chez Babet: j'ai soif de +boire a ton bonheur!" + +Before I left we met an English artist he had known at the British +Museum--an excellent fellow, one Walters, who took him under his +wing, and was the means of his entering the atelier Troplong in the +Rue des Belges as an art student. And thus Barty began his art +studies in a proper and legitimate way. It was characteristic of him +that this should never have occurred to him before. + +So when I parted with the dear fellow things were looking a little +brighter for him too. + +All through the winter he worked very hard--the first to come, the +last to go; and enjoyed his studio life thoroughly. + +Such readers as I am likely to have will not require to be told what +the interior of a French atelier of the kind is like, nor its +domestic economy; nor will I attempt to describe all the fun and the +frolic, although I heard it all from Barty in after-years, and very +good it was. I almost felt I'd studied there myself! He was a prime +favorite--"le Beau Josselin," as he was called. + +He made very rapid progress, and had already begun to work in colors +by the spring. He made many friends, but led a quiet, industrious +life, unrelieved (as far as I know) by any of those light episodes +one associates with student life in Paris. His principal amusements +through the long winter evenings were the cafe and the brasserie, +mild ecarte, a game at billiards or dominoes, and long talks about +art and literature with the usual unkempt young geniuses of the +place and time--French, English, American. + +Then he suddenly took it into his head to go to Antwerp; I don't +know who influenced him in this direction, but I arranged to meet +him there at the end of April--and we spent a delightful week +together, staying at the "Grand Laboureur" in the Place de Meer. The +town was still surrounded by the old walls and the moat, and of a +picturesqueness that seemed as if it would never pall. + +Twice or three times that week British tourists and travelers +Landed at the quai by the Place Verte from _The Baron Osy_--and this +landing was Barty's delight. + +The sight of fair, fresh English girls, with huge crinolines, and +their hair done up in chenille nets, made him long for England +again, and the sound of their voices went nigh to weakening his +resolve. But he stood firm to the last, and saw me off by _The +Baron_. I felt a strange "serrement de coeur" as I left him standing +there, so firm, as if he had been put "au piquet" by M. Dumollard! +and so thin and tall and slender--and his boyish face so grave. Good +heavens! How much alone he seemed, who was so little built to live +alone! + +It is really not too much to say that I would have given up to him +everything I possessed in the world--every blessed thing! Except +Leah--and Leah was not mine to give! + +Now and again Barty's face would take on a look so ineffably, +pathetically, angelically simple and childlike that it moved one to +the very depths, and made one feel like father and mother to him in +one! It was the true revelation of his innermost soul, which in many +ways remained that of a child even in his middle age and till he +died. All his life he never quite put away childish things! + +I really believe that in bygone ages he would have moved the world +with that look, and been another Peter the Hermit! + +He became a pupil at the academy under De Keyser and Van Lerius, and +worked harder than ever. + +He took a room nearly all window on a second floor in the Marche aux +oeufs, just under the shadow of the gigantic spire which rings a +fragment of melody every seven minutes and a half--and the whole +tune at midnight, fortissimo. + +He laid in a stock of cigars at less than a centime apiece, and +dried them in the sun; they left as he smoked them a firm white ash +two inches long; and he grew so fond of them that he cared to smoke +nothing else. + +He rose before the dawn, and went for a swim more than a mile +away--got to the academy at six--worked till eight--breakfasted on a +little roll called a pistolet, and a cup of coffee; then the academy +again from nine till twelve--when dinner, the cheapest he had ever +known, but not the worst. Then work again all the afternoon, copying +old masters at the Gallery. Then a cheap supper, a long walk along +the quais or ramparts or outside--a game of dominoes, and a glass or +two of "Malines" or "Louvain"--then bed, without invading hordes; +the Flemish are as clean as the Dutch; and there he would soon smoke +and read himself to sleep in spite of chimes--which lull you, when +once you get "achimatized," as he called it, meaning of course to be +funny: a villainous kind of fun--caught, I fear, in Barge Yard, +Bucklersbury. It used to rain puns in the City--especially in the +Stock Exchange, which is close to Barge Yard. + +It was a happy life, and he grew to like it better than any life he +had led yet; besides, he improved rapidly, as his facility was +great--for painting as for everything he tried his hand at. + +He also had a very agreeable social existence. + +One morning at the academy, two or three days after his arrival, he +was accosted by a fellow-student--one Tescheles--who introduced +himself as an old pupil of Troplong's in the Rue des Belges. They +had a long chat in French about the old Paris studio. Among other +things, Tescheles asked if there were still any English there. + +"Oui"--says Barty--"un nomme Valteres".... + +Barty pronounced this name as if it were French; and noticed that +Tescheles smiled, exclaiming: + +"Parbleu, ce bon Valteres--je l'connais bien!" + +Next day Tescheles came up to an English student called Fox and +said: + +"Well, old stick-in-the-mud, how are _you_ getting on?" + +"Why, you don't mean to say _you're_ an Englishman?" says Barty to +Tescheles. + +[Illustration: PETER THE HERMIT AU PIQUET] + +"Good heavens! you don't mean to say _you_ are! fancy your calling +poor old Walters _Valteres_!" + +And after that they became very intimate, and that was a good thing +for Barty. + +The polyglot Tescheles was of a famous musical family, of mixed +German and Russian origin, naturalized in England and domiciled in +France--a true cosmopolite and a wonderful linguist, besides being +also a cultivated musician and excellent painter; and all the +musicians, famous or otherwise, that passed through Antwerp made his +rooms a favorite resort and house of call. And Barty was introduced +into a world as delightful to him as it was new--and to music that +ravished his soul with a novel enchantment: Chopin, Liszt, Wagner, +Schumann--and he found that Schubert had written a few other songs +besides the famous "Serenade"! + +One evening he was even asked if he could make music himself, and +actually volunteered to sing--and sang that famous ballad of Balfe's +which seems destined to become immortal in this country--"When other +lips" ... _alias_, "Then you'll remember me!" + +Strange to say, it was absolutely new to this high musical circle, +but they went quite mad over it; and the beautiful melody got +naturalized from that moment in Belgium and beyond, and Barty was +proclaimed the primo tenore of Antwerp--although he was only a +barytone! + +A fortnight after this Barty heard "When other lips" played by the +"Guides" band in the park at Brussels. Its first appearance out of +England--and all through him. + +Then he belonged to the Antwerp "Cercle Artistique," where he made +many friends and was very popular, as I can well imagine. + +Thus he was happier than he had ever been in his life; but for one +thing that plagued him now and again: his oft-recurring desire to be +conscious once more of the north, which he had not felt for four or +five years. + +The want of this sensation at certain periods--especially at +night--would send a chill thrill of desolation through him like a +wave; a wild panic, a quick agony, as though the true meaning of +absolute loneliness were suddenly realized by a lightning flash of +insight, and it were to last for ever and ever. + +This would pass away in a second or two, but left a haunting +recollection behind for many hours. And then all was again sunshine, +and the world was made of many friends--and solitude was impossible +evermore. + +One memorable morning this happiness received a check and a great +horror befell him. It was towards the end of summer--just before the +vacation. + +With a dozen others, he was painting the head of an old man from the +life, when he became quite suddenly conscious of something strange +in his sight. First he shut his left eye and saw with his right +quite perfectly; then he shut the right, and lo! whatever he looked +at with the left dwindled to a vanishing point and became invisible. +No rubbing or bathing of his eye would alter the terrible fact, and +he knew what great fear really means, for the first time. + +Much kind concern was expressed, and Van Lerius told him to go at +once to a Monsieur Noiret, a professor at the Catholic University of +Louvain, who had attended _him_ for the eyes, and had the reputation +of being the first oculist in Belgium. + +Barty wrote immediately and an appointment was made, and in three +days he saw the great man, half professor, half priest, who took him +into a dark chamber lighted by a lamp, and dilated his pupil with +atropine, and looked into his eye with the newly discovered +"ophthalmoscope." + +Professor Noiret told him it was merely a congestion of the +retina--for which no cause could be assigned; and that he would be +cured in less than a month. That he was to have a seton let into the +back of his neck, dry-cup himself on the chest and thighs night and +morning, and take a preparation of mercury three times a day. Also +that he must go to the seaside immediately--and he recommended +Ostend. + +Barty told him that he was an impecunious art student, and that +Ostend was a very expensive place. + +Noiret considerately recommended Blankenberghe, which was cheap; +asked for and took his full fee, and said, with a courtly priestly +bow: + +"If you are not cured, come back in a month. _Au revoir!_" + +So poor Barty had the seton put in by a kind of barber-surgeon, and +was told how to dress it night and morning; got his medicines and +his dry-cupping apparatus, and went off to Blankenberghe quite +hopeful. + +And there things happened to him which I really think are worth +telling; in the first place, because, even if they did not concern +Barty Josselin, they should be amusing for their own sake--that is, +if I could only tell them as he told me afterwards; and I will do my +best! + +And then he was nearing the end of the time when he was to remain as +other mortals are. His new life was soon to open, the great change +to which we owe the Barty Josselin who had changed the world for +_us_! + +Besides, this is a biography--not a novel--not literature! So what +does it matter how it's written, so long as it's all true! + + + + +Part Fifth + + "O celeste haine, + Comment t'assouvir? + O souffrance humaine, + Qui te peut guerir? + Si lourde est ma peine + J'en voudrais mourir-- + Tel est mon desir! + + "Navre de comprendre, + Las de compatir, + Pour ne plus entendre, + Ni voir, ni sentir, + Je suis pret a rendre + Mon dernier soupir-- + Et c'est mon desir! + + "Ne plus rien connaitre, + Ni me souvenir-- + Ne jamais renaitre, + Ni me rendormir-- + Ne plus jamais etre, + Mais en bien finir-- + Voila mon desir!"--Anon. + + +Barty went third class to Bruges, and saw all over it, and slept at +the "Fleur de Ble," and heard new chimes, and remembered his +Longfellow. + +Next morning, a very fine one, as he was hopefully smoking his +centime cigar with immense relish near the little three-horsed +wagonette that was to bear him to Blankenberghe, he saw that he was +to have three fellow-passengers, with a considerable amount of very +interesting luggage, and rejoiced. + +First, a tall man about thirty, in a very smart white summer suit, +surmounted by a jaunty little straw hat with a yellow ribbon. He was +strikingly handsome, and wore immense black whiskers but no +mustache, and had a most magnificent double row of white, pearly +teeth, which he showed very much when he smiled, and he smiled very +often. He was evidently a personage of importance and very well off, +for he gave himself great airs and ordered people about and chaffed +them, and it made them laugh instead of making them angry; and he +was obeyed with wonderful alacrity. He spoke French fluently, but +with a marked Italian accent. + +Next, a very blond lady of about the same age, not beautiful, but +rather overdressed, and whose accent, when she spoke French, was +very German, and who looked as if she might be easily moved to +wrath. Now and then she spoke to the gentleman in a very audible +Italian aside, and Barty was able to gather that her Italian was +about as rudimentary as his own. + +Last and least, a pale, plain, pathetic little girl of six or eight, +with a nose rather swollen, and a black plait down her back, and +large black eyes, something like Leah Gibson's; and she never took +these eyes off Barty's face. + +Their luggage consisted of two big trunks, a guitar and violin (in +their cases), and music-books bound together by a rope. + +"Vous allez a Blankenberghe, mossie?" said the Italian, with a +winning smile. + +Barty answered in the affirmative, and the Italian smiled ecstatic +delight. + +"Je souis bienn content--nous ferons route ensiemble...." I will +translate: "I call myself Carlo Veronese--first barytone of the +theatre of La Scala, Milan. The signora is my second wife; she is +prima donna assoluta of the grand opera, Naples. The little ragazza +is my daughter by my first wife. She is the greatest violinist of her +age now living--un' prodige, mossie--un' fenomeno!" + +Barty, charmed with his new acquaintance, gave the signore his card, +and Carlo Veronese invited him graciously to take a seat in the +wagonette, as if it were his own private carriage. Barty, who was +the most easily impressed person that ever lived, accepted with as +much sincere gratitude as if he hadn't already paid for his place, +and they started on their sunny drive of eight miles along the dusty +straight Belgian chaussee, bordered with poplars on either side, and +paved with flagstones all the way to Blankenberghe. + +Signor Veronese informed Barty that on their holiday travels they +always managed to combine profit with pleasure, and that he proposed +giving a grand concert at the Cafe on the Plage, or the Kursaal, +next day; that he was going to sing Figaro's great song in the +_Barbiere_, and the signora would give "_Roberto, toua que z'aime_" +in French (or, rather, "_Ropert, doi que ch'aime_," as _she_ called +it, correcting his accent), and the fenomeno, whose name was +Marianina, would play an arrangement of the "Carnival of Venice" by +Paganini. + +"Ma vous aussi, vous etes mousicien--je vois ca par la votre +figoure!" + +Barty modestly disclaimed all pretensions, and said he was only an +art student--a painter. + +"All the arts are brothers," said the signore, and the little +signorina stole her hand into Barty's and left it there. + +"Listen," said the signore; "why not arrange to live together, you +and we? I hate throwing away money on mere pomposity and grandiosity +and show. We always take a little furnished apartment, elle et moi. +Then I go and buy provisions, bon marche--and she cooks them--and we +have our meals better than at the hotel and at half the price! Join +us, unless you like to throw your money by the window!" + +The Signorina Marianina's little brown hand gave Barty's a little +warm squeeze, and Barty was only too delighted to accept an +arrangement that promised to be so agreeable and so practically +wise. + +They arrived at Blankenberghe, and, leaving their luggage at the +wagonette station, went in search of lodgings. These were soon found +in a large attic at the top of a house, over a bakery. One little +mansarde, with a truckle-bed and wash-hand stand, did for the family +of Veronese; another, smaller still, for Barty. + +Other mansardes also opened on to the large attic, or grenier, where +there were sacks of grain and of flour, and a sweet smell of +cleanliness. Barty wondered that such economical arrangements could +suit his new friends, but was well pleased; a weight was taken off +his mind. He feared a style of living he could not have afforded to +share, and here were all difficulties smoothed away without any +trouble whatever. + +They got in their luggage, and Barty went with the signore in search +of bread and meat and wine and ground coffee. When they got back, a +little stove was ready lighted in the Veronese garret; they cooked +the food in a frying-pan, opening the window wide and closing the +door, as the signore thought it useless to inform the world by the +sense of smell that they did their cooking _en famille_; and Barty +enjoyed the meal immensely, and almost forgot his trouble, but for +the pain of his seton. + +After lunch the signore produced his placards, already printed by +hand, and made some paste in an iron pot, and the signora made +coffee. And Veronese tuned his guitar and said: + +"Je vais vous canter couelquecose--una piccola cosa da niente!--vous +comprenez l'Italien?" + +"Oh yes," said Barty: he had picked up a deal of Italian and many +pretty Italian canzonets from his friend old Pergolese, who kept the +Italian eating-house in Rupert Street. "Sing me a stornella--je les +adore." + +And he set himself to listen, with his heart in his mouth from sheer +pleasurable anticipation. + +The signore sang a pretty little song, by Gordigiani, called "Il +vero amore." Barty knew it well. + + "E lo mio amor e andato a soggiornare + A Lucca bella--e diventar signore...." + +Alas for lost illusions! The signore's voice was a coarse, +unsympathetic, strident buffo bass, not always quite in the middle +of the note; nor, in spite of his native liveliness of accent and +expression, did he make the song interesting or pretty in the least. + +Poor Barty had fallen from the skies; but he did his best not to +show his disenchantment, and this, from a kind and amiable way he +always had and a constant wish to please, was not difficult. + +Then the signora sang "O mon Fernand!" from the _Favorita_, in +French, but with a hideous German accent and a screech as of some +Teutonic peacock, and without a single sympathetic note; though +otherwise well in tune, and with a certain professional knowledge of +what she was about. + +And then poor Marianina was made to stand up on six music-books, +opposite a small music-easel, and play her "Carnival of Venice" on +the violin. Every time she made a false note in the difficult +variations, her father, with his long, thick, hairy middle finger, +gave her a fierce fillip on the nose, and she had to swallow her +tears and play on. Barty was almost wild with angry pity, but +dissembled, for fear of making her worse enemies in her father and +stepmother. + +Not that the poor little thing played badly; indeed, she played +surprisingly well for her age, and Barty was sincere in his warm +commendation of her talent. + +"Et vous ne cantez pas du tout--du tout?" said Veronese. + +"Oh, si, quelquefois!" + +"Cantez couelquecoze--ze vous accompagnerai sous la guitare!--n'ayez +pas paoure--nous sommes indoulgents, elle et moi--" + +"Oh--je m'accompagnerai bien moi-meme comme je pourrai--" said +Barty, and took the guitar, and sang a little French Tyrolienne +called "Fleur des Alpes," which he could always sing quite +beautifully; and the effect was droll indeed. + +Marianina wept; the signore went down on his knees in a theatrical +manner to him, and called him "maestro" and other big Italian names; +the Frau signora, with tears in her eyes, asked permission to kiss +his hand, which his modesty refused--he kissed hers instead. + +"He was a great genius, a bird of God, who had amused himself by +making fools of poor, innocent, humble, wandering minstrels. Oh, +would he not be generous as he was great and be one of them for a +few days, and take half the profits--more--whatever he liked?" etc. + +[Illustration: "THE CARNIVAL OF VENICE"] + +And indeed they immediately saw the business side of the question, and +were, to do them justice, immensely liberal in their conditions of +partnership--and also most distressingly persistent, with adulations +that got more and more fulsome the more he held back. + +There was a long discussion. Barty had to be quite brutal at the +end--told them he was not a musician, but a painter, and that +nothing on earth should induce him to join them in their concert. + +And finally, much crestfallen and somewhat huffed, the pair went out +to post their placards all over the town, and Barty went for a bath +and a long walk--suddenly feeling sad again and horribly one-eyed +and maimed, and more wofully northless and homeless and friendless +than ever. + +Blankenberghe was already very full, and when he got back he saw the +famous placards everywhere. And found his friends cooking their +dinner, and was pressed to join them; and did so--producing a +magnificent pasty and some hot-house grapes and two bottles of wine +as a peace-offering--and was forgiven. + +And after dinner they all sat on grain-sacks together in the large +granary, and made music--with lady's-maids and valets and servants +of the house for a most genial and appreciative audience--and had a +very pleasant evening; and Barty came to the conclusion that he had +mistaken his trade--that he sang devilish well, in fact; and so he +did. + +Whatever his technical shortcomings might be, he could make any tune +sound pretty when he sang it. He had the native gift of ease, +pathos, rhythm, humor, and charm--and a delightful sympathetic twang +in his voice. His mother must have sung something like that; and all +Paris went mad about her. No technical teaching in the world can +ever match a genuine inheritance; and that's a fact. + +Next morning they all bathed together, and Barty unheroically and +quite obscurely saved a life. + +The signore and his fat white signora went dancing out into the +Sunny waves and right away seawards. + +Then came Barty with an all-round shirt-collar round his neck and a +white tie on, to conceal his seton, and a pair of blue spectacles +for the glare. And behind him Marianina, hopping on and following as +best she might. He turned round to encourage her, and she had +suddenly disappeared; half uneasy, he went back a step or two, and +saw her little pale-brown face gasping just beneath the surface--she +had just got out of her depth. + +He snatched her out, and she clung to him like a small monkey and +cried dreadfully, and was sick all over him and herself. He managed +to get her back on shore and washed and dried and consoled her +before her people came back--and had the tact not to mention this +adventure, guessing what fillips she would catch on her poor little +pink nose for her stupidity. She looked her gratitude for this +reticence of his in the most touching way, with her big black +eyes--and had a cunning smile of delight at their common tacit +understanding. Her rescuer from a watery grave did not apply for the +"medaille de sauvetage"! + +Barty took an immense walk that day to avoid the common repast; he +was getting very tired of the two senior Veroneses. + +The concert in the evening was a tremendous success. The blatant +signore sang his Figaro song very well indeed--it suited him better +than little feminine love-ditties. The signora was loud and +passionate and dramatic in "Roberto"; and Belgians make more +allowance for a German accent in French than Parisians; besides, it +was not _quite_ their own language that was being murdered before, +them. It _may_ be, some day! I sincerely hope so. Je leur veux du +bien. + +Poor little Marianina stood on her six music-books and played with +immense care and earnestness, just like a frightened but +well-trained poodle walking on its hind-legs--one eye on her music +and the tail of the other on her father, who accompanied her with +his guitar. She got an encore, to Barty's great relief; and to hers +too, no doubt--if she hadn't, fillips on the nose for supper that +night! Then there were more solos and duets, with obbligatos for the +violin. + +Next day Veronese and his wife were in high feather at the Kursaal, +where they had sung the night before. + +A very distinguished military foreigner, in attendance on some +august personage from Spain or Portugal (and later from Ostend), +warmly and publicly complimented the signore on "his admirable +rendering of 'Largo al factotum'--which, as his dear old friend +Rossini had once told him (the General), he (Rossini) had always +modestly looked upon as the one thing he had ever written with which +he was _almost_ pleased!" + +Marianina also received warm commendation from this agreeable old +soldier, while quite a fashionable crowd was listening; and Veronese +arranged for another concert that evening, and placarded the town +accordingly. + +Barty managed to escape any more meals in the Casa Veronese, but +took Marianina for one or two pleasant walks, and told her stories +and sang to her in the grenier, while she improvised for him clever +little obbligatos on her fiddle. + +He found a cheap eating-house and picked up a companion or two to +chat with. He also killed time with his seton-dressing and self +dry-cupping--and hired French novels and read them as much as he +dared with his remaining eye, about which he was morbidly nervous; +he always fancied it would get its retina congested like the other, +in which no improvement manifested itself whatever--and this +depressed him very much. He was a most impatient patient. + +To return. The second concert was as conspicuous a failure as the first +had been a success: the attendance was small and less distinguished, and +there was no enthusiasm. The Frau signora slipped a note and lost her +temper in the middle of "Roberto," and sang out of tune and with +careless, open contempt of her audience, and this the audience seemed to +understand and openly resent. Poor Marianina was frightened, and played +very wrong notes under the furious gaze of her papa, and finally broke +down and cried, and there were some hisses for him, as well as kind and +encouraging applause for the child. Then up jumps Barty and gets on the +platform and takes the signore's guitar and twangs it, and smiles all +round benignly--immense applause! + +Then he pats Marianina's thin pale cheek and wipes her eyes and +gives her a kiss. Frantic applause! Then "Fleur des Alpes!" + +Ovation! encore! bis! ter! + +And for a third encore he sings a very pretty little Flemish ballad +about the rose without a thorn--"Het Roosje uit de Dorne." It is the +only Flemish song he knows, and I hope I have spelt it right! And +the audience goes quite crazy with enthusiasm, and everybody goes +home happy, even the Veroneses--and Marianina does not get filliped +that night. + +After this the Veroneses tried humbler spheres for the display of +their talents, and in less than a week exhausted every pothouse and +beer-tavern and low drinking-shop in Blankenberghe! and at last they +took to performing for casual coppers in the open street, and went +very rapidly down hill. The signore lost his jauntiness and grew +sordid and soiled and shabby and humble; the signora looked like a +sulky, dirty, draggle-tailed fury, ready to break out into violence +on the slightest provocation; poor Marianina got paler and thinner, +and Barty was very unhappy about her. The only things left rosy +about her were her bruised nose, and her fingers, that always seemed +stiff with cold; indeed, they were blue rather than rosy--and +anything but clean. + +One evening he bought her a little warm gray cloak that took his +fancy; when he went home after dinner to give it her he found the +three birds of song had taken flight--sans tambour ni trompette, and +leaving no message for him. The baker-landlord had turned them +adrift--sent them about their business, sacrificing some of his rent +to get rid of them; not a heavy loss, I fancy. + +Barty went after them all over the little town, but did not find +them; he heard they were last seen marching off with guitar and +fiddle in a southerly direction along the coast, and found that +their luggage was to be sent to Ostend. + +He felt very sorry for Marianina and missed her--and gave the cloak +to some poor child in the town, and was very lonely. + +One morning as he loafed about dejectedly with his hands in his +pockets, he found his way to the little Hotel de Ville, whence +issued sounds of music. He went in. It was like a kind of +reading-room and concert-room combined; there was a piano there, and +a young lady practising, with her mother knitting by her side; and +two or three other people, friends of theirs, lounging about and +looking at the papers. + +The mamma was a very handsome person of aristocratic appearance. The +pretty daughter was practicing the soprano part in a duet by +Campana, which Barty knew well; it was "Una sera d' amore." The +tenor had apparently not kept his appointment, and madame expressed +some irritation at this; first to a friend, in French, but with a +slight English accent--then in English to her daughter; and Barty +grew interested. + +After a little while, catching the mamma's eye (which was not +difficult, as she very frankly and persistently gazed at him, and +with a singularly tender and wistful expression of face), he got up +and asked in English if he could be of any use--seeing that he knew +the music well and had often sung it. The lady was delighted, and +Barty and mademoiselle sang the duet in capital style to the mamma's +accompaniment: "guarda che Bianca luna," etc. + +"What a lovely voice you've got! May I ask your name?" says the +mamma. + +"Josselin." + +"English, of course?" + +"Upon my word I hardly know whether I'm English or French!" said +Barty, and he and the lady fell into conversation. + +It turned out that she was Irish, and married to a Belgian soldier, +le General Comte de Cleves (who was a tremendous swell, it +seems--but just then in Brussels). + +Barty told Madame de Cleves the story of his eye--he was always very +communicative about his eye; and she suddenly buried her face in her +hands and wept; and mademoiselle told him in a whisper that her +eldest brother had gone blind and died three or four years ago, and +that he was extraordinarily like Barty both in face and figure. + +Presently another son of Madame de Cleves came in--an officer of +dragoons in undress uniform, a splendid youth. He was the missing +tenor, and made his excuses for being late, and sang very well +indeed. + +And Barty became the intimate friend of these good people, who made +Blankenberghe a different place to him--and conceived for him a +violent liking, and introduced him to all their smart Belgian +friends; they were quite a set--bathing together, making music and +dancing, taking excursions, and so forth. And before a fortnight was +over Barty had become the most popular young man in the town, the +gayest of the gay, the young guardsman once more, throwing dull care +to the winds; and in spite of his impecuniosity (of which he made no +secret whatever) the _boute-en-train_ of the company. And this led to +many droll adventures--of which I will tell one as a sample. + +A certain Belgian viscount, who had a very pretty French wife, took +a dislike to Barty. He had the reputation of being a tremendous +fire-eater. His wife, a light-hearted little flirt (but with not +much harm in her), took a great fancy to him, on the contrary. + +One day she asked him for a wax impression of the seal-ring he wore +on his finger, and the following morning he sealed an empty envelope +and stamped it with his ring, and handed it to her on the Plage. She +snatched it with a quick gesture and slipped it into her pocket with +quite a guilty little coquettish look of mutual understanding. + +Monsieur Jean (as the viscount was called) noticed this, and jostled +rudely against Josselin, who jostled back again and laughed. + +Then the whole party walked off to the "tir," or shooting-gallery on +the Plage; some wager was on, I believe, and when they got there +they all began to shoot--at different distances, ladies and +gentlemen; all but Barty; it was a kind of handicap. + +Monsieur Jean, after a fierce and significant look at Barty, slowly +raised his pistol, took a deliberate aim at the small target, and +fired--hitting it just half an inch over the bull's-eye; a capital +shot. Barty couldn't have done better himself. Then taking another +loaded pistol, he presented it to my friend by the butt and said, +with a solemn bow: + +"A vous, monsieur de la garde." + +"Messieurs de la garde doivent toujours tirer les premiers!" said +Barty, laughing; and carelessly let off his pistol in the direction +of the target without even taking aim. A little bell rang, and there +was a shout of applause; and Barty was conscious that by an +extraordinary fluke he had hit the bull's-eye in the middle, and saw +the situation at once. + +Suddenly looking very grave and very sad, he threw the pistol away, +and said: + +"Je ne tire plus--j'ai trop peur d'avoir la main malheureuse un +jour!" and smiled benignly at M. Jean. + +A moment's silence fell on the party and M. Jean turned very pale. + +Barty went up to Madame Jean: + +"Will you forgive me for giving you with my seal an empty envelope? +I couldn't think of anything pretty enough to write you--so I gave +it up. Tear it and forgive me. I'll do better next time!" + +The lady blushed and pulled the letter out of her pocket and held it +up to the light, and it was, as Barty said, merely an empty envelope +and a red seal. She then held it out to her husband and exclaimed: + +"Le cachet de Monsieur Josselin, que je lui avais demande...!" + +So bloodshed was perhaps avoided, and Monsieur Jean took care not to +jostle Josselin any more. Indeed, they became great friends. + +For next day Barty strolled into the Salle d'Armes, Rue des +Dunes--and there he found Monsieur Jean fencing with young de +Cleves, the dragoon. Both were good fencers, but Barty was the +finest fencer I ever met in my life, and always kept it up; and +remembering his adventure of the previous day, it amused him to +affect a careless nonchalance about such trivial things--"des +enfantillages!" + +"_You_ take a turn with Jean, Josselin!" said the dragoon. + +"Oh! I'm out of practice--and I've only got one eye...." + +"Je vous en prie, monsieur de la garde!" said the viscount. + +"Cette fois, alors, nous allons tirer _ensemble_!" says Barty, and +languidly dons the mask with an affected air, and makes a fuss about +the glove not suiting him; and then, in spite of his defective +sight, which seems to make no difference, he lightly and gracefully +gives M. Jean such a dressing as that gentleman had never got in his +life--not even from his maitre d'armes: and afterwards to young de +Cleves the same. Well I knew his way of doing this kind of thing! + +So Barty and M. and Madame Jean became quite intimate--and with his +usual indiscretion Barty told them how he fluked that bull's-eye, +and they were charmed! + +"Vous etes impayable, savez-vous, mon cher!" says M. Jean--"vous +avez tous les talents, et un million dans le gosier par-dessus le +marche! Si jamais je puis vous etre de service, savez-vous, comptez +sur moi pour la vie ..." said the impulsive viscount when they bade +each other good-bye at the end. + +[Illustration: "'A VOUS, MONSIEUR DE LA GARDE!'"] + +"Et plus jamais d'enveloppes vides, quand vous m'ecrirez!" says +madame. + + * * * * * + +So frivolous time wore on, and Barty found it pleasant to frivol in +such pleasant company--very pleasant indeed! But when alone in his +garret, with his seton-dressing and dry-cuppings, it was not so gay. +He had to confess to himself that his eye was getting slowly worse +instead of better; darkening day by day; and a little more retina +had been taken in by the strange disease--"la peau de chagrin," as +he nicknamed this wretched retina of his, after Balzac's famous +story. He could still see with the left of it and at the bottom, but +a veil had come over the middle and all the rest; by daylight he +could see through this veil, but every object he saw was discolored +and distorted and deformed--it was worse than darkness itself; and +this was so distressing, and so interfered with the sight of the +other eye, that when the sun went down, the total darkness in the +ruined portion of his left retina came as a positive relief. He took +all this very desperately to heart and had very terrible +forebodings. For he had never known an ache or a pain, and had +innocently gloried all his life in the singular perfection of his +five wits. + +Then his money was coming to an end; he would soon have to sing in +the streets, like Veronese, with Lady Archibald's guitar. + +Dear Lady Archibald! When things went wrong with her she would always +laugh, and say: + +"Les miseres du jour font le bonheur du lendemain!" + +This he would say or sing to himself over and over again, and go to +bed at night quite hopeful and sanguine after a merry day spent +among his many friends; and soon sink into sleep, persuaded that his +trouble was a bad dream which next morning would scatter and dispel. +But when he woke, it was to find the grim reality sitting by his +pillow, and he couldn't dry-cup it away. The very sunshine was an +ache as he went out and got his breakfast with his blue spectacles +on; and black care would link its bony arm in his as he listlessly +strolled by the much-sounding sea--and cling to him close as he swam +or dived; and he would wonder what he had ever done that so serious +and tragic a calamity should have befallen so light a person as +himself; who could only dance and sing and play the fool to make +people laugh--Rigoletto--Triboulet--a mere grasshopper, no ant or +bee or spider, not even a third-class beetle--surely this was not +according to the eternal fitness of things! + +And thus in the unutterable utterness of his dejection he would make +himself such evil cheer that he sickened with envy at the mere sight +of any living thing that could see out of two eyes--a homeless +irresponsible dog, a hunchback beggar, a crippled organ-grinder and +his monkey--till he met some acquaintance; even but a rolling +fisherman with a brown face and honest blue eyes--a pair of +them--and then he would forget his sorrow and his envy in chat and +jokes and laughter with him over each a centime cigar; and was set +up in good spirits for the day! Such was Barty Josselin, the most +ready lover of his kind that ever existed, the slave of his last +impression. + +And thus he lived under the shadow of the sword of Damocles for many +months; on and off, for years--indeed, as long as he lived at all. It is +good discipline. It rids one of much superfluous self-complacency and +puts a wholesome check on our keeping too good a conceit of ourselves; +it prevents us from caring too meanly about mean things--too keenly +about our own infinitesimal personalities; it makes us feel quick +sympathy for those who live under a like condition: there are many such +weapons dangling over the heads of us poor mortals by just a hair--a +panoply, an armory, a very arsenal! And we grow to learn in time that +when the hair gives way and the big thing falls, the blow is not half so +bad as the fright had been, even if it kills us; and more often than not +it is but the shadow of a sword, after all; a bogie that has kept us off +many an evil track--perhaps even a blessing in disguise! And in the end, +down comes some other sword from somewhere else and cuts for us the +Gordian knot of our brief tangled existence, and solves the riddle and +sets us free. + +This is a world of surprises, where little ever happens but the +unforeseen, which is seldom worth meeting halfway! And these moral +reflections of mine are quite unnecessary and somewhat obvious, but +they harm nobody, and are very soothing to make and utter at my time +of life. Pity the sorrows of a poor old man and forgive him his +maudlin garrulity.... + + * * * * * + +One afternoon, lolling in deep dejection on the top of a little sandy +hillock, a "dune," and plucking the long coarse grass, he saw a very +tall elderly lady, accompanied by her maid, coming his way along the +asphalt path that overlooked the sea--or rather, that prevented the +sea from overlooking the land and overflowing it! + +She was in deep black and wore a thick veil. + +With a little jump of surprise he recognized his aunt Caroline--Lady +Caroline Grey--of all his aunts the aunt who had loved him the best +as a boy--whom he had loved the best. + +She was a Roman Catholic, and very devout indeed--a widow, and +childless now. And between her and Barty a coolness had fallen +during the last few years--a heavy raw thick mist of cold +estrangement; and all on account of his London life and the +notoriety he had achieved there; things of which she disapproved +entirely, and thought "unworthy of a gentleman": and who can blame +her for thinking so? + +She had at first written to him long letters of remonstrance and +good advice; which he gave up answering, after a while. And when +they met in society, her manner had grown chill and distant and +severe. + +He hadn't seen or heard of his aunt Caroline for three or four +years; but at the sudden sight of her a wave of tender childish +remembrance swept over him, and his heart beat quite warmly to her: +affliction is a solvent of many things, and first-cousin to +forgiveness. + +She passed without looking his way, and he jumped up and followed +her, and said: + +"Oh, Aunt Caroline! won't you even speak to me?" + +She started violently, and turned round, and cried: "Oh, Barty, +Barty, where have you been all these years?" and seized both his +hands, and shook all over. + +"Oh, Barty--my beloved little Barty--take me somewhere where we can +sit down and talk. I've been thinking of you very much, Barty--I've +lost my poor son--he died last Christmas! I was afraid you had +forgotten my existence! I was thinking of you the very moment you +spoke!" + +The maid left them, and she took his arm and they found a seat. + +She put up her veil and looked at him: there was a great likeness +between them in spite of the difference of age. She had been his +father's favorite sister (some ten years younger than Lord +Runswick); and she was very handsome still, though about fifty-five. + +"Oh, Barty, my darling--how things have gone wrong between us! Is it +_all_ my doing? Oh, I hope not!..." And she kissed him. + +"How like, how like! And you're getting a little black and bulgy +under the eyes--especially the left one--and so did _he_, at just +about your age! And how thin you are!" + +"I don't think anything need ever go wrong between us again, Aunt +Caroline! I am a very altered person, and a very unlucky one!" + +"Tell me, dear!" + +And he told her all his story, from the fatal quarrel with her +brother Lord Archibald--and the true history of that quarrel; and +all that had happened since: he had nothing to keep back. + +She frequently wept a little, for truth was in every tone of his +voice; and when it came to the story of his lost eye, she wept very +much indeed. And his need of affection, of female affection +especially, and of kinship, was so immense that he clung to this +most kind and loving woman as if she'd been his mother come back +from the grave, or his dear Lady Archibald. + +[Illustration: "'I AM A VERY ALTERED PERSON!'"] + +This meeting made a great difference to Barty in many ways--made amends! +Lady Caroline meant to pass the winter at Malines, of all places in the +world. The Archbishop was her friend, and she was friends also with one +or two priests at the seminary there. She was by no means rich, having +but an annuity of not quite three hundred a year; and it soon became the +dearest wish of her heart that Barty should live with her for a while, +and be nursed by her if he wanted nursing; and she thought he did. +Besides, it would be convenient on account of his doctor, M. Noiret, of +the University of Louvain, which was near Malines--half an hour by +train. + +And Barty was only too glad; this warm old love and devotion had +suddenly dropped on to him by some happy enchantment out of the +skies at a moment of sore need. And it was with a passion of +gratitude that he accepted his aunt's proposals. + +He well knew, also, how it was in him to brighten her lonely life, +almost every hour of it--and promised himself that she should not be +a loser by her kindness to Mr. Nobody of Nowhere. He remembered her +love of fun, and pretty poetry, and little French songs, and droll +chat--and nice cheerful meals tete-a-tete--and he was good at all +these things. And how fond she was of reading out loud to him! The +time might soon arrive when that would be a blessing indeed. + +Indeed, a new interest had come into his life--not altogether a +selfish interest either--but one well worth living for, though it +was so unlike any interest that had ever filled his life before. He +had been essentially a man's man hitherto, in spite of his gay light +love for lovely woman; a good comrade par excellence, a frolicsome +chum, a rollicking boon-companion, a jolly pal! He wanted quite +desperately to love something staid and feminine and gainly and well +bred, whatever its age! some kind soft warm thing in petticoats and +thin shoes, with no hair on its face, and a voice that wasn't male! + +Nor did her piety frighten him very much. He soon found that she was +no longer the over-zealous proselytizing busybody of the Cross--but +immensely a woman of the world, making immense allowances. All roads +lead to Rome (dit-on!), except a few which converge in the opposite +direction; but even Roman roads lead to this wide tolerance in the +end--for those of a rich warm nature who have been well battered by +life; and Lady Caroline had been very thoroughly battered indeed: a +bad husband--a bad son, her only child! both dead, but deeply loved +and lamented; and in her heart of hearts there lurked a sad suspicion +that her piety (so deep and earnest and sincere) had not bettered +their badness--on the contrary, perhaps! and had driven her Barty +from her when he needed her most. + +Now that his need of her was so great, greater than it had ever been +before, she would take good care that no piety of hers should ever +drive him away from her again; she felt almost penitent and +apologetic for having done what she had known to be right--the woman +in her had at last outgrown the nun. + +She almost began to doubt whether she had not been led to selfishly +overrate the paramount importance of the exclusive salvation of her +own particular soul! + +And then his frank, fresh look and manner, and honest boyish voice, +so unmistakably sincere, and that mild and magnificent eye, so +bright and humorous still, "so like--so like!" which couldn't even +see her loving, anxious face.... Thank Heaven, there was still one +eye left that she could appeal to with both her own! + +And what a child he had been, poor dear--the very pearl of the Rohans! +What Rohan of them all was ever a patch on this poor bastard of +Antoinette Josselin's, either for beauty, pluck, or mother-wit--or even +for honor, if it came to that? Why, a quixotic scruple of honor had +ruined him, and she was Rohan enough to understand what the temptation +had been the other way: she had seen the beautiful bad lady! + +And, pure as her own life had been, she was no puritan, but of a +church well versed in the deepest knowledge of our poor weak frail +humanity; she has told me all about it, and I listened between the +words. + +So during the remainder of her stay at Blankenberghe he was very +much with Lady Caroline, and rediscovered what a pleasant and lively +companion she could be--especially at meals (she was fond of good +food of a plain and wholesome kind, and took good care to get it). + +She had her little narrownesses, to be sure, and was not +hail-fellow-well-met with everybody, like him; and did not think +very much of giddy little viscountesses with straddling loud-voiced +Flemish husbands, nor of familiar facetious commercial millionaires, +of whom Barty numbered two or three among his adorers; nor even of +the "highly born" Irish wives of Belgian generals and all that. +Madame de Cleves was an O'Brien. + +These were old ingrained Rohan prejudices, and she was too old +herself to alter. + +But she loved the good fishermen whose picturesque boats made such a +charming group on the sands at sunset, and also their wives and +children; and here she and her nephew were "bien d'accord." + +I fear her ladyship would not have appreciated very keenly the +rising splendor of a certain not altogether unimportant modern house +in Barge Yard, Bucklersbury--and here she would have been wrong. The +Time has come when we throw the handkerchief at female Rohans, we +Maurices and our like. I have not done so myself, it is true; but +not from any rooted antipathy to any daughter of a hundred +earls--nor yet from any particular diffidence on my own part. + +Anyhow, Lady Caroline loved to hear all Barty had to say of his gay +life among the beauty, rank, and fashion of Blankenberghe. She was +very civil to the handsome Irish Madame de Cleves, _nee_ O'Brien, +and listened politely to the family history of the O'Briens and that +of the de Cleveses too: and learnt, without indecent surprise, or +any emotion of any kind whatever, what she had never heard +before--namely, that in the early part of the twelfth century a +Rohan de Whitby had married an O'Brien of Ballywrotte; and other +prehistoric facts of equal probability and importance. + +She didn't believe much in people's twelfth--century reminiscences; +she didn't even believe in those of her own family, who didn't +believe in them either, or trouble about them in the least; and I +dare say they were quite right. + +Anyhow, when people solemnly talked about such things it made her +rather sorry. But she bore up for Barty's sake, and the resigned, +half-humorous courtesy with which she assented to these fables was +really more humiliating to a sensitive, haughty soul than any mere +supercilious disdain; not that she ever wished to humiliate, but she +was easily bored, and thought that kind of conversation vulgar, +futile, and rather grotesque. + +Indeed, she grew quite fond of Madame de Cleves and the splendid +young dragoon, and the sweet little black-haired daughter with +lovely blue eyes, who sang so charmingly. For they were singularly +charming people in every way, the de Cleveses; and that's a way +Irish people often have--as well as of being proud of their ancient +blood. There is no more innocent weakness. I have it very +strongly--moi qui vous parle--on the maternal side. My mother was a +Blake of Derrydown, a fact that nobody would have known unless she +now and then accidentally happened to mention it herself, or else my +father did. And so I take the opportunity of slipping it in +here--just out of filial piety! + +So the late autumn of that year found Barty and his aunt at Malines, +or Mechelen, as it calls itself in its native tongue. + +They had comfortable lodgings of extraordinary cheapness in one of +the dullest streets of that most picturesque but dead-alive little +town, where the grass grew so thick between the paving-stones here +and there that the brewers' dray-horses might have browsed in the +"Grand Brul"--a magnificent but generally deserted thoroughfare +leading from the railway station to the Place d'Armes, where rose +still unfinished the colossal tower of one of the oldest and finest +cathedrals in the world, whose chimes wafted themselves every +half-quarter of an hour across the dreamy flats for miles and miles, +according to the wind, that one might realize how slow was the +flight of time in that particular part of King Leopold's dominions. + + "'And from a tall tower in the town + Death looks gigantically down!'" + +said Barty to his aunt--quoting (or misquoting) a bard they were very +fond of just then, as they slowly walked down the "Grand Brul" in +solitude together, from the nineteenth century to the fourteenth in +less than twenty minutes--or three chimes from St. Rombault, or +fifty skrieks from the railway station. + +But for these a spirit of stillness and mediaeval melancholy brooded +over the quaint old city and great archiepiscopal see and most +important railway station in all Belgium. Magnificent old houses in +carved stone with wrought-iron balconies were to be had for rents +that were almost nominal. From the tall windows of some of these a +frugal, sleepy, priest-ridden old nobility looked down on broad and +splendid streets hardly ever trodden by any feet but their own, or +those of some stealthy Jesuit priest, or Sister of Mercy. + +Only during the Kermesse, or at carnival-time, when noisy revelers +of either sex and ungainly processions of tipsy masques and mummers +waked Mechelen out of its long sleep, and all the town seemed one +vast estaminet, did one feel one's self to be alive. Even at night, +and in the small hours, frisky masques and dominoes walked the +moonlit streets, and made loud old Flemish mediaeval love, a la +Teniers. + +There was a beautiful botanical garden, through which a river flowed +under tall trees, and turned the wheels of the oldest flour-mills in +Flanders. This was a favorite resort of Barty's,--and he had it +pretty much to himself. + +And for Lady Caroline there were, besides St. Rombault, quite +half-a-dozen churches almost as magnificent if not so big, and in +them as many as you could wish of old Flemish masters, beginning +with Peter Paul Rubens, who pervades the land of his birth very much +as Michael Angelo pervades Florence and Rome. + +And these dim places of Catholic worship were generously open to +all, every day and all day long, and never empty of worshippers, +high and low, prostrate in the dust, or kneeling with their arms +extended and their heads in the air, their wide-open, immovable, +unblinking eyes hypnotized into stone by the cross and the crown of +thorns. Mostly peasant women, these: with their black hoods falling +from their shoulders, and stiff little close white caps that hid the +hair. + +Out of cool shadowy recesses of fretted stone and admirably carved +wood emanations seemed to rise as from the long-forgotten past--tons +of incense burnt hundreds of years ago, and millions of closely +packed supplicants, rich and poor, following each other in secula +seculorum! Lady Caroline spent many of her hours haunting these +crypts--and praying there. + +At the back of their house in the Rue des Ursulines Blanches, +Barty's bedroom window overlooked the playground of the convent "des +Soeurs Redemptoristines": all noble ladies, most beautifully dressed +In scarlet and ultramarine, with long snowy veils, and who were +Waited upon by non-noble sisters in garments of a like hue but less +expensive texture. + +So at least said little Finche Torfs, the daughter of the +house--little Frau, as Lady Caroline called her, and who seems to +have been one of the best creatures in the world; she became warmly +attached to both her lodgers, who reciprocated the feeling in full; +it was her chief pleasure to wait on them and look after them at all +times of the day, though Lady Caroline had already a devoted maid of +her own. + +Little Frau's father was a well-to-do burgher with a prosperous +ironmongery in the "Petit Brul." + +This was his private house, where he pursued his hobby, for he was +an amateur photographer, very fond of photographing his kind and +simple-minded old wife, who was always attired in rich Brussels +silks and Mechelen lace on purpose. She even cooked in them, though +not for her lodgers, whose mid-day and evening meals were sent from +"La Cigogne," close by, in four large round tins that fitted into +each other, and were carried in a wicker-work cylindrical basket. +And it was little Frau's delight to descant on the qualities of the +menu as she dished and served it. I will not attempt to do so. + +But after little Frau had cleared it all away, Barty would descant +on the qualities of certain English dishes he remembered, to the +immense amusement of Aunt Caroline, who was reasonably fond of what +is good to eat. + +He would paint in words (he was better in words than any other +medium--oil, water, or distemper) the boiled leg of mutton, not +overdone; the mashed turnips; the mealy potato; the caper-sauce. He +would imitate the action of the carver and the sound of the +carving-knife making its first keen cut while the hot pink gravy +runs down the sides. Then he would wordily paint a French roast +chicken and its rich brown gravy and its water-cresses; the pommes +sautees; the crisp, curly salade aux fines herbes! And Lady +Caroline, still hungry, would laugh till her eyes watered, as well +as her mouth. + +When it came to the sweets, the apple-puddings and gooseberry-pies +and Devonshire cream and brown sugar, there was no more laughing, +for then Barty's talent soared to real genius--and genius is a +serious thing. And as to his celery and Stilton cheese--But there! +it's lunch-time, and I'm beginning to feel a little puckish +myself.... + +Every morning when it was fine Barty and his aunt would take an +airing round the town, which was enclosed by a ditch where there was +good skating in the winter, on long skates that went very fast, but +couldn't cut figures, 8 or 3! + +There were no fortifications or ramparts left. But a few of the +magnificent old brick gateways still remained, admitting you to the +most wonderful old streets with tall pointed houses--clean little +slums, where women sat on their door-steps making the most beautiful +lace in the world--odd nooks and corners and narrow ways where it +was easy to lose one's self, small as the town really was; +innumerable little toy bridges over toy canals one could have leaped +at a bound, overlooked by quaint, irregular little dwellings, of +colors that had once been as those of the rainbow, but which time +had mellowed into divine harmonies, as it does all it touches--from +grand old masters to oak palings round English parks; from Venice to +Mechelen and its lace; from a disappointed first love to a great +sorrow. + +Occasionally a certain distinguished old man of soldier-like aspect +would pass them on horseback, and gaze at their two tall British +figures with a look of curious and benign interest, as if he +mentally wished them well, and well away from this drear limbo of +penitence and exile and expiation. + +They learnt that he was French, and a famous general, and that his +name was Changarnier; and they understood that public virtue has to +be atoned for. + +And he somehow got into the habit of bowing to them with a good +smile, and they would smile and bow back again. Beyond this they +never exchanged a word, but this little outward show and ceremony of +kindly look and sympathetic gesture always gave them a pleasant +moment and helped to pass the morning. + +All the people they met were to Lady Caroline like people in a +dream: silent priests; velvet-footed nuns, who were much to her +taste; quiet peasant women, in black cloaks and hoods, driving +bullock-carts or carts drawn by dogs, six or eight of these +inextricably harnessed together and panting for dear life; +blue-bloused men in French caps, but bigger and blonder than +Frenchmen, and less given to epigrammatic repartee, with mild, blue, +beery eyes, _a fleur de tete_, and a look of health and stolid +amiability; sturdy green-coated little soldiers with cock-feathered +brigand hats of shiny black, the brim turned up over the right eye +and ear that they might the more conveniently take a good aim at the +foe before he skedaddled at the mere sight of them; fat, comfortable +burgesses and their wives, so like their ancestors who drink beer +out of long glasses and smoke long clay pipes on the walls of the +Louvre and the National Gallery that they seemed like old friends; +and quaint old heavy children who didn't make much noise! + +And whenever they spoke French to you, these good people, they said +"savez-vous?" every other second; and whenever they spoke Flemish to +each other it sounded so much like your own tongue as it is spoken in +the north of England that you wondered why on earth you couldn't +understand a single word. + +Now and then, from under a hood, a handsome dark face with Spanish +eyes would peer out--eloquent of the past history of the Low +Countries, which Barty knew much better than I. But I believe there +was once a Spanish invasion or occupation of some kind, and I dare +say the fair Belgians are none the worse for it to-day. (It might +even have been good for some of us, perhaps, if that ill-starred +Armada hadn't come so entirely to grief. I'm fond of big, +tawny-black eyes.) + +All this, so novel and so strange, was a perpetual feast for Lady +Caroline. And they bought nice, cheap, savory things on the way +home, to eke out the lunch from "la Cigogne." + +In the afternoon Barty would take a solitary walk in the open +country, or along one of those endless straight _chaussees_, paved +in the middle, and bordered by equidistant poplars on either side, +and leading from town to town, and the monotonous perspective of +which is so desolating to heart and eye; backwards or forwards, it +is always the same, with a flat sameness of outlook to right and +left, and every 450 seconds the chime would boom and flounder +heavily by, with a dozen sharp railway whistles after it, like +swordfish after a whale, piercing it through and through. + +Barty evidently had all this in his mind when he wrote the song of +the seminarist in "Gleams," beginning: + + "Twas April, and the sky was clear, + An east wind blowing keenly; + The sun gave out but little cheer, + For all it shone serenely. + The wayside poplars, all arow, + For many a weary mile did throw + Down on the dusty flags below + Their shadows, picked out cleanly." + Etc., etc., etc. + +(Isn't it just like Barty to begin a lyric that will probably last +as long as the English language with an innocent jingle worthy of a +school-boy?) + +After dinner, in the evening, it was Lady Caroline's delight to read +aloud, while Barty smoked his cigarettes and inexpensive cigars--a +concession on her part to make him happy, and keep him as much with +her as she could; and she grew even to like the smell so much that +once or twice, when he went to Antwerp for a couple of days to stay +with Tescheles, she actually had to burn some of his tobacco on a +red-hot shovel, for the scent of it seemed to spell his name for her +and make his absence less complete. + +Thus she read to him _Esmond_, _Hypatia_, _Never too Late to Mend_, +_Les Maitres Sonneurs_, _La Mare au Diable_, and other delightful +books, English and French, which were sent once a week from a +circulating library in Brussels. How they blessed thy name, good +Baron Tauchnitz! + +"Oh, Aunt Caroline, if I could _only_ illustrate books! If I could +only illustrate _Esmond_ and draw a passable Beatrix coming down the +old staircase at Castlewood with her candle!" said Barty, one night. + +That was not to be. Another was to illustrate _Esmond_, a poor devil +who, oddly enough, was then living in the next street and suffering +from a like disorder.[1] + +[Footnote 1: + ("Un malheureux, vetu de noir, + Qui me ressemblait comme un frere ..."--Ed.)] + +As a return, Barty would sing to her all he knew, in five +languages--three of which neither of them quite understood--accompanying +himself on the piano or guitar. Sometimes she would play for him +accompaniments that were beyond his reach, for she was a decently taught +musician who could read fairly well at sight; whereas Barty didn't know +a single note, and picked up everything by ear. She practised these +accompaniments every afternoon, as assiduously as any school-girl. + +Then they would sit up very late, as they always had so much to talk +about--what had just been read or played or sung, and many other +things: the present, the past, and the future. All their old +affection for each other had come back, trebled and quadrupled by +pity on one side, gratitude on the other--and a little remorse on +both. And there were long arrears to make up, and life was short and +uncertain. + +Sometimes l'Abbe Lefebvre, one of the professors at the seminaire +and an old friend of Lady Caroline's, would come to drink tea, and +talk politics, which ran high in Mechelen. He was a most +accomplished and delightful Frenchman, who wrote poetry and adored +Balzac--and even owned to a fondness for good old Paul de Kock, of +whom it is said that when the news of his death reached Pius the +Ninth, his Holiness dropped a tear and exclaimed: + +"Mio caro Paolo di Kocco!" + +Now and then the Abbe would bring with him a distinguished young priest, +a Dominican--also a professor; Father Louis, of the princely house of +Aremberg, who died a Cardinal three years ago. + +Father Louis had an admirable and highly cultivated musical gift, +and played to them Beethoven and Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, and +Schumann--and this music, as long as it lasted (and for some time +after), was to Barty as great a source of consolation as of +unspeakable delight; and therefore to his aunt also. Though I'm +afraid she preferred any little French song of Barty's to all the +Schumanns in the world. + +First of all, the priest would play the "Moonlight Sonata," let us +say; and Barty would lean back and listen with his eyes shut, and +almost believe that Beethoven was talking to him like a father, and +pointing out to him how small was the difference, really, between +the greatest earthly joy and the greatest earthly sorrow: these were +not like black and white, but merely different shades of gray, as on +moonlit things a long way off! and Time, what a reconciler it +was--like distance! and Death, what a perfect resolution of all +possible discords, and how certain! and our own little life, how +short, and without importance! what matters whether it's to-day, +this small individual flutter of ours; or was a hundred years ago; +or will be a hundred years hence! it has or had to be got +through--and it's better past than to come. + +[Illustration: "THE MOONLIGHT SONATA"] + +"It all leads to the same divine issue, my poor friend," said Beethoven; +"why, just see here--I'm stone-deaf, and can't hear a note of what I'm +singing to you! But it is not about _that_ I weep, when I am weeping. It +was terrible when it first came on, my deafness, and I could no longer +hear the shepherd's pipe or the song of the lark; but it's well worth +going deaf, to hear all that _I_ do. I have to write everything down, +and read it to myself; and my tears fall on the ruled paper, and blister +the lines, and make the notes run into each other; and when I try to +blot it all out, there's that still left on the page, which, turned into +sound by good father Louis the Dominican, will tell you, if you can only +hear it aright, what is not to be told in any human speech; not even +that of Plato, or Marcus Aurelius, or Erasmus, or Shakespeare; not even +that of Christ himself, who speaks through me from His unknown grave, +because I am deaf and cannot hear the distracting words of men--poor, +paltry words at their best, which mean so many things at once that they +mean just nothing at all. It's a Tower of Babel. Just stop your ears and +listen with your heart and you will hear all that you can see when you +shut your eyes or have lost them--and those are the only realities, mein +armer Barty!" + +Then the good Mozart would say: + +"Lieber Barty--I'm so stupid about earthly things that I could never +even say Boh to a goose, so I can't give you any good advice; all my +heart overflowed into my brain when I was quite a little boy and +made music for grown-up people to hear; from the day of my birth to +my fifth birthday I had gone on remembering everything, but learning +nothing new--remembering all that music! + +"And I went on remembering more and more till I was thirty-five; and +even then there was such a lot more of it where that came from that +it tired me to try and remember so much--and I went back thither. +And thither back shall you go too, Barty--when you are some thirty +years older! + +"And you already know from me how pleasant life is there--how sunny +and genial and gay; and how graceful and innocent and amiable and +well-bred the natives--and what beautiful prayers we sing, and what +lovely gavottes and minuets we dance--and how tenderly we make +love--and what funny tricks we play! and how handsome and well +dressed and kind we all are--and the likes of you, how welcome! +Thirty years is soon over, Barty, Barty! Bel Mazetto! Ha, ha! good!" + +Then says the good Schubert: + +"I'm a loud, rollicking, beer-drinking Kerl, I am! Ich bin ein +lustiger Student, mein Pardy; and full of droll practical jokes; +worse than even you, when you were a young scapegrace in the Guards, +and wrenched off knockers, and ran away with a poor policeman's hat! +But I don't put my practical jokes into my music; if I did, I +shouldn't be the poor devil I am! I'm very hungry when I go to bed, +and when I wake up in the morning I have Katzenjammer (from an empty +stomach) and a headache, and a heartache, and penitence and shame +and remorse; and know there is nothing in this world or beyond it +worth a moment's care but Love, Love, Love! Liebe, Liebe! The good +love that knows neither concealment nor shame--from the love of the +brave man for the pure maiden whom he weds, to the young nun's love +of the Lord! and all the other good loves lie between these two, and +are inside them, or come out of them, ... and that's the love I put +into my music. Indeed, my music is the only love I know, since I am +not beautiful to the eye, and can only care for tunes!... + +"But you, Pardy, are handsome and gallant and gay, and have always +been well beloved by man and woman and child, and always will be; +and know how to love back again--even a dog! however blind you go, +you will always have that, the loving heart--and as long as you can +hear and sing, you will always have my tunes to fall back upon...." + +"And mine!" says Chopin. "If there's one thing sweeter than love, +it's the sadness that it can't last; _she_ loved me once--and now +she loves _tout le monde_! and that's a little sweet melodic sadness +of mine that will never fail you, as long as there's a piano within +your reach, and a friend who knows how to play me on it for you to +hear. You shall revel in my sadness till you forget your own. Oh, +the sorrow of my sweet pipings! Whatever becomes of your eyes, keep +your two ears for _my_ sake; and for your sake too! You don't know +what exquisite ears you've got. You are like me--you and I are made +of silk, Barty--as other men are made of sackcloth; and their love, +of ashes; and their joys, of dust! + +"Even the good priest who plays me to you so glibly doesn't +understand what I am talking about half so well as _you_ do, who +can't read a word I write! He had to learn my language note by note +from the best music-master in Brussels. It's your mother-tongue! You +learned it as you sucked at your sweet young mother's breast, my +poor love-child! And all through her, your ears, like your remaining +eye, are worth a hatful of the common kind--and some day it will be +the same with your heart and brain...." + +"Yes"--continues Schumann--"but you'll have to suffer first--like +me, who will have to kill myself very soon; because I am going +mad--and that's worse than any blindness! and like Beethoven who +went deaf, poor demigod! and like all the rest of us who've been +singing to you to-night; that's why our songs never pall--because we +are acquainted with grief, and have good memories, and are quite +sincere. The older you get, the more you will love us and our songs: +other songs may come and go in the ear; but ours go ringing in the +heart forever!" + +In some such fashion did the great masters of tune and tone +Discourse to Barty through Father Louis's well-trained finger-tips. +They always discourse to you a little about yourself, these great +masters, always; and always in a manner pleasing to your self-love! +The finger-tips (whosesoever's finger-tips they be) have only to be +intelligent and well trained, and play just what's put before them +in a true, reverent spirit. Anything beyond may be unpardonable +impertinence, both to the great masters and yourself. + +Musicians will tell you that all this is nonsense from beginning to +end; you mustn't believe musicians about music, nor wine-merchants +about wine--but vice versa! + +When Father Louis got up from the music-stool, the Abbe would say to +Barty, in his delightful, pure French: + +"And now, mon ami--just for _me_, you know--a little song of +autrefois." + +"All right, M. l'Abbe--I will sing you the 'Adelaide,' of +Beethoven ... if Father Louis will play for me." + +"Oh, non, mon ami, do not throw away such a beautiful organ as yours +on such really beautiful music, which doesn't want it; it would be +sinful waste; it's not so much the tune that I want to hear as the +fresh young voice; sing me something French, something light, +something amiable and droll; that I may forget the song, and only +remember the singer." + +"All right, M. l'Abbe," and Barty sings a delightful little song by +Gustave Nadaud, called "Petit bonhomme vit encore." + +And the good Abbe is in the seventh heaven, and quite forgets to +forget the song. + +And so, cakes and wine, and good-night--and M. l'Abbe goes humming +all the way home.... + + "He, quoi! pour des peccadilles + Gronder ces pauvres amours? + Les femmes sont si gentilles, + Et l'on n'aime pas toujours! + C'est bonhomme + Qu'on me nomme.... + Ma gaite, c'est mon tresor! + Et bonhomme vit encor'-- + Et bonhomme vit encor'!" + +An extraordinary susceptibility to musical sound was growing in +Barty since his trouble had overtaken him, and with it an +extraordinary sensitiveness to the troubles of other people, their +partings and bereavements and wants, and aches and pains, even those +of people he didn't know; and especially the woes of children, and +dogs and cats and horses, and aged folk--and all the live things +that have to be driven to market and killed for our eating--or shot +at for our fun! + +All his old loathing of sport had come back, and he was getting his +old dislike of meat once more, and to sicken at the sight of a +butcher's shop; and the sight of a blind man stirred him to the +depths ... even when he learnt how happy a blind man can be! + +These unhappy things that can't be helped preoccupied him as if he +had been twenty, thirty, fifty years older; and the world seemed to +him a shocking place, a gray, bleak, melancholy hell where there was +nothing but sadness, and badness, and madness. + +And bit by bit, but very soon, all his old trust in an all-merciful, +all-powerful ruler of the universe fell from him; he shed it like an +old skin; it sloughed itself away; and with it all his old conceit +of himself as a very fine fellow, taller, handsomer, cleverer than +anybody else, "bar two or three"! Such darling beliefs are the best +stays we can have; and he found life hard to face without them. + +And he got as careful of his aunt Caroline, and as anxious about her +little fads and fancies and ailments, as if he'd been an old woman +himself. + +Imagine how she grew to dote on him! + +And he quite lost his old liability to sudden freaks and fits of noisy +fractiousness about trifles--when he would stamp and rave and curse and +swear, and be quite pacified in a moment: "_Soupe-au-lait_," as he was +nicknamed in Troplong's studio! + + * * * * * + +Besides his seton and his cuppings, dry and wet, and his blisters on +his arms and back, and his mustard poultices on his feet and legs, +and his doses of mercury and alteratives, he had also to deplete +himself of blood three times a week by a dozen or twenty leeches +behind his left ear and on his temple. All this softens and relaxes +the heart towards others, as a good tonic will harden it. + +So that he looked a mere shadow of his former self when I went over +to spend my Christmas with him. + +And his eye was getting worse instead of better; at night he couldn't +sleep for the fireworks it let off in the dark. By day the trouble +was even worse, as it so interfered with the sight of the other +eye--even if he wore a patch, which he hated. He never knew peace +but when his aunt was reading to him in the dimly lighted room, and +he forgot himself in listening. + +Yet he was as lively and droll as ever, with a wan face as eloquent +of grief as any face I ever saw; he had it in his head that the +right eye would go the same way as the left. He could no longer see +the satellites of Jupiter with it: hardly Jupiter itself, except as +a luminous blur; indeed, it was getting quite near-sighted, and full +of spots and specks and little movable clouds--_muscae volitantes_, +as I believe they are called by the faculty. He was always on the +lookout for new symptoms, and never in vain; and his burden was as +much as he could bear. + +He would half sincerely long for death, of which he yet had such a +horror that he was often tempted to kill himself to get the bother +of it well over at once. The idea of death _in the dark_, however +remote--an idea that constantly haunted him as his own most probable +end--so appalled him that it would stir the roots of his hair! + +Lady Caroline confided to me her terrible anxiety, which she managed +to hide from him. She herself had been to see M. Noiret, who was no +longer so confident and cocksure about recovery. + +I went to see him too, without letting Barty know. I did not like +the man--he was stealthy in look and manner, and priestly and feline +and sleek: but he seemed very intelligent, and managed to persuade +me that no other treatment was even to be thought of. + +I inquired about him in Brussels, and found his reputation was of +the highest. What could I do? I knew nothing of such things! And +what a responsibility for me to volunteer advice! + +I could see that my deep affection for Barty was a source of immense +comfort to Lady Caroline, for whom I conceived a great and warm +regard, besides being very much charmed with her. + +She was one of those gentle, genial, kindly, intelligent women of +the world, absolutely natural and sincere, in whom it is impossible +not to confide and trust. + +When I left off talking about Barty, because there was really +nothing more to say, I fell into talking about myself: it was +irresistible--she _made_ one! I even showed her Leah's last +photograph, and told her of my secret aspirations; and she was so +warmly sympathetic and said such beautiful things to me about Leah's +face and aspect and all they promised of good that I have never +forgotten them, and never shall--they showed such a prophetic +insight! they fanned a flame that needed no fanning, good heavens! +and rang in my ears and my heart all the way to Barge Yard, +Bucklersbury--while my eyes were full of Barty's figure as he again +watched me depart by the _Baron Osy_ from the Quai de la Place Verte +in Antwerp; a sight that wrung me, when I remembered what a +magnificent figure of a youth he looked as he left the wharf at +London Bridge on the Boulogne steamer, hardly more than two short +years ago. + +When I got back to London, after spending my Christmas holiday with +Barty, I found the beginning of a little trouble of my own. + +My father was abroad; my mother and sister were staying with some +friends in Chiselhurst, and after having settled all business +matters in Barge Yard I called at the Gibsons', in Tavistock Square, +just after dusk. Mrs. Gibson and Leah were at home, and three or +four young men were there, also calling. There had been a party on +Christmas-eve. + +I'm afraid I did not think much, as a rule, of the young men I met +at the Gibsons'. They were mostly in business, like myself; and why +I should have felt at all supercilious I can't quite see! But I did. +Was it because I was very tall, and dressed by Barty's tailor, in +Jermyn Street? Was it because I knew French? Was it because I was a +friend of Barty the Guardsman, who had never been supercilious +towards anybody in his life? Or was it those maternally ancestral +Irish Blakes of Derrydown stirring within me? + +The simplest excuse I can make for myself is that I was a young +snob, and couldn't help it. Many fellows are at that age. Some grow +out of it, and some don't. And the Gibsons were by way of spoiling +me, because I was Leah's bosom friend's brother, and I gave myself +airs in consequence. + +As I sat perfectly content, telling Leah all about poor Barty, +another visitor was announced--a Mr. Scatcherd, whom I didn't know; +but I saw at a glance that it would not do to be supercilious with +Mr. Scatcherd. He was quite as tall as I, for one thing, if not +taller. His tailor might have been Poole himself; and he was +extremely good-looking, and had all the appearance and manners of a +man of the world. He might have been a Guardsman. He was not that, +it seemed--only a barrister. + +He had been at Eton, had taken his degree at Cambridge, and ignored +me just as frankly as I ignored Tom, Dick, and Harry--whoever they +were; and I didn't like it at all. He ignored everybody but Leah and +her mamma: her papa was not there. It turned out that he was the +only son of the great wholesale furrier in Ludgate Hill, the largest +house of the kind in the world, with a branch in New York and +another in Quebec or Montreal. He had been called to the bar to +please a whim of his father's. + +He had been at the Gibson party on Christmas-eve, and had paid Leah +much attention there; and came to tell them that his mother hoped to +call on Mrs. Gibson on the following day. I was savagely glad that +he did not succeed in monopolizing Leah; not even I could do that. +She was kind to us all round, and never made any differences in her +own house. + +Mr. Scatcherd soon took his departure, and it was then that I heard +all about him. + +[Illustration: ENTER MR. SCATCHERD] + +There was no doubt that Mr. and Mrs. Gibson were immensely flattered +by the civilities of this very important and somewhat consequential +young man, and those of his mother, which were to follow; for within +a week the Gibsons and Leah dined with Mr. and Mrs. Scatcherd in +Portland Place. + +On this occasion Mr. Gibson was, as usual, very funny, it seems. +Whether his fun was appreciated I doubt, for he confided to me that +Mr. Scatcherd, senior, was a pompous and stuck-up old ass. People +have such different notions of what is funny. Nobody roared at Mr. +Gibson's funniments more than I did; but he was Leah's papa. + + "Let him joke his bellyful; + I'll bear it all for Sally!" + +Young Scatcherd was fond of his joke too--a kind of supersubtly +satirical Cambridgy banter that was not to my taste at all; for I am +no Cantab, and the wit of the London Stock Exchange is subtle enough +for me. His father did not joke. Indeed he was full of useful +information, and only too fond of imparting it, and he always made +use of the choicest language in doing so; and Mrs. Scatcherd was +immensely genteel. + +Young Scatcherd became the plague of my life. The worst of it is +that he grew quite civil--seemed to take a liking. His hobby was to +become a good French scholar, and he practised his French--which was +uncommonly good of its English kind--on me. And I am bound to say +that his manners were so agreeable (when he wasn't joking), and he +was such a thoroughly good fellow, that it was impossible to snub +him; besides, he wouldn't have cared if I had. + +Once or twice he actually asked me to dine with him at his club, and +I actually did; and actually he with me, at mine! And we spoke +French all through dinner, and I taught him a lot of French +school-boy slang, with which he was delighted. Then he came to see +me in Barge Yard, and I even introduced him to my mother and sister, +who couldn't help being charmed with him. He was fond of the best +music only (he had no ear whatever, and didn't know a note), and +only cared for old pictures--the National Gallery, and all that; and +read no novels but French--Balzac and George Sand--and that only for +practice for he was a singularly pure young man, the purest in all +Cambridge, and in those days I thought him a quite unforgivable +prig. + +So Scatcherd was in my thoughts all day and in my dreams all +night--a kind of incubus; and my mother made herself very unhappy +about him, on Leah's account and mine; except that now and then she +would fancy it was Ida he was thinking of. And that would have +pleased my mother very much; and me too! + +His mother called on mine, who returned the call--but there was no +invitation for us to dine in Portland Place. + +Nothing of all this interrupted for a moment the bosom-friendship +between my sister and Leah; nothing ever altered the genial +sweetness of Leah's manners to me, nor indeed the cordiality of her +parents: Mr. Gibson could not get on without that big guffaw of +mine, at Whatever he looked or said or did; no Scatcherd could laugh +as loudly and as readily as I! But I was very wretched indeed, and +poured out my woes to Barty in long letters of poetical Blaze, and +he would bid me hope and be of good cheer in his droll way; and a +Blaze letter from him would hearten me up wonderfully--till I was +told of Leah's going to the theatre with Mrs. Scatcherd and her son, +or saw his horses and groom parading up and down Tavistock Square +while he was at the Gibsons', or heard of his dining there without +Ida or me! + +Then one fine day in April (the first, I verily believe) young +Scatcherd proposed to Leah--and was refused--unconditionally +refused--to the deep distress and dismay of her father and mother, +who had thoroughly set their hearts on this match; and no wonder! + +But Leah was an obstinate young woman, it seems, and thoroughly knew +her own mind, though she was so young--not seventeen. + +Was I a happy man? Ah, wasn't I! I was sent to Bordeaux by my father +that very week on business--and promised myself I would soon be +quite as good a catch or match as Scatcherd himself. I found +Bordeaux the sunniest, sweetest town I had ever been in--and the +Bordelais the jolliest men on earth; and as for the beautiful +Bordelaises--ma foi! they might have been monkeys, for me! There was +but one woman among women--one lily among flowers--everything else +was a weed! + +Poor Scatcherd! when I met him, a few days later, he must have been +struck by the sudden warmth of my friendship--the quick idiomatic +cordiality of my French to him. This mutual friendship of ours +lasted till his death in '88. And so did our mutual French! + +Except Barty, I never loved a man better; two years after his +refusal by Leah he married my sister--a happy marriage, though a +childless one; and except myself, Barty never had a more devoted +friend. And now to Barty I will return. + + + + +Part Sixth + + "From the east to western Ind, + No jewel is like Rosalind. + Her worth, being mounted on the wind, + Through all the world bears Rosalind. + All the pictures, fairest lin'd, + Are but black to Rosalind. + Let no fair be kept in mind, + But the fair of Rosalind. + + * * * * * + + "Thus Rosalind of many parts + By heavenly synod was devis'd, + Of many faces, eyes, and hearts, + To have the touches dearest priz'd." + + --_As You Like It._ + + +For many months Barty and his aunt lived their usual life in the Rue +des Ursulines Blanches. + +He always looked back on those dreary months as on a long nightmare. +Spring, summer, autumn, and another Christmas! + +His eye got worse and worse, and so interfered with the sight of the +other that he had no peace till it was darkened wholly. He tried +another doctor--Monsieur Goyers, professor at the liberal university +of Ghent--who consulted with Dr. Noiret about him one day in +Brussels, and afterwards told him that Noiret of Louvain, whom he +described as a miserable Jesuit, was blinding him, and that he, this +Goyers of Ghent, would cure him in six weeks. + +"Mettez-vous au regime des viandes saignantes!" had said Noiret; and +Barty had put himself on a diet of underdone beef and mutton. + +"Mettez-vous au lait!" said Goyers--so he metted himself at the +milk, as he called it--and put himself in Goyers's hands; and in six +weeks got so much worse that he went back to Noiret and the regimen +of the bleeding meats, which he loathed. + +Then, in his long and wretched _desoeuvrement_, his melancholia, he +drifted into an indiscreet flirtation with a beautiful lady--he (as +had happened before) being more the pursued than the pursuer. And so +ardent was the pursuit that one fine morning the beautiful lady +found herself gravely compromised--and there was a bother and a row. + + "Amour, amour, quand tu nous tiens, + On peut bien dire 'Adieu Prudence!'" + +All this gave Lady Caroline great distress, and ended most +unhappily--in a duel with the lady's husband, who was a Colonel of +Artillery, and meant business! + +They fought with swords in a little wood near Laeken. Barty, who +could have run his fat antagonist through a dozen times during the +five minutes they fought, allowed himself to be badly wounded in the +side, just above the hip, and spent a month in bed. He had hoped to +manage for himself a slighter wound, and catch his adversary's point +on his elbow. + +Afterwards, Lady Caroline, who had so disapproved of the flirtation, +did not, strange to say, so disapprove of this bloody encounter, and +thoroughly approved of the way Barty had let himself be pinked! And +nursed him devotedly; no mother could have nursed him better--no +sister--no wife! not even the wife of that Belgian Colonel of +Artillery! + +[Illustration: BARTY GIVES HIMSELF AWAY] + +"Il s'est conduit en homme de coeur!" said the good Abbe. + +"Il s'est conduit en bon gentilhomme!" said the aristocratic Father +Louis, of the princely house of Aremberg. + +On the other hand, young de Cleves the dragoon, and Monsieur Jean +the Viscount, who had served as Barty's seconds (I was in America), +were very angry with him for giving himself away in this +"idiotically quixotic manner." + +Besides which, Colonel Lecornu was a notorious bully, it seems; and +a fool into the bargain; and belonged to a branch of the service +they detested. + +The only other thing worth mentioning is that Barty and Father Louis +became great friends--almost inseparable during such hours as the +Dominican could spare from the duties of his professorate. + +It speaks volumes for all that was good in each of them that this +should have been so, since they were wide apart as the poles in +questions of immense moment: questions on which I will not enlarge, +strongly as I feel about them myself--for this is not a novel, but a +biography, and therefore no fit place for the airing of one's own +opinion on matters so grave and important. + +When they parted they constantly wrote to each other--an intimate +correspondence that was only ended by the Father's death. + +Barty also made one or two other friends in Malines, and was often +in Antwerp and Brussels, but seldom, for more than a few hours, as +he did not like to leave his aunt alone. + +One day came, in April, on which she had to leave him. + +[Illustration: SO NEAR AND YET SO FAR] + +A message arrived that her father, the old Marquis (Barty's +grandfather), was at the point of death. He was ninety-six. He had +expressed a wish to see her once more, although he had long been +childish. + +So Barty saw her off, with her maid, by the _Baron Osy_. She +promised to be back as soon as all was over. Even this short parting +was a pain--they had grown so indispensable to each other. + +Tescheles was away from Antwerp, and the disconsolate Barty went +back to Malines and dined by himself; and little Frau waited on him +with extra care. + +It turned out that her mother had cooked for him a special dish of +consolation--sausage-meat stewed inside a red cabbage, with apples +and cloves, till it all gets mixed up. It is a dish not to be beaten +when you are young and Flemish and hungry and happy and well (even +then you mustn't take more than one helping). When you are not all +this it is good to wash it down with half a bottle of the best +Burgundy--and this Barty did (from Vougeot-Conti and Co.). + +Then he went out and wandered about in the dark and lost himself in +a dreamy daedalus of little streets and bridges and canals and +ditches. A huge comet (Encke's, I believe) was flaring all over the +sky. + +He suddenly came across the lighted window of a small estaminet, and +went in. + +It was a little beer-shop of the humblest kind--and just started. At +a little deal table, brand-new, a middle-aged burgher of prosperous +appearance was sitting next to the barmaid, who had deserted her +post at the bar--and to whom he seemed somewhat attentive; for their +chairs were close together, and their arms round each other's +waists, and they drank out of the same glass. + +There was no one else in the room, and Barty was about to make +himself scarce, but they pressed him to come in; so he sat at +another little new deal table on a little new straw-bottomed chair, +and she brought him a glass of beer. She was a very handsome girl, +with a tall, graceful figure and Spanish eyes. He lit a cigar, and +she went back to her beau quite simply--and they all three fell into +conversation about an operetta by Victor Masse, which had been +performed in Malines the previous night, called _Les Noces de +Jeannette_. + +The barmaid and her monsieur were trying to remember the beautiful +air Jeannette sings as she mends her angry husband's breeches: + + "Cours, mon aiguille, dans la laine! + Ne te casse pas dans ma main; + Avec de bons baisers demain + Jean nous paira de notre peine!" + +So Barty sang it to them; and so beautifully that they were all but +melted to tears--especially the monsieur, who was evidently very +sentimental and very much in love. Besides, there was that ineffable +charm of the pure French intonation, so caressing to the Belgian +ear, so dear to the Belgian soul, so unattainable by Flemish lips. +It was one of Barty's most successful ditties--and if I were a +middle-aged burgher of Mechelen, I shouldn't much like to have a +young French Barty singing "Cours, mon aiguille" to the girl of my +heart. + +Then, at their desire, he went on singing things till it was time to +leave, and he found he had spent quite a happy evening; nothing gave +him greater pleasure than singing to people who liked it--and he +went singing on his way home, dreamily staring at the rare gas-lamps +and the huge comet, and thinking of his old grandfather who lay +dying or dead: "Cours, mon aiguille, it is good to live--it is good +to die!" + +Suddenly he discovered that when he looked at one lamp, another lamp +close to it on the right was completely eclipsed--and he soon found +that a portion of his right eye, not far from the centre, was +totally sightless. + +The shock was so great that he had to lean against a buttress of St. +Rombault for support. + +When he got home he tested the sight of his eye with a two-franc +piece on the green table-cloth, and found there was no mistake--a +portion of his remaining eye was stone-blind. + +He spent a miserable night, and went next day to Louvain, to see the +oculist. + +M. Noiret heard his story, arranged the dark room and the lamp, +dilated the right pupil with atropine, and made a minute examination +with the ophthalmoscope. + +Then he became very thoughtful, and led the way to his library and +begged Barty to sit down; and began to talk to him very seriously +indeed, like a father--patting the while a small Italian greyhound +that lay and shivered and whined in a little round cot by the fire. + +M. Noiret began by inquiring into his circumstances, which were not +nourishing, as we know--and Barty made no secret of them; then he +asked him if he were fond of music, and was pleased to hear that he +was, since it is such an immense resource; then he asked him if he +belonged to the Roman Catholic faith, and again was pleased. + +"For"--said he--"you will need all your courage and all your +religion to hear and bear what it is my misfortune to have to tell +you. I hope you will have more fortitude than another young patient +of mine (also an artist) to whom I was obliged to make a similar +communication. He blew out his brains on my door-step!" + +"I promise you I will not do that. I suppose I am going blind?" + +"Helas! mon jeune ami! I grieve to say that the fatal disease, +congestion and detachment of the retina, which has so obstinately +and irrevocably destroyed your left eye, has begun its terrible work +on the right. We will fight for every inch of the way. But I fear I +must not give you any hope, after the careful examination I have +just made. It is my duty to be frank with you." + +Then he said much about the will of God, and where true comfort was +to be found, at the foot of the Cross; in fact, he said all he ought +to have said according to his lights, as he fondled his little +greyhound--and finally took Barty to the door, which he opened for +him, most politely bowing with his black velvet skull-cap; and +pocketed his full fee (ten francs) with his usual grace of careless +indifference, and gently shut the door on him. There was nothing +else to do. + +Barty stood there for some time, quite dazed; partly because his +pupil was so dilated he could hardly see--partly (he thinks) because +he in some way became unconscious; although when he woke from this +little seeming trance, which may have lasted for more than a minute, +he found himself still standing upright on his legs. What woke him +was the _sudden consciousness of the north_, which he hadn't felt +for many years; and this gave him extraordinary confidence in +himself, and such a wholesome sense of power and courage that he +quickly recovered his wits; and when the glad surprise of this had +worn itself away he was able to think and realize the terrible thing +that had happened. He was almost pleased that his aunt Caroline was +away. He felt he could not have faced her with such news--it was a +thing easier to write and prepare her for than to tell by word of +mouth. + +He walked about Louvain for several hours, to tire himself. Then he +went to Brussels and dined, and again walked about the lamp-lit +streets and up and down the station, and finally went back to +Malines by a late train--very nervous--expecting that the retina of +His right eye would suddenly go pop--yet hugging himself all the +while in his renewed old comfortable feeling of companionship with +the north pole, that made him feel like a boy again; that +inexplicable sensation so intimately associated with all the best +reminiscences of his innocent and happy childhood. + +He had been talking to himself like a father all day, though not in +the same strain as M. Noiret; and had almost arrived at framing the +programme of a possible existence--singing at cafes with his +guitar--singing anywhere: he felt sure of a living for himself, and +for the little boy who would have to lead him about--if the worst +came to the worst. + +If but the feeling of self-orientation which was so necessary to him +could only be depended upon, he felt that in time he would have +pluck enough to bear anything. Indeed, total eclipse was less +appalling, in its finality, than that miserable sword of Damocles +which had been hanging over him for months--robbing him of his +manhood--poisoning all the springs of life. + +Why not make life-long endurance of evil a study, a hobby, and a +pride; and be patient as bronze or marble, and ever wear an +invincible smile at grief, even when in darkness and alone? Why not, +indeed! + +And he set himself then and there to smile invincibly, meaning to +keep on smiling for fifty years at least--the blind live long. + +[Illustration: "'HELAS! MON JEUNE AMI ... '"] + +So he chatted to himself, saying _Sursum cor! Sursum corda!_ all the +way home; and walking down the Grand Brul, he had a little adventure +which absolutely gave him a hearty guffaw and sent him almost +laughing to bed. + +There was a noisy squabble between some soldiers and civilians on +the opposite side of the way, and a group of men in blouses were +looking on. Barty stood leaning against a lamp-post, and looked on +too. + +Suddenly a small soldier rushed at the blouses, brandishing his +short straight sword (or _coupe-choux_, as it is called in civilian +slang), and saying: + +"Ca ne vous regarde pas, savez-vous! allez-vous en bien vite, ou je +vous ..." + +The blouses fled like sheep. + +Then as he caught sight of Barty he reached at him. + +"Ca ne vous regarde pas, savez-vous!..." + +(It doesn't concern you.) + +"Non--c'est moi qui regarde, savez-vous!" said Barty. + +"Qu'est-ce que vous regardez?" + +"Je regarde la lune et les etoiles. Je regarde la comete!" + +"Voulez-vous bien vous en aller bien vite?" + +"Une autre fois!" says Barty. + +"Allez-vous en, je vous dis!" + +"Apres-demain!" + +"Vous ... ne ... voulez ... pas ... vous ... en ... aller?" says the +soldier, on tiptoe, his chest against Barty's stomach, his nose +almost up to Barty's chin, glaring up like a fiend and poising his +_coupe-choux_ for a death-stroke. + +"_Non_, sacre petit pousse-cailloux du diable!" roars Barty. + +"Eh bien, restez ou vous etes!" and the little man plunged back into +the fray on the opposite side--and no blood was shed after all. + +Barty dreamt of this adventure, and woke up laughing at it in the +small hours of that night. Then, suddenly, in the dark, he +remembered the horror of what had happened. It overwhelmed him. He +realized, as in a sudden illuminating flash, what life meant for him +hence-forward--life that might last for so many years. + +Vitality is at its lowest ebb at that time of night; though the +brain is quick to perceive, and so clear that its logic seems +inexorable. + +It was hell. It was not to be borne a moment longer. It must be put +an end to at once. He tried to feel the north, but could not. He +would kill himself then and there, while his aunt was away; so that +the horror of the sight of him, after, should at least be spared +her. + +He jumped out of bed and struck a light. Thank Heaven, he wasn't +blind yet, though he saw all the bogies, as he called them, that had +made his life a burden to him for the last two years--the retina +floating loose about his left eye, tumbling and deforming every +lighted thing it reflected--and also the new dark spot in his right. + +He partially dressed, and stole up-stairs to old Torfs's +photographic studio. He knew where he could find a bottle full of +cyanide of potassium, used for removing finger-stains left by silver +nitrate; there was enough of it to poison a whole regiment. That was +better than taking a header off the roof. He seized a handful of the +stuff, and came down and put it into a tumbler by his bedside and +poured some water over it. + +Then he got his writing-case and a pen and ink, and jumped into bed; +and there he wrote four letters: one to Lady Caroline, one to Father +Louis, one to Lord Archibald, and one to me in Blaze. + +The cyanide was slow in melting. He crushed it angrily in the glass +with his penholder--and the scent of bitter-almonds filled the room. +Just then the sense of the north came back to him in full; but it +only strengthened his resolve and made him all the calmer. + +He lay staring at the tumbler, watching little bubbles, revelling in +what remained of his exquisite faculty of minute sight--with a +feeling of great peace; and thought prayerfully; lost himself in a +kind of formless prayer without words--lost himself completely. It +was as if the wished-for dissolution were coming of its own accord; +Nirvana--an ecstasy of conscious annihilation--the blessed end, the +end of all! as though he were passing + + "... du sommeil au songe-- + Du songe a la mort." + +It was not so.... + + * * * * * + +He was aroused by a knock at the door, which was locked. It was +broad daylight. + +"Il est dix heures, savez-vous?" said little Frau +outside--"voulez-vous votre cafe dans votre chambre?" + +"O Christ!" said Barty--and jumped out of bed. "It's all got to be +done now!" + +But something very strange had happened. + +The tumbler was still there, but the cyanide had disappeared; so had +the four letters he had written. His pen and ink were on the table, +and on his open writing-case lay a letter in Blaze--in his own +handwriting. The north was strong in him. He called out to Finche +Torfs to leave his coffee in the drawing-room, and read his blaze +letter--and this is what he read: + + "My dear Barty,--Don't be in the least alarmed on reading this hasty + scrawl, after waking from the sleep you meant to sleep forever. + There is no sleep without a live body to sleep in--no such thing as + everlasting sleep. Self-destruction seems a very simple thing--more + often a duty than not; but it's not to be done! It is quite + impossible not to be, when once you have been. + + "If I were to let you destroy your body, as you were so bent on + doing, the strongest interest I have on earth would cease to exist. + + "I love you, Barty, with a love passing the love of woman; and have + done so from the day you were born. I loved your father and mother + before you--and theirs; ca date de loin, mon pauvre ami! And + especially I love your splendid body and all that belongs to + it--brain, stomach, heart, and the rest; even your poor remaining + eye, which is worth all the eyes of Argus! + + "So I have used your own pen and ink and paper, your own right hand + and brain, your own cipher, and the words that are yours, to write + you this--in English. I like English better than French. + + "Listen. Monsieur Noiret is a fool; and you are a poor self-deluded + hypochondriac. + + "I am convinced your right eye is safe for many years to + come--probably for the rest of your life. + + "You have quite deceived yourself in fancying that the symptom you + perceived in your right eye threatens the disease which has + destroyed your left--for the sight of that, alas! is irretrievably + gone; so don't trouble about it any more. It will always be charming + to _look at_, but it will never _see_ again. Some day I will tell + you how you came to lose the use of it. I think I know. + + "M. Noiret is new to the ophthalmoscope. The old humbug never saw + your right retina at all--nor your left one either, for that matter. + He only pretended, and judged entirely by what you told him; and you + didn't tell him very clearly. He's a Belgian, you know, and a + priest, and doesn't think very quick. + + "_I_ saw your retina, although but with _his_ eye. There is no sign + of congestion or coming detachment whatever. That blind portion you + discovered is in _every_ eye. It is called the '_punctum coecum_.' It + is where the optic nerve enters the retina and spreads out. It is + only with one eye shut that an ordinary person can find it, for each + eye supplements this defect of the other. To-morrow morning try the + experiment on little Finche Torfs; on any one you meet. You will + find it in everybody. + + "So don't trouble about either eye any more. I'm not infallible, of + course; it's only _your_ brain I'm using now. But your brain is + infinitely better than that of poor M. Noiret, who doesn't know what + his eye really perceives, and takes it for something else! Your + brain is the best brain I know, although you are not aware of this, + and have never even used it, except for trash and nonsense. But you + _shall_--some day. _I'll_ take care of that, and the world shall + wonder. + + "Trust me. Live on, and I will never desert you again, unless you + again force me to by your conduct. I have come back to you in the + hour of your need. + + "I have managed to make you, in your sleep, throw away your poison + where it will injure nobody but the rats, and no one will be a bit + the wiser. I have made you burn your touching letters of farewell; + you will find the ashes inside the stove. Yours is a good heart! + + "Now take a cold bath and have a good breakfast, and go to Antwerp + or Brussels and see people and amuse yourself. + + "Never see M. Noiret again. But when your aunt comes back you must + both clear out of this depressing priestly hole; it doesn't suit + either of you, body or mind. Go to Duesseldorf, in Prussia. Close by, + at a village called Riffrath, lives an old doctor, Dr. Hasenclever, + who understands a deal about the human heart and something about the + human body; and even a little about the human eye, for he is a + famous oculist. He can't cure, but he'll give you things that at + least will do you no harm. He won't rid you of the eye that remains! + You will meet some pleasant English people, whom I particularly wish + you to meet, and make friends, and have a holiday from trouble, and + begin the world anew. + + "As to who _I_ am, you shall know in time. My power to help you is + very limited, but my devotion to you (for very good reasons) has no + limits at all. + + "Take it that my name is Martia. When you have finished reading this + letter look at yourself in your looking-glass and say (loud enough + for your own ears to hear you): + + "'I trust you, Martia!' + + "Then I will leave you for a while, and come back at night, as in + the old days. Whenever the north is in you, there am ~I~; seeing, + hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling with your five splendid wits by + day--sleeping your lovely sleep at night; but only able to think + with _your_ brain, it seems, and then only when you are fast asleep. + I only found it out just now, and saved your earthly life, mon beau + somnambule! It was a great surprise to me! + + "Don't mention this to any living soul till I give you leave. You + will only hear from me on great occasions. + + "Martia." + + "P. S.--Always leave something to write with by your bedside at + night, in case the great occasion should arise. On ne sait pas ce + qui peut arriver!" + +Bewildered, beside himself, Barty ran to his looking-glass, and +stared himself out of countenance, and almost shouted: + +"I trust you, Martia!" + +And ceased suddenly to feel the north. + +Then he dressed and went to breakfast. Little Frau thought he had +gone mad, for he put a five-franc piece upon the carpet, and made +her stand a few feet off from it and cover her left eye with her +hand. + +"Now follow the point of my stick with your right eye," says he, +"and tell me if the five-franc piece disappears." + +And he slowly drew with the point of his stick an imaginary line +from the five-franc piece to the left of her, at right angles to +where she stood. When the point of the stick was about two feet from +the coin, she said: + +"Tiens, tiens, I no longer see the piece!" + +When the point of the stick had got a foot farther on, she said, +"Now I can see the piece again quite plain." + +Then he tried the same experiment on her left eye, rightwards, with +the same result. Then he experimented with equal success on her +father and mother, and found that every eye at No. 36 Rue des +Ursulines Blanches had exactly the same blind spot as his own. + +Then off he went to Antwerp to see his friends with a light +heart--the first light heart he had known for many months; but when +he got there he was so preoccupied with what had happened that he +did not care to see anybody. + +He walked about the ramparts and along the Scheldt, and read and +re-read that extraordinary letter. + +Who and what could Martia be? + +The reminiscence of some antenatal incarnation of his own soul? The +soul of some ancestor or ancestress--of his mother, perhaps? or, +perhaps, some occult portion of himself--of his own brain in +unconscious cerebration during sleep? + +As a child and a small boy, and even as a very young man, he had +often dreamt at night of a strange, dim land by the sea, a land +unlike any land he had ever beheld with the waking eye, where +beautiful aquatic people, mermen and mermaids and charming little +mer-children (of which he was one) lived an amphibious life by day, +diving and sporting in the waves. + +Splendid caverns, decorated with precious stones, and hung with soft +moss, and shining with a strange light; heavenly music, sweet, +affectionate caresses--and then total darkness; and yet one knew who +and what and where everything and everybody was by some keener sense +than that of sight. + +It all seemed strange and delightful, but so vague and shadowy it +was impossible to remember anything clearly; but ever pervading all +things was that feeling of the north which had always been such a +comfort to him. + +Was this extraordinary letter the result of some such forgotten +dream he may have had during the previous night, and which may have +prompted him to write it in his sleep? some internal knowledge of +the anatomy of his own eye which was denied to him when awake? + +Anyhow, it was evidently true about that blind spot in the retina +(the _punctum coecum_), and that he had been frightening himself out +of his wits for nothing, and that his right eye was really sound; +and, all through this wondrous yet simple revelation, it was time +this old hysterical mock-disease should die. + +Once more life was full of hopes and possibilities, and with such +inarticulate and mysterious promptings as he often felt within his +soul, and such a hidden gift to guide them, what might he not one +day develop into? + +Then he went and found Tescheles, and they dined together with a +famous pianist, Louis Brassin, and afterwards there was music, and +Barty felt the north, and his bliss was transcendent as he went back +to Malines by the last train--talking to Martia (as he expressed it +to himself) in a confidential whisper which he made audible to his +own ear (that she, if it was a she, might hear too); almost praying, +in a fervor of hope and gratitude; and begging for further guidance; +and he went warmly to sleep, hugging close within himself, somewhere +about the region of the diaphragm, an ineffable imaginary something +which he felt to be more precious than any possession that had ever +yet been his--more precious even than the apple of his remaining +eye; and when he awoke next morning he felt he had been most +blissfully dreaming all night long, but could not remember anything +of his dreams, and on a piece of paper he had left by his bedside +was written in pencil, in his own blaze: + +"You must depend upon yourself, Barty, not on me. Follow your own +instincts when you feel you can do so without self-reproach, and all +will be well with you.--M." + +His instincts led him to spend the day in Brussels, and he followed +them; he still wanted to walk about and muse and ponder, and +Brussels is a very nice, gay, and civilized city for such a +purpose--a little Paris, with charming streets and shops and a +charming arcade, and very good places to eat and drink in, and hear +pretty music. + +He did all this, and spent a happy day. + +Ho came to the conclusion that the only way to keenly appreciate and +thoroughly enjoy the priceless gift of sight in one eye was to lose +that of the other; in the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed is king, +and he fully revelled in the royalty that was now his, he hoped, for +evermore; but wished for himself as limited a kingdom and as few +subjects as possible. + +Then back to Malines by the last train--and the sensation of the +north, and a good-night; but no message in the morning--no message +from Martia for many mornings to come. + +He received, however, a long letter from Lady Caroline. + +The old Marquis had died without pain, and with nearly all his +family round him; but perfectly childish, as he had been for two or +three years. He was to be buried on the following Monday. + +Barty wrote a long letter in reply, telling his aunt how much better +he had suddenly become in health and spirits; how he had thought of +things, and quite reconciled himself at last to the loss of his left +eye, and meant to keep the other and make the best of it he could; +how he had heard of a certain Doctor Hasenclever, a famous oculist +near Duesseldorf, and would like to consult him; how Duesseldorf was +such a healthy town, charming and gay, full of painters and +soldiers, the best and nicest people in the world--and also very +cheap. Mightn't they try it? + +He was very anxious indeed to go back to his painting, and +Duesseldorf was as good a school as any, etc., etc., etc. He wrote +pages--of the kind he knew she would like, for it was of the kind he +liked writing to her; they understood each other thoroughly, he and +Lady Caroline, and well he knew that she could only be quite happy +in doing whatever he had most at heart. + +How he longed to tell her everything! but that must not be. I can +imagine all the deep discomfort to poor Barty of having to be +discreet for the first time in his life, of having to keep a +secret--and from his beloved Aunt Caroline of all people in the +world! + +That was a happy week he spent--mostly in Antwerp among the +painters. He got no more letters from Martia, not for many days to +come; but he felt the north every night as he sank into healthy +sleep, and woke in the morning full of hope and confidence in +himself--at last _sans peur et sans reproche_. + +One day in Brussels he met M. Noiret, who naturally put on a very +grave face; they shook hands, and Barty inquired affectionately +after the little Italian greyhound, and asked what was the French +for "_punctum coecum_." + +Said Noiret: "Ca s'appelle _le point cache_--c'est une portion de la +retine avec laquelle on ne peut pas voir...." + +Barty laughed and shook hands again, and left the Professor staring. + +Then he was a great deal with Father Louis. They went to Ghent +together, and other places of interest; and to concerts in Brussels. + +The good Dominican was very sorrowful at the prospect of soon losing +his friend. Poor Barty! The trial it was to him not to reveal his +secret to this singularly kind and sympathetic comrade; not even +under the seal of confession! So he did not confess at all; although +he would have confessed anything to Father Louis, even if Father +Louis had not been a priest. There are the high Catholics, who +understand the souls of others, and all the difficulties of the +conscience, and do not proselytize in a hurry; and the low +Catholics, the converts of the day before yesterday, who will not +let a body be! + +Father Louis was a very high Catholic indeed. + +The Lady Caroline Grey, 12A Scamore Place, London, to M. Josselin, +36 Rue des Ursulines Blanches, Malines: + + "My dear little Barty,--Your nice long letter made me very + happy--happy beyond description; it makes me almost jealous to think + that you should have suddenly got so much better in your health and + spirits while I was away: you won't want me any more! That doesn't + prevent my longing to get back to you. You must put up with your + poor old aunty for a little while yet. + + "And now for _my_ news--I couldn't write before. Poor papa was + buried on Monday, and we all came back here next day. He has left + you L200: c'est toujours ca! Everything seems in a great mess. Your + Uncle Runswick[1] is going to be very poor indeed; he is going to + let Castle Rohan, and live here all the year round. Poor fellow, he + looks as old as his father did ten years ago, and he's only + sixty-three! If Algy could only make a good marriage! At forty + that's easier said than done. + + [Footnote 1: The new Marquis of Whitby.] + + "Archibald and his wife are at a place called Monte Carlo, where + there are gaming-tables: she gambles fearfully, it seems; and they + lead a cat-and-dog life. She is _plus que coquette_, and extravagant + to a degree; and he is quite shrunk and prematurely old, and almost + shabby, and drinks more brandy than he ought. + + "Daphne is charming, and is to come out next spring; she will have + L3000 a year, lucky child; all out of chocolate. What nonsense we've + all talked about trade! We shall all have to take to it in time. The + Lonlay-Savignac people were wise in their generation. + + "And what do you think? Young Digby-Dobbs wants to marry her, out + of the school-room! He'll be Lord Frognal, you know; and very soon, + for his father is drinking himself to death. + + "He's in your old regiment, and a great favorite; not yet twenty--he + only left Eton last Christmas twelvemonth. She says she won't have + him at any price, because he stammers. + + "She declares you haven't written to her for three months, and that + you owe her an illustrated letter in French, with priests and nuns, + and dogs harnessed to a cart. + + "And now for news that will delight you: She is to come abroad with + me for a twelvemonth, and wishes to go with you and me to Duesseldorf + first! _Isn't_ that a happy coincidence? We would all spend the + summer there, and then Italy for the winter; you too, if you can (so + you must be economical with that L200). + + "I have already heard wonders about Dr. Hasenclever, even before + your letter came; he cured General Baines, who was given up by + everybody here, Lady Palmerston told me; she was here yesterday, + by-the-bye, and the Duchess of Bermondsey, and both inquired most + kindly after you. + + "The Duchess looked as handsome as ever, and as proud as a peacock; + for last year she presented her niece, Julia Royce, 'the divine + Julia,' the greatest beauty ever seen, I am told--with many + thousands a year, if you please--Lady Jane Royce's daughter, an only + child, and her father's dead. She's six feet high, so you would go + mad about her. She's already refused sixty offers, good ones; among + them little Lord Orrisroot, the hunchback, who'll have L1000 a day + (including Sundays) when he comes into the title--and that can't be + very far off, for the wicked old Duke of Deptford has got creeping + paralysis, like his father and grandfather before him, and is now + quite mad, and thinks himself a postman, and rat-tats all day long + on the furniture. Lady Jane is furious with her for not accepting; + and when Julia told her, she slapped her face before the maid! + + "There's another gigantic beauty that people have gone mad about--a + Polish pianist, who's just married young Harcourt, who's a grandson + of that old scamp the Duke of Towers. + + "Talking of beauties, whom do you think I met yesterday in the Park? + Whom but your stalwart friend Mr. Maurice (_he_ wasn't the beauty), + with his sister, your old Paris playfellow, and the lovely Miss + Gibson. He introduced them both, and I was delighted with them, and + we walked together by the Serpentine; and after five minutes I came + to the conclusion that Miss Gibson is as beautiful as it is possible + for a dark beauty to be, and as nice as she looks. She isn't dark + really, only her eyes and hair; her complexion is like cream: she's + a freak of nature. Lucky young Maurice if she is to be his fate--and + both well off, I suppose. + + "Upon my word, if you were King Cophetua and she the beggar-maid, I + would give you both my blessing. But how is it you never fell in + love with the fair _Ida_? You never told me how handsome she is. She + too complained of you as a correspondent, and declares that she gets + one letter in return for three she writes you. + + "I have bought you some pretty new songs, among others one by + Charles Kingsley, which is lovely; about three fishermen and their + wives: it reminds one of our dear Whitby! I can play the + accompaniment in perfection, and all by heart! + + "Give my kindest remembrances to Father Louis and the dear Abbe + Lefebvre, and say kind things from me to the Torfses. Martha sends + her love to little Frau, and so do I. + + "We hope to be in Antwerp in a fortnight, and shall put up at the + Grand Laboureur. I shall go to Malines, of course, to say good-bye + to people. + + "Tell the Torfses to get my things ready for moving. There will be + five of us: I and Martha, and Daphne and two servants of her own; + for Daphne's got to take old Mrs. Richards, who won't be parted from + her. + + "Good-bye for the present. My dear boy, I thank God on my knees, + night and morning for having given you back to me in my old age. + + "Your ever affectionate aunt, + + "Caroline. + + "P. S.--You remember pretty little Kitty Hardwicke you used to flirt + with, who married young St. Clair, who's now Lord Kidderminster? + She's just had three at a birth; she had twins only last year; the + Queen's delighted. Pray be careful about never getting wet feet--" + +One stormy evening in May, Mrs. Gibson drove Ida and Leah and me and +Mr. Babbage, a middle-aged but very dapper War Office clerk (who was +a friend of the Gibson family), to Chelsea, that we might explore +Cheyne Walk and its classic neighborhood. I rode on the box by the +coachman. + +We alighted by the steamboat pier and explored, I walking with Leah. + +We came to a very narrow street, quite straight, the narrowest +street that could call itself a street at all, and rather long; we +were the only people in it. It has since disappeared, with all that +particular part of Chelsea. + +Suddenly we saw a runaway horse without a rider coming along it at +full gallop, straight at us, with a most demoralizing sharp clatter +of its iron hoofs on the stone pavement. + +"Your backs to the wall!" cried Mr. Babbage, and we flattened +ourselves to let the maddened brute go by, bridle and stirrups +flying--poor Mrs. Gibson almost faint with terror. + +Leah, instead of flattening herself against the wall, put her arms +round her mother, making of her own body a shield for her, and +looked round at the horse as it came tearing up the street, striking +sparks from the flag-stones. + +Nobody was hurt, for a wonder; but Mrs. Gibson was quite overcome. +Mr. Babbage was very angry with Leah, whose back the horse actually +grazed, as he all but caught his hoofs in her crinoline and hit her +with a stirrup on the shoulder. + +I could only think of Leah's face as she looked round at the +approaching horse, with her protecting arms round her mother. It was +such a sudden revelation to me of what she really was, and its +expression was so hauntingly impressive that I could think of +nothing else. Its mild, calm courage, its utter carelessness of +self, its immense tenderness--all blazed out in such beautiful +lines, in such beautiful white and black, that I lost all +self-control; and when we walked back to the pier, following the +rest of the party, I asked her to be my wife. + +She turned very pale again, and the flesh of her chin quivered as +she told me that was _quite impossible--and could never be_. + +I asked her if there was anybody else, and she said there was +nobody, but that she did not wish ever to marry; that, beyond her +parents and Ida, she loved and respected me more than anybody else +in the whole world, but that she could never marry me. She was much +agitated, and said the sweetest, kindest things, but put all hope +out of the question at once. + +It was the greatest blow I have ever had in my life. + +Three days after, I went to America; and before I came back I had +started in New York the American branch of the house of +Vougeot-Conti, and laid the real foundation of the largest fortune +that has ever yet been made by selling wine, and of the long +political career about which I will say nothing in these pages. + +On my voyage out I wrote a long blaze letter to Barty, and poured +out all my grief, and my resignation to the decree which I felt to +be irrevocable. I reminded him of that playful toss-up in +Southampton Row, and told him that, having surrendered all claims +myself, the best thing that could happen to me was that she should +some day marry _him_ (which I certainly did not think at all +likely). + +So henceforward, reader, you will not be troubled by your obedient +servant with the loves of a prosperous merchant of wines. Had those +loves been more successful, and the wines less so, you would never +have heard of either. + +Whether or not I should have been a happier man in the long-run I +really can't say--mine has been, on the whole, a very happy life, as +men's lives go; but I am bound to admit, in all due modesty, that +the universe would probably have been the poorer by some very +splendid people, and perhaps by some very splendid things it could +ill have spared; and one great and beautifully borne sorrow the less +would have been ushered into this world of many sorrows. + + * * * * * + +It was a bright May morning (a year after this) when Barty and his +aunt Caroline and his cousin Daphne and their servants left Antwerp +for Duesseldorf on the Rhine. + +At Malines they had to change trains, and spent half an hour at the +station waiting for the express from Brussels and bidding farewell +to their Mechlin friends, who had come there to wish them God-speed: +the Abbe Lefebvre, Father Louis, and others; and the Torfses, pere +et mere; and little Frau, who wept freely as Lady Caroline kissed +her and gave her a pretty little diamond brooch. Barty gave her a +gold cross and a hearty shake of the hand, and she seemed quite +heart-broken. + +Then up came the long, full train, and their luggage was swallowed, +and they got in, and the two guards blew their horns, and they left +Malines behind them--with a mixed feeling of elation and regret. + +They had not been very happy there, but many people had been very +kind; and the place, with all its dreariness, had a strange, still +charm, and was full of historic beauty and romantic associations. + +Passing Louvain, Barty shook his fist at the Catholic University and +its scientific priestly professors, who condemned one so lightly to +a living death. He hated the aspect of the place, the very smell of +it. + +At Verviers they left the Belgian train; they had reached the limits +of King Leopold's dominions. There was half an hour for lunch in the +big refreshment-room, over which his Majesty and the Queen of the +Belgians presided from the wall--nearly seven feet high each of +them, and in their regal robes. + +Just as the Rohans ordered their repast another English party came +to their table and ordered theirs--a distinguished old gentleman of +naval bearing and aspect; a still young middle-aged lady, very +handsome, with blue spectacles; and an immensely tall, fair girl, +very fully developed, and so astonishingly beautiful that it almost +took one's breath away merely to catch sight of her; and people were +distracted from ordering their mid-day meal merely to stare at this +magnificent goddess, who was evidently born to be a mother of +heroes. + +These British travellers had a valet, a courier, and two maids, and +were evidently people of consequence. + +Suddenly the lady with the blue spectacles (who had seated herself +close to the Rohan party) got up and came round the table to Barty's +aunt and said: + +"You don't remember me, Lady Caroline; Lady Jane Royce!" + +And an old acquaintance was renewed in this informal +manner--possibly some old feud patched up. + +Then everybody was introduced to everybody else, and they all +lunched together, a scramble! + +It turned out that Lady Jane Royce was in some alarm about her eyes, +and was going to consult the famous Dr. Hasenclever, and had brought +her daughter with her, just as the London season had begun. + +Her daughter was the "divine Julia" who had refused so many splendid +offers--among them the little hunchback Lord who was to have a +thousand a day, "including Sundays"; a most unreasonable young +woman, and a thorn in her mother's flesh. + +The elderly gentleman, Admiral Royce, was Lady Jane's uncle-in-law, +whose eyes were also giving him a little anxiety. He was a charming +old stoic, by no means pompous or formal, or a martinet, and +declared he remembered hearing of Barty as the naughtiest boy in the +Guards; and took an immediate fancy to him in consequence. + +They had come from Brussels in the same train that had brought the +Rohans from Malines, and they all journeyed together from Verviers +to Duesseldorf in the same first-class carriage, as became English +swells of the first water--for in those days no one ever thought of +going first-class in Germany except the British aristocracy and a +few native royalties. + +The divine Julia turned out as fascinating as she was fair, being +possessed of those high spirits that result from youth and health +and fancy-freedom, and no cares to speak of. She was evidently also +a very clever and accomplished young lady, absolutely without +affectation of any kind, and amiable and frolicsome to the highest +degree--a kind of younger Barty Josselin in petticoats; oddly +enough, so like him in the face she might have been his sister. + +Indeed, it was a lively party that journeyed to Duesseldorf that +afternoon in that gorgeously gilded compartment, though three out of +the six were in deep mourning; the only person not quite happy being +Lady Jane, who, in addition to her trouble about her eyes (which was +really nothing to speak of), began to fidget herself miserably about +Barty Josselin; for that wretched young detrimental was evidently +beginning to ingratiate himself with the divine Julia as no young +man had ever been known to do before, keeping her in fits of +laughter, and also laughing at everything she said herself. + +Alas for Lady Jane! it was to escape the attentions of a far less +dangerous detrimental, and a far less ineligible one, that she had +brought her daughter with her all the way to Riffrath--"from +Charybdis to Scylla," as we used to say at Brossard's, putting the +cart before the horse, _more Latino_! + +I ought also to mention that a young Captain Graham-Reece was a +patient of Dr. Hasenclever's just then--and Captain Graham-Reece was +heir to the octogenarian Earl of Ironsides, who was one of the four +wealthiest peers in the United Kingdom, and had no direct +descendants. + +When they reached Duesseldorf they all went to the Breidenbacher +Hotel, where rooms had been retained for them, all but Barty, who, +as became his humbler means, chose the cheaper hotel Domhardt, which +overlooks the market-place adorned by the statue of the Elector that +Heine has made so famous. + +He took a long evening walk through the vernal Hof Gardens and by +the Rhine, and thought of the beauty and splendor of the divine +Julia; and sighed, and remembered that he was Mr. Nobody of Nowhere, +_pictor ignotus_, with only one eye he could see with, and possessed +of a fortune which invested in the 3 per cents would bring him in +just L6 a year--and made up his mind he would stick to his painting +and keep as much away from her divinity as possible. + +"O Martia, Martia!" he said, aloud, as he suddenly felt the north at +the right of him, "I hope that you are some loving female soul, and +that you know my weakness--namely, that one woman in every ten +thousand has a face that drives me mad; and that I can see just as +well with one eye as with two, in spite of my _punctum coecum_! and +that when that face is all but on a level with mine, good Lord! then +am I lost indeed! I am but a poor penniless devil, without a name; +oh, keep me from that ten-thousandth face, and cover my retreat!" + +Next morning Lady Jane and Julia and the Admiral left for +Riffrath--and Barty and his aunt and cousin went in search of +lodgings; sweet it was, and bright and sunny, as they strolled down +the broad Allee Strasse; a regiment of Uhlans came along on +horseback, splendid fellows, the band playing the "Lorelei." + +In the fulness of their hearts Daphne and Barty squeezed each +other's hand to express the joy and elation they felt at the +pleasantness of everything. She was his little sister once more, +from whom he had so long been parted, and they loved each other very +dearly. + +"Que me voila donc bien contente, mon petit Barty--et toi? la jolie +ville, hein?" + +"C'est le ciel, tout bonnement--et tu vas m'apprendre l'allemand, +n'est-ce-pas, m'amour?" + +"Oui, et nous lirons _Heine_ ensemble; tiens, a propos! regarde le +nom de la rue qui fait le coin! _Bolker Strasse!_ c'est la qu'il est +ne, le pauvre Heine! Ote ton chapeau!" + +(Barty nearly always spoke French with Daphne, as he did with my +sister and me, and said "thee and thou.") + +They found a furnished house that suited them in the Schadow +Strasse, opposite Geissler's, where for two hours every Thursday and +Sunday afternoon you might sit for sixpence in a pretty garden and +drink coffee, beer, or Maitrank, and listen to lovely music, and +dance in the evening under cover to strains of Strauss, Lanner, and +Gungl, and other heavenly waltz-makers! With all their faults, they +know how to make the best of their lives, these good Vaterlanders, +and how to dance, and especially how to make music--and also how to +fight! So we won't quarrel with them, after all! + +Barty found for himself a cheap bedroom, high up in an immense house +tenanted by many painters--some of them English and some American. +He never forgot the delight with which he awoke next morning and +opened his window and saw the silver Rhine among the trees, and the +fir-clad hills of Grafenberg, and heard the gay painter fellows +singing as they dressed; and he called out to the good-humored slavy +in the garden below: + +"Johanna, mein Fruehstueck, bitte!" + +A phrase he had carefully rehearsed with Daphne the evening before. + +And, to his delight and surprise, Johanna understood the mysterious +jargon quite easily, and brought him what he wanted with the most +good-humored grin he had ever seen on a female face. + +Coffee and a roll and a pat of butter. + +First of all, he went to see Dr. Hasenclever at Riffrath, which was +about half an hour by train, and then half an hour's walk--an +immensely prosperous village, which owed its prosperity to the +famous doctor, who attracted patients from all parts of the globe, +even from America. The train that took Barty thither was full of +them; for some chose to live in Duesseldorf. + +The great man saw his patients on the ground-floor of the Koenig's +Hotel, the principal hotel in Riffrath, the hall of which was always +crowded with these afflicted ones--patiently waiting each his turn, +or hers; and there Barty took his place at four in the afternoon; he +had sent in his name at 10 A.M., and been told that he would be seen +after four o'clock. Then he walked about the village, which was +charming, with its gabled white houses, ornamented like the cottages +in the Richter albums by black beams--and full of English, many of +them with green shades or blue spectacles or a black patch over one +eye; some of them being led, or picking their way by means of a +stick, alas! + +Barty met the three Royces, walking with an old gentleman of +aristocratic appearance, and a very nice-looking young one (who was +Captain Graham-Reece). The Admiral gave him a friendly nod--Lady +Jane a nod that almost amounted to a cut direct. But the divine +Julia gave him a look and a smile that were warm enough to make up +for much maternal frigidity. + +Later on, in a tobacconist's shop, he again met the Admiral, who +introduced him to the aristocratic old gentleman, Mr. Beresford +Duff, secretary to the Admiralty--who evidently knew all about him, +and inquired quite affectionately after Lady Caroline, and invited +him to come and drink tea at five o'clock: a new form of hospitality +of his own invention--it has caught on! + +Barty lunched at the Koenig's Hotel table d'hote, which was crowded, +principally with English people, none of whom he had ever met or +heard of. But from these he heard a good deal of the Royces and +Captain Graham-Reece and Mr. Beresford Duff, and other smart people +who lived in furnished houses or expensive apartments away from the +rest of the world, and were objects of general interest and +curiosity among the smaller British fry. + +Riffrath was a microcosm of English society, from the lower middle class +upwards, with all its respectabilities and incompatibilities and +disabilities--its narrownesses and meannesses and snobbishnesses, its +gossipings and backbitings and toadyings and snubbings--delicate little +social things of England that foreigners don't understand! + +The sensation of the hour was the advent of Julia, the divine Julia! +Gossip was already rife about her and Captain Reece. They had taken +a long walk in the woods together the day before--with Lady Jane and +the Admiral far behind, out of ear-shot, almost out of sight. + +In the afternoon, between four and five, Barty had his interview +with the doctor--a splendid, white-haired old man, of benign and +intelligent aspect, almost mesmeric, with his assistant sitting by +him. + +He used no new-fangled ophthalmoscope, but asked many questions in +fairly good French, and felt with his fingers, and had many German +asides with the assistant. He told Barty that he had lost the sight +of his left eye forever; but that with care he would keep that of +the right one for the rest of his life--barring accidents, of +course. That he must never eat cheese nor drink beer. That he (the +doctor) would like to see him once a week or fortnight or so for a +few months yet--and gave him a prescription for an eye-lotion and +dismissed him happy. + +Half a loaf is so much better than no bread, if you can only count +upon it! + +Barty went straight to Mr. Beresford Duff's, and there found a very +agreeable party, including the divine Julia, who was singing little +songs very prettily and accompanying herself on a guitar. + +"'You ask me why I look so pale?'" sang Julia, just as Barty +entered: and red as a rose was she. + +Lady Jane didn't seem at all overjoyed to see Barty, but Julia did, +and did not disguise the seeming. + +There were eight or ten people there, and they all appeared to know +about him, and all that concerned or belonged to him. It was the old +London world over again, in little! the same tittle-tattle about +well-known people, and nothing else--as if nothing else existed; a +genial, easy-going, good-natured world, that he had so often found +charming for a time, but in which he was never quite happy and had +no proper place of his own, all through that fatal bar-sinister--la +barre de batardise; a world that was his and yet not his, and in +whose midst his position was a false one, but where every one took +him for granted at once as one of _them_, so long as he never +trespassed beyond that sufferance; that there must be no love-making +to lovely young heiresses by the bastard of Antoinette Josselin was +taken for granted also! + +[Illustration: "'YOU ASK ME WHY I LOOK SO PALE?'"] + +Before Barty had been there half an hour two or three people had +evidently lost their hearts to him in friendship; among them, to Lady +Jane's great discomfiture, the handsome and amiable Graham-Reece, the +cynosure of all female eyes in Riffrath; and when Barty (after very +little pressing by Miss Royce) twanged her guitar and sang little +songs--French and English, funny and sentimental--he became, as he had +so often become in other scenes, the Rigoletto of the company; and +Riffrath was a kingdom in which he might be court jester in ordinary if +he chose, whenever he elected to honor it with his gracious and +facetious musical presence. + +So much for his debut in that strange little overgrown busy +village! What must it be like now? + +Dr. Hasenclever has been gathered to his fathers long ago, and +nobody that I know of has taken his place. All those new hotels and +lodging-houses and smart shops--what can they have been turned into? +Barracks? prisons? military hospitals and sanatoriums? How dull! + +Lady Caroline and Daphne and Barty between them added considerably +to the gayety of Duesseldorf that summer--especially when Royces and +Reeces and Duffs and such like people came there from Riffrath to +lunch, or tea, or dinner, or for walks or drives or rides to +Grafenberg or Neanderthal, or steamboatings to Neuss. + +There were one or two other English families in Duesseldorf, living +there for economy's sake, but yet of the world--of the kind that got +to be friends with the Rohans; half-pay old soldiers and sailors and +their families, who introduced agreeable and handsome Uhlans and +hussars--from their Serene Highnesses the Princes Fritz and Hans von +Eselbraten--Himmelsblutwuerst--Silberschinken, each passing rich on +L200 a year, down to poor Lieutenants von this or von that, with +nothing but their pay and their thirty-two quarterings. + +Also a few counts and barons, and princes not serene, but with fine +German fortunes looming for them in the future, though none +amounting to L1000 a day, like little Lord Orrisroot's! + +Soon there was hardly a military heart left whole in the town; Julia +had eaten them all up, except one or two that had been unconsciously +nibbled by little Daphne. + +Barty did not join in these aristocratic revels; he had become a +pupil of Herr Duffenthaler, and worked hard in his master's studio +with two brothers of the brush--one English, the other American; +delightful men who remained his friends for life. + +Indeed, he lived among the painters, who all got to love "der schoene +Barty Josselin" like a brother. + +Now and then, of an evening, being much pressed by his aunt, he +would show himself at a small party in Schadow Strasse, and sing and +be funny, and attentive to the ladies, and render himself discreetly +useful and agreeable all round--and make that party go off. Lady +Caroline would have been far happier had he lived with them +altogether. But she felt herself responsible for her innocent and +wealthy little niece. + +It was an article of faith with Lady Caroline that no normal and +properly constituted young woman could see much of Barty without +falling over head and ears in love with him--and this would never do +for Daphne. Besides, they were first-cousins. So she acquiesced in +the independence of his life apart from them. She was not +responsible for the divine Julia, who might fall in love with him +just as she pleased, and welcome! That was Lady Jane's lookout, and +Captain Graham-Reece's. + +But Barty always dined with his aunt and cousin on Thursdays and +Sundays, after listening to the music in Geissler's Garden, +opposite, and drinking coffee with them there, and also with Prince +Fritz and Prince Hans, who always joined the party and smoked their +cheap cigars; and sometimes the divine Julia would make one of the +party too, with her mother and uncle and Captain Reece; and the good +painter fellows would envy from afar their beloved but too fortunate +comrade; and the hussars and Uhlans, von this and von that, would +find seats and tables as near the princely company as possible. + +And every time a general officer entered the garden, up stood every +officer of inferior rank till the great man had comfortably seated +himself somewhere in the azure sunshine of Julia's forget-me-not +warm glance. + +And before the summer had fulfilled itself, and the roses at +Geissler's were overblown, it became evident to Lady Caroline, if to +none other, that Julia had eyes for no one else in the world but +Barty Josselin. I had it from Lady Caroline herself. + +But Barty Josselin had eyes only (such eyes as they were) for his +work at Herr Duffenthaler's, and lived laborious days, except on +Thursday and Sunday afternoons, and shunned delights, except to dine +at the Runsberg Speiserei with his two fellow-pupils, and Henley and +Armstrong and Bancroft and du Maurier and others, all painters, +mostly British and Yankee; and an uncommonly lively and agreeable +repast that was! And afterwards, long walks by moon or star light, +or music at each other's rooms, and that engrossing technical shop +talk that never palls on those who talk it. No Guardsman's talk of +turf or sport or the ballet had ever been so good as this, in +Barty's estimation; no agreeable society gossip at Mr. Beresford +Duff's Riffrath tea-parties! + +[Illustration: "'YOU DON'T MEAN TO SAY YOU'RE GOING TO PAINT FOR +HIRE!'"] + +Once in every fortnight or so Barty would report himself to Dr. +Hasenclever, and spend the day in Riffrath and lunch with the good old +Beresford Duff, who was very fond of him, and who lamented over his loss +of caste in devoting himself professionally to art. + +"God bless me--my dear Barty, you don't mean to say you're going to +paint for _hire_!" + +"Indeed I am, if any one will hire me. How else am I to live?" + +"Well, _you_ know best, my dear boy; but I should have thought the +Rohans might have got you something better than _that_. It's true, +Buckner does it, and Swinton, and Francis Grant! But _still_, you +know ... there _are_ other ways of getting on for a fellow like you. +Look at Prince Gelbioso, who ran away with the Duchess of Flitwick! +He didn't sing a bit better than you do, and as for looks, you beat +him hollow, my dear boy; yet all London went mad about Prince +Gelbioso, and so did she; and off she bolted with him, bag and +baggage, leaving husband and children and friends and all! and she'd +got ten thousand a year of her own; and when the Duke divorced her +they were married, and lived happily ever after--in Italy; and some +of the best people called upon 'em, by George!... just to spite the +Duke!" + +Barty felt it would seem priggish or even insincere if he were to +disclaim any wish to emulate Prince Gelbioso; so he merely said he +thought painting easier on the whole, and not so risky; and the good +Beresford Duff talked of other things--of the divine Julia, and what +a good thing it would be if she and Graham-Reece could make a match +of it. + +"Two of the finest fortunes in England, by George! they _ought_ to +come together, if only just for the fun of the thing! Not that she +is a bit in love with him--I'll eat my hat if she is! What a pity +_you_ ain't goin' to be Lord Ironsides, Barty!" + +Barty frankly confessed _he_ shouldn't much object, for one. + +"But, 'ni l'or ni la grandeur ne nous rendent heureux,' as we used +to be taught at school." + +"Ah, that's all gammon; wait till you're _my_ age, my young friend, +and as poor as _I_ am," said Beresford Duff. And so the two friends +talked on, Mentor and Telemachus--and we needn't listen any further. + + + + +Part Seventh + + "Old winter was gone + In his weakness back to the mountains hoar, + And the spring came down + From the planet that hovers upon the shore + Where the sea of sunlight encroaches + On the limits of wintry night; + If the land, and the air, and the sea + Rejoice not when spring approaches, + We did not rejoice in thee, + Ginevra!" + --Shelley. + + +Riffrath, besides its natives and its regular English colony of +residents, had a floating population that constantly changed. And +every day new faces were to be found drinking tea with Mr. Beresford +Duff--and all these faces were well known in society at home, you +may be sure; and Barty made capital caricatures of them all, which +were treasured up and carried back to England; one or two of them +turn up now and then at a sale at Christie's and fetch a great +price. I got a little pen-and-ink outline of Captain Reece there, +drawn before he came into the title. I had to give forty-seven +pounds ten for it, not only because it was a speaking likeness of +the late Lord Ironsides as a young man, but on account of the little +"B. J." in the corner. + +And only the other evening I sat at dinner next to the Dowager +Countess. Heavens! what a beautiful creature she still is, with her +prematurely white hair and her long thick neck! + +And after dinner we talked of Barty--she with that delightful +frankness that always characterized her through life, I am told: + +"Dear Barty Josselin! how desperately in love I was with that man, +to be sure! Everybody was--he might have thrown the handkerchief as +he pleased in Riffrath, I can tell you, Sir Robert! He was the +handsomest man I ever saw, and wore a black pork-pie hat and a +little yellow Vandyck beard and mustache; just the color of Turkish +tobacco, like his hair! All that sounds odd now, doesn't it? +Fashions have changed--but not for the better! And what a figure! +and such fun he was! and always in such good spirits, poor boy! and +now he's dead, and it's one of the greatest names in all the world! +Well, if he'd thrown that handkerchief at me just about then, I +should have picked it up--and you're welcome to tell all the world +so, Sir Robert!" + + * * * * * + +And next day I got a kind and pretty little letter: + + "Dear Sir Robert,--I was quite serious last night. Barty Josselin + was _mes premieres amours_! Whether he ever guessed it or not, I + can't say. If not, he was very obtuse! Perhaps he feared to fall, + and didn't feel fain to climb in consequence. I all but proposed to + him, in fact! Anyhow, I am proud my girlish fancy should have fallen + on such a man! + + "I told him so myself only last year, and we had a good laugh over + old times; and then I told his wife, and she seemed much pleased. I + can understand his preference, and am old enough to forgive it and + laugh--although there is even now a tear in the laughter. You know + his daughter, Julia Mainwaring, is my godchild; sometimes she sings + her father's old songs to me: + + "'Petit chagrin de notre enfance + Coute un soupir!' + + "Do you remember? + + "Poor Ironsides knew all about it when he married me, and often + declared I had amply made up to him for that and many other + things--over and over again. Il avait bien raison; and made of me a + very happy wife and a most unhappy widow. + + "Put this in your book, if you like. + + "Sincerely yours, + + "Julia Ironsides." + +Thus time flowed smoothly and pleasantly for Barty all through the +summer. In August the Royces left, and also Captain Reece--they for +Scotland, he for Algiers--and appointed to meet again in Riffrath +next spring. + +In October Lady Caroline took her niece to Rome, and Barty was left +behind to his work, very much to her grief and Daphne's. + +He wrote to them every Monday, and always got a letter back on the +Saturday following. + +Barty spent the winter hard at work, but with lots of play between, +and was happy among his painter fellows--and sketching and +caricaturing, and skating and sleighing with the English who +remained in Duesseldorf, and young von this and young von that. I +have many of his letters describing this genial, easy life--letters +full of droll and charming sketches. + +[Illustration: "HE MIGHT HAVE THROWN THE HANDKERCHIEF AS HE +PLEASED"] + +He does not mention the fair Julia much, but there is no doubt that the +remembrance of her much preoccupied him, and kept him from losing his +heart to any of the fair damsels, English and German, whom he skated and +danced with, and sketched and sang to. + +As a matter of fact, he had never yet lost his heart in his +life--not even to Julia. He never said much about his love-making +with Julia to me. But his aunt did--and I listened between the +words, as I always do. His four or five years' career in London as a +thoroughgoing young rake had given him a very deep insight into +woman's nature--an insight rare at his age, for all his perceptions +were astonishingly acute, and his unconscious faculty of sympathetic +observation and induction and deduction immense. + +And, strange to say, if that heart had never been touched, it had +never been corrupted either, and probably for that very reason--that +he had never been in love with these sirens. It is only when true +love fades away at last in the arms of lust that the youthful, manly +heart is wrecked and ruined and befouled. + +He made up his mind that art should be his sole mistress +henceforward, and that the devotion of a lifetime would not be price +enough to pay for her favors, if but she would one day be kind. He +had to make up for so much lost time, and had begun his wooing so +late! Then he was so happy with his male friends! Whatever void +remained in him when his work was done for the day could be so +thoroughly filled up by Henley and Bancroft and Armstrong and du +Maurier and the rest that there was no room for any other and warmer +passion. Work was a joy by itself; the rest from it as great a joy; +and these alternations were enough to fill a life. To how many great +artists had they sufficed! and what happy lives had been led, with +no other distraction, and how glorious and successful! Only the +divine Julia, in all the universe, was worthy to be weighed in the +scales with these, and she was not for the likes of Mr. Nobody of +Nowhere. + +Besides, there was the faithful Martia. Punctually every evening the +ever-comforting sense of the north filled him as he jumped into bed; +and he whispered his prayers audibly to this helpful spirit, or +whatever it might be, that had given him a sign and saved him from a +cowardly death, and filled his life and thoughts as even no Julia +could. + +And yet, although he loved best to forgather with those of his own +sex, woman meant much for him! There _must_ be a woman somewhere in +the world--a needle in a bottle of hay--a nature that could dovetail +and fit in with his own; but what a life-long quest to find her! She +must be young and beautiful, like Julia--rien que ca!--and as kind +and clever and simple and well-bred and easy to live with as Aunt +Caroline, and, heavens! how many things besides, before poor Mr. +Nobody of Nowhere could make her happy, and be made happy by her! + +So Mr. Nobody of Nowhere gave it up, and stuck to his work, and made +much progress, and was well content with things as they were. + +He had begun late, and found many difficulties in spite of his great +natural facility. His principal stock in trade was his keen +perception of human beauty, of shape and feature and expression, +male or female--of face or figure or movement; and a great love and +appreciation of human limbs, especially hands and feet. + +With a very few little pen-strokes he could give the most +marvellously subtle likenesses of people he knew--beautiful or +ordinary or plain or hideous; and the beauty of the beautiful +people, just hinted in mere outline, was so keen and true and +fascinating that this extraordinary power of expressing it amounted +to real genius. + +It is a difficult thing, even for a master, to fully render with an +ordinary steel pen and a drop of common ink (and of a size no bigger +than your little finger nail) the full face of a beautiful woman, +let us say; or a child, in sadness or merriment or thoughtful +contemplation; and make it as easily and unmistakably recognizable +as a good photograph, but with all the subtle human charm and +individuality of expression delicately emphasized in a way that no +photograph has ever achieved yet. + +And this he could always do in a minute from sheer memory and +unconscious observation; and in another few minutes he would add on +the body, in movement or repose, and of a resemblance so wonderful +and a grace so enchanting, or a humor so happily, naively droll, +that one forgot to criticise the technique, which was quite that of +an amateur; indeed, with all the success he achieved as an artist, +he remained an amateur all his life. Yet his greatest admirers were +among the most consummate and finished artists of their day, both +here and abroad. + +It was with his art as with his singing: both were all wrong, yet +both gave extraordinary pleasure; one almost feared that regular +training would mar the gift of God, so much of the charm we all so +keenly felt lay in the very imperfections themselves--just as one +loved him personally as much for his faults as for his virtues. + +"Il a les qualites de ses defauts, le beau Josselin," said M. Taine +one day. + +"Mon cher," said M. Renan, "ses defauts sont ses meilleures +qualites." + +So he spent a tranquil happy winter, and wrote of his happiness and +his tranquillity to Lady Caroline and Daphne and Ida and me; and +before he knew where he was, or we, the almond-trees blossomed +again, and then the lilacs and limes and horse-chestnuts and +syringas; and the fireflies flew in and out of his bedroom at night, +and the many nightingales made such music in the Hof gardens that he +could scarcely sleep for them; and other nightingales came to make +music for him too--most memorable music! Stockhausen, Jenny Ney, +Joachim, Madame Schumann; for the triennial Musik festival was held +in Duesseldorf that year (a month later than usual); and musical +festivals are things they manage uncommonly well in Germany. Barty, +unseen and unheard, as becomes a chorus-singer, sang in the choruses +of Gluck's _Iphigenia_, and heard and saw everything for nothing. + +But, before this, Captain Reece came back to Riffrath, and, +according to appointment, Admiral Royce and Lady Jane, and Julia, +lovelier than ever; and all the sweetness she was so full of rose in +her heart and gathered in her eyes as they once more looked on Barty +Josselin. + +He steeled and stiffened himself like a man who knew that the divine +Julias of this world were for his betters--not for him! +Nevertheless, as he went to bed, and thought of the melting gaze +that had met his, he was deeply stirred; and actually, though the +north was in him, he forgot, for the first time in all that +twelvemonth, for the first time since that terrible night in +Malines, to say his prayers to Martia--and next morning he found a +letter by his bedside in pencil-written blaze of his own +handwriting: + + "Barty my Beloved,--A crisis has come in your affairs, which are + mine; and, great as the cost is to me, I must write again, at the + risk of betraying what amounts to a sacred trust; a secret that I + have innocently surprised, the secret of a noble woman's heart. + + "One of the richest girls in England, one of the healthiest and most + beautiful women in the whole world, a bride fit for an emperor, is + yours for the asking. It is my passionate wish, and a matter of life + and death to me, that you and Julia Royce should become man and + wife; when you are, you shall both know why. + + "Mr. Nobody of Nowhere--as you are so fond of calling yourself--you + shall be such, some day, that the best and highest in the land will + be only too proud to be your humble friends and followers; no woman + is too good for you--only one good enough! and she loves you: of + that I feel sure--and it is impossible you should not love her back + again. + + "I have known her from a baby, and her father and mother also; I + have inhabited her, as I have inhabited you, although I have never + been able to give her the slightest intimation of the fact. You are + both, physically, the most perfect human beings I was ever in; and + in heart and mind the most simply made, the most richly gifted, and + the most admirably balanced; and I have inhabited many thousands, + and in all parts of the globe. + + "You, Barty, are the only one I have ever been able to hold + communication with, or make to feel my presence; it was a strange + chance, that--a happy accident; it saved your life. I am the only + one, among many thousands of homeless spirits, who has ever been + able to influence an earthly human being, or even make him feel the + magnetic current that flows through us all, and by which we are able + to exist; all the rappings and table-turnings are mere hysterical + imaginations, or worse--the cheapest form of either trickery or + self-deception that can be. Barty, your unborn children are of a + moment to me beyond anything you can realize or imagine, and Julia + must be their mother; Julia Royce, and no other woman in the world. + + "It is in you to become so great when you are ripe that she will + worship the ground you walk upon; but you can only become as great + as that through her and through me, who have a message to deliver + to mankind here on earth, and none but you to give it a voice--not + one. But I must have my reward, and that can only come through your + marriage with Julia. + + "When you have read this, Barty, go straight to Riffrath, and see + Julia if you can, and be to her as you have so often been to any + women you wished to please, and who were not worth pleasing. Her + heart is her own to give, like her fortune; she can do what she + likes with them both, and will--her mother notwithstanding, and in + the teeth of the whole world. + + "Poor as you are, maimed as you are, irregularly born as you are, it + is better for her that she should be your wife than the wife of any + man living, whoever he be. + + "Look at yourself in the glass, and say at once, + + "'Martia, I'm off to Riffrath as soon as I've swallowed my + breakfast!' + + "And then I'll go about my business with a light heart and an easy + mind. + + "Martia." + +Much moved and excited, Barty looked in the glass and did as he was +bid, and the north left him; and Johanna brought him his breakfast, +and he started for Riffrath. + + * * * * * + +All through this winter that was so happily spent by Barty in +Duesseldorf things did not go very happily in London for the Gibsons. +Mr. Gibson was not meant for business; nature intended him as a +rival to Keeley or Buckstone. + +He was extravagant, and so was his wife; they were both given to +frequent and most expensive hospitalities; and he to cards, and she +to dressing herself and her daughter more beautifully than quite +became their position in life. The handsome and prosperous shop in +Cheapside--the "emporium," as he loved to call it--was not enough to +provide for all these luxuries; so he took another in Conduit +Street, and decorated it and stocked it at immense expense, and +called it the "Universal Fur Company," and himself the "Head of a +West End firm." + +Then he speculated, and was not successful, and his affairs got into +tangle. + +And a day came when he found he could not keep up these two shops +and his private house in Tavistock Square as well; the carriage was +put down first--a great distress to Mrs. Gibson; and finally, to her +intense grief, it became necessary to give up the pretty house +itself. + +It was decided that their home in future most be over the new +emporium in Conduit Street; Mrs. Gibson had a properly constituted +English shopkeeper's wife's horror of living over her husband's +shop--the idea almost broke her heart; and as a little consolation, +while the necessary changes were being wrought for their altered +mode of life, Mr. Gibson treated her and Leah and my sister to a +trip up the Rhine--and Mrs. Bletchley, the splendid old Jewess +(Leah's grandmother), who suffered, or fancied she suffered, in her +eyesight, took it into her head that she would like to see the +famous Dr. Hasenclever in Riffrath, and elected to journey with +them--at all events as far as Duesseldorf. I would have escorted +them, but that my father was ill, and I had to replace him in Barge +Yard; besides, I was not yet quite cured of my unhappy passion, +though in an advanced stage of convalescence; and I did not wish to +put myself under conditions that might retard my complete recovery, +or even bring on a relapse. I wished to love Leah as a sister; in +time I succeeded in doing so; she has been fortunate in her brother, +though I say it who shouldn't--and, O heavens! haven't I been +fortunate in my sister Leah? + +My own sister Ida wrote to Barty to find rooms and meet them at the +station, and fixed the day and hour of their arrival; and +commissioned him to take seats for Gluck's _Iphigenia_. + +She thought more of _Iphigenia_ than of the Drachenfels or +Ehrenbreitstein; and was overjoyed at the prospect of once more +being with Barty, whom she loved as well as she loved me, if not +even better. He was fortunate in his sister, too! + +And the Rhine in May did very well as a background to all these +delights. + +So Mr. Babbage (the friend of the family) and I saw them safely on +board the _Baron Osy_ ("the Ank-works package," as Mrs. Gamp called +it), which landed them safely in the Place Verte at Antwerp; and +then they took train for Duesseldorf, changing at Malines and +Verviers; and looked forward eagerly, especially Ida, to the meeting +with Barty at the little station by the Rhine. + + * * * * * + +Barty, as we know, started for Riffrath at Martia's written command, +his head full of perplexing thoughts. + +Who was Martia? What was she? "A disembodied conscience?" Whose? Not +his own, which counselled the opposite course. + +He had once seen a man at a show with a third rudimentary leg +sticking out behind, and was told this extra limb belonged to a +twin, the remaining portions of whom had not succeeded in getting +themselves begotten and born. Could Martia be a frustrated and +undeveloped twin sister of his own, that interested herself in his +affairs, and could see with his eyes and hear with his ears, and had +found the way of communicating with him during his sleep--and was +yet apart from him, as phenomenal twins are apart from each other, +however closely linked--and had, moreover, not managed to have any +part of her body born into this world at all? + +She wrote like him; her epistolary style was his very own, every +turn of phrase, every little mannerism. The mystery of it +overwhelmed him again, though he had grown somewhat accustomed to +the idea during the last twelvemonth. _Why_ was she so anxious he +should marry Julia? Had he, situated as he was, the right to win the +love of this splendid creature, in the face of the world's +opposition and her family's--he, a beggar and a bastard? Would it be +right and honest and fair to her? + +And then, again, was he so desperately in love with her, after all, +that he should give up the life of art and toil he had planned for +himself and go through existence as the husband of a rich and +beautiful woman belonging, first of all, to the world and society, +of which she was so brilliant an ornament that her husband must +needs remain in the background forever, even if he were a gartered +duke or a belted earl? + +What success of his own would he ever hope to achieve, handicapped +as he would be by all the ease and luxury she would bring him? He +had grown to love the poverty which ever lends such strenuousness to +endeavor. He thought of an engraving he had once taken a fancy to in +Brussels, and purchased and hung up in his bedroom. _I_ have it now! +It is after Gallait, and represents a picturesquely poor violinist +and his violin in a garret, and underneath is written "Art et +liberte." + +Then he thought of Julia's lovely face and magnificent body--and all +his manhood thrilled as he recalled the look in her eyes when they +met his the day before. + +This was the strongest kind of temptation by which his nature could +ever be assailed--he knew himself to be weak as water when that came +his way, the ten-thousandth face (and the figure to match)! He had +often prayed to Martia to deliver him from such a lure. But here was +Martia on the side of the too sweet enemy! + +The train stopped for a few minutes at Neanderthal, and he thought +he could think better if he got out and walked in that beautiful +valley an hour or two--there was no hurry; he would take another +train later, in time to meet Julia at Beresford Duff's, where she +was sure to be. So he walked among the rocks, the lonely rocks, and +sat and pondered in the famous cave where the skull was found--that +simple prehistoric cranium which could never have been so +pathetically nonplussed by such a dilemma as this when it was a +human head! + +And the more he pondered the less he came to a conclusion. It seemed +as though there were the "tug of war" between Martia and all that he +felt to be best in himself--his own conscience, his independence as +a man, his sense of honor. He took her letter out of his pocket to +re-read, and with it came another letter; it was from my sister, Ida +Maurice. It told him when they would arrive in Duesseldorf. + +He jumped up in alarm--it was that very day. He had quite forgotten! + +He ran off to the station, and missed a train, and had to wait an +hour for another; but he got himself to the Rhine station in +Duesseldorf a few minutes before the train from Belgium arrived. + +Everything was ready for the Gibson party--lodgings and tea and +supper to follow--he had seen to all that before; so there he walked +up and down, waiting, and still revolving over and over again in his +mind the troublous question that so bewildered and oppressed him. +Who was Martia? what was she--that he should take her for a guide in +the most momentous business of his life; and what were her +credentials? + +And what was love? Was it love he felt for this young goddess with +yellow hair and light-blue eyes so like his own, who towered in her +full-blown frolicsome splendor among the sons and daughters of men, +with her moist, ripe lips so richly framed for happy love and +laughter--that royal milk-white fawn that had only lain in the roses +and fed on the lilies of life? + +"Oh, Mr. Nobody of Nowhere! be at least a man; let no one ever call you +the basest thing an able-bodied man can become, a fortune-hunting +adventurer!" + +Then a bell rang, and the smoke of the coming train was visible--ten +minutes late. The tickets were taken, and it slowed into the station +and stopped. Ida's head and face were seen peering through one of +the second-class windows, on the lookout, and Barty opened the door +and there was a warm and affectionate greeting between them; the +meeting was joy to both. + +Then he was warmly greeted by Mrs. Gibson, who introduced him to her +mother; then he was conscious of somebody he had not seen yet +because she stood at his blind side (indeed, he had all but +forgotten her existence); namely, the presence of a very tall and +most beautiful dark-haired young lady, holding out her slender +gloved hand and gazing up into his face with the most piercing and +strangest and blackest eyes that ever were; yet so soft and quick +and calm and large and kind and wise and gentle that their +piercingness was but an added seduction; one felt they could never +pierce too deep for the happiness of the heart they pronged and +riddled and perforated through and through! + +Involuntarily came into Barty's mind, as he shook the slender hand, +a little song of Schubert's he had just learnt: + + "Du dist die Ruh', der Friede mild!" + +And wasn't it odd?--all his doubts and perplexities resolved +themselves at once, as by some enchantment, into a lovely, +unexpected chord of extreme simplicity; and Martia was gently but +firmly put aside, and the divine Julia quietly relegated to the +gilded throne which was her fit and proper apanage. + +Barty saw to the luggage, and sent it on, and they all went on foot +behind it. + +The bridge of boats across the Rhine was open in the middle to let a +wood-raft go by down stream. This raft from some distant forest was +so long they had to wait nearly twenty minutes; and the prow of it +had all but lost itself in the western purple and gold and dun of +sky and river while it was still passing the bridge. + +All this was new and delightful to the Londoners, who were also +delighted with the rooms Barty had taken for them in the Koenig's +Allee and the tea that awaited them there. Leah made tea, and gave a +cup to Barty. That was a good cup of tea, better even than the tea +Julia was making (that very moment, no doubt) at Beresford Duff's. + +Then the elder ladies rested, and Barty took Leah and Ida for a walk +in the Hof gardens. They were charmed with everything--especially +the fire-flies at dusk. Leah said little; she was not a very +talkative person outside her immediate family circle. But Ida and +Barty had much to say. + +Then home to supper at the Gibsons' lodgings, and Barty sat opposite +Leah, and drank in the beauty of her face, which had so wonderfully +ripened and accentuated and individualized itself since he had seen +her last, three years before. + +As he discreetly gazed, whenever she was not looking his way, saying +to himself, like Geraint: "'Here by God's rood is the one maid for +me,'" he suddenly felt the north, and started with a kind of terror +as he remembered Martia. He bade the company a hasty good-night, and +went for a long walk by the Rhine, and had a long talk with his +Egeria. + +"Martia," said he, in a low but audible voice, "it's no good, I +_can't_; c'est plus fort que moi. I can't sell myself to a woman for +gold; besides, I can't fall in love with Julia; I don't know why, +but I _can't_; I will never marry her. I don't deserve that she +should care for me; perhaps she doesn't, perhaps you're quite +mistaken, and if she does, it's only a young girl's fancy. What does +a girl of that age really know about her own heart? and how base I +should be to take advantage of her innocence and inexperience!" + +And then he went on in a passionate and eager voice to explain all +he had thought of during the day and still further defend his +recalcitrancy. + +"Give me at least your reasons, Martia; tell me, for God's sake, who +you are and what! Are you _me_? are you the spirit of my mother? Why +do you love me, as you say you do, with a love passing the love of +woman? What am I to you? Why are you so bent on worldly things?" + +This monologue lasted more than an hour, and he threw himself on to +his bed quite worn out, and slept at once, in spite of the +nightingales, who filled the starlit, breezy, balmy night with their +shrill, sweet clamor. + +Next morning, as he expected, he found a letter: + + "Barty, you are ruining me and breaking my life, and wrecking the + plans of many years--plans made before you were, born or thought of. + + "Who am I, indeed? Who is this demure young black-eyed witch that + has come between us, this friend of Ida Maurice's? + + "She's the cause of all my misery, I feel sure; with Ida's eyes I + saw you look at her; you never yet looked at Julia like that!--never + at any woman before! + + "Who is she? No mate for a man like you, I feel sure. In the first + place, she is not rich; I could tell that by the querulous + complaints of her middle-class mother. She's just fit to be some + pious Quaker's wife, or a Sister of Charity, or a governess, or a + hospital nurse, or a nun--no companion for a man destined to move + the world! + + "Barty, you don't _know_ what you are; you have never _thought_; you + have never yet looked _within_! + + "Barty, with Julia by your side and me at your back, you will be a + leader of men, and sway the destinies of your country, and raise it + above all other nations, and make it the arbiter of Europe--of the + whole world--and your seed will ever be first among the foremost of + the earth. + + "Will you give up all this for a pair of bright black eyes and a + pretty white skin? Isn't Julia white enough for you? + + "A painter? What a trade for a man built like you! Take the greatest + of them; what have they ever really mattered? What do they matter + now, except to those who want to imitate them and can't, or to those + who live by buying cheap the fruits of their long labors, and + selling them dear as so much wall furniture for the vulgar rich? + Besides, you will never be a great painter; you've begun too late! + + "Think of yourself ten years hence--a king among men, with the world + at your feet, and at those of the glorious woman who will have + smoothed your path to greatness and fame and power! Mistress and + wife--goddess and queen in one! + + "Think of the poor struggling painter, painting his poor little + pictures in his obscure corner to feed half a dozen hungry children + and the anxious, careworn wife, whose beauty has long faded away in + the petty, sordid, hopeless domestic struggle, just as her husband's + little talent has long been wasted and used up in wretched + pot-boilers for mere bread; think of poverty, debt, and degradation, + and all the miserable ugliness of life--the truest, tritest, and + oldest story in the world! Love soon flies out of the window when + these wolves snarl at the door. + + "Think of all this, Barty, and think of the despair you are bringing + on one lost lonely soul who loves you as a mother loves her + first-born, and has founded such hopes on you; dismiss this pretty + little middle-class puritan from your thoughts and go back to Julia. + + "I will not hurry your decision; I will come back in exactly a week + from to-night. I am at your mercy. + + "Martia." + +This letter made Barty very unhappy. It was a strange dilemma. + +What is it that now and again makes a woman in a single moment take +such a powerful grip of a man's fancy that he can never shake +himself free again, and never wants to? + +Tunes can be like that, sometimes. Not the pretty little tinkling +tunes that please everybody at once; the pleasure of them can fade +in a year, a month--even a week, a day! But those from a great mint, +and whose charm will last a man his lifetime! + +Many years ago a great pianist, to amuse some friends (of whom I was +one), played a series of waltzes by Schubert which I had never heard +before--the "Soirees de Vienne," I think they were called. They were +lovely from beginning to end; but one short measure in particular +was full of such extraordinary enchantment for me that it has really +haunted me through life. It is as if it were made on purpose for me +alone, a little intimate aside a mon intention--the gainliest, +happiest thought I had ever heard expressed in music. For nobody +else seemed to think those particular bars were more beautiful than +all the rest; but, oh! the difference to me! + +And said I to myself: "That's Leah; and all the rest is some +heavenly garden of roses she's walking in!" + +Tempo di valsa: + + _Rum_--tiddle-iddle _um_ tum tum, + _Tid_dle-tiddle-iddle-iddle _um_ tum, tum + _Tum_ tiddle iddle-iddle _um_ tum, tum + _Tid_dle-iddle, iddle-_hay!_ ... etc., etc. + +That's how the little measure begins, and it goes on just for a +couple of pages. I can't write music, unfortunately, and I've nobody +by me at just this moment who can; but if the reader is musical and +knows the "Soirees de Vienne," he will guess the particular waltz I +mean. + +Well, the Duesseldorf railway station is not a garden of roses; but +when Leah stepped out of that second-class carriage and looked +straight at Barty, _dans le blanc des yeux_, he fitted her to the +tune _he_ loved best just then (not knowing the "Soirees de +Vienne"), and it's one of the tunes that last forever: + + "Du bist die Ruh', der Friede mild!" + +Barty's senses were not as other men's senses. With his one eye he +saw much that most of _us_ can't see with two; I feel sure of this. +And he suddenly saw in Leah's face, now she was quite grown up, that +which bound him to her for life--some veiled promise, I suppose; we +can't explain these things. + + * * * * * + +Barty escorted the Gibson party to Riffrath, and put down Mrs. +Bletchley's name for Dr. Hasenclever, and then took them to the +woods of Hammerfest, close by, with which they were charmed. On the +way back to the hotel they met Lady Jane and Miss Royce and the good +Beresford Duff, who all bowed to Barty, and Julia's blue glance +crossed Leah's black one. + +"Oh, what a lovely girl!" said Leah to Barty. "What a pity she's so +tall; why, I'm sure she's half a head taller than even I, and they +make _my_ life a burden to me at home because I'm such a giantess! +Who is she? You know her well, I suppose?" + +"She's a Miss Julia Royce, a great heiress. Her father's dead; he +was a wealthy Norfolk Squire, and she was his only child." + +"Then I suppose she's a very aristocratic person; she looks so, I'm +sure!" + +"Very much so indeed," said Barty. + +"Dear me! it seems unfair, doesn't it, having everything like that; +no wonder she looks so happy!" + +[Illustration: DR. HASENCLEVER AND MRS. BLETCHLEY] + +Then they went back to the hotel to lunch; and in the afternoon Mrs. +Bletchley saw the doctor, who gave her a prescription for +spectacles, and said she had nothing to fear; and was charming to +Leah and to Ida, who spoke French so well, and to the pretty and +lively Mrs. Gibson, who lost her heart to him and spoke the most +preposterous French he had ever heard. + +He was fond of pretty English women, the good German doctor, +whatever French they spoke. + +They were quite an hour there. Meanwhile Barty went to Beresford +Duff's, and found Julia and Lady Jane drinking tea, as usual at that +hour. + +"Who are your uncommonly well-dressed friends, Barty?" said Mr. +Duff. "I never met any of them that _I_ can remember." + +"Well--they're just from London--the elder lady is a Mrs. +Bletchley." + +"Not one of the Berkshire Bletchleys, eh?" + +"Oh no--she's the widow of a London solicitor." + +"Dear me! And the lovely, tall, black-eyed _damigella_--who's she?" + +"She's a Miss Gibson, and her father's a furrier in Cheapside." + +"And the pretty girl in blue with the fair hair?" + +"She's the sister of a very old friend of mine, Robert Maurice--he's +a wine merchant." + +"You don't say so! Why, I took them for people of condition!" said +Mr. Beresford Duff, who was a trifle old-fashioned in his ways of +speech. "Anyhow, they're uncommonly nice to look at." + +"Oh yes," said the not too priggishly grammatical Lady Jane; +"nowadays those sort of people dress like duchesses, and think +themselves as good as any one." + +"They're good enough for _me_, at all events," said Barty, who was +not pleased. + +"I'm sure Miss Gibson's good enough for _anybody in the world_!" +said Julia. "She's the most beautiful girl I ever saw!" and she gave +Barty a cup of tea. + +Barty drank it, and felt fond of Julia, and bade them all good-bye, +and went and waited in the hall of the Koenig's Hotel for his +friends, and took them back to Duesseldorf. + +Next day the Gibsons started for their little trip up the Rhine, and +Barty was left to his own reflections, and he reflected a great +deal; not about what he meant to do himself, but about how he should +tell Martia what he meant to do. + +As for himself, his mind was thoroughly made up: he would break at +once and forever with a world he did not properly belong to, and +fight his own little battle unaided, and be a painter--a good one, +if he could. If not, so much the worse for him. Life is short. + +When he would have settled his affairs and paid his small debts in +Duesseldorf, he would have some ten or fifteen pounds to the good. He +would go back to London with the Gibsons and Ida Maurice. There were +no friends for him in the world like the Maurices. There was no +woman for him in the world like Leah, whether she would ever care +for him or not. + +Rich or poor, he didn't mind! she was Leah; she had the hands, the +feet, the lips, the hair, the eyes! That was enough for him! He was +absolutely sure of his own feelings; absolutely certain that this +path was not only the pleasant path he liked, but the right one for +a man in his position to follow: a thorny path indeed, but the +thorns were thorns of roses! + +All this time he was busily rehearsing his part in the chorus of +_Iphigenia_; he had applied for the post of second tenor chorister; +the conditions were that he should be able to read music at sight. +This he could not do, and his utter incapacity was tested at the +Mahlcasten, before a crowd of artists, by the conductor. Barty +failed signally, amid much laughter; and he impudently sang quite a +little tune of his own, an improvisation. + +The conductor laughed too; but Barty was admitted all the same; his +voice was good, and he must learn his part by heart--that was all; +anybody could teach him. + +The Gibsons came back to Duesseldorf in time for the performance, +which was admirable, in spite of Barty. From his coign of vantage, +amongst the second tenors, he could see Julia's head with its golden +fleece; Julia, that rose without a thorn-- + + "Het Roosje uit de dorne!" + +She was sitting between Lady Jane and the Captain. + +He looked in vain for the Gibsons, as he sang his loudest, yet +couldn't hear himself sing (he was one of a chorus of avenging +furies, I believe). + +But there were three vacant seats in the same row as the Royces'. +Presently three ladies, silken hooded and cloaked--one in yellow, +one in pink, and one in blue--made their way to the empty places, +just as the chorus ceased, and sat down. Just then Orestes +(Stockhausen) stood up and lifted his noble barytone. + + "Die Ruhe kehret mir zurueck"-- + +And the yellow-hooded lady unhooded a shapely little black head, and +it was Leah's. + +"_Prosit omen!_" thought Barty--and it seemed as if his whole heart +melted within him. + +He could see that Leah and Julia often looked at each other; he +could also see, during the intervals, how many double-barrelled +opera-glasses were levelled at both; it was impossible to say which +of these two lovely women was the loveliest; probably most votes +would have been for Julia, the fair-haired one, the prima donna +assoluta, the soprano, the Rowena, who always gets the biggest +salary and most of the applause. + +The brunette, the contralto, the Rebecca, dazzles less, but touches +the heart all the more deeply, perhaps; anyhow, Barty had no doubt +as to which of the two voices was the voice for him. His passion was +as that of Brian de Bois-Guilbert for mere strength, except that he +was bound by no vows of celibacy. There were no moonlit platonics +about Barty's robust love, but all the chivalry and tenderness and +romance of a knight-errant underlay its vigorous complexity. He was +a good knight, though not Sir Galahad! + +Also he felt very patriotic, as a good knight should ever feel, and +proud of a country which could grow such a rose as Julia, and such a +lily as Leah Gibson. + +Next to Julia sat Captain Reece, romantic and handsome as ever, with +manly love and devotion expressed in every line of his face, every +movement of his body; and the heaviest mustache and the most +beautiful brown whiskers in the world. He was either a hussar or a +lancer; I forget which. + +"By my halidom," mentally ejaculated Barty, "I sincerely wish thee +joy and life-long happiness, good Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe. Thou art a +right fit mate for her, peerless as she may be among women! A +benison on you both from your poor Wamba, the son of Witless." + +As he went home that night, after the concert, to his tryst with +Martia, the north came back to him--through the open window as it +were, with the fire-flies and fragrances, and the song of fifty +nightingales. It was for him a moment of deep and harassing emotion +and keen anxiety. He leaned over the window-sill and looked out on +the starlit heavens, and whispered aloud the little speech he had +prepared: + +"Martia, I have done my best. I would make any sacrifice to obey +you, but I cannot give up my freedom to love the woman that attracts +me as I have never been attracted before. I would sooner live a poor +and unsuccessful straggler in the art I have chosen, with her to +help me live, than be the mightiest man in England without her--even +with Julia, whom I admire as much, and even more! + +"One can't help these things. They may be fancies, and one may live +to repent them; but while they last they are imperious, not to be +resisted. It's an instinct, I suppose; perhaps even a form of +insanity! But I love Leah's little-finger nail better than Julia's +lovely face and splendid body and all her thousands. + +"Besides, I will not drag Julia down from her high position in the +world's eye, even for a day, nor owe anything to either man or woman +except love and fidelity! It grieves me deeply to disappoint you, +though I cannot understand your motives. If you love me as you say +you do, you ought to think of my happiness and honor before my +worldly success and prosperity, about which I don't care a button, +except for Leah's sake. + +"Besides, I know myself better than you know me. I'm not one of +those hard, strong, stern, purposeful, Napoleonic men, with wills of +iron, that clever, ambitious women conceive great passions for! + +[Illustration: "'MARTIA, I HAVE DONE MY BEST'"] + +"I'm only a 'funny man'--a _gringalet-jocrisse!_ And now that I'm quite +grown up, and all my little funniments are over, I'm only fit to sit +and paint, with my one eye, in my little corner, with a contented little +wife, who won't want me to do great things and astonish the world. +There's no place like home; faire la popotte ensemble au coin du +feu--c'est le ciel! + +"And if I'm half as clever as you say, it'll all come out in my +painting, and I shall be rich and famous, and all off my own bat. +I'd sooner be Sir Edwin Landseer than Sir Robert Peel, or Pam, or +Dizzy! + +"Even to retain your love and protection and interest in me, which I +value almost as much as I value life itself, I can't do as you wish. +Don't desert me, Martia. I may be able to make it all up to you some +day; after all, you can't foresee and command the future, nor can I. +It wouldn't be worth living for if we could! It would all be +discounted in advance! + +"I may yet succeed in leading a useful, happy life; and that should +be enough for you if it's enough for me, since I am your beloved, +and as you love me as your son.... Anyhow, my mind is made up for +good and all, and...." + +Here the sensation of the north suddenly left him, and he went to +his bed with the sense of bereavement that had punished him all the +preceding week: desperately sad, all but heart-broken, and feeling +almost like a culprit, although his conscience, whatever that was +worth, was thoroughly at ease, and his intent inflexible. + +A day or two after this he must have received a note from Julia, +making an appointment to meet him at the Ausstellung, in the Allee +Strasse, a pretty little picture-gallery, since he was seen there +sitting in deep conversation with Miss Royce in a corner, and both +seeming much moved; neither the Admiral nor Lady Jane was with them, +and there was some gossip about it in the British colony both in +Duesseldorf and Riffrath. + +Barty, who of late years has talked to me so much, and with such +affectionate admiration, of "Julia Countess," as he called her, +never happened to have mentioned this interview; he was very +reticent about his love-makings, especially about any love that was +made to him. + +I made so bold as to write to Julia, Lady Ironsides, and ask her if +it were true they had met like this, and if I might print her +answer, and received almost by return of post the following kind and +characteristic letter: + + "96 Grosvenor Square. + + "Dear Sir Robert,--You're quite right; I did meet him, and I've no + objection whatever to telling you how it all happened--and you may + do as you like. + + "It happened just like this (you must remember that I was only just + out, and had always had my own way in everything). + + "Mamma and I and Uncle James (the Admiral) and Freddy Reece + (Ironsides, you know) went to the Musikfest in Duesseldorf. Barty was + singing in the chorus. I saw him opening and shutting his mouth and + could almost fancy I heard him, poor dear boy. + + "Leah Gibson, as she was then, sat near to me, with her mother and + your sister. Leah Gibson looked like--well, _you_ know what she + looked like in those days. By-the-way, I can't make out how it is + you weren't over head and ears in love with her yourself! I thought + her the loveliest girl I had ever seen, and felt very unhappy. + + "We slept at the hotel that night, and on the way back to Riffrath + next morning Freddy Reece proposed to me. + + "I told him I couldn't marry him--but that I loved him as a sister, + and all that; I really was very fond of him indeed, but I didn't + want to marry him; I wanted to marry Barty, in fact; and make him + rich and famous, as I felt sure he would be some day, whether I + married him or not. + + "But there was that lovely Leah Gibson, the furrier's daughter! + + "When we got home to Riffrath mamma found she'd got a cold, and had + a fancy for a French thing called a 'loch'; I think her cold was + suddenly brought on by my refusing poor Freddy's offer! + + "I went with Grissel, the maid (who knew about _lochs_), to the + Riffrath chemist's, but he didn't even know what we meant--so I told + mamma I would go and get a _loch_ in Duesseldorf next day if she + liked, with Uncle James. Mamma was only too delighted, for next day + was Mr. Josselin's day for coming to Riffrath; but he didn't, for I + wrote to him to meet me at twelve at a little picture-gallery I knew + of in the Allee Strasse--as I wanted to have a talk with him. + + "Uncle James had caught a cold too, so I went with Grissel; and + found a chemist who'd been in France, and knew what a loch was and + made one for me; and then I went to the gallery, and there was poor + Barty sitting on a crimson velvet couch, under a picture of Milton + dictating _Paradise Lost_ to his daughters (I bought it afterwards, + and I've got it now). + + "We said how d'ye do, and sat on the couch together, and I felt + dreadfully nervous and ashamed. + + "Then I said: + + "'You must think me very odd, Mr. Josselin, to ask you to meet me + like this!' + + "'I think it's a very great honor!' he said; 'I only wish I deserved + it.' + + "And then he said nothing for quite five minutes, and I think he + felt as uncomfortable as I did. + + [Illustration: AM RHEIN "LED WE NOT THERE A JOLLY LIFE BETWIXT THE + SUN AND SHADE?"] + + "'Captain Graham-Reece has asked me to be his wife, and I refused,' + I said. + + "'Why did you refuse? He's one of the best fellows I've ever met,' + said Barty. + + "'He's to be so rich, and so am I,' I said. + + "No answer. + + "'It would be right for me to marry a _poor_ man--man with brains + and no money, you know, and help him to make his way.' + + "'Reece has plenty of brains too,' said Barty. + + "'Oh, Mr. Josselin--don't misunderstand me'--and then I began to + stammer and look foolish. + + "'Miss Royce--I've only got L15 in the world, and with that I mean + to go to London and be an artist; and comfort myself during the + struggle by the delightful remembrance of Riffrath and Reece and + yourself--and the happy hope of meeting you both again some day, + when I shall no longer be the poor devil I am now, and am quite + content to be! And when you and he are among the great of the earth, + if you will give me each a commission to paint your portraits I will + do my very best!' (and he smiled his irresistible smile). 'You will + be kind, I am sure, to Mr. Nobody of Nowhere, the famous + portrait-painter--who doesn't even bear his father's name--as he has + no right to it.' + + "I could have flung my arms round his neck and kissed him! What did + _I_ care about his father's name? + + "'Will you think me dreadfully bold and indiscreet, Mr. Josselin, if + I--if I--' (I stammered fearfully.) + + "'If you _what_, Miss Royce?' + + "'If I--if I ask you if you--if you--think Miss Gibson the most + beautiful girl you ever saw?' + + "'Honestly, I think _you_ the most beautiful girl I ever saw!' + + "'Oh, that's _nonsense_, Mr. Josselin, although I ought to have + known you would say that! I'm not fit to tie her shoes. What I mean + is--a--a--oh! forgive me--are you very _fond_ of her, as I'm sure + she deserves, you know?' + + "'Oh yes, Miss Royce, very fond of her indeed; she's poor, she's of + no family, she's Miss Nobody of Nowhere, you know; she's all that I + am, except that she has a right to her honest father's name--' + + "'Does she _know_ you're very fond of her?' + + "'No; but I hope to tell her so some day.' + + "Then we were silent, and I felt very red, and very much inclined to + cry, but I managed to keep in my tears. + + "Then I got up, and so did he--and he made some joke about Grissel + and the loch-bottle; and we both laughed quite naturally and looked + at the pictures, and he told me he was going back to London with the + Gibsons that very week, and thanked me warmly for my kind interest + in him, and assured me he thoroughly deserved it--and talked so + funnily and so nicely that I quite forgave myself. I really don't + think he guessed for one moment what I had been driving at all the + while; I got back all my self-respect; I felt so grateful to him + that I was fonder of him than ever, though no longer so idiotically + in love. He was not for me. He had somehow laughed me into love with + him, and laughed me out of it. + + "Then I bade him good-bye, and squeezed his hand with all my heart, + and told him how much I should like some day to meet Miss Gibson + and be her friend if she would let me. + + "Then I went back to Riffrath and took mamma her loch; but she no + longer wanted it, for I told her I had changed my mind about Freddy, + and that cured her like magic; and she kissed me on both cheeks and + called me her dear, darling, divine Julia. Poor, sweet mamma! + + "I had given her many a bad quarter of an hour, but this good moment + made up for them all. + + "She was eighty-two last birthday, and can still read Josselin's + works in the cheap edition without spectacles--thanks, no doubt, to + the famous Doctor Hasenclever! She reads nothing else! + + "Et voila comment ca s'est passe. + + "It's I that'll be the proud woman when I read this letter, printed, + in your life of Josselin. + + "Yours sincerely, + + "Julia Ironsides. + + "P. S.--I've actually just told mamma--and I'm still her dear, + darling, divine Julia!" + + * * * * * + +Charming as were Barty's remembrances of Duesseldorf, the most +charming of all was his remembrance of going aboard the little +steamboat bound for Rotterdam, one night at the end of May, with old +Mrs. Bletchley, Mrs. Gibson and her daughter, and my sister Ida. + +The little boat was crowded; the ladies found what accommodation +they could in what served for a ladies' cabin, and expostulated and +bribed their best; fortunately for them, no doubt, there were no +English on board to bribe against them. + +Barty spent the night on deck, supine, with a carpet-bag for a +pillow; we will take the full moon for granted. From Duesseldorf to +Rotterdam there is little to see on either side of a Rhine +steamboat, except the Rhine--especially at night. + +[Illustration: "'DOES SHE _KNOW_ YOU'RE VERY FOND OF HER?'"] + +Next day, after breakfast, he made the ladies as comfortable as he could +on the after-deck, and read to them from _Maud_, from the _Idylls of the +King_, from the _Mill on the Floss_. Then windmills came into +sight--Dutch windmills; then Rotterdam, almost too soon. They went to +the big hotel on the Boompjes and fed, and then explored Rotterdam, and +found it a most delightful city. + +Next day they got on board the steamboat bound for St. Katharine's +wharf; the wind had freshened and they soon separated, and met at +breakfast next morning in the Thames. + +Barty declared he smelt Great Britain as distinctly as one can smell +a Scotch haggis, or a Welsh rabbit, or an Irish stew, and the old +familiar smell made him glad. However little you may be English, if +you are English at all you are more English than anything else, _et +plus royaliste que le Roi_! + +According to Heine, an Englishman loves liberty as a good husband +loves his wife; that is also how he loves the land of his birth; at +all events, England has a kind of wifely embrace for the home-coming +Briton, especially if he comes home by the Thames. + +It is not unexpected, nor madly exciting, perhaps; but it is +singularly warm and sweet if the conjugal relations have not been +strained in the meanwhile. And as the Thames narrows itself, the +closer, the more genial, the more grateful and comforting this +long-anticipated and tenderly intimate uxorious dalliance seems to +grow. + +Barty felt very happy as he stood leaning over the bulwarks in the +sunshine, between Ida and Leah, and looked at Rotherhithe, and +promised himself he would paint it some day, and even sell the +picture! + +Then he made himself so pleasant to the custom-house officers that +they all but forgot to examine the Gibson luggage. + +Was I delighted to grasp his hand at St. Katharine's wharf, after so +many months? Ah!... + +Mr. Gibson was there, funny as ever, and the Gibsons went home with +him to Conduit Street in a hired fly. Alas! poor Mrs. Gibson's +home-coming was the saddest part for her of the delightful little +journey. + +And Barty and Ida and I went our own way in a four-wheeler to eat +the fatted calf in Brunswick Square, washed down with I will not say +what vintage. There were so many available from all the wine-growing +lands of Europe that I've forgotten which was chosen to celebrate +the wanderers' return! + +Let us say Romane-Conti, which is the "cru" that Barty loved best. + + * * * * * + +Next morning Barty left us early, with a portfolio of sketches under +his arm, and his heart full of sanguine expectation, and spent the +day in Fleet Street, or there-abouts, calling on publishers of +illustrated books and periodicals, and came back to us at +dinner-time very fagged, and with a long and piteous but very droll +story of his ignominious non-success: his weary waitings in dull, +dingy, little business back rooms, the patronizing and snubbing he +and his works had met with, the sense that he had everything to +learn--he, who thought he was going to take the publishing world by +storm. + +Next day it was just the same, and the day after, and the day after +that--every day of the week he spent under our roof. + +Then he insisted on leaving us, and took for himself a room in +Newman Street--a studio by day, a bedroom by night, a pleasant +smoking-room at all hours, and very soon a place of rendezvous for +all sorts and conditions of jolly fellows, old friends and new, from +Guardsmen to young stars of the art world, mostly idle apprentices. + +Gradually boxing-gloves crept in, and foils and masks, and the +faithful Snowdrop (whose condition three or four attacks of delirium +tremens during Barty's exile had not improved). + +And fellows who sang, and told good stories, and imitated popular +actors--all as it used to be in the good old days of St. James's +Street. + +But Barty was changed all the same. These amusements were no longer +the serious business of life for him. In the midst of all the racket +he would sit at his small easel and work. He declared he couldn't +find inspiration in silence and solitude, and, bereft of Martia, he +could not bear to be alone. + +Then he looked up other old friends, and left cards and got +invitations to dinners and drums. One of his first visits was to his +old tailor in Jermyn Street, to whom he still owed money, and who +welcomed him with open arms--almost hugged him--and made him two or +three beautiful suits; I believe he would have dressed Barty for +nothing, as a mere advertisement. At all events, he wouldn't hear of +payment "for many years to come! The finest figure in the whole +Household Brigade!--the idea!" + +Soon Barty got a few sketches into obscure illustrated papers, and +thought his fortune was made. The first was a little sketch in the +manner of John Leech, which he took to the _British Lion_, just +started as a rival to _Punch_. The _British Lion_ died before the +sketch appeared, but he got a guinea for it, and bought a beautiful +volume of Tennyson, illustrated by Millais, Holman Hunt, Rossetti, +and others, and made a sketch on the fly-leaf of a lovely female +with black hair and black eyes, and gave it to Leah Gibson. It was +his old female face of ten years ago; yet, strange to say, the very +image of Leah herself (as it had once been that of his mother). + +The great happiness of his life just then was to go to the opera +with Mrs. Gibson and Leah and Mr. Babbage (the family friend), who +could get a box whenever he liked, and then to sup with them +afterwards in Conduit Street, over the Emporium of the "Universal +Fur Company," and to imitate Signor Giuglini for the delectation of +Mr. Gibson, whose fondness for Barty soon grew into absolute +worship! + +And Leah, so reserved and self-contained in general company, would +laugh till the tears ran down her cheeks; and the music of her +laughter, which was deep and low, rang more agreeably to Barty's ear +than even the ravishing strains of Adelina Patti--the last of the +great prime donne of our time, I think--whose voice still stirs me +to the depths, with vague remembrance of fresh girlish innocence +turned into sound. + +Long life to her and to her voice! Lovely voices should never fade, +nor pretty faces either! + +Sometimes I replaced Mr. Babbage and escorted Mrs. Gibson to the +opera, leaving Leah to Barty; for on fine nights we walked there, +and the ladies took off their bonnets and shawls in the box, which +was generally on the upper tier, and we looked down on Scatcherd and +my mother and sister in the stalls. Then back to Conduit Street to +supper. It was easy with half an eye to see the way things were +going. I can't say I liked it. No man would, I suppose. But I +reconciled myself to the inevitable, and bore up like a stoic. + +L'amitie est l'amour sans ailes! A happy intimate friendship, a +wingless love that has lasted more than thirty years without a +break, is no bad substitute for tumultuous passions that have missed +their mark! I have been as close a friend to Barty's wife as to +Barty himself, and all the happiness I have ever known has come from +them and theirs. + +Walking home, poor Mrs. Gibson would confide to me her woes and +anxieties, and wail over the past glories of Tavistock Square and +all the nice people who lived there, and in Russell Square and +Bedford Street and Gower Street, many of whom had given up calling +on her now that she lived over a shop. Not all the liveliness of +Bond Street and Regent Street combined (which Conduit Street so +broadly and genially connected with each other) could compensate her +for the lost gentility, the aristocratic dulness and quiet and +repose, "almost equal to that of a West End square." + +Then she believed that business was not going on well, since Mr. +Gibson talked of giving up his Cheapside establishment; he said it +was too much for him to look after. But he had lost much of his fun, +and seemed harassed and thin, and muttered in his sleep; and the +poor woman was full of forebodings, some of which were to be +justified by the events that followed. + +About this time Leah, who had forebodings too, took it into her head +to attend a class for book-keeping, and in a short time thoroughly +mastered the science in all its details. I'm afraid she was better +at this kind of work than at either drawing or music, both of which +she had been so perseveringly taught. She could read off any music +at sight quite glibly and easily, it is true--the result of hard +plodding--but could never play to give real pleasure, and she gave +it up. And with singing it was the same; her voice was excellent and +had been well trained, but when she heard the untaught Barty she +felt she was no singer, and never would be, and left off trying. Yet +nobody got more pleasure out of the singing of others--especially +Barty's and that of young Mr. Santley, who was her pet and darling, +and whom she far preferred to that sweetest and suavest of tenors, +Giuglini, about whom we all went mad. I agreed with her. Giuglini's +voice was like green chartreuse in a liqueur-glass; Santley's like a +bumper of the very best burgundy that ever was! Oh that high G! +Romane-Conti, again; and in a quart-pot! En veux-tu? en voila! + +And as for her drawing, it was as that of all intelligent young +ladies who have been well taught, but have no original talent +whatever; nor did she derive any special pleasure from the +masterpieces in the National Gallery; the Royal Academy was far more +to her taste; and to mine, I frankly admit; and, I fear, to Barty's +taste also, in those days. Enough of the Guardsman still remained in +him to quite unfit his brain and ear and eye for what was best in +literature and art. He was mildly fond of the "Bacchus and Ariadne," +and Rembrandt's portrait of himself, and a few others; as he was of +the works of Shakespeare and Milton. But Mantegna and Botticelli and +Signorelli made him sad, and almost morose. + +The only great things he genuinely loved and revered were the Elgin +Marbles. He was constantly sketching them. And I am told that they +have had great influence on his work and that he owes much to them. +I have grown to admire them immensely myself in consequence, though +I used to find that part of the British Museum a rather dreary +lounge in the days when Barty used to draw there. + +I am the proud possessor of a Velasquez, two Titians, and a +Rembrandt; but, as a rule, I like to encourage the art of my own +time and country and that of modern France. + +And I suppose there's hardly a great painter living, or recently +dead, some of whose work is not represented on my walls, either in +London, Paris, or Scotland; or at Marsfield, where so much of my +time is spent; although the house is not mine, it's my real home; +and thither I have always been allowed to send my best pictures, and +my best bric-a-brac, my favorite horses and dogs, and the oldest and +choicest liquors that were ever stored in the cellars of +Vougeot-Conti & Co. Old bachelor friends have their privileges, and +Uncle Bob has known how to make himself at home in Marsfield. + +Barty soon got better off, and moved into better lodgings in Berners +Street; a sitting-room and bedroom at No. 12B, which has now +disappeared. + +And there he worked all day, without haste and without rest, and at +last in solitude; and found he could work twice as well with no +companion but his pipe and his lay figure, from which he made most +elaborate studies of drapery, in pen and ink; first in the manner of +Sandys and Albert Duerer! later in the manner of Millais, Walker, and +Keene. + +Also he acquired the art of using the living model for his little +illustrations. It had become the fashion; a new school had been +founded with _Once a Week_ and the _Cornhill Magazine_, it seems; +besides those already named, there were Lawless, du Maurier, +Poynter, not to mention Holman Hunt and F. Leighton; and a host of +new draughtsmen, most industrious apprentices, whose talk and +example soon weaned Barty from a mixed and somewhat rowdy crew. + +And all became more or less friends of his; a very good thing, for +they were admirable in industry and talent, thorough artists and +very good fellows all round. Need I say they have all risen to fame +and fortune--as becomes poetical justice? + +He also kept in touch with his old brother officers, and that was a +good thing too. + +But there were others he got to know, rickety, unwholesome geniuses, +whose genius (such as it was) had allied itself to madness; and who +were just as conceited about the madness as about the genius, and +took more pains to cultivate it. It brought them a quicker kudos, +and was so much more visible to the naked eye. + +At first Barty was fascinated by the madness, and took the genius on +trust, I suppose. They made much of him, painted him, wrote music +and verses about him, raved about his Greekness, his beauty, his +yellow hair, and his voice and what not, as if he had been a woman. +He even stood that, he admired them so! or rather, this genius of +theirs. + +He introduced me to this little clique, who called themselves a +school, and each other "master": "the neo-priapists," or something +of that sort, and they worshipped the tuberose. + +They disliked me at sight, and I them, and we did not dissemble! + +Like Barty, I am fond of men's society; but at least I like them to +be unmistakably men of my own sex, manly men, and clean; not little +misshapen troglodytes with foul minds and perverted passions, or +self-advertising little mountebanks with enlarged and diseased +vanities; creatures who would stand in a pillory sooner than not be +stared at or talked about at all. + +Whatever their genius might be, it almost made me sick--it almost +made me kick, to see the humorous and masculine Barty prostrate in +admiration before these inspired epicenes, these gifted epileptoids, +these anaemic little self-satisfied nincompoops, whose proper place, +it seemed to me, was either Earlswood, or Colney Hatch, or +Broadmoor. That is, if their madness was genuine, which I doubt. He +and I had many a quarrel about them, till he found them out and cut +them for good and all--a great relief to me; for one got a bad name +by being friends with such nondescripts. + +"Dis-moi qui tu hantes, je te dirai ce que tu es!" + +Need I say they all died long ago, without leaving the ghost of a +name?--and nobody cared. Poetical justice again! How encouraging it +is to think there are no such people now, and that the breed has +been thoroughly stamped out![1] + +[Footnote 1: Editor.] + +Barty never succeeded as an illustrator on wood. He got into a way +of doing very slight sketches of pretty people in fancy dress and +coloring them lightly, and sold them at a shop in the Strand, now no +more. Then he made up little stories, which he illustrated himself, +something like the picture-books of the later Caldecott, and I found +him a publisher, and he was soon able to put aside a few pounds and +pay his debts. + + + + +Part Eighth + + "And now I see with eyes serene + The very pulse of the machine; + A being breathing thoughtful breath, + A traveller betwixt life and death; + The reason firm, the temperate will, + Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill; + A perfect woman, nobly planned + To warn and comfort and command; + And yet a spirit too and bright + With something of an angel-light." + --Wordsworth. + + +When Barty had been six months in England, poor Mr. Gibson's affairs +went suddenly smash. My father saved him from absolute bankruptcy, +and there was lamentation and wailing for a month or so in Conduit +Street; but things were so managed that Mr. Gibson was able to keep +on the "West End firm," and make with it a new start. + +He had long been complaining of his cashier, and had to dismiss him +and look out for another; but here his daughter came in and insisted +on being cashier herself--(to her mother's horror). + +So she took her place at a railed-in desk at the back of the shop, +and was not only cashier and bookkeeper, but overseer of all things +in general, and was not above seeing any exacting and importunate +customer whom the shopmen couldn't manage. + +She actually liked her work, and declared she had found her real +vocation, and quite ceased to regret Tavistock Square. + +Her authority in the emporium was even greater than her father's, +who was too fond of being funny. She awed the shopmen into a kind of +affectionate servility, and they were prostrate as before a goddess, +in spite of her never-failing politeness to them. + +Customers soon got into a way of asking to see Miss Gibson, +especially when they were accompanied by husbands or brothers or +male friends; and Miss Gibson soon found she sold better than any +shopman, and became one of the notables in the quarter. + +All Mr. Gibson's fun came back, and he was as proud of his daughter +as if she'd been proposed to by an earl. But Mrs. Gibson couldn't +help shedding tears over Leah's loss of caste--Leah, on whose beauty +and good breeding she had founded such hopes; it is but fair to add +that she was most anxious to keep the books herself, so that her +daughter might be spared this degradation; for no "gentleman," she +felt sure, would ever propose to her daughter now. + +But she was mistaken. + +One night Barty and I dined at a little cagmag he used to frequent, +where he fared well--so he said--for a shilling, which included a +glass of stout. It was a disgusting little place, but he liked it, +and therefore so did I. + +Then we called for Mrs. Gibson and Leah, and took them to the +Princess's to see Fechter in Ruy Blas, and escorted them home, and +had supper with them, a very good supper--nothing ever interfered +with the luxuriously hospitable instincts of the Gibsons--and a very +merry one. Barty imitated Fechter to the life. + +"I 'av ze garrb of a _lacquais_--you 'av ze sole of _wawn_!" + +This he said to Mr. Gibson, who was in fits of delight. Mr. Gibson +had just come home from his club, and the cards had been propitious; +Leah was more reserved than usual, and didn't laugh at Barty, for a +wonder, but gazed at him with love in her eyes. + +When we left them, Barty took my arm and walked home with me, down +Oxford Street and up Southampton Row, and talked of Ruy Blas and +Fechter, whom he had often seen in Paris. + +Just where a little footway leads from the Row to Queen Square and +Great Ormond Street, he stopped and said: + +"Bob, do you remember how we tossed up for Leah Gibson at this very +spot?" + +"I should think I did," said I. + +"Well, you had a fair field and no favor, old boy, didn't you?" + +"Oh yes, I've long resigned any pretensions, as I wrote you more +than a year ago; you may go in and win--si le coeur t'en dit!" + +"Well, then, your congratulations, please. I asked her to marry me +as we crossed Regent Circus, Oxford Street, on the way home; a +hansom came by and scattered and splashed us. Then we came together +again, and just opposite Peter Robinson's, she asked me if my mind +was quite made up--if I was sure I wouldn't ever change. I swore by +the eternal gods, and she said she would be my wife; so there we +are, an engaged couple." + +I must ask the reader to believe that I was equal to the occasion, +and said what I ought to have said. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Gibson was happy at last; she was satisfied that Barty was a +"gentleman," in spite of the kink in his birth; and as for his +prospects, money was a thing that never entered Mrs. Gibson's head, +and she loved Barty as a son--was a little bit in love with him +herself, I believe; she was not yet forty, and as pretty as she +could be. + +Besides, a week after, who should call upon her over the shop--there +was a private entrance of course--but the Right Honorable Lady +Caroline Grey and her niece, Miss Daphne Rohan, granddaughter of the +late and niece of the present Marquis of Whitby! + +And Mrs. Gibson felt as much at home with them in five minutes as if +she'd known them all her life. + +Leah was summoned from below, and kissed and congratulated by the +two aristocratic relatives of Barty's, and relieved of her shyness +in a very short time indeed. + +[Illustration: "LEAH WAS SUMMONED FROM BELOW"] + +As a matter of fact, Lady Caroline, who knew her nephew well, and +thoroughly understood his position, was really well pleased; she had +never forgotten her impression of Leah when she met her in the park with +Ida and me a year back, and we all walked by the Serpentine together--a +certain kind of beauty seems to break down all barriers of rank; and she +knew Leah's character both from Barty and me, and from her own native +shrewdness of observation. She had been delighted to hear from Barty of +Leah's resolute participation in her father's troubles, and in his +attempt--so successful through her--to rehabilitate his business. To +her old-fashioned aristocratic way of looking at things, there was +little to choose between a respectable West End shopkeeper and a medical +practitioner or dentist or solicitor or architect--or even an artist, +like Barty himself. Once outside the Church, the Army and Navy, or a +Government office, what on earth did it matter _who_ or _what_ one was, +or wasn't? The only thing she couldn't stand was that horrid form of +bourgeois gentility, the pretension to seem something better than you +really are. Mrs. Gibson was so naively honest in her little laments over +her lost grandeur that she could hardly be called vulgar about it. + +Mr. Gibson didn't appear; he was overawed, and distrusted himself. I +doubt if Lady Caroline would have liked anything in the shape of +jocose familiarity; and I fear her naturalness and simplicity and +cordiality of manner, and the extreme plainness of her attire, might +have put him at his ease almost a trifle too much. + +Whether her ladyship would have been so sympathetic about this +engagement if Barty had been a legitimate Rohan--say a son of her +own--is perhaps to be doubted; but anyhow she had quite made up her +mind that Leah was a quite exceptional person, both in mind and +manners. She has often said as much to me, and has always had as +high a regard for Barty's wife as for any woman she knows, and has +still--the Rohans are a long-lived family. She has often told me she +never knew a better, sincerer, nobler, or more sensible woman than +Barty's wife. + +Besides which, as I have been told, the ancient Yorkshire house of +Rohan has always been singularly free from aristocratic hauteur; +perhaps their religion may have accounted for this, and also their +poverty. + +This memorable visit, it must be remembered, happened nearly forty +years ago, when social demarcations in England were far more rigidly +defined than at present; then, the wife of a costermonger with a +donkey did not visit the wife of a costermonger who had to wheel his +barrow himself. + +We are more sensible in these days, as all who like Mr. Chevalier's +admirable coster-songs are aware. Old Europe itself has become less +tolerant of distinctions of rank; even Austria is becoming so. It is +only in southeastern Bulgaria--and even of this I am not absolutely +sure--that the navvy who happens to be of noble birth refuses to +work in the same gang with the navvy who isn't; and that's what I +call real "esprit de corps," without which no aristocracy can ever +hope to hold its own in these degenerate days. + +Noblesse oblige! + +Why, I've got a Lord Arthur in my New York agency, and two Hon'bles +in Barge Yard, and another at Cape Town; and devilish good men of +business they are, besides being good fellows all round. They hope +to become partners some day; and, by Jove! they shall. Now I've said +it, I'll stick to it. + +The fact is, I'm rather fond of noble lords: why shouldn't I be? I +might have been one myself any day these last ten years; I might +now, if I chose; but there! Charles Lamb knew a man who wanted to be +a tailor once, but hadn't got the spirit. I find I haven't got the +spirit to be a noble lord. Even Barty might have been a lord--he, a +mere man of letters!--but he refused every honor and distinction +that was ever offered to him, either here or abroad--even the +Prussian order of Merit! + +Alfred Tennyson was a lord, so what is there to make such a fuss +about. Give me lords who can't help themselves, because they were +born so, and the stupider the better; and the older--for the older +they are the grander their manners and the manners of their +womankind. + +Take, for instance, that splendid old dow, Penelope, Duchess of +Rumtifoozleland--I always give nicknames to my grand acquaintances; +not that she's particularly old herself, but she belongs to an +antiquated order of things that is passing away--for she was a +Fitztartan, a daughter of the ducal house of Comtesbois (pronounced +County Boyce); and she's very handsome still. + +Have you ever been presented to her Grace, O reader? + +If so, you must have been struck by the grace of her Grace's manner, +as with a ducal gesture and a few courtly words she recognizes the +value of whatever immense achievements yours must have been to have +procured you such an honor as such an introduction, and expresses +her surprise and regret that she has not known you before. The +formula is always the same, on every possible occasion. I ought to +know, for I've had the honor of being presented to her Grace seven +times this year. + +Now this lofty forgetting of your poor existence--or mine--is not +aristocratic hauteur or patrician insolence; it is _betise pure et +simple_, as they call it in France. She was a daughter of the house +of Comtesbois, and the Fitztartans were not the inventors of +gunpowder, nor was she. + +But for a stately, magnificent Grande Dame of the ancient regime, to +meet for the seventh time, and be presented to--for the seventh +time--with all due ceremony in the midst of a distinguished +conservative crowd--say at a ball at Buckingham Palace--give me +Penelope, Dowager Duchess of Rumtifoozleland! + +(This seems a somewhat uncalled-for digression. But, anyhow, it +shows that when it pleases me to do so I move in the very best +society--just like Barty Josselin.) + + * * * * * + +So here was Mr. Nobody of Nowhere taking unto himself a wife from +among the daughters of Heth; from the class he had always disliked, +the buyers cheap and the sellers dear--whose sole aim in life is the +making of money, and who are proud when they succeed and ashamed +when they fail--and getting actually fond of his future father and +mother in law, as I was! + +When I laughed to him about old Gibson--John Gilpin, as we used to +call him--being a tradesman, he said: + +"Yes; but what an _unsuccessful_ tradesman, my dear fellow!" as if +that in itself atoned or made amends for everything. + +"Besides, he's Leah's father! And as for Mrs. Gilpin, she's a +_dear_, although she's always on pleasure bent; at all events, she's +not of a frugal mind; and she's so pretty and dresses so well--and +what a foot!--and she's got such easy manners, too; she reminds me +of dear Lady Archibald! that's a mother-in-law I shall get on +with.... I wish she didn't make such a fuss about living over the +shop; I call that being above one's business in every way." + +"Je suis au-dessus de mes affaires," as old Bonzig proudly said when +he took a garret over the Mont de Piete, in the Rue des Averses. + + * * * * * + +Barty's courtship didn't last long--only five or six months--during +which he made lots of money by sketching little full-length +portraits of people in outline and filling up with tints in +water-color. He thus immortalized my father and mother, and Ida +Scatcherd and her husband, and the old Scatcherds, and lots of other +people. It was not high art, I suppose; he was not a high artist; +but it paid well, and made him more tolerant of trade than ever. + +He took the upper part of a house in Southampton Row, and furnished +it almost entirely with wedding-gifts; among other things, a +beautiful semi-grand piano by Erard--the gift of my father. +Everything was charming there and in the best taste. + +Leah was better at furnishing a house than at drawing and +music-making; it was an occupation she revelled in. + +It is not perhaps for me to say that their cellar might hold its own +with that of any beginners in their rank of life! + +Well, and so they were married at Marylebone Church, and I was +Barty's best man (he was to have been mine, and for that very +bride). Nobody else was there but the family, and Ida, whose husband +was abroad; the sun shone, though it was not yet May--and then we +breakfasted; and John Gilpin made a very funny speech, though with +tears in his voice; and as for poor Maman-belle-mere, as Barty +called her, she was a very Niobe. + +They went for a fortnight to Boulogne. I wished them joy from the +bottom of my heart, and flung a charming little white satin slipper +of Mrs. Gibson's; it alighted on the carriage--_our_ carriage, +by-the-way; we had just started one, and now lived at Lancaster +Gate. + +It was a sharp pang--almost unbearable, but, also, almost the last. +The last was when she came back and I saw how radiant she looked. +And as for Barty, he was like + + "the herald Mercury, + New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill!" + +and he had shaved off his beard and mustache to please his wife. + + * * * * * + + "From George du Maurier, Esqre., A.R.W.S., Hampstead Heath, + to the Right Honble. Sir Robert Maurice, Bart., M.P.: + + "My Dear Maurice,--In answer to your kind letter, I shall be proud + and happy to illustrate your biography of Barty Josselin; but as for + editing it, _vous plaisantez, mon ami; un amateur comme moi!_ who'll + edit the editor? _Quis custodiet?_... + + "You're mistaken about Malines. I only got back there a week or two + before he left it. I remember often seeing him there, arm in arm + with his aunt, Lady Caroline Grey, and being told that he was a + _monsieur anglais, qui avait mal aux yeux_ (like me); but in + Duesseldorf, during the following winter, I knew him very well + indeed. + + "We, and the others you tell me you mention, had a capital time in + Duesseldorf. I remember the beautiful Miss Royce they were all so mad + about, and also Miss Gibson, whom I admired much the most of the + two, although she wasn't quite so tall--you know my craze for lovely + giantesses. + + "Josselin and I came to London at about the same time, and there + again I saw much of him, and was immensely attracted by him, of + course--as we all were, in the very pleasant little artistic clique + you tell me you describe; but somehow I was never very intimate with + him--none of us were, except, perhaps, Charles Keene. + + "He went a great deal into smart society, and a little of the + guardsman still clung to him, and this was an unpardonable crime in + those Bohemian days. + + "He was once seen walking between two well-known earls, in the + Burlington Arcade, arm in arm! + + "Z---- (to whom a noble lord was as a red rag to a bull) all but cut + him for this, and we none of us approved of his swell friends, + Guardsmen and others. How we've all changed, especially Z----, who + hasn't missed a levee for twenty years, nor his wife a drawing-room! + + "Josselin and I acted in a little French musical farce together at + Cornelys's; he had a charming voice and sang beautifully, as you + know. + + "Then he married, and a year after I did the same; and though we + lived near each other for a little while, we didn't meet very often, + beyond dining together once or twice at each other's houses. They + lived very much in the world. + + "It will be very difficult to draw his wife. I really think Mrs. + Josselin was the most beautiful woman I ever saw; but she used to be + very reserved in those early days, and I never felt quite at my ease + with her. I'm sure she was sweetness and kindness itself; she was + certainly charming at her own dinner-table, where she was less shy. + + "Millais's portrait of her is very good, and so is Watts's; but the + best idea of her is to be got from Josselin's little outlines in + 'The Discreet Princess,' and these are out of print. If you have + any, please lend them to me, and I will faithfully return them. I + have more than once tried to draw her in _Punch_, from memory, but + never with success. + + "I used to call her '_La belle dame sans merci._' + + "I've often, however, drawn Josselin, as you must remember, and + people have recognized him at once. Thanks for all his old sketches + of school, etc., which will be very useful. + + "I wish I had known the Josselins better. But when one lives in + Hampstead one has to forego many delightful friendships; and then he + grew to be such a tremendous swell! Good heavens!--_Sardonyx_, etc. + I never could muster courage even to write and congratulate him. + + "It never occurred to any of us, either in Duesseldorf or London, to + think him what is called _clever_; he never said anything very + witty or profound. But he was always funny in a good-natured, jovial + manner, and made me laugh more than any one else. + + "As for satire, good heavens! that seemed not in him. He was always + well dressed, always in high spirits and a good temper, and very + demonstrative and caressing; putting his arm round one, and slapping + one on the back or lifting one up in the air; a kind of jolty, + noisy, boisterous boon-companion--rather uproarious, in fact, and + with no disdain for a good bottle of wine or a good bottle of beer. + His artistic tastes were very catholic, for he was prostrate in + admiration before Millais, Burne-Jones, Fred Walker, and Charles + Keene, with the latter of whom he used to sing old English duets. + Oddly enough, Charles Keene had for Josselin's little amateur + pencillings the most enthusiastic admiration--probably because they + were the very antipodes of his own splendid work. I believe he + managed to get some little initial letters of Josselin's into + _Punch_ and _Once a Week_; but they weren't signed, and made no + mark, and I've forgotten them. + + "Josselin didn't really get his foot in the stirrup till a year or + two after his marriage. + + [Illustration: "BETWEEN TWO WELL-KNOWN EARLS"] + + "And that was by his illustrations to his own _Sardonyx_, which are + almost worthy of the letter-press, I think; though still somewhat + lacking in freedom and looseness, and especially in the sense of + tone. The feeling for beauty and character in them (especially that + of women and children) is so utterly beyond anything else of the + kind that has ever been attempted, that technical considerations + no longer count. I think you will find all of us, in or outside the + Academy, agreed upon this point. + + "I saw very little of him after he bought Marsfield; but I sometimes + meet his sons and daughters, _de par le monde_. + + "And what a pleasure that is to an artist of my particular bent you + can readily understand. I would go a good way to see or talk to any + daughter of Josselin's; and to hear Mrs. Trevor sing, what miles! + I'm told the grandchildren are splendid--chips of the old block too. + + "And now, my dear Maurice, I will do my best; you may count upon + that, for old-times' sake, and for Josselin's, and for that of '_La + belle dame sans merci_,' whom I used to admire so enthusiastically. + It grieves me deeply to think of them both gone--and all so sudden! + + "Sincerely yours, + + "George du Maurier. + + "P. S.--Very many thanks for the Chateau Yquem and the Steinberger + Cabinet; _je tacherai de ne pas en abuser trop!_ + + "I send you a little sketch of Graham-Reece (Lord Ironsides), taken + by me on a little bridge in Duesselthal, near Duesseldorf. He stood + for me there in 1860. It was thought very like at the time." + + * * * * * + +When the Josselins came back from their honeymoon and were settled +in Southampton Row many people of all kinds called on the newly +married pair; invitations came pouring in, and they went very much +into the world. They were considered the handsomest couple in London +that year, and became quite the fashion, and were asked everywhere, +and made much of, and raved about, and had a glorious time till the +following season, when somebody else became the fashion, and they +had grown tired of being lionized themselves, and discovered they +were people of no social importance whatever, as Leah had long +perceived; and it did them good. + +Barty was in his element. The admiration his wife excited filled him +with delight; it was a kind of reflected glory, that pleased him +more than any glory he could possibly achieve for himself. + +I doubt if Leah was quite so happy. The grand people, the famous +people, the clever, worldly people she met made her very shy at +first, as may be easily imagined. + +She was rather embarrassed by the attentions many smart men paid her +as to a very pretty woman, and not always pleased or edified. Her +deep sense of humor was often tickled by this new position in which +she found herself, and which she put down entirely to the fact that +she was Barty's wife. + +She never thought much of her own beauty, which had never been made +much of at home, where beauty of a very different order was admired, +and where she was thought too tall, too pale, too slim, and +especially too quiet and sedate. + +Dimpled little rosy plumpness for Mr. and Mrs. John Gilpin, and the +never-ending lively chatter, and the ever-ready laugh that results +from an entire lack of the real sense of humor and a laudable desire +to show one's pretty teeth. + +Leah's only vanity was her fondness for being very well dressed; it +had become a second nature, especially her fondness for beautiful +French boots and shoes, an instinct inherited from her mother. + +For these, and for pretty furniture and hangings, she had the truly +aesthetic eye, and was in advance of her time by at least a year. + +She shone most in her own home--by her great faculty of making +others at home there, too, and disinclined to leave it. Her instinct +of hospitality was a true inheritance; she was good at the ordering +of all such things--food, wines, flowers, waiting, every little +detail of the dinner-table, and especially who should be asked to +meet whom, and which particular guests should be chosen to sit by +each other. All things of which Barty had no idea whatever. + +I remember their first dinner-party well, and how pleasant it was. +How good the fare, and how simple; and how quick the hired +waiting--and the wines! how--(but I won't talk of that); and how +lively we all were, and how handsome the women. Lady Caroline and +Miss Daphne Rohan, Mr. and Mrs. Graham-Reece, Scatcherd and my +sister; G. du Maurier (then a bachelor) and myself--that was the +party, a very lively one. + +After dinner du Maurier and Barty sang capital songs of the quartier +latin, and told stories of the atelier, and even danced a kind of +cancan together--an invention of their own--which they called "_le +dernier des Abencerrages_." We were in fits of laughter, especially +Lady Caroline and Mrs. Graham-Reece. I hope D. M. has not forgotten +that scene, and will do justice to it in this book. + +There was still more of the Bohemian than the Guardsman left in +Barty, and his wife's natural tastes were far more in the direction +of Bohemia than of fashionable West End society, as it was called by +some people who were not in it, whatever it consists of; there was +more of her father in her than her mother, and she was not sensitive +to the world's opinion of her social status. + +[Illustration: "LE DERNIER DES ABENCERRAGES"] + +Sometimes Leah and Barty and I would dine together and go to the gallery +of the opera, let us say, or to see Fechter and Miss Kate Terry in the +_Duke's Motto_, or Robson in Shylock, or the _Porter's Knot_, or +whatever was good. Then on the way home to Southampton Row Barty would +buy a big lobster, and Leah would make a salad of it, with innovations +of her own devising which were much appreciated; and then we would +feast, and afterwards Leah would mull some claret in a silver saucepan, +and then we (Barty and I) would drink and smoke and chat of pleasant +things till it was very late indeed and I had to be turned out neck and +crop. + +And the kindness of the two dear people! Once, when my father and +mother were away in the Isle of Wight and the Scatcherds in Paris, I +felt so seedy I had to leave Barge Yard and go home to Lancaster +Gate. I had felt pretty bad for two or three days. Like all people +who are never ill, I was nervous and thought I was going to die, and +sent for Barty. + +In less than twenty minutes Leah drove up in a hansom. Barty was in +Hampton Court for the day, sketching. When she had seen me and how +ill I looked, off she went for the doctor, and brought him back with +her in no time. He saw I was sickening for typhoid, and must go to +bed at once and engage two nurses. + +Leah insisted, on taking me straight off to Southampton Row, and the +doctor came with us. There I was soon in bed and the nurses engaged, +and everything done for me as if I'd been Barty himself--all this at +considerable inconvenience to the Josselins. + +And I had my typhoid most pleasantly. And I shall never forget the +joys of convalescence, nor what an angel that woman was in a +sick-room--nor what a companion when the worst was over; nor how she +so bore herself through all this forced intimacy that no unruly +regrets or jealousies mingled in my deep affection and admiration +for her, and my passionate gratitude. She was such a person to tell +all one's affairs to, even dry business affairs! such a listener, +and said such sensible things, and sometimes made suggestions that +were invaluable; and of a discretion! a very tomb for momentous +secrets. + +How on earth Barty would have ever managed to get through existence +without her is not to be conceived. Upon my word, I hardly see how I +should have got on myself without these two people to fill my life +with; and in all matters of real importance to me she was the +nearest of the two, for Barty was so light about things, and +couldn't listen long to anything that was at all intricate. Such +matters bored him, and that extraordinary good sense which underlies +all his brilliant criticism of life was apt to fail him in practical +matters; he was too headstrong and impulsive, and by no means +discreet. + +It was quite amusing to watch the way his wife managed him without +ever letting him suspect what she was doing, and how, after his +raging and fuming and storming and stamping--for all his old +fractiousness had come back--she would gradually make him work his +way round--of his own accord, as he thought--to complete concession +all along the line, and take great credit to himself in consequence; +and she would very gravely and slowly give way to a delicate little +wink in my direction, but never a smile at what was all so really +funny. I've no doubt she often got me to do what she thought right +in just the same way--_a mon insu_--and shot her little wink at +Barty. + + * * * * * + +In due time--namely, late in the evening of December 31, 1862--Barty +hailed a hansom, and went first to summon his good friend Dr. +Knight, in Orchard Street; and then he drove to Brixton, and woke up +and brought back with him a very respectable, middle-aged, and +motherly woman whose name was Jones; and next morning, which was a +very sunny, frosty one, my dear little god-daughter was ushered into +this sinful world, a fact which was chronicled the very next day in +Leah's diary by the simple entry: + + "Jan. 1.--Roberta was born and the coals came in." + +When Roberta was first shown to her papa by the nurse, he was in +despair and ran and shut himself up in his studio, and, I believe, +almost wept. He feared he had brought a monster into the world. He +had always, thought that female babies were born with large blue +eyes framed with long lashes, a beautiful complexion of the lily and +the rose, and their shining, flaxen curls already parted in the +middle. And this little bald, wrinkled, dark-red, howling lump of +humanity all but made him ill. But soon the doctor came and knocked +at the door, and said: + +"I congratulate you, old fellow, on having produced the most +magnificent little she I ever saw in my life--bar none; she might be +shown for money." + +And it turned out that this was not the coarse, unfeeling chaff poor +Barty took it for at first, but the pure and simple truth. + +So, my blessed Roberta, pride of your silly old godfather's heart +and apple of his eye, mother of Cupid and Ganymede and Aurora and +the infant Hercules, think of your poor young father weeping in +solitude at the first sight of you, because you were so hideous in +his eyes! + +You were not so in mine. Next day--you had improved, no doubt--I +took you in my arms and thought well of you, especially your little +hands that were very prehensile, and your little feet turned in, +with rosy toes and little pink nails like shiny gems; and I was +complimented by Mrs. Jones on the skill with which I dandled you. I +have dandled your sons and daughters, Roberta, and may I live to +dandle theirs! + +So then Barty dried his tears, if he really shed them--and he swears +he did--and went and sat by his wife's bedside, and felt +unutterably, as I believe all good men do under similar +circumstances; and lo!--proh!--to his wonderment and delight, in the +middle of it all, the sense of the north came back like a tide, like +an overwhelming avalanche. He declared he all but fainted in the +double ineffability of his bliss. + +That night he arranged by his bedside writing materials chosen with +extra care, and before he went to bed he looked out of window at the +stars, and filled his lungs with the clean, frozen, virtuous air of +Bloomsbury, and whispered a most passionate invocation to Martia, +and implored her forgiveness, and went to sleep hugging the thought +of her to his manly breast, now widowed for quite a month to come. + +Next morning there was a long letter in bold, vigorous Blaze: + + "My more than ever beloved Barty,--It is for me to implore pardon, + not for _you_! Your first-born is proof enough to me how right you + were in letting your own instinct guide you in the choice of a wife. + + "Ah! and well now I know her worth and your good-fortune. I have + inhabited her for many months, little as she knows it, dear thing! + + "Although she was not the woman I first wanted for you, and had + watched so many years, she is all that I could wish, in body and + mind, in beauty and sense and goodness of heart and intelligence, in + health and strength, and especially in the love with which she has + so easily, and I trust so lastingly, filled your heart--for that is + the most precious thing of all to me, as you shall know some day, + and why; and you will then understand and forgive me for seeming + such a shameless egotist and caring so desperately for my own ends. + + "Barty, I will never doubt you again, and we will do great things + together. They will not be quite what I used to hope, but they will + be worth doing, and all the doing will be yours. All I can do is to + set your brains in motion--those innocent brains that don't know + their own strength any more than a herd of bullocks which any little + butcher boy can drive to the slaughter-house. + + "As soon as Leah is well enough you must tell her all about me--all + you know, that is. She won't believe you at first, and she'll think + you've gone mad; but she'll have to believe you in time, and she's + to be trusted with any secret, and so will you be when once you've + shared it with her. + + "(By-the-way, I wish you weren't so slipshod and colloquial in your + English, Barty--Guardsman's English, I suppose--which I have to use, + as it's yours; your French is much more educated and correct. You + remember dear M. Durosier at the Pension Brossard? he taught you + well. You must read, and cultivate a decent English style, for the + bulk of our joint work must be in English, I think; and I can only + use your own words to make you immortal, and your own way of using + them.) + + "We will be simple, Barty--as simple as Lemuel Gulliver and the good + Robinson Crusoe--and cultivate a fondness for words of one syllable, + and if that doesn't do we'll try French. + + "Now listen, or, rather, read: + + "First of all, I will write out for you a list of books, which you + must study whenever you feel I'm inside you--and this more for me + than for yourself. Those marked with a cross you must read + constantly and carefully at home, the others you must read at the + British Museum. + + "Get a reading ticket at once, and read the books in the order I put + down. Never forget to leave paper and pencil by your bedside. Leah + will soon get accustomed to your quiet somnambulism; I will never + trouble your rest for more than an hour or so each night, but you + can make up for it by staying in bed an hour or two longer. You will + have to work during the day from the pencil notes in Blaze you will + have written during the night, and in the evening, or at any time + you are conscious of my presence, read what you have written during + the day, and leave it by your bedside when you go to bed, that I may + make you correct and alter and suggest--during your sleep. + + "Only write on one side of a page, leaving a margin and plenty of + space between the lines, and let it be in copybooks, so that the + page on the left-hand side be left for additions and corrections + from my Blaze notes, and so forth; you'll soon get into the way of + it. + + "Then when each copybook is complete--I will let you know--get Leah + to copy it out; she writes a very good, legible business hand. All + will arrange itself.... + + "And now, get the books and begin reading them. I shall not be ready + to write, nor will you, for more than a month. + + "Keep this from everybody but Leah; don't even mention it to Maurice + until I give you leave--not but what's he's to be thoroughly + trusted. You are fortunate in your wife and your friend--I hope the + day will come when you will find you have been fortunate in your + + "Martia." + +Here follows a list of books, but it has been more or less carefully +erased; and though some of the names are still to be made out, I +conclude that Barty did not wish them to be made public. + + * * * * * + +Before Roberta was born, Leah had reserved herself an hour every +morning and every afternoon for what she called the cultivation of +her mind--the careful reading of good standard books, French and +English, that she might qualify herself in time, as she said, for +the intellectual society in which she hoped to mix some day; she +built castles in the air, being somewhat of a hero-worshipper in +secret, and dreamt of meeting her heroes in the flesh, now that she +was Barty's wife. + +But when she became a mother there was not only Roberta who required +much attention, but Barty himself made great calls upon her time +besides. + +To his friends' astonishment he had taken it into his head to write +a book. Good heavens! Barty writing a book! What on earth could the +dear boy have to write about? + +He wrote much of the book at night in bed, and corrected and put it +into shape during the daytime; and finally Leah had to copy it all +out neatly in her best handwriting, and this copying out of Barty's +books became to her an all but daily task for many years--a happy +labor of love, and one she would depute to no one else; no hired +hand should interfere with these precious productions of her +husband's genius. So that most of the standard works, English and +French, that she grew to thoroughly master were of her husband's +writing--not a bad education, I venture to think! + +Besides, it was more in her nature and in the circumstances of her +life that she should become a woman of business and a woman of the +world rather than a reader of books--one who grew to thoroughly +understand life as it presented itself to her; and men and women, +and especially children; and the management of a large and much +frequented house; for they soon moved away from Southampton Row. + +She quickly arrived at a complete mastery of all such science as +this--and it is a science; such a mastery as I have never seen +surpassed by any other woman, of whatever world. She would have made +a splendid Marchioness of Whitby, this daughter of a low-comedy John +Gilpin; she would have beaten the Whitby record! + +She developed into a woman of the world in the best sense--full of +sympathy, full of observation and quick understanding of others' +needs and thoughts and feelings; absolutely sincere, of a constant +and even temper, and a cheerfulness that never failed--the result of +her splendid health; without caprice, without a spark of vanity, +without selfishness of any kind--generous, open-handed, charitable +to a fault; always taking the large and generous view of everything +and everybody; a little impulsive perhaps, but not often having to +regret her impulses; of unwearied devotion to her husband, and +capable of any heroism or self-sacrifice for his sake; of that I +feel sure. + +No one is perfect, of course. Unfortunately, she was apt to be +somewhat jealous at first of his singularly catholic and very +frankly expressed admiration of every opposite type of female +beauty; but she soon grew to see that there was safety in numbers, +and she was made to feel in time that her own type was the arch-type +of all in his eyes, and herself the arch-representative of that type +in his heart. + +She was also jealous in her friendships, and was not happy unless +constantly assured of her friends' warm love--Ida's, mine, even that +of her own father and mother. Good heavens! had ever a woman less +cause for doubt or complaint on that score! + +Then, like all extremely conscientious people who always know their +own mind and do their very best, she did not like to be found fault +with; she secretly found such fault with herself that she thought +that was fault-finding enough. Also, she was somewhat rigid in +sticking to the ways she thought were right, and in the selection of +these ways she was not always quite infallible. _On a les defauts de +ses qualites_; and a little obstinacy is often the fault of a very +noble quality indeed! + +Though somewhat shy and standoffish during the first year or two of +her married life, she soon became "_joliment degourdie_," as Barty +called it; and I can scarcely conceive any position in which she +would have been awkward or embarrassed for a moment, so ready was +she always with just the right thing to say--or to withhold, if +silence were better than speech; and her fit and proper place in the +world as a great man's wife--and a good and beautiful woman--was +always conceded to her with due honor, even by the most impertinent +among the highly placed of her own sex, without any necessity for +self-assertion on her part whatever--without assumption of any kind. + +It was a strange and peculiar personal ascendency she managed to +exert with so little effort, an ascendency partly physical, no +doubt; and the practice of it had begun in the West End emporium of +the "Universal Fur Company, Limited." + +[Illustration: "SARDONYX"] + +How admirably she filled the high and arduous position of wife to such a +man as Barty Josselin is well known to the world at large. It was no +sinecure! but she gloried in it; and to her thorough apprehension and +management of their joint lives and all that came of them, as well as to +her beauty and sense and genial warmth, was due her great popularity for +many years in an immense and ever-widening circle, where the memory of +her is still preserved and cherished as one of the most remarkable women +of her time. + +With all this power of passionate self-surrender to her husband in +all things, little and big, she was not of the type that cannot see +the faults of the beloved one, and Barty was very often frankly +pulled up for his shortcomings, and by no means had it all his own +way when his own way wasn't good for him. She was a person to reckon +with, and incapable of the slightest flattery, even to Barty, who +was so fond of it from her, and in spite of her unbounded admiration +for him. + +Such was your mother, my dear Roberta, in the bloom of her early +twenties and ever after; till her death, in fact--on the day +following his! + + * * * * * + +Somewhere about the spring of 1863 she said to me: + +"Bob, Barty has written a book. Either I'm an idiot, or blinded by +conjugal conceit, or else Barty's book--which I've copied out myself +in my very best handwriting--is one of the most beautiful and +important books ever written. Come and dine with me to-night; +Barty's dining in the City with the Fishmongers--you shall have what +you like best: pickled pork and pease-pudding, a dressed crab and a +Welsh rabbit to follow, and draught stout--and after dinner I will +read you the beginning of _Sardonyx_--that's what he's called +it--and I should like to have your opinion." + +I dined with her as she wished. We were alone, and she told me how +he wrote every night in bed, in a kind of ecstasy--between two and +four, in Blaze--and then elaborated his work during the day, and +made sketches for it. + +And after dinner she read me the first part of _Sardonyx_; it took +three hours. + +Then Barty came home, having dined well, and in very high spirits. + +"Well, old fellow! how do you like _Sardonyx_?" + +I was so moved and excited I could say nothing--I couldn't even +smoke. I was allowed to take the precious manuscript away with me, +and finished it during the night. + +Next morning I wrote to him out of the fulness of my heart. + +I read it aloud to my father and mother, and then lent it to +Scatcherd, who read it to Ida. In twenty-four hours our gay and +genial Barty--our Robin Goodfellow and Merry Andrew, our funny +man--had become for us a demi-god; for all but my father, who looked +upon him as a splendid but irretrievably lost soul, and mourned over +him as over a son of his own. + +And in two months _Sardonyx_ was before the reading world, and the +middle-aged reader will remember the wild enthusiasm and the storm +it raised. + +All that is ancient history, and I will do no more than allude to +the unparalleled bitterness of the attacks made by the Church on a +book which is now quoted again and again from every pulpit in +England--in the world--and has been translated into almost every +language under the sun. + +Thus he leaped into fame and fortune at a bound, and at first they +delighted him. He would take little Roberta on to the top of his +head and dance "La Paladine" on his hearth-rug, singing: + + "Rataplan, Rataplan, + I'm a celebrated man--" + +in imitation of Sergeant Bouncer in _Cox and Box_. + +But in less than a year celebrity had quite palled, and all his +money bored him--as mine does me. He had a very small appetite for +either the praise or the pudding which were served out to him in +such excess all through his life. It was only his fondness for the +work itself that kept his nose so constantly to the grindstone. + +Within six months of the _Sardonyx_ Barty wrote _La quatrieme +Dimension_ in French, which was published by Dollfus-Mois freres, in +Paris, with if possible a greater success; for the clerical +opposition was even more virulent. The English translation, which is +admirable, is by Scatcherd. + +Then came _Motes in a Moonbeam, Interstellar Harmonics_, and _Berthe +aux grands Pieds_ within eighteen months, so that before he was +quite thirty, in the space of two years, Barty had produced five +works--three in English and two in French--which, though merely +novels and novelettes, have had as wide and far-reaching an +influence on modern thought as the _Origin of Species_, that +appeared about the same time, and which are such, for simplicity of +expression, exposition, and idea, that an intelligent ploughboy can +get all the good and all the pleasure from them almost as easily as +any philosopher or sage. + +Such was Barty's debut as a man of letters. This is not the place to +criticise his literary work, nor am I the proper person to do so; +enough has been written already about Barty Josselin during his +lifetime to fill a large library--in nearly every language there is. +I tremble to think of what has yet to follow! + +[Illustration: "'RATAPLAN, RATAPLAN'"] + +_Sardonyx_ came of age nearly twelve years ago--what a coming of age +that was the reader will remember well. I shall not forget its +celebration at Marsfield; it happened to coincide with the birth of +Barty's first grandchild, at that very house. + +I will now go back to Barty's private life, which is the sole object +of this humble attempt at book-making on my part. + +During the next ten years Barty's literary activity was immense. +Beautiful books followed each other in rapid succession--and so did +beautiful little Bartys, and Leah's hands were full. + +And as each book, English or French, was more beautiful than the last; +so was each little Barty, male or female. All over Kensington and +Campden Hill--for they took Gretna Lodge, next door to Cornelys, the +sculptor's--the splendor of these little Bartys, their size, their +beauty, their health and high spirits, became almost a joke, and their +mother became almost a comic character in consequence--like the old +lady who lived in a shoe. + +Money poured in with a profusion few writers of good books have ever +known before, and every penny not wanted for immediate household +expenses was pounced upon by Scatcherd or by me to be invested in +the manner we thought best: nous avons eu la main heureuse! + +The Josselins kept open house, and money was not to be despised, +little as Barty ever thought of money. + +Then every autumn the entire smalah migrated to the coast of +Normandy, or Picardy, or Brittany, or to the Highlands of Inverness, +and with them the Scatcherds and the chronicler of these happy +times--not to mention cats, dogs, and squirrels, and guinea-pigs, +and white mice, and birds of all kinds, from which the children +would not be parted, and the real care of which, both at home and +abroad, ultimately devolved on poor Mrs. Josselin--who was not so +fond of animals as all that--so that her life was full to +overflowing of household cares. + +Another duty had devolved upon her also: that of answering the +passionate letters that her husband received by every post from all +parts of the world--especially America--and which he could never be +induced to answer himself. Every morning regularly he would begin +his day's work by writing "Yours truly--B. Josselin" on quite a +score of square bits of paper, to be sent through the post to fair +English and American autograph collectors who forwarded stamped +envelopes, and sometimes photographs of themselves, that he might +study the features of those who loved him at a respectful distance, +and who so frankly told their love; all of which bored Barty to +extinction, and was a source of endless amusement to his wife. + +But even _she_ was annoyed when a large unstamped or insufficiently +stamped parcel arrived by post from America, enclosing a photograph +of her husband to which his signature was desired, and containing no +stamps to frank it on its return journey! + +And the photographers he had to sit to! and the interviewers, male +and female, to whom he had to deny himself! Life was too short! + +How often has a sturdy laborer or artisan come up to him, as he and +I walked together, with: + +"I should very much like to shake you by the hand, Mr. Josselin, if +I might make so bold, sir!" + +And such an appeal as this would please him far more than the most +fervently written outpourings of the female hearts he had touched. + +They, of course, received endless invitations to stay at +country-houses all over the United Kingdom, where they might have +been lionized to their hearts' content, if such had been their wish; +but these they never accepted. They never spent a single night away +from their own house till most of their children were grown up--or +ever wanted to; and every year they got less and less into the way +of dining out, or spending the evening from home--and I don't +wonder; no gayer or jollier home ever was than that they made for +themselves, and each other, and their intimate friends; not even at +Cornelys's, next door, was better music to be heard; for Barty was +friends with all the music-makers, English and foreign, who cater +for us in and out of the season; even _they_ read his books, and +understood them; and they sang and played better for Barty--and for +Cornelys, next door--than even for the music-loving multitude who +filled their pockets with British gold. + +And the difference between Barty's house and that of Cornelys was +that at the former the gatherings were smaller and more intimate--as +became the smaller house--and one was happier there in consequence. + +Barty gave himself up entirely to his writing, and left everything +else to his wife, or to me, or to Scatcherd. She was really a mother +to him, as well as a passionately loving and devoted helpmeet. + +To make up for this, whenever she was ill, which didn't often +happen--except, of course, when she had a baby--he forgot all his +writing in his anxiety about her; and in his care of her, and his +solicitude for her ease and comfort, he became quite a motherly old +woman, a better nurse than Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Gibson--as practical +and sensible and full of authority as Dr. Knight himself. + +And when it was all over, all his amiable carelessness came back, +and with it his genius, his school-boy high spirits, his tomfooling, +his romps with his children, and his utter irresponsibility, and +absolute disdain for all the ordinary business of life; and the +happy, genial temper that never seemed to know a moment's depression +or nourish an unkind thought. + +Poor Barty! what would he have done without us all, and what should +we have done without Barty? As Scatcherd said of him, "He's having +his portion in this life." + +But it was not really so. + +Then, in 1870, he bought that charming house, Mansfield, by the +Thames, which he rechristened Marsfield; and which he--with the help +of the Scatcherds and myself, for it became our hobby--made into one +of the most delightful abodes in England. It was the real home for +all of us; I really think it is one of the loveliest spots on earth. +It was a bargain, but it cost a lot of money; altogether, never was +money better spent--even as a mere investment. When I think of what +it is worth now! Je suis homme d'affaires! + +What a house-warming that was on the very day that France and +Germany went to war; we little guessed what was to come for the +country we all loved so dearly, or we should not have been so glad. + +I am conscious that all this is rather dull reading. Alas! Merry +England is a devilish dull place compared to foreign parts--and +success, respectability, and domestic bliss are the dullest things +to write--or read--about that I know--and with middle age to follow +too! + +It was during that first summer at Marsfield that Barty told me the +extraordinary story of Martia, and I really thought he had gone mad. +For I knew him to be the most truthful person alive. + +Even now I hardly know what to think, nor did Leah--nor did Barty +himself up to the day of his death. + +He showed me all her letters, _which I may deem it advisable to +publish some day_: not only the Blaze suggestions for his books, and +all her corrections; things to occupy him for life--all, of course, +in his own handwriting; but many letters about herself, also written +in sleep and by his own hand; and the style is Barty's--not the +style in which he wrote his books, and which is not to be matched; +but that in which he wrote his Blaze letters to me. + +If her story is true--and I never read a piece of documentary +evidence more convincing--these letters constitute the most +astonishing revelation ever yet vouchsafed to this earth. + +But her story cannot be true! + +That Barty's version of his relations with "The Martian" is +absolutely sincere it is impossible to doubt. He was quite +unconscious of the genesis of every book he ever wrote. His first +hint of every one of them was the elaborately worked out suggestion +he found by his bedside in the morning--written by himself in his +sleep during the preceding night, with his eyes wide open, while +more often than not his wife anxiously watched him at his +unconscious work, careful not to wake or disturb him in any way. + +Roughly epitomized, Martia's story was this: + +For an immense time she had gone through countless incarnations, +from the lowest form to the highest, in the cold and dreary planet +we call Mars, the outermost of the four inhabited worlds of our +system, where the sun seems no bigger than an orange, and which but +for its moist, thin, rich atmosphere and peculiar magnetic +conditions that differ from ours would be too cold above ground for +human or animal or vegetable life. As it is, it is only inhabited +now in the neighborhood of its equator, and even there during its +long winter it is colder and more desolate than Cape Horn or +Spitzbergen--except that the shallow, fresh-water sea does not +freeze except for a few months at either pole. + +All these incarnations were forgotten by her but the last; nothing +remained of them all but a vague consciousness that they had once +been, until their culmination in what would be in Mars the +equivalent of a woman on our earth. + +Man in Mars is, it appears, a very different being from what he is +here. He is amphibious, and descends from no monkey, but from a +small animal that seems to be something between our seal and our +sea-lion. + +According to Martia, his beauty is to that of the seal as that of +the Theseus or Antinous to that of an orangoutang. His five senses +are extraordinarily acute, even the sense of touch in his webbed +fingers and toes; and in addition to these he possesses a sixth, +that comes from his keen and unintermittent sense of the magnetic +current, which is far stronger in Mars than on the earth, and far +more complicated, and more thoroughly understood. + +When any object is too delicate and minute to be examined by the +sense of touch and sight, the Martian shuts his eyes and puts it +against the pit of his stomach, and knows all about it, even its +inside. + +In the absolute dark, or with his eyes shut, and when he stops his +ears, he is more intensely conscious of what immediately surrounds +him than at any other time, except that all color-perception ceases; +conscious not only of material objects, but of what is passing in +his fellow-Martian's mind--and this for an area of many hundreds of +cubic yards. + +In the course of its evolutions this extraordinary faculty--which +exists on earth in a rudimentary state, but only among some birds +and fish and insects and in the lower forms of animal life--has +developed the Martian mind in a direction very different from ours, +since no inner life apart from the rest, no privacy, no concealment +is possible except at a distance involving absolute isolation; not +even thought is free; yet in some incomprehensible way there is, as +a matter of fact, a really greater freedom of thought than is +conceivable among ourselves: absolute liberty in absolute obedience +to law, a paradox beyond our comprehension. + +Their habits are as simple as those we attribute to the +cave-dwellers during the prehistoric periods of the earth's +existence. But their moral sense is so far in advance of ours that +we haven't even a terminology by which to express it. + +In comparison, the highest and best of us are monsters of iniquity +and egoism, cruelty and corruption; and our planet (a very heaven +for warmth and brilliancy and beauty, in spite of earthquakes and +cyclones and tornadoes) is a very hell through the creatures that +people it--a shambles, a place of torture, a grotesque and impure +pandemonium. + +These exemplary Martians wear no clothes but the exquisite fur with +which nature has endowed them, and which constitutes a part of their +immense beauty, according to Martia. + +They feed exclusively on edible moss and roots and submarine +seaweed, which they know how to grow and prepare and preserve. +Except for heavy-winged bat-like birds, and big fish, which they +have domesticated and use for their own purposes in an incredible +manner (incarnating a portion of themselves and their consciousness +at will in their bodies), they have cleared Mars of all useless and +harmful and mutually destructive forms of animal life. A sorry +fauna, the Martian--even at its best--and a flora beneath contempt, +compared to ours. + +They are great engineers and excavators, great irrigators, great +workers in delicate metal, stone, marble, and precious gems (there +is no wood to speak of); great sculptors and decorators of the +beautiful caves, so fancifully and so intricately connected, in +which they live, and which have taken thousands of years to design +and excavate and ventilate and adorn, and which they warm and light +up at will in a beautiful manner by means of the tremendous magnetic +current. + +This richly parti-colored light is part of their mental and moral +life in a way it is not in us to apprehend, and has its exact +equivalent in sound--and vice versa. + +They have no language of words, and do not need it, since they can +only be isolated in thought from each other by a distance greater +than that which any vocal sound can traverse; but their organs of +voice and hearing are far more complex and perfect than ours, and +their atmosphere infinitely more conductive of phonal vibrations. + +It seems that everything which can be apprehended by the eye or hand +is capable of absolute sonorous translation: light, color, texture, +shape in its three dimensions, weight, and density. The phonal +expression and comprehension of all these are acquired by the +Martian baby almost as soon as it knows how to swim or dive, or move +upright and erect on dry land or beneath it; and the mechanical +translation of such expression by means of wind and wire and +sounding texture and curved surface of extraordinary elaboration is +the principal business of the Martian life--an art by which all the +combined past experience and future aspirations of the race receive +the fullest utterance. Here again personal magnetism plays an +enormous part. + +And it is by means of this long and patiently evolved and highly +trained faculty that the race is still developing towards perfection +with constant strain and effort--although the planet is far advanced +in its decadence and within measurable distance of its unfitness for +life of any kind. + +All is so evenly and harmoniously balanced, whether above ground or +beneath, that existence is full of joy in spite of the tremendous +strain of life, in spite also of a dreariness of outlook, on barren +nature, which is not to be matched by the most inhospitable regions +of the earth; and death is looked upon as the crowning joy of all, +although life is prolonged by all the means in their power. + +For when the life of the body ceases and the body itself is burned +and its ashes scattered to the winds and waves, the infinitesimal, +imponderable, and indestructible something _we_ call the _soul_ is +known to lose itself in a sunbeam and make for the sun, with all its +memories about it, that it may then receive further development, +fitting it for other systems altogether beyond conception; and the +longer it has lived in Mars the better for its eternal life in the +future. + +But it often, on its journey sunwards, gets entangled in other +beams, and finds its way to some intermediate planet--Mercury, +Venus, or the Earth; and putting on flesh and blood and bone once +more, and losing for a space all its knowledge of its own past, it +has to undergo another mortal incarnation--a new personal +experience, beginning with its new birth; a dream and a forgetting, +till it awakens again after the pangs of dissolution, and finds +itself a step further on the way to freedom. + +Martia, it seems, came to our earth in a shower of shooting-stars a +hundred years ago. She had not lived her full measure of years in +Mars; she had elected to be suppressed, through some unfitness, +physical or mental or moral, which rendered it inexpedient that she +should become a mother of Martians, for they are very particular +about that sort of thing in Mars: we shall have to be so here some +day, or else we shall degenerate and become extinct; or even worse! + +Many Martian souls come to our planet in this way, it seems, and +hasten to incarnate themselves in as promising unborn though just +begotten men and women as they find, that they may the sooner be +free to hie them sunwards with all their collected memories. + +According to Martia, most of the best and finest of our race have +souls that have lived forgotten lives in Mars. But Martia was in no +hurry; she was full of intelligent curiosity, and for ten years she +went up and down the earth, revelling in the open air, lodging +herself in the brains and bodies of birds, beasts, and fishes, +insects, and animals of all kinds--like a hermit crab in a shell +that belongs to another--but without the slightest inconvenience to +the legitimate owners, who were always quite unconscious of her +presence, although she made what use she could of what wits they +had. + +Thus she had a heavenly time on this sunlit earth of ours--now a +worm, now a porpoise, now a sea-gull or a dragon-fly, now some +fleet-footed, keen-eyed quadruped that did not live by slaying, for +she had a horror of bloodshed. + +She could only go where these creatures chose to take her, since she +had no power to control their actions in the slightest degree; but +she saw, heard, smelled and touched and tasted with their organs of +sense, and was as conscious of their animal life as they were +themselves. Her description of this phase of her earthly career is +full of extraordinary interest, and sometimes extremely +funny--though quite unconsciously so, no doubt. For instance, she +tells how happy she once was when she inhabited a small brown +Pomeranian dog called "Schnapfel," in Cologne, and belonging to a +Jewish family who dealt in old clothes near the Cathedral; and how +she loved them and looked up to them--how she revelled in fried fish +and the smell of it--and in all the stinks in every street of the +famous city--all except one, that arose from Herr Johann Maria +Farina's renowned emporium in the Julichs Platz, which so offended +the canine nostrils that she had to give up inhabiting that small +Pomeranian dog forever, etc. + +Then she took to man, and inhabited man and woman, and especially +child, in all parts of the globe for many years; and, finally, for +the last fifty or sixty years or so, she settled herself exclusively +among the best and healthiest English she could find. + +She took a great fancy to the Rohans, who are singularly well +endowed in health of mind and body, and physical beauty, and +happiness of temper. She became especially fond of the ill-fated but +amiable Lord Runswick--Barty's father. Then through him she knew +Antoinette, and loved her so well that she determined to incarnate +herself at last as their child; but she had become very cautious and +worldly during her wandering life on earth, and felt that she would +not be quite happy either as a man or a woman in Western Europe +unless she were reborn in holy wedlock--a concession she made to our +British prejudices in favor of respectability; she describes herself +as the only Martian Philistine and snob. + +Evil communications corrupt good manners, and poor Martia, to her +infinite sorrow and self-reproach, was conscious of a sad lowering +of her moral tone after this long frequentation of the best earthly +human beings--even the best English. + +She grew to admire worldly success, rank, social distinction, the +perishable beauty of outward form, the lust of the flesh and the +pride of the eye--the pomps and vanities of this wicked world--and +to basely long for these in her own person! + +Then when Barty was born she loved to inhabit his singularly well +constituted little body better than any other, and to identify +herself with his happy child-life, and enjoy his singularly perfect +senses, and sleep his beautiful sleep, and revel in the dreams he so +completely forgot when he woke--reminiscent dreams, that she was +actually able to weave out of the unconscious brain that was his: +absolutely using his dormant organs of memory for purposes of her +own, to remember and relive her own past pleasures and pains, so +sensitively and highly organized was he; and to her immense surprise +she found she could make him feel her presence even when awake by +means of the magnetic sense that pervaded her strongly as it +pervades all Martian souls, till they reincarnate themselves among +us and forget. + +And thus he was conscious of the north whenever she enjoyed the +hospitality of his young body. + +She stuck to him for many years, till he offended her taste by his +looseness of life as a Guardsman (for she was extremely +straitlaced); and she inhabited him no more for some time, though +she often watched him through the eyes of others, and always loved +him and lamented sorely over his faults and follies. + +Then one memorable night, in the energy of her despair at his +resolve to slip that splendid body of his, she was able to influence +him in his sleep, and saved his life; and all her love came back +tenfold. + +She had never been able to impose a fraction of her will on any +being, animal or human, that she had ever inhabited on earth until +that memorable night in Malines, where she made him write at her +dictation. + +Then she conceived an immense desire that he should marry the +splendid Julia, whom she had often inhabited also, that she might +one day be a child of his by such a mother, and go through her +earthly incarnation in the happiest conceivable circumstances; but +herein she was balked by Barty's instinctive preference for Leah, +and again gave him up in a huff. + +But she soon took to inhabiting Leah a great deal, and found her +just as much to her taste for her own future earthly mother as the +divine Julia herself, and made up her mind she would make Barty +great and famous by a clever management of his very extraordinary +brains, of which she had discovered the hidden capacity, and +influence the earth for its good--for she had grown to love the +beautiful earth, in spite of its iniquities--and finally be a child +of Barty and Leah, every new child of whom seemed an improvement on +the last, as though practice made perfect. + +Such is, roughly, the story of Martia. + +There is no doubt--both Barty and Leah agreed with me in this--that +it is an easy story to invent, though it is curiously convincing to +read in the original shape, with all its minute details and their +verisimilitude; but even then there is nothing in it that the author +of _Sardonyx_ could not have easily imagined and made more +convincing still. + +He declared that all through life on awaking from his night's sleep +he always felt conscious of having had extraordinary dreams--even as +a child--but that he forgot them in the very act of waking, in spite +of strenuous efforts to recall them. But now and again on sinking +into sleep the vague memory of those forgotten dreams would come +back, and they were all of a strange life under new conditions--just +such a life as Martia had described--where arabesques of artificial +light and interwoven curves of subtle sound had a significance +undreamt of by mortal eyes or ears, and served as conductors to a +heavenly bliss unknown to earth--revelations denied to us here, or +we should be very different beings from what we most unhappily are. + +He thought it quite possible that his brain in sleep had at last +become so active through the exhausting and depleting medical regime +that he went through in Malines that it actually was able to dictate +its will to his body, and that everything might have happened to him +as it did then and afterwards without any supernatural or +ultranatural agency whatever--without a Martia! + +He might, in short, have led a kind of dual life, and Martia might +be a simple fancy or invention of his brain in an abnormal state of +activity during slumber; and both Leah and I inclined to this belief +(but for a strange thing which happened later, and which I will tell +in due time). Indeed, it all seems so silly and far-fetched, so "out +of the question," that one feels almost ashamed at bringing this +Martia into a serious biography of a great man--un conte a dormir +debout! But you must wait for the end. + +Anyhow, the singular fact remains that in some way inexplicable to +himself Barty has influenced the world in a direction which it never +entered his thoughts even to conceive, so far as he remembered. + +Think of all he has done. + +He has robbed Death of nearly all its terrors; even for the young it +is no longer the grisly phantom it once was for ourselves, but +rather of an aspect mellow and benign; for to the most sceptical he +(and only he) has restored that absolute conviction of an +indestructible germ of Immortality within us, born of remembrance +made perfect and complete after dissolution: he alone has built the +golden bridge in the middle of which science and faith can shake +hands over at least one common possibility--nay, one common +certainty for those who have read him aright. + +There is no longer despair in bereavement--all bereavement is but a +half parting; there is no real parting except for those who survive, +and the longest earthly life is but a span. Whatever the future may +be, the past will be ours forever, and that means our punishment and +our reward and reunion with those we loved. It is a happy phrase, +that which closes the career of _Sardonyx_. It has become as +universal as the Lord's Prayer! + +To think that so simple and obvious a solution should have lain +hidden all these aeons, to turn up at last as though by chance in a +little illustrated story-book! What a nugget! + +Ou avions-nous donc la tete et les yeux? + +Physical pain and the origin of evil seem the only questions with +which he has not been able to grapple. And yet if those difficulties +are ever dealt with and mastered and overcome for us it can only be +by some follower of Barty's methods. + +It is true, no doubt, that through him suicide has become the normal +way out of our troubles when these are beyond remedy. I will not +express any opinion as to the ethical significance of this admitted +result of his teaching, which many of us still find it so hard to +reconcile with their conscience. + +Then, by a dexterous manipulation of our sympathies that amounts to +absolute conjuring, he has given the death-blow to all cruelty that +serves for our amusement, and killed the pride and pomp and +circumstance of glorious sport, and made them ridiculous with his +lusty laugh; even the bull-fights in Spain are coming to an end, and +all through a Spanish translation of _Life-blood_. All the +cruelties of the world are bound to follow in time, and this not so +much because they are cruel as because they are ridiculous and mean +and ugly, and would make us laugh if they didn't make us cry. + +And to whom but Barty Josselin do we owe it that our race is on an +average already from four to six inches taller than it was thirty +years ago, men and women alike; that strength and beauty are rapidly +becoming the rule among us, and weakness and ugliness the exception? + +He has been hard on these; he has been cruel to be kind, and they +have received notice to quit, and been generously compensated in +advance, I think! Who in these days would dare to enter the holy +state of wedlock unless they were pronounced physically, morally, +and mentally fit--to procreate their kind--not only by their own +conscience, but by the common consent of all who know them? And that +beauty, health, and strength are a part of that fitness, and old age +a bar to it, who would dare deny? + +I'm no Adonis myself. I've got a long upper lip and an Irish kink in +my nose, inherited perhaps from some maternally ancestral Blake of +Derrydown, who may have been a proper blackguard! And that kink +should be now, no doubt, the lawful property of some ruffianly +cattle-houghing moonlighter, whose nose--which should have been +mine--is probably as straight as Barty's. For in Ireland are to be +found the handsomest and ugliest people in all Great Britain, and in +Great Britain the handsomest and ugliest people in the whole world. + +Anyhow, I have known my place. I have not perpetuated that kink, and +with it, possibly, the base and cowardly instincts of which it was +meant to be the outward and visible sign--though it isn't in my +case--that my fellow-men might give me a wide berth. + +Leah's girlish instinct was a right one when she said me nay that +afternoon by the Chelsea pier--for how could she see inside me, poor +child? How could Beauty guess the Beast was a Prince in disguise? It +was no fairy-tale! + +Things have got mixed up; but they're all coming right, and all +through Barty Josselin. + +And what vulgar pride and narrownesses and meannesses and vanities +and uglinesses of life, in mass and class and individual, are now +impossible!--and all through Barty Josselin and his quaint ironies +of pen and pencil, forever trembling between tears and laughter, +with never a cynical spark or a hint of bitterness. + +How he has held his own against the world! how he has scourged its +wickedness and folly, this gigantic optimist, who never wrote a +single line in his own defence! + +How quickly their laugh recoiled on those early laughers! and how +Barty alone laughed well because he laughed the last, and taught the +laughers to laugh on his side! People thought he was always +laughing. It was not so. + + + + +Part Ninth + + "Cara deum soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum." + + --Virgil. + + +The immense fame and success that Barty Josselin achieved were to +him a source of constant disquiet. He could take neither pride nor +pleasure in what seemed to him not his; he thought himself a fraud. + +Yet only the mere skeleton of his work was built up for him by his +demon; all the beauty of form and color, all the grace of movement +and outer garb, are absolutely his own. + +It has been noticed how few eminent men of letters were intimate +with the Josselins, though the best among them--except, of course, +Thomas Carlyle--have been so enthusiastic and outspoken in their +love and admiration of his work. + +He was never at his ease in their society, and felt himself a kind +of charlatan. + +The fact is, the general talk of such men was often apt to be over +his head, as it would have been over mine, and often made him +painfully diffident and shy. He needn't have been; he little knew +the kind of feeling he inspired among the highest and best. + +Why, one day at the Marathonaeum, the first and foremost of them +all, the champion smiter of the Philistines, the apostle of culture +and sweetness and light, told me that, putting Barty's books out of +the question, he always got more profit and pleasure out of Barty's +society than that of any man he knew. + +"It does me good to be in the same room with him; the freshness of +the man, his voice, his aspect, his splendid vitality and +mother-wit, his boyish spirit, and the towering genius behind it +all. I only wish to goodness I was an intimate friend of his as you +are; it would be a liberal education to me!" + +But Barty's reverence and admiration for true scholarship and great +literary culture in others amounted to absolute awe, and filled him +with self-distrust. + +There is no doubt that until he was universally accepted, the +crudeness of his literary method was duly criticised with great +severity by those professional literary critics who sometimes carp +with such a big mouth at their betters, and occasionally kill the +Keatses of this world! + +In writing, as in everything else, he was an amateur, and more or +less remained one for life; but the greatest of his time accepted +him at once, and laughed and wept, and loved him for his obvious +faults as well as for his qualities. Tous les genres sont bons, +hormis le genre ennuyeux! And Barty was so delightfully the reverse +of a bore! + +Dear me! what matters it how faultlessly we paint or write or sing +if no one will care to look or read or listen? He is all fault that +hath no fault at all, and we poor outsiders all but yawn in his face +for his pains. + +They should only paint and write and sing for each other, these +impeccables, who so despise success and revile the successful. How +do they live, I wonder? Do they take in each other's washing, or +review each other's books? + +It edifies one to see what a lot of trouble these deriders of other +people's popularity will often take to advertise themselves, and how +they yearn for that popular acclaim they so scornfully denounce. + +Barty was not a well-read man by any means; his scholarship was that +of an idle French boy who leaves school at seventeen, after having +been plucked for a cheap French degree, and goes straightway into +her Majesty's Household Brigade. + +At the beginning of his literary career it would cut him to the +quick to find himself alluded to as that inspired Anglo-Gallic +buffoon, the ex-Guardsman, whose real vocation, when he wasn't +twaddling about the music of the spheres, or writing moral French +books, was to be Mr. Toole's understudy. + +He was even impressed by the smartness of those second-rate +decadents, French and English, who so gloried in their own +degeneracy--as though one were to glory in scrofula or rickets; +those unpleasant little anthropoids with the sexless little muse and +the dirty little Eros, who would ride their angry, jealous little +tilt at him in the vain hope of provoking some retort which would +have lifted them up to glory! Where are they now? He has improved +them all away! Who ever hears of decadents nowadays? + +Then there were the grubs of Grub Street, who sometimes manage to +squirt a drop from their slime-bags on to the swiftly passing boot +that scorns to squash them. He had no notion of what manner of +creatures they really were, these gentles! He did not meet them at +any club he belonged to--it was not likely. Clubs have a way of +blackballing grubs--especially grubs that are out of the common +grubby; nor did he sit down to dinner with them at any dinner-table, +or come across them at any house he was by way of frequenting; but +he imagined they were quite important persons because they did not +sign their articles! and he quite mistook their place in the economy +of creation. C'etait un naif, le beau Josselin! + +Big fleas have little fleas, and they've got to put up with them! +There is no "poudre insecticide" for literary vermin--and more's the +pity! (Good heavens! what would the generous and delicate-minded +Barty say, if he were alive, at my delivering myself in this +unworthy fashion about these long-forgotten assailants of his, and +at my age too--he who never penned a line in retaliation! He would +say I was the most unseemly grub of them all, and he would be quite +right; so I am just now, and ought to know better--but it amuses +me.) + +Then there were the melodious bardlets who imitate those who imitate +those who imitate the forgotten minor poets of the olden time and +log-roll each other in quaint old English. They did not log-roll +Barty, whom they thought coarse and vulgar, and wrote to that effect +in very plain English that was not old, but quite up to date. + +"How splendidly they write verse!" he would say, and actually once +or twice he would pick up one or two of their cheap little archaic +mannerisms and proudly use them as his own, and be quite angry to +find that Leah had carefully expunged them in her copy. + +"A _fair_ and _gracious_ garden indeed!" says Leah. "I _won't_ have +you use such ridiculous words, Barty--you mean a _pretty_ garden, +and you shall say so; or even a _beautiful_ garden if you like!--and +no more '_manifolds_,' and '_there-anents_,' and '_in veriest +sooths_,' and '_waters wan_,' and '_wan waters_,' and all that. I +won't stand it; they don't suit your style at all!" + +She and Scatcherd and I between us soon laughed him out of these +innocent little literary vagaries, and he remained content with the +homely words he had inherited from his barbarian ancestors in +England (they speak good English, our barbarians), and the simple +phrasing he had learnt from M. Durosier's classe de litterature at +the Institution Brossard. + +One language helps another; even the smattering of a dead language is +better than no extra language at all, and that's why, at such cost of +time and labor and paternal cash, we learn to smatter Greek and Latin, I +suppose. "Arma virumque cano"--"Tityre tu patulae?"--"Maecenas +atavis"--"[Greek: Menin aeide]"--and there you are! It sticks in the +memory, and it's as simple as "How d'ye do?" + +Anyhow, it is pretty generally admitted, both here and in France, +that for grace and ease and elegance and absolute clearness +combined, Barty Josselin's literary style has never been surpassed +and very seldom equalled; and whatever his other faults, when he was +at his ease he had the same graceful gift in his talk, both French +and English. + +It might be worth while my translating here the record of an +impression made by Barty and his surroundings on a very accomplished +Frenchman, M. Paroly, of the _Debats_, who paid him a visit in the +summer of 1869, at Campden Hill. + +I may mention that Barty hated to be interviewed and questioned +about his literary work--he declared he was afraid of being found +out. + +But if once the interviewer managed to evade the lynx-eyed Leah, who +had a horror of him, and get inside the studio, and make good his +footing there, and were a decently pleasant fellow to boot, Barty +would soon get over his aversion--utterly forget he was being +interviewed--and talk as to an old friend; especially if the +reviewer were a Frenchman or an American. + +The interviewer is an insidious and wily person, and often presents +himself to the soft-hearted celebrity in such humble and pathetic +guise that one really hasn't the courage to snub him. He has come +such a long way for such a little thing! it is such a lowly function +he plies at the foot of that tall tree whose top you reached at a +single bound! And he is supposed to be a "gentleman," and has no +other means of keeping body and soul together! Then he is so +prostrate in admiration before your Immensity.... + +So you give way, and out comes the little note-book, and out comes +the little cross-examination. + +As a rule, you are none the worse and the world is none the better; +we know all about you already--all, at least, that we want to know; +we have heard it all before, over and over again. But a poor +fellow-creature has earned his crust, and goes home the happier for +having talked to you about yourself and been treated like a man and +a brother. + +But sometimes the reviewer is very terrible indeed in his jaunty +vulgarization of your distinguished personality, and you have to +wince and redden, and rue the day you let him inside your house, and +live down those light familiar paragraphs in which he describes you +and the way you dress and how you look and what jolly things you +say; and on what free and easy terms _he_ is with you, of all people +in the world! + +But the most terrible of all is the pleasant gentleman from America, +who has yearned to know you for _so_ many years, and comes perhaps +with a letter of introduction--or even without!--not to interview +you or write about you (good heavens! he hates and scorns that +modern pest, the interviewer), but to sit at your feet and worship +at your shrine, and tell you of all the good you have done him and +his, all the happiness you have given them all--"the debt of a +lifetime!" + +And you let yourself go before him, and so do your family, and so do +your old friends; is _he_ not also a friend, though not an old one? +You part with him almost in sorrow, he's so nice! And in three weeks +some kind person sends you from the other side such a printed +account of you and yours--so abominably true, so abominably +false--that the remembrance of it makes you wake up in the dead of +night, and most unjustly loathe an entire continent for breeding and +harboring such a shameless type of press reptile! + +I feel hard-hearted towards the interviewer, I own. I wish him, and +those who employ him, a better trade; and a better taste to whoever +reads what he writes. But Barty could be hard-hearted to nobody, and +always regretted having granted the interview when he saw the +published outcome of it. + +Fortunately, M. Paroly was decently discreet. + +"I've got a Frenchman coming this afternoon--a tremendous swell," +said Barty, at lunch. + + * * * * * + +_Leah._ "Who is he?" + +_Barty._ "M. Paroly, of the _Debats_." + +_Leah._ "What is he when he's at home?" + +_Barty._ "A famous journalist; as you'd know if you'd read the +French newspapers sometimes, which you never do." + +_Leah._ "Haven't got the time. He's coming to interview you, I +suppose, and make French newspaper copy out of you." + +_Barty._ "Why shouldn't he come just for the pleasure of making my +acquaintance?" + +_Leah._ "And mine--I'll be there and talk to him, too!" + +_Barty._ "My dear, he probably doesn't speak a word of English; and +your French, you know! You never _would_ learn French properly, +although you've had me to practise on for so many years--not to +mention Bob and Ida." + +_Leah._ "How unkind of you, Barty! When have I had time to trouble +about French? Besides, you always laugh at my French accent and +mimic it--and _that's_ not encouraging!" + +_Barty._ "My dear, I _adore_ your French accent; it's so unaffected! +I only wish I heard it a little oftener." + +_Leah._ "You shall hear it this afternoon. At what o'clock is he +coming, your Monsieur Paroly?" + +_Barty._ "At four-thirty." + +_Leah._ "Oh, Barty, _don't_ give yourself away--don't talk to him about +your writings, or about yourself, or about your family. He'll vulgarize +you all over France. Surely you've not forgotten that nice 'gentleman' +from America who came to see you, and who told you that _he_ was no +interviewer, not _he_! but came merely as a friend and admirer--a +distant but constant worshipper for many years! and how you talked to +him like a long-lost brother, in consequence! 'There's nobody in the +world like the best Americans,' you said. You adored them _all_, and +wanted to be an American yourself--till a month after, when he published +every word you said, and more, and what sort of cravat you had on, and +how silent and cold and uncommunicative your good, motherly English wife +was--you, the brilliant and talkative Barty Josselin, who should have +mated with a countrywoman of his own! and how your bosom friend was a +huge, overgrown everyday Briton with a broken nose! _I_ saw what he was +at, from the low cunning in his face as he listened; and felt that every +single unguarded word you dropped was a dollar in his pocket! How we've +all had to live down that dreadfully facetious and grotesque and +familiar article he printed about us all in those twenty American +newspapers that have got the largest circulation in the world! and how +you stamped and raved, Barty, and swore that never another American +'gentleman' should enter your house! What names you called him: 'cad!' +'sweep!' 'low-bred, little Yankee penny-a-liner!' Don't you remember? +Why, he described you as a quite nice-looking man somewhat over the +middle height!" + +"Oh yes; damn him, _I_ remember!" said Barty, who was three or four +inches over six feet, and quite openly vain of his good looks. + +_Leah._ "Well, then, pray be cautious with this Monsieur Paroly you +think so much of because he's French. Let _him_ talk--interview +_him_--ask him all about his family, if he's got one--his children, +and all that; play a game of billiards with him--talk French +politics--dance 'La Paladine'--make him laugh--make him smoke one of +those strong Trichinopoli cigars Bob gave you for the tops of +omnibuses--make him feel your biceps--teach him how to play cup and +ball--give him a sketch--then bring him in to tea. Madame Cornelys +will be there, and Julia Ironsides, and Ida, who'll talk French by +the yard. Then we'll show him the St. Bernards and Minerva, and I'll +give him an armful of Gloire de Dijon roses, and shake him warmly by +the hand, so that he won't feel ill-natured towards us; and we'll +get him out of the house as quick as possible." + + * * * * * + +Thus prepared, Barty awaited M. Paroly, and this is a free rendering +of what M. Paroly afterwards wrote about him: + + "With a mixture of feelings difficult to analyze and define, I bade + adieu to the sage and philosopher of Cheyne Row, and had myself + transported in my hansom to the abode of the other great _sommite + litteraire_ in London, the light one--M. Josselin, to whom we in + France also are so deeply in debt. + + "After a longish drive through sordid streets we reached a bright + historic vicinity and a charming hill, and my invisible Jehu guided + me at the great trot by verdant country lanes. We turned through + lodge gates into a narrow drive in a well-kept garden where there + was a lawn of English greenness, on which were children and nurses + and many dogs, and young people who played at the lawn-tennis. + + "The door of the house was opened by a charming young woman in black + with a white apron and cap, like a waitress at the Bouillon Duval, + who guided me through a bright corridor full of pictures and + panoplies, and then through a handsome studio to a billiard-room, + where M. Josselin was playing at _the_ billiard to himself all + alone. + + "M. Josselin receives me with jovial cordiality; he is enormously + tall, enormously handsome, like a drum-major of the Imperial Guard, + except that his lip and chin are shaved and he has slight whiskers; + very well dressed, with thick curly hair, and regular features, and + a singularly sympathetic voice: he is about thirty-five. + + "I have to decline a game of billiards, and refuse a cigar, a very + formidable cigar, very black and very thick and very long. I don't + smoke, and am no hand at a cue. Besides, I want to talk about + _Etoiles Mortes_, about _Les Trepassees de Francois Villon_, about + _Dejanire et Dalila_! + + [Illustration: "'HE PRESENTS ME FIRST TO MADAME JOSSELIN'"] + + "M. Josselin speaks French as he writes it, in absolute perfection; + his mother, he tells me, was from Normandy--the daughter of + fisherfolk in Dieppe; he was at school in Paris, and has lived there + as an art student. + + "He does not care to talk about _Les Trepassees_ or _Les Etoiles_, + or any of his immortal works. + + "He asks me if I'm a good swimmer, and can do _la coupe_ properly; + and leaning over his billiard-table he shows me how it ought to be + done, and dilates on the merits of that mode of getting through the + water. He confides to me that he suffers from a terrible + nostalgia--a consuming desire to do _la coupe_ in the swimming-baths + of Passy against the current; to take a header _a la hussarde_ with + his eyes open and explore the bed of the Seine between Grenelle and + the Ile des Cygnes--as he used to do when he was a school-boy--and + pick up mussels with his teeth. + + "Then he explains to me the peculiar virtues of his stove, which is + almost entirely an invention of his own, and shows me how he can + regulate the heat of the room to the fraction of a degree + centigrade, which he prefers to Fahrenheit--just as he prefers + metres and centimetres to inches and feet--and ten to twelve! + + "After this he performs some very clever tricks with billiard-balls; + juggles three of them in each hand simultaneously, and explains to + me that this is an exceptional achievement, as he only sees out of + one eye, and that no acrobat living could do the same with one eye + shut. + + "I quite believe him, and wonder and admire, and his face beams with + honest satisfaction--and this is the man who wrote _La quatrieme + Dimension_! + + "Then he tells me some very funny French school-boy stories; he + delights in my hearty laughter; they are capital stories, but I had + heard them all before--when I was at school. + + "'And now, M. Josselin,' I say, 'a propos of that last story you've + just told me; in the _Trepassees de Francois Villon_ you have + omitted "la tres-sage Heloise" altogether.' + + "'Oh, have I? How stupid of me!--Abelard and all that! Ah + well--there's plenty of time--nous allons arranger tout ca! All that + sort of thing comes to me in the night, you know, when I'm half + asleep in bed--a--a--I mean after lunch in the afternoon, when I + take my siesta.' + + "Then he leads me into his studio and shows me pencil studies from + the life, things of ineffable beauty of form and expression--things + that haunt the memory. + + "'Show me a study for Dejanire,' I say. + + "'Oh! I'll draw Dejanire for you,' and he takes a soft pencil and a + piece of smooth card-board, and in five minutes draws me an outline + of a naked woman on a centaur's back, a creature of touching beauty + no other hand in the world could produce--so aristocratically + delicately English and of to-day--so severely, so nobly and + classically Greek. C'est la chastete meme--mais ce n'est pas + Dejanire! + + "He gives me this sketch, which I rechristen Godiva, and value as I + value few things I possess. + + "Then he shows me pencil studies of children's heads, from nature, + and I exclaim: + + "'O Heaven, what a dream of childhood! Childhood is never so + beautiful as that.' + + "'Oh yes it is, in England, I assure you,' says he. 'I'll show you + _my_ children presently; and you, have you any children?' + + "'Alas! no,' I reply; 'I am a bachelor.' + + "I remark that from time to time, just as the moon veils itself + behind a passing cloud, the radiance of his brilliant and jovial + physiognomy is eclipsed by the expression of a sadness immense, + mysterious, infinite; this is followed by a look of angelic candor + and sweetness and gentle heroism, that moves you strangely, even to + the heart, and makes appeal to all your warmest and deepest + sympathies--the look of a very masculine Joan of Arc! You don't know + why, but you feel you would make any sacrifice for a man who looks + at you like that, follow him to the death--lead a forlorn hope at + his bidding. + + "He does not exact from me anything so arduous as this, but passing + round my neck his powerful arm, he says: + + "'Come and drink some tea; I should like to present you to my wife.' + + "And he leads me through another corridor to a charming drawing-room + that gives on to the green lawn of the garden. + + "There are several people there taking the tea. + + "He presents me first to Madame Josselin. If the husband is + enormously handsome, the wife is a beauty absolutely divine; she, + also, is very tall--tres elegante; she has soft wavy black hair, and + eyes and eyebrows d'un noir de jais, and a complexion d'une + blancheur de lis, with just a point of carmine in the cheeks. She + does not say much--she speaks French with difficulty; but she + expresses with her smiling eyes so cordial and sincere a welcome + that one feels glad to be in the same room with her, one feels it is + a happy privilege, it does one good--one ceases to feel one may + possibly be an intruder--one almost feels one is wanted there. + + "I am then presented to three or four other ladies; and it would + seem that the greatest beauties of London have given each other + rendezvous in Madame Josselin's salon--this London, where are to be + found the most beautiful women in the world and the ugliest. + + "First, I salute the Countess of Ironsides--ah, mon Dieu, la Diane + chasseresse--la Sapho de Pradier! Then Madame Cornelys, the wife of + the great sculptor, who lives next door--a daughter of the ancient + gods of Greece! Then a magnificent blonde, an old friend of theirs, + who speaks French absolutely like a Frenchwoman, and says thee and + thou to M. Josselin, and introduces me to her brother, un vrai type + de colosse bon enfant, d'une tenue irreprochable [thank you, M. + Paroly], who also speaks the French of France, for he was at school + there--a school-fellow of our host. + + "There are two or three children, girls, more beautiful than + anything or anybody else in the house--in the world, I think! They + give me tea and cakes, and bread and butter; most delicious + tartines, as thin as wafers, and speak French well, and relate to me + the biographies of their animals, une vraie menagerie which I + afterwards have to visit--immense dogs, rabbits, hedgehogs, + squirrels, white mice, and a gigantic owl, who answers to the name + of Minerva. + + "I find myself, ma foi, very happy among these wonderful people, and + preserve an impression of beauty, of bonhomie, of naturalness and + domestic felicity quite unlike anything I have ever been privileged + to see--an impression never to be forgotten. + + "But as for _Etoiles Mortes_ and _Les Trepassees de Francois + Villon_, I really have to give them up; the beautiful big dogs are + more important than all the books in the world, even the + master's--even the master himself! + + "However, I want no explanation to see and understand how M. + Josselin has written most of his chefs-d'oeuvre from the depths of a + happy consciousness habituated to all that is most graceful and + charming and seductive in real life--and a deeply sympathetic, + poignant, and compassionate sense of the contrast to all this. + + "Happy mortal, happy family, happy country where grow (poussent) + such people, and where such children flourish! The souvenir of that + so brief hour spent at Gretna Lodge is one of the most beautiful + souvenirs of my life--and, above all, the souvenir of the belle + chatelaine who filled my hansom with beautiful roses culled by her + own fair hand, which gave me at parting that cordial English + pressure so much more suggestive of _Au revoir_ than _Adieu_! + + "It is with sincere regret one leaves people who part with one so + regretfully. + + "Alphonse Paroly." + + * * * * * + +Except that good and happy women have no history, I should almost +like to write the history of Barty's wife, and call it the history +of the busiest and most hard-working woman in Great Britain. + +Barty left everything to her--to the very signing of cheques. He +would have nothing to do with any business of any kind. + +He wouldn't even carve at lunch or dinner. Leah did, unless _I_ was +there. + +It is but fair to say he worked as hard as any man I know. When he +was not writing or drawing, he was thinking about drawing or +writing; when they got to Marsfield, he hardly ever stirred outside +the grounds. + +There he would garden with gardeners or cut down trees, or do +carpenter's work at his short intervals of rest, or groom a horse. + +How often have I seen him suddenly drop a spade or axe or saw or +curry-comb, and go straight off to a thatched gazebo he had built +himself, where writing materials were left, and write down the happy +thought that had occurred; and then, pipe in mouth, back to his +gardening or the rest! + +I also had a gazebo close to his, where I read blue-books and wrote +my endless correspondence with the help of a secretary--only too +glad, both of us, to be disturbed by festive and frolicsome young +Bartys of either sex--by their dogs--by their mother! + +Leah's province it was to attend to all the machinery by which life +was carried on in this big house, and social intercourse, and the +education of the young, and endless hospitalities. + +She would even try to coach her boys in Latin and Euclid during +their preparation times for the school where they spent the day, two +miles off. Such Latin! such geometry! She could never master the +ablative absolute, nor what used to be called at Brossard's _le que +retranche_, nor see the necessity of demonstrating by A + B what was +sufficiently obvious to her without. + +"Who helps you in your Latin, my boy?" says the master, with a grin. + +"My father," says Geoffrey, too loyal to admit it was his mother who +had coached him wrong. + +"Ah, I suppose he helps you with your Euclid also?" says the master, +with a broader grin still. + +"Yes, sir," says Geoffrey. + +"Your father's French, I suppose?" + +"I dare say, sir," says Geoffrey. + +"Ah, I thought so!" + +All of which was very unfair to Barty, whose Latin, like that of +most boys who have been brought up at a French school, was probably +quite as good as the English school-master's own, except for its +innocence of quantities; and Blanchet and Legendre are easier to +learn than Euclid, and stick longer in the memory; and Barty +remembered well. + +Then, besides the many friends who came to the pleasant house to +stay, or else for lunch or tea or dinner, there were pious pilgrims +from all parts of the world, as to a shrine--from Paris, from +Germany, Italy, Norway, and Sweden; from America especially. Leah +had to play the hostess almost every day of her life, and show off +her lion and make him roar and wag his tail and stand on his hind +legs--a lion that was not always in the mood to tumble and be shown +off, unless the pilgrims were pretty and of the female sex. + +Barty was a man's man par excellence, and loved to forgather with +men. The only men he couldn't stand were those we have agreed to +call in modern English the Philistines and the prigs--or both +combined, as they can sometimes be; and this objection of his would +have considerably narrowed his circle of male acquaintances but that +the Philistines and the prigs, who so detest each other, were so +dotingly fond of Barty, and ran him to earth in Marsfield. + +The Philistines loved him for his world-wide popularity; the prigs +in spite of it! They loved him for himself alone--because they +couldn't help it, I suppose--and lamented over him as over a fallen +angel. + +He was happiest of all with the good denizens of Bohemia, who have +known want and temptation and come unscathed out of the fire, but +with their affectations and insincerities and conventionalities all +burnt away. + +Good old Bohemia--alma mater dolorosa; stern old gray she-wolf with +the dry teats--maratre au coeur de pierre! It is not a bad school +in which to graduate, if you can do so without loss of principle or +sacrifice of the delicate bloom of honor and self-respect. + +Next to these I think he loved the barbarians he belonged to on his +father's side, who, whatever their faults, are seldom prigs or +Philistines; and then he loved the proletarians, who had good, +straightforward manners and no pretension--the laborer, the skilled +artisan, especially the toilers of the sea. + +In spite of his love of his own sex, he was of the kind that can go +to the devil for a pretty woman. + +He did not do this; he married one instead, fortunately for himself +and for his children and for her, and stuck to her and preferred her +society to any society in the world. Her mere presence seemed to +have an extraordinarily soothing influence on him; it was as though +life were short, and he could never see enough of her in the +allotted time and space; the chronic necessity of her nearness to +him became a habit and a second nature--like his pipe, as he would +say. + +Still, he was such a slave to his own aesthetic eye and ever-youthful +heart that the sight of lovely woman pleased him more than the sight +of anything else on earth; he delighted in her proximity, in the +rustle of her garments, in the sound of her voice; and lovely +woman's instinct told her this, so that she was very fond of Barty +in return. + +He was especially popular with sweet, pretty young girls, to whom +his genial, happy, paternal manner always endeared him. They felt as +safe with Barty as with any father or uncle, for all his facetious +love-making; he made them laugh, and they loved him for it, and they +forgot his Apolloship, and his Lionhood, and his general Immensity, +which he never remembered himself. + +It is to be feared that women who lacked the heavenly gift of good +looks did not interest him quite so much, whatever other gifts they +might possess, unless it were the gift of making lovely music. The +little brown nightingale outshone the brilliant bird of paradise if +she were a true nightingale; if she were very brown indeed, he would +shut his eyes and listen with all his ears, rapt, as in a heavenly +dream. And the closed lids would moisten, especially the lid that +hid the eye that couldn't see--the emotional one!--although he was +the least lachrymose of men, since it was with such a dry eye he +wrote what I could scarcely read for my tears. + +But his natural kindliness and geniality made him always try and +please those who tried to please him, beautiful or the reverse, +whether they succeeded or not; and he was just as popular with the +ducks and geese as with the swans and peacocks and nightingales and +birds of paradise. The dull, commonplace dames who prosed and buzzed +and bored, the elderly intellectual virgins who knew nothing of life +but what they had read--or written--in "Tendenz" novels, yet sadly +rebuked him, more in sorrow than in anger, for this passage or that +in his books, about things out of their ken altogether, etc. + +His playful amenity disarmed the most aggressive bluestocking, orthodox +or Unitarian, Catholic or Hebrew--radicals, agnostics, vegetarians, +teetotalers, anti-vaccinationists, anti-vivisectionists--even +anti-things that don't concern decent women at all, whether married or +single. + +It was only when his privacy was invaded by some patronizing, +loud-voiced nouvelle-riche with a low-bred physiognomy that no +millions on earth could gild or refine, and manners to match; some +foolish, fashionable, would-be worldling, who combined the arch +little coquetries and impertinent affectations of a spoilt beauty +with the ugliness of an Aztec or an Esquimau; some silly, titled old +frump who frankly ignored his tea-making wife and daughters and +talked to _him_ only--and only about her grotesque and ugly +self--and told him of all the famous painters who had wanted to +paint her for the last hundred years--it was only then he grew glum +and reserved and depressed and made an unfavorable impression on the +other sex. + +What it must have cost him not to express his disgust more frankly! +for reticence on any matter was almost a torture to him. + +Most of us have a mental sanctum to which we retire at times, +locking the door behind us; and there we think of high and beautiful +things, and hold commune with our Maker; or count our money, or +improvise that repartee the gods withheld last night, and shake +hands with ourselves for our wit; or caress the thought of some +darling, secret wickedness or vice; or revel in dreams of some +hidden hate, or some love we mustn't own; and curse those we have to +be civil to whether we like them or not, and nurse our little envies +till we almost get to like them. + +There we remember all the stupid and unkind things we've ever said +or thought or done, and all the slights that have ever been put on +us, and secretly plan the revenge that never comes off--because time +has softened our hearts, let us hope, when opportunity serves at +last! + +That Barty had no such holy of holies to creep into I feel pretty +sure--unless it was the wifely heart of Leah; whatever came into his +head came straight out of his mouth; he had nothing to conceal, and +thought aloud, for all the world to hear; and it does credit, I +think, to the singular goodness and guilelessness of his nature that +he could afford to be so outspoken through life and yet give so +little offence to others as he did. His indiscretion did very little +harm, and his naive self-revelation only made him the more lovable +to those who knew him well. + +They were poor creatures, the daws who pecked at that manly heart, +so stanch and warm and constant. + +As for Leah, it was easy to see that she looked upon her husband as +a fixed star, and was well pleased to tend and minister and revolve, +and shine with no other light than his; it was in reality an +absolute adoration on her part. But she very cleverly managed to +hide it from him; she was not the kind of woman that makes a doormat +of herself for the man she loves. She kept him in very good order +indeed. + +It was her theory that female adoration is not good for masculine +vanity, and that he got quite enough of it outside his own home; and +she would make such fun of him and his female adorers all over the +world that he grew to laugh at them himself, and to value a pat on +the back and a hearty "Well done, Barty!" from his wife more than + + "The blandishments of all the womankind + In Europe and America combined." + +Gentle and kind and polite as she was, however, she could do battle +in defence of her great man, who was so backward at defending +himself; and very effective battle too. + +As an instance among many, illustrating her method of warfare: Once +at an important house a very immense personage (who had an eye for a +pretty woman) had asked to be introduced to her and had taken her +down to supper; a very immense personage indeed, whose fame had +penetrated to the uttermost ends of the earth and deservedly made +his name a beloved household word wherever our tongue is spoken, so +that it was in every Englishman's mouth all over the world--as +Barty's is now. + +Leah was immensely impressed, and treated his elderly Immensity to a +very full measure of the deference that was his due; and such open +homage is not always good for even the Immensest Immensities--it +sometimes makes them give themselves immense airs. So that this +particular Immensity began mildly but firmly to patronize Leah. This +she didn't mind on her own account, but when he said, quite +casually: + +"By-the-way, I forget if I _know_ your good husband; _do_ I?" + +--she was not pleased, and immediately answered: + +"I really can't say; I don't think I ever heard him mention your +name!" + +This was not absolutely veracious on Leah's part; for to Barty in +those days this particular great man was a god, and he was always +full of him. But it brought the immense one back to his bearings at +once, and he left off patronizing and was almost humble. + +Anyhow, it was a lie so white that the recording angel will probably +delete what there is of it with a genial smile, and leave a little +blank in its place. + + * * * * * + +In an old diary of Leah's I find the following entry: + +"March 6th, 1874.--Mamma and Ida Scatcherd came to stay. In the +evening our sixth daughter and eighth child was born." + +Julia (Mrs. Mainwaring) was this favored person--and is still. Julia +and her predecessors have all lived and flourished up to now. + +The Josselins had been exceptionally fortunate in their children; +each new specimen seemed an even finer specimen than the last. The +health of this remarkable family had been exemplary--measles, and +mumps, and whooping-cough their only ailments. + +During the month of Leah's confinement Barty's nocturnal literary +activity was unusually great. Night after night he wrote in his +sleep, and accumulated enough raw material to last him a lifetime; +for the older he grew and the more practised his hand the longer it +took him to give his work the shape he wished; he became more +fastidious year by year as he became less of an amateur. + +One morning, a day or two before his wife's complete recovery, he +found a long personal letter from Martia by his bedside--a letter +that moved him very deeply, and gave him food for thought during +many weeks and months and years: + + * * * * * + + "My Beloved Barty,--The time has come at last when I must bid you + farewell. + + "I have outstayed my proper welcome on earth as a disembodied + conscience by just a hundred years, and my desire for reincarnation + has become an imperious passion not to be resisted. + + "It is more than a desire--it is a duty as well, a duty far too long + deferred. + + "Barty, I am going to be your next child. I can conceive no greater + earthly felicity than to be a child of yours and Leah's. I should + have been one long before, but that you and I have had so much to do + together for this beautiful earth--a great debt to pay: you, for + being as you are; I, for having known you. + + "Barty, you have no conception what you are to me and always have + been. + + [Illustration: "'I DON'T THINK I EVER HEARD HIM MENTION YOUR NAME'"] + + "I am to you but a name, a vague idea, a mysterious inspiration; + sometimes a questionable guide, I fear. You don't even believe all I + have told you about myself--you think it all a somnambulistic + invention of your own; and so does your wife, and so does your + friend. + + "O that I could connect myself in your mind with the shape I wore + when I was last a living thing! No shape on earth, not either yours + or Leah's or that of any child yet born to you both, is more + beautiful to the eye that has learned how to see than the fashion of + that lost face and body of mine. + + "_You_ wore the shape once, and so did your father and mother, for + you were Martians. Leah was a Martian, and wore it too; there are + many of them here--they are the best on earth, the very salt + thereof. I mean to be the best of them all, and one of the happiest. + Oh, help me to that! + + "Barty, when I am a splendid son of yours or a sweet and lovely + daughter, all remembrance of what I was before will have been wiped + out of me until I die. But _you_ will remember, and so will Leah, + and both will love me with such a love as no earthly parents have + ever felt for any child of theirs yet. + + "Think of the poor loving soul, lone, wandering, but not lost, that + will so trustfully look up at you out of those gleeful innocent + eyes! + + "How that soul has suffered both here and elsewhere you don't know, + and never will, till the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed; + and I am going to forget it myself for a few decades--sixty, + seventy, eighty years perhaps; such happy years, I hope--with you + for my father and Leah for my mother during some of them at + least--and sweet grandchildren of yours, I hope, for my sons and + daughters! Why, life to me now will be almost a holiday. + + "Oh, train me up the way I should go! Bring me up to be healthy and + chaste and strong and brave--never to know a mean ambition or think + an ungenerous thought--never to yield to a base or unworthy + temptation. + + "If I'm a boy--and I want to be a boy very much (although, perhaps, + a girl would be dearer to your heart)--don't let me be either a + soldier or a sailor, however much I may wish it as a Josselin or a + Rohan; don't bring me up to buy or sell like a Gibson, or deal in + law like a Bletchley. + + "Bring me up to invent, or make something useful, if it's only + pickles or soap, but not to buy and sell them; bring me up to build + or heal or paint or write or make music--to help or teach or please. + + "If I'm a girl, bring me up to be as much like Leah as you can, and + marry me to just such another as yourself, if you can find him. + Whether I'm a girl or a boy, call me Marty, that my name may rhyme + with yours. + + "When my conscience re-embodies itself, I want it never to know + another pang of self-reproach. And when I'm grown up, if you think + it right to do so, tell me who and what I once was, that I may love + you both the more; tell me how fondly I loved you when I was a + bland and fleeting little animalcule, without a body, but making my + home in yours--so that when you die I may know how irrevocably bound + up together we must forever be, we three; and rejoice the more in + your death and Leah's and my own. Teach me over again all I've ever + taught you, Barty--over and over again! + + "Alas! perhaps you don't believe all this! How can I give you a + sign. + + "There are many ways; but a law, of necessity inexorable, forbids + it. Such little entity as I possess would cease to be; it was all + but lost when I saved your life--and again when I told you that you + were the beloved of Julia Royce. It would not do for us Martians to + meddle with earthly things; the fat would soon be in the fire, I can + tell you! + + "Try and trust me, Barty, and give me the benefit of any doubt. + + "You have work planned out for many years to come, and are now + yourself so trained that you can do without me. You know what you + have still to say to mankind; never write a line about which you are + not sure. + + "For another night or two you will be my host, and this splendid + frame of yours my hostelry; on y est tres bien. Be hospitable still + for a little while--make the most of me; hug me tight, squeeze me + warm! + + "As soon as Leah is up and about and herself again you will know me + no more, and no more feel the north. + + "Ah! you will never realize what it is for me to bid you good-bye, + my Barty, my Barty! All that is in your big heart and powerful brain + to feel of grief belongs to me, now that you are fast asleep. And + your genius for sorrow, which you have never really tested yet, is + as great as any gift you possess. + + "Happy Barty, who have got to forty years without sounding the great + depths, and all through me! what will you do without your poor + devoted unknown Martia to keep watch over you and ward--to fight for + you like a wild-cat, if necessary? + + "Leah must be your wild-cat now. She has it in her to be a tigress + when you are concerned, or any of her children! Next to you, Leah is + the darling of my heart; for it's your heart I make use of to love + her with. + + "I want you to tell the world all about your Martia some day. They + may disbelieve, as you do; but good fruit will come of it in the + future. Martians will have a freer hand with you all, and that will + be a good thing for the earth; they were trained in a good hard + school--they are the Spartans of our universe. + + "Such things will come to pass, before many years are over, as are + little dreamt of now, and all through your wanting to swallow that + dose of cyanide at No. 36 Rue des Ursulines Blanches, and my having + the gumption to prevent you! + + "It's a good seed that we have sown, you and I. It was not right + that this beautiful planet should go much longer drifting through + space without a single hope that is not an illusion, without a + single hint of what life should really be, without a goal. + + "Why such darkness under so bright a sun! such blindness to what is + so patent! such a deaf ear to the roaring of that thunderous harmony + which you call the eternal silence!--you of the earth, earthy, who + can hear the little trumpet of the mosquito so well that it makes + you fidget and fret and fume all night, and robs you of your rest. + Then the sun rises and frightens the mosquitoes away, and you think + that's what the sun is for and are thankful; but why the deuce a + mosquito should sting you, you can't make out!--mystery of + mysteries! + + "At the back of your brain is a little speck of perishable matter, + Barty; it is no bigger than a needle's point, but it is bigger in + you than in anybody else I know, except in Leah; and in your + children it is bigger still--almost as big as the point of a pin! + + "If they pair well, and it is in them to do so if they follow their + inherited instinct, their children and their children's children + will have that speck still bigger. When that speck becomes as big as + a millet-seed in your remote posterity, then it will be as big as in + a Martian, and the earth will be a very different place, and man of + earth greater and even better than the Martian by all the greatness + of his ampler, subtler, and more complex brain; his sense of the + Deity will be as an eagle's sense of the sun at noon in a cloudless + tropical sky; and he will know how to bear that effulgence without a + blink, as he stands on his lonely summit, ringed by the azure world. + + "Indeed, there will be no more Martians in Mars by that time; they + are near the end of their lease; all good Martians will have gone to + Venus, let us hope; if not, to the Sun itself! + + "Man has many thousands of years before him yet ere his little ball + of earth gets too cold for him; the little speck in his brain may + grow to the size of a pea, a cherry, a walnut, an egg, an orange! + He will have in him the magnetic consciousness of the entire solar + system, and hold the keys of time and space as long and as far as + the sun shines for us all--and then there will be the beginning of + everything. And all through that little episode in the street of + those White Ursulines! And the seed of Barty and Leah will overflow + to the uttermost ends of the earth, and finally blossom and bear + fruit for ever and ever beyond the stars. + + "What a beginning for a new order of things! what a getting + up-stairs! what an awakening! what an annunciation! + + "Do you remember that knock at the door? + + "'Il est dix heures, savez-vous? Voulez-vous votre cafe dans votre + chambre?' + + "She little knew, poor little Frau! humble little Finche Torfs, + lowly Flemish virgin, who loved you as the moth loves the star; + vilain mangeur de coeurs que vous etes! + + "Barty, I wish your wife to hear nothing of this till the child who + once was your Martia shall have seen the light of day with eyes of + its own; tell her that I have left you at last, but don't tell her + why or how; tell her some day, years hence, if you think she will + love me the better for it; not otherwise. + + "When you wake, Barty, I shall still be inside you; say to me in + your mezza voce all the kind things you can think of--such things as + you would have said to your mother had she lived till now, and you + were speeding her on a long and uncertain journey. + + "How you would have loved your mother! She was most beautiful, and + of the type so dear to you. Her skin was almost as white as Leah's, + her eyes almost as black, her hair even blacker; like Leah, she was + tall and slim and lithe and graceful. She might have been Leah's + mother, too, for the likeness between them. How often you remind me + of her when you laugh or sing, and when you're funny in French; + those droll, quick gestures and quaint intonations, that ease and + freedom and deftness as you move! And then you become English in a + moment, and your big, burly, fair-haired father has come back with + his high voice, and his high spirits, and his frank blue eyes, like + yours, so kind and brave and genial. + + "And _you_, dear, what a baby you were--a very prince among babies; + ah! if I can only be like that when I begin again! + + "The people in the Tuileries garden used to turn round and stare and + smile at you when Rosalie with the long blue streamers bore you + along as proudly as if Louis Philippe were your grandfather and she + the royal wet-nurse; and later, after that hideous quarrel about + nothing, and the fatal fight by the 'mare aux biches,' how the good + fisher people of Le Pollet adored you! 'Un vrai petit St. Jean! il + nous portera bonheur, bien sur!' + + "You have been thoroughly well loved all your life, my Barty, but + most of all by me--never forget that! + + "I have been your father and your mother when they sat and watched + your baby-sleep; I have been Rosalie when she gave you the breast; I + have been your French grandfather and grandmother quarrelling as to + which of the two should nurse you as they sat and sunned themselves + on their humble doorstep in the Rue des Guignes! + + "I have been your doting wife when you sang to her, your children + when you made them laugh till they cried. I've been Lady Archibald + when you danced the Dieppoise after tea, in Dover, with your little + bare legs; and Aunt Caroline, too, as she nursed you in Malines + after that silly duel where you behaved so well; and I've been by + turns Merovee Brossard, Bonzig, old Laferte, Mlle. Marceline, Finche + Torfs, poor little Marianina, Julia Royce, Father Louis, the old + Abbe, Bob Maurice--all the people you've ever charmed, or amused, or + been kind to--a legion; good heavens! I have been them all! What a + snowball made up of all these loves I've been rolling after you all + these years! and now it has all got to melt away in a single night, + and with it the remembrance of all I've ever been during ages + untold. + + "And I've no voice to bid you good-bye, my beloved; no arms to hug + you with, no eyes to weep--I, a daughter of the most affectionate, + and clinging, and caressing race of little people in existence! Such + eyes as I once had, too; such warm, soft, furry arms, and such a + voice--it would have wanted no words to express all that I feel now; + that voice--nous savons notre orthographie en musique la bas! + + "How it will please, perhaps, to remember even this farewell some + day, when we're all together again, with nothing to come between! + + "And now, my beloved, there is no such thing as good-bye; it is a + word that has no real meaning; but it is so English and pretty and + sweet and child-like and nonsensical that I could write it over and + over again--just for fun! + + "So good-bye! good-bye! good-bye! till I wake up once more after a + long living sleep of many years, I hope; a sleep filled with happy + dreams of you, dear, delightful people, whom I've got to live with + and love, and learn to lose once more; and then--no more good-byes! + + "Martia." + + * * * * * + +So much for Martia--whoever or whatever it was that went by that +name in Barty's consciousness. + +After such close companionship for so many years, the loss of +her--or it--was like the loss of a sixth and most valuable sense, +worse almost than the loss of his sight would have been; and with +this he was constantly threatened, for he most unmercifully taxed +his remaining eye, and the field of his vision had narrowed year by +year. + +But this impending calamity did not frighten him as in the old days. +His wife was with him now, and as long as she was by his side he +could have borne anything--blindness, poverty, dishonor--anything in +the world. If he lost her, he would survive her loss just long +enough to put his affairs in order, and no more. + +But most distressfully he missed the physical feeling of the +north--even in his sleep. This strange bereavement drew him and Leah +even more closely together, if that were possible; and she was well +content to reign alone in the heart of her fractious, unreasonable +but most affectionate, humorous, and irresistible great man. +Although her rival had been but a name and an idea, a mere +abstraction in which she had never really believed, she did not find +it altogether displeasing to herself that the lively Martia was no +more; she has almost told me as much. + +And thus began for them both the happiest and most beautiful period +of their joint lives, in spite of sorrows yet to come. She took such +care of him that he might have been as blind as Belisarius himself, +and he seemed almost to depend upon her as much--so wrapt up was he +in the work of his life, so indifferent to all mundane and practical +affairs. What eyesight was not wanted for his pen and pencil he +reserved to look at her with--at his beloved children, and the +things of beauty in and outside Marsfield: pictures, old china, +skies, hills, trees, and river; and what wits remained he kept to +amuse his family and his friends--there was enough and to spare. + +The older he grew the more he teemed and seethed and bubbled and +shone--and set others shining round him--even myself. It is no +wonder Marsfield became such a singularly agreeable abode for all +who dwelt there, even for the men-servants and the maid-servants, +and the birds and the beasts, and the stranger within its gates--and +for me a kind of earthly paradise. + + * * * * * + +And now, gentle reader, I want very badly to talk about myself a +little, if you don't mind--just for half a dozen pages or so, which +you can skip if you like. Whether you do so or not, it will not hurt +you--and it will do me a great deal of good. + +I feel uncommonly sad, and very lonely indeed, now that Barty is +gone; and with him my beloved comrade Leah. + +[Illustration: "'I'M A PHILISTINE, AND AM NOT ASHAMED'"] + +The only people left to me that I'm really fond of--except my dear +widowed sister, Ida Scatcherd--are all so young. They're Josselins, of +course--one and all--and they're all that's kind and droll and +charming, and I adore them. But they can't quite realize what this sort +of bereavement means to a man of just my age, who has still got some +years of life before him, probably--and is yet an old man. + +The Right Honorable Sir Robert Maurice, Bart., M. P., etc., etc., +etc. That's me. I take up a whole line of manuscript. I might be a +noble lord if I chose, and take up two! + +I'm a liberal conservative, an opportunist, a pessi-optimist, an +in-medio-tutissimist, and attend divine service at the Temple +Church. + +I'm a Philistine, and not ashamed; so was Moliere--so was Cervantes. +So, if you like, was the late Martin Farquhar Tupper--and those who +read him; we're of all sorts in Philistia, the great and the small, +the good and the bad. + +I'm in the sixties--sound of wind and limb--only two false +teeth--one at each side, bicuspids, merely for show. I'm rather +bald, but it suits my style; a little fat, perhaps--a pound and a +half over sixteen stone! but I'm an inch and a half over six feet, +and very big-boned. Altogether, diablement bien conserve! I sleep +well, the sleep of the just; I have a good appetite and a good +digestion, and a good conceit of myself still, thank Heaven--though +nothing like what it used to be! One can survive the loss of one's +self-respect; but of one's vanity, never. + +What a prosperous and happy life mine has been, to be sure, up to a +few short months ago--hardly ever an ache or a pain!--my only real +griefs, my dear mother's death ten years back, and my father's in +1870. Yes, I have warmed both hands at the fire of life, and even +burnt my fingers now and then, but not severely. + +One love disappointment. The sting of it lasted a couple of years, +the compensation more than thirty! I loved her all the better, +perhaps, that I did not marry her. I'm afraid it is not in me to +love a very good wife of my own as much as I really ought! + +And I love her children as well as if they'd been mine, and her +grandchildren even better. They are irresistible, these +grandchildren of Barty's and Leah's--mine wouldn't have been a patch +on them; besides, I get all the fun and none of the bother and +anxiety. Evidently it was my true vocation to remain single--and be +a tame cat in a large, warm house, where there are lots of nice +children. + +O happy Bob Maurice! O happy sexagenarian! + +"O me fortunatum, mea si bona norim!" (What would Pere Brossard say +at this? he would give me a twisted pinch on the arm--and serve me +right!) + +I'm very glad I've been successful, though it's not a very high +achievement to make a very large fortune by buying and selling that +which put into a man's mouth is said to steal away his brains! + +But it does better things than this. It reconciles and solves and +resolves mental discords, like music. It makes music for people who +have no ear--and there are so many of these in the world that I'm a +millionaire, and Franz Schubert died a pauper. So I prefer to drink +beer--as _he_ did; and I never miss a Monday Pop if I can help it. + +_I_ have done better things, too. I have helped to govern my country +and make its laws; but it all came out of wine to begin with--all +from learning how to buy and sell. We're a nation of shopkeepers, +although the French keep better shops than ours, and more of them. + +I'm glad I'm successful because of Barty, although success, which +brings the world to our feet, does not always endear us to the +friend of our bosom. If I had been a failure Barty would have stuck +to me like a brick, I feel sure, instead of my sticking to him like +a leech! And the sight of his success might have soured me--that +eternal chorus of praise, that perpetual feast of pudding in which I +should have had no part but to take my share as a mere guest, and +listen and look on and applaud, and wish I'd never been born! + +As it is, I listened and looked on and clapped my hands with as much +pride and pleasure as if Barty had been my son--and my share of the +pudding never stuck in my throat! + +I should have been always on the watch to take him down a peg when +he was pleased with himself--to hold him cheap and overpraise some +duffer in his hearing--so that I might save my own self-esteem; to +pay him bad little left-handed compliments, him and his, whenever I +was out of humor; and I should have been always out of humor, having +failed in life. + +And then I should have gone home wretched--for I have a +conscience--and woke up in the middle of the night and thought of +Barty; and what a kind, genial, jolly, large-minded, and +generous-hearted old chap he was and always had been--and buried my +face in my pillow, and muttered: + +"Ach! what a poor, mean, jealous beast I am--un fruit sec! un +malheureux rate!" + +With all my success, this life-long exclusive cultivation of Barty's +society, and that of his artistic friends, which has somehow +unfitted me for the society of my brother-merchants of wine--and +most merchants of everything else--has not, I regret to say, quite +fitted me to hold my own among the "leaders of intellectual modern +thought," whose company I would fain seek and keep in preference to +any other. + +My very wealth seems to depress and disgust them, as it does me--and +I'm no genius, I admit, and a poor conversationalist. + +To amass wealth is an engrossing pursuit--and now that I have +amassed a good deal more than I quite know what to do with, it seems +to me a very ignoble one. It chokes up everything that makes life +worth living; it leaves so little time for the constant and regular +practice of those ingenuous arts which faithfully to have learned is +said to soften the manners, and make one an agreeable person all +round. + +It is even more _abrutissant_ than the mere pursuit of sport or +pleasure. + +How many a noble lord I know who's almost as beastly rich as myself, +and twice as big a fool by nature, and perhaps not a better fellow +at bottom--yet who can command the society of all there is of the +best in science, literature, and art! + +Not but what they will come and dine with me fast enough, these +shining lights of culture and intellect--my food is very good, +although I say it, and I get noble lords to meet them. + +But they talk their real talk to each other--not to me--and to the +noble lords who sit by them at my table, and who try to understand +what they say. With me they fall back on politics and bimetallism, +for all the pains I've taken to get up the subjects that interest +them, and keep myself posted in all they've written and done. +Precious little they know about bimetallism or politics! + +Is it only on account of their pretty manners that my titled friends +are such favorites with these highly intellectual guests of +mine--and with me? If so, then pretty manners should come before +everything else in the world, and be taught instead of Latin and +Greek. + +But if it's only because they're noble lords, then I'm beginning to +think with Mr. Labouchere that it's high time the Upper House were +abolished, and its denizens wafted into space, since they make such +snobs of us all--including your humble servant, of course, who at +least is not quite so snobbish as to know himself for a damned snob +and pretend he isn't one. + +Anyhow, I'm glad my life has been such a success. But would I live +it all over again? Even the best of it? The "forty year"? + +Taking one consideration with another, most decidedly not. + +I have only met two men of my own age who would live their lives +over again. They both cared more for their meals than for anything +else in the world--and they have always had four of these every day; +sometimes even five! plenty of variety, and never a meal to disagree +with them! affaire d'estomac! They simply want to eat all those +meals once more. They lived to feed, and to refeed would re-live! + +My meals have never disagreed with me either--but I have always +found them monotonous; they have always been so simple and so +regular when I've had the ordering of them! Fried soles, chops or +steaks, and that sort of thing, and a pint of lager-beer--no wine +for me, thank you; I sell it--and all this just to serve as a mere +foundation for a smoke--and a chat with Barty, if possible! + +Hardly ever an ache or a pain, and I wouldn't live it all over +again! yet I hope to live another twenty years, if only to take +Leah's unborn great-grandchildren to the dentist's, and tip them at +school, and treat them to the pantomime and Madame Tussaud's, as I +did their mothers and grandmothers before them--or their fathers and +grandfathers. + +This seems rather inconsistent! For would I care, twenty years +hence, to re-live these coming twenty years? Evidently not--it's out +of the question. + +So why don't I give up at once? I know how to do it, without pain, +without scandal, without even invalidating my life-insurance, about +which I don't care a rap! + +Why don't I? why don't _you_, O middle-aged reader--with all the +infirmities of age before you and all the pleasures of youth behind? +Anyhow, we don't, either you or I--and so there's an end on't. + +O Pandora! I have promised myself that I would take a +great-grandchild of Barty's on a flying-machine from Marsfield to +London and back in half an hour--and that great-grandchild can't +well be born for several years--perhaps not for another twenty! + +And now, gentle reader, I've had my little say, and I'm a good deal +better, thanks, and I'll try not to talk about myself any more. + +Except just to mention that in the summer of 1876 I contested East +Rosherville in the Conservative interest and was successful--and +owed my success to the canvassing of Barty and Leah, who had no +politics of their own whatever, and would have canvassed for me just +as conscientiously if I'd been a Radical, probably more so! For if +Barty had permitted himself any politics at all, he would have been +a red-hot Radical, I fear--and his wife would have followed suit. +And so, perhaps, would I! + + + + +Part Tenth + + "Je suis alle de bon matin + Cueillir la violette, + Et l'aubepine, et le jasmin, + Pour celebrer ta fete. + J'ai lie de ma propre main + Bouton de rose et romarin + Pour couronner ta blonde tete. + + "Mais de ta royale beaute + Sois humble, je te prie. + Ici tout meurt, la fleur, l'ete, + La jeunesse et la vie: + Bientot, bientot ce jour sera, + Ma belle, ou l'on te portera + Dans un linceul, pale et fletrie." + + --A _Favorite Song of_ Mary Trevor's. + + +That was a pleasant summer. + +First of all we went to Ste. Adresse, a suburb of Havre, where there +is very good bathing--with rafts, _perissoires_, _pique-tetes_ to +dive from--all those aquatic delights the French are so clever at +inventing, and which make a "station balneaire" so much more amusing +than a mere British watering-place. + +We made a large party and bathed together every morning; and Barty +and I taught the young ones to dive and do "la coupe" in the true +orthodox form, with that free horizontal sweep of each alternate arm +that gives it such distinction. + +It was very good fun to see those rosy boys and girls taking their +"hussardes" neatly without a splash from the little platform at the +top of the pole, and solemnly performing "la coupe" in the wake of +their papa; one on his back. Right out to sea they went, I bringing +up the rear--and the faithful Jean-Baptiste in attendance with his +boat, and Leah inside it--her anxious eyes on the stretch to count +those curly heads again and again. She was a good mathematician, and +the tale always came right in the end; and home was reached at last, +and no one a bit the worse for a good long swim in those well-aired, +sunlit waves. + +Once we went on the top of the diligence to Etretat for the day, and +there we talked of poor Bonzig and his first and last dip in the +sea; and did "la coupe" in the waters that had been so fatal to him, +poor fellow! + +Then we went by the steamer _Jean Bart_ to Trouville and Deauville, +and up the Seine in a steam-launch to Rouen. + +In the afternoons and evenings we took long country walks and caught +moths, or went to Havre by tramway and cleared out all the +pastry-cooks in the Rue de Paris, and watched the transatlantic +steamers, out or home, from that gay pier which so happily combines +business with pleasure--utile dulci, as Pere Brossard would have +said--and walked home by the charming Cote d'Ingouville, sacred to +the memory of Modeste Mignon. + +And then, a little later on, I was a good Uncle Bob, and took the +whole party to Auteuil, near Paris, and hired two lordly mansions +next door to each other in the Villa Montmorency, and turned their +gardens into one. + +Altogether, with the Scatcherds and ourselves, eight children, +governesses, nurses, and other servants, and dogs and the smaller +animals, we were a very large party, and a very lively one. I like +this sort of thing better than anything else in the world. + +I hired carriages and horses galore, and for six weeks we made +ourselves thoroughly comfortable and at home in Paris and around. + +That was the happiest holiday I ever had since the vacation Barty +and I spent at the Lafertes' in the Gue des Aulnes when we were +school-boys. + +And such was our love for the sport he called "_la chasse aux +souvenirs_" that one day we actually went there, travelling by train +to La Tremblaye, where we spent the night. + +It was a sad disenchantment! + +The old Lafertes were dead, the young ones had left that part of the +country; and the house and what remained of the gardens now belonged +to another family, and had become formal and mean and business-like +in aspect, and much reduced in size. + +Much of the outskirts of the forest had been cleared and was being +cleared still, and cheap little houses run up for workmen; an +immense and evil-smelling factory with a tall chimney had replaced +the old home-farm, and was connected by a single line of rails with +the station of La Tremblaye. The clear, pellucid stream where we +used to catch crayfish had been canalized--"s'est encanaille," as +Barty called it--its waters fouled by barge traffic and all kinds of +horrors. + +We soon found the haunted pond that Barty was so fond of--but quite +in the open, close to an enormous brick-field, and only half full; +and with all its trees cut down, including the tree on which they +had hanged the gay young Viscount who had behaved so badly to +Seraphine Doucet, and on which Seraphine Doucet afterwards hanged +herself in remorse. + +No more friendly charcoal-burners, no more wolves or boars or +cerfs--dix-cors; and as for were-wolves, the very memory of them had +died out. + +There seems no greater desecration to me than cutting down an old +and well-remembered French forest I have loved; and solving all its +mystery, and laying bare the nakedness of the land in a way so +brutal and expeditious and unexpected. It reminds one of the manner +in which French market-women will pluck a goose before it's quite +dead; you bristle with indignation to see it, but you mustn't +interfere. + +La Tremblaye itself had become a flourishing manufacturing town, and +to our jaundiced and disillusioned eyes everybody and everything was +as ugly as could be--and I can't say we made much of a bag in the +way of souvenirs. + +We were told that young Laferte was a barrister at Angers, +prosperous and married. We deliberated whether we would hunt him up +and talk of old times. Then we reflected how curiously cold and +inhospitable Frenchmen can sometimes be to old English friends in +circumstances like these--and how little they care to talk of old +times and all that, unless it's the Englishman who plays the host. + +Ask a quite ordinary Frenchman to come and dine with you in London, +and see what a genial and charming person he can be--what a quick +bosom friend, and with what a glib and silver tongue to praise the +warmth of your British welcome. + +Then go and call on him when you find yourself in Paris--and you +will soon learn to leave quite ordinary Frenchmen alone, on their +own side of the Channel. + +Happily, there are exceptions to this rule! + +Thus the sweet Laferte remembrance, which had so often come back to +me in my dreams, was forever spoiled by this unlucky trip. + +It had turned that leaf from the tablets of my memory into a kind of +palimpsest, so that I could no longer quite make out the old +handwriting for the new, which would not be obliterated, and these +were confused lines it was hard to read between--with all my skill! + +Altogether we were uncommonly glad to get back to the Villa +Montmorency--from the distorted shadows of a nightmare to happy +reality. + +There, all was fresh and delightful; as boys we had often seen the +outside walls of that fine property which had come to the +speculative builder at last, but never a glimpse within; so that +there was no desecration for us in the modern laying out of that +beautiful double garden of ours, whatever there might have been for +such ghosts of Montmorencys as chose to revisit the glimpses of the +moon. + +We haunted Auteuil, Passy, Point du Jour, Suresnes, Courbevoie, +Neuilly, Meudon--all the familiar places. Especially we often +haunted the neighborhood of the rond point de l'Avenue du Bois de +Boulogne. + +One afternoon, as he and I and Leah and Ida were driving round what +once was our old school, we stopped in the lane not far from the +porte-cochere, and Barty stood up on the box and tried to look over +the wall. + +Presently, from the grand stone loge which had replaced Jaurion's +den, a nice old concierge came out and asked if we desired anything. +We told him how once we had been at school on that very spot, and +were trying to make out the old trees that had served as bases in +"la balle au camp," and that if we really desired anything just then +it was that we might become school-boys once more! + +"Ah, ma foi! je comprends ca, messieurs--moi aussi, j'ai ete +ecolier, et j'aimais bien la balle au camp," said the good old man, +who had been a soldier. + +He informed us the family were away, but that if we liked to come +inside and see the garden he was sure his master would have no +objection. We jumped at this kind offer and spent quite an hour +there, and if I were Barty I could so describe the emotions of that +hour that the reader would feel quite as tearfully grateful to me as +to Barty Josselin for Chapters III. and IV. in _Le Fil de la +Vierge_, which are really founded, _mutatis mutandis_, on this +self-same little adventure of ours. + +Nothing remained of our old school--not even the outer walls; +nothing but the big trees and the absolute ground they grew out of. +Beautiful lawns, flower-beds, conservatories, summer-houses, ferns, +and evergreen shrubs made the place seem even larger than it had +once been--the very reverse of what usually happens--and softened +for us the disenchantment of the change. + +Here, at least, was no desecration of a hallowed spot. When the past +has been dead and buried a long while ago there is no sweeter +decking for its grave than a rich autumn tangle, all yellow and +brown and pale and hectic red, with glossy evergreens and soft, damp +moss to keep up the illusion of spring and summer all the year +round. + +Much to the amusement of the old concierge and his wife, Barty +insisted on climbing into a huge horse-chestnut tree, in which was a +natural seat, very high up, where, well hidden by the dense foliage, +he and I used to color pipes for boys who couldn't smoke without +feeling sick. + +Nothing would suit him now but that he must smoke a pipe there while +we talked to the good old couple below. + +"Moi aussi, je fumais quand c'etait defendu; que voulez-vous? Il +faut bien que jeunesse se passe, n'est ce pas?" said the old +soldier. + +"Ah, dame!" said his old wife, and sighed. + +Every tree in this enchanted place had its history--every corner, +every square yard of soil. I will not inflict these histories on the +reader; I will restrain myself with all my might, and merely state +that just as the old school had been replaced by this noble dwelling +the noble dwelling itself has now been replaced, trees and garden +and all, by a stately palace many stories high, which rears itself +among so many other stately palaces that I can't even identify the +spot where once stood the Institution F. Brossard! + +Later, Barty made me solemnly pledge my word that if he and Leah +should pre-decease me I would see to their due cremating and the +final mingling of their ashes; that a portion of these--say +half--should be set apart to be scattered on French soil, in places +he would indicate in his will, and that the lion's share of that +half should be sprinkled over the ground that once was our +play-ground, with--or without--the legitimate owner's permission. + +(Alas! and ah me! These instructions would have been carried out to +the letter but that the place itself is no more; and, with a +conviction that I should be merely acting just as they would have +wished, I took it on myself to mingle with their ashes those of a +very sweet and darling child of theirs, dearer to them and to me and +to us all than any creature ever born into this cruel universe; and +I scattered a portion of these precious remains to the four winds, +close by the old spot we so loved.) + + * * * * * + +Yes, that was a memorable holiday; the charming fete de St. Cloud +was in full swing--it was delightful to haunt it once more with +those dear young people so little dreamt of when Barty and I first +got into scrapes there, and were duly punished by Latin verbs to +conjugate in our best handwriting for Bonzig or Dumollard. + +Then he and I would explore the so changed Bois de Boulogne for the +little "Mare aux Biches," where his father had fallen under the +sword of Lieutenant Rondelys; but we never managed to find it: +perhaps it had evaporated; perhaps the does had drunk it all up, +before they, too, had been made to vanish, before the German +invader--or inside him; for he was fond of French venison, as well +as of French clocks! He was a most omnivorous person. + +Then Paris had endless charms for us both, and we relieved ourselves +at last of that long homesickness of years, and could almost believe +we were boys again, as we dived into such old and well-remembered +streets as yet remained. + +There were still some slums we had loved; one or two of them exist +even now. Only the other day I saw the Rue de Clery, the Rue de la +Lune, the Rue de la Montagne--all three on the south side of the +Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle: they are still terrible to look at from +the genial Boulevard, even by broad daylight--the houses so tall, so +irregular, the streets so narrow and winding and black. They seemed +to us boys terrible, indeed, between eight and nine on a winter's +evening, with just a lamp here and there to make their darkness +visible. Whither they led I can't say; we never dared explore their +obscure and mysterious recesses. They may have ended in the _cour +des miracles_ for all we knew--it was nearly fifty years ago--and +they may be quite virtuous abodes of poverty to-day; but they seemed +to us then strange, labyrinthine abysses of crime and secret dens of +infamy, where dreadful deeds were done in the dead of long winter +nights. Evidently, to us in those days, whoever should lose himself +there would never see daylight again; so we loved to visit them +after dark, with our hearts in our mouths, before going back to +school. + +We would sit on posts within call of the cheerful Boulevard, and watch +mysterious women hurry up and down in the cold, out of darkness into +light and back again, poor creatures--dingy moths, silent but ominous +night-jars, forlorn women of the town--ill-favored and ill-dressed, some +of them all but middle-aged, in common caps and aprons, with cotton +umbrellas, like cooks looking for a situation. + +They never spoke to us, and seemed to be often brutally repulsed by +whatever men they did speak to--mostly men in blouses. + +"O dis-donc, _Hor_tense! qu'y _fait_ froid! quand donc qu'y s'ra +_onze_ heures, q'nous allions nous _cou_cher?" + +So said one of them to another one cold, drizzly night, in a raucous +voice, with low intonations of the gutter. The dimly felt horror and +despair and pathos of it sent us away shivering to our Passy omnibus +as fast as our legs could carry us. + +That phrase has stuck in my memory ever since. Thank Heaven! the +eleventh hour must have struck long ago, and Hortense and her friend +must be fast asleep and well out of the cold by now--they need walk +those evil streets no more.... + +When we had exhausted it all, and we felt homesick for England +again, it was good to get back to Marsfield, high up over the +Thames--so beautiful in its rich October colors which the river +reflected--with its old trees that grew down to the water's edge, +and brooded by the boat-house there in the mellow sunshine. + +And then again when it became cold and dreary, at Christmas-time +there was my big house at Lancaster Gate, where Josselins were fond +of spending some of the winter months, and where I managed to find +room for them all--with a little squeezing during the Christmas +holidays when the boys came home from school. What good times they +were! + + * * * * * + +"On May 24th, at Marsfield, Berks, the wife of Bartholomew Josselin, +of a daughter"--or, as Leah put it in her diary, "our seventh +daughter and ninth child--to be called Martia, or Marty for short." + +It seems that Marty, prepared by her first ablution for this life, +and as she lay being powdered on Mrs. Jones's motherly lap, was of a +different type to her predecessors--much whiter, and lighter, and +slighter; and she made no exhibition of that lusty lung-power which +had so characterized the other little Barties on their introduction +to this vale of tears. + +Her face was more regularly formed and more highly finished, and in +a few weeks grew of a beauty so solemn and pathetic that it would +sometimes make Mrs. Jones, who had lost babies of her own, shed +motherly tears merely to look at her. + +Even _I_ felt sentimental about the child; and as for Barty, he +could talk of nothing else, and made those rough and hasty +silver-point studies of her head and face--mere sketches--which, +being full of obvious faults, became so quickly famous among +aesthetic and exclusive people who had long given up Barty as a +writer on account of his scandalous popularity. + +Alas! even those silver-points have become popular now, and their +photogravures are in the shop-windows of sea-side resorts and in the +back parlors of the lower middle-class; so that the aesthetic +exclusives who are up to date have had to give up Barty altogether. +No one is sacred in those days--not even Shakespeare and Michael +Angelo. + +We shall be hearing Schumann and Wagner on the piano-organ, and +"_nous autres_" of the cultured classes will have to fall back on +Balfe and Byron and Landseer. + +In a few months little Marty became famous for this extra beauty all +over Henley and Maidenhead. + +She soon grew to be the idol of her father's heart, and her +mother's, and Ida's. But I really think that if there was one person +who idolized her more than all the rest, it was I, Bob Maurice. + +She was extremely delicate, and gave us much anxiety and many +alarms, and Dr. Knight was a very constant visitor at Marsfield +Lodge. It was fortunate, for her sake, that the Josselins had left +Campden Hill and made their home in Marsfield. + +Nine of these children--including one not yet born then--developed +there into the finest and completest human beings, take them for all +in all, that I have ever known; nine--a good number! + +"Numero Deus impare gaudet." + +Or, as poor Rapaud translated this (and was pinched black and blue +by Pere Brossard in consequence): + +"Le numero deux se rejouit d'etre impair!" (Number two takes a +pleasure in being odd!) + +The three sons--one of them now in the army, as becomes a Rohan; and +one a sailor, as becomes a Josselin; and one a famous actor, the +true Josselin of all--are the very types of what I should like for +the fathers of my grandchildren, if I had marriageable daughters of +my own. + +And as for Barty's daughters, they are all--but one--so well known +in society and the world--so famous, I may say--that I need hardly +mention them here; all but Marty, my sweet little "maid of Dove." + +When Barty took Marsfield he and I had entered what I have ever +since considered the happiest decade of a successful and healthy +man's life--the forties. + +"Wait till you get to _forty year_!" + +So sang Thackeray, but with a very different experience to mine. He +seemed to look upon the fifth decade as the grave of all tender +illusions and emotions, and exult! + +My tender illusions and emotions became realties--things to live by +and for. As Barty and I "dipped our noses in the Gascon +wine"--Vougeot-Conti & Co.--I blessed my stars for being free of +Marsfield, which was, and is still, my real home, and for the warm +friendship of its inhabitants who have been my real family, and for +several years of unclouded happiness all round. + +Even in winter what a joy it was, after a long solitary walk, or +ride, or drive, or railway journey, to suddenly find myself at dusk +in the midst of all that warmth and light and gayety; what a +contrast to the House of Commons; what a relief after Barge Yard or +Downing Street; what tea that was, what crumpets and buttered toast, +what a cigarette; what romps and jokes, and really jolly good fun; +and all that delightful untaught music that afterwards became so +cultivated! Music was a special inherited gift of the entire family, +and no trouble or expense was ever spared to make the best and the +most of it. + +Roberta became the most finished and charming amateur pianist I ever +heard, and as for Mary _la rossignolle_--Mrs. Trevor--she's almost +as famous as if she had made singing her profession, as she once so +wished to do. She married happily instead, a better profession +still; and though her songs are as highly paid for as any--except, +perhaps, Madame Patti's--every penny goes to the poor. + +She can make a nigger melody sound worthy of Schubert and a song of +Schumann go down with the common herd as if it were a nigger melody, +and obtain a genuine encore for it from quite simple people. + +Why, only the other night she and her husband dined with me at the +Bristol, and we went to Baron Schwartzkind's in Piccadilly to meet +Royal Highnesses. + +Up comes the Baron with: + +"Ach, Mrs. Drefor! vill you not zing zomzing? ze Brincess vould be +so jarmt." + +"I'll sing as much as you like, Baron, if you promise me you'll send +a checque for L50 to the Foundling Hospital to-morrow morning," says +Mary. + +"_I_'ll send _another_ fifty, Baron," says Bob Maurice. And the +Baron had to comply, and Mary sang again and again, and the Princess +was more than charmed. + +She declared herself enchanted, and yet it was Brahms and Schumann +that Mary sang; no pretty little English ballad, no French, no +Italian. + + "Aus meinen Thraenen spriessen + Viel' bluehende Blumen hervor; + Und meine Seufze werden + Ein Nachtigallen Chor...." + +So sang Mary, and I declare some of the royal eyes were moist. + +They all sang and played, these Josselins; and tumbled and acted, +and were droll and original and fetching, as their father had been +and was still; and, like him, amiable and full of exuberant life; +and, like their mother, kind and appreciative and sympathetic and +ever thoughtful of others, without a grain of selfishness or +conceit. + +[Illustration: "'ZE BRINCESS VOULD BE SO JARMT'"] + +They were also great athletes, boys and girls alike; good swimmers +and riders, and first-rate oars. And though not as good at books and +lessons as they might have been, they did not absolutely disgrace +themselves, being so quick and intelligent. + +Amid all this geniality and liveliness at home and this beauty of +surrounding nature abroad, little Marty seemed to outgrow in a +measure her constitutional delicacy. + +It was her ambition to become as athletic as a boy, and she was +persevering in all physical exercises--and throw stones very +straight and far, with a quite easy masculine sweep of the arm; I +taught her myself. + +It was also her ambition to draw, and she would sit for an hour or +more on a high stool by her father, or on the arm of his chair, and +watch him at his work in silence. Then she would get herself paper +and pencil, and try and do likewise; but discouragement would +overtake her, and she would have to give it up in despair, with a +heavy sigh and a clouded look on her lovely little pale face; and +yet they were surprisingly clever, these attempts of hers. + +Then she took to dictating a novel to her sisters and to me: it was +all about an immense dog and three naughty boys, who were awful +dunces at school and ran away to sea, dog and all; and performed +heroic deeds in Central Africa, and grew up there, "booted and +bearded, and burnt to a brick!" and never married or fell in love, +or stooped to any nonsense of that kind. + +This novel, begun in the handwriting of all of us, and continued in +her own, remained unfinished; and the precious MS. is now in my +possession. I have read it oftener than any other novel, French or +English, except, perhaps, _Vanity Fair_! + +I may say that I had something to do with the development of her +literary faculty, as I read many good books to her before she could +read quite comfortably for herself: _Evenings at Home_, _The Swiss +Family Robinson_, _Gulliver_, _Robinson Crusoe_, books by +Ballantyne, Marryat, Mayne Reid, Jules Verne, etc., and _Treasure +Island_, _Tom Sawyer_, _Huckleberry Finn_, _The Wreck of the +Grosvenor_, and then her father's books, or some of them. + +But even better than her famous novel were the stories she +improvised to me in a small boat which I often rowed up-stream while +she steered--one story, in particular, that had no end; she would +take it up at any time. + +She had imagined a world where all trees and flowers and vegetation +(and some birds) were the size they are now; but men and beasts no +bigger than Lilliputians, with houses and churches and buildings to +match--and a family called Josselin living in a beautiful house +called Marsfield, as big as a piano organ. + +Endless were the adventures by flood and field of these little +people: in the huge forest and on the gigantic river which it took +them nearly an hour to cross in a steam-launch when the wind was +high, or riding trained carrier-pigeons to distant counties, and the +coasts of Normandy, Brittany, and Picardy, where everything was on a +similar scale. + +It would astonish me to find how vivid and real she could make these +imaginations of hers, and to me how fascinating--oddly enough she +reserved them for me only, and told no one else. + +There was always an immensely big strong man, one Bobby Maurice, a +good-natured giant, nearly three inches high and over two ounces in +weight, who among other feats would eat a whole pea at a sitting, +and hold out an acorn at arm's-length, and throw a pepper-corn over +two yards--which has remained the record. + +Then, coming back down-stream, she would take the sculls and I the +tiller, and I would tell her (in French) all about our school +adventures at Brossard's and Bonzig, and the Lafertes, and the +Revolution of February; and in that way she picked up a lot of +useful and idiomatic Parisian which considerably astonished Fraeulein +Werner, the German governess, who yet knew French almost as well as +her own language--almost as well as Mr. Ollendorff himself. + +She also changed one of the heroes in her famous novel, _Tommy +Holt_, into a French boy, and called him _Rapaud_! + +She was even more devoted to animals than the rest of the family: +the beautiful Angora, Kitty, died when Marty was five, from an +abscess in her cheek, where she'd been bitten by a strange +bull-terrier; and Marty tearfully wrote her epitaph in a beautiful +round hand-- + + "Here lies Kitty, full of grace; + Died of an _abbess_ in her face!" + +This was her first attempt at verse-making, and here's her last, +from the French of Sully-Prudhomme: + + "If you but knew what tears, alas! + One weeps for kinship unbestowed, + In pity you would sometimes pass + My poor abode! + + "If you but knew what balm, for all + Despond, lies in an angel's glance, + Your looks would on my window fall + As though by chance! + + "If you but knew the heart's delight + To feel its fellow-heart is by, + You'd linger, as a sister might, + These gates anigh! + + "If you but knew how oft I yearn + For one sweet voice, one presence dear, + Perhaps you'd even simply turn + And enter here!" + +She was only just seventeen when she wrote them, and, upon my word, +I think they're almost as good as the original! + +Her intimate friendship with Chucker-out, the huge St. Bernard, +lasted for nearly both their lives, alas! It began when they both +weighed exactly the same, and I could carry both in one arm. When he +died he turned the scale at sixteen stone, like me. + +It has lately become the fashion to paint big dogs and little girls, +and engravings of these pictures are to be seen in all the +print-sellers' shops. It always touches me very much to look at +these works of art, although--and I hope it is not libellous to say +so--the big dog is always hopelessly inferior in beauty and dignity +and charm to Chucker-out, who was champion of his day. And as for +the little girls--_Ah, mon Dieu!_ + +Such pictures are not high art of course, and that is why I don't +possess one, as I've got an aesthetic character to keep up; but why they +shouldn't be I can't guess. Is it because no high artist--except Briton +Riviere--will stoop to so easily understood a subject? + +A great master would not be above painting a small child or a big +dog separately--why should he be above putting them both in the same +picture? It would be too obvious, I suppose--like a melody by +Mozart, or Handel's "Harmonious Blacksmith," or Schubert's Serenade, +and other catchpenny tunes of the same description. + +_I_ was also very intimate with Chucker-out, who made more of me +than he even did of his master. + +One night I got very late to Marsfield by the last train, and, +letting myself in with my key, I found Chucker-out waiting for me in +the hall, and apparently in a very anxious frame of mind, and +extremely demonstrative, wanting to say something more than +usual--to confide a trouble, to confess! + +We went up into the big music-room, which was still lighted, and lay +on a couch together; he, with his head on my knees, whimpering +softly as I smoked and read a paper. + +Presently Leah came in and said: + +"Such an unfortunate thing happened; Marty and Chucker-out were +playing on the slope, and he knocked her down and sprained her +knee." + +As soon as Chucker-out heard Marty's name he sat up and whined +piteously, and pawed me down with great violence; pawed three +buttons off my waistcoat and broke my watch-chain--couldn't be +comforted; the misadventure had been preying on his mind for +hours. + +I give this subject to Mr. Briton Riviere, who can paint both dogs and +children, and everything else he likes. I will sit for him myself, if he +wishes, and as a Catholic priest! He might call it a confession--and an +absolution! or, "The Secrets of the Confessional." + +The good dog became more careful in future, and restrained his +exuberance even going down-stairs with Marty on the way to a ramble +in the woods, which excited him more than anything; if he came +down-stairs with anybody else, the violence of his joy was such that +one had to hold on by the banisters. He was a dear, good beast, and +a splendid body-guard for Marty in her solitary woodland +rambles--never left her side for a second. I have often watched him +from a distance, unbeknown to both; he was proud of his +responsibility--almost fussy about it. + +I have been fond of many dogs, but never yet loved a dog as I loved +big Chucker-out--or _Choucroute_, as Coralie, the French maid, +called him, to Fraeulein Werner's annoyance (Choucroute is French for +sauerkraut); and I like to remember him in his splendid prime, +guarding his sweet little mistress, whom I loved better than +anything else on earth. She was to me a kind of pet Marjorie, and +said such droll and touching things that I could almost fill a book +with them. I kept a diary on purpose, and called it Martiana. + +She was tall, but lamentably thin and slight, poor dear, with her +mother's piercing black eyes and the very fair curly locks of her +papa--a curious and most effective contrast--and features and a +complexion of such extraordinary delicacy and loveliness that it +almost gave one pain in the midst of the keen pleasure one had in +the mere looking at her. + +Heavens! how that face would light up suddenly at catching the +unexpected sight of some one she was fond of! How often it has +lighted up at the unexpected sight of "Uncle Bob"! The mere +remembrance of that sweet illumination brightens my old age for me +now; and I could almost wish her back again, in my senile +selfishness and inconsistency. Pazienza! + +Sometimes she was quite embarrassing in her simplicity, and reminded +me of her father. + +Once in Dieppe--when she was about eight--she and I had gone through +the Etablissement to bathe, and people had stared at her even more +than usual and whispered to each other. + +"I bet you don't know why they all stare so, Uncle Bob?" + +"I give it up," said I. + +"It's because I'm so _handsome_--we're _all_ handsome, you know, and +I'm the handsomest of the lot, it seems! _You_'re _not_ handsome, +Uncle Bob. But oh! aren't you _strong_! Why, you could tuck a +piou-piou under one arm and a postman under the other and walk up to +the castle with them and pitch them into the sea, _couldn't_ you? +And that's better than being handsome, _isn't_ it? I wish _I_ was +like that." + +And here she cuddled and kissed my hand. + +When Mary began to sing (under Signor R.) it was her custom of an +afternoon to lock herself up alone with a tuning-fork in a large +garret and practise, as she was shy of singing exercises before any +one else. + +Her voice, even practising scales, would give Marty extraordinary +pleasure, and me, too. Marty and I have often sat outside and +listened to Mary's rich and fluent vocalizings; and I hoped that +Marty would develop a great voice also, as she was so like Mary in +face and disposition, except that Mary's eyes were blue and her hair +very black, and her health unexceptionable. + +Marty did not develop a real voice, although she sang very prettily +and confidentially to me, and worked hard at the piano with Roberta; +she learned harmony and composed little songs, and wrote words to +them, and Mary or her father would sing them to her and make her +happy beyond description. + +Happy! she was always happy during the first few years of her +life--from five or six to twelve. + +I like to think her happiness was so great for this brief period, +that she had her full share of human felicity just as if she had +lived to the age of the Psalmist. + +It seemed everybody's business at Marsfield to see that Marty had a +good time. This was an easy task, as she was so easy to amuse; and +when amused, herself so amusing to others. + +As for me, it is hardly too much to say that every hour I could +spare from business and the cares of state was spent in organizing +the amusement of little Marty Josselin, and I was foolish enough to +be almost jealous of her own father and mother's devotion to the +same object. + +Unlike her brothers and sisters, she was a studious little person, +and fond of books--too much so indeed, for all she was such a +tomboy; and all this amusement was designed by us with the purpose +of winning her away from the too sedulous pursuit of knowledge. I +may add that in temper and sweetness of disposition the child was +simply angelic, and could not be spoiled by any spoiling. + +It was during these happy years at Marsfield that Barty, although +bereft of his Martia ever since that farewell letter, managed, +nevertheless, to do his best work, on lines previously laid down for +him by her. + +For the first year or two he missed the feeling of the north most +painfully--it was like the loss of a sense--but he grew in time +accustomed to the privation, and quite resigned; and Marty, whom he +worshipped--as did her mother--compensated him for the loss of his +demon. + +_Inaccessible Heights_, _Floreal et Fructidor_, _The Infinitely +Little_, _The Northern Pactolus_, _Pandore et sa Boite_, _Cancer and +Capricorn_, _Phoebus et Selene_ followed each other in leisurely +succession. And he also found time for those controversies that so +moved and amused the world; among others, his famous and triumphant +confutation of Canon ----, on one hand, and Professor ----, the +famous scientist, on the other, which has been compared to the +classic litigation about the oyster, since the oyster itself fell to +Barty's share, and a shell to each of the two disputants. + +Orthodox and agnostic are as the poles asunder, yet they could not +but both agree with Barty Josselin, who so cleverly extended a hand +to each, and acted as a conductor between them. + +That irresistible optimism which so forces itself upon all +Josselin's readers, who number by now half the world, and will +probably one day include the whole of it--when the whole of it is +civilized--belonged to him by nature, by virtue of his health and +his magnificent physique and his happy circumstances, and an +admirably balanced mind, which was better fitted for his particular +work and for the world's good than any special gift of genius in one +direction. + +His literary and artistic work never cost him the slightest effort. +It amused him to draw and write more than did anything else in the +world, and he always took great pains, and delighted in taking them; +but himself he never took seriously for one moment--never realized +what happiness he gave, and was quite unconscious of the true value +of all he thought and wrought and taught! + +He laughed good-humoredly at the passionate praise that for thirty +years was poured upon him from all quarters of the globe, and +shrugged his shoulders at the coarse invective of those whose +religious susceptibilities he had so innocently wounded; left all +published insults unanswered; never noticed any lie printed about +himself--never wrote a paragraph in explanation or self-defence, but +smoked many pipes and mildly wondered. + +Indeed he was mildly wondering all his life: at his luck--at all the +ease and success and warm domestic bliss that had so compensated him +for the loss of his left eye and would almost have compensated him +for the loss of both. + +"It's all because I'm so deuced good-looking!" says Barty--"and so's +Leah!" + +And all his life he sorrowed for those who were less fortunate than +himself. His charities and those of his wife were immense--he gave +all the money, and she took all the trouble. + +"C'est papa qui paie et maman qui regale," as Marty would say; and +never were funds distributed more wisely. + +But often at odd moments the Weltschmerz, the sorrow of the world, +would pierce this man who no longer felt sorrows of his own--stab +him through and through--bring the sweat to his temples--fill his +eyes with that strange pity and trouble that moved you so deeply +when you caught the look; and soon the complicated anguish of that +dim regard would resolve itself into gleams of a quite celestial +sweetness--and a heavenly message would go forth to mankind in such +simple words that all might read who ran.... + +All these endowments of the heart and brain, which in him were +masculine and active, were possessed in a passive form by his wife; +instead of the buoyant energy and boisterous high spirits, she had +patience and persistency that one felt to be indomitable, and a +silent sympathy that never failed, and a fund of cheerfulness and +good sense on which any call might be made by life without fear of +bankruptcy; she was of those who could play a losing game and help +others to play it--and she never had a losing game to play! + +These gifts were inherited by their children, who, more-over, were +so fed on their father's books--so imbued with them--that one felt +sure of their courage, endurance, and virtue, whatever misfortunes +or temptations might assail them in this life. + +One felt this especially with the youngest but one, Marty, who, with +even more than her due share of those gifts of the head and heart +they had all inherited from their two parents, had not inherited +their splendid frames and invincible health. + +Roderick, _alias_ Mark Tapley, _alias_ Chips, who is now the sailor, +was, oddly enough, the strongest and the hardiest of the whole +family, and yet he was born two years after Marty. She always +declared she brought him up and made a man of him, and taught him +how to throw stones, and how to row and ride and swim; and that it +was entirely to her he owed it that he was worthy to be a +sailor--her ideal profession for a man. + +He was devoted to her, and a splendid little chap, and in the +holidays he and she and I were inseparable, and of course +Chucker-out, who went with us wherever it was--Havre, Dieppe, +Dinard, the Highlands, Whitby, etc. + +Once we were privileged to settle ourselves for two months in Castle +Rohan, through the kindness of Lord Whitby; and that was the best +holiday of all--for the young people especially. And more especially +for Barty himself, who had such delightful boyish recollections of +that delightful place, and found many old friends among the sailors +and fisher people--who remembered him as a boy. + +Chips and Marty and I and the faithful Chucker-out were never +happier than on those staiths where there is always such an ancient +and fishlike smell; we never tired of watching the miraculous +draughts of silver herring being disentangled from the nets and +counted into baskets, which were carried on the heads of the +stalwart, scaly fishwomen, and packed with salt and ice in +innumerable barrels for Billingsgate and other great markets; or +else the sales by auction of huge cod and dark-gray dog-fish as they +lay helpless all of a row on the wet flags amid a crowd of sturdy +mariners looking on, with their hands in their pockets and their +pipes in their mouths. + +Then over that restless little bridge to the picturesque old town, +and through its long, narrow street, and up the many stone steps to +the ruined abbey and the old church on the East Cliff; and the old +churchyard, where there are so many stones in memory of those who +were lost at sea. + +It was good to be there, in such good company, on a sunny August +morning, and look around and about and down below: the miles and +miles of purple moor, the woods of Castle Rohan, the wide North Sea, +which turns such a heavenly blue beneath a cloudless sky; the two +stone piers, with each its lighthouse, and little people patiently +looking across the waves for Heaven knows what! the busy harbor full +of life and animation; under our feet the red roofs of the old town +and the little clock tower of the market-place; across the stream +the long quay with its ale-houses and emporiums and jet shops and +lively traffic; its old gabled dwellings and their rotting wooden +balconies. And rising out of all this, tier upon tier, up the +opposite cliff, the Whitby of the visitors, dominated by a gigantic +windmill that is--or was--almost as important a landmark as the old +abbey itself. + +To the south the shining river ebbs and flows, between its big +ship-building yards and the railway to York, under endless moving +craft and a forest of masts, now straight on end, now slanting +helplessly on one side when there's not water enough to float their +keels; and the long row of Cornish fishing-smacks, two or three +deep. + +How the blue smoke of their cooking wreathes upward in savory whiffs +and whirls! They are good cooks, these rovers from Penzance, and do +themselves well, and remind us that it is time to go and get lunch +at the hotel. + +We do, and do ourselves uncommonly well also; and afterwards we take +a boat, we four (if the tide serves), and row up for a mile or so to +a certain dam at Ruswarp, and there we take another boat on a lovely +little secluded river, which is quite independent of tides, and +where for a mile or more the trees bend over us from either side as +we leisurely paddle along and watch the leaping salmon-trout, +pulling now and then under a drooping ash or weeping-willow to gaze +and dream or chat, or read out loud from _Sylvia's Lovers_; Sylvia +Robson once lived in a little farm-house near Upgang, which we know +well, and at Whitby every one reads about Sylvia Robson; or else we +tell stories, or inform each other what a jolly time we're having, +and tease old Chucker-out, who gets quite excited, and we admire the +discretion with which he disposes of his huge body as ballast to +trim the boat, and remains perfectly still in spite of his +excitement for fear he should upset us. Indeed, he has been learning +all his life how to behave in boats, and how to get in and out of +them. + +And so on till tea-time at five, and we remember there's a little +inn at Sleights, where the scones are good; or, better still, a +leafy garden full of raspberry-bushes at Cock Mill, where they give +excellent jam with your tea, and from which there are three ways of +walking back to Whitby when there's not enough water to row--and +which is the most delightful of those three ways has never been +decided yet. + +Then from the stone pier we watch a hundred brown-sailed Cornish +fishing-smacks follow each other in single file across the harbor +bar and go sailing out into the west as the sun goes down--a most +beautiful sight, of which Marty feels all the mystery and the charm +and the pathos, and Chips all the jollity and danger and romance. + +Then to the trap, and home all four of us _au grand trot_, between +the hedge-rows and through the splendid woods of Castle Rohan; there +at last we find all the warmth and light and music and fun of +Marsfield, and many good things besides: supper, dinner, tea--all in +one; and happy, healthy, hungry, indefatigable boys and girls who've +been trapesing over miles and miles of moor and fell, to beautiful +mills and dells and waterfalls--too many miles for slender Marty or +little Chips; or even Bob and Chucker-out--who weigh thirty-two +stone between them, and are getting lazy in their old age, and fat +and scant of breath. + +Whitby is an ideal place for young people; it almost makes old +people feel young themselves there when the young are about; there +is so much to do. + +I, being the eldest of the large party, chummed most of the time +with the two youngest and became a boy again; so much so that I felt +myself almost a sneak when I tactfully tried to restrain such +exuberance of spirits on their part as might have led them into +mischief: indeed it was difficult not to lead them into mischief +myself; all the old inventiveness (that had got me and others into +so many scrapes at Brossard's) seemed to come back, enhanced by +experience and maturity. + +At all events, Marty and Chips were happier with me than without--of +that I feel quite sure, for I tested it in many ways. + +I always took immense pains to devise the kinds of excursion that +would please them best, and these never seemed to fail of their +object; and I was provident and well skilled in all details of the +commissariat (Chips was healthily alimentative); I was a very +_Bradshaw_ at trains and times and distances, and also, if I am not +bragging too much, and making myself out an Admirable Crichton, +extremely weatherwise, and good at carrying small people pickaback +when they got tired. + +Marty was well up in local folk-lore, and had mastered the history +of Whitby and St. Hilda, and Sylvia Robson; and of the old obsolete +whaling-trade, in which she took a passionate interest; and fixed +poor little Chips's mind with a passion for the Polar regions (he is +now on the coast of Senegambia). + +We were much on the open sea ourselves, in cobles; sometimes the big +dog with us--"Joomboa," as the fishermen called him; and they +marvelled at his good manners and stately immobility in a boat. + +One afternoon--a perfect afternoon--we took tea at Runswick, from +which charming little village the Whitbys take their second title, +and had ourselves rowed round the cliffs to Staithes, which we +reached just before sunset; Chips and his sister also taking an oar +between them, and I another. There, on the brink of the little bay, +with the singularly quaint and picturesque old village behind it, +were fifty fishing-boats side by side waiting to be launched, and +all the fishing population of Staithes were there to launch +them--men, women and children; as we landed we were immediately +pressed into the service. + +Marty and Chips, wild with enthusiasm, pushed and yo-ho'd with the +best; and I also won some commendation by my hearty efforts in the +common cause. Soon the coast was clear of all but old men and boys, +women and children, and our four selves; and the boats all sailed +westward, in a cluster, and lost themselves in the golden haze. It +was the prettiest sight I ever saw, and we were all quite romantic +about it. + +Chucker-out held a small court on the sands, and was worshipped and +fed with stale fish by a crowd of good-looking and agreeable little +lasses and lads who called him "Joomboa," and pressed Chips and +Marty for biographical details about him, and were not disappointed. +And I smoked a pipe of pipes with some splendid old salts, and +shared my Honeydew among them. + +Nous etions bien, la! + +So sped those happy weeks--with something new and exciting every +day--even on rainy days, when we wore waterproofs and big +india-rubber boots and sou'westers, and Chucker-out's coat got so +heavy with the soak that he could hardly drag himself along: and we +settled, we three at least, that we would never go to France or +Scotland--never any more--never anywhere in the world but Whitby, +jolly Whitby-- + +Ah me! l'homme propose.... + +Marty always wore a red woollen fisherman's cap that hung down +behind over the waving masses of her long, thick yellow hair--a blue +jersey of the elaborate kind women knit on the Whitby quay--a short, +striped petticoat like a Boulogne fishwife's, and light brown +stockings on her long, thin legs. + +I have a photograph of her like that, holding a shrimping-net; with +a magnifying-glass, I can see the little high-light in the middle of +each jet-black eye--and every detail and charm and perfection of her +childish face. Of all the art-treasures I've amassed in my long +life, that is to me the most beautiful, far and away--but I can't +look at it yet for more than a second at a time.... + + "O tempo passato, perche non ritorni?" + +As Mary is so fond of singing to me sometimes, when she thinks I've +got the blues. As if I haven't always got the blues! + +All Barty's teaching is thrown away on me, now that he's not here +himself to point his moral-- + + "Et je m'en vais + Au vent mauvais + Qui m'emporte + Deca, dela, + Pareil a la + Feuille morte...." + +Heaven bless thee, Mary dear, rossignolet de mon ame! Would thou +wert ever by my side! fain would I keep thee for myself in a golden +cage, and feed thee on the tongues of other nightingales, so thou +mightst warble every day, and all day long. By some strange +congenital mystery the native tuning of thy voice is such, for me, +that all the pleasure of my past years seems to go forever ringing +in every single note. Thy dear mother speaks again, thy gay young +father rollicks and jokes and sings, and little Marty laughs her +happy laugh. + +_Da capo, e da capo_, Mary--only at night shouldst thou cease from +thy sweet pipings, that I might smoke myself to sleep, and dream +that all is once more as it used to be. + + * * * * * + +The writing, such as it is, of this life of Barty Josselin--which +always means the writing of so much of my own--has been to me, up to +the present moment, a great source of consolation, almost of +delight, when the pen was in my hand and I dived into the past. + +But now the story becomes such a record of my own personal grief +that I have scarcely the courage to go on; I will get through it as +quickly as I can. + +It was at the beginning of the present decade that the bitter thing +arose--medio de fonte leporum; just as all seemed so happy and +secure at Marsfield. + +One afternoon in May I arrived at the house, and nobody was at home; +but I was told that Marty was in the wood with old Chucker-out, and +I went thither to find her, loudly whistling a bar which served as a +rallying signal to the family. It was not answered, but after a long +hunt I found Marty lying on the ground at the foot of a tree, and +Chucker-out licking her face and hands. + +She had been crying, and seemed half-unconscious. + +When I spoke to her she opened her eyes and said: + +"Oh, Uncle Bob, I _have_ hurt myself so! I fell down that tree. Do +you think you could carry me home?" + +Beside myself with terror and anxiety, I took her up as gently as I +could, and made my way to the house. She had hurt the base of her +spine as she fell on the roots of the tree; but she seemed to get +better as soon as Sparrow, the nurse, had undressed her and put her +to bed. + +I sent for the doctor, however, and he thought, after seeing her, +that I should do well to send for Dr. Knight. + +Just then Leah and Barty came in, and we telegraphed for Dr. Knight, +who came at once. + +Next day Dr. Knight thought he had better have Sir ---- ----, and +there was a consultation. + +Marty kept her bed for two or three days, and then seemed to have +completely recovered but for a slight internal disturbance, brought +on by the concussion, and which did not improve. + +One day Dr. Knight told me he feared very much that this would end +in a kind of ataxia of the lower limbs--it might be sooner or later; +indeed, it was Sir ---- ----'s opinion that it would be sure to do +so in the end--that spinal paralysis would set in, and that the +child would become a cripple for life, and for a life that would not +be long. + +I had to tell this to her father and mother. + + * * * * * + +Marty, however, recovered all her high spirits. It was as if nothing +had happened or could happen, and during six months everything at +Marsfield went on as usual but for the sickening fear that we three +managed to conceal in our hearts, even from each other. + +At length, one day as Marty and I were playing lawn-tennis, she +suddenly told me that her feet felt as if they were made of lead, +and I knew that the terrible thing had come.... + +I must really pass over the next few months. + +In the summer of the following year she could scarcely walk without +assistance, and soon she had to go about in a bath-chair. + +Soon, also, she ceased to be conscious when her lower limbs were +pinched and pricked till an interval of about a second had elapsed, +and this interval increased every month. She had no natural +consciousness of her legs and feet whatever unless she saw them, +although she could move them still and even get in and out of bed, +or in and out of her bath-chair, without much assistance, so long as +she could see her lower limbs. Often she would stumble and fall +down, even on a grassy lawn. In the dark she could not control her +movements at all. + +She was also in constant pain, and her face took on permanently the +expression that Barty's often wore when he thought he was going +blind in Malines, although, like him in those days, she was always +lively and droll, in spite of this heavy misfortune, which seemed to +break every heart at Marsfield except her own. + +For, alas! Barty Josselin, who has so lightened for us the sorrow of +mere bereavement, and made quick-coming death a little thing--for +some of us, indeed, a lovely thing--has not taught us how to bear +the sufferings of those we love, the woful ache of pity for pangs we +are powerless to relieve and can only try to share. + +Endeavor as I will, I find I cannot tell this part of my story as it +should be told; it should be a beautiful story of sweet young +feminine fortitude and heroic resignation--an angel's story. + +During the four years that Martia's illness lasted the only comfort +I could find in life was to be with her--reading to her, teaching +her blaze, rowing her on the river, driving her, pushing or dragging +her bath-chair; but, alas! watching her fade day by day. + +Strangely enough, she grew to be the tallest of all her sisters, and +the most beautiful in the face; she was so wasted and thin she could +hardly be said to have had a body or limbs at all. + +I think the greatest pleasure she had was to lie and be sung to by +Mary or her father, or played to by Roberta, or chatted to about +domestic matters by Leah, or read to by me. She took the keenest +interest in everything that concerned us all; she lived out of +herself entirely, and from day to day, taking short views of life. + +It filled her with animation to see the people who came to the house +and talk with them; and among these she made many passionately +devoted friends. + +There were also poor children from the families of laborers in the +neighborhood, in whom she had always taken a warm interest. She now +organized them into regular classes, and taught and amused them and +told them stories, sang funny songs to them, and clothed and fed +them with nice things, and they grew to her an immense hobby and +constant occupation. + +She also became a quite surprising performer on the banjo, which her +father had taught her when she was quite a little girl, and invented +charming tunes and effects and modulations that had never been tried +on that humble instrument before. She could have made a handsome +living out of it, crippled as she was. + +She seemed the busiest, drollest, and most contented person in +Marsfield; she all but consoled us for the dreadful thing that had +happened to herself, and laughingly pitied us for pitying her. + +So much for the teaching of Barty Josselin, whose books she knew by +heart, and constantly read and reread. + +And thus, in spite of all, the old, happy, resonant cheerfulness +gradually found its way back to Marsfield, as though nothing had +happened; and poor broken Marty, who had always been our idol, +became our goddess, our prop and mainstay, the angel in the house, +the person for every one to tell their troubles to--little or +big--their jokes, their good stories; there was never a laugh like +hers, so charged with keen appreciation of the humorous thing, the +relish of which would come back to her again and again at any +time--even in the middle of the night when she could not always +sleep for her pain; and she would laugh anew. + +Ida Scatcherd and I, with good Nurse Sparrow to help, wished to take +her to Italy--to Egypt--but she would not leave Marsfield, unless it +were to spend the winter months with all of us at Lancaster Gate, or +the autumn in the Highlands or on the coast of Normandy. + +[Illustration: MARTY] + +And indeed neither Barty nor Leah nor the rest could have got on without +her; they would have had to come, too--brothers, sisters, young +husbands, grandchildren, and all. + +Never but once did she give way. It was one June evening, when I was +reading to her some favorite short poems out of Browning's _Men and +Women_ on a small lawn surrounded with roses, and of which she was +fond. + +The rest of the family were on the river, except her father and +mother, who were dressing to go and dine with some neighbors; for a +wonder, as they seldom dined away from home. + +The carriage drove up to the door to fetch them, and they came out +on the lawn to wish us good-night. + +Never had I been more struck with the splendor of Barty and his +wife, now verging towards middle age, as they bent over to kiss +their daughter, and he cut capers and cracked little jokes to make +her laugh. + +Leah's hair was slightly gray and her magnificent figure somewhat +matronly, but there were no other signs of autumn; her beautiful +white skin was still as delicate as a baby's, her jet-black eyes as +bright and full, her teeth just as they were thirty years back. + +Tall as she was, her husband towered over her, the finest and +handsomest man of his age I have ever seen. And Marty gazed after +them with her heart in her eyes as they drove off. + +"How splendid they are, Uncle Bob!" + +Then she looked down at her own shrunken figure and limbs--her long, +wasted legs and her thin, slight feet that were yet so beautifully +shaped. + +And, hiding her face in her hands, she began to cry: + +"And I'm their poor little daughter--oh dear, oh dear!" + +She wept silently for a while, and I said nothing, but endured an +agony such as I cannot describe. + +Then she dried her eyes and smiled, and said: + +"What a goose I am," and, looking at me-- + +"Oh! Uncle Bob, forgive me; I've made you very unhappy--it shall +never happen again!" + +Suddenly the spirit moved me to tell her the story of Martia. + +Leah and Barty and I had often discussed whether she should be told +this extraordinary thing, in which we never knew whether to believe +or not, and which, if there were a possibility of its being true, +concerned Marty so directly. + +They settled that they would leave it entirely to me--to tell her or +not, as my own instinct would prompt me, should the opportunity +occur. + +My instinct prompted me to do so now. I shall not forget that +evening. + +The full moon rose before the sun had quite set, and I talked on and +on. The others came in to dinner. She and I had some dinner brought +to us out there, and on I talked--and she could scarcely eat for +listening. I wrapped her well up, and lit pipe after pipe, and went +on talking, and a nightingale sang, but quite unheard by Marty +Josselin. + +She did not even hear her sister Mary, whose voice went lightly up +to heaven through the open window: + + "Oh that we two were maying!" + +And when we parted that night she thanked and kissed me so +effusively I felt that I had been happily inspired. + +"I believe every word of it's true; I know it, I feel it! Uncle Bob, +you have changed my life; I have often desponded when nobody +knew--but never again! Dear papa! Only think of him! As if any human +being alive could write what he has written without help from above +or outside. Of course it's all true; I sometimes think I can almost +remember things.... I'm sure I can." + +Barty and Leah were well pleased with me when they came home that +night. + +That Marty was doomed to an early death did not very deeply distress +them. It is astonishing how lightly they thought of death, these +people for whom life seemed so full of joy; but that she should ever +be conscious of the anguish of her lot while she lived was to them +intolerable--a haunting preoccupation. + +To me, a narrower and more selfish person, Marty had almost become +to me life itself--her calamity had made her mine forever; and life +without her had become a thing not to be conceived: her life was my +life. + +That life of hers was to be even shorter than we thought, and I love +to think that what remained of it was made so smooth and sweet by +what I told her that night. + +I read all Martia's blaze letters to her, and helped her to read +them for herself, and so did Barty. She got to know them by +heart--especially the last; she grew to talk as Martia wrote; she +told me of strange dreams she had often had--dreams she had told +Sparrow and her own brothers and sisters when she was a +child--wondrous dreams, in their seeming confirmation of what seemed +to us so impossible. Her pains grew slighter and ceased. + +And now her whole existence had become a dream--a tranquil, happy +dream; it showed itself in her face, its transfigured, unearthly +beauty--in her cheerful talk, her eager sympathy; a kind of heavenly +pity she seemed to feel for those who had to go on living out their +normal length of days. And always the old love of fun and frolic and +pretty tunes. + +Her father would make her laugh till she cried, and the same fount +of tears would serve when Mary sang Brahms and Schubert and Lassen +to her--and Roberta played Chopin and Schumann by the hour. + +So she might have lived on for a few years--four or five--even ten. +But she died at seventeen, of mere influenza, very quickly and +without much pain. Her father and mother were by her bedside when +her spirit passed away, and Dr. Knight, who had brought her into the +world. + +She woke from a gentle doze and raised her head, and called out in a +clear voice: + +"_Barty--Leah--come, to me, come!_" + +And fell back dead. + +Barty bowed his head and face on her hand, and remained there as if +asleep. It was Leah who drew her eyelids down. + +An hour later Dr. Knight came to me, his face distorted with grief. + +"It's all over?" I said. + +"Yes, it's all over." + +"And Leah?" + +"Mrs. Josselin is with her husband. She's a noble woman; she seems +to bear it well." + +"And Barty?" + +"Barty Josselin is no more." + + +THE END + + + + +GLOSSARY + +[First figure indicates Page; second figure, Line.] + + + 3, 26. _odium theologicum_--theological hatred. + + 3, 27. _saeva indignatio_--fierce indignation. + + 5, 1. "_De Paris a Versailles_," etc.-- + "From Paris to Versailles, lon, la, + From Paris to Versailles-- + There are many fine walks, + Hurrah for the King of France! + There are many fine walks, + Hurrah for the school-boys!" + + 5, 2. _salle d'etudes des petits_--study-room of the smaller + boys. + + 6, 11. _parloir_--parlor. + + 6, 14. _e da capo_--and over again. + + 6, 16. _le Grand Bonzig_--the Big Bonzig. + + 6, 17. _estrade_--platform. + + 8, 2. _a la malcontent_--convict style. + + 8, 5. _ceinture de gymnastique_--a wide gymnasium belt. + + 8, 16. _marchand de coco_--licorice-water seller. + + 8, 17. _Orpheonistes_--members of musical societies. + + 8, 32. _exceptis excipiendis_--exceptions being made. + + 9, 10. "_Infandum, regina, jubes renovare_" ("_dolorem_"), etc. + "Thou orderest me, O queen, to renew the unutterable + grief." + + 9, 17. "_Mouche-toi donc, animal! tu me degoutes, a la fin!_"--"Blow + your nose, you beast, you disgust me!" + + 9, 20. "_Taisez-vous, Maurice--ou je vous donne cent vers a + copier!_ "--"Hold your tongue, Maurice, or I will give you + a hundred lines to copy!" + + 10, 20. "_Oui, m'sieur!_"--"Yes, sir!" + + 10, 25. "_Moi, m'sieur?_"--"I, sir?" + + 10, 26. "_Oui, vous!_"--"Yes, you!" + + 10, 27. "_Bien, m'sieur!_"--"Very well, sir!" + + 10, 31. "_Le Roi qui passe!_"--"There goes the King!" + + 12, 3. "_Fermez les fenetres, ou je vous mets tous au pain sec + Pour un mois!_"--"Shut the windows, or I will put you all + on dry bread for a month!" + + 13, 1. "_Soyez diligent et attentif, mon ami; a plus tard!_"--"Be + Diligent and attentive, my friend; I will see you later!" + + 13, 6. _en cinquieme_--in the fifth class. + + 13, 11. _le nouveau_--the new boy. + + 14, 8. "_Fermez votre pupitre_"--"Shut your desk." + + 14, 34. _jocrisse_--effeminate man. + + 15, 1. _paltoquet_--clown. + _petit polisson_--little scamp. + + 15, 32. _lingere_--seamstress. + + 16, 13. _quatrieme_--fourth class. + + 16, 21. "_Notre Pere, ... les replies les plus profonds de nos + coeurs_"--"Our Father, who art in heaven, Thou whose + searching glance penetrates even to the inmost recesses of + our hearts." + + 16, 24. "_au nom du Pere, du Fils, et du St. Esprit, ainsi + soit-il!_"--"in the name of the Father, the Son, and the + Holy Ghost, so be it!" + + 18, 21. _concierge_--janitor. + _croquets_--crisp almond cakes. + + 18, 22. _blom-boudingues_--plum puddings. + _pains d'epices_--gingerbreads. + _sucre-d'orge_--barley sugar. + + 18, 23. _nougat_--almond cake. + _pate de guimauve_--marshmallow paste. + _pralines_--burnt almonds. + _dragees_--sugarplums. + + 18, 30. _le pere et la mere_--father and mother. + + 19, 2. _corps de logis_--main buildings. + + 19, 13. _la table des grands_--the big boys' table. + _la table des petits_--the little boys' table. + + 19, 27. _brouet noir des Lacedemoniens_--the black broth of the + Spartans. + + 20, 25. _A la retenue_--To be kept in. + + 20, 29. _barres traversieres_--crossbars. + + 20, 30. _la raie_--leap-frog. + + 21, 14. _rentiers_--stockholders. + + 21, 20. _Classe d'Histoire de France au moyen age_--Class of the + History of France during the Middle Ages. + + 21, 27. _trente-septieme legere_--thirty-seventh light infantry. + + 22, 13. _nous avons change tout cela!_--we have changed all that! + + 22, 16. _representant du peuple_--representative of the people. + + 22, 19. _les nobles_--the nobles. + + 22, 27. _par parenthese_--by way of parenthesis. + + 22, 30. _lingerie_--place where linen is kept. + + 24, 30. _Berthe aux grands pieds_--Bertha of the big feet. (She was + the mother of Charlemagne, and is mentioned in the poem + that Du Maurier elsewhere calls "that never to be + translated, never to be imitated lament, the immortal + 'Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis'" of Francois Villon.) + + 25, 23. _Allee du Bois de Boulogne_--Lane of the Bois de Boulogne. + + 25, 28. _pensionnat_--boarding-school. + + 28, 4. _la belle Madame de Ronsvic_--the beautiful Lady Runswick. + + 28, 33. _deuxieme Spahis_--second Spahi regiment. + + 30, 4. _Mare aux Biches_--The Roes Pool. + + 30, 14. _la main si malheureuse_--such an unfortunate hand. + + 31. 2. _La Dieppoise_--a dance of Dieppe. + + 31, 5. "_Beuvons, donc_," etc. + "Let's drink, drink, drink then + Of this, the best wine in the world ... + Let's drink, drink, drink then + Of this, the very best wine! + For if I didn't drink it, + I might get the pip! + Which would make me...." + + 31, 13. "_Ah, mon Dieu! quel amour d'enfant! Oh! gardons-le!_"--"Ah, + my Lord! what a love of a child! Oh! let us keep him!" + + 32, 5. _caeteris paribus_--other things being equal. + + 34, 19. _a propos_--seasonable. + + 35, 3. _chaire_--master's raised desk. + + 35, 6. _recueillement_--contemplation. + + 35, 11. "_Non, m'sieur, je n'dors pas. J' travaille._"--"No, sir, + I'm not asleep. I'm working." + + 36, 1. _a la porte_--to leave the room. + +36, 14. _On demande Monsieur Josselin au parloir_--Mr. Josselin is + Wanted in the parlor. + + 36, 24. _pensum_--a task. + + 36, 31. _maitre de mathematiques_ (_et de cosmographie_)--teacher + of mathematics (and cosmography). + + 37, 17. _Mes compliments_--My compliments. + + 38, 5. "_Quelquefois je sais ... il n'y a pas a s'y + tromper!_"--"Sometimes I know--sometimes I don't--but when + I know, I know, and there is no mistake about it!" + + 38, 18. "_A l'amandier!_"--"At the almond-tree!" + + 38, 21. _la balle au camp_--French baseball. + + 39, 6. _aussi simple que bonjour_--as easy as saying good-day. + + 40, 17. "_C'etait pour Monsieur Josselin._"--"It was for Mr. + Josselin!" + + 41, 11. _quorum pars magna fui_--of which I was a great part. + + 41, 16. _bourgeois gentilhomme_--citizen gentleman. (The title of + one of Moliere's comedies in which M. Jourdain is the + principal character.) + + 42, 29. _Dis donc_--Say now. + + 43, 4. "_Ma foi, non! c'est pas pour ca!_"--"My word, no! it isn't + for that!" + + 43, 5. "_Pourquoi, alors?_"--"Why, then?" + + 43, 21. _Jolivet trois_--the third Jolivet. + + 44, 2. _au rabais_--at bargain sales. + + 44, 32. "_Comme c'est bete, de s'battre, hein?_"--"How stupid it is + to fight, eh?" + + 45, 9. _tuum et meum_--thine and mine. + + 45, 19. _magnifique_--magnificent. + + 45, 32. _La quatrieme Dimension_--The fourth Dimension. + + 46, 14. _Etoiles mortes_--Dead Stars. + + 46, 15. _Les Trepassees de Francois Villon_--The Dead of Francois + Villon. + + 46, 29. _Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees_--School of Bridges and + Roads. + + 47, 8. _en cachette_--in hiding. + _Quelle sacree pose!_--What a damned bluff! + + 47, 12. "_Dis donc, Maurice!--prete-moi ton Ivanhoe!_"--"Say now, + Maurice!--lend me your _Ivanhoe_!" + + 47, 20. "_Rapaud, comment dit-on 'pouvoir' en anglais?_"--"Rapaud, + how do they say 'to be able' in English?" + + 47, 21. "_Sais pas, m'sieur!_"--"Don't know, sir!" + + 47, 22. "_Comment, petit cretin, tu ne sais pas!_"--"What, little + idiot, you don't know!" + + 47, 26. "_Je n' sais pas!_"--"I don't know!" + + 47, 27. "_Et toi, Maurice_"--"And you, Maurice?" + + 47, 28. "_Ca se dit 'to be able' m'sieur!_"--"They would say 'to be + able,' sir!" + + 47, 29. "_Mais non, mon ami ... 'je voudrais pouvoir'?_"--"Why no, + my friend--you forget your native language--they would say + 'to can'! Now, how would you say, 'I would like to be able' + in English?" + + 47, 32. _Je dirais_--I would say. + + 47, 33. "_Comment, encore! petit cancre! allons--tu es Anglais--tu + sais bien que tu dirais!_"--"What, again! Little + dunce--come, you are English--you know very well that you + would say, ..." + + 48, 1. _A ton tour_--Your turn. + + 48, 4. "_Oui, toi--comment dirais-tu, 'je pourrais vouloir'?_"--"Yes, + you--how would you say 'I would be able to will'?" + + 48, 7. "_A la bonne heure! au moins tu sais ta langue, toi!_"--"Well + and good! you at least know your language!" + + 48, 17. _Ile des Cygnes_--Isle of Swans. + + 48, 18. _Ecole de Natation_--Swimming-school. + + 48, 26. _Jardin des Plantes_--The Paris Zoological Gardens. + + 49, 1. "_Laissons les regrets et les pleurs + A la vieillesse; + Jeunes, il faut cueillir les fleurs + De la jeunesse!_"--Baif. + + "Let us leave regrets and tears + To age; + Young, we must gather the flowers + Of youth." + + 49, 13. _demi-tasse_--small cup of coffee. + + 49, 14. _chasse-cafe_--drink taken after coffee. + + 49, 19. _consommateur_--consumer. + + 49, 21. _Le petit mousse noir_--The little black cabin boy. + + 49, 24. "_Allons, Josselin, chante-nous ca!_"--"Come, Josselin, + sing that to us!" + + 50, 7. "_Ecoute-moi bien, ma Fleurette_"--"Listen well to me, my + Fleurette." + "_Amis, la matinee est belle_"--"Friends, the morning is + fine." + + 50, 12. "_Conduis ta barque avec prudence_," etc. + "Steer thy bark with prudence, + Fisherman! speak low! + Throw thy nets in silence, + Fisherman! speak low! + And through our toils the king + Of the seas can never go." + + 52, 21. _Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle_--Boulevard of Good News. + + 52, 24. _galette du gymnase_--flat cake, sold in booths near the + Theatre du Gymnase. + + 52, 26. _yashmak_--a double veil worn by Turkish women. + + 52, 34. _queue_--in a line. + + 53, 5. _chiffonniers_--rag-pickers. + + 53, 33. _Accelerees (en correspondence avec les Constantines)_--Express + omnibuses (connecting with the Constantine line). + + 54, 3. _comme on ne l'est plus_--as one is no longer. + + 54, 6. _distribution de prix_--prize distribution. + + 54, 19. "_Au clair de la lune!_"--"By the light of the moon!" (A + French nursery rhyme. Readers of "Trilby" will remember her + rendering of this song at her Paris concert.) + + 54, 20. "_Vivent les vacances-- ... + Gaudio nostro._" + "Hurrah for the vacations-- + Come at length; + And the punishments + Will have ended! + The ushers uncivil, + With barbarous countenance, + Will go to the devil, + To our joy." + + 56, 20. _Musee de Marine_--Marine Museum. + + 56, 28. _ennui_--tedium. + + 57, 7. _en rhetorique et en philosophie_--in the rhetoric and + Philosophy classes. + + 57, 9. _cerf-dix-cors_--ten-branched stags. + + 57, 13. _ventre a terre_--at full speed. + + 57, 17. _Toujours au clair de la lune_--Always by moonlight. + + 58, 2. _hommes du monde_--men of the world (in society). + + 58, 4. _Splendide mendax_--Nobly false. + + 58. 18. _salle d'etudes_--school-room. + + 58, 22. _en cinquieme_--in the fifth class. + + 59, 16. _de service_--on duty. + + 59, 17. _la suite au prochain numero_--to be continued in our next. + + 59. 19. _Le Tueur de Daims_--The Deerslayer. + + 59, 20. _Le Lac Ontario_--The Lake Ontario. + _Le Dernier des Mohicans_--The Last of the Mohicans. + _Les Pionniers_--The Pioneers. + + 59, 31. _Bas-de-cuir_--Leather-stocking. + + 60, 10. _la flotte de Passy_--the Passy crowd. + _voyous_--blackguards. + + 60, 13. _Liberte--egalite--fraternite! ou la mort! Vive la + republique_--Liberty--equality--fraternity! or death! + Hurrah for the republic! + + 60, 22. _le rappel_--to arms. + _la generale_--the fire drum. + + 61, 11. _Brigand de la Loire_--Brigand of the Loire. + + 62, 3. _en pleine revolution_--in the midst of the revolution. + + 62, 5. _piou-piou_--the French equivalent of Tommy Atkins. A + Private soldier. + + 62, 17. _Sentinelles, prenez-garde a vous_--Sentinels, keep on the + alert. + + 62, 22. _feu de peloton_--platoon fire. + + 63, 6. "_Ce sacre Josselin--il avait tous les talents!_"--"That + Confounded Josselin--he had all the talents!" + + 64, 10. _lebewohl_--farewell. + + 64, 11. _bonsoir, le bon Mozart_--good-night, good Mozart. + + 64, 13. _Chateau des Fleurs_--Castle of Flowers. + + 65, 5. _Tout vient a qui ne sait pas attendre_--Everything comes + to him who does not know how to wait. + + 65, 13. _revenons_--let us go back. + + 65, 24. _imperiale_--outside seat. + + 65, 26. _saucisson de Lyon a l'ail_--a Lyons sausage flavored with + garlic. + + 65, 27. _petits pains_--rolls of bread. + + 65, 28. _biere de Mars_--Mars beer. + + 66, 12. _entre les deux ages_--between the two ages. + + 66, 18. _Le Gue des Aulnes_--Alders Ford. + + 67, 1. _Si vis pacem, para bellum_--If you wish peace, prepare for + war. + + 67, 13. _tutoyees_--addressed as "thee" and "thou," usual only + among familiars. + + 67, 16. _bonnets de coton_--cotton caps. + + 68, 19. _a l'affut_--on the watch. + + 68, 28. "_Cain! Cain! qu'as-tu fait de ton frere?_"--"Cain! Cain! + what hast thou done with thy brother?" + + 69, 8. _le saut perilleux_--the perilous leap. + + 69, 20. _que j' n'ai jamais vu_--whom I've never seen. + + 69, 29. "_Dis-moi que'q' chose en anglais._"--"Tell me something in + English." + + 69, 32. "_Que'q' ca veut dire?_"--"What's that mean?" + + 69, 33. "_Il s'agit d'une eglise et d'un cimetiere!_"--"It's about + a church and a cemetery!" + + 70, 5. "_Demontre-moi un probleme de geometrie_"--"Demonstrate to + me a problem of geometry." + + 70, 13. "_Demontre-moi que A + B est plus grand que + C + D._"--"Demonstrate to me that A + B is greater than C + D." + + 70, 17. "_C'est joliment beau, la geometrie!_"--"It's mighty fine, + this geometry!" + + 70, 24. _brule-gueule_--jaw-burner (a short pipe). + + 70, 31. "_Mange-moi ca--ca t' fera du bien!_"--"Eat that for me; + it'll do you good!" + + 72, 1. _Sais pas_--Don't know. + + 72, 4. _Pere Polypheme_--Father Polyphemus. + + 72, 12. _ces messieurs_--those gentlemen. + + 72, 22. "_He! ma femme!_"--"Hey! my wife!" + + 72, 23. "_Voila, voila, mon ami!_"--"Here, here, my friend!" + + 72, 24. "_Viens vite panser mon cautere!_"--"Come quick and dress + my cautery!" + + 72, 27. _cafe_--coffee. + + 72, 32. "_Oui, M'sieur Laferte_"--"Yes, M'sieur Laferte." + + 72, 33. "_Tire moi une gamme_"--"Fire off a scale for me." + + 73, 3. "_Ah! q' ca fait du bien!_"--"Ah! that does one good!" + + 73, 20. "_'Colin,' disait Lisette_," etc.-- + "'Colin,' said Lisette, + 'I want to cross the water! + But I am too poor + To pay for the boat!' + 'Get in, get in, my beauty! + Get in, get in, nevertheless! + And off with the wherry + That carries my love!'" + + 75, 18. _le droit du seigneur_--the right of the lord of the manor. + + 75, 27. _Ames en peine_--Souls in pain. + + 75, 28. _Sous la berge hantee_, etc. + Under the haunted bank + The stagnant water lies-- + Under the sombre woods + The dog-fox cries, + And the ten-branched stag bells, and the deer come to drink + at the Pond of Respite. + "Let me go, Were-wolf!" + How dark is the pool + When falls the night-- + The owl is scared, + And the badger takes flight! + And one feels that the dead are awake--that a nameless + shadow pursues. + "Let me go, Were-wolf!" + + 76, 29. + "_Prom'nons-nous dans les bois + Pendant que le loup n'y est pas_." + + "Let us walk in the woods + While the wolf is not there." + + 77, 7. _pas aut' chose_--nothing else. + + 77, 10. _C'est plus fort que moi_--It is stronger than I. + + 77, 20. "_Il est tres mechant!_"--"He is very malicious!" + + 77, 26. "_venez donc! il est tres mauvais, le taureau!_"--"come + now! the bull is very mischievous!" + + 78, 1. _Bon voyage! au plaisir_--Pleasant journey! to the pleasure + (of seeing you again). + + 78, 8. "_le sang-froid du diable! nom d'un Vellington!_"--"the + devil's own coolness, by Wellington!" + + 78, 15. _diable_--devil. + + 78, 17. "_ces Anglais! je n'en reviens pas! a quatorze ans! hein, + ma femme?_"--"those English! I can't get over it! At + fourteen! eh, my wife?" + + 80, 10. _en famille_--at home. + + 80, 18. _charabancs_--wagonettes. + + 80, 32. _des chiens anglais_--English dogs. + + 81, 1. _charmilles_--hedges. + _pelouses_--lawns. + _quinconces_--quincunxes. + + 81, 13. _Figaro qua, Figaro la_--Figaro here, Figaro there. + + 81, 17. _charbonniers_--charcoal burners. + + 81, 25. _depayse_--away from home. + _desoriente_--out of his bearings. + + 81, 26. _perdu_--lost. + + 81, 27. "_Ayez pitie d'un pauvre orphelin!_"--"Pity a poor orphan!" + + 82, 19. "_Pioche bien ta geometrie, mon bon petit Josselin! c'est + la plus belle science au monde, crois-moi!_"--"Dig away at + your geometry, my good little Josselin! It's the finest + science in the world, believe me!" + + 82, 26. _bourru bienfaisant_--a gruff but good-natured man. + + 82, 34. "_Enfin! Ca y est! quelle chance!_"--"At last! I've got it! + what luck!" + + 83, 1. _quoi_--what. + + 83, 2. "_Le nord--c'est revenu!_"--"The north--it's come back!" + + 83, 7. _une bonne fortune_--a love adventure. + + 83, 10. _Les Laiteries_--The Dairies. + _Les Poteries_--The Potteries. + _Les Crucheries_--The Pitcheries (also The Stupidities). + + 83, 26. _toi_--thou. + + 83, 27. _vous_--you. + + 83, 28. _Notre Pere_, etc.--See note to page 16, line 21. + + 83, 80. _Ainsi soit-il_--So be it. + + 84, 4. _au nom du Pere_--in the name of the Father. + + 84, 31. _pavillon des petits_--building occupied by the younger + boys. + + 86, 4. _cancre_--dunce. + + 86, 5. _cretin_--idiot. + + 86, 6. _troisieme_--third class. + + 86, 7. _Rhetorique_ (_seconde_)--Rhetoric (second class). + + 86, 8. _Philosophie_ (_premiere_)--Philosophy (first class). + + 86, 10. _Baccalaureat-es-lettres_--Bachelor of letters. + + 87, 27. _m'amour_ (_mon amour_)--my love. + + 87, 33. _en beaute_--at his best. + + 88, 8. "_Le Chant du Depart_"--"The Song of Departure." + + 88, 10. + "_La victoire en chantant nous ouvre la carriere! + La liberte-e gui-i-de nos pas_" ... + + "Victory shows us our course with song! + Liberty guides our steps" ... + + 88, 25. "_Quel dommage ... c'est toujours ca!_"--"What a pity that + we can't have crumpets! Barty likes them so much. Don't you + like crumpets, my dear? Here comes some buttered + toast--it's always that!" + + 88, 29. "_Mon Dieu, comme il a bonne mine ... dans la glace_"--"Good + heavens, how well he looks, the dear Barty!--don't + you think so, my love, that you look well? Look at yourself + in the glass." + + 88, 32. "_Si nous allions a l'Hippodrome ... aussi les jolies + femmes?_"--"If we went to the Hippodrome this afternoon, + to see the lovely equestrian Madame Richard? Barty adores + pretty women, like his uncle! Don't you adore pretty women, + you naughty little Barty? and you have never seen Madame + Richard. You'll tell me what you think of her; and you, my + friend, do you also adore pretty women?" + + 89, 5. "_O oui, allons voir Madame Richard_"--"Oh yes! let us go + and see Madame Richard." + + 89, 9. _la haute ecole_--the high-school (of horsemanship). + + 89, 14. _Cafe des Aveugles_--Cafe of the Blind. + + 90, 4. "_Qu'est-ce que vous avez donc, tous?_"--"What's the matter + with you all?" + + 90, 5. "_Le Pere Brassard est mort!_"--"Father Brossard is dead!" + + 90, 10. "_Il est tombe du haut mal_"--"He died of the falling + sickness." + + 90, 13. _desoeuvrement_--idleness. + + 91, 8. _de service as maitre d'etudes_--on duty as study-master. + + 93, 27. "_Dites donc, vous autres_"--"Say now, you others." + + 93, 29. _panem et circenses_--bread and games. + + 94, 19. "_Allez donc ... a La Salle Valentino_"--"Go it, + godems--this is not a quadrille! We're not at Valentino + Hall!" + + 95, 1. "_Messieurs ... est sauf_"--"Gentlemen, blood has flown; + Britannic honor is safe." + + 95, 3. "_J'ai joliment faim!_"--"I'm mighty hungry!" + + 96, 1. "_Que ne puis-je aller_," etc. + "Why can I not go where the roses go, + And not await + The heartbreaking regrets which the end of things + Keeps for us here?" + + 96, 8. "_Le Manuel du Baccalaureat_"--"The Baccalaureat's Manual." + + 96, 24. _un prevot_--a fencing-master's assistant. + + 97, 5. _rez-de-chaussee_--ground floor. + + 97, 9. "_La pluie de Perles_"--"The Shower of Pearls." + + 97, 12. _quart d'heure_--quarter of an hour. + + 97, 17. _au petit bonheur_--come what may. + + 97, 26. _vieux loup de mer_--old sea-wolf. + + 98, 2. _Mon Colonel_--My Colonel. + + 98, 6. _endimanche_--Sundayfied (dressed up). + + 99, 11. _chefs-d'oeuvre_--masterpieces. + + 99, 24. _chanson_--song. + + 99, 27. "_C'etait un Capucin_," etc. + "It was a Capuchin, oh yes, a Capuchin father, + Who confessed three girls-- + Itou, itou, itou, la la la! + Who confessed three girls + At the bottom of his garden-- + Oh yes-- + At the bottom of his garden! + He said to the youngest-- + Itou, itou, itou, la la la! + He said to the youngest + ... 'You will come back to-morrow.'" + +100, 7. _un echo du temps passe_--an echo of the olden times. + +100, 11. _esprit Gaulois_--old French wit. + +100, 20. "_Sur votre parole d'honneur, avez-vous chante?_"--"On your + word of honor, have you sung?" + +100, 22. "_Non, m'sieur!_"--"No, sir!" + +100, 32. "_Oui, m'sieur!_"--"Yes, sir." + +101, 5. "_Vous etes tous consignes!_"--"You are all kept in!" + +101, 10. _de service_--on duty. + +101, 19. "_Au moins vous avez du coeur ... sale histoire de + Capucin!_"--"You at least have spirit. Promise me that you + will not again sing that dirty story about the Capuchin!" + +102, 24. "_Stabat mater_," etc. + "By the cross, sad vigil keeping, + Stood the mournful mother weeping, + While on it the Saviour hung" ... + +102, 30. "_Ah! ma chere Mamzelle Marceline!... Et une boussole dans + l'estomac!_"--"Ah! my dear Miss Marceline, if they were + only all like that little Josselin! things would go as if + they were on wheels! That English youngster is as innocent + as a young calf! He has God in his heart." "And a compass + in his stomach!" + +104, 29. "_Ah! mon cher!... Chantez-moi ca encore une fois!_"--"Ah! + my dear! what wouldn't I give to see the return of a whaler + at Whitby! What a 'marine' that would make! eh? with the + high cliff and the nice little church on top, near the old + abbey--and the red smoking roofs, and the three stone + piers, and the old drawbridge--and all that swarm of + watermen with their wives and children--and those fine + girls who are waiting for the return of the loved one! By + Jove! to think that you have seen all that, you who are not + yet sixteen ... what luck! ... say--what does that really + mean?--that + + 'Weel may the keel row!' + Sing that to me once again!" + +105, 21. "_Ah! vous verrez ... vous y etes, en plein!_"--"Ah! you + will see, during the Easter holidays I will make such a + fine picture of all that! with the evening mist that + gathers, you know--and the setting sun, and the rising + tide, and the moon coming up on the horizon, and the + sea-mews and the gulls, and the far-off heaths, and your + grandfather's lordly old manor; that's it, isn't it?" + + "Yes, yes, Mr. Bonzig--you are right in it." + +106, 29. "_C'etait dans la nuit brune_," etc. + "'Twas in the dusky night + On the yellowed steeple, + The moon, + Like a dot on an i!" + +108, 17. _en flagrant delit_--in the very act. + +109, 4. _la perfide Albion_--perfidious Albion. + +109, 8. "_A bas Dumollard!_"--"Down with Dumollard!" + +109, 17. _l'etude entiere_--the whole school. + +109, 19. "_Est-ce toi?_"--"Is it thou?" + +109, 23. "_Non, m'sieur, ce n'est pas moi!_"--"No, sir, it isn't + me!" + +110, 17. "_Parce qu'il aime les Anglais, ma foi--affaire de + gout!_"--"Because he likes the English, in faith--a matter of + taste!" + +110, 19. "_Ma foi, il n'a pas tort!_"--"In faith, he's not wrong!" + +110, 24. + "_Non! jamais en France, + Jamais Anglais ne regnera!_" + + "No! never in France, + Never shall Englishman reign!" + +111, 5. _au piquet pour une heure_--in the corner for an hour. + _a la retenue_--kept in. + +111, 6. _prive de bain_--not to go swimming. + _consigne dimanche prochain_--kept in next Sunday. + +111, 9. _de mortibus nil desperandum_--an incorrect version of _de + mortuis nil nisi bonum_: of the dead nothing but good. + +111, 27. _avec des gens du monde_--with people in society. + +111, 34. _et, ma foi, le sort a favorise M. le Marquis_--and, in + faith, fortune favored M. le Marquis. + +112, 9. _vous etes un paltoquet et un rustre_--you are a clown and + a boor. + +112, 18. _classe de geographie ancienne_--class of ancient + geography. + +112, 25. "_Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes!_"--"I fear the Greeks even + when they bear gifts!" + +114, 3. "_Le troisieme coup fait feu, vous savez_"--"The third blow + strikes fire, you know." + +114, 23. _tisanes_--infusions. + +114, 31. "_C'est moi qui voudrais ... comme il est poli_"--"It's + myself that would like to have the mumps here. I should + delay my convalescence as much as possible!" + "How well your uncle knows French, and how polite he is!" + +116, 13. _Nous avons tous passe par la_--We have all been through + it. + +116, 33. "_Te rappelles-tu ... du pere Jaurion?_"--"Do you recall + Berquin's new coat and his high-hat?" + "Do you remember father Jaurion's old angora cat?" + +118, 7. "_Paille a Dine_," etc., is literally: + "Straw for Dine--straw for Chine-- + Straw for Suzette and Martine-- + Good bed for the Dumaine!" + +119, 1. "_Pourquoi, m'sieur?_" + "_Parce que ca me plait!_" + "What for, sir?" + "Because it pleases me!" + +119, 18. _un point_, etc.--a period--semi-colon--colon--exclamation + --inverted commas--begin a parenthesis. + +119, 31. "_Te rappelles-tu cette omelette?_"--"Do you remember that + omelette?" + +120, 1. _version ecrite_--written version. + +120, 15. _que malheur!_--what a misfortune! + +120, 19. "_Ca pue l'injustice, ici!_"--"It stinks of injustice, + here!" + +120, 25. "_Mille francs par an! c'est le Pactole!_"--"A thousand + francs a year! it is a Pactolus!" + +122, 7. "_Je t'en prie, mon garcon!_"--"I pray you, my boy!" + +123, 24. _La chasse aux souvenirs d'enfance!_--Hunting remembrances + of childhood! + +124, 3. "_Je marcherai les yeux fixes sur mes pensees_," etc. + "I will walk with my eyes fixed on my thoughts, + Seeing nothing outside, without hearing a sound-- + By myself, unknown, with bowed back and hands crossed: + Sad--and the day will for me be as night." + +125, 4. _beau comme le jour_--beautiful as day. + +125, 6. _la rossignolle_--the nightingale (feminine.) + +125, 15. "_A Saint-Blaize, a la Zuecca_" etc. + "At St. Blaize, and at Zuecca ... + You were, you were very well! + At St. Blaize, and at Zuecca ... + We were, we were happy there! + But to think of it again + Will you ever care? + Will you think of it again? + Will you come once more? + At St. Blaize, and at Zuecca ... + To live there and to die!" + +125, 32. _fete de St.-Cloud_--festival of St. Cloud. + +125, 33. _blanchisseuse_--laundress. + +133, 30. "_Roy ne puis, prince ne daigne, Rohan je suis!_"--"King I + Cannot be, prince I would not be, Rohan I am!" + +133, 34. "_Rohan ne puis, roi ne daigne. Rien je suis!_"--"Rohan I + cannot be, king I would not be. Nothing I am!" + +135, 10. _grandes dames de par le monde_--great ladies of the world. + +137, 6. "_O lachrymarum fons!_"--"O font of tears!" + +140, 28. Jewess is in French, _juive_. + +141, 10. "_Esker voo her jer dwaw lah vee? Ah! kel Bonnure!_" + Anglo-French for "_Est ce que vous que je dois laver. Ah! + quel bonheur!_"--"Is it that you that I must wash? Ah! What + happiness!" + +142, 12. _Pazienza_--Patience. + +143, 8. "_Ne sulor ultra crepidam!_"--"A cobbler should stick to + his last!" + +145, 1. "_La cigale ayant chante_," etc. + "The grasshopper, having sung + The summer through, + Found herself destitute + When the north wind came."... + +146, 20. "_Spretae injuria formae_"--"The insult to her despised + beauty." + +146, 31. _billets doux_--love letters. + +152, 8. "_La plus forte des forces est un coeur innocent_"--"The + Strongest of strengths is an innocent heart." + +154, 3. "_Tiens, tiens!... ecoute!_"--"There, there! it's deucedly + pretty that--listen!" + +154, 8. "_Mais, nom d'une pipe--elle est divine, cette + musique--la!_"--"But, by jingo, it's divine, that music!" + +155, 26. _bourgeois_--the middle class. + +155, 34. _nouveaux riches_--newly rich people. + +158, 2. "_La mia letizia!_"--"My Joy!" + +160, 17. "_Beau chevalier qui partez pour la guerre_," etc. + "Brave cavalier, off to the war, + What will you do + So far from here? + Do you not see that the night is dark, + And that the world + Is only care?" + +160, 23. "_La Chanson de Barberine_"--"The Song of Barberine." + +160, 28. _cascameche_--nightcap tassel. + _moutardier du pape_--pope's mustardman. + _tromblon-bolivard_--broad-brimmed blunderbuss. + +160, 29. _vieux coquelicot_--old poppy. + +160, 31. "_Voos ayt oon oter!_" Anglo-French for "_Vous etes un + autre!_"--"You are another!" + +162, 10. _C'est toujours comme ca_--It's always like that. + +163, 17. _a bon chat, bon rat_--a Roland for an Oliver. + +166, 14. _poudre insecticide_--insect-powder. + _mort aux punaises_--death to the bugs. + +166, 22. _pensionnat de demoiselles_--young ladies' boarding-school. + +166, 28. _Je connais ca_--I know that. + +168, 8. _eau sucree_--sweetened water. + +168, 18. _Coeur de Lion_--Lion Heart. + _le Pre aux Clercs_--Parson's Green. + +169, 17. _rapins_--art students. + +170, 14. "_Bonjour, Monsieur Bonzig! comment allez-vous?_"--"Good-day, + Mr. Bonzig! how do you do?" + +170, 17. "_Pardonnez-moi, monsieur--mais je n'ai pas l'honneur de + vous remettre!_"--"Pardon me, sir--but I have not the honor + to remember your face!" + +170, 19. "_Je m'appelle Josselin--de chez Brossard!_"--"My name is + Josselin--from Brossard's!" + +170, 20. "_Ah! Mon Dieu, mon cher, mon tres-cher!_"--"Ah! My God, my + dear, my very dear!" + +170, 23. "_Mais quel bonheur.... Je n'en reviens pas!_"--"But what + good luck it is to see you again. I think of you so often, + and of Whitby! How you have altered! and what a + fine-looking fellow you are! who would have recognized you! + Lord of Lords--it's a dream! I can't get over it!" + +170, 34. "_Non, mon cher Josselin_"--"No, my dear Josselin." + +172, 4. _un peintre de marines_--a painter of marines. + +172, 16. _garde champetre_--park-keeper. + +172, 27. _ministere_--public office. + +172, 31. "_l'heure ou le jaune de Naples rentre dans la nature_"--"the + hour when Naples yellow comes again into nature." + +173, 31. _bonne friture_--good fried fish. + +173, 32. _fricassee de lapin_--rabbit fricasee. + _pommes sautees_--French fried potatoes. + _soupe aux choux_--cabbage soup. + +174, 1. _cafe chantant_--music-hall. + _bal de barriere_--ball held in the outer districts of + Paris, usually composed of the rougher element. + +174, 3. _bonsoir la compagnie_--good-night to the company. + +174, 26. _prix-fixe_--fixed price. + +175, 6. _aile de poulet_--chicken's wing. + _peche au vin_--peach preserved in wine. + +175, 9. _entre la poire et le fromage_--between pear and cheese. + +175, 15. _flaning_--from _flaner_, to lounge. + +175, 28. "_Ma foi, mon cher!_"--"My word, my dear!" + +176, 3. _ma mangeaille_--my victuals. + +176, 18. _Mont de Piete_--pawnshop. + +176, 24. _moult tristement, a l'anglaise_--with much sadness, after + the English fashion. + +177, 12. _un jour de separation, vous comprenez_--a day of + separation, you understand. + +177, 14. _a la vinaigrette_--with vinegar sauce. + +177, 16. _nous en ferons l'experience_--we will try it. + +177, 19. _maillot_--bathing-suit. + _peignoir_--wrapper. + +177, 21. "_Oh! la mer! ... chez Babet!_"--"Oh! the sea, the sea! At + last I am going to take my header into it--and not later + than to-morrow evening.... Till to-morrow, my dear + comrade--six o'clock--at Babet's!" + +177, 27. _piquant sa tete_--taking his header. + +178, 1. _sergent de ville_--policeman. + +178, 4. "_un jour de separation ... nagerons de conserve_"--"a day + Of separation! but come also, Josselin--we will take our + headers together, and swim in each other's company." + +178, 13. "_en signe de mon deuil_"--"as a token of my mourning." + +178, 23. _plage_--beach. + +178, 30. _dame de comptoir_--the lady at the counter. + +178, 33. _demi-tasse_--small cup of coffee. + _petit-verre_--small glass of brandy. + +180, 13. _avec tant d'esprit_--so wittily. + +180, 14. _rancune_--grudge. + +181, 14. _bon raconteur_--good story-teller. + +181, 16. "_La plus belle fille ... ce qu'elle a!_"--"The fairest + girl in the world can give only what she has!" + +182, 5._ comme tout un chacun sait_--as each and every one knows. + +182, 24. _Tout ca, c'est de l'histoire ancienne_--that's all ancient + history. + +183, 8. "_tres bel homme ... que joli garcon hein?_"--"fine man, + Bob; more of the fine man than the handsome fellow, eh?" + +183, 12. _Mes compliments_--My compliments. + +183, 19. "_Ca y est, alors! ... a ton bonheur!_"--"So it's settled, + then! I congratulate you beforehand, and I keep my tears + for when you have gone. Let us go and dine at Babet's: I + long to drink to your welfare!" + +184, 1. _atelier_--art studio. + +184, 6. _le Beau Josselin_--the handsome Josselin. + +184, 33. _serrement de coeur_--heart burning. + +185, 22. _Marche aux oeufs_--Egg Market. + +186, 4. "_Malines_" or "_Louvain_"--Belgian beers. + +186, 25. "_Oui; un nomme Valteres_"--"Yes; one called Valteres" + (French pronunciation of Walters). + +186, 28. "_Parbleu, ce bon Valteres--je l'connais bien!_"--"Zounds, + good old Walters--I know him well!" + +188, 26. _primo tenore_--first tenor. + +188, 29. _Guides_--a Belgian cavalry regiment. + +188, 32. _Cercle Artistique_--Art Club. + +191, 1. "_O celeste haine_," etc. + "O celestial hate, + How canst thou be appeased? + O human suffering, + Who can cure thee? + My pain is so heavy + I wish it would kill me-- + Such is my desire. + + "Heart-broken by thought, + Weary of compassion, + To hear no more, + Nor see, nor feel, + I am ready to give + My parting breath-- + And this is my desire. + + "To know nothing more, + Nor remember myself-- + Never again to rise, + Nor go to sleep-- + No longer to be, + But to have done-- + That is my desire!" + +191, 23. _Fleur de Ble_--Corn-flower. + +192, 31. "_Vous allez a Blankenberghe, mossie?_"--"You go to + Blankenberghe, sah?" + +193, 1. "_Je souis bienn content--nous ferons route ensiemble!_" (_je + suis bien content--nous ferons route ensemble_)--"I am fery + glad--ve will make ze journey togezzar!" + +193, 5. _ragazza_--girl. + +193, 7. "_un' prodige, mossie--un' fenomeno!_"--"a prodigy, sah--a + phenomenon!" + +193, 24. _Robert, toi que j'aime_--Robert, thou whom I love. + +193, 29. "_Ma vous aussi, vous etes mousicien--je vois ca par la + Votre figoure!" (Mais vous aussi vous etes musicien--je + vois ca par votre figure!)_--"But you also, you are a + moosician--I see zat by your face!" + +194, 4. _elle et moi_--she and I. + +194, 5. _bon marche_--cheap. + +194, 34. _en famille_--at home. + +195, 7. "_Je vais vous canter couelque cose (Je vais vous chanter + quelque-chose)--una piccola cosa da niente!--vous comprenez + l'Italien?_"--"I vill sing to you somezing--a leetle zing + of nozzing!--you understand ze Italian?" + +195, 12. _je les adore_--I adore them. + +195, 16. "_Il vero amore_"--"True Love." + +195, 17. "_E la mio amor e andato a soggiornare + A Lucca bella--e diventar signore...._" + + "And my love has gone to dwell + In beautiful Lucca--and become a gentleman...." + +195, 29. "_O mon Fernand!_"--"O my Fernand!" + +196, 13. "_Et vous ne cantez pas ... comme je pourrai._" + "And you do not sing at all, at all?" + "Oh yes, sometimes!" + "Sing somezing--I vill accompany you on ze guitar!--do not + be afraid--ve vill not be hard on you, she and I--" + "Oh--I'll do my best to accompany myself." + +196, 21. "_Fleur des Alpes_"--"Flower of the Alps." + +199, 23. _medaille de sauvetage_--medal for saving life. + +200, 2. _Je leur veux du bien_--I wish them well. + +200, 17. _Largo al factotum_--Make way for the factotum. + +201, 24. _bis! ter!_--a second time! a third time! + +201, 26. "_Het Roosje uit de Dorne_"--"The Rose without the Thorn." + +202, 15. _sans tambour ni trompette_--without drum or trumpet + (French leave). + +202, 29. _Hotel de Ville_--Town-hall. + +203, 4. "_Una sera d' amore_"--"An Evening of Love." + +203, 16. "_Guarda che bianca luna_"--"Behold the silver moon." + +204, 15. _boute-en-train_--life and soul. + +205, 10. "_A vous, monsieur de la garde ... tirer les + premiers!_" + "Your turn, gentleman of the guard." + "The gentlemen of the guard should always fire the first!" + +205, 20. "_Je ne tire plus ... main malheureuse un jour!_"--"I will + fire no more--I am too much afraid that some day my hand + may be unfortunate!" + +205, 33. "_Le cachet ... je lui avais demande!_"--"Mr. Josselin's + seal, which I had asked him for!" + +206, 4. _Salle d'Armes_--Fencing-school. + +206, 10. _des enfantillages_--child's play. + +206, 15. "_Je vous en prie, monsieur de la garde!_"--"I pray you, + gentleman of the guard!" + +206, 17. "_Cette fois, alors, nous allons tirer ensemble!_"--"This + time, then, we will draw together!" + +206, 23. _maitre d'armes_--fencing-master. + +206, 29. "_Vous etes impayable ... pour la vie_"--"You are + extraordinary, you know, my dear fellow; you have every + talent, and a million in your throat into the bargain! If + ever I can do anything for you, you know, always count upon + me." + +208, 1. "_Et plus jamais ... quand vous m'ecrirez!_"--"And no more + empty envelopes when you write to me!" + +208, 10. _la peau de chagrin_--the shagreen skin. (The hero of this + story, by Balzac, is given a piece of shagreen, on the + condition that all his wishes will be gratified, but that + every wish will cause the leather to shrink, and that when + it disappears his life will come to an end. _Chagrin_ also + means sorrow, so that Barty's retina was indeed "a skin of + sorrow," continually shrinking.) + +208, 29. "_Les miseres du jour font le bonheur du lendemain!_"--"The + misery of to-day is the happiness of to-morrow!" + +210, 23. _dune_--a low sand-hill. (They are to be found all along + the Belgian coast.) + +214, 22. _par_--by. + +214. 32. _dit-on_--they say. + +216, 22. _bien d'accord_--of the same mind. + +217, 1. _nee_--by birth. + +217, 29. _moi qui vous parle_--I who speak to you. + +219, 3. _Kermesse_--fair. + +219, 6. _estaminet_--a drinking and smoking resort. + +219, 10. _a la Teniers_--after the manner of Teniers, the painter. + +219, 34. _in secula seculorum!_--for ages of ages! + +220, 3. _Rue des Ursulines Blanches_--Street of the White + Ursulines. + +220, 5. _des Soeurs Redemptoristines_--Sisters of the Redemption. + +220, 11. _Frau_--Mrs. (This is German; the Flemish is _Juffrow_.) + +220, 26. "_La Cigogne_"--"The Stork Inn." + +221, 9. _salade aux fines herbes_--salad made of a mixture of + herbs. + +222, 28. _a fleur de tete_--on a level with their heads. + +223, 6. _savez vous?_--do you know? + +223, 26. _chaussees_--roads. + +224, 26. _Les Maitres Sonneurs_--The Master Ringers. + _La Mare au Diable_--The Devil's Pool. + +225, 21. _seminaire_--clerical seminary. + +225, 29. "_Mio caro Paolo di Kocco!_"--"My dear Paul de Kock!" + +225, 32. "_Un malheureux_" etc. + "An unfortunate dressed in black, + Who resembled me like a brother." + (Du Maurier himself.) + +228, 14. _mein armer_--my poor. + +228, 17. _Lieber_--dear. + +229, 5. _Bel Mazetto_--Beautiful Mazetto. + +229, 7. "_Ich bin ein lustiger Student, mein Pardy_"--"I am a jolly + Student, my Barty." + +229, 15. _Katzenjammer_--sore head. + +229, 18. _Liebe_--love. + +230, 2. _tout le monde_--everybody. + +231, 18. _autrefois_--the times of yore. + +231, 21. "_Oh, non, mon ami_"--"Oh, no, my friend." + +231, 29. "_Petit bonhomme vit encore_"--"Good little fellow still + alive." + +232, 1."_He quoi! pour des peccadilles_," etc. + "Eh, what! for peccadilloes + To scold those little loves? + Women are so pretty, + And one does not love forever! + Good fellow + They call me ... + My gayety is my treasure! + And the good fellow is still alive-- + And the good fellow is still alive!" + +233, 10. _Soupe-au-lait_--Milk porridge. + +234, 2. _muscae volitantes_--(literally) hovering flies. + +242, 1. "_Mettez-vous au regime des viandes saignantes!_"--"Put + Yourself on a diet of rare meat!" + +242, 4. "_Mettez-vous au lait!_"--"Take to milk!" + +242, 9. _desoeuvrement_--idleness. + +242, 16. "_Amour, Amour_," etc. + "Love, love, when you hold us, + Well may we say: 'Prudence, good-bye!'" + +244, 1. "_Il s'est conduit en homme de coeur!_"--"He has behaved + like a man of spirit!" + +244, 3. "_Il s'est conduit en bon gentilhomme_"--"He has behaved + like a thorough gentleman!" + +247, 9. _Les Noces de Jeannette_--Jeannette's Wedding. + +247, 13. "_Cours, mon aiguille ... de notre peine!_" + "Run, my needle, through the wool! + Do not break off in my hand; + For to-morrow with good kisses + Jean will pay us for our trouble!" + +249, 3. "_Helas! mon jeune ami!_"--"Alas! my young friend!" + +252, 1. _Sursum cor! sursum corda!_--Lift up your heart! Lift up + Your hearts! + +252, 11. _coupe-choux_--cabbage-cutter. + +252, 13. "_Ca ne vous regarde pas, ... ou je vous ..._"--"It's none + of your business, you know! take yourselves off at once, or + I'll ..." + +252, 19. "_Non--c'est moi qui regarde, savez-vous!_"--"No--it is I + who am looking, you know!" + +252, 20. "_Qu'est-ce que vous regardez?... Vous ne voulez pas vous + en aller?_" + "What are you looking at?" + "I am looking at the moon and the stars. I am looking at + the comet!" + "Will you take yourself off at once?" + "Some other time!" + "Take yourself off, I tell you!" + "The day after to-morrow!" + "You ... will ... not ... take ... yourself ... off?" + +252, 32. "_Non, sacre petit ... restez ou vous etes!_" + "No, you confounded little devil's gravel-pusher!" + "All right, stay where you are!" + +254, 16. "_... du sommeil au songe-- + Du songe a la mort._" + + "... from sleep to dream-- + From dream to death." + +254, 21. "_Il est dix heures ... dans votre chambre?_"--"It's ten + o'clock, you know? Will you have your coffee in your room?" + +255, 14. _ca date de loin, mon pauvre ami_--it goes a long way back, + my poor friend. + +256, 8. _punctum coecum_--blind spot. + +257, 27. _mon beau somnambule_--my handsome somnambulist. + +257, 33. _On ne sait pas ce qui peut arriver_--One never knows what + may happen. + +258, 17. _tiens_--look. + +262, 10. _sans peur et sans reproche_--without fear and without + reproach. + +262, 15. "_Ca s'appelle le point cache--c'est une portion de la + retine avec laquelle on ne peut pas voir...._"--"It is + called the blind spot--it is a part of the retina with + which we cannot see...." + +263, 13. _c'est toujours ca_--that's always the way. + +263, 23. _plus que coquette_--more than coquettish. + +269, 8. _pere et mere_--father and mother. + +271, 31. _more Latino_--in the Latin manner. + +272, 12. _pictor ignotus_--the unknown painter. + +273, 6. "_Que me voila.... Ote ton chapeau!_" + "How happy I am, my little Barty--and you? what a pretty + town, eh?" + "It's heaven, pure and simple--and you are going to teach + me German, aren't you, my dear?" + "Yes, and we will read Heine together; by the way, look! Do + you see the name of the street at the corner? Bolker + Strasse! that's where he was born, poor Heine! Take off + your hat!" + +273, 19. _Maitrank_--May drink. (An infusion of woodruff in light + White wine.) + +273, 34. "_Johanna, mein Fruehstueck, bitte!_"--"Johanna, my + breakfast, please!" + +276, 27. _la barre de batardise_--the bar of bastardy. + +279, 15. _der schoene_--the handsome. + +280, 24. _Speiserei_--eating-house. + +283, 5. "_ni l'or ni la grandeur ne nous rendent heureux_"--"neither + gold nor greatness makes us happy." + +285, 22. _mes premieres amours_--my first loves. + +286, 3. "_Petit chagrin ... un soupir!_" + "Little sorrow of childhood costing a sigh!" + +286, 9. _Il avait bien raison_--He was quite right. + +289, 15. _rien que ca_--nothing but that. + +290, 29. "_Il a les qualites ... sont ses meilleures qualites._" + "The handsome Josselin has the qualities of his faults." + "My dear, his faults are his best qualities." + +297, 4. _Art et liberte_--Art and liberty. + +299, 11. "_Du bist die Ruh', der Friede mild!_"--"Thou art rest, + sweet peace!" + +300, 19. _c'est plus fort que moi_--it is stronger than I. + +304, 2. _dans le blanc des yeux_--straight in the eyes. + +306, 20. _damigella_--maiden. + +308, 27. "_Die Ruhe kehret mir zurueck_"--"Peace comes back to me." + +308, 30. _prosit omen_--may the omen be propitious. + +309, 5. _prima donna assoluta_--the absolute first lady. (Grand + Opera, the "leading lady.") + +310, 32. _gringalet-jocrisse_--an effeminate fellow. + +312, 3. _faire la popotte ensemble au coin du feu; c'est le ciel_--to + potter round the fire together; that is heaven. + +312, 29. _Ausstellung_--exhibition. + +314, 8. _loch_--a medicine of the consistence of honey, taken by + licking or sucking. + +318, 10. "_Et voila comment ca s'est passe_"--"And that's how it + happened." + +320, 14. _et plus royaliste que le Roi_--and more of a royalist than + the King. + +321, 13. _cru_--growth. + +323, 32. _L'amitie est l'amour sans ailes_--Friendship is love + without wings. + +325, 9. _En veux-tu? en voila!_--Do you want some? here it is! + +327, 10. _kudos_--glory. + +328, 9. _Dis-moi qui tu hantes, je te dirai ce que tu es_--Tell me + who are your friends, and I will tell you what you are. + +331, 20. _si le coeur t'en dit_--if your heart prompts you. + +335, 5. _esprit de corps_--brotherhood. + +335, 8. _Noblesse oblige_--Nobility imposes the obligation of + nobleness. + +336, 15. _betise pure et simple_--downright folly. + +337, 15. _Je suis au-dessus de mes affaires_--I am above my + business. + +338, 11. _Maman-belle-mere_--Mama-mother-in-law. + +338, 30. _vous plaisantez, mon ami; un amateur comme moi_--you are + joking, my friend; an amateur like myself. + +338, 31. _Quis custodiet (ipsos custodes)?_--Who shall guard the + guards themselves? + +339, 2. _monsieur anglais, qui avait mal aux yeux_--English + gentleman, who had something the matter with his eyes. + +340, 5. _La belle dame sans merci_--The fair lady merciless. + +342, 4. _de par le monde_--in society. + +342, 18. _je tacherai de ne pas en abuser trop!_--I will try not to + take too much of it! + +344, 15. _le dernier des Abencerrages_--the last of the + Abencerrages. (The title of a story by Chateaubriand.) + +347, 24. _a mon insu_--unknown to me. + +354, 11. _On a les defauts de ses qualites_--One has the faults of + one's virtues. + +354, 15. _joliment degourdie_--finely sharpened. + +358, 10. _La quatrieme Dimension_--The Fourth Dimension. + +360, 25. _nous avons eu la main heureuse_--we have been fortunate. + +360, 28. _smalah_--encampment of an Arab chieftain. + +363, 19. _Je suis homme d'affaires_--I am a man of business. + +373, 28. _un conte a dormir debout_--a story to bore one to sleep. + +374, 23. _Ou avions-nous donc la tete et les yeux?_--What were we + doing with our minds and eyes? + +377, 1. "_Cara deum soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum_"--"The dear + offspring of God, the increase of Jove." + +378, 22. _Tous les genres sont bons, hormis le genre ennuyeux_--All + kinds are good, except the boring kind. + +380, 3. _C'etait un naif, le beau Josselin_--He was ingenuous, the + handsome Josselin. + +381, 9. _Arma virumque cano_--Arms and the man I sing.--The first + words of Virgil's _AEneid_. + _Tityre tu patulae (recubans sub tegmine fagi)_--Thou, + Tityrus, reclining beneath the shade of a spreading + beech.--The first line of the first _Eclogue_ of Virgil. + _Maecenas atavis (edite regibus)_--Maecenas descended from + royal ancestors.--Horace, _Odes_, 1, 1, l. + +381, 10. [Greek: Menin aeide]--Sing the wrath.--The first words of + Homer's _Iliad_. + +381, 21. _Debats--Le Journal des Debats_,--a Parisian literary + newspaper. + +386, 3. _sommite litteraire_--literary pinnacle. + +386, 16. _Rouillon Duval_--a class of cheap restaurants in Paris. + +386, 30. _Etoiles Mortes_--Dead Stars. + +388, 5. _la coupe_--the cutwater. + +388, 11. _a la hussarde_--head first. + +389, 2. _la tres-sage Heloise_--the most learned Heloise. (Another + of the ladies mentioned in Villon's "Ballade of the Ladies + of Olden Time." See note to page 24, line 30.) + +389, 5. _nous allons arranger tout ca_--we'll arrange all that. + +389, 20. _C'est la chastete meme, mais ce n'est pas Dejanire_--It is + chastity itself, but it is not Dejanire. + +390, 20. _tres elegante_--very elegant. + +390, 22. _d'un noir de jais, d'une blancheur de lis_--jet black, + lily white. + +391, 1. _ah, mon Dieu, la Diane chasseresse, la Sapho de + Pradier!_--ah, My God, Diana the huntress, Pradier's + Sappho! + +391, 8. _un vrai type de colosse bon enfant, d'une tenue + irreprochable_--a perfect image of a good-natured colossus, + of irreproachable bearing. + +391, 15. _tartines_--slices of bread and butter. + +391, 17. _une vraie menagerie_--a perfect menagerie. + +392, 7. _belle chatelaine_--beautiful chatelaine. + +393, 1. _gazebo_--summer-house. + +393, 18. _le que retranche_--name given in some French-Latin + grammars to the Latin form which expresses by the + infinitive verb and the accusative noun what in French is + expressed by "que" between two verbs. + +394, 32. _alma mater dolorosa_--the tender and sorrowful mother. + +394, 33. _maratre au coeur de pierre_--stony-hearted mother. + +396, 19. _Tendenz novels_--novels with a purpose. + +396, 28. _nouvelle-riche_--newly rich. + +404, 11. _on y est tres bien_--one is very well there. + +406, 26. "_Il est dix heures_" etc.--See note to page 254, line 21. + +406, 30. _vilain mangeur de coeurs que vous etes_--wretched eater of + hearts that you are. + +407, 30. _Un vrai petit St. Jean! il nous portera bonheur, bien + sur_--A perfect little St. John! he will bring us good + luck, for sure. + +408, 27. _nous savons notre orthographie en musique la bas_--we know + our musical a b c's over there. + +412, 8. _in-medio-tutissimus (ibis)_--You will go safest in the + middle. + +412, 20. _diablement bien conserve_--deucedly well preserved. + +413, 11. _O me fortunatum, mea si bona norim!_--O happy me, had I + known my own blessings! + +414, 28. _un malheureux rate_--an unfortunate failure + +415, 9. _abrutissant_--stupefying. + +416, 15. _affaire d'estomac_--a matter of stomach. + +418, 1. "_Je suis alle de bon matin_," etc. + "I went at early morn + To pick the violet, + And hawthorne, and jasmine, + To celebrate thy birthday. + With my own hands I bound + The rosebuds and the rosemary + To crown thy golden head. + + "But for thy royal beauty + Be humble, I pray thee. + Here all things die, flower, summer, + Youth and life: + Soon, soon the day will be, + My fair one, when they'll carry thee + Faded and pale in a winding-sheet." + +418, 19. _perissoires_--paddle-boats. + _pique-tetes_--diving-boards. + +418, 21. _station balneaire_--bathing resort. + +419, 25. _utile dulci_--the useful with the pleasant. + +420, 9. _la chasse aux souvenirs_--the hunt after remembrances. + +420, 25, _s'est encanaille_--keeps low company. + +422, 25. _porte-cochere_--carriage entrance. + +423, 1. "_Ah, ma foi!... la balle au camp_"--"Ah, my word, I + understand that, gentlemen--I, too, was a school-boy once, + and was fond of rounders." + +423, 11. _Le Fils de la Vierge_--The Virgin's Son. + +423, 12. _mutatis mutandis_--the necessary changes being made. + +423, 34. "_Moi aussi, je fumais ... n'est ce pas?_"--"I too smoked + when it was forbidden; what do you expect? Youth must have + its day, musn't it?" + +424, 3. _dame_--indeed. + +425, 30. _cour des miracles_--the court of miracles. (A + meeting-place of beggars described in Hugo's "Notre Dame de + Paris." So called on account of the sudden change in the + appearance of the pretended cripples who came there.) + +426, 16. "_O dis-donc, Hortense_," etc.--"Oh say, Hortense, how cold + it is! whenever will it be eleven o'clock, so that we can + go to bed?" + +428, 5. _nous autres_--we others. + +428, 22. _Numero Deus impare gaudet_--The god delights in uneven + numbers. + +430, 22. "_Aus meinen Thraenen spriessen_," etc. + "Out of my tear-drops springeth + A harvest of beautiful flowers; + And my sighing turneth + To a choir of nightingales." + Heine. + +435, 24. _Ah, mon Dieu!_--Ah, my God! + +437, 34. _Etablissement_--establishment. + +439, 31. _Pandore et sa Boite_--Pandore and her Box. + +441, 12. "_C'est papa qui paie et maman qui regale_"--"Papa pays and + mamma treats." + +445, 8. _au grande trot_--at a full trot. + +447, 12. _Nous etions bien, la_--We were well, there. + +447, 21. _l'homme propose_--man proposes. + +448, 1. "_O tempo passato, perche non ritorni?_"--"O bygone days, + why do you not return?" + +448, 7. "_Et je m'en vais,"_ etc. + "And off I go + On the evil wind + Which carries me + Here and there + Like the + Leaf that is dead." + +448. 13. _rossignolet de mon ame_--little nightingale of my soul. + +448, 23. _Da capo, e da capo_--Over and over again. + +449, 4. _medio de fonte leporum (surgit amari aliquid)_--from the + midst of the fountain of delights something bitter arises. + + + + +By GEORGE DU MAURIER + + * * * * * + + + + +TRILBY + + +Written and Illustrated by George du Maurier. Post 8vo, Cloth, +Ornamental, $1 75; Three-quarter Calf, $3 50; Three-quarter Levant, +$4 50. + +It is the secret of the extraordinary charm of this story that it +does not appear to be a story; it has almost no marks of artifice; +it hardly appears to have been planned; it affects us as a record, +kept in the simplest and most informal way, of certain very +interesting events and persons.--_Outlook_, N. Y. + +A book that every one will like because it has the essential +qualities of wit, passion, character, and human nature; a book that +has the grace and charm of a finely artistic style all through, and +that is likely to rest on our shelves long after most of the novels +of this year of grace have passed out of our remembrance.--_St. +James's Gazette_, London. + + + + +PETER IBBETSON + + +With an Introduction by his Cousin, Lady ***** ("Madge Plunket"). +Edited and Illustrated by George du Maurier. Post 8vo, Cloth, +Ornamental, $1 50; Three-quarter Calf, $3 25; Three-quarter Levant, +$4 25. + +There are so many beauties, so many singularities, so much that is +fresh and original in Mr. Du Maurier's story that it is difficult to +treat it at all adequately from the point of view of criticism. That +it is one of the most remarkable books that have appeared for a long +time is, however, indisputable.--_N. Y. Tribune._ + + + + +ENGLISH SOCIETY + + +Sketched by George du Maurier. 4to, Oblong, Cloth, $2 50. + +In it a searching observer of many phases of humanity, charming in +his wit and without the blemish of malice, presents with his pencil +as much of his social philosophy as he could give with his pen in a +hundred novels. In spite of its title and origin, a collection of +Mr. Du Maurier's sketches covers any society; and in looking it over +one is only too content that the artist chose to exploit a society +which affords the beauty and elegance of the Du Maurier +type.--_N. Y. Sun._ + +The kindly humor of Du Maurier, the quiet incisiveness of his +satire, and his inimitable skill at the portrayal of social types +are delightfully manifested in this series of one hundred plates, +ending up with the melodramatic death-bed scene of Trilby.--_Boston +Beacon._ + + + + +IN BOHEMIA WITH DU MAURIER + + +By Felix Moscheles. With Sixty-three Illustrations by George du +Maurier. 8vo, Cloth, Gilt Tops and Uncut Edges, $2 50. + +For these, and for a few references to the originals of the +characters in the novel, and to the hypnotic experiments in which Du +Maurier was interested in his youth, the book will doubtless be +bought. But he must be a dull person who does not find another charm +in Mr. Moscheles's artless narrative, mostly about nothing at all, +or about the nothings that make up the joy of living to madcap +boys.--_N. Y. Mail and Express._ + +It possesses the literary quality that marked his more mature +illustrations, and evinces the quality of reticence that preserved +his humor from becoming caricature. He has often been compared to +Thackeray; this work suggests Hood, and it would be interesting to +know how much he cared for his English predecessors and +assimilated.--_Philadelphia Press._ + + + + +Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York + +_The above works are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by +the publishers by mail, postage prepaid, on receipt of the price._ + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Martian, by George Du Maurier + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MARTIAN *** + +***** This file should be named 27400.txt or 27400.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/4/0/27400/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Christina and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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