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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29704-8.txt b/29704-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..14baf5f --- /dev/null +++ b/29704-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7028 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Masterpieces of Mystery, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Masterpieces of Mystery + Riddle Stories + +Author: Various + +Editor: Joseph Lewis French + +Release Date: August 15, 2009 [EBook #29704] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTERPIECES OF MYSTERY *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + Masterpieces of Mystery + + _In Four Volumes_ + + RIDDLE STORIES + + Edited by Joseph Lewis French + + +Garden City New York +Doubleday, Page & Company +1922 + +COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION +INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN + +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES +AT THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. + + + + +NOTE + + +The Editor desires especially to acknowledge assistance in granting the +use of original material, and for helpful advice and suggestion, to +Professor Brander Matthews of Columbia University, to Mrs. Anna +Katherine Green Rohlfs, to Cleveland Moffett, to Arthur Reeve, creator +of "Craig Kennedy," to Wilbur Daniel Steele, to Ralph Adams Cram, to +Chester Bailey Fernald, to Brian Brown, to Mrs. Lillian M. Robins of the +publisher's office, and to Charles E. Farrington of the Brooklyn Public +Library. + + + + +FOREWORD + + +A distinguished American writer of fiction said to me lately: "Did you +ever think of the vital American way we live? We are always going after +mental gymnastics." Now the mystery story is mental gymnastics. By the +time the reader has followed a chain of facts through he has exercised +his mind,--given himself a mental breather. But the claims of the true +mystery story do not end with the general reader. It is entitled to the +consideration of the discriminating because it indubitably takes its own +place as a gauge of mastery in the field of the short story. + +The demand was never quite so keen as it is now. The currents of +literature as of all things change swiftly these times. This world of +ours has become very sophisticated. It has suffered itself to be +exploited till there is no external wonder left. Retroactively the +demand for mystery, which is the very soul of interest, must find new +expression. Thus we turn inward for fresh thrills to the human comedy, +and outward to the realm of the supernatural. + +The riddle story is the most naïve form of the mystery story. It may +contain a certain element of the supernatural--be tinged with +mysticism--but its motive and the revelation thereof must be frankly +materialistic--of the earth, earthy. In this respect it is very closely +allied to the detective story. The model riddle story should be utterly +mundane in motive--told in direct terms. Here again the genius of that +great modern master asserts itself, and in "The Oblong Box" we have an +early model of its kind. The stories of this collection cover a wide +range and are the choice of reading in several literatures. + +JOSEPH LEWIS FRENCH. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. THE MYSTERIOUS CARD _Cleveland Moffett_ + + II. THE GREAT VALDEZ SAPPHIRE _Anonymous_ + + III. THE OBLONG BOX _Edgar Allan Poe_ + + IV. THE BIRTH-MARK _Nathaniel Hawthorne_ + + V. A TERRIBLY STRANGE BED _Wilkie Collins_ + + VI. THE TORTURE BY HOPE _Villiers de l'Isle Adam_ + + VII. THE BOX WITH THE IRON CLAMPS _Florence Marryat_ + + VIII. MY FASCINATING FRIEND _William Archer_ + + IX. THE LOST ROOM _Fitz-James O'Brien_ + + + + +MASTERPIECES OF MYSTERY + +_RIDDLE STORIES_ + + + + +THE MYSTERIOUS CARD + +CLEVELAND MOFFETT + +Courtesy of the Author. + + + +I + + +Richard Burwell, of New York, will never cease to regret that the French +language was not made a part of his education. + +This is why: + +On the second evening after Burwell arrived in Paris, feeling lonely +without his wife and daughter, who were still visiting a friend in +London, his mind naturally turned to the theatre. So, after consulting +the daily amusement calendar, he decided to visit the _Folies Bergère_, +which he had heard of as one of the notable sights. During an +intermission he went into the beautiful garden, where gay crowds were +strolling among the flowers, and lights, and fountains. He had just +seated himself at a little three-legged table, with a view to enjoying +the novel scene, when his attention was attracted by a lovely woman, +gowned strikingly, though in perfect taste, who passed near him, leaning +on the arm of a gentleman. The only thing that he noticed about this +gentleman was that he wore eye-glasses. + +Now Burwell had never posed as a captivator of the fair sex, and could +scarcely credit his eyes when the lady left the side of her escort and, +turning back as if she had forgotten something, passed close by him, and +deftly placed a card on his table. The card bore some French words +written in purple ink, but, not knowing that language, he was unable to +make out their meaning. The lady paid no further heed to him, but, +rejoining the gentleman with the eye-glasses, swept out of the place +with the grace and dignity of a princess. Burwell remained staring at +the card. + +Needless to say, he thought no more of the performance or of the other +attractions about him. Everything seemed flat and tawdry compared with +the radiant vision that had appeared and disappeared so mysteriously. +His one desire now was to discover the meaning of the words written on +the card. + +Calling a fiácre, he drove to the Hôtel Continental, where he was +staying. Proceeding directly to the office and taking the manager aside, +Burwell asked if he would be kind enough to translate a few words of +French into English. There were no more than twenty words in all. + +"Why, certainly," said the manager, with French politeness, and cast his +eyes over the card. As he read, his face grew rigid with astonishment, +and, looking at his questioner sharply, he exclaimed: "Where did you get +this, monsieur?" + +Burwell started to explain, but was interrupted by: "That will do, that +will do. You must leave the hotel." + +"What do you mean?" asked the man from New York, in amazement. + +"You must leave the hotel now--to-night--without fail," commanded the +manager excitedly. + +Now it was Burwell's turn to grow angry, and he declared heatedly that +if he wasn't wanted in this hotel there were plenty of others in Paris +where he would be welcome. And, with an assumption of dignity, but +piqued at heart, he settled his bill, sent for his belongings, and drove +up the Rue de la Paix to the Hôtel Bellevue, where he spent the night. + +The next morning he met the proprietor, who seemed to be a good fellow, +and, being inclined now to view the incident of the previous evening +from its ridiculous side, Burwell explained what had befallen him, and +was pleased to find a sympathetic listener. + +"Why, the man was a fool," declared the proprietor. "Let me see the +card; I will tell you what it means." But as he read, his face and +manner changed instantly. + +"This is a serious matter," he said sternly. "Now I understand why my +confrère refused to entertain you. I regret, monsieur, but I shall be +obliged to do as he did." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Simply that you cannot remain here." + +With that he turned on his heel, and the indignant guest could not +prevail upon him to give any explanation. + +"We'll see about this," said Burwell, thoroughly angered. + +It was now nearly noon, and the New Yorker remembered an engagement to +lunch with a friend from Boston, who, with his family, was stopping at +the Hôtel de l'Alma. With his luggage on the carriage, he ordered the +_cocher_ to drive directly there, determined to take counsel with his +countryman before selecting new quarters. His friend was highly +indignant when he heard the story--a fact that gave Burwell no little +comfort, knowing, as he did, that the man was accustomed to foreign ways +from long residence abroad. + +"It is some silly mistake, my dear fellow; I wouldn't pay any attention +to it. Just have your luggage taken down and stay here. It is a nice, +homelike place, and it will be very jolly, all being together. But, +first, let me prepare a little 'nerve settler' for you." + +After the two had lingered a moment over their Manhattan cocktails, +Burwell's friend excused himself to call the ladies. He had proceeded +only two or three steps when he turned, and said: "Let's see that +mysterious card that has raised all this row." + +He had scarcely withdrawn it from Burwell's hand when he started back, +and exclaimed:-- + +"Great God, man! Do you mean to say--this is simply--" + +Then, with a sudden movement of his hand to his head, he left the room. + +He was gone perhaps five minutes, and when he returned his face was +white. + +"I am awfully sorry," he said nervously; "but the ladies tell me +they--that is, my wife--she has a frightful headache. You will have to +excuse us from the lunch." + +Instantly realizing that this was only a flimsy pretense, and deeply +hurt by his friend's behaviour, the mystified man arose at once and left +without another word. He was now determined to solve this mystery at any +cost. What could be the meaning of the words on that infernal piece of +pasteboard? + +Profiting by his humiliating experiences, he took good care not to show +the card to any one at the hotel where he now established himself,--a +comfortable little place near the Grand Opera House. + +All through the afternoon he thought of nothing but the card, and turned +over in his mind various ways of learning its meaning without getting +himself into further trouble. That evening he went again to the _Folies +Bergère_ in the hope of finding the mysterious woman, for he was now +more than ever anxious to discover who she was. It even occurred to him +that she might be one of those beautiful Nihilist conspirators, or, +perhaps, a Russian spy, such as he had read of in novels. But he failed +to find her, either then or on the three subsequent evenings which he +passed in the same place. Meanwhile the card was burning in his pocket +like a hot coal. He dreaded the thought of meeting anyone that he knew, +while this horrible cloud hung over him. He bought a French-English +dictionary and tried to pick out the meaning word by word, but failed. +It was all Greek to him. For the first time in his life, Burwell +regretted that he had not studied French at college. + +After various vain attempts to either solve or forget the torturing +riddle, he saw no other course than to lay the problem before a +detective agency. He accordingly put his case in the hands of an _agent +de la sûreté_ who was recommended as a competent and trustworthy man. +They had a talk together in a private room, and, of course, Burwell +showed the card. To his relief, his adviser at least showed no sign of +taking offence. Only he did not and would not explain what the words +meant. + +"It is better," he said, "that monsieur should not know the nature of +this document for the present. I will do myself the honour to call upon +monsieur to-morrow at his hotel, and then monsieur shall know +everything." + +"Then it is really serious?" asked the unfortunate man. + +"Very serious," was the answer. + +The next twenty-four hours Burwell passed in a fever of anxiety. As his +mind conjured up one fearful possibility after another he deeply +regretted that he had not torn up the miserable card at the start. He +even seized it,--prepared to strip it into fragments, and so end the +whole affair. And then his Yankee stubbornness again asserted itself, +and he determined to see the thing out, come what might. + +"After all," he reasoned, "it is no crime for a man to pick up a card +that a lady drops on his table." + +Crime or no crime, however, it looked very much as if he had committed +some grave offence when, the next day, his detective drove up in a +carriage, accompanied by a uniformed official, and requested the +astounded American to accompany them to the police headquarters. + +"What for?" he asked. + +"It is only a formality," said the detective; and when Burwell still +protested the man in uniform remarked: "You'd better come quietly, +monsieur; you will have to come, anyway." + +An hour later, after severe cross-examination by another official, who +demanded many facts about the New Yorker's age, place of birth, +residence, occupation, etc., the bewildered man found himself in the +Conciergerie prison. Why he was there or what was about to befall him +Burwell had no means of knowing; but before the day was over he +succeeded in having a message sent to the American Legation, where he +demanded immediate protection as a citizen of the United States. It was +not until evening, however, that the Secretary of Legation, a +consequential person, called at the prison. There followed a stormy +interview, in which the prisoner used some strong language, the French +officers gesticulated violently and talked very fast, and the Secretary +calmly listened to both sides, said little, and smoked a good cigar. + +"I will lay your case before the American minister," he said as he rose +to go, "and let you know the result to-morrow." + +"But this is an outrage. Do you mean to say--" Before he could finish, +however, the Secretary, with a strangely suspicious glance, turned and +left the room. + +That night Burwell slept in a cell. + +The next morning he received another visit from the non-committal +Secretary, who informed him that matters had been arranged, and that he +would be set at liberty forthwith. + +"I must tell you, though," he said, "that I have had great difficulty in +accomplishing this, and your liberty is granted only on condition that +you leave the country within twenty-four hours, and never under any +conditions return." + +Burwell stormed, raged, and pleaded; but it availed nothing. The +Secretary was inexorable, and yet he positively refused to throw any +light upon the causes of this monstrous injustice. + +"Here is your card," he said, handing him a large envelope closed with +the seal of Legation. "I advise you to burn it and never refer to the +matter again." + +That night the ill-fated man took the train for London, his heart +consumed by hatred for the whole French nation, together with a burning +desire for vengeance. He wired his wife to meet him at the station, and +for a long time debated with himself whether he should at once tell her +the sickening truth. In the end he decided that it was better to keep +silent. No sooner, however, had she seen him than her woman's instinct +told her that he was labouring under some mental strain. And he saw in a +moment that to withhold from her his burning secret was impossible, +especially when she began to talk of the trip they had planned through +France. Of course no trivial reason would satisfy her for his refusal to +make this trip, since they had been looking forward to it for years; and +yet it was impossible now for him to set foot on French soil. + +So he finally told her the whole story, she laughing and weeping in +turn. To her, as to him, it seemed incredible that such overwhelming +disasters could have grown out of so small a cause, and, being a fluent +French scholar, she demanded a sight of the fatal piece of pasteboard. +In vain her husband tried to divert her by proposing a trip through +Italy. She would consent to nothing until she had seen the mysterious +card which Burwell was now convinced he ought long ago to have +destroyed. After refusing for awhile to let her see it, he finally +yielded. But, although he had learned to dread the consequences of +showing that cursed card, he was little prepared for what followed. She +read it turned pale, gasped for breath, and nearly fell to the floor. + +"I told you not to read it," he said; and then, growing tender at the +sight of her distress, he took her hand in his and begged her to be +calm. "At least tell me what the thing means," he said. "We can bear it +together; you surely can trust me." + +But she, as if stung by rage, pushed him from her and declared, in a +tone such as he had never heard from her before, that never, never again +would she live with him. "You are a monster!" she exclaimed. And those +were the last words he heard from her lips. + +Failing utterly in all efforts at reconciliation, the half-crazed man +took the first steamer for New York, having suffered in scarcely a +fortnight more than in all his previous life. His whole pleasure trip +had been ruined, he had failed to consummate important business +arrangements, and now he saw his home broken up and his happiness +ruined. During the voyage he scarcely left his stateroom, but lay there +prostrated with agony. In this black despondency the one thing that +sustained him was the thought of meeting his partner, Jack Evelyth, the +friend of his boyhood, the sharer of his success, the bravest, most +loyal fellow in the world. In the face of even the most damning +circumstances, he felt that Evelyth's rugged common sense would evolve +some way of escape from this hideous nightmare. Upon landing at New York +he hardly waited for the gang-plank to be lowered before he rushed on +shore and grasped the hand of his partner, who was waiting on the wharf. + +"Jack," was his first word, "I am in dreadful trouble, and you are the +only man in the world who can help me." + +An hour later Burwell sat at his friend's dinner table, talking over the +situation. + +Evelyth was all kindness, and several times as he listened to Burwell's +story his eyes filled with tears. + +"It does not seem possible, Richard," he said, "that such things can be; +but I will stand by you; we will fight it out together. But we cannot +strike in the dark. Let me see this card." + +"There is the damned thing," Burwell said, throwing it on the table. + +Evelyth opened the envelope, took out the card, and fixed his eyes on +the sprawling purple characters. + +"Can you read it?" Burwell asked excitedly. + +"Perfectly," his partner said. The next moment he turned pale, and his +voice broke. Then he clasped the tortured man's hand in his with a +strong grip. "Richard," he said slowly, "if my only child had been +brought here dead it would not have caused me more sorrow than this +does. You have brought me the worst news one man could bring another." + +His agitation and genuine suffering affected Burwell like a death +sentence. + +"Speak, man," he cried; "do not spare me. I can bear anything rather +than this awful uncertainty. Tell me what the card means." + +Evelyth took a swallow of brandy and sat with head bent on his clasped +hands. + +"No, I can't do it; there are some things a man must not do." + +Then he was silent again, his brows knitted. Finally he said solemnly:-- + +"No, I can't see any other way out of it. We have been true to each +other all our lives; we have worked together and looked forward to never +separating. I would rather fail and die than see this happen. But we +have got to separate, old friend; we have got to separate." + +They sat there talking until late into the night. But nothing that +Burwell could do or say availed against his friend's decision. There was +nothing for it but that Evelyth should buy his partner's share of the +business or that Burwell buy out the other. The man was more than fair +in the financial proposition he made; he was generous, as he always had +been, but his determination was inflexible; the two must separate. And +they did. + +With his old partner's desertion, it seemed to Burwell that the world +was leagued against him. It was only three weeks from the day on which +he had received the mysterious card; yet in that time he had lost all +that he valued in the world,--wife, friends, and business. What next to +do with the fatal card was the sickening problem that now possessed him. + +He dared not show it; yet he dared not destroy it. He loathed it; yet he +could not let it go from his possession. Upon returning to his house he +locked the accursed thing away in his safe as if it had been a package +of dynamite or a bottle of deadly poison. Yet not a day passed that he +did not open the drawer where the thing was kept and scan with loathing +the mysterious purple scrawl. + +In desperation he finally made up his mind to take up the study of the +language in which the hateful thing was written. And still he dreaded +the approach of the day when he should decipher its awful meaning. + +One afternoon, less than a week after his arrival in New York, as he was +crossing Twenty-third Street on the way to his French teacher, he saw a +carriage rolling up Broadway. In the carriage was a face that caught his +attention like a flash. As he looked again he recognized the woman who +had been the cause of his undoing. Instantly he sprang into another cab +and ordered the driver to follow after. He found the house where she was +living. He called there several times; but always received the same +reply, that she was too much engaged to see anyone. Next he was told +that she was ill, and on the following day the servant said she was much +worse. Three physicians had been summoned in consultation. He sought out +one of these and told him it was a matter of life or death that he see +this woman. The doctor was a kindly man and promised to assist him. +Through his influence, it came about that on that very night Burwell +stood by the bedside of this mysterious woman. She was beautiful still, +though her face was worn with illness. + +"Do you recognize me?" he asked tremblingly, as he leaned over the bed, +clutching in one hand an envelope containing the mysterious card. "Do +you remember seeing me at the _Folies Bergère_ a month ago?" + +"Yes," she murmured, after a moment's study of his face; and he noted +with relief that she spoke English. + +"Then, for God's sake, tell me, what does it all mean?" he gasped, +quivering with excitement. + +"I gave you the card because I wanted you to--to--" + +Here a terrible spasm of coughing shook her whole body, and she fell +back exhausted. + +An agonizing despair tugged at Burwell's heart. Frantically snatching +the card from its envelope, he held it close to the woman's face. + +"Tell me! Tell me!" + +With a supreme effort, the pale figure slowly raised itself on the +pillow, its fingers clutching at the counterpane. + +Then the sunken eyes fluttered--forced themselves open--and stared in +stony amazement upon the fatal card, while the trembling lips moved +noiselessly, as if in an attempt to speak. As Burwell, choking with +eagerness, bent his head slowly to hers, a suggestion of a smile +flickered across the woman's face. Again the mouth quivered, the man's +head bent nearer and nearer to hers, his eyes riveted upon the lips. +Then, as if to aid her in deciphering the mystery, he turned his eyes to +the card. + +With a cry of horror he sprang to his feet, his eyeballs starting from +their sockets. Almost at the same moment the woman fell heavily upon the +pillow. + +Every vestige of the writing had faded! The card was blank! + +The woman lay there dead. + + + + +II + +The Card Unveiled + + +No physician was ever more scrupulous than I have been, during my thirty +years of practice, in observing the code of professional secrecy; and it +is only for grave reasons, partly in the interests of medical science, +largely as a warning to intelligent people, that I place upon record the +following statements. + +One morning a gentleman called at my offices to consult me about some +nervous trouble. From the moment I saw him, the man made a deep +impression on me, not so much by the pallor and worn look of his face as +by a certain intense sadness in his eyes, as if all hope had gone out of +his life. I wrote a prescription for him, and advised him to try the +benefits of an ocean voyage. He seemed to shiver at the idea, and said +that he had been abroad too much, already. + +As he handed me my fee, my eye fell upon the palm of his hand, and I saw +there, plainly marked on the Mount of Saturn, a cross surrounded by two +circles. I should explain that for the greater part of my life I have +been a constant and enthusiastic student of palmistry. During my travels +in the Orient, after taking my degree, I spent months studying this +fascinating art at the best sources of information in the world. I have +read everything published on palmistry in every known language, and my +library on the subject is perhaps the most complete in existence. In my +time I have examined at least fourteen thousand palms, and taken casts +of many of the more interesting of them. But I had never seen such a +palm as this; at least, never but once, and the horror of the case was +so great that I shudder even now when I call it to mind. + +"Pardon me," I said, keeping the patient's hand in mine, "would you let +me look at your palm?" + +I tried to speak indifferently, as if the matter were of small +consequence, and for some moments I bent over the hand in silence. Then, +taking a magnifying glass from my desk, I looked at it still more +closely. I was not mistaken; here was indeed the sinister double circle +on Saturn's mount, with the cross inside,--a marking so rare as to +portend some stupendous destiny of good or evil, more probably the +latter. + +I saw that the man was uneasy under my scrutiny, and, presently, with +some hesitation, as if mustering courage, he asked: "Is there anything +remarkable about my hand?" + +"Yes," I said, "there is. Tell me, did not something very unusual, +something very horrible, happen to you about ten or eleven years ago?" + +I saw by the way the man started that I had struck near the mark, and, +studying the stream of fine lines that crossed his lifeline from the +Mount of Venus, I added: "Were you not in some foreign country at that +time?" + +The man's face blanched, but he only looked at me steadily out of those +mournful eyes. Now I took his other hand, and compared the two, line by +line, mount by mount, noting the short square fingers, the heavy thumb, +with amazing willpower in its upper joint, and gazing again and again at +that ominous sign on Saturn. + +"Your life has been strangely unhappy, your years have been clouded by +some evil influence." + +"My God," he said weakly, sinking into a chair, "how can you know these +things?" + +"It is easy to know what one sees," I said, and tried to draw him out +about his past, but the words seemed to stick in his throat. + +"I will come back and talk to you again," he said, and he went away +without giving me his name or any revelation of his life. + +Several times he called during subsequent weeks, and gradually seemed to +take on a measure of confidence in my presence. He would talk freely of +his physical condition, which seemed to cause him much anxiety. He even +insisted upon my making the most careful examination of all his organs, +especially of his eyes, which, he said, had troubled him at various +times. Upon making the usual tests, I found that he was suffering from a +most uncommon form of colour blindness, that seemed to vary in its +manifestations, and to be connected with certain hallucinations or +abnormal mental states which recurred periodically, and about which I +had great difficulty in persuading him to speak. At each visit I took +occasion to study his hand anew, and each reading of the palm gave me +stronger conviction that here was a life mystery that would abundantly +repay any pains taken in unravelling it. + +While I was in this state of mind, consumed with a desire to know more +of my unhappy acquaintance and yet not daring to press him with +questions, there came a tragic happening that revealed to me with +startling suddenness the secret I was bent on knowing. One night, very +late,--in fact it was about four o'clock in the morning,--I received an +urgent summons to the bedside of a man who had been shot. As I bent over +him I saw that it was my friend, and for the first time I realized that +he was a man of wealth and position, for he lived in a beautifully +furnished house filled with art treasures and looked after by a retinue +of servants. From one of these I learned that he was Richard Burwell, +one of New York's most respected citizens--in fact, one of her +best-known philanthropists, a man who for years had devoted his life and +fortune to good works among the poor. + +But what most excited my surprise was the presence in the house of two +officers, who informed me that Mr. Burwell was under arrest, charged +with murder. The officers assured me that it was only out of deference +to his well-known standing in the community that the prisoner had been +allowed the privilege of receiving medical treatment in his own home; +their orders were peremptory to keep him under close surveillance. + +Giving no time to further questionings, I at once proceeded to examine +the injured man, and found that he was suffering from a bullet wound in +the back at about the height of the fifth rib. On probing for the +bullet, I found that it had lodged near the heart, and decided that it +would be exceedingly dangerous to try to remove it immediately. So I +contented myself with administering a sleeping potion. + +As soon as I was free to leave Burwell's bedside I returned to the +officers and obtained from them details of what had happened. A woman's +body had been found a few hours before, shockingly mutilated, on Water +Street, one of the dark ways in the swarming region along the river +front. It had been found at about two o'clock in the morning by some +printers from the office of the _Courier des Etats Unis_, who, in coming +from their work, had heard cries of distress and hurried to the rescue. +As they drew near they saw a man spring away from something huddled on +the sidewalk, and plunge into the shadows of the night, running from +them at full speed. + +Suspecting at once that here was the mysterious assassin so long vainly +sought for many similar crimes, they dashed after the fleeing man, who +darted right and left through the maze of dark streets, giving out +little cries like a squirrel as he ran. Seeing that they were losing +ground, one of the printers fired at the fleeing shadow, his shot being +followed by a scream of pain, and hurrying up they found a man writhing +on the ground. The man was Richard Burwell. + +The news that my sad-faced friend had been implicated in such a +revolting occurrence shocked me inexpressibly, and I was greatly +relieved the next day to learn from the papers that a most unfortunate +mistake had been made. The evidence given before the coroner's jury was +such as to abundantly exonerate Burwell from all shadow of guilt. The +man's own testimony, taken at his bedside, was in itself almost +conclusive in his favour. When asked to explain his presence so late at +night in such a part of the city, Burwell stated that he had spent the +evening at the Florence Mission, where he had made an address to some +unfortunates gathered there, and that later he had gone with a young +missionary worker to visit a woman living on Frankfort Street, who was +dying of consumption. This statement was borne out by the missionary +worker himself, who testified that Burwell had been most tender in his +ministrations to the poor woman and had not left her until death had +relieved her sufferings. + +Another point which made it plain that the printers had mistaken their +man in the darkness, was the statement made by all of them that, as they +came running up, they had overheard some words spoken by the murderer, +and that these words were in their own language, French. Now it was +shown conclusively that Burwell did not know the French language, that +indeed he had not even an elementary knowledge of it. + +Another point in his favour was a discovery made at the spot where the +body was found. Some profane and ribald words, also in French, had been +scrawled in chalk on the door and doorsill, being in the nature of a +coarse defiance to the police to find the assassin, and experts in +handwriting who were called testified unanimously that Burwell, who +wrote a refined, scholarly hand, could never have formed those misshapen +words. + +Furthermore, at the time of his arrest no evidence was found on the +clothes or person of Burwell, nothing in the nature of bruises or +bloodstains that would tend to implicate him in the crime. The outcome +of the matter was that he was honourably discharged by the coroner's +jury, who were unanimous in declaring him innocent, and who brought in a +verdict that the unfortunate woman had come to her death at the hand of +some person or persons unknown. + +On visiting my patient late on the afternoon of the second day I saw +that his case was very grave, and I at once instructed the nurses and +attendants to prepare for an operation. The man's life depended upon my +being able to extract the bullet, and the chance of doing this was very +small. Mr. Burwell realized that his condition was critical, and, +beckoning me to him, told me that he wished to make a statement he felt +might be his last. He spoke with agitation which was increased by an +unforeseen happening. For just then a servant entered the room and +whispered to me that there was a gentleman downstairs who insisted upon +seeing me, and who urged business of great importance. This message the +sick man overheard, and lifting himself with an effort, he said +excitedly: "Tell me, is he a tall man with glasses?" + +The servant hesitated. + +"I knew it; you cannot deceive me; that man will haunt me to my grave. +Send him away, doctor; I beg of you not to see him." + +Humouring my patient, I sent word to the stranger that I could not see +him, but, in an undertone, instructed the servant to say that the man +might call at my office the next morning. Then, turning to Burwell, I +begged him to compose himself and save his strength for the ordeal +awaiting him. + +"No, no," he said, "I need my strength now to tell you what you must +know to find the truth. You are the only man who has understood that +there has been some terrible influence at work in my life. You are the +only man competent to study out what that influence is, and I have made +provision in my will that you shall do so after I am gone. I know that +you will heed my wishes?" + +The intense sadness of his eyes made my heart sink; I could only grip +his hand and remain silent. + +"Thank you; I was sure I might count on your devotion. Now, tell me, +doctor, you have examined me carefully, have you not?" + +I nodded. + +"In every way known to medical science?" + +I nodded again. + +"And have you found anything wrong with me,--I mean, besides this +bullet, anything abnormal?" + +"As I have told you, your eyesight is defective; I should like to +examine your eyes more thoroughly when you are better." + +"I shall never be better; besides it isn't my eyes; I mean myself, my +soul,--you haven't found anything wrong there?" + +"Certainly not; the whole city knows the beauty of your character and +your life." + +"Tut, tut; the city knows nothing. For ten years I have lived so much +with the poor that people have almost forgotten my previous active life +when I was busy with money-making and happy in my home. But there is a +man out West, whose head is white and whose heart is heavy, who has not +forgotten, and there is a woman in London, a silent, lonely woman, who +has not forgotten. The man was my partner, poor Jack Evelyth; the woman +was my wife. How can a man be so cursed, doctor, that his love and +friendship bring only misery to those who share it? How can it be that +one who has in his heart only good thoughts can be constantly under the +shadow of evil? This charge of murder is only one of several cases in my +life where, through no fault of mine, the shadow of guilt has been cast +upon me. + +"Years ago, when my wife and I were perfectly happy, a child was born to +us, and a few months later, when it was only a tender, helpless little +thing that its mother loved with all her heart, it was strangled in its +cradle, and we never knew who strangled it, for the deed was done one +night when there was absolutely no one in the house but my wife and +myself. There was no doubt about the crime, for there on the tiny neck +were the finger marks where some cruel hand had closed until life went. + +"Then a few years later, when my partner and I were on the eve of +fortune, our advance was set back by the robbery of our safe. Some one +opened it in the night, someone who knew the combination, for it was the +work of no burglar, and yet there were only two persons in the world who +knew that combination, my partner and myself. I tried to be brave when +these things happened, but as my life went on it seemed more and more as +if some curse were on me. + +"Eleven years ago I went abroad with my wife and daughter. Business took +me to Paris, and I left the ladies in London, expecting to have them +join me in a few days. But they never did join me, for the curse was on +me still, and before I had been forty-eight hours in the French capital +something happened that completed the wreck of my life. It doesn't seem +possible, does it, that a simple white card with some words scrawled on +it in purple ink could effect a man's undoing? And yet that was my fate. +The card was given me by a beautiful woman with eyes like stars. She is +dead long ago, and why she wished to harm me I never knew. You must find +that out. + +"You see I did not know the language of the country, and, wishing to +have the words translated,--surely that was natural enough,--I showed +the card to others. But no one would tell me what it meant. And, worse +than that, wherever I showed it, and to whatever person, there evil came +upon me quickly. I was driven from one hotel after another; an old +acquaintance turned his back on me; I was arrested and thrown into +prison; I was ordered to leave the country." + +The sick man paused for a moment in his weakness, but with an effort +forced himself to continue:-- + +"When I went back to London, sure of comfort in the love of my wife, she +too, on seeing the card, drove me from her with cruel words. And when +finally, in deepest despair, I returned to New York, dear old Jack, the +friend of a life-time, broke with me when I showed him what was written. +What the words were I do not know, and suppose no one will ever know, +for the ink has faded these many years. You will find the card in my +safe with other papers. But I want you, when I am gone, to find out the +mystery of my life; and--and--about my fortune, that must be held until +you have decided. There is no one who needs my money as much as the poor +in this city, and I have bequeathed it to them unless--" + +In an agony of mind, Mr. Burwell struggled to go on, I soothing and +encouraging him. + +"Unless you find what I am afraid to think, but--but--yes, I must say +it,--that I have not been a good man, as the world thinks, but have--O +doctor, if you find that I have unknowingly harmed any human being, I +want that person, or these persons, to have my fortune. Promise that." + +Seeing the wild light in Burwell's eyes, and the fever that was burning +him, I gave the promise asked of me, and the sick man sank back calmer. + +A little later, the nurse and attendants came for the operation. As they +were about to administer the ether, Burwell pushed them from him, and +insisted on having brought to his bedside an iron box from the safe. + +"The card is here," he said, laying his trembling hand upon the box, +"you will remember your promise!" + +Those were his last words, for he did not survive the operation. + +Early the next morning I received this message: "The stranger of +yesterday begs to see you"; and presently a gentleman of fine presence +and strength of face, a tall, dark-complexioned man wearing glasses, was +shown into the room. + +"Mr. Burwell is dead, is he not?" were his first words. + +"Who told you?" + +"No one told me, but I know it, and I thank God for it." + +There was something in the stranger's intense earnestness that convinced +me of his right to speak thus, and I listened attentively. + +"That you may have confidence in the statement I am about to make, I +will first tell you who I am"; and he handed me a card that caused me to +lift my eyes in wonder, for it bore a very great name, that of one of +Europe's most famous savants. + +"You have done me much honour, sir," I said with respectful inclination. + +"On the contrary you will oblige me by considering me in your debt, and +by never revealing my connection with this wretched man. I am moved to +speak partly from considerations of human justice, largely in the +interest of medical science. It is right for me to tell you, doctor, +that your patient was beyond question the Water Street assassin." + +"Impossible!" I cried. + +"You will not say so when I have finished my story, which takes me back +to Paris, to the time, eleven years ago, when this man was making his +first visit to the French capital." + +"The mysterious card!" I exclaimed. + +"Ah, he has told you of his experience, but not of what befell the night +before, when he first met my sister." + +"Your sister?" + +"Yes, it was she who gave him the card, and, in trying to befriend him, +made him suffer. She was in ill health at the time, so much so that we +had left our native India for extended journeyings. Alas! we delayed too +long, for my sister died in New York, only a few weeks later, and I +honestly believe her taking off was hastened by anxiety inspired by this +man." + +"Strange," I murmured, "how the life of a simple New York merchant could +become entangled with that of a great lady of the East." + +"Yet so it was. You must know that my sister's condition was due mainly +to an over fondness for certain occult investigations, from which I had +vainly tried to dissuade her. She had once befriended some adepts, who, +in return, had taught her things about the soul she had better have left +unlearned. At various times while with her I had seen strange things +happen, but I never realized what unearthly powers were in her until +that night in Paris. We were returning from a drive in the Bois; it was +about ten o'clock, and the city lay beautiful around us as Paris looks +on a perfect summer's night. Suddenly my sister gave a cry of pain and +put her hand to her heart. Then, changing from French to the language of +our country, she explained to me quickly that something frightful was +taking place there, where she pointed her finger across the river, that +we must go to the place at once--the driver must lash his horses--every +second was precious. + +"So affected was I by her intense conviction, and such confidence had I +in my sister's wisdom, that I did not oppose her, but told the man to +drive as she directed. The carriage fairly flew across the bridge, down +the Boulevard St. Germain, then to the left, threading its way through +the narrow streets that lie along the Seine. This way and that, straight +ahead here, a turn there, she directing our course, never hesitating, as +if drawn by some unseen power, and always urging the driver on to +greater speed. Finally, we came to a black-mouthed, evil-looking alley, +so narrow and roughly paved that the carriage could scarcely advance. + +"'Come on!' my sister cried, springing to the ground; 'we will go on +foot, we are nearly there. Thank God, we may yet be in time.' + +"No one was in sight as we hurried along the dark alley, and scarcely a +light was visible, but presently a smothered scream broke the silence, +and, touching my arm, my sister exclaimed:-- + +"'There, draw your weapon, quick, and take the man at any cost!' + +"So swiftly did everything happen after that that I hardly know my +actions, but a few minutes later I held pinioned in my arms a man whose +blows and writhings had been all in vain; for you must know that much +exercise in the jungle had made me strong of limb. As soon as I had made +the fellow fast I looked down and found moaning on the ground a poor +woman, who explained with tears and broken words that the man had been +in the very act of strangling her. Searching him I found a long-bladed +knife of curious shape, and keen as a razor, which had been brought for +what horrible purpose you may perhaps divine. + +"Imagine my surprise, on dragging the man back to the carriage, to find, +instead of the ruffianly assassin I expected, a gentleman as far as +could be judged from face and manner. Fine eyes, white hands, careful +speech, all the signs of refinement and the dress of a man of means. + +"'How can this be?' I said to my sister in our own tongue as we drove +away, I holding my prisoner on the opposite seat where he sat silent. + +"'It is a _kulos_-man,' she said, shivering, 'it is a fiend-soul. There +are a few such in the whole world, perhaps two or three in all.' + +"'But he has a good face.' + +"'You have not seen his real face yet; I will show it to you, +presently.' + +"In the strangeness of these happenings and the still greater +strangeness of my sister's words, I had all but lost the power of +wonder. So we sat without further word until the carriage stopped at the +little château we had taken near the Parc Monteau. + +"I could never properly describe what happened that night; my knowledge +of these things is too limited. I simply obeyed my sister in all that +she directed, and kept my eyes on this man as no hawk ever watched its +prey. She began by questioning him, speaking in a kindly tone which I +could ill understand. He seemed embarrassed, dazed, and professed to +have no knowledge of what had occurred, or how he had come where we +found him. To all my inquiries as to the woman or the crime he shook his +head blankly, and thus aroused my wrath. + +"'Be not angry with him, brother; he is not lying, it is the other +soul.' + +"She asked him about his name and country, and he replied without +hesitation that he was Richard Burwell, a merchant from New York, just +arrived in Paris, travelling for pleasure in Europe with his wife and +daughter. This seemed reasonable, for the man spoke English, and, +strangely enough, seemed to have no knowledge of French, although we +both remember hearing him speak French to the woman. + +"'There is no doubt,' my sister said, 'It is indeed a _kulos_-man; It +knows that I am here, that I am Its master. Look, look!' she cried +sharply, at the same time putting her eyes so close to the man's face +that their fierce light seemed to burn into him. What power she +exercised I do not know, nor whether some words she spoke, +unintelligible to me, had to do with what followed, but instantly there +came over this man, this pleasant-looking, respectable American citizen, +such a change as is not made by death worms gnawing in a grave. Now +there was a fiend grovelling at her feet, a foul, sin-stained fiend. + +"'Now you see the demon-soul,' said my sister. 'Watch It writhe and +struggle; it has served me well, brother, sayest thou not so, the lore I +gained from our wise men?' + +"The horror of what followed chilled my blood; nor would I trust my +memory were it not that there remained and still remains plain proof of +all that I affirm. This hideous creature, dwarfed, crouching, devoid of +all resemblance to the man we had but now beheld, chattering to us in +curious old-time French, poured out such horrid blasphemy as would have +blanched the cheek of Satan, and made recital of such evil deeds as +never mortal ear gave heed to. And as she willed my sister checked It or +allowed It to go on. What it all meant was more than I could tell. To me +it seemed as if these tales of wickedness had no connection with our +modern life, or with the world around us, and so I judged presently from +what my sister said. + +"'Speak of the later time, since thou wast in this clay.' + +"Then I perceived that the creature came to things of which I knew: It +spoke of New York, of a wife, a child, a friend. It told of strangling +the child, of robbing the friend; and was going on to tell God knows +what other horrid deeds when my sister stopped It. + +"'Stand as thou didst in killing the little babe, stand, stand!' and +once more she spoke some words unknown to me. Instantly the demon sprang +forward, and, bending Its clawlike hands, clutched them around some +little throat that was not there,--but I could see it in my mind. And +the look on its face was a blackest glimpse of hell. + +"'And now stand as thou didst in robbing the friend, stand, stand'; and +again came the unknown words, and again the fiend obeyed. + +"'These we will take for future use,' said my sister. And bidding me +watch the creature carefully until she should return, she left the room, +and, after none too short an absence, returned bearing a black box that +was an apparatus for photography, and something more besides,--some +newer, stranger kind of photography that she had learned. Then, on a +strangely fashioned card, a transparent white card, composed of many +layers of finest Oriental paper, she took the pictures of the creature +in those two creeping poses. And when it all was done, the card seemed +as white as before, and empty of all meaning until one held it up and +examined it intently. Then the pictures showed. + +And between the two there was a third picture, which somehow seemed to +show, at the same time, two faces in one, two souls, my sister said, the +kindly visaged man we first had seen, and then the fiend. + +"Now my sister asked for pen and ink and I gave her my pocket pen which +was filled with purple ink. Handing this to the _kulos_-man she bade him +write under the first picture: 'Thus I killed my babe.' And under the +second picture: 'Thus I robbed my friend.' And under the third, the one +that was between the other two: 'This is the soul of Richard Burwell.' +An odd thing about this writing was that it was in the same old French +the creature had used in speech, and yet Burwell knew no French. + +"My sister was about to finish with the creature when a new idea took +her, and she said, looking at It as before:--'Of all thy crimes which +one is the worst? Speak, I command thee!' + +"Then the fiend told how once It had killed every soul in a house of +holy women and buried the bodies in a cellar under a heavy door. + +"Where was the house?' + +"'At No. 19 Rue Picpus, next to the old graveyard.' + +"'And when was this?' + +"Here the fiend seemed to break into fierce rebellion, writhing on the +floor with hideous contortions, and pouring forth words that meant +nothing to me, but seemed to reach my sister's understanding, for she +interrupted from time to time, with quick, stern words that finally +brought It to subjection. + +"'Enough,' she said, 'I know all,' and then she spoke some words again, +her eyes fixed as before, and the reverse change came. Before us stood +once more the honest-looking, fine-appearing gentleman, Richard Burwell, +of New York. + +"'Excuse me, madame,' he said, awkwardly, but with deference; 'I must +have dosed a little. I am not myself to-night.' + +"'No,' said my sister, 'you have not been yourself to-night.' + +"A little later I accompanied the man to the Continental Hotel, where he +was stopping, and, returning to my sister, I talked with her until late +into the night. I was alarmed to see that she was wrought to a nervous +tension that augured ill for her health. I urged her to sleep, but she +would not. + +"'No,' she said, 'think of the awful responsibility that rests upon me.' +And then she went on with her strange theories and explanations, of +which I understood only that here was a power for evil more terrible +than a pestilence, menacing all humanity. + +"'Once in many cycles it happens,' she said, 'that a _kulos_-soul pushes +itself within the body of a new-born child, when the pure soul waiting +to enter is delayed. Then the two live together through that life, and +this hideous principle of evil has a chance upon the earth. It is my +will, as I feel it my duty, to see this poor man again. The chances are +that he will never know us, for the shock of this night to his normal +soul is so great as to wipe out memory.' + +"The next evening, about the same hour, my sister insisted that I should +go with her to the _Folies Bergère_, a concert garden, none too well +frequented, and when I remonstrated, she said: 'I must go,--It is +there,' and the words sent a shiver through me. + +"We drove to this place, and passing into the garden, presently +discovered Richard Burwell seated at a little table, enjoying the scene +of pleasure, which was plainly new to him. My sister hesitated a moment +what to do, and then, leaving my arm, she advanced to the table and +dropped before Burwell's eyes the card she had prepared. A moment later, +with a look of pity on her beautiful face, she rejoined me and we went +away. It was plain he did not know us." + +To so much of the savant's strange recital I had listened with absorbed +interest, though without a word, but now I burst in with questions. + +"What was your sister's idea in giving Burwell the card?" I asked. + +"It was in the hope that she might make the man understand his terrible +condition, that is, teach the pure soul to know its loathsome +companion." + +"And did her effort succeed?" + +"Alas! it did not; my sister's purpose was defeated by the man's +inability to see the pictures that were plain to every other eye. It is +impossible for the _kulos_-man to know his own degradation." + +"And yet this man has for years been leading a most exemplary life?" + +My visitor shook his head. "I grant you there has been improvement, due +largely to experiments I have conducted upon him according to my +sister's wishes. But the fiend soul was never driven out. It grieves me +to tell you, doctor, that not only was this man the Water Street +assassin, but he was the mysterious murderer, the long-sought-for +mutilator of women, whose red crimes have baffled the police of Europe +and America for the past ten years." + +"You know this," said I, starting up, "and yet did not denounce him?" + +"It would have been impossible to prove such a charge, and besides, I +had made oath to my sister that I would use the man only for these +soul-experiments. What are his crimes compared with the great secret of +knowledge I am now able to give the world?" + +"A secret of knowledge?" + +"Yes," said the savant, with intense earnestness, "I may tell you now, +doctor, what the whole world will know, ere long, that it is possible to +compel every living person to reveal the innermost secrets of his or her +life, so long as memory remains, for memory is only the power of +producing in the brain material pictures that may be projected +externally by the thought rays and made to impress themselves upon the +photographic plate, precisely as ordinary pictures do." + +"You mean," I exclaimed, "that you can photograph the two principles of +good and evil that exist in us?" + +"Exactly that. The great truth of a dual soul existence, that was dimly +apprehended by one of your Western novelists, has been demonstrated by +me in the laboratory with my camera. It is my purpose, at the proper +time, to entrust this precious knowledge to a chosen few who will +perpetuate it and use it worthily." + +"Wonderful, wonderful!" I cried, "and now tell me, if you will, about +the house on the Rue Picpus. Did you ever visit the place?" + +"We did, and found that no buildings had stood there for fifty years, so +we did not pursue the search."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Years later, some workmen in Paris, making excavations in +the Rue Picpus, came upon a heavy door buried under a mass of debris, +under an old cemetery. On lifting the door they found a vault-like +chamber in which were a number of female skeletons, and graven on the +walls were blasphemous words written in French, which experts declared +dated from fully two hundred years before. They also declared this +handwriting identical with that found on the door at the Water Street +murder in New York. Thus we may deduce a theory of fiend reincarnation; +for it would seem clear, almost to the point of demonstration, that this +murder of the seventeenth century was the work of the same evil soul +that killed the poor woman on Water Street towards the end of the +nineteenth century.] + +"And the writing on the card, have you any memory of it, for Burwell +told me that the words have faded?" + +"I have something better than that; I have a photograph of both card and +writing, which my sister was careful to take. I had a notion that the +ink in my pocket pen would fade, for it was a poor affair. This +photograph I will bring you to-morrow." + +"Bring it to Burwell's house," I said. + + * * * * * + +The next morning the stranger called as agreed upon. + +"Here is the photograph of the card," he said. + +"And here is the original card," I answered, breaking the seal of the +envelope I had taken from Burwell's iron box. "I have waited for your +arrival to look at it. Yes, the writing has indeed vanished; the card +seems quite blank." + +"Not when you hold it this way," said the stranger, and as he tipped the +card I saw such a horrid revelation as I can never forget. In an instant +I realized how the shock of seeing that card had been too great for the +soul of wife or friend to bear. In these pictures was the secret of a +cursed life. The resemblance to Burwell was unmistakable, the proof +against him was overwhelming. In looking upon that piece of pasteboard +the wife had seen a crime which the mother could never forgive, the +partner had seen a crime which the friend could never forgive. Think of +a loved face suddenly melting before your eyes into a grinning skull, +then into a mass of putrefaction, then into the ugliest fiend of hell, +leering at you, distorted with all the marks of vice and shame. That is +what I saw, that is what they had seen! + +"Let us lay these two cards in the coffin," said my companion +impressively, "we have done what we could." + +Eager to be rid of the hateful piece of pasteboard (for who could say +that the curse was not still clinging about it?), I took the strange +man's arm, and together we advanced into the adjoining room where the +body lay. I had seen Burwell as he breathed his last, and knew that +there had been a peaceful look on his face as he died. But now, as we +laid the two white cards on the still, breast, the savant suddenly +touched my arm, and pointing to the dead man's face, now frightfully +distorted, whispered:--"See, even in death It followed him. Let us close +the coffin quickly." + + + + +THE GREAT VALDEZ SAPPHIRE + +(ANONYMOUS) + + +I know more about it than anyone else in the world, its present owner +not excepted. I can give its whole history, from the Cingalese who found +it, the Spanish adventurer who stole it, the cardinal who bought it, the +Pope who graciously accepted it, the favoured son of the Church who +received it, the gay and giddy duchess who pawned it, down to the +eminent prelate who now holds it in trust as a family heirloom. + +It will occupy a chapter to itself in my forthcoming work on "Historic +Stones," where full details of its weight, size, colour, and value may +be found. At present I am going to relate an incident in its history +which, for obvious reasons, will not be published--which, in fact, I +trust the reader will consider related in strict confidence. + +I had never seen the stone itself when I began to write about it, and it +was not till one evening last spring, while staying with my nephew, Sir +Thomas Acton, that I came within measurable distance of it. A dinner +party was impending, and, at my instigation, the Bishop of Northchurch +and Miss Panton, his daughter and heiress, were among the invited +guests. + +The dinner was a particularly good one, I remember that distinctly. In +fact, I felt myself partly responsible for it, having engaged the new +cook--a talented young Italian, pupil of the admirable old _chef_ at my +club. We had gone over the _menu_ carefully together, with a result +refreshing in its novelty, but not so daring as to disturb the minds of +the innocent country guests who were bidden thereto. + +The first spoonful of soup was reassuring, and I looked to the end of +the table to exchange a congratulatory glance with Leta. What was amiss? +No response. Her pretty face was flushed, her smile constrained, she was +talking with quite unnecessary _empressement_ to her neighbour, Sir +Harry Landor, though Leta is one of those few women who understand the +importance of letting a man settle down tranquilly and with an +undisturbed mind to the business of dining, allowing no topic of serious +interest to come on before the _relevés_, and reserving mere +conversational brilliancy for the _entremets_. + +Guests all right? No disappointments? I had gone through the list with +her, selecting just the right people to be asked to meet the Landors, +our new neighbours. Not a mere cumbrous county gathering, nor yet a +showy imported party from town, but a skillful blending of both. Had +anything happened already? I had been late for dinner and missed the +arrivals in the drawing-room. It was Leta's fault. She has got into a +way of coming into my room and putting the last touches to my toilet. I +let her, for I am doubtful of myself nowadays after many years' +dependence on the best of valets. Her taste is generally beyond dispute, +but to-day she had indulged in a feminine vagary that provoked me and +made me late for dinner. + +"Are you going to wear your sapphire, Uncle Paul!" she cried in a tone +of dismay. "Oh, why not the ruby?" + +"You _would_ have your way about the table decorations," I gently +reminded her. "With that service of Crown Derby _repoussé_ and orchids, +the ruby would look absolutely barbaric. Now if you would have had the +Limoges set, white candles, and a yellow silk centre--" + +"Oh, but--I'm _so_ disappointed--I wanted the bishop to see your +ruby--or one of your engraved gems--" + +"My dear, it is on the bishop's account I put this on. You know his +daughter is heiress of the great Valdez sapphire--" + +"Of course she is, and when he has the charge of a stone three times as +big as yours, what's the use of wearing it? The ruby, dear Uncle Paul, +_please_!" + +She was desperately in earnest I could see, and considering the +obligations which I am supposed to be under to her and Tom, it was but a +little matter to yield, but it involved a good deal of extra trouble. +Studs, sleeve-links, watch-guard, all carefully selected to go with the +sapphire, had to be changed, the emerald which I chose as a compromise +requiring more florid accompaniments of a deeper tone of gold; and the +dinner hour struck as I replaced my jewel case, the one relic left me of +a once handsome fortune, in my fireproof safe. + +The emerald looked very well that evening, however. I kept my eyes upon +it for comfort when Miss Panton proved trying. + +She was a lean, yellow, dictatorial young person with no conversation. I +spoke of her father's celebrated sapphires. "_My_ sapphires," she +amended sourly; "though I am legally debarred from making any profitable +use of them." She furthermore informed me that she viewed them as +useless gauds, which ought to be disposed of for the benefit of the +heathen. I gave the subject up, and while she discoursed of the work of +the Blue Ribbon Army among the Bosjesmans I tried to understand a +certain dislocation in the arrangement of the table. Surely we were more +or less in number than we should be? Opposite side all right. Who was +extra on ours? I leaned forward. Lady Landor on one side of Tom, on the +other who? I caught glimpses of plumes pink and green nodding over a +dinner plate, and beneath them a pink nose in a green visage with a +nutcracker chin altogether unknown to me. A sharp gray eye shot a +sideway glance down the table and caught me peeping, and I retreated, +having only marked in addition two clawlike hands, with pointed ruffles +and a mass of brilliant rings, making good play with a knife and fork. +Who was she? At intervals a high acid voice could be heard addressing +Tom, and a laugh that made me shudder; it had the quality of the scream +of a bird of prey or the yell of a jackal. I had heard that sort of +laugh before, and it always made me feel like a defenseless rabbit. + +Every time it sounded I saw Leta's fan flutter more furiously and her +manner grow more nervously animated. Poor dear girl! I never in all my +recollection wished a dinner at an end so earnestly so as to assure her +of my support and sympathy, though without the faintest conception why +either should be required. + +The ices at last. A _menu_ card folded in two was laid beside me. I read +it unobserved. "Keep the B. from joining us in the drawing-room." The +B.--? The bishop, of course. With pleasure. But why? And how? _That's_ +the question, never mind "why." Could I lure him into the library--the +billiard room--the conservatory? I doubted it, and I doubted still more +what I should do with him when I got him there. + +The bishop is a grand and stately ecclesiastic of the mediæval type, +broad-chested, deep-voiced, martial of bearing. I could picture him +charging mace in hand at the head of his vassals, or delivering over a +dissenter of the period to the rack and thumb-screw, but not pottering +among rare editions, tall copies and Grolier bindings, nor condescending +to a quiet cigar among the tree ferns and orchids. Leta must and should +be obeyed, I swore, nevertheless, even if I were driven to lock the door +in the fearless old fashion of a bygone day, and declare I'd shoot any +man who left while a drop remained in the bottles. + +The ladies were rising. The lady at the head of the line smirked and +nodded her pink plumes coquettishly at Tom, while her hawk's eyes roved +keen and predatory over us all. She stopped suddenly, creating a block +and confusion. + +"Ah, the dear bishop! _You_ there, and I never saw you! You must come +and have a nice long chat presently. By-by--!" She shook her fan at him +over my shoulder and tripped on. Leta, passing me last, gave me a look +of profound despair. + +"Lady Carwitchet!" somebody exclaimed. "I couldn't believe my eyes." + +"Thought she was dead or in penal servitude. Never should have expected +to see her _here_," said someone else behind me confidentially. + +"What Carwitchet? Not the mother of the Carwitchet who--" + +"Just so. The Carwitchet who--" Tom assented with a shrug. "We needn't +go farther, as she's my guest. Just my luck. I met them at Buxton, +thought them uncommonly good company--in fact, Carwitchet laid me under +a great obligation about a horse I was nearly let in for buying--and +gave them a general invitation here, as one does, you know. Never +expected her to turn up with her luggage this afternoon just before +dinner, to stay a week, or a fortnight if Carwitchet can join her." A +groan of sympathy ran round the table. "It can't be helped. I've told +you this just to show that I shouldn't have asked you here to meet this +sort of people of my own free will; but, as it is, please say no more +about them." The subject was not dropped by any means, and I took care +that it should not be. At our end of the table one story after another +went buzzing round--_sotto voce_, out of deference to Tom--but perfectly +audible. + +"Carwitchet? Ah, yes. Mixed up in that Rawlings divorce case, wasn't he? +A bad lot. Turned out of the Dragoon Guards for cheating at cards, or +picking pockets, or something--remember the row at the Cerulean Club? +Scandalous exposure--and that forged letter business--oh, that was the +mother--prosecution hushed up somehow. Ought to be serving her fourteen +years--and that business of poor Farrars, the banker--got hold of some +of his secrets and blackmailed him till he blew his brains out--" + +It was so exciting that I clean forgot the bishop, till a low gasp at my +elbow startled me. He was lying back in his chair, his mighty shaven +jowl a ghastly white, his fierce imperious eyebrows drooping limp over +his fishlike eyes, his splendid figure shrunk and contracted. He was +trying with a shaken hand to pour out wine. The decanter clattered +against the glass and the wine spilled on the cloth. + +"I'm afraid you find the room too warm. Shall we go into the library?" + +He rose hastily and followed me like a lamb. + +He recovered himself once we got into the hall, and affably rejected all +my proffers of brandy and soda--medical advice--everything else my +limited experience could suggest. He only demanded his carriage +"directly" and that Miss Panton should be summoned forthwith. + +I made the best use I could of the time left me. + +"I'm uncommonly sorry you do not feel equal to staying a little longer, +my lord. I counted on showing you my few trifles of precious stones, the +salvage from the wreck of my possessions. Nothing in comparison with +your own collection." + +The bishop clasped his hand over his heart. His breath came short and +quick. + +"A return of that dizziness," he explained with a faint smile. "You are +thinking of the Valdez sapphire, are you not? Some day," he went on with +forced composure, "I may have the pleasure of showing it to you. It is +at my banker's just now." + +Miss Panton's steps were heard in the hall. "You are well known as a +connoisseur, Mr. Acton," he went on hurriedly. "Is your collection +valuable? If so, _keep it safe; don' trust a ring off your hand, or the +key of your jewel-case out of your pocket till the house is clear +again_." The words rushed from his lips in an impetuous whisper, he gave +me a meaning glance, and departed with his daughter. I went back to the +drawing-room, my head swimming with bewilderment. + +"What! The dear bishop gone!" screamed Lady Carwitchet from the central +ottoman where she sat, surrounded by most of the gentlemen, all +apparently well entertained by her conversation. "And I wanted to talk +over old times with him so badly. His poor wife was my greatest friend. +Mira Montanaro, daughter of the great banker, you know. It's not +possible that that miserable little prig is my poor Mira's girl. The +heiress of all the Montanaros in a black-lace gown worth twopence! When +I think of her mother's beauty and her toilets! Does she ever wear the +sapphires? Has anyone ever seen her in them? Eleven large stones in a +lovely antique setting, and the great Valdez sapphire--worth thousands +and thousands--for the pendant." No one replied. "I wanted to get a rise +out of the bishop to-night. It used to make him so mad when I wore +this." + +She fumbled among the laces at her throat, and clawed out a pendant that +hung to a velvet band around her neck. I fairly gasped when she removed +her hand. A sapphire of irregular shape flashed out its blue lightning +on us. Such a stone! A true, rich, cornflower blue even by that wretched +artificial light, with soft velvety depths of colour and dazzling +clearness of tint in its lights and shades--a stone to remember! I +stretched out my hand involuntarily, but Lady Carwitchet drew back with +a coquettish squeal. "No! no! You mustn't look any closer. Tell me what +you think of it now. Isn't it pretty?" + +"Superb!" was all I could ejaculate, staring at the azure splendour of +that miraculous jewel in a sort of trance. + +She gave a shrill cackling laugh of mockery. + +"The great Mr. Acton taken in by a bit of Palais Royal gimcrackery! What +an advertisement for Bogaerts et Cie! They are perfect artists in +frauds. Don't you remember their stand at the first Paris Exhibition? +They had imitations there of every celebrated stone; but I never +expected anything made by man could delude Mr. Acton, never!" And she +went off into another mocking cackle, and all the idiots round her +haw-hawed knowingly, as if they had seen the joke all along. I was too +bewildered to reply, which was on the whole lucky. "I suppose I musn't +tell why I came to give quite a big sum in francs for this?" she went +on, tapping her closed lips with her closed fan, and cocking her eye at +us all like a parrot wanting to be coaxed to talk. "It's a queer story." + +I didn't want to hear her anecdote, especially as I saw she wanted to +tell it. What I _did_ want was to see that pendant again. She had thrust +it back among her laces, only the loop which held it to the velvet being +visible. It was set with three small sapphires, and even from a distance +I clearly made them out to be imitations, and poor ones. I felt a queer +thrill of self-mistrust. Was the large stone no better? Could I, even +for an instant, have been dazzled by a sham, and a sham of that quality? +The events of the evening had flurried and confused me. I wished to +think them over in quiet. I would go to bed. + +My rooms at the Manor are the best in the house. Leta will have it so. I +must explain their position for a reason to be understood later. My +bedroom is in the southeast angle of the house; it opens on one side +into a sitting-room in the east corridor, the rest of which is taken up +by the suite of rooms occupied by Tom and Leta; and on the other side +into my bathroom, the first room in the south corridor where the +principal guest chambers are, to one of which it was originally the +dressing-room. Passing this room I noticed a couple of housemaids +preparing it for the night, and discovered with a shiver that Lady +Carwitchet was to be my next-door neighbour. It gave me a turn. + +The bishop's strange warning must have unnerved me. I was perfectly safe +from her ladyship. The disused door into her room was locked, and the +key safe on the housekeeper's bunch. It was also undiscoverable on her +side, the recess in which it stood being completely filled by a large +wardrobe. On my side hung a thick sound-proof _portière_. Nevertheless, +I resolved not to use that room while she inhabited the next one. I +removed my possessions, fastened the door of communication with my +bedroom and dragged a heavy ottoman across it. + +Then I stowed away my emerald in my strong-box. It is built into the +wall of my sitting-room, and masked by the lower part of an old carved +oak bureau. I put away even the rings I wore habitually, keeping out +only an inferior cat's-eye for workaday wear. I had just made all safe +when Leta tapped at the door and came in to wish me good night. She +looked flushed and harassed and ready to cry. "Uncle Paul," she began, +"I want you to go up to town at once, and stay away till I send for +you." + +"My dear--!" I was too amazed to expostulate. + +"We've got a--a pestilence among us," she declared, her foot tapping the +ground angrily, "and the least we can do is to go into quarantine. Oh, +I'm so sorry and so ashamed! The poor bishop! I'll take good care that +no one else shall meet that woman here. You did your best for me, Uncle +Paul, and managed admirably, but it was all no use. I hoped against hope +that what between the dusk of the drawing-room before dinner, and being +put at opposite ends of the table, we might get through without a +meeting--" + +"But, my dear, explain. Why shouldn't the bishop and Lady Carwitchet +meet? Why is it worse for him than anyone else?" + +"Why? I thought everybody had heard of that dreadful wife of his who +nearly broke his heart. If he married her for her money it served him +right, but Lady Landor says she was very handsome and really in love +with him at first. Then Lady Carwitchet got hold of her and led her into +all sorts of mischief. She left her husband--he was only a rector with a +country living in those days--and went to live in town, got into a +horrid fast set, and made herself notorious. You _must_ have heard of +her." + +"I heard of her sapphires, my dear. But I was in Brazil at the time." + +"I wish you had been at home. You might have found her out. She was +furious because her husband refused to let her wear the great Valdez +sapphire. It had been in the Montanaro family for some generations, and +her father settled it first on her and then on her little girl--the +bishop being trustee. He felt obliged to take away the little girl, and +send her off to be brought up by some old aunts in the country, and he +locked up the sapphire. Lady Carwitchet tells as a splendid joke how +they got the copy made in Paris, and it did just as well for the people +to stare at. No wonder the bishop hates the very name of the stone." + +"How long will she stay here?" I asked dismally. + +"Till Lord Carwitchet can come and escort her to Paris to visit some +American friends. Goodness knows when that will be! Do go up to town, +Uncle Paul!" + +I refused indignantly. The very least I could do was to stand by my poor +young relatives in their troubles and help them through. I did so. I +wore that inferior cat's eye for six weeks! + +It is a time I cannot think of even now without a shudder. The more I +saw of that terrible old woman the more I detested her, and we saw a +very great deal of her. Leta kept her word, and neither accepted nor +gave invitations all that time. We were cut off from all society but +that of old General Fairford, who would go anywhere and meet anyone to +get a rubber after dinner; the doctor, a sporting widower; and the +Duberlys, a giddy, rather rackety young couple who had taken the Dower +House for a year. Lady Carwitchet seemed perfectly content. She revelled +in the soft living and good fare of the Manor House, the drives in +Leta's big barouche, and Domenico's dinners, as one to whom short +commons were not unknown. She had a hungry way of grabbing and grasping +at everything she could--the shillings she won at whist, the best fruit +at dessert, the postage stamps in the library inkstand--that was +infinitely suggestive. Sometimes I could have pitied her, she was so +greedy, so spiteful, so friendless. She always made me think of some +wicked old pirate putting into a peaceful port to provision and repair +his battered old hulk, obliged to live on friendly terms with the +natives, but his piratical old nostrils asniff for plunder and his +piratical old soul longing to be off marauding once more. When would +that be? Not till the arrival in Paris of her distinguished American +friends, of whom we heard a great deal. "Charming people, the Bokums of +Chicago, the American branch of the English Beauchamps, you know!" They +seemed to be taking an unconscionable time to get there. She would have +insisted on being driven over to Northchurch to call at the palace, but +that the bishop was understood to be holding confirmations at the other +end of the diocese. + +I was alone in the house one afternoon sitting by my window, toying with +the key of my safe, and wondering whether I dare treat myself to a peep +at my treasures, when a suspicious movement in the park below caught my +attention. A black figure certainly dodged from behind one tree to the +next, and then into the shadow of the park paling instead of keeping to +the footpath. It looked queer. I caught up my field glass and marked him +at one point where he was bound to come into the open for a few steps. +He crossed the strip of turf with giant strides and got into cover +again, but not quick enough to prevent me recognizing him. It was--great +heavens!--the bishop! In a soft hat pulled over his forehead, with a +long cloak and a big stick he looked like a poacher. + +Guided by some mysterious instinct I hurried to meet him. I opened the +conservatory door, and in he rushed like a hunted rabbit. Without +explanation I led him up the wide staircase to my room, where he dropped +into a chair and wiped his face. + +"You are astonished, Mr. Acton," he panted. "I will explain directly. +Thanks." He tossed off the glass of brandy I had poured out without +waiting for the qualifying soda, and looked better. + +"I am in serious trouble. You can help me. I've had a shock to-day--a +grievous shock." He stopped and tried to pull himself together. "I must +trust you implicitly, Mr. Acton, I have no choice. Tell me what you +think of this." He drew a case from his breast pocket and opened it. "I +promised you should see the Valdez sapphire. Look there!" + +The Valdez sapphire! A great big shining lump of blue crystal--flawless +and of perfect colour--that was all. I took it up, breathed on it, drew +out my magnifier, looked at it in one light and another. What was wrong +with it? I could not say. Nine experts out of ten would undoubtedly have +pronounced the stone genuine. I, by virtue of some mysterious instinct +that has hitherto always guided me aright, was the unlucky tenth. I +looked at the bishop. His eyes met mine. There was no need of spoken +word between us. + +"Has Lady Carwitchet shown you her sapphire?" was his most unexpected +question. "She has? Now, Mr. Acton, on your honour as a connoisseur and +a gentleman, which of the two is the Valdez?" + +"Not this one." I could say naught else. + +"You were my last hope." He broke off, and dropped his face on his +folded arms with a groan that shook the table on which he rested, while +I stood dismayed at myself for having let so hasty a judgment escape me. +He lifted a ghastly countenance to me. "She vowed she would see me +ruined and disgraced. I made her my enemy by crossing some of her +schemes once, and she never forgives. She will keep her word. I shall +appear before the world as a fraudulent trustee. I can neither produce +the valuable confided to my charge nor make the loss good. I have only +an incredible story to tell," he dropped his head and groaned again. +"Who will believe me?" + +"I will, for one." + +"Ah, you? Yes, you know her. She took my wife from me, Mr. Acton. Heaven +only knows what the hold was that she had over poor Mira. She encouraged +her to set me at defiance and eventually to leave me. She was answerable +for all the scandalous folly and extravagance of poor Mira's life in +Paris--spare me the telling of the story. She left her at last to die +alone and uncared for. I reached my wife to find her dying of a fever +from which Lady Carwitchet and her crew had fled. She was raving in +delirium, and died without recognizing me. Some trouble she had been in +which I must never know oppressed her. At the very last she roused from +a long stupor and spoke to the nurse. 'Tell him to get the sapphire +back--she stole it. She has robbed my child.' Those were her last words. +The nurse understood no English, and treated them as wandering; but _I_ +heard them, and knew she was sane when she spoke." + +"What did you do?" + +"What could I? I saw Lady Carwitchet, who laughed at me, and defied me +to make her confess or disgorge. I took the pendant to more than one +eminent jeweller on pretense of having the setting seen to, and all have +examined and admired without giving a hint of there being anything +wrong. I allowed a celebrated mineralogist to see it; he gave no sign--" + +"Perhaps they are right and we are wrong." + +"No, no. Listen. I heard of an old Dutchman celebrated for his +imitations. I went to him, and he told me at once that he had been +allowed by Montanaro to copy the Valdez--setting and all--for the Paris +Exhibition. I showed him this, and he claimed it for his own work at +once, and pointed out his private mark upon it. You must take your +magnifier to find it; a Greek Beta. He also told me that he had sold it +to Lady Carwitchet more than a year ago." + +"It is a terrible position." + +"It is. My co-trustee died lately. I have never dared to have another +appointed. I am bound to hand over the sapphire to my daughter on her +marriage, if her husband consents to take the name of Montanaro." + +The bishop's face was ghastly pale, and the moisture started on his +brow. I racked my brain for some word of comfort. + +"Miss Panton may never marry." + +"But she will!" he shouted. "That is the blow that has been dealt me +to-day. My chaplain--actually, my chaplain--tells me that he is going +out as a temperance missionary to equatorial Africa, and has the +assurance to add that he believes my daughter is not indisposed to +accompany him!" His consummating wrath acted as a momentary stimulant. +He sat upright, his eyes flashing and his brow thunderous. I felt for +that chaplain. Then he collapsed miserably. "The sapphires will have to +be produced, identified, revalued. How shall I come out of it? Think of +the disgrace, the ripping up of old scandals! Even if I were to compound +with Lady Carwitchet, the sum she hinted at was too monstrous. She wants +more than my money. Help me, Mr. Acton! For the sake of your own family +interest, help me!" + +"I beg your pardon--family interests? I don't understand." + +"If my daughter is childless, her next of kin is poor Marmaduke Panton, +who is dying at Cannes, not married, or likely to marry; and failing +him, your nephew, Sir Thomas Acton, succeeds." + +My nephew Tom! Leta, or Leta's baby, might come to be the possible +inheritor of the great Valdez sapphire! The blood rushed to my head as I +looked at the great shining swindle before me. "What diabolic jugglery +was at work when the exchange was made?" I demanded fiercely. + +"It must have been on the last occasion of her wearing the sapphires in +London. I ought never to have let her out of my sight." + +"You must put a stop to Miss Panton's marriage in the first place," I +pronounced as autocratically as he could have done himself. + +"Not to be thought of," he admitted helplessly. "Mira has my force of +character. She knows her rights, and she will have her jewels. I want +you to take charge of the--thing for me. If it's in the house she'll +make me produce it. She'll inquire at the banker's. If _you_ have it we +can gain time, if but for a day or two." He broke off. Carriage wheels +were crashing on the gravel outside. We looked at one another in +consternation. Flight was imperative. I hurried him downstairs and out +of the conservatory just as the door-bell rang. I think we both lost our +heads in the confusion. He shoved the case into my hands, and I pocketed +it, without a thought of the awful responsibility I was incurring, and +saw him disappear into the shelter of the friendly night. + +When I think of what my feelings were that evening--of my murderous +hatred of that smirking jesting Jezebel who sat opposite me at dinner, +my wrathful indignation at the thought of the poor little expected heir +defrauded ere his birth; of the crushing contempt I felt for myself and +the bishop as a pair of witless idiots unable to see our way out of the +dilemma; all this boiling and surging through my soul, I can only +wonder--Domenico having given himself a holiday, and the kitchen-maid +doing her worst and wickedest--that gout or jaundice did not put an end +to this story at once. + +"Uncle Paul!" Leta was looking her sweetest when she tripped into my +room next morning. "I've news for you. She," pointing a delicate +forefinger in the direction of the corridor, "is going! Her Bokums have +reached Paris at last, and sent for her to join them at the Grand +Hotel." + +I was thunderstruck. The longed-for deliverance had but come to remove +hopelessly and forever out of my reach Lady Carwitchet and the great +Valdez sapphire. + +"Why, aren't you overjoyed? I am. We are going to celebrate the event by +a dinner-party. Tom's hospitable soul is vexed by the lack of +entertainment we had provided for her. We must ask the Brownleys some +day or other, and they will be delighted to meet anything in the way of +a ladyship, or such smart folks as the Duberly-Parkers. Then we may as +well have the Blomfields, and air that awful modern Sèvres +dessert-service she gave us when we were married." I had no objection to +make, and she went on, rubbing her soft cheek against my shoulder like +the purring little cat she was: "Now I want you to do something to +please me--and Mrs. Blomfield. She has set her heart on seeing your +rubies, and though I know you hate her about as much as you do that +Sèvres china--" + +"What! Wear my rubies with that! I won't. I'll tell you what I will do, +though. I've got some carbuncles as big as prize gooseberries, a whole +set. Then you have only to put those Bohemian glass vases and candelabra +on the table, and let your gardener do his worst with his great forced, +scentless, vulgar blooms, and we shall all be in keeping." Leta pouted. +An idea struck me. "Or I'll do as you wish, on one condition. You get +Lady Carwitchet to wear her big sapphire, and don't tell her I wish it." + +I lived through the next few days as one in some evil dream. The +sapphires, like twin spectres, haunted me day and night. Was ever man so +tantalized? To hold the shadow and see the substance dangled temptingly +within reach. The bishop made no sign of ridding me of my unwelcome +charge, and the thought of what might happen in a case of +burglary--fire--earthquake--made me start and tremble at all sorts of +inopportune moments. + +I kept faith with Leta, and reluctantly produced my beautiful rubies on +the night of her dinner party. Emerging from my room I came full upon +Lady Carwitchet in the corridor. She was dressed for dinner, and at her +throat I caught the blue gleam of the great sapphire. Leta had kept +faith with me. I don't know what I stammered in reply to her ladyship's +remarks; my whole soul was absorbed in the contemplation of the +intoxicating loveliness of the gem. _That_ a Palais Royal deception! +Incredible! My fingers twitched, my breath came short and fierce with +the lust of possession. She must have seen the covetous glare in my +eyes. A look of gratified spiteful complacency overspread her features, +as she swept on ahead and descended the stairs before me. I followed her +to the drawing-room door. She stopped suddenly, and murmuring something +unintelligible hurried back again. + +Everybody was assembled there that I expected to see, with an addition. +Not a welcome one by the look on Tom's face. He stood on the hearth-rug +conversing with a great hulking, high-shouldered fellow, sallow-faced, +with a heavy moustache and drooping eyelids, from the corners of which +flashed out a sudden suspicious look as I approached, which lighted up +into a greedy one as it rested on my rubies, and seemed unaccountably +familiar to me, till Lady Carwitchet tripping past me exclaimed: + +"He has come at last! My naughty, naughty boy! Mr. Acton, this is my +son, Lord Carwitchet!" + +I broke off short in the midst of my polite acknowledgments to stare +blankly at her. The sapphire was gone! A great gilt cross, with a Scotch +pebble like an acid drop, was her sole decoration. + +"I had to put my pendant away," she explained confidentially; "the clasp +had got broken somehow." I didn't believe a word. + +Lord Carwitchet contributed little to the general entertainment at +dinner, but fell into confidential talk with Mrs. Duberly-Parker. I +caught a few unintelligible remarks across the table. They referred, I +subsequently discovered, to the lady's little book on Northchurch races, +and I recollected that the Spring Meeting was on, and to-morrow "Cup +Day." After dinner there was great talk about getting up a party to go +on General Fairford's drag. Lady Carwitchet was in ecstasies and tried +to coax me into joining. Leta declined positively. Tom accepted sulkily. + +The look in Lord Carwitchet's eye returned to my mind as I locked up my +rubies that night. It made him look so like his mother! I went round my +fastenings with unusual care. Safe and closets and desk and doors, I +tried them all. Coming at last to the bathroom, it opened at once. It +was the housemaid's doing. She had evidently taken advantage of my +having abandoned the room to give it "a thorough spring cleaning," and I +anathematized her. The furniture was all piled together and veiled with +sheets, the carpet and felt curtain were gone, there were new brooms +about. As I peered around, a voice close at my ear made me jump--Lady +Carwitchet's! + +"I tell you I have nothing, not a penny! I shall have to borrow my train +fare before I can leave this. They'll be glad enough to lend it." + +Not only had the _portière_ been removed, but the door behind it had +been unlocked and left open for convenience of dusting behind the +wardrobe. I might as well have been in the bedroom. + +"Don't tell me," I recognized Carwitchet's growl. "You've not been here +all this time for nothing. You've been collecting for a Kilburn cot or +getting subscriptions for the distressed Irish landlords. I know you. +Now I'm not going to see myself ruined for the want of a paltry hundred +or so. I tell you the colt is a dead certainty. If I could have got a +thousand or two on him last week, we might have ended our dog days +millionaires. Hand over what you can. You've money's worth, if not +money. Where's that sapphire you stole?" + +"I didn't. I can show you the receipted bill. All _I_ possess is +honestly come by. What could you do with it, even if I gave it you? You +couldn't sell it as the Valdez, and you can't get it cut up as you might +if it were real." + +"If it's only bogus, why are you always in such a flutter about it? I'll +do something with it, never fear. Hand over." + +"I can't. I haven't got it. I had to raise something on it before I left +town." + +"Will you swear it's not in that wardrobe? I dare say you will. I mean +to see. Give me those keys." + +I heard a struggle and a jingle, then the wardrobe door must have been +flung open, for a streak of light struck through a crack in the wood of +the back. Creeping close and peeping through, I could see an awful +sight. Lady Carwitchet in a flannel wrapper, minus hair, teeth, +complexion, pointing a skinny forefinger that quivered with rage at her +son, who was out of the range of my vision. + +"Stop that, and throw those keys down here directly, or I'll rouse the +house. Sir Thomas is a magistrate, and will lock you up as soon as look +at you." She clutched at the bell rope as she spoke. "I'll swear I'm in +danger of my life from you and give you in charge. Yes, and when you're +in prison I'll keep you there till you die. I've often thought I'd do +it. How about the hotel robberies last summer at Cowes, eh? Mightn't the +police be grateful for a hint or two? And how about--" + +The keys fell with a crash on the bed, accompanied by some bad language +in an apologetic tone, and the door slammed to. I crept trembling to +bed. + +This new and horrible complication of the situation filled me with +dismay. Lord Carwitchet's wolfish glance at my rubies took a new +meaning. They were safe enough, I believed--but the sapphire! If he +disbelieved his mother, how long would she be able to keep it from his +clutches? That she had some plot of her own of which the bishop would +eventually be the victim I did not doubt, or why had she not made her +bargain with him long ago? But supposing she took fright, lost her head, +allowed her son to wrest the jewel from her, or gave consent to its +being mutilated, divided! I lay in a cold perspiration till morning. + +My terrors haunted me all day. They were with me at breakfast time when +Lady Carwitchet, tripping in smiling, made a last attempt to induce me +to accompany her and keep her "bad, bad boy" from getting among "those +horrid betting men." + +They haunted me through the long peaceful day with Leta and the +_tête-à-tête_ dinner, but they swarmed around and beset me sorest when, +sitting alone over my sitting-room fire, I listened for the return of +the drag party. I read my newspaper and brewed myself some hot strong +drink, but there comes a time of night when no fire can warm and no +drink can cheer. The bishop's despairing face kept me company, and his +troubles and the wrongs of the future heir took possession of me. Then +the uncanny noises that make all old houses ghostly during the small +hours began to make themselves heard. Muffled footsteps trod the +corridor, stopping to listen at every door, door latches gently clicked, +boards creaked unreasonably, sounds of stealthy movements came from the +locked-up bathroom. The welcome crash of wheels at last, and the sound +of the front-door bell. I could hear Lady Carwitchet making her shrill +_adieux_ to her friends and her steps in the corridor. She was softly +humming a little song as she approached. I heard her unlock her bedroom +door before she entered--an odd thing to do. Tom came sleepily stumbling +to his room later. I put my head out. "Where is Lord Carwitchet?" + +"Haven't you seen him? He left us hours ago. Not come home, eh? Well, +he's welcome to stay away. I don't want to see more of him." Tom's brow +was dark and his voice surly. "I gave him to understand as much." +Whatever had happened, Tom was evidently too disgusted to explain just +then. + +I went back to my fire unaccountably relieved, and brewed myself another +and a stronger brew. It warmed me this time, but excited me foolishly. +There must be some way out of the difficulty. I felt now as if I could +almost see it if I gave my mind to it. Why--suppose--there might be no +difficulty after all! The bishop was a nervous old gentleman. He might +have been mistaken all through, Bogaerts might have been mistaken, I +might--no. I could not have been mistaken--or I thought not. I fidgeted +and fumed and argued with myself till I found I should have no peace of +mind without a look at the stone in my possession, and I actually went +to the safe and took the case out. + +The sapphire certainly looked different by lamplight. I sat and stared, +and all but overpersuaded my better judgment into giving it a verdict. +Bogaerts's mark--I suddenly remembered it. I took my magnifier and held +the pendant to the light. There, scratched upon the stone, was the Greek +Beta! There came a tap on my door, and before I could answer, the handle +turned softly and Lord Carwitchet stood before me. I whipped the case +into my dressing-gown pocket and stared at him. He was not pleasant to +look at, especially at that time of night. He had a dishevelled, +desperate air, his voice was hoarse, his red-rimmed eyes wild. + +"I beg your pardon," he began civilly enough. "I saw your light burning, +and thought, as we go by the early train to-morrow, you might allow me +to consult you now on a little business of my mother's." His eyes roved +about the room. Was he trying to find the whereabouts of my safe? "You +know a lot about precious stones, don't you?" + +"So my friends are kind enough to say. Won't you sit down? I have +unluckily little chance of indulging the taste on my own account," was +my cautious reply. + +"But you've written a book about them, and know them when you see them, +don't you? Now my mother has given me something, and would like you to +give a guess at its value. Perhaps you can put me in the way of +disposing of it?" + +"I certainly can do so if it is worth anything. Is that it?" I was in a +fever of excitement, for I guessed what was clutched in his palm. He +held out to me the Valdez sapphire. + +How it shone and sparkled like a great blue star! I made myself a +deprecating smile as I took it from him, but how dare I call it false to +its face? As well accuse the sun in heaven of being a cheap imitation. I +faltered and prevaricated feebly. Where was my moral courage, and where +was the good, honest, thumping lie that should have aided me? "I have +the best authority for recognizing this as a very good copy of a famous +stone in the possession of the Bishop of Northchurch." His scowl grew so +black that I saw he believed me, and I went on more cheerily: "This was +manufactured by Johannes Bogaerts--I can give you his address, and you +can make inquiries yourself--by special permission of the then owner, +the late Leone Montanaro." + +"Hand it back!" he interrupted (his other remarks were outrageous, but +satisfactory to hear); but I waved him off. I couldn't give it up. It +fascinated me. I toyed with it, I caressed it. I made it display its +different tones of colour. I must see the two stones together. I must +see it outshine its paltry rival. It was a whimsical frenzy that seized +me--I can call it by no other name. + +"Would you like to see the original? Curiously enough, I have it here. +The bishop has left it in my charge." + +The wolfish light flamed up in Carwitchet's eyes as I drew forth the +case. He laid the Valdez down on a sheet of paper, and I placed the +other, still in its case, beside it. In that moment they looked +identical, except for the little loop of sham stones, replaced by a +plain gold band in the bishop's jewel. Carwitchet leaned across the +table eagerly, the table gave a lurch, the lamp tottered, crashed over, +and we were left in semidarkness. + +"Don't stir!" Carwitchet shouted. "The paraffin is all over the place!" +He seized my sofa blanket, and flung it over the table while I stood +helpless. "There, that's safe now. Have you candles on the +chimney-piece? I've got matches." + +He looked very white and excited as he lit up. "Might have been an +awkward job with all that burning paraffin running about," he said quite +pleasantly. "I hope no real harm is done." I was lifting the rug with +shaking hands. The two stones lay as I had placed them. No! I nearly +dropped it back again. It was the stone in the case that had the loop +with the three sham sapphires! + +Carwitchet picked the other up hastily. "So you say this is rubbish?" he +asked, his eyes sparkling wickedly, and an attempt at mortification in +his tone. + +"Utter rubbish!" I pronounced, with truth and decision, snapping up the +case and pocketing it. "Lady Carwitchet must have known it." + +"Ah, well, it's disappointing, isn't it? Good-by, we shall not meet +again." + +I shook hands with him most cordially. "Good-by, Lord Carwitchet. _So_ +glad to have met you and your mother. It has been a source of the +_greatest_ pleasure, I assure you." + +I have never seen the Carwitchets since. The bishop drove over next day +in rather better spirits. Miss Panton had refused the chaplain. + +"It doesn't matter, my lord," I said to him heartily. "We've all been +under some strange misconception. The stone in your possession is the +veritable one. I could swear to that anywhere. The sapphire Lady +Carwitchet wears is only an excellent imitation, and--I have seen it +with my own eyes--is the one bearing Bogaerts's mark, the Greek Beta." + + + + +THE OBLONG BOX + +EDGAR ALLAN POE + + +Some years ago I engaged passage from Charleston, S. C., to the city of +New York, in the fine packet-ship _Independence_, Captain Hardy. We were +to sail on the fifteenth of the month (June), weather permitting; and on +the fourteenth I went on board to arrange some matters in my stateroom. + +I found that we were to have a great many passengers, including a more +than usual number of ladies. On the list were several of my +acquaintances; and among other names I was rejoiced to see that of Mr. +Cornelius Wyatt, a young artist, for whom I entertained feelings of warm +friendship. He had been, with me, a fellow-student at C---- University, +where we were very much together. He had the ordinary temperament of +genius, and was a compound of misanthropy, sensibility, and enthusiasm. +To these qualities he united the warmest and truest heart which ever +beat in a human bosom. + +I observed that his name was carded upon three staterooms: and upon +again referring to the list of passengers I found that he had engaged +passage for himself, wife, and two sisters--his own. The staterooms were +sufficiently roomy, and each had two berths, one above the other. These +berths, to be sure, were so exceedingly narrow as to be insufficient for +more than one person; still, I could not comprehend why there were three +staterooms for these four persons. I was, just at that epoch, in one of +those moody frames of mind which make a man abnormally inquisitive about +trifles: and I confess with shame that I busied myself in a variety of +ill-bred and preposterous conjectures about this matter of the +supernumerary stateroom. It was no business of mine, to be sure; but +with none the less pertinacity did I occupy myself in attempts to +resolve the enigma. At last I reached a conclusion which wrought in me +great wonder why I had not arrived at it before. "It is a servant, of +course," I said; "what a fool I am not sooner to have thought of so +obvious a solution!" And then I again repaired to the list, but here I +saw distinctly that no servant was to come with the party: although, in +fact, it had been the original design to bring one, for the words "and +servant" had been first written and then overscored. "Oh, extra baggage, +to be sure," I now said to myself; "something he wishes not to be put in +the hold, something to be kept under his own eye,--ah, I have it! a +painting or so, and this is what he has been bargaining about with +Nicolino, the Italian Jew." This idea satisfied me and I dismissed my +curiosity for the nonce. + +Wyatt's two sisters I knew very well, and most amiable and clever girls +they were. His wife he had newly married, and I had never yet seen her. +He had often talked about her in my presence, however, and in his usual +style of enthusiasm. He described her as of surpassing beauty, wit, and +accomplishment. I was, therefore, quite anxious to make her +acquaintance. + +On the day in which I visited the ship (the fourteenth), Wyatt and party +were also to visit it, so the Captain informed me, and I waited on board +an hour longer than I had designed in hope of being presented to the +bride; but then an apology came. "Mrs. W. was a little indisposed, and +would decline coming on board until to-morrow at the hour of sailing." + +The morrow having arrived, I was going from my hotel to the wharf, when +Captain Hardy met me and said that, "owing to circumstances" (a stupid +but convenient phrase), "he rather thought the _Independence_ would not +sail for a day or two, and that when all was ready he would send up and +let me know." This I thought strange, for there was a stiff southerly +breeze; but as "the circumstances" were not forthcoming, although I +pumped for them with much perseverance, I had nothing to do but to +return home and digest my impatience at leisure. + +I did not receive the expected message from the Captain for nearly a +week. It came at length, however, and I immediately went on board. The +ship was crowded with passengers, and everything was in the bustle +attendant upon making sail. Wyatt's party arrived in about ten minutes +after myself. There were the two sisters, the bride, and the artist--the +latter in one of his customary fits of moody misanthropy. I was too well +used to these, however, to pay them any special attention. He did not +even introduce me to his wife; this courtesy devolving, perforce, upon +his sister Marian, a very sweet and intelligent girl, who in a few +hurried words made us acquainted. + +Mrs. Wyatt had been closely veiled; and when she raised her veil in +acknowledging my bow, I confess that I was very profoundly astonished. I +should have been much more so, however, had not long experience advised +me not to trust, with too implicit a reliance, the enthusiastic +descriptions of my friend the artist, when indulging in comments upon +the loveliness of woman. When beauty was the theme, I well knew with +what facility he soared into the regions of the purely ideal. + +The truth is, I could not help regarding Mrs. Wyatt as a decidedly +plain-looking woman. If not positively ugly, she was not, I think, very +far from it. She was dressed, however, in exquisite taste, and then I +had no doubt that she had captivated my friend's heart by the more +enduring graces of the intellect and soul. She said very few words, and +passed at once into her stateroom with Mr. W. + +My old inquisitiveness now returned. There was no servant, that was a +settled point. I looked, therefore, for the extra baggage. After some +delay a cart arrived at the wharf with an oblong pine box, which was +everything that seemed to be expected. Immediately upon its arrival we +made sail, and in a short time were safely over the bar and standing out +to sea. + +The box in question was, as I say, oblong. It was about six feet in +length by two and a half in breadth: I observed it attentively and like +to be precise. Now, this shape was peculiar; and no sooner had I seen it +than I took credit to myself for the accuracy of my guessing. I had +reached the conclusion, it will be remembered, that the extra baggage of +my friend the artist would prove to be pictures, or at least a picture, +for I knew he had been for several weeks in conference with Nicolino; +and now here was a box, which, from its shape, could possibly contain +nothing in the world but a copy of Leonardo's _Last Supper_; and a copy +of this very _Last Supper_, done by Rubini the younger at Florence, I +had known for some time to be in the possession of Nicolino. This point, +therefore, I considered as sufficiently settled. I chuckled excessively +when I thought of my acumen. It was the first time I had ever known +Wyatt to keep from me any of his artistical secrets; but here he +evidently intended to steal a march upon me and smuggle a fine picture +to New York, under my very nose; expecting me to know nothing of the +matter. I resolved to quiz him well, now and hereafter. + +One thing, however, annoyed me not a little. The box did not go into the +extra stateroom. It was deposited in Wyatt's own; and there, too, it +remained, occupying very nearly the whole of the floor, no doubt to the +exceeding discomfort of the artist and his wife; this the more +especially as the tar or paint with which it was lettered in sprawling +capitals emitted a strong, disagreeable, and, to my fancy, a peculiarly +disgusting odour. On the lid were painted the words: "Mrs. Adelaide +Curtis, Albany, New York. Charge of Cornelius Wyatt, Esq. This side up. +To be handled with care." + +Now, I was aware that Mrs. Adelaide Curtis of Albany was the artist's +wife's mother; but then I looked upon the whole address as a +mystification, intended especially for myself. I made up my mind, of +course, that the box and contents would never get farther north than the +studio of my misanthropic friend in Chambers Street, New York. + +For the first three or four days we had fine weather, although the wind +was dead ahead, having chopped round to the northward immediately upon +our losing sight of the coast. The passengers were, consequently, in +high spirits and disposed to be social. I must except, however, Wyatt +and his sisters, who behaved stiffly, and, I could not help thinking, +uncourteously, to the rest of the party. Wyatt's conduct I did not so +much regard. He was gloomy, even beyond his usual habit,--in fact, he +was morose; but in him I was prepared for eccentricity. For the sisters, +however, I could make no excuse. They secluded themselves in their +staterooms during the greater part of the passage, and absolutely +refused, although I repeatedly urged them, to hold communication with +any person on board. + +Mrs. Wyatt herself was far more agreeable. That is to say, she was +chatty; and to be chatty is no slight recommendation at sea. She became +excessively intimate with most of the ladies; and, to my profound +astonishment, evinced no equivocal disposition to coquet with the men. +She amused us all very much. I say "amused," and scarcely know how to +explain myself. The truth is, I soon found that Mrs. W. was far oftener +laughed at than with. The gentlemen said little about her; but the +ladies in a little while pronounced her "a good-hearted thing, rather +indifferent-looking, totally uneducated, and decidedly vulgar." The +great wonder was, how Wyatt had been entrapped into such a match. Wealth +was the general solution, but this I knew to be no solution at all; for +Wyatt had told me that she neither brought him a dollar nor had any +expectations from any source whatever. "He had married," he said, "for +love, and for love only; and his bride was far more than worthy of his +love." When I thought of these expressions on the part of my friend, I +confess that I felt indescribably puzzled. Could it be possible that he +was taking leave of his senses? What else could I think? He, so refined, +so intellectual, so fastidious, with so exquisite a perception of the +faulty, and so keen an appreciation of the beautiful! To be sure, the +lady seemed especially fond of him, particularly so in his absence, when +she made herself ridiculous by frequent quotations of what had been said +by her "beloved husband, Mr. Wyatt." The word "husband" seemed forever, +to use one of her own delicate expressions,--forever "on the tip of her +tongue." In the meantime it was observed by all on board that he avoided +her in the most pointed manner, and, for the most part, shut himself up +alone in his stateroom, where, in fact, he might have been said to live +altogether, leaving his wife at full liberty to amuse herself as she +thought best in the public society of the main cabin. + +My conclusion, from what I saw and heard, was that the artist, by some +unaccountable freak of fate, or perhaps in some fit of enthusiastic and +fanciful passion, had been induced to unite himself with a person +altogether beneath him, and that the natural result, entire and speedy +disgust, had ensued. I pitied him from the bottom of my heart, but could +not, for that reason, quite forgive his incommunicativeness in the +matter of the _Last Supper_. For this I resolved to have my revenge. + +One day he came up on deck, and, taking his arm as had been my wont, I +sauntered with him backward and forward. His gloom, however (which I +considered quite natural under the circumstances), seemed entirely +unabated. He said little, and that moodily, and with evident effort. I +ventured a jest or two, and he made a sickening attempt at a smile. Poor +fellow! as I thought of his wife I wondered that he could have heart to +put on even the semblance of mirth. At last I ventured a home thrust. I +determined to commence a series of covert insinuations, or innuendos, +about the oblong box, just to let him perceive, gradually, that I was +not altogether the butt, or victim, of his little bit of pleasant +mystification. My first observation was by way of opening a masked +battery. I said something about the "peculiar shape of that box"; and, +as I spoke the words I smiled knowingly, winked, and touched him gently +with my forefinger in the ribs. + +The manner in which Wyatt received this harmless pleasantry convinced me +at once that he was mad. At first he stared at me as if he found it +impossible to comprehend the witticism of my remark; but as its point +seemed slowly to make its way into his brain, his eyes, in the same +proportion, seemed protruding from their sockets. Then he grew very red, +then hideously pale, then, as if highly amused with what I had +insinuated, he began a loud and boisterous laugh, which, to my +astonishment, he kept up, with gradually increasing vigour, for ten +minutes or more. In conclusion, he fell flat and heavily upon the deck. +When I ran to uplift him, to all appearance he was dead. + +I called assistance, and, with much difficulty, we brought him to +himself. Upon reviving he spoke incoherently for some time. At length we +bled him and put him to bed. The next morning he was quite recovered, so +far as regarded his mere bodily health. Of his mind I say nothing, of +course. I avoided him during the rest of the passage, by advice of the +Captain, who seemed to coincide with me altogether in my views of his +insanity, but cautioned me to say nothing on this head to any person on +board. + +Several circumstances occurred immediately after this fit of Wyatt's +which contributed to heighten the curiosity with which I was already +possessed. Among other things, this: I had been nervous; drank too much +strong green tea, and slept ill at night,--in fact, for two nights I +could not be properly said to sleep at all. Now, my stateroom opened +into the main cabin or dining-room, as did those of all the single men +on board. Wyatt's three rooms were in the after-cabin, which was +separated from the main one by a slight sliding door, never locked even +at night. As we were almost constantly on a wind, and the breeze was not +a little stiff, the ship heeled to leeward very considerably; and +whenever her starboard side was to leeward the sliding door between the +cabins slid open and so remained, nobody taking the trouble to get up +and shut it. But my berth was in such a position that when my own +stateroom door was open, as well as the sliding door in question (and my +own door was always open on account of the heat), I could see into the +after-cabin quite distinctly, and just at that portion of it, too, where +were situated the staterooms of Mr. Wyatt. Well, during two nights (not +consecutive), while I lay awake, I clearly saw Mrs. W., about eleven +o'clock upon each night, steal cautiously from the stateroom of Mr. W. +and enter the extra room, where she remained until daybreak, when she +was called by her husband and went back. That they were virtually +separated was clear. They had separate apartments, no doubt in +contemplation of a more permanent divorce; and here, after all, I +thought, was the mystery of the extra stateroom. + +There was another circumstance, too, which interested me much. During +the two wakeful nights in question, and immediately after the +disappearance of Mrs. Wyatt into the extra stateroom, I was attracted by +certain singular, cautious, subdued noises in that of her husband. After +listening to them for some time with thoughtful attention, I at length +succeeded perfectly in translating their import. They were sounds +occasioned by the artist in prying open the oblong box by means of a +chisel and mallet, the latter being apparently muffled or deadened by +some soft woollen or cotton substance in which its head was enveloped. + +In this manner I fancied I could distinguish the precise moment when he +fairly disengaged the lid, also that I could determine when he removed +it altogether, and when he deposited it upon the lower berth in his +room; this latter point I knew, for example, by certain slight taps +which the lid made in striking against the wooden edges of the berth as +he endeavoured to lay it down very gently, there being no room for it on +the floor. After this there was a dead stillness, and I heard nothing +more, upon either occasion, until nearly daybreak; unless, perhaps, I +may mention a low sobbing or murmuring sound, so very much suppressed as +to be nearly inaudible, if, indeed, the whole of this latter noise were +not rather produced by my own imagination. I say it seemed to resemble +sobbing or sighing, but, of course, it could not have been either. I +rather think it was a ringing in my own ears. Mr. Wyatt, no doubt, +according to custom, was merely giving the rein to one of his hobbies, +indulging in one of his fits of artistic enthusiasm. He had opened his +oblong box in order to feast his eyes on the pictorial treasure within. +There was nothing in this, however, to make him sob. I repeat, +therefore, that it must have been simply a freak of my own fancy, +distempered by good Captain Hardy's green tea. Just before dawn, on each +of the two nights of which I speak, I distinctly heard Mr. Wyatt replace +the lid upon the oblong box, and force the nails into their old places +by means of the muffled mallet. Having done this, he issued from his +stateroom, fully dressed, and proceeded to call Mrs. W. from hers. + +We had been at sea seven days, and were now off Cape Hatteras, when +there came a tremendously heavy blow from the southwest. We were, in a +measure, prepared for it, however, as the weather had been holding out +threats for some time. Everything was made snug, alow and aloft; and, as +the wind steadily freshened, we lay to, at length, under spanker and +foretopsail, both double-reefed. + +In this trim we rode safely enough for forty-eight hours, the ship +proving herself an excellent sea-boat in many respects, and shipping no +water of any consequence. At the end of this period, however, the gale +had freshened into a hurricane, and our after-sail split into ribbons, +bringing us so much in the trough of the water that we shipped several +prodigious seas, one immediately after the other. By this accident we +lost three men overboard with the caboose, and nearly the whole of the +larboard bulwarks. Scarcely had we recovered our senses before the +foretopsail went into shreds, when we got up a storm staysail, and with +this did pretty well for some hours, the ship heading the sea much more +steadily than before. + +The gale still held on, however, and we saw no signs of its abating. The +rigging was found to be ill-fitted and greatly strained; and on the +third day of the blow, about five in the afternoon, our mizzen-mast, in +a heavy lurch to windward, went by the board. For an hour or more we +tried in vain to get rid of it, on account of the prodigious rolling of +the ship; and, before we had succeeded, the carpenter came aft and +announced four feet water in the hold. To add to our dilemma, we found +the pumps choked and nearly useless. + +All was now confusion and despair, but an effort was made to lighten the +ship by throwing overboard as much of her cargo as could be reached, and +by cutting away the two masts that remained. This we at last +accomplished, but we were still unable to do anything at the pumps; and, +in the meantime, the leak gained on us very fast. + +At sundown the gale had sensibly diminished in violence, and, as the sea +went down with it, we still entertained faint hopes of saving ourselves +in the boats. At eight P.M., the clouds broke away to windward, and we +had the advantage of a full moon, a piece of good fortune which served +wonderfully to cheer our drooping spirits. + +After incredible labour we succeeded, at length, in getting the +long-boat over the side without material accident, and into this we +crowded the whole of the crew and most of the passengers. This party +made off immediately, and, after undergoing much suffering, finally +arrived in safety at Ocracoke Inlet, on the third day after the wreck. + +Fourteen passengers, with the Captain, remained on board, resolving to +trust their fortunes to the jolly-boat at the stern. We lowered it +without difficulty, although it was only by a miracle that we prevented +it from swamping as it touched the water. It contained, when afloat, the +Captain and his wife, Mr. Wyatt and party, a Mexican officer, wife, four +children, and myself, with a negro valet. + +We had no room, of course, for anything except a few positively +necessary instruments, some provisions, and the clothes upon our backs. +No one had thought of even attempting to save anything more. What must +have been the astonishment of all, then, when, having proceeded a few +fathoms from the ship, Mr. Wyatt stood up in the stern-sheets and coolly +demanded of Captain Hardy that the boat should be put back for the +purpose of taking in his oblong box! + +"Sit down, Mr. Wyatt," replied the Captain, somewhat sternly; "you will +capsize us if you do not sit quite still. Our gunwale is almost in the +water now." + +"The box!" vociferated Mr. Wyatt, still standing, "the box, I say! +Captain Hardy, you cannot, you will not refuse me. Its weight will be +but a trifle, it is nothing, mere nothing. By the mother who bore +you--for the love of Heaven--by your hope of salvation, I implore you to +put back for the box!" + +The Captain for a moment seemed touched by the earnest appeal of the +artist, but he regained his stern composure, and merely said: + +"Mr. Wyatt, you are mad. I cannot listen to you. Sit down, I say, or you +will swamp the boat. Stay! hold him, seize him! he is about to spring +overboard! There--I knew it--he is over!" + +As the Captain said this, Mr. Wyatt, in fact, sprang from the boat, and, +as we were yet in the lee of the wreck, succeeded, by almost superhuman +exertion, in getting hold of a rope which hung from the forechains. In +another moment he was on board, and rushing frantically down into the +cabin. + +In the meantime we had been swept astern of the ship, and being quite +out of her lee, were at the mercy of the tremendous sea which was still +running. We made a determined effort to put back, but our little boat +was like a feather in the breath of the tempest. We saw at a glance that +the doom of the unfortunate artist was sealed. + +As our distance from the wreck rapidly increased, the madman (for as +such only could we regard him) was seen to emerge from the companionway, +up which, by dint of strength that appeared gigantic, he dragged, +bodily, the oblong box. While we gazed in the extremity of astonishment, +he passed rapidly several turns of a three-inch rope, first around the +box and then around his body. In another instant both body and box were +in the sea, disappearing suddenly, at once and forever. + +We lingered awhile sadly upon our oars, with our eyes riveted upon the +spot. At length we pulled away. The silence remained unbroken for an +hour. Finally I hazarded a remark. + +"Did you observe, Captain, how suddenly they sank? Was not that an +exceedingly singular thing? I confess that I entertained some feeble +hope of his final deliverance when I saw him lash himself to the box and +commit himself to the sea." + +"They sank as a matter of course," replied the Captain, "and that like a +shot. They will soon rise again, however, but not till the salt melts." + +"The salt!" I ejaculated. + +"Hush!" said the Captain, pointing to the wife and sisters of the +deceased. "We must talk of these things at some more appropriate time." + + * * * * * + +We suffered much and made a narrow escape; but fortune befriended us, as +well as our mates in the long-boat. We landed, in fine, more dead than +alive, after four days of intense distress, upon the beach opposite +Roanoke Island. We remained here a week, were not ill-treated by the +wreckers, and at length obtained a passage to New York. + +About a month after the loss of the _Independence_, I happened to meet +Captain Hardy in Broadway. Our conversation turned, naturally, upon the +disaster, and especially upon the sad fate of poor Wyatt. I thus learned +the following particulars: + +The artist had engaged passage for himself, wife, two sisters, and a +servant. His wife was indeed, as she had been represented, a most lovely +and most accomplished woman. On the morning of the fourteenth of June +(the day in which I first visited the ship), the lady suddenly sickened +and died. The young husband was frantic with grief, but circumstances +imperatively forbade the deferring his voyage to New York. It was +necessary to take to her mother the corpse of his adored wife, and, on +the other hand, the universal prejudice which would prevent his doing so +openly was well known. Nine tenths of the passengers would have +abandoned the ship rather than take passage with a dead body. + +In this dilemma Captain Hardy arranged that the corpse, being first +partially embalmed and packed, with a large quantity of salt in a box of +suitable dimensions, should be conveyed on board as merchandise. Nothing +was to be said of the lady's decease; and, as it was well understood +that Mr. Wyatt had engaged passage for his wife, it became necessary +that some person should personate her during the voyage. This the +deceased lady's maid was easily prevailed on to do. The extra stateroom, +originally engaged for this girl during her mistress's life, was now +merely retained. In this stateroom the pseudo-wife slept, of course, +every night. In the daytime she performed, to the best of her ability, +the part of her mistress, whose person, it had been carefully +ascertained, was unknown to any of the passengers on board. + +My own mistake arose, naturally enough, through too careless, too +inquisitive, and too impulsive a temperament. But of late it is a rare +thing that I sleep soundly at night. There is a countenance which haunts +me, turn as I will. There is an hysterical laugh which will forever ring +within my ears. + + + + +THE BIRTH-MARK + +NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE + + +In the latter part of the last century, there lived a man of science--an +eminent proficient in every branch of natural philosophy--who, not long +before our story opens, had made experience of a spiritual affinity, +more attractive than any chemical one. He had left his laboratory to the +care of an assistant, cleared his fine countenance from the +furnace-smoke, washed the stain of acids from his fingers, and persuaded +a beautiful woman to become his wife. In those days, when the +comparatively recent discovery of electricity, and other kindred +mysteries of nature, seemed to open paths into the region of miracle, it +was not unusual for the love of science to rival the love of woman, in +its depth and absorbing energy. The higher intellect, the imagination, +the spirit, and even the heart, might all find their congenial aliment +in pursuits which, as some of their ardent votaries believed, would +ascend from one step of powerful intelligence to another, until the +philosopher should lay his hand on the secret of creative force, and +perhaps make new worlds for himself. We know not whether Aylmer +possessed this degree of faith in man's ultimate control over nature. He +had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies, +ever to be weaned from them by any second passion. His love for his +young wife might prove the stronger of the two; but it could only be by +intertwining itself with his love of science, and uniting the strength +of the latter to its own. + +Such an union accordingly took place, and was attended with truly +remarkable consequences, and a deeply impressive moral. One day, very +soon after their marriage, Aylmer sat gazing at his wife, with a trouble +in his countenance that grew stronger, until he spoke. + +"Georgiana," said he, "has it never occurred to you that the mark upon +your cheek might be removed?" + +"No, indeed," said she, smiling; but perceiving the seriousness of his +manner, she blushed deeply. "To tell you the truth, it has been so often +called a charm, that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so." + +"Ah, upon another face, perhaps it might," replied her husband. "But +never on yours! No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from +the hand of Nature, that this slightest possible defect--which we +hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty--shocks me, as being the +visible mark of earthly imperfection." + +"Shocks you, my husband!" cried Georgiana, deeply hurt; at first +reddening with momentary anger, but then bursting into tears. "Then why +did you take me from my mother's side? You cannot love what shocks you!" + +To explain this conversation, it must be mentioned, that, in the centre +of Georgiana's left cheek, there was a singular mark, deeply interwoven, +as it were, with the texture and substance of her face. In the usual +state of her complexion,--a healthy, though delicate bloom,--the mark +wore a tint of deeper crimson, which imperfectly defined its shape amid +the surrounding rosiness. When she blushed, it gradually became more +indistinct, and finally vanished amid the triumphant rush of blood, that +bathed the whole cheek with its brilliant glow. But, if any shifting +emotion caused her to turn pale, there was the mark again, a crimson +stain upon the snow, in what Aylmer sometimes deemed an almost fearful +distinctness. Its shape bore not a little similarity to the human hand, +though of the smallest pigmy size. Georgiana's lovers were wont to say, +that some fairy, at her birth-hour, had laid her tiny hand upon the +infant's cheek, and left this impress there, in token of the magic +endowments that were to give her such sway over all hearts. Many a +desperate swain would have risked life for the privilege of pressing his +lips to the mysterious hand. It must not be concealed, however, that the +impression wrought by this fairy sign-manual varied exceedingly, +according to the difference of temperament in the beholders. Some +fastidious persons--but they were exclusively of her own sex--affirmed +that the Bloody Hand, as they chose to call it, quite destroyed the +effect of Georgiana's beauty, and rendered her countenance even hideous. +But it would be as reasonable to say, that one of those small blue +stains, which sometimes occur in the purest statuary marble, would +convert the Eve of Powers to a monster. Masculine observers, if the +birth-mark did not heighten their admiration, contented themselves with +wishing it away, that the world might possess one living specimen of +ideal loveliness, without the semblance of a flaw. After his +marriage--for he thought little or nothing of the matter before--Aylmer +discovered that this was the case with himself. + +Had she been less beautiful--if Envy's self could have found aught else +to sneer at--he might have felt his affection heightened by the +prettiness of this mimic hand, now vaguely portrayed, now lost, now +stealing forth again, and glimmering to-and-fro with every pulse of +emotion that throbbed within her heart. But, seeing her otherwise so +perfect, he found this one defect grow more and more intolerable, with +every moment of their united lives. It was the fatal flaw of humanity, +which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her +productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that +their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain. The Crimson Hand +expressed the ineludible gripe, in which mortality clutches the highest +and purest of earthly mould, degrading them into kindred with the +lowest, and even with the very brutes, like whom their visible frames +return to dust. In this manner, selecting it as the symbol of his wife's +liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death, Aylmer's sombre imagination +was not long in rendering the birth-mark a frightful object, causing him +more trouble and horror than ever Georgiana's beauty, whether of soul or +sense, had given him delight. + +At all the seasons which should have been their happiest, he invariably, +and without intending it--nay, in spite of a purpose to the +contrary--reverted to this one disastrous topic. Trifling as it at first +appeared, it so connected itself with innumerable trains of thought, and +modes of feeling, that it became the central point of all. With the +morning twilight, Aylmer opened his eyes upon his wife's face, and +recognized the symbol of imperfection; and when they sat together at the +evening hearth, his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek, and beheld, +flickering with the blaze of the wood fire, the spectral Hand that wrote +mortality where he would fain have worshipped. Georgiana soon learned to +shudder at his gaze. It needed but a glance, with the peculiar +expression that his face often wore, to change the roses of her cheek +into a death-like paleness, amid which the Crimson Hand was brought +strongly out, like a bas-relief of ruby on the whitest marble. + +Late, one night, when the lights were growing dim, so as hardly to +betray the stain on the poor wife's cheek, she herself, for the first +time, voluntarily took up the subject. + +"Do you remember, my dear Aylmer," said she, with a feeble attempt at a +smile--"have you any recollection of a dream, last night, about this +odious Hand?" + +"None!--none whatever!" replied Aylmer, starting; but then he added in a +dry, cold tone, affected for the sake of concealing the real depth of +his emotion:--"I might well dream of it; for, before I fell asleep, it +had taken a pretty firm hold of my fancy." + +"And you did dream of it," continued Georgiana hastily; for she dreaded +lest a gush of tears should interrupt what she had to say--"A terrible +dream! I wonder that you can forget it. Is it possible to forget this +one expression?--'It is in her heart now--we must have it +out!'--Reflect, my husband; for by all means I would have you recall +that dream." + +The mind is in a sad state, when Sleep, the all-involving, cannot +confine her spectres within the dim region of her sway, but suffers them +to break forth, affrighting this actual life with secrets that perchance +belong to a deeper one. Aylmer now remembered his dream. He had fancied +himself, with his servant Aminadab, attempting an operation for the +removal of the birth-mark. But the deeper went the knife, the deeper +sank the Hand, until at length its tiny grasp appeared to have caught +hold of Georgiana's heart; whence, however, her husband was inexorably +resolved to cut or wrench it away. + +When the dream had shaped itself perfectly in his memory, Aylmer sat in +his wife's presence with a guilty feeling. Truth often finds its way to +the mind close-muffled in robes of sleep, and then speaks with +uncompromising directness of matters in regard to which we practise an +unconscious self-deception, during our waking moments. Until now, he had +not been aware of the tyrannizing influence acquired by one idea over +his mind, and of the lengths which he might find in his heart to go, for +the sake of giving himself peace. + +"Aylmer," resumed Georgiana, solemnly, "I know not what may be the cost +to both of us, to rid me of this fatal birth-mark. Perhaps its removal +may cause cureless deformity. Or, it may be, the stain goes as deep as +life itself. Again, do we know that there is a possibility, on any +terms, of unclasping the firm gripe of this little Hand, which was laid +upon me before I came into the world?" + +"Dearest Georgiana, I have spent much thought upon the subject," hastily +interrupted Aylmer--"I am convinced of the perfect practicability of its +removal." + +"If there be the remotest possibility of it," continued Georgiana, "let +the attempt be made, at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me; for +life--while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and +disgust--life is a burthen which I would fling down with joy. Either +remove this dreadful Hand, or take my wretched life! You have deep +science! All the world bears witness of it. You have achieved great +wonders! Cannot you remove this little, little mark, which I cover with +the tips of two small fingers! Is this beyond your power, for the sake +of your own peace, and to save your poor wife from madness?" + +"Noblest--dearest--tenderest wife!" cried Aylmer, rapturously. "Doubt +not my power. I have already given this matter the deepest +thought--thought which might almost have enlightened me to create a +being less perfect than yourself. Georgiana, you have led me deeper than +ever into the heart of science. I feel myself fully competent to render +this dear cheek as faultless as its fellow; and then, most beloved, what +will be my triumph, when I shall have corrected what Nature left +imperfect, in her fairest work! Even Pygmalion, when his sculptured +woman assumed life, felt not greater ecstasy than mine will be." + +"It is resolved, then," said Georgiana, faintly smiling,--"And, Aylmer, +spare me not, though you should find the birth-mark take refuge in my +heart at last." + +Her husband tenderly kissed her cheek--her right cheek--not that which +bore the impress of the Crimson Hand. + +The next day, Aylmer apprised his wife of a plan that he had formed, +whereby he might have opportunity for the intense thought and constant +watchfulness which the proposed operation would require; while +Georgiana, likewise, would enjoy the perfect repose essential to its +success. They were to seclude themselves in the extensive apartments +occupied by Aylmer as a laboratory, and where, during his toilsome +youth, he had made discoveries in the elemental powers of nature, that +had roused the admiration of all the learned societies in Europe. Seated +calmly in this laboratory, the pale philosopher had investigated the +secrets of the highest cloud-region, and of the profoundest mines; he +had satisfied himself of the causes that kindled and kept alive the +fires of the volcano; and had explained the mystery of fountains, and +how it is that they gush forth, some so bright and pure, and others with +such rich medicinal virtues, from the dark bosom of the earth. Here, +too, at an earlier period, he had studied the wonders of the human +frame, and attempted to fathom the very process by which Nature +assimilates all her precious influences from earth and air, and from the +spiritual world, to create and foster Man, her masterpiece. The latter +pursuit, however, Aylmer had long laid aside, in unwilling recognition +of the truth, against which all seekers sooner or later stumble, that +our great creative Mother, while she amuses us with apparently working +in the broadest sunshine, is yet severely careful to keep her own +secrets, and, in spite of her pretended openness, shows us nothing but +results. She permits us indeed to mar, but seldom to mend, and, like a +jealous patentee, on no account to make. Now, however, Aylmer resumed +these half-forgotten investigations; not, of course, with such hopes or +wishes as first suggested them; but because they involved much +physiological truth, and lay in the path of his proposed scheme for the +treatment of Georgiana. + +As he led her over the threshold of the laboratory, Georgiana was cold +and tremulous. Aylmer looked cheerfully into her face, with intent to +reassure her, but was so startled with the intense glow of the +birth-mark upon the whiteness of her cheek, that he could not restrain a +strong convulsive shudder. His wife fainted. + +"Aminadab! Aminadab!" shouted Aylmer, stamping violently on the floor. + +Forthwith, there issued from an inner apartment a man of low stature, +but bulky frame, with shaggy hair hanging about his visage, which was +grimed with the vapours of the furnace. This personage had been Aylmer's +under-worker during his whole scientific career, and was admirably +fitted for that office by his great mechanical readiness, and the skill +with which, while incapable of comprehending a single principle, he +executed all the practical details of his master's experiments. With his +vast strength, his shaggy hair, his smoky aspect, and the indescribable +earthiness that encrusted him, he seemed to represent man's physical +nature; while Aylmer's slender figure, and pale, intellectual face, were +no less apt a type of the spiritual element. + +"Throw open the door of the boudoir, Aminadab," said Aylmer, "and burn a +pastille." + +"Yes, master," answered Aminadab, looking intently at the lifeless form +of Georgiana; and then he muttered to himself:--"If she were my wife, +I'd never part with that birth-mark." + +When Georgiana recovered consciousness, she found herself breathing an +atmosphere of penetrating fragrance, the gentle potency of which had +recalled her from her death-like faintness. The scene around her looked +like enchantment. Aylmer had converted those smoky, dingy, sombre rooms, +where he had spent his brightest years in recondite pursuits, into a +series of beautiful apartments, not unfit to be the secluded abode of a +lovely woman. The walls were hung with gorgeous curtains, which imparted +the combination of grandeur and grace, that no other species of +adornment can achieve; and as they fell from the ceiling to the floor, +their rich and ponderous folds, concealing all angles and straight +lines, appeared to shut in the scene from infinite space. For aught +Georgiana knew, it might be a pavilion among the clouds. And Aylmer, +excluding the sunshine, which would have interfered with his chemical +processes, had supplied its place with perfumed lamps, emitting flames +of various hue, but all uniting in a soft, empurpled radiance. He now +knelt by his wife's side, watching her earnestly, but without alarm; for +he was confident in his science, and felt that he could draw a magic +circle round her, within which no evil might intrude. + +"Where am I?--Ah, I remember!" said Georgiana, faintly; and she placed +her hand over her cheek, to hide the terrible mark from her husband's +eyes. + +"Fear not, dearest!" exclaimed he. "Do not shrink from me! Believe me, +Georgiana, I even rejoice in this single imperfection, since it will be +such a rapture to remove it." + +"Oh, spare me!" sadly replied his wife. "Pray do not look at it again. I +never can forget that convulsive shudder." + +In order to soothe Georgiana, and, as it were, to release her mind from +the burthen of actual things, Aylmer now put in practice some of the +light and playful secrets which science had taught him among its +profounder lore. Airy figures, absolutely bodiless ideas, and forms of +unsubstantial beauty, came and danced before her, imprinting their +momentary footsteps on beams of light. Though she had some indistinct +idea of the method of these optical phenomena, still the illusion was +almost perfect enough to warrant the belief that her husband possessed +sway over the spiritual world. Then again, when she felt a wish to look +forth from her seclusion, immediately, as if her thoughts were answered, +the procession of external existence flitted across a screen. The +scenery and the figures of actual life were perfectly represented, but +with that bewitching, yet indescribable difference, which always makes a +picture, an image, or a shadow, so much more attractive than the +original. When wearied of this, Aylmer bade her cast her eyes upon a +vessel, containing a quantity of earth. She did so, with little interest +at first, but was soon startled, to perceive the germ of a plant, +shooting upward from the soil. Then came the slender stalk--the leaves +gradually unfolded themselves--and amid them was a perfect and lovely +flower. + +"It is magical!" cried Georgiana, "I dare not touch it." + +"Nay, pluck it," answered Aylmer, "pluck it, and inhale its brief +perfume while you may. The flower will wither in a few moments, and +leave nothing save its brown seed-vessels--but thence may be perpetuated +a race as ephemeral as itself." + +But Georgiana had no sooner touched the flower than the whole plant +suffered a blight, its leaves turning coal-black, as if by the agency of +fire. + +"There was too powerful a stimulus," said Aylmer thoughtfully. + +To make up for this abortive experiment, he proposed to take her +portrait by a scientific process of his own invention. It was to be +effected by rays of light striking upon a polished plate of metal. +Georgiana assented--but, on looking at the result, was affrighted to +find the features of the portrait blurred and indefinable; while the +minute figure of a hand appeared where the cheek should have been. +Aylmer snatched the metallic plate, and threw it into a jar of corrosive +acid. + +Soon, however, he forgot these mortifying failures. In the intervals of +study and chemical experiment, he came to her, flushed and exhausted, +but seemed invigorated by her presence, and spoke in glowing language of +the resources of his art. He gave a history of the long dynasty of the +Alchemists, who spent so many ages in quest of the universal solvent, by +which the Golden Principle might be elicited from all things vile and +base. Aylmer appeared to believe, that, by the plainest scientific +logic, it was altogether within the limits of possibility to discover +this long-sought medium; but, he added, a philosopher who should go deep +enough to acquire the power, would attain too lofty a wisdom to stoop to +the exercise of it. Not less singular were his opinions in regard to the +Elixir Vitæ. He more than intimated, that it was at his option to +concoct a liquid that should prolong life for years--perhaps +interminably--but that it would produce a discord in nature, which all +the world, and chiefly the quaffer of the immortal nostrum, would find +cause to curse. + +"Aylmer, are you in earnest?" asked Georgiana, looking at him with +amazement and fear; "it is terrible to possess such power, or even to +dream of possessing it!" + +"Oh, do not tremble, my love!" said her husband, "I would not wrong +either you or myself, by working such inharmonious effects upon our +lives. But I would have you consider how trifling, in comparison, is the +skill requisite to remove this little Hand." + +At the mention of the birth-mark, Georgiana, as usual, shrank, as if a +red-hot iron had touched her cheek. + +Again Aylmer applied himself to his labours. She could hear his voice in +the distant furnace-room, giving directions to Aminadab, whose harsh, +uncouth, misshapen tones were audible in response, more like the grunt +or growl of a brute than human speech. After hours of absence, Aylmer +reappeared, and proposed that she should now examine his cabinet of +chemical products, and natural treasures of the earth. Among the former +he showed her a small vial, in which, he remarked, was contained a +gentle yet most powerful fragrance, capable of impregnating all the +breezes that blow across a kingdom. They were of inestimable value, the +contents of that little vial; and, as he said so, he threw some of the +perfume into the air, and filled the room with piercing and invigorating +delight. + +"And what is this?" asked Georgiana, pointing to a small crystal globe, +containing a gold-coloured liquid. "It is so beautiful to the eye, that +I could imagine it the Elixir of Life." + +"In one sense it is," replied Aylmer, "or rather the Elixir of +Immortality. It is the most precious poison that ever was concocted in +this world. By its aid, I could apportion the life-time of any mortal at +whom you might point your finger. The strength of the dose would +determine whether he were to linger out years, or drop dead in the midst +of a breath. No king, on his guarded throne, could keep his life, if I, +in my private station, should deem that the welfare of millions +justified me in depriving him of it." + +"Why do you keep such a terrible drug?" inquired Georgiana in horror. + +"Do not mistrust me, dearest!" said her husband, smiling; "its virtuous +potency is yet greater than its harmful one. But, see! here is a +powerful cosmetic. With a few drops of this, in a vase of water, +freckles may be washed away as easily as the hands are cleansed. A +stronger infusion would take the blood out of the cheek, and leave the +rosiest beauty a pale ghost." + +"Is it with this lotion that you intend to bathe my cheek?" asked +Georgiana, anxiously. + +"Oh, no!" hastily replied her husband,--"this is merely superficial. +Your case demands a remedy that shall go deeper." + +In his interviews with Georgiana, Aylmer generally made minute inquiries +as to her sensations, and whether the confinement of the rooms, and the +temperature of the atmosphere, agreed with her. These questions had such +a particular drift, that Georgiana began to conjecture that she was +already subjected to certain physical influences, either breathed in +with the fragrant air, or taken with her food. She fancied, +likewise--but it might be altogether fancy--that there was a stirring up +of her system: a strange, indefinite sensation creeping through her +veins, and tingling, half-painfully, half-pleasurably, at her heart. +Still, whenever she dared to look into the mirror, there she beheld +herself, pale as a white rose, and with the crimson birth-mark stamped +upon her cheek. Not even Aylmer now hated it so much as she. + +To dispel the tedium of the hours which her husband found it necessary +to devote to the processes of combination and analysis, Georgiana turned +over the volumes of his scientific library. In many dark old tomes, she +met with chapters full of romance and poetry. They were the works of the +philosophers of the middle ages, such as Albertus, Magnus, Cornelius +Agrippa, Paracelsus, and the famous friar who created the prophetic +Brazen Head. All these antique naturalists stood in advance of their +centuries, yet were imbued with some of their credulity, and therefore +were believed, and perhaps imagined themselves, to have acquired from +the investigation of nature a power above nature, and from physics a +sway over the spiritual world. Hardly less curious and imaginative were +the early volumes of the Transactions of the Royal Society, in which the +members, knowing little of the limits of natural possibility, were +continually recording wonders, or proposing methods whereby wonders +might be wrought. + +But, to Georgiana, the most engrossing volume was a large folio from her +husband's own hand, in which he had recorded every experiment of his +scientific career, with its original aim, the methods adopted for its +development, and its final success or failure, with the circumstances to +which either event was attributable. The book, in truth, was both the +history and emblem of his ardent, ambitious, imaginative, yet practical +and laborious, life. He handled physical details, as if there were +nothing beyond them; yet spiritualized them all, and redeemed himself +from materialism, by his strong and eager aspiration towards the +infinite. In his grasp, the veriest clod of earth assumed a soul. +Georgiana, as she read, reverenced Aylmer, and loved him more profoundly +than ever, but with a less entire dependence on his judgment than +heretofore. Much as he had accomplished, she could not but observe that +his most splendid successes were almost invariably failures, if compared +with the ideal at which he aimed. His brightest diamonds were the merest +pebbles, and felt to be so by himself, in comparison with the +inestimable gems which lay hidden beyond his reach. The volume, rich +with achievements that had won renown for its author, was yet as +melancholy a record as ever mortal hand had penned. It was the sad +confession, and continual exemplification, of the short-comings of the +composite man--the spirit burthened with clay and working in matter; and +of the despair that assails the higher nature, at finding itself so +miserably thwarted by the earthly part. Perhaps every man of genius, in +whatever sphere, might recognize the image of his own experience in +Aylmer's journal. + +So deeply did these reflections affect Georgiana, that she laid her face +upon the open volume, and burst into tears. In this situation she was +found by her husband. + +"It is dangerous to read in a sorcerer's books," said he, with a smile, +though his countenance was uneasy and displeased. "Georgiana, there are +pages in that volume, which I can scarcely glance over and keep my +senses. Take heed lest it prove as detrimental to you!" + +"It has made me worship you more than ever," said she. + +"Ah! wait for this one success," rejoined he, "then worship me if you +will. I shall deem myself hardly unworthy of it. But, come! I have +sought you for the luxury of your voice. Sing to me, dearest!" + +So she poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst of +his spirit. He then took his leave, with a boyish exuberance of gaiety, +assuring her that her seclusion would endure but a little longer, and +that the result was already certain. Scarcely had he departed, when +Georgiana felt irresistibly impelled to follow him. She had forgotten to +inform Aylmer of a symptom, which, for two or three hours past, had +begun to excite her attention. It was a sensation in the fatal +birth-mark, not painful, but which induced a restlessness throughout her +system. Hastening after her husband, she intruded, for the first time, +into the laboratory. + +The first thing that struck her eyes was the furnace, that hot and +feverish worker, with the intense glow of its fire, which, by the +quantities of soot clustered above it, seemed to have been burning for +ages. There was a distilling apparatus in full operation. Around the +room were retorts, tubes, cylinders, crucibles, and other apparatus of +chemical research. An electrical machine stood ready for immediate use. +The atmosphere felt oppressively close, and was tainted with gaseous +odours, which had been tormented forth by the processes of science. The +severe and homely simplicity of the apartment, with its naked walls and +brick pavement, looked strange, accustomed as Georgiana had become to +the fantastic elegance of her boudoir. But what chiefly, indeed almost +solely, drew her attention, was the aspect of Aylmer himself. + +He was pale as death, anxious, and absorbed, and hung over the furnace +as if it depended upon his utmost watchfulness whether the liquid, which +it was distilling, should be the draught of immortal happiness or +misery. How different from the sanguine and joyous mien that he had +assumed for Georgiana's encouragement! + +"Carefully now, Aminadab! Carefully, thou human machine! Carefully, thou +man of clay!" muttered Aylmer, more to himself than his assistant. "Now, +if there be a thought too much or too little, it is all over!" + +"Hoh! hoh!" mumbled Aminadab--"look, master, look!" + +Aylmer raised his eyes hastily, and at first reddened, then grew paler +than ever, on beholding Georgiana. He rushed towards her, and seized her +arm with a grip that left the print of his fingers upon it. + +"Why do you come hither? Have you no trust in your husband?" cried he +impetuously. "Would you throw the blight of that fatal birth-mark over +my labours? It is not well done. Go, prying woman, go!" + +"Nay, Aylmer," said Georgiana, with the firmness of which she possessed +no stinted endowment, "it is not you that have a right to complain. You +mistrust your wife! You have concealed the anxiety with which you watch +the development of this experiment. Think not so unworthily of me, my +husband! Tell me all the risk we run; and fear not that I shall shrink, +for my share in it is far less than your own!" + +"No, no, Georgiana!" said Aylmer impatiently, "it must not be." + +"I submit," replied she calmly. "And, Aylmer, I shall quaff whatever +draught you bring me; but it will be on the same principle that would +induce me to take a dose of poison, if offered by your hand." + +"My noble wife," said Aylmer, deeply moved, "I knew not the height and +depth of your nature, until now. Nothing shall be concealed. Know, then, +that this Crimson Hand, superficial as it seems, has clutched its grasp +into your being, with a strength of which I had no previous conception. +I have already administered agents powerful enough to do aught except to +change your entire physical system. Only one thing remains to be tried. +If that fail us, we are ruined!" + +"Why did you hesitate to tell me this?" asked she. + +"Because, Georgiana," said Aylmer, in a low voice, "there is danger!" + +"Danger? There is but one danger--that this horrible stigma shall be +left upon my cheek!" cried Georgiana. "Remove it! remove it!--whatever +be the cost--or we shall both go mad!" + +"Heaven knows, your words are too true," said Aylmer, sadly. "And now, +dearest, return to your boudoir. In a little while, all will be tested." + +He conducted her back, and took leave of her with a solemn tenderness, +which spoke far more than his words how much was now at stake. After his +departure, Georgiana became wrapt in musings. She considered the +character of Aylmer, and did it completer justice than at any previous +moment. Her heart exulted, while it trembled, at his honourable love, so +pure and lofty that it would accept nothing less than perfection, nor +miserably make itself contented with an earthlier nature than he had +dreamed of. She felt how much more precious was such a sentiment, than +that meaner kind which would have borne with the imperfection for her +sake, and have been guilty of treason to holy love, by degrading its +perfect idea to the level of the actual. And, with her whole spirit, she +prayed, that, for a single moment, she might satisfy his highest and +deepest conception. Longer than one moment, she well knew, it could not +be; for his spirit was ever on the march--ever ascending--and each +instant required something that was beyond the scope of the instant +before. + +The sound of her husband's footsteps aroused her. He bore a crystal +goblet, containing a liquor colourless as water, but bright enough to be +the draught of immortality. Aylmer was pale; but it seemed rather the +consequence of a highly wrought state of mind, and tension of spirit, +than of fear or doubt. + +"The concoction of the draught has been perfect," said he, in answer to +Georgiana's look. "Unless all my science have deceived me, it cannot +fail." + +"Save on your account, my dearest Aylmer," observed his wife, "I might +wish to put off this birth-mark of mortality by relinquishing mortality +itself, in preference to any other mode. Life is but a sad possession to +those who have attained precisely the degree of moral advancement at +which I stand. Were I weaker and blinder, it might be happiness. Were I +stronger, it might be endured hopefully. But, being what I find myself, +methinks I am of all mortals the most fit to die." + +"You are fit for heaven without tasting death!" replied her husband. +"But why do we speak of dying? The draught cannot fail. Behold its +effect upon this plant!" + +On the window-seat there stood a geranium, diseased with yellow +blotches, which had overspread all its leaves. Aylmer poured a small +quantity of the liquid upon the soil in which it grew. In a little time, +when the roots of the plant had taken up the moisture, the unsightly +blotches began to be extinguished in a living verdure. + +"There needed no proof," said Georgiana, quietly. "Give me the goblet. I +joyfully stake all upon your word." + +"Drink, then, thou lofty creature!" exclaimed Aylmer, with fervid +admiration. "There is no taint of imperfection on thy spirit. Thy +sensible frame, too, shall soon be all perfect!" + +She quaffed the liquid, and returned the goblet to his hand. + +"It is grateful," said she, with a placid smile. "Methinks it is like +water from a heavenly fountain; for it contains I know not what of +unobtrusive fragrance and deliciousness. It allays a feverish thirst, +that had parched me for many days. Now, dearest, let me sleep. My +earthly senses are closing over my spirit, like the leaves around the +heart of a rose, at sunset." + +She spoke the last words with a gentle reluctance, as if it required +almost more energy than she could command to pronounce the faint and +lingering syllables. Scarcely had they loitered through her lips, ere +she was lost in slumber. Aylmer sat by her side, watching her aspect +with the emotions proper to a man, the whole value of whose existence +was involved in the process now to be tested. Mingled with this mood, +however, was the philosophic investigation, characteristic of the man of +science. Not the minutest symptom escaped him. A heightened flush of the +cheek--a slight irregularity of breath--a quiver of the eyelid--a hardly +perceptible tremor through the frame--such were the details which, as +the moments passed, he wrote down in his folio volume. Intense thought +had set its stamp upon every previous page of that volume; but the +thoughts of years were all concentrated upon the last. + +While thus employed, he failed not to gaze often at the fatal Hand, and +not without a shudder. Yet once, by a strange and unaccountable impulse, +he pressed it with his lips. His spirit recoiled, however, in the very +act, and Georgiana, out of the midst of her deep sleep, moved uneasily +and murmured, as if in remonstrance. Again, Aylmer resumed his watch. +Nor was it without avail. The Crimson Hand, which at first had been +strongly visible upon the marble paleness of Georgiana's cheek now grew +more faintly outlined. She remained not less pale than ever; but the +birth-mark, with every breath that came and went, lost somewhat of its +former distinctness. Its presence had been awful; its departure was more +awful still. Watch the stain of the rainbow fading out of the sky; and +you will know how that mysterious symbol passed away. + +"By Heaven, it is well-nigh gone!" said Aylmer to himself, in almost +irrepressible ecstasy. "I can scarcely trace it now. Success! Success! +And now it is like the faintest rose-colour. The slightest flush of +blood across her cheek would overcome it. But she is so pale!" + +He drew aside the window-curtain, and suffered the light of natural day +to fall into the room, and rest upon her cheek. At the same time, he +heard a gross, hoarse chuckle, which he had long known as his servant +Aminadab's expression of delight. + +"Ah, clod! Ah, earthly mass!" cried Aylmer, laughing in a sort of +frenzy. "You have served me well! Matter and Spirit--Earth and +Heaven--have both done their part in this! Laugh, thing of the senses! +You have earned the right to laugh." + +These exclamations broke Georgiana's sleep. She slowly unclosed her +eyes, and gazed into the mirror, which her husband had arranged for that +purpose. A faint smile flitted over her lips, when she recognized how +barely perceptible was now that Crimson Hand, which had once blazed +forth with such disastrous brilliancy as to scare away all their +happiness. But then her eyes sought Aylmer's face, with a trouble and +anxiety that he could by no means account for. + +"My poor Aylmer!" murmured she. + +"Poor? Nay, richest! Happiest! Most favoured!" exclaimed he. "My +peerless bride, it is successful! You are perfect!" + +"My poor Aylmer!" she repeated, with a more than human tenderness. "You +have aimed loftily!--you have done nobly! Do not repent, that, with so +high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could +offer. Aylmer--dearest Aylmer, I am dying!" + +Alas, it was too true! The fatal Hand had grappled with the mystery of +life, and was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union +with a mortal frame. As the last crimson tint of the birth-mark--that +sole token of human imperfection--faded from her cheek, the parting +breath of the now perfect woman passed into the atmosphere, and her +soul, lingering a moment near her husband, took its heavenward flight. +Then a hoarse, chuckling laugh was heard again! Thus ever does the gross +Fatality of Earth exult in its invariable triumph over the immortal +essence, which, in this dim sphere of half-development, demands the +completeness of a higher state. Yet, had Aylmer reached a profounder +wisdom, he need not thus have flung away the happiness, which would have +woven his mortal life of the self-same texture with the celestial. The +momentary circumstance was too strong for him; he failed to look beyond +the shadowy scope of Time, and living once for all in Eternity, to find +the perfect Future in the present. + + + + +A TERRIBLY STRANGE BED + +WILKIE COLLINS + + +Shortly after my education at college was finished, I happened to be +staying at Paris with an English friend. We were both young men then, +and lived, I am afraid, rather a wild life, in the delightful city of +our sojourn. One night we were idling about the neighbourhood of the +Palais Royal, doubtful to what amusement we should next betake +ourselves. My friend proposed a visit to Frascati's; but his suggestion +was not to my taste. I knew Frascati's, as the French saying is, by +heart; had lost and won plenty of five-franc pieces there, merely for +amusement's sake, until it was amusement no longer, and was thoroughly +tired, in fact, of all the ghastly respectabilities of such a social +anomaly as a respectable gambling-house. + +"For Heaven's sake," said I to my friend, "let us go somewhere where we +can see a little genuine, blackguard, poverty-stricken gaming, with no +false gingerbread glitter thrown over it at all. Let us get away from +fashionable Frascati's, to a house where they don't mind letting in a +man with a ragged coat, or a man with no coat, ragged or otherwise." + +"Very well," said my friend, "we needn't go out of the Palais Royal to +find the sort of company you want. Here's the place just before us; as +blackguard a place, by all report, as you could possibly wish to see." + +In another minute we arrived at the door, and entered the house. + +When we got upstairs, and had left our hats and sticks with the +doorkeeper, we were admitted into the chief gambling-room. We did not +find many people assembled there. But, few as the men were who looked up +at us on our entrance, they were all types--lamentably true types--of +their respective classes. + +We had come to see blackguards; but these men were something worse. +There is a comic side, more or less appreciable, in all blackguardism: +here there was nothing but tragedy--mute, weird tragedy. The quiet in +the room was horrible. The thin, haggard, long-haired young man, whose +sunken eyes fiercely watched the turning up of the cards, never spoke; +the flabby, fat-faced, pimply player, who pricked his piece of +pasteboard perseveringly, to register how often black won, and how often +red, never spoke; the dirty, wrinkled old man, with the vulture eyes and +the darned great-coat, who had lost his last sou, and still looked on +desperately after he could play no longer, never spoke. Even the voice +of the croupier sounded as if it were strangely dulled and thickened in +the atmosphere of the room. I had entered the place to laugh, but the +spectacle before me was something to weep over. I soon found it +necessary to take refuge in excitement from the depression of spirits +which was fast stealing on me. Unfortunately I sought the nearest +excitement, by going to the table and beginning to play. Still more +unfortunately, as the event will show, I won--won prodigiously; won +incredibly; won at such a rate that the regular players at the table +crowded round me; and staring at my stakes with hungry, superstitious +eyes, whispered to one another that the English stranger was going to +break the bank. + +The game was Rouge et Noir. I had played at it in every city in Europe, +without, however, the care or the wish to study the Theory of +Chances--that philosopher's stone of all gamblers! And a gambler, +in the strict sense of the word, I had never been. I was heart-whole +from the corroding passion for play. My gaming was a mere idle +amusement. I never resorted to it by necessity, because I never knew +what it was to want money. I never practised it so incessantly as to +lose more than I could afford, or to gain more than I could coolly +pocket without being thrown off my balance by my good luck. In short, +I had hitherto frequented gambling-tables--just as I frequented +ball-rooms and opera-houses--because they amused me, and because I +had nothing better to do with my leisure hours. + +But on this occasion it was very different--now, for the first time in +my life, I felt what the passion for play really was. My successes first +bewildered, and then, in the most literal meaning of the word, +intoxicated me. Incredible as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, +that I only lost when I attempted to estimate chances, and played +according to previous calculation. If I left everything to luck, and +staked without any care or consideration, I was sure to win--to win in +the face of every recognized probability in favour of the bank. At first +some of the men present ventured their money safely enough on my colour; +but I speedily increased my stakes to sums which they dared not risk. +One after another they left off playing, and breathlessly looked on at +my game. + +Still, time after time, I staked higher and higher, and still won. The +excitement in the room rose to fever pitch. The silence was interrupted +by a deep-muttered chorus of oaths and exclamations in different +languages, every time the gold was shovelled across to my side of the +table--even the imperturbable croupier dashed his rake on the floor in a +(French) fury of astonishment at my success. But one man present +preserved his self-possession, and that man was my friend. He came to my +side, and whispering in English, begged me to leave the place, satisfied +with what I had already gained. I must do him the justice to say that he +repeated his warnings and entreaties several times, and only left me and +went away, after I had rejected his advice (I was to all intents and +purposes gambling drunk) in terms which rendered it impossible for him +to address me again that night. + +Shortly after he had gone, a hoarse voice behind me cried, "Permit me, +my dear sir--permit me to restore to their proper place two napoleons +which you have dropped. Wonderful luck, sir! I pledge you my word of +honour, as an old soldier, in the course of my long experience in this +sort of thing, I never saw such luck as yours--never! Go on, sir--_Sacre +mille bombes!_ Go on boldly, and break the bank!" + +I turned round and saw, nodding and smiling at me with inveterate +civility, a tall man, dressed in a frogged and braided surtout. + +If I had been in my senses, I should have considered him, personally, as +being rather a suspicious specimen of an old soldier. He had goggling, +bloodshot eyes, mangy moustaches, and a broken nose. His voice betrayed +a barrack-room intonation of the worst order, and he had the dirtiest +pair of hands I ever saw--even in France. These little personal +peculiarities exercised, however, no repelling influence on me. In the +mad excitement, the reckless triumph of that moment, I was ready to +"fraternize" with anybody who encouraged me in my game. I accepted the +old soldier's offered pinch of snuff; clapped him on the back, and swore +he was the honestest fellow in the world--the most glorious relic of the +Grand Army that I had ever met with. "Go on!" cried my military friend, +snapping his fingers in ecstasy--"Go on, and win! Break the bank--_Mille +tonnerres!_ my gallant English comrade, break the bank!" + +And I _did_ go on--went on at such a rate, that in another quarter of an +hour the croupier called out, "Gentlemen, the bank has discontinued for +to-night." All the notes, and all the gold in that "bank," now lay in a +heap under my hands; the whole floating capital of the gambling-house +was waiting to pour into my pockets! + +"Tie up the money in your pocket-handkerchief, my worthy sir," said the +old soldier, as I wildly plunged my hands into my heap of gold. "Tie it +up, as we used to tie up a bit of dinner in the Grand Army; your +winnings are too heavy for any breeches-pockets that ever were sewed. +There! that's it--shovel them in, notes and all! _Credie!_ what luck! +Stop! another napoleon on the floor. _Ah! sacre petit polisson de +Napoleon!_ have I found thee at last? Now then, sir--two tight double +knots each way with your honourable permission, and the money's safe. +Feel it! feel it, fortunate sir! hard and round as a cannon-ball--_A +bas_ if they had only fired such cannon-balls at us at Austerlitz--_nom +d'une pipe!_ if they only had! And now, as an ancient grenadier, as an +ex-brave of the French army, what remains for me to do? I ask what? +Simply this, to entreat my valued English friend to drink a bottle of +champagne with me, and toast the goddess Fortune in foaming goblets +before we part!" + +"Excellent ex-brave! Convivial ancient grenadier! Champagne by all +means! An English cheer for an old soldier! Hurrah! hurrah! Another +English cheer for the goddess Fortune! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" + +"Bravo! the Englishman; the amiable, gracious Englishman, in whose veins +circulates the vivacious blood of France! Another glass? _A bas!_--the +bottle is empty! Never mind! _Vive le vin!_ I, the old soldier, order +another bottle, and half a pound of _bonbons_ with it!" + +"No, no, ex-brave; never--ancient grenadier! _Your_ bottle last time; +_my_ bottle this! Behold it! Toast away! The French Army! the great +Napoleon! the present company! the croupier! the honest croupier's wife +and daughters--if he has any! the ladies generally! everybody in the +world!" + +By the time the second bottle of champagne was emptied, I felt as if I +had been drinking liquid fire--my brain seemed all aflame. No excess in +wine had ever had this effect on me before in my life. Was it the result +of a stimulant acting upon my system when I was in a highly excited +state? Was my stomach in a particularly disordered condition? Or was the +champagne amazingly strong? + +"Ex-brave of the French Army!" cried I, in a mad state of exhilaration, +"_I_ am on fire! how are _you_? You have set me on fire! Do you hear, my +hero of Austerlitz? Let us have a third bottle of champagne to put the +flame out!" + +The old soldier wagged his head, rolled his goggle-eyes, until I +expected to see them slip out of their sockets; placed his dirty +forefinger by the side of his broken nose; solemnly ejaculated "Coffee!" +and immediately ran off into an inner room. + +The word pronounced by the eccentric veteran seemed to have a magical +effect on the rest of the company present. With one accord they all rose +to depart. Probably they had expected to profit by my intoxication; but +finding that my new friend was benevolently bent on preventing me from +getting dead drunk, had now abandoned all hope of thriving pleasantly on +my winnings. Whatever their motive might be, at any rate they went away +in a body. When the old soldier returned, and sat down again opposite to +me at the table, we had the room to ourselves. I could see the croupier, +in a sort of vestibule which opened out of it, eating his supper in +solitude. The silence was now deeper than ever. + +A sudden change, too, had come over the "ex-brave." He assumed a +portentously solemn look; and when he spoke to me again, his speech was +ornamented by no oaths, enforced by no finger-snapping, enlivened by no +apostrophes or exclamations. + +"Listen, my dear sir," said he, in mysteriously confidential +tones--"listen to an old soldier's advice. I have been to the mistress +of the house (a very charming woman, with a genius for cookery!) to +impress on her the necessity of making us some particularly strong and +good coffee. You must drink this coffee in order to get rid of your +little amiable exaltation of spirits before you think of going home--you +_must_, my good and gracious friend! With all that money to take home +to-night, it is a sacred duty to yourself to have your wits about you. +You are known to be a winner to an enormous extent by several gentlemen +present to-night, who, in a certain point of view, are very worthy and +excellent fellows; but they are mortal men, my dear sir, and they have +their amiable weaknesses! Need I say more? Ah, no, no! you understand +me! Now, this is what you must do--send for a cabriolet when you feel +quite well again--draw up all the windows when you get into it--and tell +the driver to take you home only through the large and well-lighted +thoroughfares. Do this; and you and your money will be safe. Do this; +and to-morrow you will thank an old soldier for giving you a word of +honest advice." + +Just as the ex-brave ended his oration in very lachrymose tones, the +coffee came in, ready poured out in two cups. My attentive friend handed +me one of the cups with a bow. I was parched with thirst, and drank it +off at a draft. Almost instantly afterward I was seized with a fit of +giddiness, and felt more completely intoxicated than ever. The room +whirled round and round furiously; the old soldier seemed to be +regularly bobbing up and down before me like the piston of a +steam-engine. I was half deafened by a violent singing in my ears; a +feeling of utter bewilderment, helplessness, idiocy, overcame me. I rose +from my chair, holding on by the table to keep my balance; and stammered +out that I felt dreadfully unwell--so unwell that I did not know how I +was to get home. + +"My dear friend," answered the old soldier--and even his voice seemed to +be bobbing up and down as he spoke--"my dear friend, it would be madness +to go home in _your_ state; you would be sure to lose your money; you +might be robbed and murdered with the greatest ease. _I_ am going to +sleep here: _do_ you sleep here, too--they make up capital beds in this +house--take one; sleep off the effects of the wine, and go home safely +with your winnings to-morrow--to-morrow, in broad daylight." + +I had but two ideas left: one, that I must never let go hold of my +handkerchief full of money; the other, that I must lie down somewhere +immediately, and fall off into a comfortable sleep. So I agreed to the +proposal about the bed, and took the offered arm of the old soldier, +carrying my money with my disengaged hand. Preceded by the croupier, we +passed along some passages and up a flight of stairs into the bedroom +which I was to occupy. The ex-brave shook me warmly by the hand, +proposed that we should breakfast together, and then, followed by the +croupier, left me for the night. + +I ran to the wash-hand stand; drank some of the water in my jug; poured +the rest out, and plunged my face into it; then sat down in a chair and +tried to compose myself. I soon felt better. The change for my lungs, +from the fetid atmosphere of the gambling-room to the cool air of the +apartment I now occupied, the almost equally refreshing change for my +eyes, from the glaring gaslights of the "salon" to the dim, quiet +flicker of one bedroom-candle, aided wonderfully the restorative effects +of cold water. The giddiness left me, and I began to feel a little like +a reasonable being again. My first thought was of the risk of sleeping +all night in a gambling-house; my second, of the still greater risk of +trying to get out after the house was closed, and of going home alone at +night through the streets of Paris with a large sum of money about me. I +had slept in worse places than this on my travels; so I determined to +lock, bolt, and barricade my door, and take my chance till the next +morning. + +Accordingly, I secured myself against all intrusion; looked under the +bed, and into the cupboard; tried the fastening of the window; and then, +satisfied that I had taken every proper precaution, pulled off my upper +clothing, put my light, which was a dim one, on the hearth among a +feathery litter of wood-ashes, and got into bed, with the handkerchief +full of money under my pillow. + +I soon felt not only that I could not go to sleep, but that I could not +even close my eyes. I was wide awake, and in a high fever. Every nerve +in my body trembled--every one of my senses seemed to be preternaturally +sharpened. I tossed and rolled, and tried every kind of position, and +perseveringly sought out the cold corners of the bed, and all to no +purpose. Now I thrust my arms over the clothes; now I poked them under +the clothes; now I violently shot my legs straight out down to the +bottom of the bed; now I convulsively coiled them up as near my chin as +they would go; now I shook out my crumpled pillow, changed it to the +cool side, patted it flat, and lay down quietly on my back; now I +fiercely doubled it in two, set it up on end, thrust it against the +board of the bed, and tried a sitting posture. Every effort was in vain; +I groaned with vexation as I felt that I was in for a sleepless night. + +What could I do? I had no book to read. And yet, unless I found out some +method of diverting my mind, I felt certain that I was in the condition +to imagine all sorts of horrors; to rack my brain with forebodings of +every possible and impossible danger; in short, to pass the night in +suffering all conceivable varieties of nervous terror. + +I raised myself on my elbow, and looked about the room--which was +brightened by a lovely moonlight pouring straight through the window--to +see if it contained any pictures or ornaments that I could at all +clearly distinguish. While my eyes wandered from wall to wall, a +remembrance of Le Maistre's delightful little book, "Voyage autour de ma +Chambre," occurred to me. I resolved to imitate the French author, and +find occupation and amusement enough to relieve the tedium of my +wakefulness, by making a mental inventory of every article of furniture +I could see, and by following up to their sources the multitude of +associations which even a chair, a table, or a wash-hand stand may be +made to call forth. + +In the nervous, unsettled state of my mind at that moment, I found it +much easier to make my inventory than to make my reflections, and +thereupon soon gave up all hope of thinking in Le Maistre's fanciful +track--or, indeed, of thinking at all. I looked about the room at the +different articles of furniture, and did nothing more. + +There was, first, the bed I was lying in; a four-post bed, of all things +in the world to meet with in Paris--yes, a thorough clumsy British +four-poster, with a regular top lined with chintz--the regular fringed +valance all round--the regular stifling, unwholesome curtains, which I +remembered having mechanically drawn back against the posts without +particularly noticing the bed when I first got into the room. Then there +was the marble-topped wash-hand stand, from which the water I had +spilled, in my hurry to pour it out, was still dripping, slowly and more +slowly, on to the brick floor. Then two small chairs, with my coat, +waistcoat, and trousers flung on them. Then a large elbow-chair covered +with dirty white dimity, with my cravat and shirt collar thrown over the +back. Then a chest of drawers with two of the brass handles off, and a +tawdry, broken china inkstand placed on it by way of ornament for the +top. Then the dressing-table, adorned by a very small looking-glass, and +a very large pincushion. Then the window--an unusually large window. +Then a dark old picture, which the feeble candle dimly showed me. It was +the picture of a fellow in a high Spanish hat, crowned with a plume of +towering feathers. A swarthy, sinister ruffian, looking upward, shading +his eyes with his hand, and looking intently upward--it might be at some +tall gallows on which he was going to be hanged. At any rate, he had the +appearance of thoroughly deserving it. + +This picture put a kind of constraint upon me to look upward too--at the +top of the bed. It was a gloomy and not an interesting object, and I +looked back at the picture. I counted the feathers in the man's +hat--they stood out in relief--three white, two green. I observed the +crown of his hat, which was of a conical shape, according to the fashion +supposed to have been favoured by Guido Fawkes. I wondered what he was +looking up at. It couldn't be at the stars; such a desperado was neither +astrologer nor astronomer. It must be at the high gallows, and he was +going to be hanged presently. Would the executioner come into possession +of his conical crowned hat and plume of feathers? I counted the feathers +again--three white, two green. + +While I still lingered over this very improving and intellectual +employment, my thoughts insensibly began to wander. The moonlight +shining into the room reminded me of a certain moonlight night in +England--the night after a picnic party in a Welsh valley. Every +incident of the drive homeward through lovely scenery, which the +moonlight made lovelier than ever, came back to my remembrance, though I +had never given the picnic a thought for years; though, if I had _tried_ +to recollect it, I could certainly have recalled little or nothing of +that scene long past. Of all the wonderful faculties that help to tell +us we are immortal, which speaks the sublime truth more eloquently than +memory? Here was I, in a strange house of the most suspicious character, +in a situation of uncertainty, and even of peril, which might seem to +make the cool exercise of my recollection almost out of the question; +nevertheless, remembering, quite involuntarily, places, people, +conversations, minute circumstances of every kind, which I had thought +forgotten forever; which I could not possibly have recalled at will, +even under the most favourable auspices. And what cause had produced in +a moment the whole of this strange, complicated, mysterious effect? +Nothing but some rays of moonlight shining in at my bedroom window. + +I was still thinking of the picnic--of our merriment on the drive +home--of the sentimental young lady who _would_ quote "Childe Harold" +because it was moonlight. I was absorbed by these past scenes and past +amusements, when, in an instant, the thread on which my memories hung +snapped asunder; my attention immediately came back to present things +more vividly than ever, and I found myself, I neither knew why nor +wherefore, looking hard at the picture again. + +Looking for what? + +Good God! the man had pulled his hat down on his brows! No! the hat +itself was gone! Where was the conical crown? Where the feathers--three +white, two green? Not there! In place of the hat and feathers, what +dusky object was it that now hid his forehead, his eyes, his shading +hand? + +Was the bed moving? + +I turned on my back and looked up. Was I mad? drunk? dreaming? giddy +again? or was the top of the bed really moving down--sinking slowly, +regularly, silently, horribly, right down throughout the whole of its +length and breadth--right down upon me, as I lay underneath? + +My blood seemed to stand still. A deadly, paralyzing coldness stole all +over me as I turned my head round on the pillow and determined to test +whether the bed-top was really moving or not, by keeping my eye on the +man in the picture. + +The next look in that direction was enough. The dull, black, frowzy +outline of the valance above me was within an inch of being parallel +with his waist. I still looked breathlessly. And steadily and +slowly--very slowly--I saw the figure, and the line of frame below the +figure, vanish, as the valance moved down before it. + +I am, constitutionally, anything but timid. I have been on more than one +occasion in peril of my life, and have not lost my self-possession for +an instant; but when the conviction first settled on my mind that the +bed-top was really moving, was steadily and continuously sinking down +upon me, I looked up shuddering, helpless, panic-stricken, beneath the +hideous machinery for murder, which was advancing closer and closer to +suffocate me where I lay. + +I looked up, motionless, speechless, breathless. The candle, fully +spent, went out; but the moonlight still brightened the room. Down and +down, without pausing and without sounding, came the bed-top, and still +my panic terror seemed to bind me faster and faster to the mattress on +which I lay--down and down it sank, till the dusty odour from the lining +of the canopy came stealing into my nostrils. + +At that final moment the instinct of self-preservation startled me out +of my trance, and I moved at last. There was just room for me to roll +myself sidewise off the bed. As I dropped noiselessly to the floor, the +edge of the murderous canopy touched me on the shoulder. + +Without stopping to draw my breath, without wiping the cold sweat from +my face, I rose instantly on my knees to watch the bed-top. I was +literally spellbound by it. If I had heard footsteps behind me, I could +not have turned round; if a means of escape had been miraculously +provided for me, I could not have moved to take advantage of it. The +whole life in me was, at that moment, concentrated in my eyes. + +It descended--the whole canopy, with the fringe round it, came +down--down--close down; so close that there was not room now to squeeze +my finger between the bed-top and the bed. I felt at the side, and +discovered that what had appeared to me from beneath to be the ordinary +light canopy of a four-post bed was in reality a thick, broad mattress, +the substance of which was concealed by the valance and its fringe. I +looked up and saw the four posts rising hideously bare. In the middle of +the bed-top was a huge wooden screw that had evidently worked it down +through a hole in the ceiling, just as ordinary presses are worked down +on the substance selected for compression. The frightful apparatus moved +without making the faintest noise. There had been no creaking as it came +down; there was now not the faintest sound from the room above. Amidst a +dead and awful silence I beheld before me--in the nineteenth century, +and in the civilized capital of France--such a machine for secret murder +by suffocation as might have existed in the worst days of the +Inquisition, in the lonely inns among the Hartz Mountains, in the +mysterious tribunals of Westphalia! Still, as I looked on it, I could +not move, I could hardly breathe, but I began to recover the power of +thinking, and in a moment I discovered the murderous conspiracy framed +against me in all its horror. + +My cup of coffee had been drugged, and drugged too strongly. I had been +saved from being smothered by having taken an overdose of some narcotic. +How I had chafed and fretted at the fever fit which had preserved my +life by keeping me awake! How recklessly I had confided myself to the +two wretches who had led me into this room, determined, for the sake of +my winnings, to kill me in my sleep by the surest and most horrible +contrivance for secretly accomplishing my destruction! How many men, +winners like me, had slept, as I had proposed to sleep, in that bed, and +had never been seen or heard of more! I shuddered at the bare idea of +it. + +But ere long all thought was again suspended by the sight of the +murderous canopy moving once more. After it had remained on the bed--as +nearly as I could guess--about ten minutes, it began to move up again. +The villains who worked it from above evidently believed that their +purpose was now accomplished. Slowly and silently, as it had descended, +that horrible bed-top rose toward its former place. When it reached the +upper extremities of the four posts, it reached the ceiling too. Neither +hole nor screw could be seen; the bed became in appearance an ordinary +bed again--the canopy an ordinary canopy--even to the most suspicious +eyes. + +Now, for the first time, I was able to move--to rise from my knees--to +dress myself in my upper clothing--and to consider of how I should +escape. If I betrayed by the smallest noise that the attempt to +suffocate me had failed, I was certain to be murdered. Had I made any +noise already? I listened intently, looking toward the door. + +No! no footsteps in the passage outside--no sound of a tread, light or +heavy, in the room above--absolute silence everywhere. Besides locking +and bolting my door, I had moved an old wooden chest against it, which I +had found under the bed. To remove this chest (my blood ran cold as I +thought of what its contents _might_ be!) without making some +disturbance was impossible; and, moreover, to think of escaping through +the house, now barred up for the night, was sheer insanity. Only one +chance was left me--the window. I stole to it on tiptoe. + +My bedroom was on the first floor, above an entresol, and looked into +the back street. I raised my hand to open the window, knowing that on +that action hung, by the merest hair-breadth, my chance of safety. They +keep vigilant watch in a House of Murder. If any part of the frame +cracked, if the hinge creaked, I was a lost man! It must have occupied +me at least five minutes, reckoning by time--five _hours_ reckoning by +suspense--to open that window. I succeeded in doing it silently--in +doing it with all the dexterity of a house-breaker--and then looked down +into the street. To leap the distance beneath me would be almost certain +destruction! Next, I looked round at the sides of the house. Down the +left side ran a thick water-pipe--it passed close by the outer edge of +the window. The moment I saw the pipe, I knew I was saved. My breath +came and went freely for the first time since I had seen the canopy of +the bed moving down upon me! + +To some men the means of escape which I had discovered might have seemed +difficult and dangerous enough--to _me_ the prospect of slipping down +the pipe into the street did not suggest even a thought of peril. I had +always been accustomed, by the practise of gymnastics, to keep up my +schoolboy powers as a daring and expert climber; and knew that my head, +hands, and feet would serve me faithfully in any hazards of ascent or +descent. I had already got one leg over the window-sill, when I +remembered the handkerchief filled with money under my pillow. I could +well have afforded to leave it behind me, but I was revengefully +determined that the miscreants of the gambling-house should miss their +plunder as well as their victim. So I went back to the bed and tied the +heavy handkerchief at my back by my cravat. + +Just as I had made it tight and fixed it in a comfortable place, I +thought I heard a sound of breathing outside the door. The chill feeling +of horror ran through me again as I listened. No! dead silence still in +the passage--I had only heard the night air blowing softly into the +room. The next moment I was on the window-sill--and the next I had a +firm grip on the water-pipe with my hands and knees. + +I slid down into the street easily and quietly, as I thought I should, +and immediately set off at the top of my speed to a branch "Prefecture" +of Police, which I knew was situated in the immediate neighbourhood. A +"Sub-prefect," and several picked men among his subordinates, happened +to be up, maturing, I believe, some scheme for discovering the +perpetrator of a mysterious murder which all Paris was talking of just +then. When I began my story, in a breathless hurry and in very bad +French, I could see that the Sub-prefect suspected me of being a drunken +Englishman who had robbed somebody; but he soon altered his opinion as I +went on, and before I had anything like concluded, he shoved all the +papers before him into a drawer, put on his hat, supplied me with +another (for I was bareheaded), ordered a file of soldiers, desired his +expert followers to get ready all sorts of tools for breaking open doors +and ripping up brick flooring, and took my arm, in the most friendly and +familiar manner possible, to lead me with him out of the house. I will +venture to say that when the Sub-prefect was a little boy, and was taken +for the first time to the play, he was not half as much pleased as he +was now at the job in prospect for him at the gambling-house! + +Away we went through the streets, the Sub-prefect cross-examining and +congratulating me in the same breath as we marched at the head of our +formidable _posse comitatus_. Sentinels were placed at the back and +front of the house the moment we got to it, a tremendous battery of +knocks was directed against the door; a light appeared at a window; I +was told to conceal myself behind the police--then came more knocks, and +a cry of "Open in the name of the law!" At that terrible summons bolts +and locks gave way before an invisible hand, and the moment after the +Sub-prefect was in the passage, confronting a waiter half dressed and +ghastly pale. This was the short dialogue which immediately took place: + +"We want to see the Englishman who is sleeping in this house." + +"He went away hours ago." + +"He did no such thing. His friend went away; _he_ remained. Show us to +his bedroom!" + +"I swear to you, Monsieur le Sous-prefect, he is not here! he--" + +"I swear to you, Monsieur le Garçon, he is. He slept here--he didn't +find your bed comfortable--he came to us to complain of it--here he is +among my men--and here am I ready to look for a flea or two in his +bedstead. Renaudin! (calling to one of the subordinates, and pointing to +the waiter), collar that man, and tie his hands behind him. Now, then, +gentlemen, let us walk upstairs!" + +Every man and woman in the house was secured--the "Old Soldier" the +first. Then I identified the bed in which I had slept, and then we went +into the room above. + +No object that was at all extraordinary appeared in any part of it. The +Sub-prefect looked round the place, commanded everybody to be silent, +stamped twice on the floor, called for a candle, looked attentively at +the spot he had stamped on, and ordered the flooring there to be +carefully taken up. This was done in no time. Lights were produced, and +we saw a deep raftered cavity between the floor of this room and the +ceiling of the room beneath. Through this cavity there ran +perpendicularly a sort of case of iron thickly greased; and inside the +case appeared the screw, which communicated with the bed-top below. +Extra lengths of screw, freshly oiled; levers covered with felt; all the +complete upper works of a heavy press--constructed with infernal +ingenuity so as to join the fixtures below, and when taken to pieces +again to go into the smallest possible compass--were next discovered and +pulled out on the floor. After some little difficulty the Sub-prefect +succeeded in putting the machinery together, and, leaving his men to +work it, descended with me to the bedroom. The smothering canopy was +then lowered, but not so noiselessly as I had seen it lowered. When I +mentioned this to the Sub-prefect, his answer, simple as it was, had a +terrible significance. "My men," said he, "are working down the bed-top +for the first time--the men whose money you won were in better +practise." + +We left the house in the sole possession of two police agents--every one +of the inmates being removed to prison on the spot. The Sub-prefect, +after taking down my "procès verbal" in his office, returned with me to +my hotel to get my passport. "Do you think," I asked, as I gave it to +him, "that any men have really been smothered in that bed, as they tried +to smother _me_?" + +"I have seen dozens of drowned men laid out at the Morgue," answered the +Sub-prefect, "in whose pocketbooks were found letters stating that they +had committed suicide in the Seine, because they had lost everything at +the gaming-table. Do I know how many of those men entered the same +gambling-house that _you_ entered? won as _you_ won? took that bed as +_you_ took it? slept in it? were smothered in it? and were privately +thrown into the river, with a letter of explanation written by the +murderers and placed in their pocketbooks? No man can say how many or +how few have suffered the fate from which you have escaped. The people +of the gambling house kept their bedstead machinery a secret from +us--even from the police! The dead kept the rest of the secret for them. +Good-night, or rather good-morning, Monsieur Faulkner! Be at my office +again at nine o'clock--in the meantime, au revoir!" + +The rest of my story is soon told. I was examined and reexamined; the +gambling-house was strictly searched all through from top to bottom; the +prisoners were separately interrogated; and two of the less guilty among +them made a confession. I discovered that the Old Soldier was the master +of the gambling-house--_justice_ discovered that he had been drummed out +of the army as a vagabond years ago; that he had been guilty of all +sorts of villainies since; that he was in possession of stolen property, +which the owners identified; and that he, the croupier, another +accomplice, and the woman who had made my cup of coffee, were all in the +secret of the bedstead. There appeared some reason to doubt whether the +inferior persons attached to the house knew anything of the suffocating +machinery; and they received the benefit of that doubt, by being treated +simply as thieves and vagabonds. As for the Old Soldier and his two head +myrmidons, they went to the galleys; the woman who had drugged my coffee +was imprisoned for I forget how many years; the regular attendants at +the gambling-house were considered "suspicious," and placed under +"surveillance"; and I became, for one whole week (which is a long time), +the head "lion" in Parisian society. My adventure was dramatized by +three illustrious play-makers, but never saw theatrical daylight; for +the censorship forbade the introduction on the stage of a correct copy +of the gambling-house bedstead. + +One good result was produced by my adventure, which any censorship must +have approved: it cured me of ever again trying "Rouge et Noir" as an +amusement. The sight of a green cloth, with packs of cards and heaps of +money on it, will henceforth be forever associated in my mind with the +sight of a bed canopy descending to suffocate me in the silence and +darkness of the night. + + + + +THE TORTURE BY HOPE + +VILLIERS DE L'ISLE ADAM + + +Many years ago, as evening was closing in, the venerable Pedro Arbuez +d'Espila, sixth prior of the Dominicans of Segovia, and third Grand +Inquisitor of Spain, followed by a _fra redemptor_, and preceded by two +familiars of the Holy Office, the latter carrying lanterns, made their +way to a subterranean dungeon. The bolt of a massive door creaked, and +they entered a mephitic _in-pace_, where the dim light revealed between +rings fastened to the wall a blood-stained rack, a brazier, and a jug. +On a pile of straw, loaded with fetters and his neck encircled by an +iron carcan, sat a haggard man, of uncertain age, clothed in rags. + +This prisoner was no other than Rabbi Aser Abarbanel, a Jew of Arragon, +who--accused of usury and pitiless scorn for the poor--had been daily +subjected to torture for more than a year. Yet "his blindness was as +dense as his hide," and he had refused to abjure his faith. + +Proud of a filiation dating back thousands of years, proud of his +ancestors--for all Jews worthy of the name are vain of their blood--he +descended Talmudically from Othoniel and consequently from Ipsiboa, the +wife of the last judge of Israel, a circumstance which had sustained his +courage amid incessant torture. With tears in his eyes at the thought of +this resolute soul rejecting salvation, the venerable Pedro Arbuez +d'Espila, approaching the shuddering rabbi, addressed him as follows: + +"My son, rejoice: your trials here below are about to end. If in the +presence of such obstinacy I was forced to permit, with deep regret, the +use of great severity, my task of fraternal correction has its limits. +You are the fig tree which, having failed so many times to bear fruit, +at last withered, but God alone can judge your soul. Perhaps Infinite +Mercy will shine upon you at the last moment! We must hope so. There are +examples. So sleep in peace to-night. To-morrow you will be included in +the _auto da fé_: that is, you will be exposed to the _quéma-dero_, the +symbolical flames of the Everlasting Fire: It burns, as you know, only +at a distance, my son; and Death is at least two hours (often three) in +coming, on account of the wet, iced bandages, with which we protect the +heads and hearts of the condemned. There will be forty-three of you. +Placed in the last row, you will have time to invoke God and offer to +Him this baptism of fire, which is of the Holy Spirit. Hope in the +Light, and rest." + +With these words, having signed to his companions to unchain the +prisoner, the prior tenderly embraced him. Then came the turn of the +_fra redemptor_, who, in a low tone, entreated the Jew's forgiveness for +what he had made him suffer for the purpose of redeeming him; then the +two familiars silently kissed him. This ceremony over, the captive was +left, solitary and bewildered, in the darkness. + + * * * * * + +Rabbi Aser Abarbanel, with parched lips and visage worn by suffering, at +first gazed at the closed door with vacant eyes. Closed? The word +unconsciously roused a vague fancy in his mind, the fancy that he had +seen for an instant the light of the lanterns through a chink between +the door and the wall. A morbid idea of hope, due to the weakness of his +brain, stirred his whole being. He dragged himself toward the strange +_appearance_. Then, very gently and cautiously, slipping one finger into +the crevice, he drew the door toward him. Marvellous! By an +extraordinary accident the familiar who closed it had turned the huge +key an instant before it struck the stone casing, so that the rusty bolt +not having entered the hole, the door again rolled on its hinges. + +The rabbi ventured to glance outside. By the aid of a sort of luminous +dusk he distinguished at first a semicircle of walls indented by winding +stairs; and opposite to him, at the top of five or six stone steps, a +sort of black portal, opening into an immense corridor, whose first +arches only were visible from below. + +Stretching himself flat he crept to the threshold. Yes, it was really a +corridor, but endless in length. A wan light illumined it: lamps +suspended from the vaulted ceiling lightened at intervals the dull hue +of the atmosphere--the distance was veiled in shadow. Not a single door +appeared in the whole extent! Only on one side, the left, heavily grated +loopholes sunk in the walls, admitted a light which must be that of +evening, for crimson bars at intervals rested on the flags of the +pavement. What a terrible silence! Yet, yonder, at the far end of that +passage there might be a doorway of escape! The Jew's vacillating hope +was tenacious, for it was _the last_. + +Without hesitating, he ventured on the flags, keeping close under the +loopholes, trying to make himself part of the blackness of the long +walls. He advanced slowly, dragging himself along on his breast, forcing +back the cry of pain when some raw wound sent a keen pang through his +whole body. + +Suddenly the sound of a sandaled foot approaching reached his ears. He +trembled violently, fear stifled him, his sight grew dim. Well, it was +over, no doubt. He pressed himself into a niche and half lifeless with +terror, waited. + +It was a familiar hurrying along. He passed swiftly by, holding in his +clenched hand an instrument of torture--a frightful figure--and +vanished. The suspense which the rabbi had endured seemed to have +suspended the functions of life, and he lay nearly an hour unable to +move. Fearing an increase of tortures if he were captured, he thought of +returning to his dungeon. But the old hope whispered in his soul that +divine _perhaps_, which comforts us in our sorest trials. A miracle had +happened. He could doubt no longer. He began to crawl toward the chance +of escape. Exhausted by suffering and hunger, trembling with pain, he +pressed onward. The sepulchral corridor seemed to lengthen mysteriously, +while he, still advancing, gazed into the gloom where there _must_ be +some avenue of escape. + +Oh! oh! He again heard footsteps, but this time they were slower, more +heavy. The white and black forms of two inquisitors appeared, emerging +from the obscurity beyond. They were conversing in low tones, and seemed +to be discussing some important subject, for they were gesticulating +vehemently. + +At this spectacle Rabbi Aser Abarbanel closed his eyes: his heart beat +so violently that it almost suffocated him; his rags were damp with the +cold sweat of agony; he lay motionless by the wall, his mouth wide open, +under the rays of a lamp, praying to the God of David. + +Just opposite to him the two inquisitors paused under the light of the +lamp--doubtless owing to some accident due to the course of their +argument. One, while listening to his companion, gazed at the rabbi! +And, beneath the look--whose absence of expression the hapless man did +not at first notice--he fancied he again felt the burning pincers scorch +his flesh, he was to be once more a living wound. Fainting, breathless, +with fluttering eyelids, he shivered at the touch of the monk's floating +robe. But--strange yet natural fact--the inquisitor's gaze was evidently +that of a man deeply absorbed in his intended reply, engrossed by what +he was hearing; his eyes were fixed--and seemed to look at the Jew +_without seeing him_. + +In fact, after the lapse of a few minutes, the two gloomy figures slowly +pursued their way, still conversing in low tones, toward the place +whence the prisoner had come; HE HAD NOT BEEN SEEN! Amid the horrible +confusion of the rabbi's thoughts, the idea darted through his brain: +"Can I be already dead that they did not see me?" A hideous impression +roused him from his lethargy: in looking at the wall against which his +face was pressed, he imagined he beheld two fierce eyes watching him! He +flung his head back in a sudden frenzy of fright, his hair fairly +bristling! Yet, no! No. His hand groped over the stones: it was the +_reflection_ of the inquisitor's eyes, still retained in his own, which +had been refracted from two spots on the wall. + +Forward! He must hasten toward that goal which he fancied (absurdly, no +doubt) to be deliverance, toward the darkness from which he was now +barely thirty paces distant. He pressed forward faster on his knees, his +hands, at full length, dragging himself painfully along, and soon +entered the dark portion of this terrible corridor. + +Suddenly the poor wretch felt a gust of cold air on the hands resting +upon the flags; it came from under the little door to which the two +walls led. + +Oh, Heaven, if that door should open outward. Every nerve in the +miserable fugitive's body thrilled with hope. He examined it from top to +bottom, though scarcely able to distinguish its outlines in the +surrounding darkness. He passed his hand over it: no bolt, no lock! A +latch! He started up, the latch yielded to the pressure of his thumb: +the door silently swung open before him. + + * * * * * + +"Halleluia!" murmured the rabbi in a transport of gratitude as, standing +on the threshold, he beheld the scene before him. + +The door had opened into the gardens, above which arched a starlit sky, +into spring, liberty, life! It revealed the neighbouring fields, +stretching toward the sierras, whose sinuous blue lines were relieved +against the horizon. Yonder lay freedom! O, to escape! He would journey +all night through the lemon groves, whose fragrance reached him. Once in +the mountains and he was safe! He inhaled the delicious air; the breeze +revived him, his lungs expanded! He felt in his swelling heart the _Veni +foràs_ of Lazarus! And to thank once more the God who had bestowed this +mercy upon him, he extended his arms, raising his eyes toward Heaven. It +was an ecstasy of joy! + +Then he fancied he saw the shadow of his arms approach him--fancied that +he felt these shadowy arms inclose, embrace him--and that he was pressed +tenderly to some one's breast. A tall figure actually did stand directly +before him. He lowered his eyes--and remained motionless, gasping for +breath, dazed, with fixed eyes, fairly drivelling with terror. + +Horror! He was in the clasp of the Grand Inquisitor himself, the +venerable Pedro Arbuez d'Espila who gazed at him with tearful eyes, like +a good shepherd who had found his stray lamb. + +The dark-robed priest pressed the hapless Jew to his heart with so +fervent an outburst of love, that the edges of the monochal haircloth +rubbed the Dominican's breast. And while Aser Abarbanel with protruding +eyes gasped in agony in the ascetic's embrace, vaguely comprehending +that all the phases of this fatal evening were only a prearranged +torture, that of HOPE, the Grand Inquisitor, with an accent of touching +reproach and a look of consternation, murmured in his ear, his breath +parched and burning from long fasting: + +"What, my son! On the eve, perchance, of salvation--you wished to leave +us?" + + + + +THE BOX WITH THE IRON CLAMPS + +FLORENCE MARRYAT + + + + +I + + +Molton Chase is a charming, old-fashioned country house, which has been +in the possession of the Clayton family for centuries past; and as Harry +Clayton, its present owner, has plenty of money, and (having tasted the +pleasures of matrimony for only five years) has no knowledge (as yet) of +the delights of college and school bills coming in at Christmas-time, it +is his will to fill the Chase at that season with guests, to each of +whom he extends a welcome, as hearty as it is sincere. + +"Bella! are you not going to join the riding-party this afternoon?" he +said across the luncheon-table to his wife, one day in a December not +long ago. + +"Bella" was a dimpled little woman, whose artless expression of +countenance would well bear comparison with the honest, genial face +opposite to her, and who replied at once-- + +"No! not this afternoon, Harry, dear. You know the Damers may come at +any time between this and seven o'clock, and I should not like to be out +when they arrive." + +"And may I ask Mrs. Clayton who _are_ the Damers," inquired a friend of +her husband, who, on account of being handsome, considered himself +licensed to be pert--"that their advent should be the cause of our +losing the pleasure of your company this afternoon?" + +But the last thing Bella Clayton ever did was to take offence. + +"The Damers are my cousins, Captain Moss," she replied; "at least +Blanche Damer is." + +At this juncture a dark-eyed man who was sitting at the other end of the +table dropped the flirting converse he had been maintaining with a +younger sister of Mrs. Clayton's, and appeared to become interested in +what his hostess was saying. + +"Colonel Damer," he continued, "has been in India for the last twelve +years, and only returned to England a month ago; therefore it would seem +unkind on the first visit he has paid to his relatives that there should +be no one at home to welcome him." + +"Has Mrs. Damer been abroad for as long a time?" resumed her questioner, +a vision arising on his mental faculties of a lemon-coloured woman with +shoes down at heel. + +"Oh dear no!" replied his hostess. "Blanche came to England about five +years ago, but her health has been too delicate to rejoin her husband in +India since. Have we all finished, Harry, dear?"--and in another minute +the luncheon-table was cleared. + +As Mrs. Clayton crossed the hall soon afterwards to visit her nursery, +the same dark-eyed man who had regarded her fixedly when she mentioned +the name of Blanche Damer followed and accosted her. + +"Is it long since you have seen your cousin Mrs. Damer, Mrs. Clayton?" + +"I saw her about three years ago, Mr. Laurence; but she had a severe +illness soon after that, and has been living on the Continent ever +since. Why do you ask?" + +"For no especial reason," he answered smiling. "Perhaps I am a little +jealous lest this new-comer to whose arrival you look forward with so +much interest should usurp more of your time and attention than we +less-favoured ones can spare." + +He spoke with a degree of sarcasm, real or feigned, which Mrs. Clayton +immediately resented. + +"I am not aware that I have been in the habit of neglecting my guests, +Mr. Laurence," she replied; "but my cousin Blanche is more likely to +remind me of my duties than to tempt me to forget them." + +"Forgive me," he said, earnestly. "You have mistaken my meaning +altogether. But are you very intimate with this lady?" + +"Very much so," was the answer. "We were brought up together, and loved +each other as sisters until she married and went to India. For some +years after her return home our intercourse was renewed, and only +broken, on the occasion of her being ill and going abroad, as I have +described to you. Her husband, I have, of course, seen less of, but I +like what I know of him, and am anxious to show them both all the +hospitality in my power. She is a charming creature, and I am sure you +will admire her." + +"Doubtless I shall," he replied; "that is if she does not lay claim to +all Mrs. Clayton's interest in the affairs of Molton Chase." + +"No fear of that," laughed the cheery little lady as she ascended the +stairs, and left Mr. Laurence standing in the hall beneath. + +"Clayton," observed that gentleman, as he re-entered the luncheon-room +and drew his host into the privacy of a bay-window, "I really am afraid +I shall have to leave you this evening--if you won't think it rude of me +to go so suddenly." + +"But _why_, my dear fellow?" exclaimed Harry Clayton, as his blue eyes +searched into the other's soul. "What earthly reason can you have for +going, when your fixed plan was to stay with us over Christmas Day?" + +"Well! there is lots of work waiting for me to do, you know; and really +the time slips away so, and time is money to a slave like +myself--that--" + +"Now, my dear Laurence," said Harry Clayton conclusively, "you know you +are only making excuses. All the work that was absolutely necessary for +you to do before Christmas was finished before you came here, and you +said you felt yourself licensed to take a whole month's holiday. Now, +was not that the case?" + +Mr. Laurence could not deny the fact, and so he looked undecided, and +was silent. + +"Don't let me hear any more about your going before Christmas Day," said +his host, "or I shall be offended, and so will Bella; to say nothing of +Bella's sister--eh, Laurence!" + +Whereupon Mr. Laurence felt himself bound to remain; and saying in his +own mind that fate was against him, dropped the subject of his departure +altogether. + +One hour later, the riding party being then some miles from Molton +Chase, a travelling carriage laden with trunks drove up to the house, +and Mrs. Clayton, all blushes and smiles, stood on the hall-steps to +welcome her expected guests. + +Colonel Damer was the first to alight. He was a middle-aged man, but +with a fine soldierly bearing, which took off from his years; and he was +so eager to see to the safe exit of his wife from the carriage-door that +he had not time to do more than take off his hat to blooming Bella on +the steps. + +"Now, my love," he exclaimed as the lady's form appeared, "pray take +care; two steps: that's right--here you are, safe." + +And then Mrs. Damer, being securely landed, was permitted to fly into +the cousinly arms which were opened to receive her. + +"My dear Bella!" + +"My dearest Blanche--I am so delighted to see you again. Why, you are +positively frozen! Pray come in at once to the fire. Colonel Damer, my +servants will see to the luggage--do leave it to them, and come and warm +yourselves." + +A couple of men-servants now came forward and offered to see to the +unloading of the carriage--but Mrs. Damer did not move. + +"Will you not go in, my love, as your cousin proposes?" said her +husband. "I can see to the boxes if you should wish me to do so." + +"No, thank you," was the low reply; and there was such a ring of +melancholy in the voice of Mrs. Damer that a stranger would have been +attracted by it. "I prefer waiting until the carriage is unpacked." + +"Never mind the luggage, Blanche," whispered Mrs. Clayton, in her +coaxing manner. "Come in to the fire, dear--I have so much to tell you." + +"Wait a minute, Bella," said her cousin; and the entreaty was so firm +that it met with no further opposition. + +"One--two--three--four," exclaimed Colonel Damer, as the boxes +successively came to the ground. "I am afraid you will think we are +going to take you by storm, Mrs. Clayton; but perhaps you know my wife's +fancy for a large travelling _kit_ of old. Is that all, Blanche?" + +"That is all--thank you," in the same low melancholy tones in which she +had spoken before. "Now, Bella, dear, which is to be my room?" + +"You would rather go there first, Blanche?" + +"Yes, please--I'm tired. Will you carry up that box for me?" she +continued, pointing out one of the trunks to the servant. + +"Directly, ma'am," he returned, as he was looking for change for a +sovereign wherewith to accommodate Colonel Damer--but the lady lingered +until he was at leisure. Then he shouldered the box next to the one she +had indicated, and she directed his attention to the fact, and made him +change his burden. + +"They'll all go up in time, ma'am," the man remarked; but Mrs. Damer, +answering nothing, did not set her foot upon the stairs until he was +halfway up them, with the trunk she had desired him to take first. + +Then she leaned wearily upon Bella Clayton's arm, pressing it fondly to +her side, and so the two went together to the bedroom which had been +appointed for the reception of the new guests. It was a large and +cosily-furnished apartment, with a dressing-room opening from it. When +the ladies arrived there they found the servant awaiting them with the +box in question. + +"Where will you have it placed, ma'am?" he demanded of Mrs. Damer. + +"Under the bed, please." + +But the bedstead was a French one, and the mahogany sides were so deep +that nothing could get beneath them but dust; and the trunk, although +small, was heavy and strong and clamped with iron, not at all the sort +of trunk that would go _anywhere_. + +"Nothing will go under the bed, ma'am!" said the servant in reply. + +Mrs. Damer slightly changed colour. + +"Never mind then: leave it there. Oh! what a comfort a good fire is," +she continued, turning to the hearth-rug, and throwing herself into an +arm-chair. "We have had such a cold drive from the station." + +"But about your box, Blanche?" said Mrs. Clayton, who had no idea of her +friends being put to any inconvenience. "It can't stand there; you'll +unpack it, won't you? or shall I have it moved into the passage?" + +"Oh, no, thank you, Bella--please let it stand where it is: it will do +very well indeed." + +"What will do very well?" exclaimed Colonel Damer, who now entered the +bedroom, followed by a servant with another trunk. + +"Only Blanche's box, Colonel Damer," said Bella Clayton. "She doesn't +wish to unpack it, and it will be in her way here, I'm afraid. It +_might_ stand in your dressing-room."--This she said as a "feeler," +knowing that some gentlemen do not like to be inconvenienced, even in +their dressing-rooms. + +But Colonel Damer was as unselfish as it was possible for an old Indian +to be. + +"Of course it can," he replied. "Here (to the servant), just shoulder +that box, will you, and move it into the next room." + +The man took up the article in question rather carelessly, and nearly +let it fall again. Mrs. Damer darted forward as if to save it. + +"Pray put it down," she said, nervously. "I have no wish to have it +moved--I shall require it by-and-by; it will be no inconvenience--" + +"Just as you like, dear," said Mrs. Clayton, who was becoming rather +tired of the little discussion. "And now take off your things, dear +Blanche, and let me ring for some tea." + +Colonel Damer walked into his dressing-room and left the two ladies +alone. The remainder of the luggage was brought upstairs; the tea was +ordered and served, and whilst Mrs. Clayton busied herself in pouring it +out, Mrs. Damer sank back upon a sofa which stood by the fire, and +conversed with her cousin. + +She had been beautiful, this woman, in her earlier youth, though no one +would have thought it to see her now. As Bella handed her the tea she +glanced towards the thin hand stretched out to receive it, and from +thence to the worn face and hollow eyes, and could scarcely believe she +saw the same person she had parted from three years before. + +But she had not been so intimate with her of late, and she was almost +afraid of commenting upon her cousin's altered appearance, for fear it +might wound her; all she said was: + +"You look very delicate still, dear Blanche; I was in hopes the change +to the Continent would have set you up and made you stronger than you +were when you left England." + +"Oh, no; I never shall be well again," was Mrs. Damer's careless reply: +"it's an old story now, Bella, and it's no use talking about it. Whom +have you staying in the house at present, dear?" + +"Well, we are nearly full," rejoined Mrs. Clayton. "There is my old +godfather, General Knox--you remember him, I know--and his son and +daughter; and the Ainsleys and their family; ditto, the Bayleys and the +Armstrongs, and then, for single men, we have young Brooke, and Harry's +old friend, Charley Moss, and Herbert Laurence, and--are you ill, +Blanchey?" + +An exclamation had burst from Mrs. Damer--hardly an exclamation, so much +as a half-smothered cry--but whether of pain or fear, it was hard to +determine. + +"Are you ill?" reiterated Mrs. Clayton, full of anxiety for her +fragile-looking cousin. + +"No," replied Blanche Damer, pressing her hand to her side, but still +deadly pale from the effect of whatever emotion she had gone through; +"it is nothing; I feel faint after our long journey." + +Colonel Damer had also heard the sound, and now appeared upon the +threshold of his dressing-room. He was one of those well-meaning, but +fussy men, who can never have two women alone for a quarter of an hour +without intruding on their privacy. + +"Did you call, my dearest?" he asked of his wife. "Do you want +anything?" + +"Nothing, thank you," replied Bella for her cousin; "Blanche is only a +little tired and overcome by her travelling." + +"I think, after all, that I will move that trunk away for you into my +room," he said, advancing towards the box which had already been the +subject of discussion. Mrs. Damer started from the sofa with a face of +crimson. + +"I _beg_ you will leave my boxes alone," she said, with an imploring +tone in her voice which was quite unfitted to the occasion. "I have not +brought one more than I need, and I wish them to remain under my own +eye." + +"There must be something very valuable in that receptacle," said Colonel +Damer, facetiously, as he beat a retreat to his own quarters. + +"Is it your linen box?" demanded Mrs. Clayton of her cousin. + +"Yes," in a hesitating manner; "that is, it contains several things that +I have in daily use; but go on about your visitors, Bella: are there any +more?" + +"I don't think so: where had I got to?--oh! to the bachelors: well, +there are Mr. Brooke and Captain Moss, and Mr. Laurence (the poet, you +know; Harry was introduced to him last season by Captain Moss), and my +brother Alfred; and that's all." + +"A very respectable list," said Mrs. Damer, languidly. "What kind of a +man is the--the poet you spoke of?" + +"Laurence?--oh, he seems a very pleasant man; but he is very silent and +abstracted, as I suppose a poet should be. My sister Carrie is here, and +they have quite got up a flirtation together; however, I don't suppose +it will come to anything." + +"And your nursery department?" + +"Thriving, thank you; I think you _will_ be astonished to see my boy. +Old Mrs. Clayton says he is twice the size that Harry was at that age; +and the little girls can run about and talk almost as well as I can. But +I must not expect you, Blanche, to take the same interest in babies that +I do." + +This she added, remembering that the woman before her was childless. +Mrs. Damer moved uneasily on her couch, but she said nothing; and soon +after the sound of a gong reverberating through the hall warned Mrs. +Clayton that the dinner was not far off and the riding-party must have +returned; so, leaving her friend to her toilet, she took her departure. + +As she left the room, Mrs. Damer was alone. She had no maid of her own, +and she had refused the offices of Mrs. Clayton, assuring her that she +was used to dress herself; but she made little progress in that +department, as she lay on the couch in the firelight, with her face +buried in her hands, and thoughts coursing through her mind of which +heaven alone knew the tendency. + +"Come, my darling," said the kind, coaxing voice of her husband, as, +after knocking more than once without receiving any answer, he entered +her room, fully dressed, and found her still arrayed in her travelling +things, and none of her boxes unpacked. "You will never be ready for +dinner at this rate. Shall I make an excuse for your not appearing at +table this evening? I am sure Mrs. Clayton would wish you to keep your +room if you are too tired to dress." + +"I am not too tired, Harry," said Mrs. Damer, rising from the couch, +"and I shall be ready in ten minutes," unlocking and turning over the +contents of a box as she spoke. + +"Better not, perhaps, my love," interposed the colonel, in mild +expostulation; "you will be better in bed, and can see your kind friends +to-morrow morning." + +"I am going down to dinner to-night," she answered, gently, but +decisively. She was a graceful woman now she stood on her feet, and +threw off the heavy wraps in which she had travelled, with a slight, +willowy figure, and a complexion which was almost transparent in its +delicacy; but her face was very thin, and her large blue eyes had a +scared and haggard look in them, which was scarcely less painful to +witness than the appearance of anxiety which was expressed by the +knitted brows by which they were surmounted. As she now raised her fair +attenuated hands to rearrange her hair, which had once been abundant and +glossy, her husband could not avoid remarking upon the change which had +passed over it. + +"I had no idea you had lost your hair so much, darling," he said; "I +have not seen it down before to-night. Why, where is it all gone to?" he +continued, as he lifted the light mass in his hands, and remembered of +what a length and weight it used to be, when he last parted from her. + +"Oh, I don't know," she rejoined, sadly; "gone, with my youth, I +suppose, Henry." + +"My poor girl!" he said, gently, "you have suffered very much in this +separation. I had no right to leave you alone for so many years. But it +is all over now, dearest, and I will take such good care of you that you +will be obliged to get well and strong again." + +She turned round suddenly from the glass, and pressed her lips upon the +hand which held her hair. + +"Don't," she murmured; "pray don't speak to me so, Henry! I can't bear +it; I can't indeed!" + +He thought it was from excess of feeling that she spoke; and so it was, +though not as he imagined. So he changed the subject lightly, and bade +her be lazy no longer, but put on her dress, if she was really +determined to make one of the party at dinner that evening. + +In another minute, Mrs. Damer had brushed her diminished hair into the +fashion in which she ordinarily wore it; thrown on an evening-robe of +black, which, while it contrasted well with her fairness, showed the +falling away of her figure in a painful degree; and was ready to +accompany her husband downstairs. + +They were met at the door of the drawing-room by their host, who was +eager to show cordiality towards guests of whom his wife thought so +much, and having also been acquainted himself with Mrs. Damer since her +return to England. He led her up to the sofa whereon Bella sat; and, +dinner being almost immediately announced, the little hostess was busy +pairing off her couples. + +"Mr. Laurence!" she exclaimed; and then looking around the room, "where +_is_ Mr. Laurence?" So that that gentleman was forced to leave the +window-curtains, behind which he had ensconced himself, and advance into +the centre of the room. "Oh, here you are at last; will you take Mrs. +Damer down to dinner?" and proceeding immediately with the usual form of +introduction--"Mr. Laurence--Mrs. Damer." + +They bowed to each other; but over the lady's face, as she went through +her share of the introduction, there passed so indescribable, and yet so +unmistakable a change, that Mrs. Clayton, although not very quick, could +not help observing it, and she said, involuntarily-- + +"Have you met Mr. Laurence before, Blanche?" + +"I believe I have had that pleasure--in London--many years ago." + +The last words came out so faintly that they were almost +undistinguishable. + +"Why didn't you tell me so?" said Bella Clayton, reproachfully, to Mr. +Laurence. + +He was beginning to stammer out some excuse about its having been so +long ago, when Mrs. Damer came to his aid, in her clear, cold voice-- + +"It _was_ very long ago: we must both be forgiven for having forgotten +the circumstance." + +"Well, you must renew your acquaintanceship at dinner," said Mrs. +Clayton, blithely, as she trotted off to make matters pleasant between +the rest of her visitors. As she did so, Mr. Laurence remained standing +by the sofa, but he did not attempt to address Mrs. Damer. Only, when +the room was nearly cleared, he held out his arm to her, and she rose to +accept it. But the next minute she had sunk back again upon the sofa, +and Mrs. Clayton was at her cousin's side. Mrs. Damer had fainted. + +"Poor darling!" exclaimed Colonel Damer, as he pressed forward to the +side of his wife. "I was afraid coming down to-night would be too much +for her, but she would make the attempt; she has so much spirit. Pray +don't delay the dinner, Mrs. Clayton; I will stay by her, if you will +excuse the apparent rudeness, until she is sufficiently recovered to go +to bed." + +But even as he spoke his wife raised herself from the many arms which +supported her, and essayed to gain her feet. + +"Bella, dear! I am all right again. Pray, if you love me, don't make a +scene about a little fatigue. I often faint now: let me go up to my +bedroom and lie down, as I ought to have done at first, and I shall be +quite well to-morrow morning." + +She would accept no one's help--not even her husband's, though it +distressed him greatly that she refused it--but walked out of the room +of her own accord, and toiled wearily up the staircase which led her to +the higher stories; whilst more than one pair of eyes watched her +ascent, and more than one appetite was spoilt for the coming meal. + +"Don't you think that Blanche is looking very ill?" demanded Bella +Clayton of Colonel Damer, at the dinner-table. She had been much struck +herself with the great alteration in her cousin's looks, and fancied +that her husband was not so alarmed about it as he ought to be. + +"I do, indeed," he replied; "but it is the last thing she will +acknowledge herself. She has very bad spirits and appetite; appears +always in a low fever, and is so nervous that the least thing will +frighten her. That, to me, is the worst and most surprising change of +all: such a high-couraged creature as she used to be." + +"Yes, indeed," replied Mrs. Clayton; "I can hardly imagine Blanche being +nervous at anything. It must have come on since her visit to the +Continent, for she was not so when she stayed here last." + +"When was that?" demanded the Colonel, anxiously. + +"Just three years ago this Christmas," was the answer. "I don't think I +ever saw her look better than she did then, and she was the life of the +house. But soon afterwards she went to Paris, and then we heard of her +illness, and this is my first meeting with her since that time. I was +very much shocked when she got out of the carriage: I should scarcely +have known her again." Here Mrs. Clayton stopped, seeing that the +attention of Mr. Laurence, who sat opposite to her, appeared to be +riveted on her words, and Colonel Damer relapsed into thought and spoke +no more. + +In the meanwhile Mrs. Damer had gained her bedroom. Women had come to +attend upon her, sent by their mistress, and laden with offers of +refreshment and help of every kind, but she had dismissed them and +chosen to be alone. She felt too weak to be very restless, but she had +sat by the fire and cried, until she was so exhausted that her bed +suggested itself to her, as the best place in which she could be; but +rising to undress, preparatory to seeking it, she had nearly fallen, and +catching feebly at the bedpost had missed it, and sunk down by the side +of the solid black box, which was clamped with iron and fastened with a +padlock, and respecting which she had been so particular a few hours +before. She felt as if she was dying, and as if this were the fittest +place for her to die on. "There is nothing in my possession," she cried, +"that really belongs to me but _this_--this which I loathe and abhor, +and love and weep over at one and the same moment." And, strange to +relate, Mrs. Damer turned on her side and kneeling by the iron-clamped +chest pressed her lips upon its hard, unyielding surface, as if it had +life wherewith to answer her embrace. And then the wearied creature +dragged herself up again into an unsteady position, and managed to +sustain it until she was ready to lie down upon her bed. + +The next morning she was much better. Colonel Damer and Bella Clayton +laid their heads together and decided that she was to remain in bed +until after breakfast, therefore she was spared meeting with the +assembled strangers until the dinner-hour again, for luncheon was a +desultory meal at Molton Chase, and scarcely any of the gentlemen were +present at it that day. After luncheon Mrs. Clayton proposed driving +Mrs. Damer out in her pony-chaise. + +"I don't think you will find it cold, dear, and we can come home by the +lower shrubberies and meet the gentlemen as they return from shooting," +Colonel Damer being one of the shooting party. But Mrs. Damer had +declined the drive, and made her cousin understand so plainly that she +preferred being left alone, that Mrs. Clayton felt no compunction in +acceding to her wishes, and laying herself out to please the other +ladies staying in the house. + +And Mrs. Damer did wish to be alone. She wanted to think over the +incidents of the night before, and devise some plan by which she could +persuade her husband to leave the Grange as soon as possible without +provoking questions which she might find it difficult to answer. When +the sound of the wheels of her cousin's pony-chaise had died away, and +the great stillness pervading Molton Grange proclaimed that she was the +sole inmate left behind, she dressed herself in a warm cloak, and +drawing the hood over her head prepared for a stroll about the grounds. +A little walk she thought would do her good, and with this intention she +left the house. The Grange gardens were extensive and curiously laid +out, and there were many winding shrubbery paths about them, which +strangers were apt to find easier to enter than to find their way out of +again. Into one of these Mrs. Damer now turned her steps for the sake of +privacy and shelter; but she had not gone far before, on turning an +abrupt corner, she came suddenly upon the figure of the gentleman she +had been introduced to the night before, Mr. Laurence, who she had +imagined to be with the shooting party. He was half lying, half sitting +across a rustic seat which encircled the huge trunk of an old tree, with +his eyes bent upon the ground and a cigar between his lips. He was more +an intellectual and fine-looking than a handsome man, but he possessed +two gifts which are much more winning than beauty, a mind of great +power, and the art of fascination. As Mrs. Damer came full in view of +him, too suddenly to stop herself or to retreat, he rose quickly from +the attitude he had assumed when he thought himself secure from +interruption and stood in her pathway. She attempted to pass him with an +inclination of the head, but he put out his hand and stopped her. + +"Blanche! you must speak to me; you shall not pass like this; I insist +upon it!" and she tried in vain to disengage her arm from his detaining +clasp. + +"Mr. Laurence, what right have you to hold me thus?" + +"What right, Blanche? The right of every man over the woman who loves +him!" + +"That is your right over me no longer. I have tried to avoid you. You +have both seen and known it! No _gentleman_ would force himself upon my +notice in this manner." + +"Your taunt fails to have any effect upon me. I have sought an +explanation of your extraordinary conduct from you in vain. My letters +have been unanswered, my entreaties for a last interview disregarded; +and now that chance has brought us together again, I must have what I +have a right to ask from your own lips. I did not devise this meeting; I +did not even know you had returned to England till yesterday, and then I +sought to avoid you; but it was fated that we should meet, and it is +fated that you satisfy my curiosity." + +"What do you want to know?" she asked, in a low voice. + +"First, have you ceased to love me?" + +The angry light which had flashed across her face when he used force to +detain her died away; the pallid lips commenced to tremble, and in the +sunken eyes large tear-drops rose and hung quivering upon the long +eyelashes. + +"Enough, Blanche," Mr. Laurence continued, in a softer voice. "Nature +answers me. I will not give you the needless pain of speaking. Then, why +did you forsake me? Why did you leave England without one line of +farewell, and why have you refused to hold any communication with me +since that time?" + +"I _could_ not," she murmured. "You do not know; you cannot feel; you +could never understand my feelings on that occasion." + +"That is no answer to my question, Blanche," he said firmly, "and an +answer I will have. What was the immediate cause of your breaking faith +with me? I loved you, you know how well. What drove you from me? Was it +fear, or indifference, or a sudden remorse?" + +"It was," she commenced slowly, and then as if gathering up a great +resolution, she suddenly exclaimed, "Do you _really_ wish to know what +parted us?" + +"I really intend to know," he replied, and the old power which he had +held over her recommenced its sway. "Whatever it was it has not tended +to your happiness," he continued, "if I may judge from your looks. You +are terribly changed, Blanche! I think even I could have made you +happier than you appear to have been." + +"I have had enough to change me," she replied. "If you will know then, +come with me, and I will show you." + +"To-day?" + +"At once; to-morrow may be too late." She began to walk towards the +house as she spoke, rapidly and irregularly, her heart beating fast, but +no trace of weakness in her limbs; and Herbert Laurence followed her, he +scarcely knew why, expecting that she had desired it. + +Into Molton Grange she went, up the broad staircase and to her chamber +door before she paused to see if he was following. When she did so she +found that he stood just behind her on the wide landing. + +"You can enter," she said, throwing open the door of her bedroom, "don't +be afraid; there is nothing here except the cause for which I parted +with you." In her agitation and excitement, scarcely pausing to fasten +the door behind her, Mrs. Damer fell down on her knees before the little +black box with its iron clamps and ponderous padlock; and drawing a key +from her bosom, applied it to the lock, and in another minute had thrown +back the heavy lid. Having displaced some linen which lay at the top, +she carefully removed some lighter materials, and then calling to the +man behind her, bid him look in and be satisfied. Mr. Laurence advanced +to the box, quite ignorant as to the reason of her demand; but as his +eye fell upon its contents, he started backwards and covered his face +with his hands. As he drew them slowly away again he met the sad, +earnest look with which the kneeling woman greeted him, and for a few +moments they gazed at one another in complete silence. Then Mrs. Damer +withdrew her eyes from his and rearranged the contents of the black box; +the heavy lid shut with a clang, the padlock was fast again, the key in +her bosom, and she rose to her feet and prepared to leave the room in +the same unbroken silence. But he again detained her, and this time his +voice was hoarse and changed. + +"Blanche! tell me, is this the truth?" + +"As I believe in heaven," she answered. + +"And this was the reason that we parted--this the sole cause of our +estrangement?" + +"Was it not enough?" she said. "I erred, but it was as one in a dream. +When I awoke I could no longer err and be at peace. At peace did I say? +I have known no peace since I knew you; but I should have died and waked +up in hell, if I had not parted with you. This is all the truth, believe +it or not as you will; but there may, there can be nothing in future +between you and me. Pray let me pass you." + +"But that--that--box, Blanche!" exclaimed Herbert Laurence, with drops +of sweat, notwithstanding the temperature of the day, upon his forehead. +"It was an accident, a misfortune; _you_ did not do it?" + +She turned upon him eyes which were full of mingled horror and scorn. + +"I _do_ it!" she said; "what are you dreaming of? I was mad; but not so +mad as that! How could you think it?" and the tears rose in her eyes +more at the supposition which his question had raised than at the idea +that he could so misjudge her. + +"But why do you keep this? why do you carry it about with you, Blanche? +It is pure insanity on your part. How long is it since you have +travelled in company with that dreadful box?" + +"More than two years," she said in a fearful whisper. "I have tried to +get rid of it, but to no purpose; there was always some one in the way. +I have reasoned with myself, and prayed to be delivered from it, but I +have never found an opportunity. And now, what does it matter? The +burden and heat of the day are past." + +"Let me do it for you," said Mr. Laurence. "Whatever our future relation +to one another, I cannot consent that you should run so terrible a risk +through fault of mine. The strain upon your mind has been too great +already. Would to heaven I could have borne it for you! but you forbid +me even the privilege of knowing that you suffered. Now that I have +ascertained it, it must be my care that the cause of our separation +shall at least live in your memory only." And as he finished speaking he +attempted to lift the box; but Mrs. Damer sprang forward and prevented +him. + +"Leave it!" she cried; "do not dare to touch it; it is _mine_! It has +gone wherever I have gone for years. Do you think, for the little space +that is left me, that I would part with the only link left between me +and my dread past?" and saying this she threw herself upon the black +trunk and burst into tears. + +"Blanche! you love me as you ever did," exclaimed Herbert Laurence. +"These tears confess it. Let me make amends to you for this; let me try +to make the happiness of your future life!" + +But before his sentence was concluded Mrs. Damer had risen from her +drooping attitude and stood before him. + +"Make amends!" she echoed scornfully. "How can you 'make amends'? +Nothing can wipe out the memory of the shame and misery that I have +passed through, nothing restore the quiet conscience I have lost. I do +not know if I love you still or not. When I think of it, my head swims, +and I only feel confused and anxious. But I am sure of one thing, that +the horror of my remorse for even having listened to you has power to +overwhelm any regret that may be lingering in my unworthy breast, and +that the mere fact of your bodily presence is agony to me. When I met +you to-day I was battling with my invention to devise some means of +leaving the place where you are without exciting suspicion. If you ever +loved, have pity on me now; take the initiative, and rid me of +yourself." + +"Is this your final decision, Blanche?" he asked, slowly. "Will you not +regret it when too late, and you are left alone with only _that_?" + +She shuddered, and he caught at the fact as a sign of relenting. + +"Dearest, loveliest," he commenced.--This woman had been the loveliest +to him in days gone past, and though she was so terribly changed in eyes +that regarded her less, Herbert Laurence, her once lover, could still +trace above the languor and debility and distress of her present +appearance, the fresh, sparkling woman who had sacrificed herself for +his sake; and although his style of address signified more than he +really thought for her, the knowledge of how much she had undergone +since their separation had the power to make him imagine that this +partial reanimation of an old flame was a proof that the fire which +kindled it had never perished. Therefore it did not appear absurd in his +mental eyes to preface his appeal to Mrs. Damer thus: "Dearest, +loveliest--" but she turned upon him as though he had insulted her. + +"Mr. Laurence!" she exclaimed, "I have told you that the past is past; +be good enough to take me at my word. Do you think that I have lived +over two years of solitary shame and grief, to break the heart that +trusts in me _now_? If I had any wish, or any thought to the contrary, +it would be impossible. I am enveloped by kind words and acts, by care +and attention, which chain me as closely to my home as if I were kept a +prisoner between four walls. I could not free myself if I would," she +continued, throwing back her arms, as though she tried to break an +invisible thrall. "I must die first; the cords of gratitude are bound +about me so closely. It is killing me, as nothing else could kill," she +added, in a lower voice. "I lived under your loss, and the knowledge of +my own disgrace; but I cannot live under his perpetual kindness and +perfect trust. It cannot last much longer: for mercy's sake, leave me in +peace until the end comes!" + +"And the box?" he demanded. + +"I will provide for the box before that time," she answered, sadly; "but +if you have any fear, keep the key yourself: the lock is not one that +can be forced." + +She took the key from her bosom, where it hung on a broad black ribbon, +as she spoke, and handed it to him. He accepted it without demur. + +"You are so rash," he said; "it will be safer with me: let me take the +box also?" + +"No, no!" said Mrs. Damer, hurriedly; "you shall not; and it would be no +use. If it were out of my sight, I should dream that it was found, and +talk of it in my sleep. I often rise in the night now to see if it is +safe. Nothing could do away with it. If you buried it, some one would +dig it up; if you threw it in the water, it would float. It would lie +still nowhere but on my heart, where it ought to be!--it ought to be!" + +Her eyes had reassumed the wild, restless expression which they took +whilst speaking of the past, and her voice had sunk to a low, fearful +whisper. + +"This is madness," muttered Herbert Laurence; and he was right. On the +subject of the black box Mrs. Damer's brain was turned. + +He was just about to speak to her again, and try to reason her out of +her folly, when voices were heard merrily talking together in the hall, +and her face worked with the dread of discovery. + +"Go!" she said; "pray, go at once. I have told you everything." And in +another moment Herbert Laurence had dashed through the passage to the +privacy of his own room; and Mrs. Clayton, glowing from her drive, and +with a fine rosy baby in her arms, had entered the apartment of her +cousin. + + + + +II + + +Bella found her cousin sitting in an arm-chair, with the cloak still +over her shoulders, and a face of ashy whiteness, the reaction of her +excitement. + +"My dear, how ill you look!" was her first exclamation. "Have you been +out?" + +"I went a little way into the shrubberies," said Mrs. Damer; "but the +day turned so cold." + +"Do you think so? We have all been saying what a genial afternoon it is: +but it certainly does not seem to have agreed with you. Look at my boy: +isn't he a fine fellow?--he has been out all day in the garden. I often +wish you had a child, Blanchey." + +"Do you, dear? it is more than I do." + +"Ah, but you can't tell, till they are really yours, how much pleasure +they give you; no one knows who has not been a mother." + +"No; I suppose not." + +Mrs. Damer shivered as she said the words, and looked into the baby's +fat, unmeaning face with eyes of sad import. Mrs. Clayton thought she +had wounded her cousin, and stooped to kiss the slight offence away; but +she fancied that Blanche almost shrunk from her embrace. + +"She must be really ill," thought the kindly little Bella, who had no +notion of such a thing as heart-sickness for an apparently happy married +woman. "She ought to see a doctor: I shall tell Colonel Damer so." + +In another half-hour they were at her side together, urging her to take +their advice. + +"Now, my darling," said the Colonel, when Mrs. Damer faintly protested +against being made a fuss about, "you must be good for my sake. You know +how precious you are to me, and how it would grieve me to have you laid +up; let me send for Dr. Barlow, as your cousin advises. You were very +much overcome by the long journey here, and I am afraid the subsequent +excitement of seeing your kind friends has been too much for you. You do +not half know how dear you are to me, Blanche, or you would not refuse +such a trifling request. Here have I been, for five years, dearest, only +looking forward from day to day to meeting my dear loving little wife +again; and then to have you so ill as this the first month of our +reunion, is a great trial to me. Pray let me send for Dr. Barlow." + +But Mrs. Damer pleaded for delay. She had become chilled through being +out in the shrubberies; she had not yet got over the fatigue of her +journey; she had caught a cold whilst crossing from Havre to Folkestone: +it was anything and everything but an illness which required medical +attendance. If she were not better in the morning, she promised to make +no opposition to their wishes. + +So she forced herself to rise and dress for dinner. She appeared there +calm and collected, and continued so throughout the evening, talking +with Mr. Laurence quite as much as with the rest of the company; and she +went to bed at the same hour as the other guests of Molton Grange, +receiving with her cousin's good-night, congratulations on the evident +improvement of her health. + +"I cannot quite make out what has come to that cousin of yours, Bella," +said Harry Clayton to his wife, as they too retired for the night; "she +doesn't appear half such a jolly woman as she used to be." + +"She is certainly very much altered," was Mrs. Clayton's response; "but +I think it must be chiefly owing to her health; a feeling of debility is +so very depressing." + +"I suppose it can't be anything on her mind, Bella?" suggested the +husband, after a pause. + +"On her _mind_, Harry!" said Bella, sitting up in bed in her wonderment; +"of course not; why, how could it be? She has everything she can wish +for; and, I am sure, no woman could have a more devoted husband than +Colonel Damer. He has been speaking a great deal about her to me to-day, +and his anxiety is something enormous. On her _mind_!--what a funny +idea, Harry; what could have put that in your head?" + +"I am sure I don't know," was the husband's reply, rather ruefully +given, as if conscious he had made a great mistake. + +"You old _goose_," said his wife, with an emphatic kiss, as she composed +herself to her innocent slumbers. + +But before they were broken by nature, in the gray of the morning, Mrs. +Clayton was roused by a tapping at the bedroom door; a tapping to which +all Mr. Clayton's shouts to "come in," only served as a renewal. + +"Who can it be, Harry?--do get up and see," said Bella. + +So Harry got up, like a dutiful husband, and opened the door, and the +figure of Colonel Damer, robed in a dressing-gown, and looking very +shadowy and unreal in the dawning, presented itself on the threshold. + +"Is your wife here?" demanded the Colonel briefly. + +"Of course she is," said Mr. Clayton, wondering what the Colonel wanted +with her. + +"Will she come to Mrs. Damer? she is _very_ ill," was the next sentence, +delivered tremblingly. + +"Very ill!" exclaimed Bella, jumping out of bed and wrapping herself in +a dressing-gown. "How do you mean, Colonel Damer?--when did it happen?" + +"God knows!" he said, in an agitated voice; "but for some time after she +fell asleep she was feverish and excited, and spoke much. I woke +suddenly in the night and missed her, and going in search of her with a +light, found her fallen on the landing." + +"Fainted?" said Bella. + +"I don't know now whether it was a faint or a fit," he replied, "but I +incline to the latter belief. I carried her back to her bed, and gave +her some restoratives, not liking to disturb you--" + +"Oh! why didn't you, Colonel Damer?" interposed his hostess. + +"--and thought she was better, till just now, when she had another +attack of unconsciousness, and is so weak after it she cannot move. She +has fever too, I am sure, from the rapidity of her pulse, and I don't +think her head is quite clear." + +"Harry, dear, send for Dr. Barlow at once," thrusting her naked feet +into slippers, "and come back with me, Colonel Damer; she should not be +left for a minute." + +And she passed swiftly along the corridor to her cousin's room. As she +neared that of Mr. Laurence, the door opened a little, and a voice asked +huskily-- + +"Is anything the matter, Mrs. Clayton? I have been listening to noises +in the house for the last hour." + +"My cousin, Mrs. Damer, has been taken ill, Mr. Laurence, but we have +sent for the doctor; I am going to her now." + +And as the door closed again she fancied that she heard a sigh. + +Blanche Damer was lying on her pillows very hot and flushed, with that +anxious, perturbed look which the eyes assume when the brain is only +half clouded, and can feel itself to be wandering. + +"Blanche, dearest," cried Bella, as she caught sight of her face, "what +is the matter? How did this happen?" + +"I dreamt that he had taken it," said Mrs. Damer, slowly and sadly; "but +it was a mistake: he must not have it yet--not yet! only a little while +to wait now!--but he has the key." + +"Her mind is wandering at present," said Colonel Damer, who had followed +Mrs. Clayton into the room. + +"Oh, Colonel Damer," exclaimed Bella, tearfully, "how dreadful it +is!--she frightens me! Could she have knocked her head in falling? Have +you no idea why she got up and went into the passage?" + +"Not the slightest," he returned. And now that she examined him under +the morning light, which was by this time streaming through the open +shutters, Bella Clayton saw how aged and haggard his night's anxiety had +made him look. "My wife has been very subject to both sleeping-talking +and walking since my return, and I have several times missed her, as I +did last night, and found her walking about the room in her sleep, but +she has never been like this before. When I first found her in the +passage, I asked her why she had gone there, or what she wanted, and she +said, 'the key.' When I had relifted her into bed, I found her bunch of +keys as usual, on the dressing-table, therefore I imagine she could not +then have known what she was talking about. I trust Dr. Barlow will not +be long in coming; I am deeply anxious." + +And he looked the truth of what he uttered; whilst poor little Mrs. +Clayton could only press his hand and entreat him to be hopeful; and his +wife lay on her pillows, and silently stared into vacancy. + +As soon as the doctor arrived he pronounced the patient to be suffering +from an attack of pressure on the brain, and wished to know whether she +had not been subjected to some great mental shock or strain. + +Here Colonel Damer came forward and stoutly denied the possibility of +such a thing. He had joined his wife from India a month ago, at which +time she was, though in delicate, not in bad health, and he had never +left her since. They had crossed from Havre to Folkestone three days +before, and Mrs. Damer had not complained of any unusual sickness or +fatigue. She was a person of a highly excitable and nervous temperament, +and her appetite and spirit were variable; otherwise there had been +nothing in her state of health to call for anxiety on the part of her +friends. + +Dr. Barlow listened to all these statements, and believed as much of +them as he chose. However he waived the subject of the cause of the +disaster; the fact that it had occurred was undeniable; and the remedies +for such emergencies were immediately resorted to. But all proved alike +ineffectual, for the simple reason that the irrevocable fiat had gone +forth, and Blanche Damer was appointed to die. + +As the day wore on, and the case assumed a darker aspect, and the +doctor's prognostications became less hopeful, Colonel Damer worked +himself into a perfect frenzy of fear. + +"Save her, Dr. Barlow," he had said to that gentleman, in the insane +manner in which people are used to address the Faculty, as if it was in +their power to do more than help the efforts of nature. "Save her life, +for God's sake! and there is nothing that I can do for you, of earthly +good, that shall not be yours. Shall I call in other advice? Shall I +telegraph to London? Is there anyone there who can save her? It is my +life as well as hers that is trembling in the scale. For the love of +heaven, do not stand on ceremony, but only tell me what is best to be +done!" + +Of course Dr. Barlow told him that if he was not perfectly satisfied, he +should wish him to telegraph to town for further advice, and mentioned +several names celebrated in such cases; at the same time he assured +Colonel Damer that he did not believe any number of doctors could do +more for the patient than he was doing, and that it was impossible to +guess at the probable termination of the illness for some days to come. + +Bella Clayton gave up the duty of amusing her guests, and stationed +herself at the bedside of her cousin; and the unhappy husband wandered +in and out of the room like a ghost; trying to think upon each fresh +visit, that there was a slight improvement in the symptoms, and spending +the intervening time in praying for the life which he fondly imagined +had been devoted to himself. Meanwhile, whenever Mrs. Damer opened her +lips, it was to ramble on in this manner: + +"Dying!" her hollow voice would exclaim; "crushed to death beneath the +weight of a pyramid of blessings that lies like lead upon my chest and +reaches to the ceiling. Kind words--fond care, and sweet +attentions--they bow me down to the earth! I am stifling beneath the +burden of their silent reproaches. Two and two are four; and four and +four is eight; eight times locked should be secure--but there is a worm +that dieth not, and a fire that is not quenched." + +"Oh! don't come in here, Colonel Damer," poor Bella would exclaim, as +the unhappy man would creep to the foot of the bed and stand listening, +with blanched cheeks, to the delirious ravings of his wife. "She doesn't +know what she is saying, remember; and she will be better to-morrow, +doubtless. Don't distress yourself more, by listening to all this +nonsense." + +"I don't believe she will ever be better, Mrs. Clayton," he replied, on +one of these occasions. This was on the third day. + +"Dearest!" the sick woman resumed, in a plaintively soft voice, without +being in the least disturbed by the conversation around her, "if you +have ever loved me, you will believe in this hour that I love you in +return. If you have given me your love, I have given you more than my +life." + +"Does she speak of me?" demanded Colonel Damer. + +"I think so," said Bella Clayton, sadly. + +"Take it off! take it off!" cried Mrs. Damer, starting with +terror--"this box--this iron-clamped box which presses on my soul. What +have I done? Where shall I go? How am I to meet him again?" + +"What does she say?" asked the Colonel, trembling. + +"Colonel Damer, I must beg you to quit the room," said Bella, weeping. +"I cannot bear to stay here with both of you. Pray leave me alone with +Blanche until she is quieter." + +And so the husband left the chamber, with fellow tears in his eyes, and +she set herself to the painful task of attempting to soothe the +delirious woman. + +"If he would only strike me," moaned Mrs. Damer, "or frown at me, or +tell me that I lie, I could bear it better; but he is killing me with +kindness. Where is the box?--open it--let him see all. I am ready to +die. But I forgot--there is no key, and no one shall touch it: it is +mine--mine. Hark! I hear it! I hear it! How could I put it there? Let me +go--no one shall hold me! Let me go, I say--I _hear_ it; and--and--the +world is nothing to me!" + +At last, when they had almost despaired of ever seeing her sleep again, +there came an uninterrupted hour of repose from sheer weariness; and +then wide-open hollow eyes--a changed voice sounding with the +question--"Bella! have I been ill?" and Mrs. Damer's delirium was over. + +Over with her life. For on his next visit Dr. Barlow found her sensible +but cold and pulseless, and broke to her friends the news that twelve +hours more would end her existence. + +Colonel Damer went wild, and telegraphed at once to London for men who +arrived when his wife was ready to be coffined. Bella heard the decree +and wept silently; and a great gloom fell upon the guests of Molton +Chase, who had been left altogether on poor Harry's hands since Mrs. +Damer's illness. + +The dying woman lay very silent and exhausted for some time after she +had waked from that brief, memory-restoring sleep. When she next spoke, +she said, observing her cousin's swollen eyes-- + +"Am I dying, Bella?" + +Poor little Mrs. Clayton did not at all know what answer to make to such +a direct question, but she managed to stammer out something which, +whatever it was meant for, was taken as affirmative by the one it most +concerned. + +"I thought so. Shall I never be able to get out of bed again?" + +"I am afraid not, darling--you are so weak!" + +"Yes, I am--I can hardly raise my hand. And yet I must rise if I can. I +have something so particular to do." + +"Cannot I do it for you, Blanche?" + +"_Will_ you do it, Bella?" + +"Anything--everything, love! How can you ask me?" + +"And you will promise secrecy? Let me look in your face. Yes, it is a +true face, as it has ever been, and I can trust you. Have the black box +moved out of my room before I die, Bella--mind, _before_ I die, and +placed in your own dressing-room." + +"What, dear, your linen box?" + +"Yes, my linen box, or whatever you choose to call it. Take it away _at +once_, Bella. Tell no one; and when I am dead, have it buried in my +grave. Surely you could manage so much for me!" + +"And Colonel Damer?" + +"If you speak to him about it, Bella, or to your husband, or to any one, +I'll never forgive you, and I'm dying!" cried Mrs. Damer, almost rising +in her excitement. "Oh! why have I delayed it so long, why did I not see +to this before? I cannot even die in peace." + +"Yes, yes, dearest Blanche, I will do it, indeed I will," said Mrs. +Clayton, alarmed at her emotion; "and no one shall know of it but +myself. Shall I send it to my room at once? You may trust entirely to my +discretion. Pray, have no fear!" + +"Yes! at once--directly; it cannot be too soon!" said Mrs. Damer, +falling back exhausted on her pillow. So a servant was called, and the +iron-clamped box was carried away from the sick-room and secreted in +Mrs. Clayton's private apartment. Mrs. Damer seemed so weak, that her +cousin suggested summoning her husband to her side, but she appeared to +shrink from an interview with him. + +"I have nothing to say but what will make him sad to think of +afterwards," she murmured. "Let me die with you alone, dear Bella. It is +better so." + +So Colonel Damer, although he went backwards and forwards all the night, +was not called at any particular moment to see the last of his wife, and +Blanche had her wish. She died alone with her faithful little cousin +before the morning broke. As she was just going, she said, in a vague +sort of manner-- + +"Tell him, Bella, that I forgive him as I hope to be forgiven. And that +I have seen Heaven open to-night, and a child spirit pleading with the +Woman-born for us; and that the burden is lifted off my soul at last." +And then she added solemnly--"I will arise and go to my Father--," and +went before she could finish the sentence. + +Innocent Bella repeated her last message in perfect faith to Colonel +Damer. + +"She told me to tell you, that she felt herself forgiven, and that she +had seen Heaven opened for her, and the weight of her sins was lifted +off her soul. Oh! Colonel Damer, pray think of that, and take comfort. +She is happier than you could make her." + +But the poor faithful husband was, for the present, beyond all reach of +comfort. + +The London doctors arrived with the daylight, and had to be solemnly +entertained at breakfast, and warmed and comforted before they were +despatched home again. The Christmas guests were all packing up their +boxes, preparatory to taking their leave of Molton Chase, for it was +impossible to think of festivities with such a bereavement in the house. +And Harry Clayton told his wife that he was very thankful that they +thought of doing so. + +"It has been a most unfortunate business altogether, Bella, and of +course they all felt it, poor things; and the more so because they could +take no active part in it. The house has had a pall over it the last +week; and it would have been still worse if they had remained. As for +Laurence, I never saw a man so cut up. He has eaten nothing since your +poor cousin was taken ill. One would think she had been his sister, or +his dearest friend." + +"Is he going with the rest, Harry?" + +"No; he will stay till after the funeral; then he is going abroad. He +feels deeply with you, Bella, and desired me to tell you so." + +"He is very good--thank him in my name." + + * * * * * + +But released from the care of thinking for her guests, and sitting +crying alone in her dressing-room, poor Mrs. Clayton could not imagine +what to do with the iron-clamped black box. She had promised Blanche not +to confide in her husband, or Colonel Damer. The latter, having no +family vault, wished to lay the remains of his wife amongst those of the +Claytons in the country churchyard of Molton; but how to get the black +box conveyed to the grave without the knowledge of the chief mourners +was a mystery beyond the fathoming of Bella's open heart. But in the +midst of her perplexity, Fate sent her aid. On the second day of her +cousin's death, a gentle tap sounded at her chamber door, and on her +invitation to enter being answered, she was surprised to see Mr. +Laurence on the threshold--come, as she imagined, to offer his sympathy +in person. + +"This is very kind of you, Mr. Laurence," she said. + +"I can scarcely claim your gratitude, Mrs. Clayton. I have sought you to +speak on a very important but painful subject. May I ask your attention +for a few moments?" + +"Of course you may!" And she motioned him to a seat. + +"It concerns her whom we have lost. Mrs. Clayton, tell me truly--did you +love your cousin?" + +"Dearly--very dearly, Mr. Laurence. We were brought up together." + +"Then I may depend on your discretion; and if you wish to save her +memory you must exercise it in her behalf. There is a small iron-clamped +black trunk amongst her boxes, which must not fall into Colonel Damer's +hands. Will you have that box conveyed from her chamber to your own, and +(if you will so far trust my honour) make it over to me?" + +"To you, Mr. Laurence--the iron-bound box? What possible knowledge can +you have of my cousin's secret?" + +"Her secret?" + +"Yes--she confided that box to my care the night she died. She made me +promise to do (without question) what you have just asked me to perform, +and I did it. The trunk is already here." + +And throwing open a cupboard at the side of the room, she showed him the +chest which he had mentioned. + +"I see that it is," he answered. "How do you design disposing of it?" + +"She wished it to be buried in her grave." + +"That is impossible in its present state. The contents must be removed." + +"But how?" Mrs. Clayton demanded, in surprise. "It is locked and double +locked, and there is no key." + +"_I_ have the key," he answered, gravely. + +"Oh! Mr. Laurence," exclaimed his hostess, trembling, "there is some +dreadful mystery here. For heaven's sake tell me what it is! What +connection can you possibly have with this box of my poor cousin's, if +you have only met her once in your life?" + +"Did she say so?" he asked. + +"No; but I fancied so. Have you known her? When? where? and why did you +not tell us so before?" + +"How can I tell you now?" he said, gazing into the pure womanly face +upraised to his own, bearing an expression which was half-surprise and +half-fear but which seemed as though it could never dream of anything +like shame. + +"You are too good and too happy, Mrs. Clayton, to know of, or be able to +sympathize with, the troubles and temptations which preceded our fatal +friendship and her fall." + +"Blanche's _fall_!" ejaculated Bella Clayton, in a voice of horror. + +"Don't interrupt me, please, Mrs. Clayton," he said, hurriedly, covering +his face with his hands, "or I shall never be able to tell you the +wretched story. I knew your cousin years ago. Had you any suspicion that +she was unhappy in her marriage?" + +"No! none!" replied Bella, with looks of surprise. + +"She _was_ then, thoroughly unhappy, as scores of women are, simply +because the hearts of the men they are bound to are opposed to theirs in +every taste and feeling. I met her when she first returned to England, +and--it is the old story, Mrs. Clayton--I loved her, and was mad enough +to tell her so. When a selfish man and an unselfish woman have mutually +confessed their preference for each other, the result is easily +anticipated. I ruined her--forgive my plain speaking--and she still +loved on, and forgave me." + +"Oh, Blanche!" exclaimed Bella Clayton, hiding her hot face in her +hands. + +"We lived in a fool's paradise for some months, and then one day she +left her house and went to the Continent, without giving me any warning +of her intention. I was thunderstruck when I heard it, and deeply hurt, +and as soon as I had traced her to Paris, I followed and demanded an +explanation of her conduct. But she refused to see me, and when she +found me pertinacious, left the city as suddenly as she had done that of +London. Since which time she has answered no letters of mine, nor did we +ever meet until, most unexpectedly, I met her in your house. My pride, +after her first refusals to see me, was too great to permit me to renew +my entreaties, and so I called her a flirt, and inconstant. I tried to +banish her remembrance from my heart--and I thought I had succeeded." + +"Oh, my poor darling!" exclaimed Mrs. Clayton. "This accounts then for +her holding aloof from all her relations for so long a time, by which +means she estranged herself from many of them. She was working out her +penitence and deep remorse in solitary misery; and she would not even +let me share her confidence. But about the box, Mr. Laurence; what has +all this to do with the black box?" + +"When I met her in your shrubbery the other day, and reproached her for +her desertion of me, insisting upon her giving me the reason of her +change of mind, she bade me follow her to her own apartment. There, +unlocking the box before you, she showed me its contents." + +"And they are--?" inquired Mrs. Clayton, breathlessly. + +"Would you like to see them?" he demanded, taking a key from his pocket. +"I have as much right to show them you as she would have had. But is +your love for her dead memory and reputation strong enough to insure +your eternal secrecy on the subject?" + +"It is," said Bella Clayton, decidedly. + +"This box," continued Mr. Laurence, applying the key he held to the lock +of the iron-clamped black trunk, "has accompanied my poor girl on all +her travels for the last two years. The dreadful secret of its contents +which she bore in silent, solitary misery all that time has been, I +believe, the ultimate cause of her death, by proving too heavy a burden +for the sensitive and proud spirit which was forced to endure the +knowledge of its shame. She was killed by her remorse. If you have +courage, Mrs. Clayton, for the sight, look at _this_--and pity the +feelings I must endure as I kneel here and look at it with you." + +He threw back the lid and the topmost linen as he spoke, and Bella +Clayton pressed eagerly forward to see, carefully laid amidst withered +flowers and folds of cambric, the tiny skeleton of a new-born creature +whose angel was even then beholding the face of his Father in Heaven. + +She covered her eyes with her clasped hands, no less to shut out the +sight than to catch the womanly tears which poured forth at it, and then +she cried between her sobs-- + +"Oh! my poor, poor Blanche, what must she not have suffered! God have +mercy on her soul!" + +"Amen!" said Herbert Laurence. + +"You will let me take the box away with me, Mrs. Clayton?" he asked, +gently. + +She looked up as he spoke, and the tears were standing in his eyes. + +"Yes--yes," she said; "take it away; do what you will with it, only +never speak of it to me again." + +He never did but once, and that was but an allusion. On the evening of +the day on which they committed the remains of Blanche Damer to the +dust, he lay in wait for Mrs. Clayton on the landing. + +"All has been done as she desired," he whispered; and Mrs. Clayton asked +for no further explanation. The secret of which she had been made an +unwilling recipient pressed so heavily on her conscience, that she was +thankful when he left Molton Grange and went abroad, as he had expressed +his intention of doing. + +Since which time she has never seen Herbert Laurence again; and Colonel +Damer, whose grief at the funeral and for some time after was nearly +frenzied, having--like most men who mourn much outwardly--found a source +of consolation in the shape of another wife, the story of Blanche +Damer's life and death is remembered, for aught her cousin knows to the +contrary, by none but herself. + +I feel that an objection will be raised to this episode by some people +on the score of its being _unnatural_; to whom all I can say in answer +is, that the principal incident on which the interest of it turns--that +of the unhappy Mrs. Damer having been made so great a coward by +conscience that she carried the proof of her frailty about with her for +years, too fearful of discovery to permit it to leave her sight--is _a +fact_. + +To vary the circumstances under which the discovery of the contents of +the black box was finally made, and to alter the names of places and +people so as to avoid general recognition, I have made my province: to +relate the story itself, since, in the form I now present it to my +readers, it can give pain to no one, I consider my privilege. + + + + +MY FASCINATING FRIEND + +William Archer + + + + +I + + +Nature has cursed me with a retiring disposition. I have gone round the +world without making a single friend by the way. Coming out of my own +shell is as difficult to me as drawing others out of theirs. There are +some men who go through life extracting the substance of every one they +meet, as one picks out periwinkles with a pin. To me my fellow-men are +oysters, and I have no oyster-knife; my sole consolation (if it be one) +is that my own values absolutely defy the oyster-knives of others. Not +more than twice or thrice in my life have I met a fellow-creature at +whose "Open Sesame" the treasures of my heart and brain stood instantly +revealed. My Fascinating Friend was one of these rare and sympathetic +beings. + +I was lounging away a few days at Monaco, awaiting a summons to join +some relations in Italy. One afternoon I had started for an aimless and +rambling climb among the olive-terraces on the lower slopes of the Tête +du Chien. Finding an exquisite coign of vantage amid the roots of a +gnarled old trunk springing from a built-up semicircular patch of level +ground, I sat me down to rest, and read, and dream. Below me, a little +to the right, Monaco jutted out into the purple sea. I could distinguish +carriages and pedestrians coming and going on the chaussée between the +promontory and Monte Carlo, but I was far too high for any sound to +reach me. Away to the left the coast took a magnificent sweep, past the +clustering houses of Roccabruna, past the mountains at whose base +Mentone nestled unseen, past the Italian frontier, past the bight of +Ventimiglia, to where the Capo di Bordighera stood faintly outlined +between sea and sky. There was not a solitary sail on the whole expanse +of the Mediterranean. A line of white, curving at rhythmic intervals +along a small patch of sandy beach, showed that there was a gentle swell +upon the sea, but its surface was mirror-like. A lovelier scene there is +not in the world, and it was at its very loveliest. I took the _Saturday +Review_ from my pocket, and was soon immersed in an article on the +commutation of tithes. + +I was aroused from my absorption by the rattle of a small stone hopping +down the steep track, half path, half stairway, by which I had ascended. +It had been loosened by the foot of a descending wayfarer, in whom, as +he picked his way slowly downward, I recognized a middle-aged German +(that I supposed to be his nationality) who had been very assiduous at +the roulette-tables of the Casino for some days past. There was nothing +remarkable in his appearance, his spectacled eyes, squat nose, and +square-cropped bristling beard being simply characteristic of his class +and country. He did not notice me as he went by, being too intent on his +footing to look about him; but I was so placed that it was a minute or +more before he passed out of sight round a bend in the path. He was just +turning the corner, and my eyes were still fixed on him, when I was +conscious of another figure within my field of vision. This second comer +had descended the same pathway, but had loosened no stones on his +passage. He trod with such exquisite lightness and agility that he had +passed close by me without my being aware of his presence, while he, for +his part, had his eyes fixed with a curious intensity on the thick-set +figure of the German, upon whom, at his rate of progress, he must have +been gaining rapidly. A glance showed me that he was a young man of +slender figure, dressed in a suit of dark-coloured tweed, of English +cut, and wearing a light-brown wide-awake hat. Just as my eye fell upon +him he put his hand into the inner breast-pocket of his coat, and drew +from it something which, as he was now well past me, I could not see. At +the same moment some small object, probably jerked out of his pocket by +mistake, fell almost noiselessly on the path at his feet. In his +apparently eager haste he did not notice his loss, but was gliding +onward, leaving what I took to be his purse lying on the path. It was +clearly my duty to call his attention to it; so I said, "Hi!" an +interjection which I have found serves its purpose in all countries. He +gave a perceptible start, and looked round at me over his shoulder. I +pointed to the object he had dropped, and said, "_Voilà!_" He had thrust +back into his pocket the thing, whatever it was, which he held in his +hand, and now turned round to look where I was pointing. "Ah!" he said +in English, "my cigarette-case! I am much obliged to you," and he +stooped and picked it up. + +"I thought it was your purse," I said. + +"I would rather have lost my purse than this," he said, with a light +laugh. He had apparently abandoned his intention of overtaking the +German, who had meanwhile passed out of sight. + +"Are you such an enthusiastic smoker?" I asked. + +"I go in for quality, not quantity," he replied; "and a Spanish friend +has just given me some incomparable _cigarritos_." He opened the case as +he ascended the few steps which brought him up to my little plateau. +"Have one?" he said, holding it out to me with the most winning smile I +have ever seen on any human face. + +I was about to take one from the left-hand side of the case, when he +turned it away and presented the other side to me. + +"No, no!" he said; "these flat ones are my common brand. The round ones +are the gems." + +"I am robbing you," I said, as I took one. + +"Not if you are smoker enough to appreciate it," he said, as he +stretched himself on the ground beside me, and produced from a little +gold match-box a wax vesta, with which he lighted my cigarette and his +own. + +So graceful was his whole personality, so easy and charming his manner, +that it did not strike me as in the least odd that he should thus make +friends with me by the mere exchange of half a dozen words. I looked at +him as he lay resting on his elbows and smoking lazily. He had thrown +his hat off, and his wavy hair, longish and of an opaque charcoal black, +fell over his temples while he shook it back behind his ears. He was a +little above the middle height, of dark complexion, with large and soft +black eyes and arched eyebrows, a small and rather broad nose (the worst +feature in his face), full curving and sensitive lips, and a very strong +and rounded chin. He was absolutely beardless, but a slight black down +on the upper lip announced a coming mustache. His age could not have +been more than twenty. The cut of his clothes, as I have said, was +English, but his large black satin neck-cloth, flowing out over the +collar of his coat, was such as no home-keeping Englishman would ever +have dared to appear in. This detail, combined with his accent, +perfectly pure but a trifle precise and deliberate, led me to take him +for an Englishman brought up on the Continent--probably in Italy, for +there was no French intonation in his speech. His voice was rich, but +deep--a light baritone. + +He took up my _Saturday Review_. + +"The Bible of the Englishman abroad," he said. "One of the institutions +that makes me proud of our country." + +"I have it sent me every week," I said. + +"So had my father," he replied. "He used to say, 'Shakespeare we share +with the Americans, but damn it, the _Saturday Review_ is all our own!' +He was one of the old school, my father." + +"And the good school," I said, with enthusiasm. "So am I." + +"Now, I'm a bit of a Radical," my new friend rejoined, looking up with a +smile, which made the confession charming rather than objectionable; and +from this point we started upon a discussion, every word of which I +could write down if I chose, such a lasting impression did it make upon +me. He was indeed a brilliant talker, having read much and travelled +enormously for one so young. "I think I have lived in every country in +Europe," he said, "except Russia. Somehow it has never interested me." I +found that he was a Cambridge man, or, at least, was intimately +acquainted with Cambridge life and thought; and this was another bond +between us. His Radicalism was not very formidable; it amounted to +little more, indeed, than a turn for humorous paradox. Our discussion +reminded me of Fuller's description of the wit-combats between Ben +Jonson and Shakespeare at the "Mermaid." I was the Spanish galleon, my +Fascinating Friend was the English man-of-war, ready "to take advantage +of all winds by the quickness of his wit and invention." An hour sped +away delightfully, the only thing I did not greatly enjoy being the +cigarette, which seemed to me no better than many I had smoked before. + +"What do you think of my cigarettes?" he said, as I threw away the +stump. + +I felt that a blunt expression of opinion would be in bad taste after +his generosity in offering an utter stranger the best he had. +"Exquisite!" I answered. + +"I thought you would say so," he replied, gravely. "Have another!" + +"Let me try one of your common ones," I said. + +"No, you shan't!" he replied, closing the case with a sudden snap, which +endangered my fingers, but softening the _brusquerie_ of the proceeding +by one of his enthralling smiles; then he added, using one of the odd +idioms which gave his speech a peculiar piquancy, "I don't palm off upon +my friends what I have of second best." He re-opened the case and held +it out to me. To have refused would have been to confess that I did not +appreciate his "gems" as he called them. I smoked another, in which I +still failed to find any unusual fragrance; but the aroma of my +new-found friend's whole personality was so keen and subtle, that it may +have deadened my nerves to any more material sensation. + +We lay talking until the pink flush of evening spread along the horizon, +and in it Corsica, invisible before, seemed to body itself forth from +nothingness like an island of phantom peaks and headlands. Then we rose, +and, in the quickly gathering dusk, took our way down among the +olive-yards, and through the orange-gardens to Monte Carlo. + + + + +II + + +My acquaintance with my Fascinating Friend lasted little more than +forty-eight hours, but during that time we were inseparable. He was not +at my hotel, but on that first evening I persuaded him to dine with me, +and soon after breakfast on the following morning I went in search of +him; I was at the Russie, he at the Hôtel de Paris. I found him smoking +in the veranda, and at a table not far distant sat the German of the +previous afternoon, finishing a tolerably copious _déjeûner à la +fourchette_. As soon as he had scraped his plate quite clean and +finished the last dregs of his bottle of wine, he rose and took his way +to the Casino. After a few minutes' talk with my Fascinating Friend, I +suggested a stroll over to Monaco. He agreed, and we spent the whole day +together, loitering and lounging, talking and dreaming. We went to the +Casino in the afternoon to hear the concert, and I discovered my friend +to be a cultivated musician. Then we strolled into the gambling-room for +an hour, but neither of us played. The German was busy at one of the +roulette-tables, and seemed to be winning considerably. That evening I +dined with my friend at the table d'hôte of his hotel. At the other end +of the table I could see the German sitting silent and unnoticing, rapt +in the joys of deglutition. + +Next morning, by arrangement, my friend called upon me at my hotel, and +over one of his cigarettes, to which I was getting accustomed, we +discussed our plan for the day. I suggested a wider flight than +yesterday's. Had he ever been to Eza, the old Saracen robber-nest +perched on a rock a thousand feet above the sea, halfway between Monaco +and Villafranca? No, he had not been there, and after some consideration +he agreed to accompany me. We went by rail to the little station on the +seashore, and then attacked the arduous ascent. The day was perfect, +though rather too warm for climbing, and we had frequent rests among the +olive-trees, with delightfully discursive talks on all things under the +sun. My companion's charm grew upon me moment by moment. There was in +his manner a sort of refined coquetry of amiability which I found +irresistible. It was combined with a frankness of sympathy and interest +subtly flattering to a man of my unsocial habit of mind. I was conscious +every now and then that he was drawing me out; but to be drawn out so +gently and genially was, to me, a novel and delightful experience. It +produced in me one of those effusions of communicativeness to which, I +am told, all reticent people are occasionally subject. I have myself +given way to them some three or four times in my life, and found myself +pouring forth to perfect strangers such intimate details of feeling and +experience as I would rather die than impart to my dearest friend. Three +or four times, I say, have I found myself suddenly and inexplicably +brought within the influence of some invisible truth-compelling +talisman, which drew from me confessions the rack could not have +extorted; but never has the influence been so irresistible as in the +case of my Fascinating Friend. I told him what I had told to no other +human soul--what I had told to the lonely glacier, to the lurid +storm-cloud, to the seething sea, but had never breathed in mortal +ear--I told him the tragedy of my life. How well I remember the scene! +We were resting beneath the chestnut-trees that shadow a stretch of +level sward immediately below the last short stage of ascent that leads +into the heart of the squalid village now nestling in the crevices of +the old Moslem fastness. The midday hush was on sea and sky. Far out on +the horizon a level line of smoke showed where an unseen steamer was +crawling along under the edge of the sapphire sphere. As I reached the +climax of my tale an old woman, bent almost double beneath a huge fagot +of firewood, passed us on her way to the village. I remember that it +crossed my mind to wonder whether there was any capacity in the nature +of such as she for suffering at all comparable to that which I was +describing. My companion's sympathy was subtle and soothing. There was +in my tale an element of the grotesque which might have tempted a vulgar +nature to flippancy. No smile crossed my companion's lips. He turned +away his head, on pretense of watching the receding figure of the old +peasant-woman. When he looked at me again, his deep dark eyes were +suffused with a moisture which enhanced the mystery of their tenderness. +In that moment I felt, as I had never felt before, what it is to find a +friend. + +We returned to Monte Carlo late in the afternoon, and I found a telegram +at my hotel begging me to be in Genoa the following morning. I had +barely time to bundle my traps together and swallow a hasty meal before +my train was due. I scrawled a note to my new found confidant, +expressing most sincerely my sorrow at parting from him so soon and so +suddenly, and my hope that ere long we should meet again. + + + + +III + + +The train was already at the platform when I reached the station. There +were one or two first-class through carriages on it, which, for a French +railway, were unusually empty. In one of them I saw at the window the +head of the German, and from a certain subdued radiance in his +expression, I judged that he must be carrying off a considerable "pile" +from the gaming-table. His personality was not of the most attractive, +and there was something in his squat nose suggestive of stertorous +possibilities which, under ordinary circumstances, would have held me +aloof from him. But--shall I confess it?--he had for me a certain +sentimental attraction, because he was associated in my mind with that +first meeting with my forty-eight hours' friend. I looked into his +compartment; an overcoat and valise lay in the opposite corner from his, +showing that seat to be engaged, but two corners were still left me to +choose from. I installed myself in one of them, face to face with the +valise and overcoat, and awaited the signal to start. The cry of "En +voiture, messieurs!" soon came, and a lithe figure sprang into the +carriage. It was my Fascinating Friend! For a single moment I thought +that a flash of annoyance crossed his features on finding me there, but +the impression vanished at once, for his greeting was as full of +cordiality as of surprise. We soon exchanged explanations. He, like +myself, had been called away by telegram, not to Genoa, but to Rome; he, +like myself, had left a note expressing his heartfelt regret at our +sudden separation. As we sped along, skirting bays that shone burnished +in the evening light, and rumbling every now and then through a +tunnel-pierced promontory, we resumed the almost affectionate converse +interrupted only an hour before, and I found him a more delightful +companion than ever. His exquisitely playful fantasy seemed to be acting +at high pressure, as in the case of a man who is talking to pass the +time under the stimulus of a delightful anticipation. I suspected that +he was hurrying to some peculiarly agreeable rendezvous in Rome, and I +hinted my suspicion, which he laughed off in such a way as to confirm +it. The German, in the mean time, sat stolid and unmoved, making some +pencilled calculations in a little pocket-book. He clearly did not +understand English. + +As we approached Ventimiglia my friend rose, took down his valise from +the rack, and, turning his back to me, made some changes in its +arrangement, which I, of course, did not see. He then locked it +carefully and kept it beside him. At Ventimiglia we had all to turn out +to undergo the inspection of the Italian _dogana_. My friend's valise +was his sole luggage, and I noticed, rather to my surprise, that he gave +the custom-house official a very large bribe--two or three gold +pieces--to make his inspection of it purely nominal, and forego the +opening of either of the inside compartments. The German, on the other +hand, had a small portmanteau and a large dispatch box, both of which he +opened with a certain ostentation, and I observed that the official's +eyes glittered under his raised eyebrows as he looked into the contents +of the dispatch-box. On returning to the train we all three resumed our +old places, and the German drew the shade of a sleeping-cap over his +eyes and settled himself down for the night. It was now quite dark, but +the moon was shining. + +"Have you a large supply of the 'gems' in your valise?" I asked, +smiling, curious to know his reason for a subterfuge which accorded ill +with his ordinary straight-forwardness, and remembering that tobacco is +absolutely prohibited at the Italian frontier. + +"Unfortunately, no," he said; "my 'gems' are all gone, and I have only +my common cigarettes remaining. Will you try them, such as they are?" +and he held out his case, both sides of which were now filled with the +flat cigarettes. We each took one and lighted it, but he began giving me +an account of a meeting he had had with Lord Beaconsfield, which he +detailed so fully and with so much enthusiasm, that, after a whiff or +two he allowed his cigarette to go out. I could not understand his taste +in tobacco. These cigarettes which he despised seemed to me at once more +delicate and more peculiar than the others. They had a flavour which was +quite unknown to me. I was much interested in his vivid account of the +personality of that great man, whom I admired then, while he was yet +with us, and whom, as a knight of the Primrose League, I now revere; but +our climb of the morning, and the scrambling departure of the afternoon, +were beginning to tell on me, and I became irresistibly drowsy. +Gradually, and in spite of myself, my eyes closed. I could still hear my +companion's voice mingling with the heavy breathing of the German, who +had been asleep for some time; but soon even these sounds ceased to +penetrate the mist of languor, the end of my cigarette dropped from +between my fingers and I knew no more. + + * * * * * + +My awakening was slow and spasmodic. There was a clearly perceptible +interval--probably several minutes--between the first stirrings of +consciousness and the full clarification of my faculties. I began to be +aware of the rumble and oscillation of the train without realizing what +was meant. Then I opened my eyes and blinked at the lamp, and vaguely +noted the yellow oil washing to and fro in the bowl. Then the white +square of the "Avis aux Voyageurs" caught my eye in the gloom under the +luggage-rack, and beneath it, on the seat, I saw the light reflected +from the lock of the German's portmanteau. Next I was conscious of the +German himself still sleeping in his corner, but no longer puffing and +grunting as when I had fallen asleep. Then I raised my head, looked +round the carriage, and the next moment sprang bolt upright in dismay. + +Where was my Fascinating Friend? + +Gone! vanished! There was not a trace of him. His valise, his +great-coat, all had disappeared. Only in the little cigar-ash box on the +window-frame I saw the flat cigarette which he had barely lighted--how +long before? I looked at my watch: it must have been about an hour and a +half ago. + +By this time I had all my faculties about me. I looked across at the +German, intending to ask him if he knew anything of our late +travelling-companion. Then I noticed that his head had fallen forward in +such a way that it seemed to me suffocation must be imminent. I +approached him, and put down my head to look into his face. As I did so +I saw a roundish black object on the oil-cloth floor not far from the +toe of his boot. The lamplight was reflected at a single point from its +convex surface. I put down my hand and touched it. It was liquid. I +looked at my fingers--they were not black, but red. I think (but am not +sure) that I screamed aloud. I shrank to the other end of the carriage, +and it was some moments before I had sufficient presence of mind to look +for a means of communicating with the guard. Of course there was none. I +was alone for an indefinite time with a dead man. But was he dead? I had +little doubt, from the way his head hung, that his throat was cut, and a +horrible fascination drew me to his side to examine. No; there was no +sign of the hideous fissure I expected to find beneath the gray bristles +of his beard. His head fell forward again into the same position, and I +saw with horror that I had left two bloody fingermarks upon the gray +shade of his sleeping-cap. Then I noticed for the first time that the +window he was facing stood open, for a gust of wind came through it and +blew back the lapel of his coat. What was that on his waistcoat? I tore +the coat back and examined: it was a small triangular hole just over the +heart, and round it there was a dark circle about the size of a +shilling, where the blood had soaked through the light material. In +examining it I did what the murderer had not done--disturbed the +equilibrium of the body, which fell over against me. + +At that moment I heard a loud voice behind me, coming from I knew not +where. I nearly fainted with terror. The train was still going at full +speed; the compartment was empty, save for myself and the ghastly object +which lay in my arms; and yet I seemed to hear a voice almost at my ear. +There it was again! I summoned up courage to look round. It was the +guard of the train clinging on outside the window and demanding +"Biglietti!" By this time, he, too, saw that something was amiss. He +opened the door and swung himself into the carriage. "Dio mio!" I heard +him exclaim, as I actually flung myself into his arms and pointed to the +body now lying in a huddled heap amid its own blood on the floor. Then, +for the first time in my life, I positively swooned away, and knew no +more. + +When I came to myself the train had stopped at a small station, the name +of which I do not know to this day. There was a Babel of speech going on +around, not one word of which I could understand. I was on the platform, +supported between two men in uniform, with cocked hats and cockades. In +vain I tried to tell my story. I knew little or no Italian, and, though +there were one or two Frenchmen in the train, they were useless as +interpreters, for on the one hand my power of speaking French seemed to +have departed in my agitation, and on the other hand none of the +Italians understood it. In vain I tried to make them understand that a +"giovane" had travelled in the compartment with us who had now +disappeared. The Italian guard, who had come on at Ventimiglia, +evidently had no recollection of him. He merely shook his head, said +"Non capisco," and inquired if I was "Prussiano." The train had already +been delayed some time, and, after a consultation between the +station-master, the guard, the syndic of the village, who had been +summoned in haste, it was determined to hand the matter over to the +authorities at Genoa. The two carabinieri sat one on each side of me +facing the engine, and on the opposite seat the body was stretched out +with a luggage tarpaulin over it. In this hideous fashion I passed the +four or five remaining hours of the journey to Genoa. + +The next week I spent in an Italian prison, a very uncomfortable yet +quite unromantic place of abode. Fortunately, my friends were by this +time in Genoa, and they succeeded in obtaining some slight mitigation of +my discomforts. At the end of that time I was released, there being no +evidence against me. The testimony of the French guard, of the +booking-clerk at Monaco, and of the staff of the Hôtel de Paris, +established the existence of my Fascinating Friend, which was at first +called in question; but no trace could be found of him. With him had +disappeared his victim's dispatch-box, in which were stored the proceeds +of several days of successful gambling. Robbery, however, did not seem +to have been the primary motive of the crime, for his watch, purse, and +the heavy jewelry about his person were all untouched. From the German +Consul at Genoa I learned privately, after my release, that the murdered +man, though in fact a Prussian, had lived long in Russia, and was +suspected of having had an unofficial connection with the St. Petersburg +police. It was thought, indeed, that the capital with which he had +commenced his operation at Monte Carlo was the reward of some special +act of treachery; so that the anarchists, if it was indeed they who +struck the blow, had merely suffered Judas to put his thirty pieces out +to usance, in order to pay back to their enemies with interest the +blood-money of their friends. + + + + +IV + + +About two years later I happened one day to make an afternoon call in +Mayfair, at the house of a lady well known in the social and political +world, who honours me, if I may say so, with her friendship. Her +drawing-room was crowded, and the cheerful ring of afternoon tea-cups +was audible through the pleasant medley of women's voices. I joined a +group around the hostess, where an animated discussion was in progress +on the Irish Coercion Bill, then the leading political topic of the day. +The argument interested me deeply; but it is one of my mental +peculiarities that when several conversations are going on around me I +can by no means keep my attention exclusively fixed upon the one in +which I am myself engaged. Odds and ends from all the others find their +way into my ears and my consciousness, and I am sometimes accused of +absence of mind, when my fault is in reality a too great alertness of +the sense of hearing. In this instance the conversation of three or four +groups was more or less audible to me; but it was not long before my +attention was absorbed by the voice of a lady, seated at the other side +of the circular ottoman on which I myself had taken my place. + +She was talking merrily, and her hearers, in one of whom, as I glanced +over my shoulder, I recognized an ex-Cabinet Minister, seemed to be +greatly entertained. As her back was toward me, all I could see of the +lady herself was her short black hair falling over the handsome fur +collar of her mantle. + +"He was so tragic about it," she was saying, "that it was really +_impayable_. The lady was beautiful, wealthy, accomplished, and I don't +know what else. The rival was an Australian squatter, with a beard as +thick as his native bush. My communicative friend--I scarcely knew even +his name when he poured forth his woes to me--thought that he had an +advantage in his light moustache, with a military twirl in it. They were +all three travelling in Switzerland, but the Australian had gone off to +make the ascent of some peak or other, leaving the field to the foe for +a couple of days at least. On the first day the foe made the most of his +time, and had nearly brought matters to a crisis. The next morning he +got himself up as exquisitely as possible, in order to clinch his +conquest, but found to his disgust that he had left his dressing-case +with his razors at the last stopping-place. There was nothing for it but +to try the village barber, who was also the village stationer, and +draper, and ironmonger, and chemist--a sort of Alpine Whiteley, in fact. +His face had just been soaped--what do you call it?--lathered, is it +not? and the barber had actually taken hold of his nose so as to get his +head into the right position, when, in the mirror opposite, he saw the +door open, and--oh, horror!--who should walk into the shop but the fair +one herself! He gave such a start that the barber gashed his chin. His +eyes met hers in the mirror; for a moment he saw her lips quiver and +tremble, and then she burst into shrieks of uncontrollable laughter, and +rushed out of the shop. If you knew the pompous little man, I am sure +you would sympathize with her. I know I did when he told me the story. +His heart sank within him, but he acted like a Briton. He determined to +take no notice of the _contretemps_, but return boldly to the attack. +She received him demurely at first, but the moment she raised her eyes +to his face, and saw the patch of sticking-plaster on his chin, she was +again seized with such convulsions that she had to rush from the room. +'She is now in Melbourne,' he said, almost with a sob, 'and I assure +you, my dear friend, that I never now touch a razor without an impulse, +to which I expect I shall one day succumb, to put it to a desperate +use.'" + +There was a singing in my ears, and my brain was whirling. This story, +heartlessly and irreverently told, was the tragedy of my life! + +I had breathed it to no human soul--_save one_! + +I rose from my seat, wondering within myself whether my agitation was +visible to those around me, and went over to the other side of the room +whence I could obtain a view of the speaker. There were the deep, dark +eyes, there were the full sensuous lips, the upper shaded with an +impalpable down, there was the charcoal-black hair! I knew too well that +rich contralto voice! It was my Fascinating Friend! + +Before I had fully realized the situation she rose, handed her empty +tea-cup to the Cabinet-Minister, bowed to him and his companion, and +made her way up to the hostess, evidently intending to take her leave. +As she turned away, after shaking hands cordially with Lady X----, her +eyes met mine intently fixed upon her. She did not start, she neither +flushed nor turned pale; she simply raised for an instant her finely +arched eyebrows, and as her tall figure sailed past me out of the room, +she turned upon me the same exquisite and irresistible smile with which +my Fascinating Friend had offered me his cigarette-case that evening +among the olive-trees. + +I hurried up to Lady X----. + +"Who is the lady who has just left the room?" I asked. + +"Oh, that is the Baroness M----," she replied. "She is half an +Englishwoman, half a Pole. She was my daughter's bosom friend at +Girton--a most interesting girl." + +"Is she a politician?" I asked. + +"No; that's the one thing I don't like about her. She is not a bit of a +patriot; she makes a joke of her country's wrongs and sufferings. Should +you like to meet her? Dine with us the day after to-morrow. She is to be +here." + + * * * * * + +I dined at Lady X----'s on the appointed day, but the Baroness was not +there. Urgent family affairs had called her suddenly to Poland. + +A week later the assassination of the Czar sent a thrill of horror +through the civilized world. + + * * * * * + +"Don't you think your friend might be held an accessory after the fact +to the death of the German?" asked the Novelist, when all the flattering +comments, which were many, were at an end. "And an accessory before the +fact to the assassination of the Czar?" chimed in the Editor. "Why +didn't he go straight from Lady ----'s house to the nearest +police-station and put the police on the track of his 'Fascinating +Friend'?" "What a question!" the Romancer exclaimed, starting from his +seat and pacing restlessly about the deck. "How could any man with a +palate for the rarest flavours of life resist the temptation of taking +that woman down to dinner? And, besides, hadn't he eaten salt with her? +Hadn't he smoked the social cigarette with her? Shade of De Quincey! are +we to treat like a vulgar criminal a mistress of the finest of the fine +arts? Shall we be such crawling creatures as to seek to lay by the heels +a Muse of Murder? Are we a generation of detectives, that we should do +this thing?" "So my friend put it to me," said the Critic dryly, "not +quite so eloquently, but to that effect. Between ourselves, though, I +believe he was influenced more by consideration of his personal safety +than by admiration for murder as a fine art. He remembered the fate of +the German, and was unwilling to share it." "He adopted a policy of +non-intervention," said the Eminent Tragedian, who in his hours of +leisure, was something of a politician. "I should rather say of _laissez +faire_, or, more precisely, of _laissez assassiner_," laughed the +Editor. "What was the Fascinating Friend supposed to have in her +portmanteau?" asked Beatrice. "What was she so anxious to conceal from +the custom-house officers?" "Her woman's clothes, I imagine," the Critic +replied, "though I don't hold myself bound to explain all the ins and +outs of her proceedings." "Then she _was_ a wonderful woman," replied +the fair questioner, as one having authority, "if she could get a +respectable gown and 'fixings,' as the Americans say, into a small +portmanteau. But," she added, "I very soon suspected she was a woman." +"Why?" asked several voices simultaneously. "Why, because she drew him +out so easily," was the reply. "You think, in fact," said the Romancer, +"that however little its victim was aware of it, there was a touch of +the _Ewig-weibliche_ in her fascination?" "Precisely." + + + + +THE LOST ROOM + +FITZ-JAMES O'BRIEN + + +It was oppressively warm. The sun had long disappeared, but seemed to +have left its vital spirit of heat behind it. The air rested; the leaves +of the acacia-trees that shrouded my windows hung plumb-like on their +delicate stalks. The smoke of my cigar scarce rose above my head, but +hung about me in a pale blue cloud, which I had to dissipate with +languid waves of my hand. My shirt was open at the throat, and my chest +heaved laboriously in the effort to catch some breaths of fresher air. +The noises of the city seemed to be wrapped in slumber, and the +shrilling of the mosquitos was the only sound that broke the stillness. + +As I lay with my feet elevated on the back of a chair, wrapped in that +peculiar frame of mind in which thought assumes a species of lifeless +motion, the strange fancy seized me of making a languid inventory of the +principal articles of furniture in my room. It was a task well suited to +the mood in which I found myself. Their forms were duskily defined in +the dim twilight that floated shadowily through the chamber; it was no +labour to note and particularize each, and from the place where I sat I +could command a view of all my possessions without even turning my head. + +There was, _imprimis_, that ghostly lithograph by Calame. It was a mere +black spot on the white wall, but my inner vision scrutinized every +detail of the picture. A wild, desolate, midnight heath, with a spectral +oak-tree in the centre of the foreground. The wind blows fiercely, and +the jagged branches, clothed scantily with ill-grown leaves, are swept +to the left continually by its giant force. + +A formless wrack of clouds streams across the awful sky, and the rain +sweeps almost parallel with the horizon. Beyond, the heath stretches off +into endless blackness, in the extreme of which either fancy or art has +conjured up some undefinable shapes that seem riding into space. At the +base of the huge oak stands a shrouded figure. His mantle is wound by +the blast in tight folds around his form, and the long cock's feather in +his hat is blown upright, till it seems as if it stood on end with fear. +His features are not visible, for he has grasped his cloak with both +hands, and drawn it from either side across his face. The picture is +seemingly objectless. It tells no tale, but there is a weird power about +it that haunts one, and it was for that I bought it. + +Next to the picture comes the round blot that hangs below it, which I +know to be a smoking-cap. It has my coat of arms embroidered on the +front, and for that reason I never wear it; though, when properly +arranged on my head, with its long blue silken tassel hanging down by my +cheek, I believe it becomes me well. I remember the time when it was in +the course of manufacture. I remember the tiny little hands that pushed +the coloured silks so nimbly through the cloth that was stretched on the +embroidery-frame,--the vast trouble I was put to to get a coloured copy +of my armorial bearings for the heraldic work which was to decorate the +front of the band,--the pursings up of the little mouth, and the +contractions of the young forehead, as their possessor plunged into a +profound sea of cogitation touching the way in which the cloud should be +represented from which the armed hand, that is my crest, issues,--the +heavenly moment when the tiny hands placed it on my head, in a position +that I could not bear for more than a few seconds, and I, kinglike, +immediately assumed my royal prerogative after the coronation, and +instantly levied a tax on my only subjects which was, however, not paid +unwillingly. Ah! the cap is there, but the embroiderer has fled; for +Atropos was severing the web of life above her head while she was +weaving that silken shelter for mine! + +How uncouthly the huge piano that occupies the corner at the left of the +door looms out in the uncertain twilight! I neither play nor sing, yet I +own a piano. It is a comfort to me to look at it, and to feel that the +music is there, although I am not able to break the spell that binds it. +It is pleasant to know that Bellini and Mozart, Cimarosa, Porpora, Glück +and all such,--or at least their souls,--sleep in that unwieldy case. +There lie embalmed, as it were, all operas, sonatas, oratorios, +nocturnos, marches, songs and dances, that ever climbed into existence +through the four bars that wall in melody. Once I was entirely repaid +for the investment of my funds in that instrument which I never use. +Blokeeta, the composer, came to see me. Of course his instincts urged +him as irresistibly to my piano as if some magnetic power lay within it +compelling him to approach. He tuned it, he played on it. All night +long, until the gray and spectral dawn rose out of the depths of the +midnight, he sat and played, and I lay smoking by the window listening. +Wild, unearthly, and sometimes insufferably painful, were the +improvisations of Blokeeta. The chords of the instrument seemed breaking +with anguish. Lost souls shrieked in his dismal preludes; the half-heard +utterances of spirits in pain, that groped at inconceivable distances +from anything lovely or harmonious, seemed to rise dimly up out of the +waves of sound that gathered under his hands. Melancholy human love +wandered out on distant heaths, or beneath dank and gloomy cypresses, +murmuring its unanswered sorrow, or hateful gnomes sported and sang in +the stagnant swamps triumphing in unearthly tones over the knight whom +they had lured to his death. Such was Blokeeta's night's entertainment; +and when he at length closed the piano, and hurried away through the +cold morning, he left a memory about the instrument from which I could +never escape. + +Those snow-shoes that hang in the space between the mirror and the door +recall Canadian wanderings,--a long race through the dense forests, over +the frozen snow through whose brittle crust the slender hoofs of the +caribou that we were pursuing sank at every step, until the poor +creature despairingly turned at bay in a small juniper coppice, and we +heartlessly shot him down. And I remember how Gabriel, the _habitant_, +and François, the half-breed, cut his throat, and how the hot blood +rushed out in a torrent over the snowy soil; and I recall the snow +_cabane_ that Gabriel built, where we all three slept so warmly; and the +great fire that glowed at our feet, painting all kinds of demoniac +shapes on the black screen of forest that lay without; and the +deer-steaks that we roasted for our breakfast; and the savage +drunkenness of Gabriel in the morning, he having been privately drinking +out of my brandy-flask all the night long. + +That long haftless dagger that dangles over the mantelpiece makes my +heart swell. I found it, when a boy, in a hoary old castle in which one +of my maternal ancestors once lived. That same ancestor--who, by the +way, yet lives in history--was a strange old sea-king, who dwelt on the +extremest point of the southwestern coast of Ireland. He owned the whole +of that fertile island called Inniskeiran, which directly faces Cape +Clear, where between them the Atlantic rolls furiously, forming what the +fishermen of the place call "the Sound." An awful place in winter is +that same Sound. On certain days no boat can live there for a moment, +and Cape Clear is frequently cut off for days from any communication +with the mainland. + +This old sea-king--Sir Florence O'Driscoll by name--passed a stormy +life. From the summit of his castle he watched the ocean, and when any +richly laden vessels bound from the South to the industrious Galway +merchants, hove in sight, Sir Florence hoisted the sails of his galley, +and it went hard with him if he did not tow into harbor ship and crew. +In this way he lived; not a very honest mode of livelihood, certainly, +according to our modern ideas, but quite reconcilable with the morals of +the time. As may be supposed, Sir Florence got into trouble. Complaints +were laid against him at the English court by the plundered merchants, +and the Irish viking set out for London, to plead his own cause before +good Queen Bess, as she was called. He had one powerful recommendation: +he was a marvellously handsome man. Not Celtic by descent, but half +Spanish, half Danish in blood, he had the great northern stature with +the regular features, flashing eyes, and dark hair of the Iberian race. +This may account for the fact that his stay at the English court was +much longer than was necessary, as also for the tradition, which a local +historian mentions, that the English Queen evinced a preference for the +Irish chieftain, of other nature than that usually shown by monarch to +subject. + +Previous to his departure, Sir Florence had intrusted the care of his +property to an Englishman named Hull. During the long absence of the +knight, this person managed to ingratiate himself with the local +authorities, and gain their favour so far that they were willing to +support him in almost any scheme. After a protracted stay, Sir Florence, +pardoned of all his misdeeds, returned to his home. Home no longer. Hull +was in possession, and refused to yield an acre of the lands he had so +nefariously acquired. It was no use appealing to the law, for its +officers were in the opposite interest. It was no use appealing to the +Queen, for she had another lover, and had forgotten the poor Irish +knight by this time; and so the viking passed the best portion of his +life in unsuccessful attempts to reclaim his vast estates, and was +eventually, in his old age, obliged to content himself with his castle +by the sea and the island of Inniskeiran, the only spot of which the +usurper was unable to deprive him. So this old story of my kinsman's +fate looms up out of the darkness that enshrouds that haftless dagger +hanging on the wall. + +It was somewhat after the foregoing fashion that I dreamily made the +inventory of my personal property. As I turned my eyes on each object, +one after the other,--or the places where they lay, for the room was now +so dark that it was almost impossible to see with any distinctness,--a +crowd of memories connected with each rose up before me, and, perforce, +I had to indulge them. So I proceeded but slowly, and at last my cigar +shortened to a hot and bitter morsel that I could barely hold between my +lips, while it seemed to me that the night grew each moment more +insufferably oppressive. While I was revolving some impossible means of +cooling my wretched body, the cigar stump began to burn my lips. I flung +it angrily through the open window, and stooped out to watch it falling. +It first lighted on the leaves of the acacia, sending out a spray of red +sparkles, then, rolling off, it fell plump on the dark walk in the +garden, faintly illuminating for a moment the dusky trees and breathless +flowers. Whether it was the contrast between the red flash of the +cigar-stump and the silent darkness of the garden, or whether it was +that I detected by the sudden light a faint waving of the leaves, I know +not; but something suggested to me that the garden was cool. I will take +a turn there, thought I, just as I am; it cannot be warmer than this +room, and however still the atmosphere, there is always a feeling of +liberty and spaciousness in the open air, that partially supplies one's +wants. With this idea running through my head, I arose, lit another +cigar, and passed out into the long, intricate corridors that led to the +main staircase. As I crossed the threshold of my room, with what a +different feeling I should have passed it had I known that I was never +to set foot in it again! + +I lived in a very large house, in which I occupied two rooms on the +second floor. The house was old-fashioned, and all the floors +communicated by a huge circular staircase that wound up through the +centre of the building, while at every landing long, rambling corridors +stretched off into mysterious nooks and corners. This palace of mine was +very high, and its resources, in the way of crannies and windings, +seemed to be interminable. Nothing seemed to stop anywhere. Cul-de-sacs +were unknown on the premises. The corridors and passages, like +mathematical lines, seemed capable of indefinite extension, and the +object of the architect must have been to erect an edifice in which +people might go ahead forever. The whole place was gloomy, not so much +because it was large, but because an unearthly nakedness seemed to +pervade the structure. The staircases, corridors, halls, and vestibules +all partook of a desert-like desolation. There was nothing on the walls +to break the sombre monotony of those long vistas of shade. No carvings +on the wainscoting, no moulded masks peering down from the simply severe +cornices, no marble vases on the landings. There was an eminent +dreariness and want of life--so rare in an American establishment--all +over the abode. It was Hood's haunted house put in order and newly +painted. The servants, too, were shadowy, and chary of their visits. +Bells rang three times before the gloomy chambermaid could be induced to +present herself; and the negro waiter, a ghoul-like looking creature +from Congo, obeyed the summons only when one's patience was exhausted or +one's want satisfied in some other way. When he did come, one felt sorry +that he had not stayed away altogether, so sullen and savage did he +appear. He moved along the echoless floors with a slow, noiseless +shamble, until his dusky figure, advancing from the gloom, seemed like +some reluctant afreet, compelled by the superior power of his master to +disclose himself. When the doors of all the chambers were closed, and no +light illuminated the long corridor save the red, unwholesome glare of a +small oil lamp on a table at the end, where late lodgers lit their +candles, one could not by any possibility conjure up a sadder or more +desolate prospect. + +Yet the house suited me. Of meditative and sedentary habits, I enjoyed +the extreme quiet. There were but few lodgers, from which I infer that +the landlord did not drive a very thriving trade; and these, probably +oppressed by the sombre spirit of the place, were quiet and ghost-like +in their movements. The proprietor I scarcely ever saw. My bills were +deposited by unseen hands every month on my table, while I was out +walking or riding, and my pecuniary response was intrusted to the +attendant afreet. On the whole, when the bustling, wide-awake spirit of +New York is taken into consideration, the sombre, half-vivified +character of the house in which I lived was an anomaly that no one +appreciated better than I who lived there. + +I felt my way down the wide, dark staircase in my pursuit of zephyrs. +The garden, as I entered it, did feel somewhat cooler than my own room, +and I puffed my cigar along the dim, cypress-shrouded walks with a +sensation of comparative relief. It was very dark. The tall-growing +flowers that bordered the path were so wrapped in gloom as to present +the aspect of solid pyramidal masses, all the details of leaves and +blossoms being buried in an embracing darkness, while the trees had lost +all form, and seemed like masses of overhanging cloud. It was a place +and time to excite the imagination; for in the impenetrable cavities of +endless gloom there was room for the most riotous fancies to play at +will. I walked and walked, and the echoes of my footsteps on the +ungravelled and mossy path suggested a double feeling. I felt alone and +yet in company at the same time. The solitariness of the place made +itself distinct enough in the stillness, broken alone by the hollow +reverberations of my step, while those very reverberations seemed to +imbue me with an undefined feeling that I was not alone. I was not, +therefore, much startled when I was suddenly accosted from beneath the +solid darkness of an immense cypress by a voice saying, "Will you give +me a light, sir?" + +"Certainly," I replied, trying in vain to distinguish the speaker amidst +the impenetrable dark. + +Somebody advanced, and I held out my cigar. All I could gather +definitively about the individual who thus accosted me was that he must +have been of extremely small stature; for I, who am by no means an +overgrown man, had to stoop considerably in handing him my cigar. The +vigorous puff that he gave his own lighted up my Havana for a moment, +and I fancied that I caught a glimpse of long, wild hair. The flash was, +however, so momentary that I could not even say certainly whether this +was an actual impression or the mere effort of imagination to embody +that which the senses had failed to distinguish. + +"Sir, you are out late," said this unknown to me, as he, with +half-uttered thanks, handed me back my cigar, for which I had to grope +in the gloom. + +"Not later than usual," I replied, dryly. + +"Hum! you are fond of late wanderings, then?" + +"That is just as the fancy seizes me." + +"Do you live here?" + +"Yes." + +"Queer house, isn't it?" + +"I have only found it quiet." + +"Hum! But you _will_ find it queer, take my word for it." This was +earnestly uttered; and I felt at the same time a bony finger laid on my +arm, that cut it sharply like a blunted knife. + +"I cannot take your word for any such assertion," I replied rudely, +shaking off the bony finger with an irrepressible motion of disgust. + +"No offence, no offence," muttered my unseen companion rapidly, in a +strange, subdued voice, that would have been shrill had it been louder; +"your being angry does not alter the matter. You will find it a queer +house. Everybody finds it a queer house. Do you know who live there?" + +"I never busy myself, sir, about other people's affairs," I answered +sharply, for the individual's manner, combined with my utter uncertainty +as to his appearance, oppressed me with an irksome longing to be rid of +him. + +"O, you don't? Well, I do. I know what they are--well, well, well!" and +as he pronounced the three last words his voice rose with each, until, +with the last, it reached a shrill shriek that echoed horribly among the +lonely walks. "Do you know what they eat?" he continued. + +"No, sir,--nor care." + +"O, but you will care. You must care. You shall care. I'll tell you what +they are. They are enchanters. They are ghouls. They are cannibals. Did +you never remark their eyes, and how they gloated on you when you +passed? Did you never remark the food that they served up at your table? +Did you never in the dead of night hear muffled and unearthly footsteps +gliding along the corridors, and stealthy hands turning the handle of +your door? Does not some magnetic influence fold itself continually +around you when they pass, and send a thrill through spirit and body, +and a cold shiver that no sunshine will chase away? O, you have! You +have felt all these things! I know it!" + +The earnest rapidity, the subdued tones, the eagerness of accent, with +which all this was uttered, impressed me most uncomfortably. It really +seemed as if I could recall all those weird occurrences and influences +of which he spoke; and I shuddered in spite of myself in the midst of +the impenetrable darkness that surrounded me. + +"Hum!" said I, assuming, without knowing it, a confidential tone, "may I +ask you how you know these things?" + +"How I know them? Because I am their enemy; because they tremble at my +whisper; because I hang upon their track with the perseverance of a +bloodhound and the stealthiness of a tiger; because--because--I was _of_ +them once!" + +"Wretch!" I cried excitedly, for involuntarily his eager tones had +wrought me up to a high pitch of spasmodic nervousness, "then you mean +to say that you----" + +As I uttered this word, obeying an uncontrollable impulse, I stretched +forth my hand in the direction of the speaker and made a blind clutch. +The tips of my fingers seemed to touch a surface as smooth as glass, +that glided suddenly from under them. A sharp, angry hiss sounded +through the gloom, followed by a whirring noise, as if some projectile +passed rapidly by, and the next moment I felt instinctively that I was +alone. + +A most disagreeable feeling instantly assailed me;--a prophetic instinct +that some terrible misfortune menaced me; an eager and overpowering +anxiety to get back to my own room without loss of time. I turned and +ran blindly along the dark cypress alley, every dusky clump of flowers +that rose blackly in the borders making my heart each moment cease to +beat. The echoes of my own footsteps seemed to redouble and assume the +sounds of unknown pursuers following fast upon my track. The boughs of +lilac-bushes and syringas, that here and there stretched partly across +the walk, seemed to have been furnished suddenly with hooked hands that +sought to grasp me as I flew by, and each moment I expected to behold +some awful and impassable barrier fall across my track and wall me up +forever. + +At length I reached the wide entrance. With a single leap I sprang up +the four or five steps that formed the stoop, and dashed along the hall, +up the wide, echoing stairs, and again along the dim, funereal corridors +until I paused, breathless and panting, at the door of my room. Once so +far, I stopped for an instant and leaned heavily against one of the +panels, panting lustily after my late run. I had, however, scarcely +rested my whole weight against the door, when it suddenly gave way, and +I staggered in head-foremost. To my utter astonishment the room I had +left in profound darkness was now a blaze of light. So intense was the +illumination that, for a few seconds while the pupils of my eyes were +contracting under the sudden change, I saw absolutely nothing save the +dazzling glare. This fact in itself, coming on me with such utter +suddenness, was sufficient to prolong my confusion, and it was not until +after several minutes had elapsed that I perceived the room was not only +illuminated, but occupied. And such occupants! Amazement at the scene +took such possession of me that I was incapable of either moving or +uttering a word. All that I could do was to lean against the wall, and +stare blankly at the strange picture. + +It might have been a scene out of Faublas, or Gramont's Memoirs, or +happened in some palace of Minister Foucque. + +Round a large table in the centre of the room, where I had left a +student-like litter of books and papers, were seated half a dozen +persons. Three were men and three were women. The table was heaped with +a prodigality of luxuries. Luscious eastern fruits were piled up in +silver filigree vases, through whose meshes their glowing rinds shone in +the contrasts of a thousand hues. Small silver dishes that Benvenuto +might have designed, filled with succulent and aromatic meats, were +distributed upon a cloth of snowy damask. Bottles of every shape, +slender ones from the Rhine, stout fellows from Holland, sturdy ones +from Spain, and quaint basket-woven flasks from Italy, absolutely +littered the board. Drinking-glasses of every size and hue filled up the +interstices, and the thirsty German flagon stood side by side with the +aërial bubbles of Venetian glass that rest so lightly on their +threadlike stems. An odour of luxury and sensuality floated through the +apartment. The lamps that burned in every direction seemed to diffuse a +subtle incense on the air, and in a large vase that stood on the floor I +saw a mass of magnolias, tuberoses, and jasmines grouped together, +stifling each other with their honeyed and heavy fragrance. + +The inhabitants of my room seemed beings well suited to so sensual an +atmosphere. The women were strangely beautiful, and all were attired in +dresses of the most fantastic devices and brilliant hues. Their figures +were round, supple, and elastic; their eyes dark and languishing; their +lips full, ripe, and of the richest bloom. The three men wore +half-masks, so that all I could distinguish were heavy jaws, pointed +beards, and brawny throats that rose like massive pillars out of their +doublets. All six lay reclining on Roman couches about the table, +drinking down the purple wines in large draughts, and tossing back their +heads and laughing wildly. + +I stood, I suppose, for some three minutes, with my back against the +wall staring vacantly at the bacchanal vision, before any of the +revellers appeared to notice my presence. At length, without any +expression to indicate whether I had been observed from the beginning or +not, two of the women arose from their couches, and, approaching, took +each a hand and led me to the table. I obeyed their motions +mechanically. I sat on a couch, between them as they indicated. I +unresistingly permitted them to wind their arms about my neck. + +"You must drink," said one, pouring out a large glass of red wine, "here +is Clos Vougeout of a rare vintage; and here," pushing a flask of +amber-hued wine before me, "is Lachryma Christi." + +"You must eat," said the other, drawing the silver dishes toward her. +"Here are cutlets stewed with olives, and here are slices of a _filet_ +stuffed with bruised sweet chestnuts"--and as she spoke, she, without +waiting for a reply, proceeded to help me. + +The sight of the food recalled to me the warnings I had received in the +garden. This sudden effort of memory restored to me my other faculties +at the same instant. I sprang to my feet, thrusting the women from me +with each hand. + +"Demons!" I almost shouted. "I will have none of your accursed food. I +know you. You are cannibals, you are ghouls, you are enchanters. Begone, +I tell you! Leave my room in peace!" + +A shout of laughter from all six was the only effect that my passionate +speech produced. The men rolled on their couches, and their half-masks +quivered with the convulsions of their mirth. The women shrieked, and +tossed the slender wine-glasses wildly aloft, and turned to me and flung +themselves on my bosom fairly sobbing with laughter. + +"Yes," I continued, as soon as the noisy mirth had subsided, "yes, I +say, leave my room instantly! I will have none of your unnatural orgies +here!" + +"His room!" shrieked the woman on my right. + +"His room!" echoed she on my left. + +"His room! He calls it his room!" shouted the whole party, as they +rolled once more into jocular convulsions. + +"How know you that it is your room?" said one of the men who sat +opposite to me, at length, after the laughter had once more somewhat +subsided. + +"How do I know?" I replied indignantly. "How do I know my own room? How +could I mistake it, pray? There's my furniture--my piano----" + +"He calls that a piano," shouted my neighbours, again in convulsions as +I pointed to the corner where my huge piano, sacred to the memory of +Blokeeta, used to stand. "O, yes! It is his room. There--there is his +piano!" + +The peculiar emphasis they laid on the word "piano" caused me to +scrutinize the article I was indicating more thoroughly. Up to this +time, though utterly amazed at the entrance of these people into my +chamber, and connecting them somewhat with the wild stories I had heard +in the garden, I still had a sort of indefinite idea that the whole +thing was a masquerading freak got up in my absence, and that the +bacchanalian orgie I was witnessing was nothing more than a portion of +some elaborate hoax of which I was to be the victim. But when my eyes +turned to the corner where I had left a huge and cumbrous piano, and +beheld a vast and sombre organ lifting its fluted front to the very +ceiling, and convinced myself, by a hurried process of memory, that it +occupied the very spot in which I had left my own instrument, the little +self-possession that I had left forsook me. I gazed around me +bewildered. + +In like manner everything was changed. In the place of that old haftless +dagger, connected with so many historic associations personal to myself, +I beheld a Turkish yataghan dangling by its belt of crimson silk, while +the jewels in the hilt blazed as the lamplight played upon them. In the +spot where hung my cherished smoking cap, memorial of a buried love, a +knightly casque was suspended on the crest of which a golden dragon +stood in the act of springing. That strange lithograph of Calame was no +longer a lithograph, but it seemed to me that the portion of the wall +which it covered, of the exact shape and size, had been cut out, and, in +place of the picture, a _real_ scene on the same scale, and with real +actors, was distinctly visible. The old oak was there, and the stormy +sky was there; but I saw the branches of the oak sway with the tempest, +and the clouds drive before the wind. The wanderer in his cloak was +gone; but in his place I beheld a circle of wild figures, men and women, +dancing with linked hands around the hole of the great tree, chanting +some wild fragment of a song, to which the winds roared an unearthly +chorus. The snow-shoes, too, on whose sinewy woof I had sped for many +days amidst Canadian wastes, had vanished, and in their place lay a pair +of strange up-curled Turkish slippers, that had, perhaps, been many a +time shuffled off at the doors of mosques, beneath the steady blaze of +an orient sun. + +All was changed. Wherever my eyes turned they missed familiar objects, +yet encountered strange representatives. Still, in all the substitutes +there seemed to me a reminiscence of what they replaced. They seemed +only for a time transmuted into other shapes, and there lingered around +them the atmosphere of what they once had been. Thus I could have sworn +the room to have been mine, yet there was nothing in it that I could +rightly claim. Everything reminded me of some former possession that it +was not. I looked for the acacia at the window, and lo! long silken +palm-leaves swayed in through the open lattice; yet they had the same +motion and the same air of my favourite tree, and seemed to murmur to +me, "Though we seem to be palm-leaves, yet are we acacia-leaves; yea, +those very ones on which you used to watch the butterflies alight and +the rain patter while you smoked and dreamed!" So in all things; the +room was, yet was not, mine; and a sickening consciousness of my utter +inability to reconcile its identity with its appearance overwhelmed me, +and choked my reason. + +"Well, have you determined whether or not this is your room?" asked the +girl on my left, proffering me a huge tumbler creaming over with +champagne, and laughing wickedly as she spoke. + +"It is mine," I answered, doggedly, striking the glass rudely with my +hand, and dashing the aromatic wine over the white cloth. "I know that +it is mine; and ye are jugglers and enchanters who want to drive me +mad." + +"Hush! hush!" she said, gently, not in the least angered by my rough +treatment. "You are excited. Alf shall play something to soothe you." + +At her signal, one of the men sat down at the organ. After a short, +wild, spasmodic prelude, he began what seemed to me to be a symphony of +recollections. Dark and sombre, and all through full of quivering and +intense agony, it appeared to recall a dark and dismal night, on a cold +reef, around which an unseen but terribly audible ocean broke with +eternal fury. It seemed as if a lonely pair were on the reef, one +living, the other dead; one clasping his arms around the tender neck and +naked bosom of the other, striving to warm her into life, when his own +vitality was being each moment sucked from him by the icy breath of the +storm. Here and there a terrible wailing minor key would tremble through +the chords like the shriek of sea-birds, or the warning of advancing +death. While the man played I could scarce restrain myself. It seemed to +be Blokeeta whom I listened to, and on whom I gazed. That wondrous night +of pleasure and pain that I had once passed listening to him seemed to +have been taken up again at the spot where it had broken off, and the +same hand was continuing it. I stared at the man called Alf. There he +sat with his cloak and doublet, and long rapier and mask of black +velvet. But there was something in the air of the peaked beard, a +familiar mystery in the wild mass of raven hair that fell as if +wind-blown over his shoulders, which riveted my memory. + +"Blokeeta! Blokeeta!" I shouted, starting up furiously from the couch on +which I was lying, and bursting the fair arms that were linked around my +neck as if they had been hateful chains,--"Blokeeta! my friend! speak to +me, I entreat you! Tell these horrid enchanters to leave me. Say that I +hate them. Say that I command them to leave my room." + +The man at the organ stirred not in answer to my appeal. He ceased +playing, and the dying sound of the last note he had touched faded off +into a melancholy moan. The other men and the women burst once more into +peals of mocking laughter. + +"Why will you persist in calling this your room?" said the woman next +me, with a smile meant to be kind, but to me inexpressibly loathsome. +"Have we not shown you by the furniture, by the general appearance of +the place, that you are mistaken, and that this cannot be your +apartment? Rest content, then, with us. You are welcome here, and need +no longer trouble yourself about your room." + +"Rest content!" I answered madly; "live with ghosts, eat of awful meats, +and see awful sights! Never! never! You have cast some enchantment over +the place that has disguised it; but for all that I know it to be my +room. You shall leave it!" + +"Softly, softly!" said another of the sirens. "Let us settle this +amicably. This poor gentleman seems obstinate and inclined to make an +uproar. Now we do not want an uproar. We love the night and its quiet; +and there is no night that we love so well as that on which the moon is +coffined in clouds. Is it not so, my brothers?" + +An awful and sinister smile gleamed on the countenances of her unearthly +audience, and seemed to glide visibly from underneath their masks. + +"Now," she continued, "I have a proposition to make. It would be +ridiculous for us to surrender this room simply because this gentleman +states that it is his; and yet I feel anxious to gratify, as far as may +be fair, his wild assertion of ownership. A room, after all, is not much +to us; we can get one easily enough, but still we should be loath to +give this apartment up to so imperious a demand. We are willing, +however, to _risk_ its loss. That is to say,"--turning to me,--"I +propose that we play for the room. If you win, we will immediately +surrender it to you just as it stands; if, on the contrary, you lose, +you shall bind yourself to depart and never molest us again." + +Agonized at the ever-darkening mysteries that seemed to thicken around +me, and despairing of being able to dissipate them by the mere exercise +of my own will, I caught almost gladly at the chance thus presented to +me. The idea of my loss or my gain scarce entered into my calculations. +All I felt was an indefinite knowledge that I might, in the way +proposed, regain in an instant, that quiet chamber and that peace of +mind of which I had so strangely been deprived. + +"I agree!" I cried eagerly; "I agree. Anything to rid myself of such +unearthly company!" + +The woman touched a small golden bell that stood near her on the table, +and it had scarce ceased to tinkle when a negro dwarf entered with a +silver tray on which were dice-boxes and dice. A shudder passed over me +as I thought in this stunted African I could trace a resemblance to the +ghoul-like black servant to whose attendance I had been accustomed. + +"Now," said my neighbour, seizing one of the dice-boxes and giving me +the other, "the highest wins. Shall I throw first?" + +I nodded assent. She rattled the dice, and I felt an inexpressible load +lifted from my heart as she threw fifteen. + +"It is your turn," she said, with a mocking smile; "but before you +throw, I repeat the offer I made you before. Live with us. Be one of us. +We will initiate you into our mysteries and enjoyments,--enjoyments of +which you can form no idea unless you experience them. Come; it is not +too late yet to change your mind. Be with us!" + +My reply was a fierce oath, as I rattled the dice with spasmodic +nervousness and flung them on the board. They rolled over and over +again, and during that brief instant I felt a suspense, the intensity of +which I have never known before or since. At last they lay before me. A +shout of the same horrible, maddening laughter rang in my ears. I peered +in vain at the dice, but my sight was so confused that I could not +distinguish the amount of the cast. This lasted for a few moments. Then +my sight grew clear, and I sank back almost lifeless with despair as I +saw that I had thrown but _twelve_! + +"Lost! lost!" screamed my neighbour, with a wild laugh. "Lost! lost!" +shouted the deep voices of the masked men. "Leave us, coward!" they all +cried; "you are not fit to be one of us. Remember your promise; leave +us!" + +Then it seemed as if some unseen power caught me by the shoulders and +thrust me toward the door. In vain I resisted. In vain I screamed and +shouted for help. In vain I implored them for pity. All the reply I had +was those mocking peals of merriment, while, under the invisible +influence, I staggered like a drunken man toward the door. As I reached +the threshold the organ pealed out a wild triumphal strain. The power +that impelled me concentrated itself into one vigorous impulse that sent +me blindly staggering out into the echoing corridor, and as the door +closed swiftly behind me, I caught one glimpse of the apartment I had +left forever. A change passed like a shadow over it. The lamps died out, +the siren women and masked men vanished, the flowers, the fruits, the +bright silver and bizarre furniture faded swiftly, and I saw again, for +the tenth of a second, my own old chamber restored. There was the acacia +waving darkly; there was the table littered with books; there was the +ghostly lithograph, the dearly beloved smoking-cap, the Canadian +snow-shoes, the ancestral dagger. And there, at the piano, organ no +longer, sat Blokeeta playing. + +The next instant the door closed violently, and I was left standing in +the corridor stunned and despairing. + +As soon as I had partially recovered my comprehension I rushed madly to +the door, with the dim idea of beating it in. My fingers touched a cold +and solid wall. There was no door! I felt all along the corridor for +many yards on both sides. There was not even a crevice to give me hope. +I rushed downstairs shouting madly. No one answered. In the vestibule I +met the negro; I seized him by the collar and demanded my room. The +demon showed his white and awful teeth, which were filed into a saw-like +shape, and extricating himself from my grasp with a sudden jerk, fled +down the passage with a gibbering laugh. Nothing but echo answered to my +despairing shrieks. The lonely garden resounded with my cries as I +strode madly through the dark walls, and the tall funereal cypresses +seemed to bury me beneath their heavy shadows. I met no one,--could find +no one. I had to bear my sorrow and despair alone. + +Since that awful hour I have never found my room. Everywhere I look for +it, yet never see it. Shall I ever find it? + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Masterpieces of Mystery, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTERPIECES OF MYSTERY *** + +***** This file should be named 29704-8.txt or 29704-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/7/0/29704/ + +Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Masterpieces of Mystery + Riddle Stories + +Author: Various + +Editor: Joseph Lewis French + +Release Date: August 15, 2009 [EBook #29704] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTERPIECES OF MYSTERY *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>Masterpieces of Mystery</h1> + +<h3><i>In Four Volumes</i></h3> + +<h2>RIDDLE STORIES</h2> + +<h3>Edited by Joseph Lewis French</h3> + + + +<h4>Garden City New York<br /> +Doubleday, Page & Company</h4> + +<h4>1922</h4> + +<h4>COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY<br /> +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY</h4> + +<h4>ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION<br /> +INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN</h4> + +<h4>PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES<br /> +AT THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.</h4> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="NOTE" id="NOTE"></a>NOTE</h2> + + +<p>The Editor desires especially to acknowledge assistance in granting the +use of original material, and for helpful advice and suggestion, to +Professor Brander Matthews of Columbia University, to Mrs. Anna +Katherine Green Rohlfs, to Cleveland Moffett, to Arthur Reeve, creator +of "Craig Kennedy," to Wilbur Daniel Steele, to Ralph Adams Cram, to +Chester Bailey Fernald, to Brian Brown, to Mrs. Lillian M. Robins of the +publisher's office, and to Charles E. Farrington of the Brooklyn Public +Library.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="FOREWORD" id="FOREWORD"></a>FOREWORD</h2> + + +<p>A distinguished American writer of fiction said to me lately: "Did you +ever think of the vital American way we live? We are always going after +mental gymnastics." Now the mystery story is mental gymnastics. By the +time the reader has followed a chain of facts through he has exercised +his mind,—given himself a mental breather. But the claims of the true +mystery story do not end with the general reader. It is entitled to the +consideration of the discriminating because it indubitably takes its own +place as a gauge of mastery in the field of the short story.</p> + +<p>The demand was never quite so keen as it is now. The currents of +literature as of all things change swiftly these times. This world of +ours has become very sophisticated. It has suffered itself to be +exploited till there is no external wonder left. Retroactively the +demand for mystery, which is the very soul of interest, must find new +expression. Thus we turn inward for fresh thrills to the human comedy, +and outward to the realm of the supernatural.</p> + +<p>The riddle story is the most naïve form of the mystery story. It may +contain a certain element of the supernatural—be tinged with +mysticism—but its motive and the revelation thereof must be frankly +materialistic—of the earth, earthy. In this respect it is very closely +allied to the detective story. The model riddle story should be utterly +mundane in motive—told in direct terms. Here again the genius of that +great modern master asserts itself, and in "The Oblong Box" we have an +early model of its kind. The stories of this collection cover a wide +range and are the choice of reading in several literatures.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Joseph Lewis French.</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#NOTE">NOTE</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#FOREWORD">FOREWORD</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#THE_MYSTERIOUS_CARD"><span class="smcap">The Mysterious Card</span> <i>Cleveland Moffett</i></a><br /> +<a href="#I">I</a><br /> +<a href="#II">II</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#THE_GREAT_VALDEZ_SAPPHIRE"> <span class="smcap">The Great Valdez Sapphire</span> <i>Anonymous</i></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#THE_OBLONG_BOX"><span class="smcap">The Oblong Box</span> <i>Edgar Allan Poe</i></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#THE_BIRTHMARK"><span class="smcap">The Birth Mark</span> <i>Nathaniel Hawthorne</i></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#A_TERRIBLY_STRANGE_BED"><span class="smcap">A Terribly Strange Bed</span> <i>Wilkie Collins</i></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#THE_TORTURE_BY_HOPE"><span class="smcap">The Torture by Hope</span> <i>Villiers de l'Isle Adam</i></a><br /><br /> +<a href="#THE_BOX_WITH_THE_IRON_CLAMPS"><span class="smcap">The Box with the Iron Clamps</span> <i>Florence Marryat</i></a><br /> +<a href="#IA">I</a><br /> +<a href="#IIA">II</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#MY_FASCINATING_FRIEND"><span class="smcap">My Fascinating Friend</span> <i>William Archer</i></a><br /> +<a href="#IB">I</a><br /> +<a href="#IIB">II</a><br /> +<a href="#IIIB">III</a><br /> +<a href="#IVB">IV</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#THE_LOST_ROOM"><span class="smcap">The Lost Room</span> <i>Fitz-James O'Brien</i></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>MASTERPIECES OF MYSTERY</h2> + +<h3><i>RIDDLE STORIES</i></h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_MYSTERIOUS_CARD" id="THE_MYSTERIOUS_CARD"></a>THE MYSTERIOUS CARD</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Cleveland Moffett</span></h3> + +<h4>Courtesy of the Author.</h4> + + + +<h3><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h3> + + +<p>Richard Burwell, of New York, will never cease to regret that the French +language was not made a part of his education.</p> + +<p>This is why:</p> + +<p>On the second evening after Burwell arrived in Paris, feeling lonely +without his wife and daughter, who were still visiting a friend in +London, his mind naturally turned to the theatre. So, after consulting +the daily amusement calendar, he decided to visit the <i>Folies Bergère</i>, +which he had heard of as one of the notable sights. During an +intermission he went into the beautiful garden, where gay crowds were +strolling among the flowers, and lights, and fountains. He had just +seated himself at a little three-legged table, with a view to enjoying +the novel scene, when his attention was attracted by a lovely woman, +gowned strikingly, though in perfect taste, who passed near him, leaning +on the arm of a gentleman. The only thing that he noticed about this +gentleman was that he wore eye-glasses.</p> + +<p>Now Burwell had never posed as a captivator of the fair sex, and could +scarcely credit his eyes when the lady left the side of her escort and, +turning back as if she had forgotten something, passed close by him, and +deftly placed a card on his table. The card bore some French words +written in purple ink, but, not knowing that language, he was unable to +make out their meaning. The lady paid no further heed to him, but, +rejoining the gentleman with the eye-glasses, swept out of the place +with the grace and dignity of a princess. Burwell remained staring at +the card.</p> + +<p>Needless to say, he thought no more of the performance or of the other +attractions about him. Everything seemed flat and tawdry compared with +the radiant vision that had appeared and disappeared so mysteriously. +His one desire now was to discover the meaning of the words written on +the card.</p> + +<p>Calling a fiácre, he drove to the Hôtel Continental, where he was +staying. Proceeding directly to the office and taking the manager aside, +Burwell asked if he would be kind enough to translate a few words of +French into English. There were no more than twenty words in all.</p> + +<p>"Why, certainly," said the manager, with French politeness, and cast his +eyes over the card. As he read, his face grew rigid with astonishment, +and, looking at his questioner sharply, he exclaimed: "Where did you get +this, monsieur?"</p> + +<p>Burwell started to explain, but was interrupted by: "That will do, that +will do. You must leave the hotel."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" asked the man from New York, in amazement.</p> + +<p>"You must leave the hotel now—to-night—without fail," commanded the +manager excitedly.</p> + +<p>Now it was Burwell's turn to grow angry, and he declared heatedly that +if he wasn't wanted in this hotel there were plenty of others in Paris +where he would be welcome. And, with an assumption of dignity, but +piqued at heart, he settled his bill, sent for his belongings, and drove +up the Rue de la Paix to the Hôtel Bellevue, where he spent the night.</p> + +<p>The next morning he met the proprietor, who seemed to be a good fellow, +and, being inclined now to view the incident of the previous evening +from its ridiculous side, Burwell explained what had befallen him, and +was pleased to find a sympathetic listener.</p> + +<p>"Why, the man was a fool," declared the proprietor. "Let me see the +card; I will tell you what it means." But as he read, his face and +manner changed instantly.</p> + +<p>"This is a serious matter," he said sternly. "Now I understand why my +confrère refused to entertain you. I regret, monsieur, but I shall be +obliged to do as he did."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Simply that you cannot remain here."</p> + +<p>With that he turned on his heel, and the indignant guest could not +prevail upon him to give any explanation.</p> + +<p>"We'll see about this," said Burwell, thoroughly angered.</p> + +<p>It was now nearly noon, and the New Yorker remembered an engagement to +lunch with a friend from Boston, who, with his family, was stopping at +the Hôtel de l'Alma. With his luggage on the carriage, he ordered the +<i>cocher</i> to drive directly there, determined to take counsel with his +countryman before selecting new quarters. His friend was highly +indignant when he heard the story—a fact that gave Burwell no little +comfort, knowing, as he did, that the man was accustomed to foreign ways +from long residence abroad.</p> + +<p>"It is some silly mistake, my dear fellow; I wouldn't pay any attention +to it. Just have your luggage taken down and stay here. It is a nice, +homelike place, and it will be very jolly, all being together. But, +first, let me prepare a little 'nerve settler' for you."</p> + +<p>After the two had lingered a moment over their Manhattan cocktails, +Burwell's friend excused himself to call the ladies. He had proceeded +only two or three steps when he turned, and said: "Let's see that +mysterious card that has raised all this row."</p> + +<p>He had scarcely withdrawn it from Burwell's hand when he started back, +and exclaimed:—</p> + +<p>"Great God, man! Do you mean to say—this is simply—"</p> + +<p>Then, with a sudden movement of his hand to his head, he left the room.</p> + +<p>He was gone perhaps five minutes, and when he returned his face was +white.</p> + +<p>"I am awfully sorry," he said nervously; "but the ladies tell me +they—that is, my wife—she has a frightful headache. You will have to +excuse us from the lunch."</p> + +<p>Instantly realizing that this was only a flimsy pretense, and deeply +hurt by his friend's behaviour, the mystified man arose at once and left +without another word. He was now determined to solve this mystery at any +cost. What could be the meaning of the words on that infernal piece of +pasteboard?</p> + +<p>Profiting by his humiliating experiences, he took good care not to show +the card to any one at the hotel where he now established himself,—a +comfortable little place near the Grand Opera House.</p> + +<p>All through the afternoon he thought of nothing but the card, and turned +over in his mind various ways of learning its meaning without getting +himself into further trouble. That evening he went again to the <i>Folies +Bergère</i> in the hope of finding the mysterious woman, for he was now +more than ever anxious to discover who she was. It even occurred to him +that she might be one of those beautiful Nihilist conspirators, or, +perhaps, a Russian spy, such as he had read of in novels. But he failed +to find her, either then or on the three subsequent evenings which he +passed in the same place. Meanwhile the card was burning in his pocket +like a hot coal. He dreaded the thought of meeting anyone that he knew, +while this horrible cloud hung over him. He bought a French-English +dictionary and tried to pick out the meaning word by word, but failed. +It was all Greek to him. For the first time in his life, Burwell +regretted that he had not studied French at college.</p> + +<p>After various vain attempts to either solve or forget the torturing +riddle, he saw no other course than to lay the problem before a +detective agency. He accordingly put his case in the hands of an <i>agent +de la sûreté</i> who was recommended as a competent and trustworthy man. +They had a talk together in a private room, and, of course, Burwell +showed the card. To his relief, his adviser at least showed no sign of +taking offence. Only he did not and would not explain what the words +meant.</p> + +<p>"It is better," he said, "that monsieur should not know the nature of +this document for the present. I will do myself the honour to call upon +monsieur to-morrow at his hotel, and then monsieur shall know +everything."</p> + +<p>"Then it is really serious?" asked the unfortunate man.</p> + +<p>"Very serious," was the answer.</p> + +<p>The next twenty-four hours Burwell passed in a fever of anxiety. As his +mind conjured up one fearful possibility after another he deeply +regretted that he had not torn up the miserable card at the start. He +even seized it,—prepared to strip it into fragments, and so end the +whole affair. And then his Yankee stubbornness again asserted itself, +and he determined to see the thing out, come what might.</p> + +<p>"After all," he reasoned, "it is no crime for a man to pick up a card +that a lady drops on his table."</p> + +<p>Crime or no crime, however, it looked very much as if he had committed +some grave offence when, the next day, his detective drove up in a +carriage, accompanied by a uniformed official, and requested the +astounded American to accompany them to the police headquarters.</p> + +<p>"What for?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"It is only a formality," said the detective; and when Burwell still +protested the man in uniform remarked: "You'd better come quietly, +monsieur; you will have to come, anyway."</p> + +<p>An hour later, after severe cross-examination by another official, who +demanded many facts about the New Yorker's age, place of birth, +residence, occupation, etc., the bewildered man found himself in the +Conciergerie prison. Why he was there or what was about to befall him +Burwell had no means of knowing; but before the day was over he +succeeded in having a message sent to the American Legation, where he +demanded immediate protection as a citizen of the United States. It was +not until evening, however, that the Secretary of Legation, a +consequential person, called at the prison. There followed a stormy +interview, in which the prisoner used some strong language, the French +officers gesticulated violently and talked very fast, and the Secretary +calmly listened to both sides, said little, and smoked a good cigar.</p> + +<p>"I will lay your case before the American minister," he said as he rose +to go, "and let you know the result to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"But this is an outrage. Do you mean to say—" Before he could finish, +however, the Secretary, with a strangely suspicious glance, turned and +left the room.</p> + +<p>That night Burwell slept in a cell.</p> + +<p>The next morning he received another visit from the non-committal +Secretary, who informed him that matters had been arranged, and that he +would be set at liberty forthwith.</p> + +<p>"I must tell you, though," he said, "that I have had great difficulty in +accomplishing this, and your liberty is granted only on condition that +you leave the country within twenty-four hours, and never under any +conditions return."</p> + +<p>Burwell stormed, raged, and pleaded; but it availed nothing. The +Secretary was inexorable, and yet he positively refused to throw any +light upon the causes of this monstrous injustice.</p> + +<p>"Here is your card," he said, handing him a large envelope closed with +the seal of Legation. "I advise you to burn it and never refer to the +matter again."</p> + +<p>That night the ill-fated man took the train for London, his heart +consumed by hatred for the whole French nation, together with a burning +desire for vengeance. He wired his wife to meet him at the station, and +for a long time debated with himself whether he should at once tell her +the sickening truth. In the end he decided that it was better to keep +silent. No sooner, however, had she seen him than her woman's instinct +told her that he was labouring under some mental strain. And he saw in a +moment that to withhold from her his burning secret was impossible, +especially when she began to talk of the trip they had planned through +France. Of course no trivial reason would satisfy her for his refusal to +make this trip, since they had been looking forward to it for years; and +yet it was impossible now for him to set foot on French soil.</p> + +<p>So he finally told her the whole story, she laughing and weeping in +turn. To her, as to him, it seemed incredible that such overwhelming +disasters could have grown out of so small a cause, and, being a fluent +French scholar, she demanded a sight of the fatal piece of pasteboard. +In vain her husband tried to divert her by proposing a trip through +Italy. She would consent to nothing until she had seen the mysterious +card which Burwell was now convinced he ought long ago to have +destroyed. After refusing for awhile to let her see it, he finally +yielded. But, although he had learned to dread the consequences of +showing that cursed card, he was little prepared for what followed. She +read it turned pale, gasped for breath, and nearly fell to the floor.</p> + +<p>"I told you not to read it," he said; and then, growing tender at the +sight of her distress, he took her hand in his and begged her to be +calm. "At least tell me what the thing means," he said. "We can bear it +together; you surely can trust me."</p> + +<p>But she, as if stung by rage, pushed him from her and declared, in a +tone such as he had never heard from her before, that never, never again +would she live with him. "You are a monster!" she exclaimed. And those +were the last words he heard from her lips.</p> + +<p>Failing utterly in all efforts at reconciliation, the half-crazed man +took the first steamer for New York, having suffered in scarcely a +fortnight more than in all his previous life. His whole pleasure trip +had been ruined, he had failed to consummate important business +arrangements, and now he saw his home broken up and his happiness +ruined. During the voyage he scarcely left his stateroom, but lay there +prostrated with agony. In this black despondency the one thing that +sustained him was the thought of meeting his partner, Jack Evelyth, the +friend of his boyhood, the sharer of his success, the bravest, most +loyal fellow in the world. In the face of even the most damning +circumstances, he felt that Evelyth's rugged common sense would evolve +some way of escape from this hideous nightmare. Upon landing at New York +he hardly waited for the gang-plank to be lowered before he rushed on +shore and grasped the hand of his partner, who was waiting on the wharf.</p> + +<p>"Jack," was his first word, "I am in dreadful trouble, and you are the +only man in the world who can help me."</p> + +<p>An hour later Burwell sat at his friend's dinner table, talking over the +situation.</p> + +<p>Evelyth was all kindness, and several times as he listened to Burwell's +story his eyes filled with tears.</p> + +<p>"It does not seem possible, Richard," he said, "that such things can be; +but I will stand by you; we will fight it out together. But we cannot +strike in the dark. Let me see this card."</p> + +<p>"There is the damned thing," Burwell said, throwing it on the table.</p> + +<p>Evelyth opened the envelope, took out the card, and fixed his eyes on +the sprawling purple characters.</p> + +<p>"Can you read it?" Burwell asked excitedly.</p> + +<p>"Perfectly," his partner said. The next moment he turned pale, and his +voice broke. Then he clasped the tortured man's hand in his with a +strong grip. "Richard," he said slowly, "if my only child had been +brought here dead it would not have caused me more sorrow than this +does. You have brought me the worst news one man could bring another."</p> + +<p>His agitation and genuine suffering affected Burwell like a death +sentence.</p> + +<p>"Speak, man," he cried; "do not spare me. I can bear anything rather +than this awful uncertainty. Tell me what the card means."</p> + +<p>Evelyth took a swallow of brandy and sat with head bent on his clasped +hands.</p> + +<p>"No, I can't do it; there are some things a man must not do."</p> + +<p>Then he was silent again, his brows knitted. Finally he said solemnly:—</p> + +<p>"No, I can't see any other way out of it. We have been true to each +other all our lives; we have worked together and looked forward to never +separating. I would rather fail and die than see this happen. But we +have got to separate, old friend; we have got to separate."</p> + +<p>They sat there talking until late into the night. But nothing that +Burwell could do or say availed against his friend's decision. There was +nothing for it but that Evelyth should buy his partner's share of the +business or that Burwell buy out the other. The man was more than fair +in the financial proposition he made; he was generous, as he always had +been, but his determination was inflexible; the two must separate. And +they did.</p> + +<p>With his old partner's desertion, it seemed to Burwell that the world +was leagued against him. It was only three weeks from the day on which +he had received the mysterious card; yet in that time he had lost all +that he valued in the world,—wife, friends, and business. What next to +do with the fatal card was the sickening problem that now possessed him.</p> + +<p>He dared not show it; yet he dared not destroy it. He loathed it; yet he +could not let it go from his possession. Upon returning to his house he +locked the accursed thing away in his safe as if it had been a package +of dynamite or a bottle of deadly poison. Yet not a day passed that he +did not open the drawer where the thing was kept and scan with loathing +the mysterious purple scrawl.</p> + +<p>In desperation he finally made up his mind to take up the study of the +language in which the hateful thing was written. And still he dreaded +the approach of the day when he should decipher its awful meaning.</p> + +<p>One afternoon, less than a week after his arrival in New York, as he was +crossing Twenty-third Street on the way to his French teacher, he saw a +carriage rolling up Broadway. In the carriage was a face that caught his +attention like a flash. As he looked again he recognized the woman who +had been the cause of his undoing. Instantly he sprang into another cab +and ordered the driver to follow after. He found the house where she was +living. He called there several times; but always received the same +reply, that she was too much engaged to see anyone. Next he was told +that she was ill, and on the following day the servant said she was much +worse. Three physicians had been summoned in consultation. He sought out +one of these and told him it was a matter of life or death that he see +this woman. The doctor was a kindly man and promised to assist him. +Through his influence, it came about that on that very night Burwell +stood by the bedside of this mysterious woman. She was beautiful still, +though her face was worn with illness.</p> + +<p>"Do you recognize me?" he asked tremblingly, as he leaned over the bed, +clutching in one hand an envelope containing the mysterious card. "Do +you remember seeing me at the <i>Folies Bergère</i> a month ago?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she murmured, after a moment's study of his face; and he noted +with relief that she spoke English.</p> + +<p>"Then, for God's sake, tell me, what does it all mean?" he gasped, +quivering with excitement.</p> + +<p>"I gave you the card because I wanted you to—to—"</p> + +<p>Here a terrible spasm of coughing shook her whole body, and she fell +back exhausted.</p> + +<p>An agonizing despair tugged at Burwell's heart. Frantically snatching +the card from its envelope, he held it close to the woman's face.</p> + +<p>"Tell me! Tell me!"</p> + +<p>With a supreme effort, the pale figure slowly raised itself on the +pillow, its fingers clutching at the counterpane.</p> + +<p>Then the sunken eyes fluttered—forced themselves open—and stared in +stony amazement upon the fatal card, while the trembling lips moved +noiselessly, as if in an attempt to speak. As Burwell, choking with +eagerness, bent his head slowly to hers, a suggestion of a smile +flickered across the woman's face. Again the mouth quivered, the man's +head bent nearer and nearer to hers, his eyes riveted upon the lips. +Then, as if to aid her in deciphering the mystery, he turned his eyes to +the card.</p> + +<p>With a cry of horror he sprang to his feet, his eyeballs starting from +their sockets. Almost at the same moment the woman fell heavily upon the +pillow.</p> + +<p>Every vestige of the writing had faded! The card was blank!</p> + +<p>The woman lay there dead.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h3> + +<h4>The Card Unveiled</h4> + + +<p>No physician was ever more scrupulous than I have been, during my thirty +years of practice, in observing the code of professional secrecy; and it +is only for grave reasons, partly in the interests of medical science, +largely as a warning to intelligent people, that I place upon record the +following statements.</p> + +<p>One morning a gentleman called at my offices to consult me about some +nervous trouble. From the moment I saw him, the man made a deep +impression on me, not so much by the pallor and worn look of his face as +by a certain intense sadness in his eyes, as if all hope had gone out of +his life. I wrote a prescription for him, and advised him to try the +benefits of an ocean voyage. He seemed to shiver at the idea, and said +that he had been abroad too much, already.</p> + +<p>As he handed me my fee, my eye fell upon the palm of his hand, and I saw +there, plainly marked on the Mount of Saturn, a cross surrounded by two +circles. I should explain that for the greater part of my life I have +been a constant and enthusiastic student of palmistry. During my travels +in the Orient, after taking my degree, I spent months studying this +fascinating art at the best sources of information in the world. I have +read everything published on palmistry in every known language, and my +library on the subject is perhaps the most complete in existence. In my +time I have examined at least fourteen thousand palms, and taken casts +of many of the more interesting of them. But I had never seen such a +palm as this; at least, never but once, and the horror of the case was +so great that I shudder even now when I call it to mind.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me," I said, keeping the patient's hand in mine, "would you let +me look at your palm?"</p> + +<p>I tried to speak indifferently, as if the matter were of small +consequence, and for some moments I bent over the hand in silence. Then, +taking a magnifying glass from my desk, I looked at it still more +closely. I was not mistaken; here was indeed the sinister double circle +on Saturn's mount, with the cross inside,—a marking so rare as to +portend some stupendous destiny of good or evil, more probably the +latter.</p> + +<p>I saw that the man was uneasy under my scrutiny, and, presently, with +some hesitation, as if mustering courage, he asked: "Is there anything +remarkable about my hand?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said, "there is. Tell me, did not something very unusual, +something very horrible, happen to you about ten or eleven years ago?"</p> + +<p>I saw by the way the man started that I had struck near the mark, and, +studying the stream of fine lines that crossed his lifeline from the +Mount of Venus, I added: "Were you not in some foreign country at that +time?"</p> + +<p>The man's face blanched, but he only looked at me steadily out of those +mournful eyes. Now I took his other hand, and compared the two, line by +line, mount by mount, noting the short square fingers, the heavy thumb, +with amazing willpower in its upper joint, and gazing again and again at +that ominous sign on Saturn.</p> + +<p>"Your life has been strangely unhappy, your years have been clouded by +some evil influence."</p> + +<p>"My God," he said weakly, sinking into a chair, "how can you know these +things?"</p> + +<p>"It is easy to know what one sees," I said, and tried to draw him out +about his past, but the words seemed to stick in his throat.</p> + +<p>"I will come back and talk to you again," he said, and he went away +without giving me his name or any revelation of his life.</p> + +<p>Several times he called during subsequent weeks, and gradually seemed to +take on a measure of confidence in my presence. He would talk freely of +his physical condition, which seemed to cause him much anxiety. He even +insisted upon my making the most careful examination of all his organs, +especially of his eyes, which, he said, had troubled him at various +times. Upon making the usual tests, I found that he was suffering from a +most uncommon form of colour blindness, that seemed to vary in its +manifestations, and to be connected with certain hallucinations or +abnormal mental states which recurred periodically, and about which I +had great difficulty in persuading him to speak. At each visit I took +occasion to study his hand anew, and each reading of the palm gave me +stronger conviction that here was a life mystery that would abundantly +repay any pains taken in unravelling it.</p> + +<p>While I was in this state of mind, consumed with a desire to know more +of my unhappy acquaintance and yet not daring to press him with +questions, there came a tragic happening that revealed to me with +startling suddenness the secret I was bent on knowing. One night, very +late,—in fact it was about four o'clock in the morning,—I received an +urgent summons to the bedside of a man who had been shot. As I bent over +him I saw that it was my friend, and for the first time I realized that +he was a man of wealth and position, for he lived in a beautifully +furnished house filled with art treasures and looked after by a retinue +of servants. From one of these I learned that he was Richard Burwell, +one of New York's most respected citizens—in fact, one of her +best-known philanthropists, a man who for years had devoted his life and +fortune to good works among the poor.</p> + +<p>But what most excited my surprise was the presence in the house of two +officers, who informed me that Mr. Burwell was under arrest, charged +with murder. The officers assured me that it was only out of deference +to his well-known standing in the community that the prisoner had been +allowed the privilege of receiving medical treatment in his own home; +their orders were peremptory to keep him under close surveillance.</p> + +<p>Giving no time to further questionings, I at once proceeded to examine +the injured man, and found that he was suffering from a bullet wound in +the back at about the height of the fifth rib. On probing for the +bullet, I found that it had lodged near the heart, and decided that it +would be exceedingly dangerous to try to remove it immediately. So I +contented myself with administering a sleeping potion.</p> + +<p>As soon as I was free to leave Burwell's bedside I returned to the +officers and obtained from them details of what had happened. A woman's +body had been found a few hours before, shockingly mutilated, on Water +Street, one of the dark ways in the swarming region along the river +front. It had been found at about two o'clock in the morning by some +printers from the office of the <i>Courier des Etats Unis</i>, who, in coming +from their work, had heard cries of distress and hurried to the rescue. +As they drew near they saw a man spring away from something huddled on +the sidewalk, and plunge into the shadows of the night, running from +them at full speed.</p> + +<p>Suspecting at once that here was the mysterious assassin so long vainly +sought for many similar crimes, they dashed after the fleeing man, who +darted right and left through the maze of dark streets, giving out +little cries like a squirrel as he ran. Seeing that they were losing +ground, one of the printers fired at the fleeing shadow, his shot being +followed by a scream of pain, and hurrying up they found a man writhing +on the ground. The man was Richard Burwell.</p> + +<p>The news that my sad-faced friend had been implicated in such a +revolting occurrence shocked me inexpressibly, and I was greatly +relieved the next day to learn from the papers that a most unfortunate +mistake had been made. The evidence given before the coroner's jury was +such as to abundantly exonerate Burwell from all shadow of guilt. The +man's own testimony, taken at his bedside, was in itself almost +conclusive in his favour. When asked to explain his presence so late at +night in such a part of the city, Burwell stated that he had spent the +evening at the Florence Mission, where he had made an address to some +unfortunates gathered there, and that later he had gone with a young +missionary worker to visit a woman living on Frankfort Street, who was +dying of consumption. This statement was borne out by the missionary +worker himself, who testified that Burwell had been most tender in his +ministrations to the poor woman and had not left her until death had +relieved her sufferings.</p> + +<p>Another point which made it plain that the printers had mistaken their +man in the darkness, was the statement made by all of them that, as they +came running up, they had overheard some words spoken by the murderer, +and that these words were in their own language, French. Now it was +shown conclusively that Burwell did not know the French language, that +indeed he had not even an elementary knowledge of it.</p> + +<p>Another point in his favour was a discovery made at the spot where the +body was found. Some profane and ribald words, also in French, had been +scrawled in chalk on the door and doorsill, being in the nature of a +coarse defiance to the police to find the assassin, and experts in +handwriting who were called testified unanimously that Burwell, who +wrote a refined, scholarly hand, could never have formed those misshapen +words.</p> + +<p>Furthermore, at the time of his arrest no evidence was found on the +clothes or person of Burwell, nothing in the nature of bruises or +bloodstains that would tend to implicate him in the crime. The outcome +of the matter was that he was honourably discharged by the coroner's +jury, who were unanimous in declaring him innocent, and who brought in a +verdict that the unfortunate woman had come to her death at the hand of +some person or persons unknown.</p> + +<p>On visiting my patient late on the afternoon of the second day I saw +that his case was very grave, and I at once instructed the nurses and +attendants to prepare for an operation. The man's life depended upon my +being able to extract the bullet, and the chance of doing this was very +small. Mr. Burwell realized that his condition was critical, and, +beckoning me to him, told me that he wished to make a statement he felt +might be his last. He spoke with agitation which was increased by an +unforeseen happening. For just then a servant entered the room and +whispered to me that there was a gentleman downstairs who insisted upon +seeing me, and who urged business of great importance. This message the +sick man overheard, and lifting himself with an effort, he said +excitedly: "Tell me, is he a tall man with glasses?"</p> + +<p>The servant hesitated.</p> + +<p>"I knew it; you cannot deceive me; that man will haunt me to my grave. +Send him away, doctor; I beg of you not to see him."</p> + +<p>Humouring my patient, I sent word to the stranger that I could not see +him, but, in an undertone, instructed the servant to say that the man +might call at my office the next morning. Then, turning to Burwell, I +begged him to compose himself and save his strength for the ordeal +awaiting him.</p> + +<p>"No, no," he said, "I need my strength now to tell you what you must +know to find the truth. You are the only man who has understood that +there has been some terrible influence at work in my life. You are the +only man competent to study out what that influence is, and I have made +provision in my will that you shall do so after I am gone. I know that +you will heed my wishes?"</p> + +<p>The intense sadness of his eyes made my heart sink; I could only grip +his hand and remain silent.</p> + +<p>"Thank you; I was sure I might count on your devotion. Now, tell me, +doctor, you have examined me carefully, have you not?"</p> + +<p>I nodded.</p> + +<p>"In every way known to medical science?"</p> + +<p>I nodded again.</p> + +<p>"And have you found anything wrong with me,—I mean, besides this +bullet, anything abnormal?"</p> + +<p>"As I have told you, your eyesight is defective; I should like to +examine your eyes more thoroughly when you are better."</p> + +<p>"I shall never be better; besides it isn't my eyes; I mean myself, my +soul,—you haven't found anything wrong there?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not; the whole city knows the beauty of your character and +your life."</p> + +<p>"Tut, tut; the city knows nothing. For ten years I have lived so much +with the poor that people have almost forgotten my previous active life +when I was busy with money-making and happy in my home. But there is a +man out West, whose head is white and whose heart is heavy, who has not +forgotten, and there is a woman in London, a silent, lonely woman, who +has not forgotten. The man was my partner, poor Jack Evelyth; the woman +was my wife. How can a man be so cursed, doctor, that his love and +friendship bring only misery to those who share it? How can it be that +one who has in his heart only good thoughts can be constantly under the +shadow of evil? This charge of murder is only one of several cases in my +life where, through no fault of mine, the shadow of guilt has been cast +upon me.</p> + +<p>"Years ago, when my wife and I were perfectly happy, a child was born to +us, and a few months later, when it was only a tender, helpless little +thing that its mother loved with all her heart, it was strangled in its +cradle, and we never knew who strangled it, for the deed was done one +night when there was absolutely no one in the house but my wife and +myself. There was no doubt about the crime, for there on the tiny neck +were the finger marks where some cruel hand had closed until life went.</p> + +<p>"Then a few years later, when my partner and I were on the eve of +fortune, our advance was set back by the robbery of our safe. Some one +opened it in the night, someone who knew the combination, for it was the +work of no burglar, and yet there were only two persons in the world who +knew that combination, my partner and myself. I tried to be brave when +these things happened, but as my life went on it seemed more and more as +if some curse were on me.</p> + +<p>"Eleven years ago I went abroad with my wife and daughter. Business took +me to Paris, and I left the ladies in London, expecting to have them +join me in a few days. But they never did join me, for the curse was on +me still, and before I had been forty-eight hours in the French capital +something happened that completed the wreck of my life. It doesn't seem +possible, does it, that a simple white card with some words scrawled on +it in purple ink could effect a man's undoing? And yet that was my fate. +The card was given me by a beautiful woman with eyes like stars. She is +dead long ago, and why she wished to harm me I never knew. You must find +that out.</p> + +<p>"You see I did not know the language of the country, and, wishing to +have the words translated,—surely that was natural enough,—I showed +the card to others. But no one would tell me what it meant. And, worse +than that, wherever I showed it, and to whatever person, there evil came +upon me quickly. I was driven from one hotel after another; an old +acquaintance turned his back on me; I was arrested and thrown into +prison; I was ordered to leave the country."</p> + +<p>The sick man paused for a moment in his weakness, but with an effort +forced himself to continue:—</p> + +<p>"When I went back to London, sure of comfort in the love of my wife, she +too, on seeing the card, drove me from her with cruel words. And when +finally, in deepest despair, I returned to New York, dear old Jack, the +friend of a life-time, broke with me when I showed him what was written. +What the words were I do not know, and suppose no one will ever know, +for the ink has faded these many years. You will find the card in my +safe with other papers. But I want you, when I am gone, to find out the +mystery of my life; and—and—about my fortune, that must be held until +you have decided. There is no one who needs my money as much as the poor +in this city, and I have bequeathed it to them unless—"</p> + +<p>In an agony of mind, Mr. Burwell struggled to go on, I soothing and +encouraging him.</p> + +<p>"Unless you find what I am afraid to think, but—but—yes, I must say +it,—that I have not been a good man, as the world thinks, but have—O +doctor, if you find that I have unknowingly harmed any human being, I +want that person, or these persons, to have my fortune. Promise that."</p> + +<p>Seeing the wild light in Burwell's eyes, and the fever that was burning +him, I gave the promise asked of me, and the sick man sank back calmer.</p> + +<p>A little later, the nurse and attendants came for the operation. As they +were about to administer the ether, Burwell pushed them from him, and +insisted on having brought to his bedside an iron box from the safe.</p> + +<p>"The card is here," he said, laying his trembling hand upon the box, +"you will remember your promise!"</p> + +<p>Those were his last words, for he did not survive the operation.</p> + +<p>Early the next morning I received this message: "The stranger of +yesterday begs to see you"; and presently a gentleman of fine presence +and strength of face, a tall, dark-complexioned man wearing glasses, was +shown into the room.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Burwell is dead, is he not?" were his first words.</p> + +<p>"Who told you?"</p> + +<p>"No one told me, but I know it, and I thank God for it."</p> + +<p>There was something in the stranger's intense earnestness that convinced +me of his right to speak thus, and I listened attentively.</p> + +<p>"That you may have confidence in the statement I am about to make, I +will first tell you who I am"; and he handed me a card that caused me to +lift my eyes in wonder, for it bore a very great name, that of one of +Europe's most famous savants.</p> + +<p>"You have done me much honour, sir," I said with respectful inclination.</p> + +<p>"On the contrary you will oblige me by considering me in your debt, and +by never revealing my connection with this wretched man. I am moved to +speak partly from considerations of human justice, largely in the +interest of medical science. It is right for me to tell you, doctor, +that your patient was beyond question the Water Street assassin."</p> + +<p>"Impossible!" I cried.</p> + +<p>"You will not say so when I have finished my story, which takes me back +to Paris, to the time, eleven years ago, when this man was making his +first visit to the French capital."</p> + +<p>"The mysterious card!" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Ah, he has told you of his experience, but not of what befell the night +before, when he first met my sister."</p> + +<p>"Your sister?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it was she who gave him the card, and, in trying to befriend him, +made him suffer. She was in ill health at the time, so much so that we +had left our native India for extended journeyings. Alas! we delayed too +long, for my sister died in New York, only a few weeks later, and I +honestly believe her taking off was hastened by anxiety inspired by this +man."</p> + +<p>"Strange," I murmured, "how the life of a simple New York merchant could +become entangled with that of a great lady of the East."</p> + +<p>"Yet so it was. You must know that my sister's condition was due mainly +to an over fondness for certain occult investigations, from which I had +vainly tried to dissuade her. She had once befriended some adepts, who, +in return, had taught her things about the soul she had better have left +unlearned. At various times while with her I had seen strange things +happen, but I never realized what unearthly powers were in her until +that night in Paris. We were returning from a drive in the Bois; it was +about ten o'clock, and the city lay beautiful around us as Paris looks +on a perfect summer's night. Suddenly my sister gave a cry of pain and +put her hand to her heart. Then, changing from French to the language of +our country, she explained to me quickly that something frightful was +taking place there, where she pointed her finger across the river, that +we must go to the place at once—the driver must lash his horses—every +second was precious.</p> + +<p>"So affected was I by her intense conviction, and such confidence had I +in my sister's wisdom, that I did not oppose her, but told the man to +drive as she directed. The carriage fairly flew across the bridge, down +the Boulevard St. Germain, then to the left, threading its way through +the narrow streets that lie along the Seine. This way and that, straight +ahead here, a turn there, she directing our course, never hesitating, as +if drawn by some unseen power, and always urging the driver on to +greater speed. Finally, we came to a black-mouthed, evil-looking alley, +so narrow and roughly paved that the carriage could scarcely advance.</p> + +<p>"'Come on!' my sister cried, springing to the ground; 'we will go on +foot, we are nearly there. Thank God, we may yet be in time.'</p> + +<p>"No one was in sight as we hurried along the dark alley, and scarcely a +light was visible, but presently a smothered scream broke the silence, +and, touching my arm, my sister exclaimed:—</p> + +<p>"'There, draw your weapon, quick, and take the man at any cost!'</p> + +<p>"So swiftly did everything happen after that that I hardly know my +actions, but a few minutes later I held pinioned in my arms a man whose +blows and writhings had been all in vain; for you must know that much +exercise in the jungle had made me strong of limb. As soon as I had made +the fellow fast I looked down and found moaning on the ground a poor +woman, who explained with tears and broken words that the man had been +in the very act of strangling her. Searching him I found a long-bladed +knife of curious shape, and keen as a razor, which had been brought for +what horrible purpose you may perhaps divine.</p> + +<p>"Imagine my surprise, on dragging the man back to the carriage, to find, +instead of the ruffianly assassin I expected, a gentleman as far as +could be judged from face and manner. Fine eyes, white hands, careful +speech, all the signs of refinement and the dress of a man of means.</p> + +<p>"'How can this be?' I said to my sister in our own tongue as we drove +away, I holding my prisoner on the opposite seat where he sat silent.</p> + +<p>"'It is a <i>kulos</i>-man,' she said, shivering, 'it is a fiend-soul. There +are a few such in the whole world, perhaps two or three in all.'</p> + +<p>"'But he has a good face.'</p> + +<p>"'You have not seen his real face yet; I will show it to you, +presently.'</p> + +<p>"In the strangeness of these happenings and the still greater +strangeness of my sister's words, I had all but lost the power of +wonder. So we sat without further word until the carriage stopped at the +little château we had taken near the Parc Monteau.</p> + +<p>"I could never properly describe what happened that night; my knowledge +of these things is too limited. I simply obeyed my sister in all that +she directed, and kept my eyes on this man as no hawk ever watched its +prey. She began by questioning him, speaking in a kindly tone which I +could ill understand. He seemed embarrassed, dazed, and professed to +have no knowledge of what had occurred, or how he had come where we +found him. To all my inquiries as to the woman or the crime he shook his +head blankly, and thus aroused my wrath.</p> + +<p>"'Be not angry with him, brother; he is not lying, it is the other +soul.'</p> + +<p>"She asked him about his name and country, and he replied without +hesitation that he was Richard Burwell, a merchant from New York, just +arrived in Paris, travelling for pleasure in Europe with his wife and +daughter. This seemed reasonable, for the man spoke English, and, +strangely enough, seemed to have no knowledge of French, although we +both remember hearing him speak French to the woman.</p> + +<p>"'There is no doubt,' my sister said, 'It is indeed a <i>kulos</i>-man; It +knows that I am here, that I am Its master. Look, look!' she cried +sharply, at the same time putting her eyes so close to the man's face +that their fierce light seemed to burn into him. What power she +exercised I do not know, nor whether some words she spoke, +unintelligible to me, had to do with what followed, but instantly there +came over this man, this pleasant-looking, respectable American citizen, +such a change as is not made by death worms gnawing in a grave. Now +there was a fiend grovelling at her feet, a foul, sin-stained fiend.</p> + +<p>"'Now you see the demon-soul,' said my sister. 'Watch It writhe and +struggle; it has served me well, brother, sayest thou not so, the lore I +gained from our wise men?'</p> + +<p>"The horror of what followed chilled my blood; nor would I trust my +memory were it not that there remained and still remains plain proof of +all that I affirm. This hideous creature, dwarfed, crouching, devoid of +all resemblance to the man we had but now beheld, chattering to us in +curious old-time French, poured out such horrid blasphemy as would have +blanched the cheek of Satan, and made recital of such evil deeds as +never mortal ear gave heed to. And as she willed my sister checked It or +allowed It to go on. What it all meant was more than I could tell. To me +it seemed as if these tales of wickedness had no connection with our +modern life, or with the world around us, and so I judged presently from +what my sister said.</p> + +<p>"'Speak of the later time, since thou wast in this clay.'</p> + +<p>"Then I perceived that the creature came to things of which I knew: It +spoke of New York, of a wife, a child, a friend. It told of strangling +the child, of robbing the friend; and was going on to tell God knows +what other horrid deeds when my sister stopped It.</p> + +<p>"'Stand as thou didst in killing the little babe, stand, stand!' and +once more she spoke some words unknown to me. Instantly the demon sprang +forward, and, bending Its clawlike hands, clutched them around some +little throat that was not there,—but I could see it in my mind. And +the look on its face was a blackest glimpse of hell.</p> + +<p>"'And now stand as thou didst in robbing the friend, stand, stand'; and +again came the unknown words, and again the fiend obeyed.</p> + +<p>"'These we will take for future use,' said my sister. And bidding me +watch the creature carefully until she should return, she left the room, +and, after none too short an absence, returned bearing a black box that +was an apparatus for photography, and something more besides,—some +newer, stranger kind of photography that she had learned. Then, on a +strangely fashioned card, a transparent white card, composed of many +layers of finest Oriental paper, she took the pictures of the creature +in those two creeping poses. And when it all was done, the card seemed +as white as before, and empty of all meaning until one held it up and +examined it intently. Then the pictures showed.</p> + +<p>And between the two there was a third picture, which somehow seemed to +show, at the same time, two faces in one, two souls, my sister said, the +kindly visaged man we first had seen, and then the fiend.</p> + +<p>"Now my sister asked for pen and ink and I gave her my pocket pen which +was filled with purple ink. Handing this to the <i>kulos</i>-man she bade him +write under the first picture: 'Thus I killed my babe.' And under the +second picture: 'Thus I robbed my friend.' And under the third, the one +that was between the other two: 'This is the soul of Richard Burwell.' +An odd thing about this writing was that it was in the same old French +the creature had used in speech, and yet Burwell knew no French.</p> + +<p>"My sister was about to finish with the creature when a new idea took +her, and she said, looking at It as before:—'Of all thy crimes which +one is the worst? Speak, I command thee!'</p> + +<p>"Then the fiend told how once It had killed every soul in a house of +holy women and buried the bodies in a cellar under a heavy door.</p> + +<p>"Where was the house?'</p> + +<p>"'At No. 19 Rue Picpus, next to the old graveyard.'</p> + +<p>"'And when was this?'</p> + +<p>"Here the fiend seemed to break into fierce rebellion, writhing on the +floor with hideous contortions, and pouring forth words that meant +nothing to me, but seemed to reach my sister's understanding, for she +interrupted from time to time, with quick, stern words that finally +brought It to subjection.</p> + +<p>"'Enough,' she said, 'I know all,' and then she spoke some words again, +her eyes fixed as before, and the reverse change came. Before us stood +once more the honest-looking, fine-appearing gentleman, Richard Burwell, +of New York.</p> + +<p>"'Excuse me, madame,' he said, awkwardly, but with deference; 'I must +have dosed a little. I am not myself to-night.'</p> + +<p>"'No,' said my sister, 'you have not been yourself to-night.'</p> + +<p>"A little later I accompanied the man to the Continental Hotel, where he +was stopping, and, returning to my sister, I talked with her until late +into the night. I was alarmed to see that she was wrought to a nervous +tension that augured ill for her health. I urged her to sleep, but she +would not.</p> + +<p>"'No,' she said, 'think of the awful responsibility that rests upon me.' +And then she went on with her strange theories and explanations, of +which I understood only that here was a power for evil more terrible +than a pestilence, menacing all humanity.</p> + +<p>"'Once in many cycles it happens,' she said, 'that a <i>kulos</i>-soul pushes +itself within the body of a new-born child, when the pure soul waiting +to enter is delayed. Then the two live together through that life, and +this hideous principle of evil has a chance upon the earth. It is my +will, as I feel it my duty, to see this poor man again. The chances are +that he will never know us, for the shock of this night to his normal +soul is so great as to wipe out memory.'</p> + +<p>"The next evening, about the same hour, my sister insisted that I should +go with her to the <i>Folies Bergère</i>, a concert garden, none too well +frequented, and when I remonstrated, she said: 'I must go,—It is +there,' and the words sent a shiver through me.</p> + +<p>"We drove to this place, and passing into the garden, presently +discovered Richard Burwell seated at a little table, enjoying the scene +of pleasure, which was plainly new to him. My sister hesitated a moment +what to do, and then, leaving my arm, she advanced to the table and +dropped before Burwell's eyes the card she had prepared. A moment later, +with a look of pity on her beautiful face, she rejoined me and we went +away. It was plain he did not know us."</p> + +<p>To so much of the savant's strange recital I had listened with absorbed +interest, though without a word, but now I burst in with questions.</p> + +<p>"What was your sister's idea in giving Burwell the card?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"It was in the hope that she might make the man understand his terrible +condition, that is, teach the pure soul to know its loathsome +companion."</p> + +<p>"And did her effort succeed?"</p> + +<p>"Alas! it did not; my sister's purpose was defeated by the man's +inability to see the pictures that were plain to every other eye. It is +impossible for the <i>kulos</i>-man to know his own degradation."</p> + +<p>"And yet this man has for years been leading a most exemplary life?"</p> + +<p>My visitor shook his head. "I grant you there has been improvement, due +largely to experiments I have conducted upon him according to my +sister's wishes. But the fiend soul was never driven out. It grieves me +to tell you, doctor, that not only was this man the Water Street +assassin, but he was the mysterious murderer, the long-sought-for +mutilator of women, whose red crimes have baffled the police of Europe +and America for the past ten years."</p> + +<p>"You know this," said I, starting up, "and yet did not denounce him?"</p> + +<p>"It would have been impossible to prove such a charge, and besides, I +had made oath to my sister that I would use the man only for these +soul-experiments. What are his crimes compared with the great secret of +knowledge I am now able to give the world?"</p> + +<p>"A secret of knowledge?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the savant, with intense earnestness, "I may tell you now, +doctor, what the whole world will know, ere long, that it is possible to +compel every living person to reveal the innermost secrets of his or her +life, so long as memory remains, for memory is only the power of +producing in the brain material pictures that may be projected +externally by the thought rays and made to impress themselves upon the +photographic plate, precisely as ordinary pictures do."</p> + +<p>"You mean," I exclaimed, "that you can photograph the two principles of +good and evil that exist in us?"</p> + +<p>"Exactly that. The great truth of a dual soul existence, that was dimly +apprehended by one of your Western novelists, has been demonstrated by +me in the laboratory with my camera. It is my purpose, at the proper +time, to entrust this precious knowledge to a chosen few who will +perpetuate it and use it worthily."</p> + +<p>"Wonderful, wonderful!" I cried, "and now tell me, if you will, about +the house on the Rue Picpus. Did you ever visit the place?"</p> + +<p>"We did, and found that no buildings had stood there for fifty years, so +we did not pursue the search."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>"And the writing on the card, have you any memory of it, for Burwell +told me that the words have faded?"</p> + +<p>"I have something better than that; I have a photograph of both card and +writing, which my sister was careful to take. I had a notion that the +ink in my pocket pen would fade, for it was a poor affair. This +photograph I will bring you to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Bring it to Burwell's house," I said.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The next morning the stranger called as agreed upon.</p> + +<p>"Here is the photograph of the card," he said.</p> + +<p>"And here is the original card," I answered, breaking the seal of the +envelope I had taken from Burwell's iron box. "I have waited for your +arrival to look at it. Yes, the writing has indeed vanished; the card +seems quite blank."</p> + +<p>"Not when you hold it this way," said the stranger, and as he tipped the +card I saw such a horrid revelation as I can never forget. In an instant +I realized how the shock of seeing that card had been too great for the +soul of wife or friend to bear. In these pictures was the secret of a +cursed life. The resemblance to Burwell was unmistakable, the proof +against him was overwhelming. In looking upon that piece of pasteboard +the wife had seen a crime which the mother could never forgive, the +partner had seen a crime which the friend could never forgive. Think of +a loved face suddenly melting before your eyes into a grinning skull, +then into a mass of putrefaction, then into the ugliest fiend of hell, +leering at you, distorted with all the marks of vice and shame. That is +what I saw, that is what they had seen!</p> + +<p>"Let us lay these two cards in the coffin," said my companion +impressively, "we have done what we could."</p> + +<p>Eager to be rid of the hateful piece of pasteboard (for who could say +that the curse was not still clinging about it?), I took the strange +man's arm, and together we advanced into the adjoining room where the +body lay. I had seen Burwell as he breathed his last, and knew that +there had been a peaceful look on his face as he died. But now, as we +laid the two white cards on the still, breast, the savant suddenly +touched my arm, and pointing to the dead man's face, now frightfully +distorted, whispered:—"See, even in death It followed him. Let us close +the coffin quickly."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Years later, some workmen in Paris, making excavations in +the Rue Picpus, came upon a heavy door buried under a mass of debris, +under an old cemetery. On lifting the door they found a vault-like +chamber in which were a number of female skeletons, and graven on the +walls were blasphemous words written in French, which experts declared +dated from fully two hundred years before. They also declared this +handwriting identical with that found on the door at the Water Street +murder in New York. Thus we may deduce a theory of fiend reincarnation; +for it would seem clear, almost to the point of demonstration, that this +murder of the seventeenth century was the work of the same evil soul +that killed the poor woman on Water Street towards the end of the +nineteenth century.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_GREAT_VALDEZ_SAPPHIRE" id="THE_GREAT_VALDEZ_SAPPHIRE"></a>THE GREAT VALDEZ SAPPHIRE</h2> + +<h3>(<span class="smcap">Anonymous</span>)</h3> + + +<p>I know more about it than anyone else in the world, its present owner +not excepted. I can give its whole history, from the Cingalese who found +it, the Spanish adventurer who stole it, the cardinal who bought it, the +Pope who graciously accepted it, the favoured son of the Church who +received it, the gay and giddy duchess who pawned it, down to the +eminent prelate who now holds it in trust as a family heirloom.</p> + +<p>It will occupy a chapter to itself in my forthcoming work on "Historic +Stones," where full details of its weight, size, colour, and value may +be found. At present I am going to relate an incident in its history +which, for obvious reasons, will not be published—which, in fact, I +trust the reader will consider related in strict confidence.</p> + +<p>I had never seen the stone itself when I began to write about it, and it +was not till one evening last spring, while staying with my nephew, Sir +Thomas Acton, that I came within measurable distance of it. A dinner +party was impending, and, at my instigation, the Bishop of Northchurch +and Miss Panton, his daughter and heiress, were among the invited +guests.</p> + +<p>The dinner was a particularly good one, I remember that distinctly. In +fact, I felt myself partly responsible for it, having engaged the new +cook—a talented young Italian, pupil of the admirable old <i>chef</i> at my +club. We had gone over the <i>menu</i> carefully together, with a result +refreshing in its novelty, but not so daring as to disturb the minds of +the innocent country guests who were bidden thereto.</p> + +<p>The first spoonful of soup was reassuring, and I looked to the end of +the table to exchange a congratulatory glance with Leta. What was amiss? +No response. Her pretty face was flushed, her smile constrained, she was +talking with quite unnecessary <i>empressement</i> to her neighbour, Sir +Harry Landor, though Leta is one of those few women who understand the +importance of letting a man settle down tranquilly and with an +undisturbed mind to the business of dining, allowing no topic of serious +interest to come on before the <i>relevés</i>, and reserving mere +conversational brilliancy for the <i>entremets</i>.</p> + +<p>Guests all right? No disappointments? I had gone through the list with +her, selecting just the right people to be asked to meet the Landors, +our new neighbours. Not a mere cumbrous county gathering, nor yet a +showy imported party from town, but a skillful blending of both. Had +anything happened already? I had been late for dinner and missed the +arrivals in the drawing-room. It was Leta's fault. She has got into a +way of coming into my room and putting the last touches to my toilet. I +let her, for I am doubtful of myself nowadays after many years' +dependence on the best of valets. Her taste is generally beyond dispute, +but to-day she had indulged in a feminine vagary that provoked me and +made me late for dinner.</p> + +<p>"Are you going to wear your sapphire, Uncle Paul!" she cried in a tone +of dismay. "Oh, why not the ruby?"</p> + +<p>"You <i>would</i> have your way about the table decorations," I gently +reminded her. "With that service of Crown Derby <i>repoussé</i> and orchids, +the ruby would look absolutely barbaric. Now if you would have had the +Limoges set, white candles, and a yellow silk centre—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, but—I'm <i>so</i> disappointed—I wanted the bishop to see your +ruby—or one of your engraved gems—"</p> + +<p>"My dear, it is on the bishop's account I put this on. You know his +daughter is heiress of the great Valdez sapphire—"</p> + +<p>"Of course she is, and when he has the charge of a stone three times as +big as yours, what's the use of wearing it? The ruby, dear Uncle Paul, +<i>please</i>!"</p> + +<p>She was desperately in earnest I could see, and considering the +obligations which I am supposed to be under to her and Tom, it was but a +little matter to yield, but it involved a good deal of extra trouble. +Studs, sleeve-links, watch-guard, all carefully selected to go with the +sapphire, had to be changed, the emerald which I chose as a compromise +requiring more florid accompaniments of a deeper tone of gold; and the +dinner hour struck as I replaced my jewel case, the one relic left me of +a once handsome fortune, in my fireproof safe.</p> + +<p>The emerald looked very well that evening, however. I kept my eyes upon +it for comfort when Miss Panton proved trying.</p> + +<p>She was a lean, yellow, dictatorial young person with no conversation. I +spoke of her father's celebrated sapphires. "<i>My</i> sapphires," she +amended sourly; "though I am legally debarred from making any profitable +use of them." She furthermore informed me that she viewed them as +useless gauds, which ought to be disposed of for the benefit of the +heathen. I gave the subject up, and while she discoursed of the work of +the Blue Ribbon Army among the Bosjesmans I tried to understand a +certain dislocation in the arrangement of the table. Surely we were more +or less in number than we should be? Opposite side all right. Who was +extra on ours? I leaned forward. Lady Landor on one side of Tom, on the +other who? I caught glimpses of plumes pink and green nodding over a +dinner plate, and beneath them a pink nose in a green visage with a +nutcracker chin altogether unknown to me. A sharp gray eye shot a +sideway glance down the table and caught me peeping, and I retreated, +having only marked in addition two clawlike hands, with pointed ruffles +and a mass of brilliant rings, making good play with a knife and fork. +Who was she? At intervals a high acid voice could be heard addressing +Tom, and a laugh that made me shudder; it had the quality of the scream +of a bird of prey or the yell of a jackal. I had heard that sort of +laugh before, and it always made me feel like a defenseless rabbit.</p> + +<p>Every time it sounded I saw Leta's fan flutter more furiously and her +manner grow more nervously animated. Poor dear girl! I never in all my +recollection wished a dinner at an end so earnestly so as to assure her +of my support and sympathy, though without the faintest conception why +either should be required.</p> + +<p>The ices at last. A <i>menu</i> card folded in two was laid beside me. I read +it unobserved. "Keep the B. from joining us in the drawing-room." The +B.—? The bishop, of course. With pleasure. But why? And how? <i>That's</i> +the question, never mind "why." Could I lure him into the library—the +billiard room—the conservatory? I doubted it, and I doubted still more +what I should do with him when I got him there.</p> + +<p>The bishop is a grand and stately ecclesiastic of the mediæval type, +broad-chested, deep-voiced, martial of bearing. I could picture him +charging mace in hand at the head of his vassals, or delivering over a +dissenter of the period to the rack and thumb-screw, but not pottering +among rare editions, tall copies and Grolier bindings, nor condescending +to a quiet cigar among the tree ferns and orchids. Leta must and should +be obeyed, I swore, nevertheless, even if I were driven to lock the door +in the fearless old fashion of a bygone day, and declare I'd shoot any +man who left while a drop remained in the bottles.</p> + +<p>The ladies were rising. The lady at the head of the line smirked and +nodded her pink plumes coquettishly at Tom, while her hawk's eyes roved +keen and predatory over us all. She stopped suddenly, creating a block +and confusion.</p> + +<p>"Ah, the dear bishop! <i>You</i> there, and I never saw you! You must come +and have a nice long chat presently. By-by—!" She shook her fan at him +over my shoulder and tripped on. Leta, passing me last, gave me a look +of profound despair.</p> + +<p>"Lady Carwitchet!" somebody exclaimed. "I couldn't believe my eyes."</p> + +<p>"Thought she was dead or in penal servitude. Never should have expected +to see her <i>here</i>," said someone else behind me confidentially.</p> + +<p>"What Carwitchet? Not the mother of the Carwitchet who—"</p> + +<p>"Just so. The Carwitchet who—" Tom assented with a shrug. "We needn't +go farther, as she's my guest. Just my luck. I met them at Buxton, +thought them uncommonly good company—in fact, Carwitchet laid me under +a great obligation about a horse I was nearly let in for buying—and +gave them a general invitation here, as one does, you know. Never +expected her to turn up with her luggage this afternoon just before +dinner, to stay a week, or a fortnight if Carwitchet can join her." A +groan of sympathy ran round the table. "It can't be helped. I've told +you this just to show that I shouldn't have asked you here to meet this +sort of people of my own free will; but, as it is, please say no more +about them." The subject was not dropped by any means, and I took care +that it should not be. At our end of the table one story after another +went buzzing round—<i>sotto voce</i>, out of deference to Tom—but perfectly +audible.</p> + +<p>"Carwitchet? Ah, yes. Mixed up in that Rawlings divorce case, wasn't he? +A bad lot. Turned out of the Dragoon Guards for cheating at cards, or +picking pockets, or something—remember the row at the Cerulean Club? +Scandalous exposure—and that forged letter business—oh, that was the +mother—prosecution hushed up somehow. Ought to be serving her fourteen +years—and that business of poor Farrars, the banker—got hold of some +of his secrets and blackmailed him till he blew his brains out—"</p> + +<p>It was so exciting that I clean forgot the bishop, till a low gasp at my +elbow startled me. He was lying back in his chair, his mighty shaven +jowl a ghastly white, his fierce imperious eyebrows drooping limp over +his fishlike eyes, his splendid figure shrunk and contracted. He was +trying with a shaken hand to pour out wine. The decanter clattered +against the glass and the wine spilled on the cloth.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you find the room too warm. Shall we go into the library?"</p> + +<p>He rose hastily and followed me like a lamb.</p> + +<p>He recovered himself once we got into the hall, and affably rejected all +my proffers of brandy and soda—medical advice—everything else my +limited experience could suggest. He only demanded his carriage +"directly" and that Miss Panton should be summoned forthwith.</p> + +<p>I made the best use I could of the time left me.</p> + +<p>"I'm uncommonly sorry you do not feel equal to staying a little longer, +my lord. I counted on showing you my few trifles of precious stones, the +salvage from the wreck of my possessions. Nothing in comparison with +your own collection."</p> + +<p>The bishop clasped his hand over his heart. His breath came short and +quick.</p> + +<p>"A return of that dizziness," he explained with a faint smile. "You are +thinking of the Valdez sapphire, are you not? Some day," he went on with +forced composure, "I may have the pleasure of showing it to you. It is +at my banker's just now."</p> + +<p>Miss Panton's steps were heard in the hall. "You are well known as a +connoisseur, Mr. Acton," he went on hurriedly. "Is your collection +valuable? If so, <i>keep it safe; don' trust a ring off your hand, or the +key of your jewel-case out of your pocket till the house is clear +again</i>." The words rushed from his lips in an impetuous whisper, he gave +me a meaning glance, and departed with his daughter. I went back to the +drawing-room, my head swimming with bewilderment.</p> + +<p>"What! The dear bishop gone!" screamed Lady Carwitchet from the central +ottoman where she sat, surrounded by most of the gentlemen, all +apparently well entertained by her conversation. "And I wanted to talk +over old times with him so badly. His poor wife was my greatest friend. +Mira Montanaro, daughter of the great banker, you know. It's not +possible that that miserable little prig is my poor Mira's girl. The +heiress of all the Montanaros in a black-lace gown worth twopence! When +I think of her mother's beauty and her toilets! Does she ever wear the +sapphires? Has anyone ever seen her in them? Eleven large stones in a +lovely antique setting, and the great Valdez sapphire—worth thousands +and thousands—for the pendant." No one replied. "I wanted to get a rise +out of the bishop to-night. It used to make him so mad when I wore +this."</p> + +<p>She fumbled among the laces at her throat, and clawed out a pendant that +hung to a velvet band around her neck. I fairly gasped when she removed +her hand. A sapphire of irregular shape flashed out its blue lightning +on us. Such a stone! A true, rich, cornflower blue even by that wretched +artificial light, with soft velvety depths of colour and dazzling +clearness of tint in its lights and shades—a stone to remember! I +stretched out my hand involuntarily, but Lady Carwitchet drew back with +a coquettish squeal. "No! no! You mustn't look any closer. Tell me what +you think of it now. Isn't it pretty?"</p> + +<p>"Superb!" was all I could ejaculate, staring at the azure splendour of +that miraculous jewel in a sort of trance.</p> + +<p>She gave a shrill cackling laugh of mockery.</p> + +<p>"The great Mr. Acton taken in by a bit of Palais Royal gimcrackery! What +an advertisement for Bogaerts et Cie! They are perfect artists in +frauds. Don't you remember their stand at the first Paris Exhibition? +They had imitations there of every celebrated stone; but I never +expected anything made by man could delude Mr. Acton, never!" And she +went off into another mocking cackle, and all the idiots round her +haw-hawed knowingly, as if they had seen the joke all along. I was too +bewildered to reply, which was on the whole lucky. "I suppose I musn't +tell why I came to give quite a big sum in francs for this?" she went +on, tapping her closed lips with her closed fan, and cocking her eye at +us all like a parrot wanting to be coaxed to talk. "It's a queer story."</p> + +<p>I didn't want to hear her anecdote, especially as I saw she wanted to +tell it. What I <i>did</i> want was to see that pendant again. She had thrust +it back among her laces, only the loop which held it to the velvet being +visible. It was set with three small sapphires, and even from a distance +I clearly made them out to be imitations, and poor ones. I felt a queer +thrill of self-mistrust. Was the large stone no better? Could I, even +for an instant, have been dazzled by a sham, and a sham of that quality? +The events of the evening had flurried and confused me. I wished to +think them over in quiet. I would go to bed.</p> + +<p>My rooms at the Manor are the best in the house. Leta will have it so. I +must explain their position for a reason to be understood later. My +bedroom is in the southeast angle of the house; it opens on one side +into a sitting-room in the east corridor, the rest of which is taken up +by the suite of rooms occupied by Tom and Leta; and on the other side +into my bathroom, the first room in the south corridor where the +principal guest chambers are, to one of which it was originally the +dressing-room. Passing this room I noticed a couple of housemaids +preparing it for the night, and discovered with a shiver that Lady +Carwitchet was to be my next-door neighbour. It gave me a turn.</p> + +<p>The bishop's strange warning must have unnerved me. I was perfectly safe +from her ladyship. The disused door into her room was locked, and the +key safe on the housekeeper's bunch. It was also undiscoverable on her +side, the recess in which it stood being completely filled by a large +wardrobe. On my side hung a thick sound-proof <i>portière</i>. Nevertheless, +I resolved not to use that room while she inhabited the next one. I +removed my possessions, fastened the door of communication with my +bedroom and dragged a heavy ottoman across it.</p> + +<p>Then I stowed away my emerald in my strong-box. It is built into the +wall of my sitting-room, and masked by the lower part of an old carved +oak bureau. I put away even the rings I wore habitually, keeping out +only an inferior cat's-eye for workaday wear. I had just made all safe +when Leta tapped at the door and came in to wish me good night. She +looked flushed and harassed and ready to cry. "Uncle Paul," she began, +"I want you to go up to town at once, and stay away till I send for +you."</p> + +<p>"My dear—!" I was too amazed to expostulate.</p> + +<p>"We've got a—a pestilence among us," she declared, her foot tapping the +ground angrily, "and the least we can do is to go into quarantine. Oh, +I'm so sorry and so ashamed! The poor bishop! I'll take good care that +no one else shall meet that woman here. You did your best for me, Uncle +Paul, and managed admirably, but it was all no use. I hoped against hope +that what between the dusk of the drawing-room before dinner, and being +put at opposite ends of the table, we might get through without a +meeting—"</p> + +<p>"But, my dear, explain. Why shouldn't the bishop and Lady Carwitchet +meet? Why is it worse for him than anyone else?"</p> + +<p>"Why? I thought everybody had heard of that dreadful wife of his who +nearly broke his heart. If he married her for her money it served him +right, but Lady Landor says she was very handsome and really in love +with him at first. Then Lady Carwitchet got hold of her and led her into +all sorts of mischief. She left her husband—he was only a rector with a +country living in those days—and went to live in town, got into a +horrid fast set, and made herself notorious. You <i>must</i> have heard of +her."</p> + +<p>"I heard of her sapphires, my dear. But I was in Brazil at the time."</p> + +<p>"I wish you had been at home. You might have found her out. She was +furious because her husband refused to let her wear the great Valdez +sapphire. It had been in the Montanaro family for some generations, and +her father settled it first on her and then on her little girl—the +bishop being trustee. He felt obliged to take away the little girl, and +send her off to be brought up by some old aunts in the country, and he +locked up the sapphire. Lady Carwitchet tells as a splendid joke how +they got the copy made in Paris, and it did just as well for the people +to stare at. No wonder the bishop hates the very name of the stone."</p> + +<p>"How long will she stay here?" I asked dismally.</p> + +<p>"Till Lord Carwitchet can come and escort her to Paris to visit some +American friends. Goodness knows when that will be! Do go up to town, +Uncle Paul!"</p> + +<p>I refused indignantly. The very least I could do was to stand by my poor +young relatives in their troubles and help them through. I did so. I +wore that inferior cat's eye for six weeks!</p> + +<p>It is a time I cannot think of even now without a shudder. The more I +saw of that terrible old woman the more I detested her, and we saw a +very great deal of her. Leta kept her word, and neither accepted nor +gave invitations all that time. We were cut off from all society but +that of old General Fairford, who would go anywhere and meet anyone to +get a rubber after dinner; the doctor, a sporting widower; and the +Duberlys, a giddy, rather rackety young couple who had taken the Dower +House for a year. Lady Carwitchet seemed perfectly content. She revelled +in the soft living and good fare of the Manor House, the drives in +Leta's big barouche, and Domenico's dinners, as one to whom short +commons were not unknown. She had a hungry way of grabbing and grasping +at everything she could—the shillings she won at whist, the best fruit +at dessert, the postage stamps in the library inkstand—that was +infinitely suggestive. Sometimes I could have pitied her, she was so +greedy, so spiteful, so friendless. She always made me think of some +wicked old pirate putting into a peaceful port to provision and repair +his battered old hulk, obliged to live on friendly terms with the +natives, but his piratical old nostrils asniff for plunder and his +piratical old soul longing to be off marauding once more. When would +that be? Not till the arrival in Paris of her distinguished American +friends, of whom we heard a great deal. "Charming people, the Bokums of +Chicago, the American branch of the English Beauchamps, you know!" They +seemed to be taking an unconscionable time to get there. She would have +insisted on being driven over to Northchurch to call at the palace, but +that the bishop was understood to be holding confirmations at the other +end of the diocese.</p> + +<p>I was alone in the house one afternoon sitting by my window, toying with +the key of my safe, and wondering whether I dare treat myself to a peep +at my treasures, when a suspicious movement in the park below caught my +attention. A black figure certainly dodged from behind one tree to the +next, and then into the shadow of the park paling instead of keeping to +the footpath. It looked queer. I caught up my field glass and marked him +at one point where he was bound to come into the open for a few steps. +He crossed the strip of turf with giant strides and got into cover +again, but not quick enough to prevent me recognizing him. It was—great +heavens!—the bishop! In a soft hat pulled over his forehead, with a +long cloak and a big stick he looked like a poacher.</p> + +<p>Guided by some mysterious instinct I hurried to meet him. I opened the +conservatory door, and in he rushed like a hunted rabbit. Without +explanation I led him up the wide staircase to my room, where he dropped +into a chair and wiped his face.</p> + +<p>"You are astonished, Mr. Acton," he panted. "I will explain directly. +Thanks." He tossed off the glass of brandy I had poured out without +waiting for the qualifying soda, and looked better.</p> + +<p>"I am in serious trouble. You can help me. I've had a shock to-day—a +grievous shock." He stopped and tried to pull himself together. "I must +trust you implicitly, Mr. Acton, I have no choice. Tell me what you +think of this." He drew a case from his breast pocket and opened it. "I +promised you should see the Valdez sapphire. Look there!"</p> + +<p>The Valdez sapphire! A great big shining lump of blue crystal—flawless +and of perfect colour—that was all. I took it up, breathed on it, drew +out my magnifier, looked at it in one light and another. What was wrong +with it? I could not say. Nine experts out of ten would undoubtedly have +pronounced the stone genuine. I, by virtue of some mysterious instinct +that has hitherto always guided me aright, was the unlucky tenth. I +looked at the bishop. His eyes met mine. There was no need of spoken +word between us.</p> + +<p>"Has Lady Carwitchet shown you her sapphire?" was his most unexpected +question. "She has? Now, Mr. Acton, on your honour as a connoisseur and +a gentleman, which of the two is the Valdez?"</p> + +<p>"Not this one." I could say naught else.</p> + +<p>"You were my last hope." He broke off, and dropped his face on his +folded arms with a groan that shook the table on which he rested, while +I stood dismayed at myself for having let so hasty a judgment escape me. +He lifted a ghastly countenance to me. "She vowed she would see me +ruined and disgraced. I made her my enemy by crossing some of her +schemes once, and she never forgives. She will keep her word. I shall +appear before the world as a fraudulent trustee. I can neither produce +the valuable confided to my charge nor make the loss good. I have only +an incredible story to tell," he dropped his head and groaned again. +"Who will believe me?"</p> + +<p>"I will, for one."</p> + +<p>"Ah, you? Yes, you know her. She took my wife from me, Mr. Acton. Heaven +only knows what the hold was that she had over poor Mira. She encouraged +her to set me at defiance and eventually to leave me. She was answerable +for all the scandalous folly and extravagance of poor Mira's life in +Paris—spare me the telling of the story. She left her at last to die +alone and uncared for. I reached my wife to find her dying of a fever +from which Lady Carwitchet and her crew had fled. She was raving in +delirium, and died without recognizing me. Some trouble she had been in +which I must never know oppressed her. At the very last she roused from +a long stupor and spoke to the nurse. 'Tell him to get the sapphire +back—she stole it. She has robbed my child.' Those were her last words. +The nurse understood no English, and treated them as wandering; but <i>I</i> +heard them, and knew she was sane when she spoke."</p> + +<p>"What did you do?"</p> + +<p>"What could I? I saw Lady Carwitchet, who laughed at me, and defied me +to make her confess or disgorge. I took the pendant to more than one +eminent jeweller on pretense of having the setting seen to, and all have +examined and admired without giving a hint of there being anything +wrong. I allowed a celebrated mineralogist to see it; he gave no sign—"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps they are right and we are wrong."</p> + +<p>"No, no. Listen. I heard of an old Dutchman celebrated for his +imitations. I went to him, and he told me at once that he had been +allowed by Montanaro to copy the Valdez—setting and all—for the Paris +Exhibition. I showed him this, and he claimed it for his own work at +once, and pointed out his private mark upon it. You must take your +magnifier to find it; a Greek Beta. He also told me that he had sold it +to Lady Carwitchet more than a year ago."</p> + +<p>"It is a terrible position."</p> + +<p>"It is. My co-trustee died lately. I have never dared to have another +appointed. I am bound to hand over the sapphire to my daughter on her +marriage, if her husband consents to take the name of Montanaro."</p> + +<p>The bishop's face was ghastly pale, and the moisture started on his +brow. I racked my brain for some word of comfort.</p> + +<p>"Miss Panton may never marry."</p> + +<p>"But she will!" he shouted. "That is the blow that has been dealt me +to-day. My chaplain—actually, my chaplain—tells me that he is going +out as a temperance missionary to equatorial Africa, and has the +assurance to add that he believes my daughter is not indisposed to +accompany him!" His consummating wrath acted as a momentary stimulant. +He sat upright, his eyes flashing and his brow thunderous. I felt for +that chaplain. Then he collapsed miserably. "The sapphires will have to +be produced, identified, revalued. How shall I come out of it? Think of +the disgrace, the ripping up of old scandals! Even if I were to compound +with Lady Carwitchet, the sum she hinted at was too monstrous. She wants +more than my money. Help me, Mr. Acton! For the sake of your own family +interest, help me!"</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon—family interests? I don't understand."</p> + +<p>"If my daughter is childless, her next of kin is poor Marmaduke Panton, +who is dying at Cannes, not married, or likely to marry; and failing +him, your nephew, Sir Thomas Acton, succeeds."</p> + +<p>My nephew Tom! Leta, or Leta's baby, might come to be the possible +inheritor of the great Valdez sapphire! The blood rushed to my head as I +looked at the great shining swindle before me. "What diabolic jugglery +was at work when the exchange was made?" I demanded fiercely.</p> + +<p>"It must have been on the last occasion of her wearing the sapphires in +London. I ought never to have let her out of my sight."</p> + +<p>"You must put a stop to Miss Panton's marriage in the first place," I +pronounced as autocratically as he could have done himself.</p> + +<p>"Not to be thought of," he admitted helplessly. "Mira has my force of +character. She knows her rights, and she will have her jewels. I want +you to take charge of the—thing for me. If it's in the house she'll +make me produce it. She'll inquire at the banker's. If <i>you</i> have it we +can gain time, if but for a day or two." He broke off. Carriage wheels +were crashing on the gravel outside. We looked at one another in +consternation. Flight was imperative. I hurried him downstairs and out +of the conservatory just as the door-bell rang. I think we both lost our +heads in the confusion. He shoved the case into my hands, and I pocketed +it, without a thought of the awful responsibility I was incurring, and +saw him disappear into the shelter of the friendly night.</p> + +<p>When I think of what my feelings were that evening—of my murderous +hatred of that smirking jesting Jezebel who sat opposite me at dinner, +my wrathful indignation at the thought of the poor little expected heir +defrauded ere his birth; of the crushing contempt I felt for myself and +the bishop as a pair of witless idiots unable to see our way out of the +dilemma; all this boiling and surging through my soul, I can only +wonder—Domenico having given himself a holiday, and the kitchen-maid +doing her worst and wickedest—that gout or jaundice did not put an end +to this story at once.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Paul!" Leta was looking her sweetest when she tripped into my +room next morning. "I've news for you. She," pointing a delicate +forefinger in the direction of the corridor, "is going! Her Bokums have +reached Paris at last, and sent for her to join them at the Grand +Hotel."</p> + +<p>I was thunderstruck. The longed-for deliverance had but come to remove +hopelessly and forever out of my reach Lady Carwitchet and the great +Valdez sapphire.</p> + +<p>"Why, aren't you overjoyed? I am. We are going to celebrate the event by +a dinner-party. Tom's hospitable soul is vexed by the lack of +entertainment we had provided for her. We must ask the Brownleys some +day or other, and they will be delighted to meet anything in the way of +a ladyship, or such smart folks as the Duberly-Parkers. Then we may as +well have the Blomfields, and air that awful modern Sèvres +dessert-service she gave us when we were married." I had no objection to +make, and she went on, rubbing her soft cheek against my shoulder like +the purring little cat she was: "Now I want you to do something to +please me—and Mrs. Blomfield. She has set her heart on seeing your +rubies, and though I know you hate her about as much as you do that +Sèvres china—"</p> + +<p>"What! Wear my rubies with that! I won't. I'll tell you what I will do, +though. I've got some carbuncles as big as prize gooseberries, a whole +set. Then you have only to put those Bohemian glass vases and candelabra +on the table, and let your gardener do his worst with his great forced, +scentless, vulgar blooms, and we shall all be in keeping." Leta pouted. +An idea struck me. "Or I'll do as you wish, on one condition. You get +Lady Carwitchet to wear her big sapphire, and don't tell her I wish it."</p> + +<p>I lived through the next few days as one in some evil dream. The +sapphires, like twin spectres, haunted me day and night. Was ever man so +tantalized? To hold the shadow and see the substance dangled temptingly +within reach. The bishop made no sign of ridding me of my unwelcome +charge, and the thought of what might happen in a case of +burglary—fire—earthquake—made me start and tremble at all sorts of +inopportune moments.</p> + +<p>I kept faith with Leta, and reluctantly produced my beautiful rubies on +the night of her dinner party. Emerging from my room I came full upon +Lady Carwitchet in the corridor. She was dressed for dinner, and at her +throat I caught the blue gleam of the great sapphire. Leta had kept +faith with me. I don't know what I stammered in reply to her ladyship's +remarks; my whole soul was absorbed in the contemplation of the +intoxicating loveliness of the gem. <i>That</i> a Palais Royal deception! +Incredible! My fingers twitched, my breath came short and fierce with +the lust of possession. She must have seen the covetous glare in my +eyes. A look of gratified spiteful complacency overspread her features, +as she swept on ahead and descended the stairs before me. I followed her +to the drawing-room door. She stopped suddenly, and murmuring something +unintelligible hurried back again.</p> + +<p>Everybody was assembled there that I expected to see, with an addition. +Not a welcome one by the look on Tom's face. He stood on the hearth-rug +conversing with a great hulking, high-shouldered fellow, sallow-faced, +with a heavy moustache and drooping eyelids, from the corners of which +flashed out a sudden suspicious look as I approached, which lighted up +into a greedy one as it rested on my rubies, and seemed unaccountably +familiar to me, till Lady Carwitchet tripping past me exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"He has come at last! My naughty, naughty boy! Mr. Acton, this is my +son, Lord Carwitchet!"</p> + +<p>I broke off short in the midst of my polite acknowledgments to stare +blankly at her. The sapphire was gone! A great gilt cross, with a Scotch +pebble like an acid drop, was her sole decoration.</p> + +<p>"I had to put my pendant away," she explained confidentially; "the clasp +had got broken somehow." I didn't believe a word.</p> + +<p>Lord Carwitchet contributed little to the general entertainment at +dinner, but fell into confidential talk with Mrs. Duberly-Parker. I +caught a few unintelligible remarks across the table. They referred, I +subsequently discovered, to the lady's little book on Northchurch races, +and I recollected that the Spring Meeting was on, and to-morrow "Cup +Day." After dinner there was great talk about getting up a party to go +on General Fairford's drag. Lady Carwitchet was in ecstasies and tried +to coax me into joining. Leta declined positively. Tom accepted sulkily.</p> + +<p>The look in Lord Carwitchet's eye returned to my mind as I locked up my +rubies that night. It made him look so like his mother! I went round my +fastenings with unusual care. Safe and closets and desk and doors, I +tried them all. Coming at last to the bathroom, it opened at once. It +was the housemaid's doing. She had evidently taken advantage of my +having abandoned the room to give it "a thorough spring cleaning," and I +anathematized her. The furniture was all piled together and veiled with +sheets, the carpet and felt curtain were gone, there were new brooms +about. As I peered around, a voice close at my ear made me jump—Lady +Carwitchet's!</p> + +<p>"I tell you I have nothing, not a penny! I shall have to borrow my train +fare before I can leave this. They'll be glad enough to lend it."</p> + +<p>Not only had the <i>portière</i> been removed, but the door behind it had +been unlocked and left open for convenience of dusting behind the +wardrobe. I might as well have been in the bedroom.</p> + +<p>"Don't tell me," I recognized Carwitchet's growl. "You've not been here +all this time for nothing. You've been collecting for a Kilburn cot or +getting subscriptions for the distressed Irish landlords. I know you. +Now I'm not going to see myself ruined for the want of a paltry hundred +or so. I tell you the colt is a dead certainty. If I could have got a +thousand or two on him last week, we might have ended our dog days +millionaires. Hand over what you can. You've money's worth, if not +money. Where's that sapphire you stole?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't. I can show you the receipted bill. All <i>I</i> possess is +honestly come by. What could you do with it, even if I gave it you? You +couldn't sell it as the Valdez, and you can't get it cut up as you might +if it were real."</p> + +<p>"If it's only bogus, why are you always in such a flutter about it? I'll +do something with it, never fear. Hand over."</p> + +<p>"I can't. I haven't got it. I had to raise something on it before I left +town."</p> + +<p>"Will you swear it's not in that wardrobe? I dare say you will. I mean +to see. Give me those keys."</p> + +<p>I heard a struggle and a jingle, then the wardrobe door must have been +flung open, for a streak of light struck through a crack in the wood of +the back. Creeping close and peeping through, I could see an awful +sight. Lady Carwitchet in a flannel wrapper, minus hair, teeth, +complexion, pointing a skinny forefinger that quivered with rage at her +son, who was out of the range of my vision.</p> + +<p>"Stop that, and throw those keys down here directly, or I'll rouse the +house. Sir Thomas is a magistrate, and will lock you up as soon as look +at you." She clutched at the bell rope as she spoke. "I'll swear I'm in +danger of my life from you and give you in charge. Yes, and when you're +in prison I'll keep you there till you die. I've often thought I'd do +it. How about the hotel robberies last summer at Cowes, eh? Mightn't the +police be grateful for a hint or two? And how about—"</p> + +<p>The keys fell with a crash on the bed, accompanied by some bad language +in an apologetic tone, and the door slammed to. I crept trembling to +bed.</p> + +<p>This new and horrible complication of the situation filled me with +dismay. Lord Carwitchet's wolfish glance at my rubies took a new +meaning. They were safe enough, I believed—but the sapphire! If he +disbelieved his mother, how long would she be able to keep it from his +clutches? That she had some plot of her own of which the bishop would +eventually be the victim I did not doubt, or why had she not made her +bargain with him long ago? But supposing she took fright, lost her head, +allowed her son to wrest the jewel from her, or gave consent to its +being mutilated, divided! I lay in a cold perspiration till morning.</p> + +<p>My terrors haunted me all day. They were with me at breakfast time when +Lady Carwitchet, tripping in smiling, made a last attempt to induce me +to accompany her and keep her "bad, bad boy" from getting among "those +horrid betting men."</p> + +<p>They haunted me through the long peaceful day with Leta and the +<i>tête-à-tête</i> dinner, but they swarmed around and beset me sorest when, +sitting alone over my sitting-room fire, I listened for the return of +the drag party. I read my newspaper and brewed myself some hot strong +drink, but there comes a time of night when no fire can warm and no +drink can cheer. The bishop's despairing face kept me company, and his +troubles and the wrongs of the future heir took possession of me. Then +the uncanny noises that make all old houses ghostly during the small +hours began to make themselves heard. Muffled footsteps trod the +corridor, stopping to listen at every door, door latches gently clicked, +boards creaked unreasonably, sounds of stealthy movements came from the +locked-up bathroom. The welcome crash of wheels at last, and the sound +of the front-door bell. I could hear Lady Carwitchet making her shrill +<i>adieux</i> to her friends and her steps in the corridor. She was softly +humming a little song as she approached. I heard her unlock her bedroom +door before she entered—an odd thing to do. Tom came sleepily stumbling +to his room later. I put my head out. "Where is Lord Carwitchet?"</p> + +<p>"Haven't you seen him? He left us hours ago. Not come home, eh? Well, +he's welcome to stay away. I don't want to see more of him." Tom's brow +was dark and his voice surly. "I gave him to understand as much." +Whatever had happened, Tom was evidently too disgusted to explain just +then.</p> + +<p>I went back to my fire unaccountably relieved, and brewed myself another +and a stronger brew. It warmed me this time, but excited me foolishly. +There must be some way out of the difficulty. I felt now as if I could +almost see it if I gave my mind to it. Why—suppose—there might be no +difficulty after all! The bishop was a nervous old gentleman. He might +have been mistaken all through, Bogaerts might have been mistaken, I +might—no. I could not have been mistaken—or I thought not. I fidgeted +and fumed and argued with myself till I found I should have no peace of +mind without a look at the stone in my possession, and I actually went +to the safe and took the case out.</p> + +<p>The sapphire certainly looked different by lamplight. I sat and stared, +and all but overpersuaded my better judgment into giving it a verdict. +Bogaerts's mark—I suddenly remembered it. I took my magnifier and held +the pendant to the light. There, scratched upon the stone, was the Greek +Beta! There came a tap on my door, and before I could answer, the handle +turned softly and Lord Carwitchet stood before me. I whipped the case +into my dressing-gown pocket and stared at him. He was not pleasant to +look at, especially at that time of night. He had a dishevelled, +desperate air, his voice was hoarse, his red-rimmed eyes wild.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," he began civilly enough. "I saw your light burning, +and thought, as we go by the early train to-morrow, you might allow me +to consult you now on a little business of my mother's." His eyes roved +about the room. Was he trying to find the whereabouts of my safe? "You +know a lot about precious stones, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"So my friends are kind enough to say. Won't you sit down? I have +unluckily little chance of indulging the taste on my own account," was +my cautious reply.</p> + +<p>"But you've written a book about them, and know them when you see them, +don't you? Now my mother has given me something, and would like you to +give a guess at its value. Perhaps you can put me in the way of +disposing of it?"</p> + +<p>"I certainly can do so if it is worth anything. Is that it?" I was in a +fever of excitement, for I guessed what was clutched in his palm. He +held out to me the Valdez sapphire.</p> + +<p>How it shone and sparkled like a great blue star! I made myself a +deprecating smile as I took it from him, but how dare I call it false to +its face? As well accuse the sun in heaven of being a cheap imitation. I +faltered and prevaricated feebly. Where was my moral courage, and where +was the good, honest, thumping lie that should have aided me? "I have +the best authority for recognizing this as a very good copy of a famous +stone in the possession of the Bishop of Northchurch." His scowl grew so +black that I saw he believed me, and I went on more cheerily: "This was +manufactured by Johannes Bogaerts—I can give you his address, and you +can make inquiries yourself—by special permission of the then owner, +the late Leone Montanaro."</p> + +<p>"Hand it back!" he interrupted (his other remarks were outrageous, but +satisfactory to hear); but I waved him off. I couldn't give it up. It +fascinated me. I toyed with it, I caressed it. I made it display its +different tones of colour. I must see the two stones together. I must +see it outshine its paltry rival. It was a whimsical frenzy that seized +me—I can call it by no other name.</p> + +<p>"Would you like to see the original? Curiously enough, I have it here. +The bishop has left it in my charge."</p> + +<p>The wolfish light flamed up in Carwitchet's eyes as I drew forth the +case. He laid the Valdez down on a sheet of paper, and I placed the +other, still in its case, beside it. In that moment they looked +identical, except for the little loop of sham stones, replaced by a +plain gold band in the bishop's jewel. Carwitchet leaned across the +table eagerly, the table gave a lurch, the lamp tottered, crashed over, +and we were left in semidarkness.</p> + +<p>"Don't stir!" Carwitchet shouted. "The paraffin is all over the place!" +He seized my sofa blanket, and flung it over the table while I stood +helpless. "There, that's safe now. Have you candles on the +chimney-piece? I've got matches."</p> + +<p>He looked very white and excited as he lit up. "Might have been an +awkward job with all that burning paraffin running about," he said quite +pleasantly. "I hope no real harm is done." I was lifting the rug with +shaking hands. The two stones lay as I had placed them. No! I nearly +dropped it back again. It was the stone in the case that had the loop +with the three sham sapphires!</p> + +<p>Carwitchet picked the other up hastily. "So you say this is rubbish?" he +asked, his eyes sparkling wickedly, and an attempt at mortification in +his tone.</p> + +<p>"Utter rubbish!" I pronounced, with truth and decision, snapping up the +case and pocketing it. "Lady Carwitchet must have known it."</p> + +<p>"Ah, well, it's disappointing, isn't it? Good-by, we shall not meet +again."</p> + +<p>I shook hands with him most cordially. "Good-by, Lord Carwitchet. <i>So</i> +glad to have met you and your mother. It has been a source of the +<i>greatest</i> pleasure, I assure you."</p> + +<p>I have never seen the Carwitchets since. The bishop drove over next day +in rather better spirits. Miss Panton had refused the chaplain.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't matter, my lord," I said to him heartily. "We've all been +under some strange misconception. The stone in your possession is the +veritable one. I could swear to that anywhere. The sapphire Lady +Carwitchet wears is only an excellent imitation, and—I have seen it +with my own eyes—is the one bearing Bogaerts's mark, the Greek Beta."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_OBLONG_BOX" id="THE_OBLONG_BOX"></a>THE OBLONG BOX</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Edgar Allan Poe</span></h3> + + +<p>Some years ago I engaged passage from Charleston, S. C., to the city of +New York, in the fine packet-ship <i>Independence</i>, Captain Hardy. We were +to sail on the fifteenth of the month (June), weather permitting; and on +the fourteenth I went on board to arrange some matters in my stateroom.</p> + +<p>I found that we were to have a great many passengers, including a more +than usual number of ladies. On the list were several of my +acquaintances; and among other names I was rejoiced to see that of Mr. +Cornelius Wyatt, a young artist, for whom I entertained feelings of warm +friendship. He had been, with me, a fellow-student at C—— University, +where we were very much together. He had the ordinary temperament of +genius, and was a compound of misanthropy, sensibility, and enthusiasm. +To these qualities he united the warmest and truest heart which ever +beat in a human bosom.</p> + +<p>I observed that his name was carded upon three staterooms: and upon +again referring to the list of passengers I found that he had engaged +passage for himself, wife, and two sisters—his own. The staterooms were +sufficiently roomy, and each had two berths, one above the other. These +berths, to be sure, were so exceedingly narrow as to be insufficient for +more than one person; still, I could not comprehend why there were three +staterooms for these four persons. I was, just at that epoch, in one of +those moody frames of mind which make a man abnormally inquisitive about +trifles: and I confess with shame that I busied myself in a variety of +ill-bred and preposterous conjectures about this matter of the +supernumerary stateroom. It was no business of mine, to be sure; but +with none the less pertinacity did I occupy myself in attempts to +resolve the enigma. At last I reached a conclusion which wrought in me +great wonder why I had not arrived at it before. "It is a servant, of +course," I said; "what a fool I am not sooner to have thought of so +obvious a solution!" And then I again repaired to the list, but here I +saw distinctly that no servant was to come with the party: although, in +fact, it had been the original design to bring one, for the words "and +servant" had been first written and then overscored. "Oh, extra baggage, +to be sure," I now said to myself; "something he wishes not to be put in +the hold, something to be kept under his own eye,—ah, I have it! a +painting or so, and this is what he has been bargaining about with +Nicolino, the Italian Jew." This idea satisfied me and I dismissed my +curiosity for the nonce.</p> + +<p>Wyatt's two sisters I knew very well, and most amiable and clever girls +they were. His wife he had newly married, and I had never yet seen her. +He had often talked about her in my presence, however, and in his usual +style of enthusiasm. He described her as of surpassing beauty, wit, and +accomplishment. I was, therefore, quite anxious to make her +acquaintance.</p> + +<p>On the day in which I visited the ship (the fourteenth), Wyatt and party +were also to visit it, so the Captain informed me, and I waited on board +an hour longer than I had designed in hope of being presented to the +bride; but then an apology came. "Mrs. W. was a little indisposed, and +would decline coming on board until to-morrow at the hour of sailing."</p> + +<p>The morrow having arrived, I was going from my hotel to the wharf, when +Captain Hardy met me and said that, "owing to circumstances" (a stupid +but convenient phrase), "he rather thought the <i>Independence</i> would not +sail for a day or two, and that when all was ready he would send up and +let me know." This I thought strange, for there was a stiff southerly +breeze; but as "the circumstances" were not forthcoming, although I +pumped for them with much perseverance, I had nothing to do but to +return home and digest my impatience at leisure.</p> + +<p>I did not receive the expected message from the Captain for nearly a +week. It came at length, however, and I immediately went on board. The +ship was crowded with passengers, and everything was in the bustle +attendant upon making sail. Wyatt's party arrived in about ten minutes +after myself. There were the two sisters, the bride, and the artist—the +latter in one of his customary fits of moody misanthropy. I was too well +used to these, however, to pay them any special attention. He did not +even introduce me to his wife; this courtesy devolving, perforce, upon +his sister Marian, a very sweet and intelligent girl, who in a few +hurried words made us acquainted.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wyatt had been closely veiled; and when she raised her veil in +acknowledging my bow, I confess that I was very profoundly astonished. I +should have been much more so, however, had not long experience advised +me not to trust, with too implicit a reliance, the enthusiastic +descriptions of my friend the artist, when indulging in comments upon +the loveliness of woman. When beauty was the theme, I well knew with +what facility he soared into the regions of the purely ideal.</p> + +<p>The truth is, I could not help regarding Mrs. Wyatt as a decidedly +plain-looking woman. If not positively ugly, she was not, I think, very +far from it. She was dressed, however, in exquisite taste, and then I +had no doubt that she had captivated my friend's heart by the more +enduring graces of the intellect and soul. She said very few words, and +passed at once into her stateroom with Mr. W.</p> + +<p>My old inquisitiveness now returned. There was no servant, that was a +settled point. I looked, therefore, for the extra baggage. After some +delay a cart arrived at the wharf with an oblong pine box, which was +everything that seemed to be expected. Immediately upon its arrival we +made sail, and in a short time were safely over the bar and standing out +to sea.</p> + +<p>The box in question was, as I say, oblong. It was about six feet in +length by two and a half in breadth: I observed it attentively and like +to be precise. Now, this shape was peculiar; and no sooner had I seen it +than I took credit to myself for the accuracy of my guessing. I had +reached the conclusion, it will be remembered, that the extra baggage of +my friend the artist would prove to be pictures, or at least a picture, +for I knew he had been for several weeks in conference with Nicolino; +and now here was a box, which, from its shape, could possibly contain +nothing in the world but a copy of Leonardo's <i>Last Supper</i>; and a copy +of this very <i>Last Supper</i>, done by Rubini the younger at Florence, I +had known for some time to be in the possession of Nicolino. This point, +therefore, I considered as sufficiently settled. I chuckled excessively +when I thought of my acumen. It was the first time I had ever known +Wyatt to keep from me any of his artistical secrets; but here he +evidently intended to steal a march upon me and smuggle a fine picture +to New York, under my very nose; expecting me to know nothing of the +matter. I resolved to quiz him well, now and hereafter.</p> + +<p>One thing, however, annoyed me not a little. The box did not go into the +extra stateroom. It was deposited in Wyatt's own; and there, too, it +remained, occupying very nearly the whole of the floor, no doubt to the +exceeding discomfort of the artist and his wife; this the more +especially as the tar or paint with which it was lettered in sprawling +capitals emitted a strong, disagreeable, and, to my fancy, a peculiarly +disgusting odour. On the lid were painted the words: "Mrs. Adelaide +Curtis, Albany, New York. Charge of Cornelius Wyatt, Esq. This side up. +To be handled with care."</p> + +<p>Now, I was aware that Mrs. Adelaide Curtis of Albany was the artist's +wife's mother; but then I looked upon the whole address as a +mystification, intended especially for myself. I made up my mind, of +course, that the box and contents would never get farther north than the +studio of my misanthropic friend in Chambers Street, New York.</p> + +<p>For the first three or four days we had fine weather, although the wind +was dead ahead, having chopped round to the northward immediately upon +our losing sight of the coast. The passengers were, consequently, in +high spirits and disposed to be social. I must except, however, Wyatt +and his sisters, who behaved stiffly, and, I could not help thinking, +uncourteously, to the rest of the party. Wyatt's conduct I did not so +much regard. He was gloomy, even beyond his usual habit,—in fact, he +was morose; but in him I was prepared for eccentricity. For the sisters, +however, I could make no excuse. They secluded themselves in their +staterooms during the greater part of the passage, and absolutely +refused, although I repeatedly urged them, to hold communication with +any person on board.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Wyatt herself was far more agreeable. That is to say, she was +chatty; and to be chatty is no slight recommendation at sea. She became +excessively intimate with most of the ladies; and, to my profound +astonishment, evinced no equivocal disposition to coquet with the men. +She amused us all very much. I say "amused," and scarcely know how to +explain myself. The truth is, I soon found that Mrs. W. was far oftener +laughed at than with. The gentlemen said little about her; but the +ladies in a little while pronounced her "a good-hearted thing, rather +indifferent-looking, totally uneducated, and decidedly vulgar." The +great wonder was, how Wyatt had been entrapped into such a match. Wealth +was the general solution, but this I knew to be no solution at all; for +Wyatt had told me that she neither brought him a dollar nor had any +expectations from any source whatever. "He had married," he said, "for +love, and for love only; and his bride was far more than worthy of his +love." When I thought of these expressions on the part of my friend, I +confess that I felt indescribably puzzled. Could it be possible that he +was taking leave of his senses? What else could I think? He, so refined, +so intellectual, so fastidious, with so exquisite a perception of the +faulty, and so keen an appreciation of the beautiful! To be sure, the +lady seemed especially fond of him, particularly so in his absence, when +she made herself ridiculous by frequent quotations of what had been said +by her "beloved husband, Mr. Wyatt." The word "husband" seemed forever, +to use one of her own delicate expressions,—forever "on the tip of her +tongue." In the meantime it was observed by all on board that he avoided +her in the most pointed manner, and, for the most part, shut himself up +alone in his stateroom, where, in fact, he might have been said to live +altogether, leaving his wife at full liberty to amuse herself as she +thought best in the public society of the main cabin.</p> + +<p>My conclusion, from what I saw and heard, was that the artist, by some +unaccountable freak of fate, or perhaps in some fit of enthusiastic and +fanciful passion, had been induced to unite himself with a person +altogether beneath him, and that the natural result, entire and speedy +disgust, had ensued. I pitied him from the bottom of my heart, but could +not, for that reason, quite forgive his incommunicativeness in the +matter of the <i>Last Supper</i>. For this I resolved to have my revenge.</p> + +<p>One day he came up on deck, and, taking his arm as had been my wont, I +sauntered with him backward and forward. His gloom, however (which I +considered quite natural under the circumstances), seemed entirely +unabated. He said little, and that moodily, and with evident effort. I +ventured a jest or two, and he made a sickening attempt at a smile. Poor +fellow! as I thought of his wife I wondered that he could have heart to +put on even the semblance of mirth. At last I ventured a home thrust. I +determined to commence a series of covert insinuations, or innuendos, +about the oblong box, just to let him perceive, gradually, that I was +not altogether the butt, or victim, of his little bit of pleasant +mystification. My first observation was by way of opening a masked +battery. I said something about the "peculiar shape of that box"; and, +as I spoke the words I smiled knowingly, winked, and touched him gently +with my forefinger in the ribs.</p> + +<p>The manner in which Wyatt received this harmless pleasantry convinced me +at once that he was mad. At first he stared at me as if he found it +impossible to comprehend the witticism of my remark; but as its point +seemed slowly to make its way into his brain, his eyes, in the same +proportion, seemed protruding from their sockets. Then he grew very red, +then hideously pale, then, as if highly amused with what I had +insinuated, he began a loud and boisterous laugh, which, to my +astonishment, he kept up, with gradually increasing vigour, for ten +minutes or more. In conclusion, he fell flat and heavily upon the deck. +When I ran to uplift him, to all appearance he was dead.</p> + +<p>I called assistance, and, with much difficulty, we brought him to +himself. Upon reviving he spoke incoherently for some time. At length we +bled him and put him to bed. The next morning he was quite recovered, so +far as regarded his mere bodily health. Of his mind I say nothing, of +course. I avoided him during the rest of the passage, by advice of the +Captain, who seemed to coincide with me altogether in my views of his +insanity, but cautioned me to say nothing on this head to any person on +board.</p> + +<p>Several circumstances occurred immediately after this fit of Wyatt's +which contributed to heighten the curiosity with which I was already +possessed. Among other things, this: I had been nervous; drank too much +strong green tea, and slept ill at night,—in fact, for two nights I +could not be properly said to sleep at all. Now, my stateroom opened +into the main cabin or dining-room, as did those of all the single men +on board. Wyatt's three rooms were in the after-cabin, which was +separated from the main one by a slight sliding door, never locked even +at night. As we were almost constantly on a wind, and the breeze was not +a little stiff, the ship heeled to leeward very considerably; and +whenever her starboard side was to leeward the sliding door between the +cabins slid open and so remained, nobody taking the trouble to get up +and shut it. But my berth was in such a position that when my own +stateroom door was open, as well as the sliding door in question (and my +own door was always open on account of the heat), I could see into the +after-cabin quite distinctly, and just at that portion of it, too, where +were situated the staterooms of Mr. Wyatt. Well, during two nights (not +consecutive), while I lay awake, I clearly saw Mrs. W., about eleven +o'clock upon each night, steal cautiously from the stateroom of Mr. W. +and enter the extra room, where she remained until daybreak, when she +was called by her husband and went back. That they were virtually +separated was clear. They had separate apartments, no doubt in +contemplation of a more permanent divorce; and here, after all, I +thought, was the mystery of the extra stateroom.</p> + +<p>There was another circumstance, too, which interested me much. During +the two wakeful nights in question, and immediately after the +disappearance of Mrs. Wyatt into the extra stateroom, I was attracted by +certain singular, cautious, subdued noises in that of her husband. After +listening to them for some time with thoughtful attention, I at length +succeeded perfectly in translating their import. They were sounds +occasioned by the artist in prying open the oblong box by means of a +chisel and mallet, the latter being apparently muffled or deadened by +some soft woollen or cotton substance in which its head was enveloped.</p> + +<p>In this manner I fancied I could distinguish the precise moment when he +fairly disengaged the lid, also that I could determine when he removed +it altogether, and when he deposited it upon the lower berth in his +room; this latter point I knew, for example, by certain slight taps +which the lid made in striking against the wooden edges of the berth as +he endeavoured to lay it down very gently, there being no room for it on +the floor. After this there was a dead stillness, and I heard nothing +more, upon either occasion, until nearly daybreak; unless, perhaps, I +may mention a low sobbing or murmuring sound, so very much suppressed as +to be nearly inaudible, if, indeed, the whole of this latter noise were +not rather produced by my own imagination. I say it seemed to resemble +sobbing or sighing, but, of course, it could not have been either. I +rather think it was a ringing in my own ears. Mr. Wyatt, no doubt, +according to custom, was merely giving the rein to one of his hobbies, +indulging in one of his fits of artistic enthusiasm. He had opened his +oblong box in order to feast his eyes on the pictorial treasure within. +There was nothing in this, however, to make him sob. I repeat, +therefore, that it must have been simply a freak of my own fancy, +distempered by good Captain Hardy's green tea. Just before dawn, on each +of the two nights of which I speak, I distinctly heard Mr. Wyatt replace +the lid upon the oblong box, and force the nails into their old places +by means of the muffled mallet. Having done this, he issued from his +stateroom, fully dressed, and proceeded to call Mrs. W. from hers.</p> + +<p>We had been at sea seven days, and were now off Cape Hatteras, when +there came a tremendously heavy blow from the southwest. We were, in a +measure, prepared for it, however, as the weather had been holding out +threats for some time. Everything was made snug, alow and aloft; and, as +the wind steadily freshened, we lay to, at length, under spanker and +foretopsail, both double-reefed.</p> + +<p>In this trim we rode safely enough for forty-eight hours, the ship +proving herself an excellent sea-boat in many respects, and shipping no +water of any consequence. At the end of this period, however, the gale +had freshened into a hurricane, and our after-sail split into ribbons, +bringing us so much in the trough of the water that we shipped several +prodigious seas, one immediately after the other. By this accident we +lost three men overboard with the caboose, and nearly the whole of the +larboard bulwarks. Scarcely had we recovered our senses before the +foretopsail went into shreds, when we got up a storm staysail, and with +this did pretty well for some hours, the ship heading the sea much more +steadily than before.</p> + +<p>The gale still held on, however, and we saw no signs of its abating. The +rigging was found to be ill-fitted and greatly strained; and on the +third day of the blow, about five in the afternoon, our mizzen-mast, in +a heavy lurch to windward, went by the board. For an hour or more we +tried in vain to get rid of it, on account of the prodigious rolling of +the ship; and, before we had succeeded, the carpenter came aft and +announced four feet water in the hold. To add to our dilemma, we found +the pumps choked and nearly useless.</p> + +<p>All was now confusion and despair, but an effort was made to lighten the +ship by throwing overboard as much of her cargo as could be reached, and +by cutting away the two masts that remained. This we at last +accomplished, but we were still unable to do anything at the pumps; and, +in the meantime, the leak gained on us very fast.</p> + +<p>At sundown the gale had sensibly diminished in violence, and, as the sea +went down with it, we still entertained faint hopes of saving ourselves +in the boats. At eight P.M., the clouds broke away to windward, and we +had the advantage of a full moon, a piece of good fortune which served +wonderfully to cheer our drooping spirits.</p> + +<p>After incredible labour we succeeded, at length, in getting the +long-boat over the side without material accident, and into this we +crowded the whole of the crew and most of the passengers. This party +made off immediately, and, after undergoing much suffering, finally +arrived in safety at Ocracoke Inlet, on the third day after the wreck.</p> + +<p>Fourteen passengers, with the Captain, remained on board, resolving to +trust their fortunes to the jolly-boat at the stern. We lowered it +without difficulty, although it was only by a miracle that we prevented +it from swamping as it touched the water. It contained, when afloat, the +Captain and his wife, Mr. Wyatt and party, a Mexican officer, wife, four +children, and myself, with a negro valet.</p> + +<p>We had no room, of course, for anything except a few positively +necessary instruments, some provisions, and the clothes upon our backs. +No one had thought of even attempting to save anything more. What must +have been the astonishment of all, then, when, having proceeded a few +fathoms from the ship, Mr. Wyatt stood up in the stern-sheets and coolly +demanded of Captain Hardy that the boat should be put back for the +purpose of taking in his oblong box!</p> + +<p>"Sit down, Mr. Wyatt," replied the Captain, somewhat sternly; "you will +capsize us if you do not sit quite still. Our gunwale is almost in the +water now."</p> + +<p>"The box!" vociferated Mr. Wyatt, still standing, "the box, I say! +Captain Hardy, you cannot, you will not refuse me. Its weight will be +but a trifle, it is nothing, mere nothing. By the mother who bore +you—for the love of Heaven—by your hope of salvation, I implore you to +put back for the box!"</p> + +<p>The Captain for a moment seemed touched by the earnest appeal of the +artist, but he regained his stern composure, and merely said:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Wyatt, you are mad. I cannot listen to you. Sit down, I say, or you +will swamp the boat. Stay! hold him, seize him! he is about to spring +overboard! There—I knew it—he is over!"</p> + +<p>As the Captain said this, Mr. Wyatt, in fact, sprang from the boat, and, +as we were yet in the lee of the wreck, succeeded, by almost superhuman +exertion, in getting hold of a rope which hung from the forechains. In +another moment he was on board, and rushing frantically down into the +cabin.</p> + +<p>In the meantime we had been swept astern of the ship, and being quite +out of her lee, were at the mercy of the tremendous sea which was still +running. We made a determined effort to put back, but our little boat +was like a feather in the breath of the tempest. We saw at a glance that +the doom of the unfortunate artist was sealed.</p> + +<p>As our distance from the wreck rapidly increased, the madman (for as +such only could we regard him) was seen to emerge from the companionway, +up which, by dint of strength that appeared gigantic, he dragged, +bodily, the oblong box. While we gazed in the extremity of astonishment, +he passed rapidly several turns of a three-inch rope, first around the +box and then around his body. In another instant both body and box were +in the sea, disappearing suddenly, at once and forever.</p> + +<p>We lingered awhile sadly upon our oars, with our eyes riveted upon the +spot. At length we pulled away. The silence remained unbroken for an +hour. Finally I hazarded a remark.</p> + +<p>"Did you observe, Captain, how suddenly they sank? Was not that an +exceedingly singular thing? I confess that I entertained some feeble +hope of his final deliverance when I saw him lash himself to the box and +commit himself to the sea."</p> + +<p>"They sank as a matter of course," replied the Captain, "and that like a +shot. They will soon rise again, however, but not till the salt melts."</p> + +<p>"The salt!" I ejaculated.</p> + +<p>"Hush!" said the Captain, pointing to the wife and sisters of the +deceased. "We must talk of these things at some more appropriate time."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We suffered much and made a narrow escape; but fortune befriended us, as +well as our mates in the long-boat. We landed, in fine, more dead than +alive, after four days of intense distress, upon the beach opposite +Roanoke Island. We remained here a week, were not ill-treated by the +wreckers, and at length obtained a passage to New York.</p> + +<p>About a month after the loss of the <i>Independence</i>, I happened to meet +Captain Hardy in Broadway. Our conversation turned, naturally, upon the +disaster, and especially upon the sad fate of poor Wyatt. I thus learned +the following particulars:</p> + +<p>The artist had engaged passage for himself, wife, two sisters, and a +servant. His wife was indeed, as she had been represented, a most lovely +and most accomplished woman. On the morning of the fourteenth of June +(the day in which I first visited the ship), the lady suddenly sickened +and died. The young husband was frantic with grief, but circumstances +imperatively forbade the deferring his voyage to New York. It was +necessary to take to her mother the corpse of his adored wife, and, on +the other hand, the universal prejudice which would prevent his doing so +openly was well known. Nine tenths of the passengers would have +abandoned the ship rather than take passage with a dead body.</p> + +<p>In this dilemma Captain Hardy arranged that the corpse, being first +partially embalmed and packed, with a large quantity of salt in a box of +suitable dimensions, should be conveyed on board as merchandise. Nothing +was to be said of the lady's decease; and, as it was well understood +that Mr. Wyatt had engaged passage for his wife, it became necessary +that some person should personate her during the voyage. This the +deceased lady's maid was easily prevailed on to do. The extra stateroom, +originally engaged for this girl during her mistress's life, was now +merely retained. In this stateroom the pseudo-wife slept, of course, +every night. In the daytime she performed, to the best of her ability, +the part of her mistress, whose person, it had been carefully +ascertained, was unknown to any of the passengers on board.</p> + +<p>My own mistake arose, naturally enough, through too careless, too +inquisitive, and too impulsive a temperament. But of late it is a rare +thing that I sleep soundly at night. There is a countenance which haunts +me, turn as I will. There is an hysterical laugh which will forever ring +within my ears.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_BIRTHMARK" id="THE_BIRTHMARK"></a>THE BIRTH-MARK</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Nathaniel Hawthorne</span></h3> + + +<p>In the latter part of the last century, there lived a man of science—an +eminent proficient in every branch of natural philosophy—who, not long +before our story opens, had made experience of a spiritual affinity, +more attractive than any chemical one. He had left his laboratory to the +care of an assistant, cleared his fine countenance from the +furnace-smoke, washed the stain of acids from his fingers, and persuaded +a beautiful woman to become his wife. In those days, when the +comparatively recent discovery of electricity, and other kindred +mysteries of nature, seemed to open paths into the region of miracle, it +was not unusual for the love of science to rival the love of woman, in +its depth and absorbing energy. The higher intellect, the imagination, +the spirit, and even the heart, might all find their congenial aliment +in pursuits which, as some of their ardent votaries believed, would +ascend from one step of powerful intelligence to another, until the +philosopher should lay his hand on the secret of creative force, and +perhaps make new worlds for himself. We know not whether Aylmer +possessed this degree of faith in man's ultimate control over nature. He +had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies, +ever to be weaned from them by any second passion. His love for his +young wife might prove the stronger of the two; but it could only be by +intertwining itself with his love of science, and uniting the strength +of the latter to its own.</p> + +<p>Such an union accordingly took place, and was attended with truly +remarkable consequences, and a deeply impressive moral. One day, very +soon after their marriage, Aylmer sat gazing at his wife, with a trouble +in his countenance that grew stronger, until he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Georgiana," said he, "has it never occurred to you that the mark upon +your cheek might be removed?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed," said she, smiling; but perceiving the seriousness of his +manner, she blushed deeply. "To tell you the truth, it has been so often +called a charm, that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so."</p> + +<p>"Ah, upon another face, perhaps it might," replied her husband. "But +never on yours! No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from +the hand of Nature, that this slightest possible defect—which we +hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty—shocks me, as being the +visible mark of earthly imperfection."</p> + +<p>"Shocks you, my husband!" cried Georgiana, deeply hurt; at first +reddening with momentary anger, but then bursting into tears. "Then why +did you take me from my mother's side? You cannot love what shocks you!"</p> + +<p>To explain this conversation, it must be mentioned, that, in the centre +of Georgiana's left cheek, there was a singular mark, deeply interwoven, +as it were, with the texture and substance of her face. In the usual +state of her complexion,—a healthy, though delicate bloom,—the mark +wore a tint of deeper crimson, which imperfectly defined its shape amid +the surrounding rosiness. When she blushed, it gradually became more +indistinct, and finally vanished amid the triumphant rush of blood, that +bathed the whole cheek with its brilliant glow. But, if any shifting +emotion caused her to turn pale, there was the mark again, a crimson +stain upon the snow, in what Aylmer sometimes deemed an almost fearful +distinctness. Its shape bore not a little similarity to the human hand, +though of the smallest pigmy size. Georgiana's lovers were wont to say, +that some fairy, at her birth-hour, had laid her tiny hand upon the +infant's cheek, and left this impress there, in token of the magic +endowments that were to give her such sway over all hearts. Many a +desperate swain would have risked life for the privilege of pressing his +lips to the mysterious hand. It must not be concealed, however, that the +impression wrought by this fairy sign-manual varied exceedingly, +according to the difference of temperament in the beholders. Some +fastidious persons—but they were exclusively of her own sex—affirmed +that the Bloody Hand, as they chose to call it, quite destroyed the +effect of Georgiana's beauty, and rendered her countenance even hideous. +But it would be as reasonable to say, that one of those small blue +stains, which sometimes occur in the purest statuary marble, would +convert the Eve of Powers to a monster. Masculine observers, if the +birth-mark did not heighten their admiration, contented themselves with +wishing it away, that the world might possess one living specimen of +ideal loveliness, without the semblance of a flaw. After his +marriage—for he thought little or nothing of the matter before—Aylmer +discovered that this was the case with himself.</p> + +<p>Had she been less beautiful—if Envy's self could have found aught else +to sneer at—he might have felt his affection heightened by the +prettiness of this mimic hand, now vaguely portrayed, now lost, now +stealing forth again, and glimmering to-and-fro with every pulse of +emotion that throbbed within her heart. But, seeing her otherwise so +perfect, he found this one defect grow more and more intolerable, with +every moment of their united lives. It was the fatal flaw of humanity, +which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her +productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that +their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain. The Crimson Hand +expressed the ineludible gripe, in which mortality clutches the highest +and purest of earthly mould, degrading them into kindred with the +lowest, and even with the very brutes, like whom their visible frames +return to dust. In this manner, selecting it as the symbol of his wife's +liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death, Aylmer's sombre imagination +was not long in rendering the birth-mark a frightful object, causing him +more trouble and horror than ever Georgiana's beauty, whether of soul or +sense, had given him delight.</p> + +<p>At all the seasons which should have been their happiest, he invariably, +and without intending it—nay, in spite of a purpose to the +contrary—reverted to this one disastrous topic. Trifling as it at first +appeared, it so connected itself with innumerable trains of thought, and +modes of feeling, that it became the central point of all. With the +morning twilight, Aylmer opened his eyes upon his wife's face, and +recognized the symbol of imperfection; and when they sat together at the +evening hearth, his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek, and beheld, +flickering with the blaze of the wood fire, the spectral Hand that wrote +mortality where he would fain have worshipped. Georgiana soon learned to +shudder at his gaze. It needed but a glance, with the peculiar +expression that his face often wore, to change the roses of her cheek +into a death-like paleness, amid which the Crimson Hand was brought +strongly out, like a bas-relief of ruby on the whitest marble.</p> + +<p>Late, one night, when the lights were growing dim, so as hardly to +betray the stain on the poor wife's cheek, she herself, for the first +time, voluntarily took up the subject.</p> + +<p>"Do you remember, my dear Aylmer," said she, with a feeble attempt at a +smile—"have you any recollection of a dream, last night, about this +odious Hand?"</p> + +<p>"None!—none whatever!" replied Aylmer, starting; but then he added in a +dry, cold tone, affected for the sake of concealing the real depth of +his emotion:—"I might well dream of it; for, before I fell asleep, it +had taken a pretty firm hold of my fancy."</p> + +<p>"And you did dream of it," continued Georgiana hastily; for she dreaded +lest a gush of tears should interrupt what she had to say—"A terrible +dream! I wonder that you can forget it. Is it possible to forget this +one expression?—'It is in her heart now—we must have it +out!'—Reflect, my husband; for by all means I would have you recall +that dream."</p> + +<p>The mind is in a sad state, when Sleep, the all-involving, cannot +confine her spectres within the dim region of her sway, but suffers them +to break forth, affrighting this actual life with secrets that perchance +belong to a deeper one. Aylmer now remembered his dream. He had fancied +himself, with his servant Aminadab, attempting an operation for the +removal of the birth-mark. But the deeper went the knife, the deeper +sank the Hand, until at length its tiny grasp appeared to have caught +hold of Georgiana's heart; whence, however, her husband was inexorably +resolved to cut or wrench it away.</p> + +<p>When the dream had shaped itself perfectly in his memory, Aylmer sat in +his wife's presence with a guilty feeling. Truth often finds its way to +the mind close-muffled in robes of sleep, and then speaks with +uncompromising directness of matters in regard to which we practise an +unconscious self-deception, during our waking moments. Until now, he had +not been aware of the tyrannizing influence acquired by one idea over +his mind, and of the lengths which he might find in his heart to go, for +the sake of giving himself peace.</p> + +<p>"Aylmer," resumed Georgiana, solemnly, "I know not what may be the cost +to both of us, to rid me of this fatal birth-mark. Perhaps its removal +may cause cureless deformity. Or, it may be, the stain goes as deep as +life itself. Again, do we know that there is a possibility, on any +terms, of unclasping the firm gripe of this little Hand, which was laid +upon me before I came into the world?"</p> + +<p>"Dearest Georgiana, I have spent much thought upon the subject," hastily +interrupted Aylmer—"I am convinced of the perfect practicability of its +removal."</p> + +<p>"If there be the remotest possibility of it," continued Georgiana, "let +the attempt be made, at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me; for +life—while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and +disgust—life is a burthen which I would fling down with joy. Either +remove this dreadful Hand, or take my wretched life! You have deep +science! All the world bears witness of it. You have achieved great +wonders! Cannot you remove this little, little mark, which I cover with +the tips of two small fingers! Is this beyond your power, for the sake +of your own peace, and to save your poor wife from madness?"</p> + +<p>"Noblest—dearest—tenderest wife!" cried Aylmer, rapturously. "Doubt +not my power. I have already given this matter the deepest +thought—thought which might almost have enlightened me to create a +being less perfect than yourself. Georgiana, you have led me deeper than +ever into the heart of science. I feel myself fully competent to render +this dear cheek as faultless as its fellow; and then, most beloved, what +will be my triumph, when I shall have corrected what Nature left +imperfect, in her fairest work! Even Pygmalion, when his sculptured +woman assumed life, felt not greater ecstasy than mine will be."</p> + +<p>"It is resolved, then," said Georgiana, faintly smiling,—"And, Aylmer, +spare me not, though you should find the birth-mark take refuge in my +heart at last."</p> + +<p>Her husband tenderly kissed her cheek—her right cheek—not that which +bore the impress of the Crimson Hand.</p> + +<p>The next day, Aylmer apprised his wife of a plan that he had formed, +whereby he might have opportunity for the intense thought and constant +watchfulness which the proposed operation would require; while +Georgiana, likewise, would enjoy the perfect repose essential to its +success. They were to seclude themselves in the extensive apartments +occupied by Aylmer as a laboratory, and where, during his toilsome +youth, he had made discoveries in the elemental powers of nature, that +had roused the admiration of all the learned societies in Europe. Seated +calmly in this laboratory, the pale philosopher had investigated the +secrets of the highest cloud-region, and of the profoundest mines; he +had satisfied himself of the causes that kindled and kept alive the +fires of the volcano; and had explained the mystery of fountains, and +how it is that they gush forth, some so bright and pure, and others with +such rich medicinal virtues, from the dark bosom of the earth. Here, +too, at an earlier period, he had studied the wonders of the human +frame, and attempted to fathom the very process by which Nature +assimilates all her precious influences from earth and air, and from the +spiritual world, to create and foster Man, her masterpiece. The latter +pursuit, however, Aylmer had long laid aside, in unwilling recognition +of the truth, against which all seekers sooner or later stumble, that +our great creative Mother, while she amuses us with apparently working +in the broadest sunshine, is yet severely careful to keep her own +secrets, and, in spite of her pretended openness, shows us nothing but +results. She permits us indeed to mar, but seldom to mend, and, like a +jealous patentee, on no account to make. Now, however, Aylmer resumed +these half-forgotten investigations; not, of course, with such hopes or +wishes as first suggested them; but because they involved much +physiological truth, and lay in the path of his proposed scheme for the +treatment of Georgiana.</p> + +<p>As he led her over the threshold of the laboratory, Georgiana was cold +and tremulous. Aylmer looked cheerfully into her face, with intent to +reassure her, but was so startled with the intense glow of the +birth-mark upon the whiteness of her cheek, that he could not restrain a +strong convulsive shudder. His wife fainted.</p> + +<p>"Aminadab! Aminadab!" shouted Aylmer, stamping violently on the floor.</p> + +<p>Forthwith, there issued from an inner apartment a man of low stature, +but bulky frame, with shaggy hair hanging about his visage, which was +grimed with the vapours of the furnace. This personage had been Aylmer's +under-worker during his whole scientific career, and was admirably +fitted for that office by his great mechanical readiness, and the skill +with which, while incapable of comprehending a single principle, he +executed all the practical details of his master's experiments. With his +vast strength, his shaggy hair, his smoky aspect, and the indescribable +earthiness that encrusted him, he seemed to represent man's physical +nature; while Aylmer's slender figure, and pale, intellectual face, were +no less apt a type of the spiritual element.</p> + +<p>"Throw open the door of the boudoir, Aminadab," said Aylmer, "and burn a +pastille."</p> + +<p>"Yes, master," answered Aminadab, looking intently at the lifeless form +of Georgiana; and then he muttered to himself:—"If she were my wife, +I'd never part with that birth-mark."</p> + +<p>When Georgiana recovered consciousness, she found herself breathing an +atmosphere of penetrating fragrance, the gentle potency of which had +recalled her from her death-like faintness. The scene around her looked +like enchantment. Aylmer had converted those smoky, dingy, sombre rooms, +where he had spent his brightest years in recondite pursuits, into a +series of beautiful apartments, not unfit to be the secluded abode of a +lovely woman. The walls were hung with gorgeous curtains, which imparted +the combination of grandeur and grace, that no other species of +adornment can achieve; and as they fell from the ceiling to the floor, +their rich and ponderous folds, concealing all angles and straight +lines, appeared to shut in the scene from infinite space. For aught +Georgiana knew, it might be a pavilion among the clouds. And Aylmer, +excluding the sunshine, which would have interfered with his chemical +processes, had supplied its place with perfumed lamps, emitting flames +of various hue, but all uniting in a soft, empurpled radiance. He now +knelt by his wife's side, watching her earnestly, but without alarm; for +he was confident in his science, and felt that he could draw a magic +circle round her, within which no evil might intrude.</p> + +<p>"Where am I?—Ah, I remember!" said Georgiana, faintly; and she placed +her hand over her cheek, to hide the terrible mark from her husband's +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Fear not, dearest!" exclaimed he. "Do not shrink from me! Believe me, +Georgiana, I even rejoice in this single imperfection, since it will be +such a rapture to remove it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, spare me!" sadly replied his wife. "Pray do not look at it again. I +never can forget that convulsive shudder."</p> + +<p>In order to soothe Georgiana, and, as it were, to release her mind from +the burthen of actual things, Aylmer now put in practice some of the +light and playful secrets which science had taught him among its +profounder lore. Airy figures, absolutely bodiless ideas, and forms of +unsubstantial beauty, came and danced before her, imprinting their +momentary footsteps on beams of light. Though she had some indistinct +idea of the method of these optical phenomena, still the illusion was +almost perfect enough to warrant the belief that her husband possessed +sway over the spiritual world. Then again, when she felt a wish to look +forth from her seclusion, immediately, as if her thoughts were answered, +the procession of external existence flitted across a screen. The +scenery and the figures of actual life were perfectly represented, but +with that bewitching, yet indescribable difference, which always makes a +picture, an image, or a shadow, so much more attractive than the +original. When wearied of this, Aylmer bade her cast her eyes upon a +vessel, containing a quantity of earth. She did so, with little interest +at first, but was soon startled, to perceive the germ of a plant, +shooting upward from the soil. Then came the slender stalk—the leaves +gradually unfolded themselves—and amid them was a perfect and lovely +flower.</p> + +<p>"It is magical!" cried Georgiana, "I dare not touch it."</p> + +<p>"Nay, pluck it," answered Aylmer, "pluck it, and inhale its brief +perfume while you may. The flower will wither in a few moments, and +leave nothing save its brown seed-vessels—but thence may be perpetuated +a race as ephemeral as itself."</p> + +<p>But Georgiana had no sooner touched the flower than the whole plant +suffered a blight, its leaves turning coal-black, as if by the agency of +fire.</p> + +<p>"There was too powerful a stimulus," said Aylmer thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>To make up for this abortive experiment, he proposed to take her +portrait by a scientific process of his own invention. It was to be +effected by rays of light striking upon a polished plate of metal. +Georgiana assented—but, on looking at the result, was affrighted to +find the features of the portrait blurred and indefinable; while the +minute figure of a hand appeared where the cheek should have been. +Aylmer snatched the metallic plate, and threw it into a jar of corrosive +acid.</p> + +<p>Soon, however, he forgot these mortifying failures. In the intervals of +study and chemical experiment, he came to her, flushed and exhausted, +but seemed invigorated by her presence, and spoke in glowing language of +the resources of his art. He gave a history of the long dynasty of the +Alchemists, who spent so many ages in quest of the universal solvent, by +which the Golden Principle might be elicited from all things vile and +base. Aylmer appeared to believe, that, by the plainest scientific +logic, it was altogether within the limits of possibility to discover +this long-sought medium; but, he added, a philosopher who should go deep +enough to acquire the power, would attain too lofty a wisdom to stoop to +the exercise of it. Not less singular were his opinions in regard to the +Elixir Vitæ. He more than intimated, that it was at his option to +concoct a liquid that should prolong life for years—perhaps +interminably—but that it would produce a discord in nature, which all +the world, and chiefly the quaffer of the immortal nostrum, would find +cause to curse.</p> + +<p>"Aylmer, are you in earnest?" asked Georgiana, looking at him with +amazement and fear; "it is terrible to possess such power, or even to +dream of possessing it!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, do not tremble, my love!" said her husband, "I would not wrong +either you or myself, by working such inharmonious effects upon our +lives. But I would have you consider how trifling, in comparison, is the +skill requisite to remove this little Hand."</p> + +<p>At the mention of the birth-mark, Georgiana, as usual, shrank, as if a +red-hot iron had touched her cheek.</p> + +<p>Again Aylmer applied himself to his labours. She could hear his voice in +the distant furnace-room, giving directions to Aminadab, whose harsh, +uncouth, misshapen tones were audible in response, more like the grunt +or growl of a brute than human speech. After hours of absence, Aylmer +reappeared, and proposed that she should now examine his cabinet of +chemical products, and natural treasures of the earth. Among the former +he showed her a small vial, in which, he remarked, was contained a +gentle yet most powerful fragrance, capable of impregnating all the +breezes that blow across a kingdom. They were of inestimable value, the +contents of that little vial; and, as he said so, he threw some of the +perfume into the air, and filled the room with piercing and invigorating +delight.</p> + +<p>"And what is this?" asked Georgiana, pointing to a small crystal globe, +containing a gold-coloured liquid. "It is so beautiful to the eye, that +I could imagine it the Elixir of Life."</p> + +<p>"In one sense it is," replied Aylmer, "or rather the Elixir of +Immortality. It is the most precious poison that ever was concocted in +this world. By its aid, I could apportion the life-time of any mortal at +whom you might point your finger. The strength of the dose would +determine whether he were to linger out years, or drop dead in the midst +of a breath. No king, on his guarded throne, could keep his life, if I, +in my private station, should deem that the welfare of millions +justified me in depriving him of it."</p> + +<p>"Why do you keep such a terrible drug?" inquired Georgiana in horror.</p> + +<p>"Do not mistrust me, dearest!" said her husband, smiling; "its virtuous +potency is yet greater than its harmful one. But, see! here is a +powerful cosmetic. With a few drops of this, in a vase of water, +freckles may be washed away as easily as the hands are cleansed. A +stronger infusion would take the blood out of the cheek, and leave the +rosiest beauty a pale ghost."</p> + +<p>"Is it with this lotion that you intend to bathe my cheek?" asked +Georgiana, anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" hastily replied her husband,—"this is merely superficial. +Your case demands a remedy that shall go deeper."</p> + +<p>In his interviews with Georgiana, Aylmer generally made minute inquiries +as to her sensations, and whether the confinement of the rooms, and the +temperature of the atmosphere, agreed with her. These questions had such +a particular drift, that Georgiana began to conjecture that she was +already subjected to certain physical influences, either breathed in +with the fragrant air, or taken with her food. She fancied, +likewise—but it might be altogether fancy—that there was a stirring up +of her system: a strange, indefinite sensation creeping through her +veins, and tingling, half-painfully, half-pleasurably, at her heart. +Still, whenever she dared to look into the mirror, there she beheld +herself, pale as a white rose, and with the crimson birth-mark stamped +upon her cheek. Not even Aylmer now hated it so much as she.</p> + +<p>To dispel the tedium of the hours which her husband found it necessary +to devote to the processes of combination and analysis, Georgiana turned +over the volumes of his scientific library. In many dark old tomes, she +met with chapters full of romance and poetry. They were the works of the +philosophers of the middle ages, such as Albertus, Magnus, Cornelius +Agrippa, Paracelsus, and the famous friar who created the prophetic +Brazen Head. All these antique naturalists stood in advance of their +centuries, yet were imbued with some of their credulity, and therefore +were believed, and perhaps imagined themselves, to have acquired from +the investigation of nature a power above nature, and from physics a +sway over the spiritual world. Hardly less curious and imaginative were +the early volumes of the Transactions of the Royal Society, in which the +members, knowing little of the limits of natural possibility, were +continually recording wonders, or proposing methods whereby wonders +might be wrought.</p> + +<p>But, to Georgiana, the most engrossing volume was a large folio from her +husband's own hand, in which he had recorded every experiment of his +scientific career, with its original aim, the methods adopted for its +development, and its final success or failure, with the circumstances to +which either event was attributable. The book, in truth, was both the +history and emblem of his ardent, ambitious, imaginative, yet practical +and laborious, life. He handled physical details, as if there were +nothing beyond them; yet spiritualized them all, and redeemed himself +from materialism, by his strong and eager aspiration towards the +infinite. In his grasp, the veriest clod of earth assumed a soul. +Georgiana, as she read, reverenced Aylmer, and loved him more profoundly +than ever, but with a less entire dependence on his judgment than +heretofore. Much as he had accomplished, she could not but observe that +his most splendid successes were almost invariably failures, if compared +with the ideal at which he aimed. His brightest diamonds were the merest +pebbles, and felt to be so by himself, in comparison with the +inestimable gems which lay hidden beyond his reach. The volume, rich +with achievements that had won renown for its author, was yet as +melancholy a record as ever mortal hand had penned. It was the sad +confession, and continual exemplification, of the short-comings of the +composite man—the spirit burthened with clay and working in matter; and +of the despair that assails the higher nature, at finding itself so +miserably thwarted by the earthly part. Perhaps every man of genius, in +whatever sphere, might recognize the image of his own experience in +Aylmer's journal.</p> + +<p>So deeply did these reflections affect Georgiana, that she laid her face +upon the open volume, and burst into tears. In this situation she was +found by her husband.</p> + +<p>"It is dangerous to read in a sorcerer's books," said he, with a smile, +though his countenance was uneasy and displeased. "Georgiana, there are +pages in that volume, which I can scarcely glance over and keep my +senses. Take heed lest it prove as detrimental to you!"</p> + +<p>"It has made me worship you more than ever," said she.</p> + +<p>"Ah! wait for this one success," rejoined he, "then worship me if you +will. I shall deem myself hardly unworthy of it. But, come! I have +sought you for the luxury of your voice. Sing to me, dearest!"</p> + +<p>So she poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst of +his spirit. He then took his leave, with a boyish exuberance of gaiety, +assuring her that her seclusion would endure but a little longer, and +that the result was already certain. Scarcely had he departed, when +Georgiana felt irresistibly impelled to follow him. She had forgotten to +inform Aylmer of a symptom, which, for two or three hours past, had +begun to excite her attention. It was a sensation in the fatal +birth-mark, not painful, but which induced a restlessness throughout her +system. Hastening after her husband, she intruded, for the first time, +into the laboratory.</p> + +<p>The first thing that struck her eyes was the furnace, that hot and +feverish worker, with the intense glow of its fire, which, by the +quantities of soot clustered above it, seemed to have been burning for +ages. There was a distilling apparatus in full operation. Around the +room were retorts, tubes, cylinders, crucibles, and other apparatus of +chemical research. An electrical machine stood ready for immediate use. +The atmosphere felt oppressively close, and was tainted with gaseous +odours, which had been tormented forth by the processes of science. The +severe and homely simplicity of the apartment, with its naked walls and +brick pavement, looked strange, accustomed as Georgiana had become to +the fantastic elegance of her boudoir. But what chiefly, indeed almost +solely, drew her attention, was the aspect of Aylmer himself.</p> + +<p>He was pale as death, anxious, and absorbed, and hung over the furnace +as if it depended upon his utmost watchfulness whether the liquid, which +it was distilling, should be the draught of immortal happiness or +misery. How different from the sanguine and joyous mien that he had +assumed for Georgiana's encouragement!</p> + +<p>"Carefully now, Aminadab! Carefully, thou human machine! Carefully, thou +man of clay!" muttered Aylmer, more to himself than his assistant. "Now, +if there be a thought too much or too little, it is all over!"</p> + +<p>"Hoh! hoh!" mumbled Aminadab—"look, master, look!"</p> + +<p>Aylmer raised his eyes hastily, and at first reddened, then grew paler +than ever, on beholding Georgiana. He rushed towards her, and seized her +arm with a grip that left the print of his fingers upon it.</p> + +<p>"Why do you come hither? Have you no trust in your husband?" cried he +impetuously. "Would you throw the blight of that fatal birth-mark over +my labours? It is not well done. Go, prying woman, go!"</p> + +<p>"Nay, Aylmer," said Georgiana, with the firmness of which she possessed +no stinted endowment, "it is not you that have a right to complain. You +mistrust your wife! You have concealed the anxiety with which you watch +the development of this experiment. Think not so unworthily of me, my +husband! Tell me all the risk we run; and fear not that I shall shrink, +for my share in it is far less than your own!"</p> + +<p>"No, no, Georgiana!" said Aylmer impatiently, "it must not be."</p> + +<p>"I submit," replied she calmly. "And, Aylmer, I shall quaff whatever +draught you bring me; but it will be on the same principle that would +induce me to take a dose of poison, if offered by your hand."</p> + +<p>"My noble wife," said Aylmer, deeply moved, "I knew not the height and +depth of your nature, until now. Nothing shall be concealed. Know, then, +that this Crimson Hand, superficial as it seems, has clutched its grasp +into your being, with a strength of which I had no previous conception. +I have already administered agents powerful enough to do aught except to +change your entire physical system. Only one thing remains to be tried. +If that fail us, we are ruined!"</p> + +<p>"Why did you hesitate to tell me this?" asked she.</p> + +<p>"Because, Georgiana," said Aylmer, in a low voice, "there is danger!"</p> + +<p>"Danger? There is but one danger—that this horrible stigma shall be +left upon my cheek!" cried Georgiana. "Remove it! remove it!—whatever +be the cost—or we shall both go mad!"</p> + +<p>"Heaven knows, your words are too true," said Aylmer, sadly. "And now, +dearest, return to your boudoir. In a little while, all will be tested."</p> + +<p>He conducted her back, and took leave of her with a solemn tenderness, +which spoke far more than his words how much was now at stake. After his +departure, Georgiana became wrapt in musings. She considered the +character of Aylmer, and did it completer justice than at any previous +moment. Her heart exulted, while it trembled, at his honourable love, so +pure and lofty that it would accept nothing less than perfection, nor +miserably make itself contented with an earthlier nature than he had +dreamed of. She felt how much more precious was such a sentiment, than +that meaner kind which would have borne with the imperfection for her +sake, and have been guilty of treason to holy love, by degrading its +perfect idea to the level of the actual. And, with her whole spirit, she +prayed, that, for a single moment, she might satisfy his highest and +deepest conception. Longer than one moment, she well knew, it could not +be; for his spirit was ever on the march—ever ascending—and each +instant required something that was beyond the scope of the instant +before.</p> + +<p>The sound of her husband's footsteps aroused her. He bore a crystal +goblet, containing a liquor colourless as water, but bright enough to be +the draught of immortality. Aylmer was pale; but it seemed rather the +consequence of a highly wrought state of mind, and tension of spirit, +than of fear or doubt.</p> + +<p>"The concoction of the draught has been perfect," said he, in answer to +Georgiana's look. "Unless all my science have deceived me, it cannot +fail."</p> + +<p>"Save on your account, my dearest Aylmer," observed his wife, "I might +wish to put off this birth-mark of mortality by relinquishing mortality +itself, in preference to any other mode. Life is but a sad possession to +those who have attained precisely the degree of moral advancement at +which I stand. Were I weaker and blinder, it might be happiness. Were I +stronger, it might be endured hopefully. But, being what I find myself, +methinks I am of all mortals the most fit to die."</p> + +<p>"You are fit for heaven without tasting death!" replied her husband. +"But why do we speak of dying? The draught cannot fail. Behold its +effect upon this plant!"</p> + +<p>On the window-seat there stood a geranium, diseased with yellow +blotches, which had overspread all its leaves. Aylmer poured a small +quantity of the liquid upon the soil in which it grew. In a little time, +when the roots of the plant had taken up the moisture, the unsightly +blotches began to be extinguished in a living verdure.</p> + +<p>"There needed no proof," said Georgiana, quietly. "Give me the goblet. I +joyfully stake all upon your word."</p> + +<p>"Drink, then, thou lofty creature!" exclaimed Aylmer, with fervid +admiration. "There is no taint of imperfection on thy spirit. Thy +sensible frame, too, shall soon be all perfect!"</p> + +<p>She quaffed the liquid, and returned the goblet to his hand.</p> + +<p>"It is grateful," said she, with a placid smile. "Methinks it is like +water from a heavenly fountain; for it contains I know not what of +unobtrusive fragrance and deliciousness. It allays a feverish thirst, +that had parched me for many days. Now, dearest, let me sleep. My +earthly senses are closing over my spirit, like the leaves around the +heart of a rose, at sunset."</p> + +<p>She spoke the last words with a gentle reluctance, as if it required +almost more energy than she could command to pronounce the faint and +lingering syllables. Scarcely had they loitered through her lips, ere +she was lost in slumber. Aylmer sat by her side, watching her aspect +with the emotions proper to a man, the whole value of whose existence +was involved in the process now to be tested. Mingled with this mood, +however, was the philosophic investigation, characteristic of the man of +science. Not the minutest symptom escaped him. A heightened flush of the +cheek—a slight irregularity of breath—a quiver of the eyelid—a hardly +perceptible tremor through the frame—such were the details which, as +the moments passed, he wrote down in his folio volume. Intense thought +had set its stamp upon every previous page of that volume; but the +thoughts of years were all concentrated upon the last.</p> + +<p>While thus employed, he failed not to gaze often at the fatal Hand, and +not without a shudder. Yet once, by a strange and unaccountable impulse, +he pressed it with his lips. His spirit recoiled, however, in the very +act, and Georgiana, out of the midst of her deep sleep, moved uneasily +and murmured, as if in remonstrance. Again, Aylmer resumed his watch. +Nor was it without avail. The Crimson Hand, which at first had been +strongly visible upon the marble paleness of Georgiana's cheek now grew +more faintly outlined. She remained not less pale than ever; but the +birth-mark, with every breath that came and went, lost somewhat of its +former distinctness. Its presence had been awful; its departure was more +awful still. Watch the stain of the rainbow fading out of the sky; and +you will know how that mysterious symbol passed away.</p> + +<p>"By Heaven, it is well-nigh gone!" said Aylmer to himself, in almost +irrepressible ecstasy. "I can scarcely trace it now. Success! Success! +And now it is like the faintest rose-colour. The slightest flush of +blood across her cheek would overcome it. But she is so pale!"</p> + +<p>He drew aside the window-curtain, and suffered the light of natural day +to fall into the room, and rest upon her cheek. At the same time, he +heard a gross, hoarse chuckle, which he had long known as his servant +Aminadab's expression of delight.</p> + +<p>"Ah, clod! Ah, earthly mass!" cried Aylmer, laughing in a sort of +frenzy. "You have served me well! Matter and Spirit—Earth and +Heaven—have both done their part in this! Laugh, thing of the senses! +You have earned the right to laugh."</p> + +<p>These exclamations broke Georgiana's sleep. She slowly unclosed her +eyes, and gazed into the mirror, which her husband had arranged for that +purpose. A faint smile flitted over her lips, when she recognized how +barely perceptible was now that Crimson Hand, which had once blazed +forth with such disastrous brilliancy as to scare away all their +happiness. But then her eyes sought Aylmer's face, with a trouble and +anxiety that he could by no means account for.</p> + +<p>"My poor Aylmer!" murmured she.</p> + +<p>"Poor? Nay, richest! Happiest! Most favoured!" exclaimed he. "My +peerless bride, it is successful! You are perfect!"</p> + +<p>"My poor Aylmer!" she repeated, with a more than human tenderness. "You +have aimed loftily!—you have done nobly! Do not repent, that, with so +high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could +offer. Aylmer—dearest Aylmer, I am dying!"</p> + +<p>Alas, it was too true! The fatal Hand had grappled with the mystery of +life, and was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union +with a mortal frame. As the last crimson tint of the birth-mark—that +sole token of human imperfection—faded from her cheek, the parting +breath of the now perfect woman passed into the atmosphere, and her +soul, lingering a moment near her husband, took its heavenward flight. +Then a hoarse, chuckling laugh was heard again! Thus ever does the gross +Fatality of Earth exult in its invariable triumph over the immortal +essence, which, in this dim sphere of half-development, demands the +completeness of a higher state. Yet, had Aylmer reached a profounder +wisdom, he need not thus have flung away the happiness, which would have +woven his mortal life of the self-same texture with the celestial. The +momentary circumstance was too strong for him; he failed to look beyond +the shadowy scope of Time, and living once for all in Eternity, to find +the perfect Future in the present.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="A_TERRIBLY_STRANGE_BED" id="A_TERRIBLY_STRANGE_BED"></a>A TERRIBLY STRANGE BED</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Wilkie Collins</span></h3> + + +<p>Shortly after my education at college was finished, I happened to be +staying at Paris with an English friend. We were both young men then, +and lived, I am afraid, rather a wild life, in the delightful city of +our sojourn. One night we were idling about the neighbourhood of the +Palais Royal, doubtful to what amusement we should next betake +ourselves. My friend proposed a visit to Frascati's; but his suggestion +was not to my taste. I knew Frascati's, as the French saying is, by +heart; had lost and won plenty of five-franc pieces there, merely for +amusement's sake, until it was amusement no longer, and was thoroughly +tired, in fact, of all the ghastly respectabilities of such a social +anomaly as a respectable gambling-house.</p> + +<p>"For Heaven's sake," said I to my friend, "let us go somewhere where we +can see a little genuine, blackguard, poverty-stricken gaming, with no +false gingerbread glitter thrown over it at all. Let us get away from +fashionable Frascati's, to a house where they don't mind letting in a +man with a ragged coat, or a man with no coat, ragged or otherwise."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said my friend, "we needn't go out of the Palais Royal to +find the sort of company you want. Here's the place just before us; as +blackguard a place, by all report, as you could possibly wish to see."</p> + +<p>In another minute we arrived at the door, and entered the house.</p> + +<p>When we got upstairs, and had left our hats and sticks with the +doorkeeper, we were admitted into the chief gambling-room. We did not +find many people assembled there. But, few as the men were who looked up +at us on our entrance, they were all types—lamentably true types—of +their respective classes.</p> + +<p>We had come to see blackguards; but these men were something worse. +There is a comic side, more or less appreciable, in all blackguardism: +here there was nothing but tragedy—mute, weird tragedy. The quiet in +the room was horrible. The thin, haggard, long-haired young man, whose +sunken eyes fiercely watched the turning up of the cards, never spoke; +the flabby, fat-faced, pimply player, who pricked his piece of +pasteboard perseveringly, to register how often black won, and how often +red, never spoke; the dirty, wrinkled old man, with the vulture eyes and +the darned great-coat, who had lost his last sou, and still looked on +desperately after he could play no longer, never spoke. Even the voice +of the croupier sounded as if it were strangely dulled and thickened in +the atmosphere of the room. I had entered the place to laugh, but the +spectacle before me was something to weep over. I soon found it +necessary to take refuge in excitement from the depression of spirits +which was fast stealing on me. Unfortunately I sought the nearest +excitement, by going to the table and beginning to play. Still more +unfortunately, as the event will show, I won—won prodigiously; won +incredibly; won at such a rate that the regular players at the table +crowded round me; and staring at my stakes with hungry, superstitious +eyes, whispered to one another that the English stranger was going to +break the bank.</p> + +<p>The game was Rouge et Noir. I had played at it in every city in Europe, +without, however, the care or the wish to study the Theory of +Chances—that philosopher's stone of all gamblers! And a gambler, +in the strict sense of the word, I had never been. I was heart-whole +from the corroding passion for play. My gaming was a mere idle +amusement. I never resorted to it by necessity, because I never knew +what it was to want money. I never practised it so incessantly as to +lose more than I could afford, or to gain more than I could coolly +pocket without being thrown off my balance by my good luck. In short, +I had hitherto frequented gambling-tables—just as I frequented +ball-rooms and opera-houses—because they amused me, and because I +had nothing better to do with my leisure hours.</p> + +<p>But on this occasion it was very different—now, for the first time in +my life, I felt what the passion for play really was. My successes first +bewildered, and then, in the most literal meaning of the word, +intoxicated me. Incredible as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, +that I only lost when I attempted to estimate chances, and played +according to previous calculation. If I left everything to luck, and +staked without any care or consideration, I was sure to win—to win in +the face of every recognized probability in favour of the bank. At first +some of the men present ventured their money safely enough on my colour; +but I speedily increased my stakes to sums which they dared not risk. +One after another they left off playing, and breathlessly looked on at +my game.</p> + +<p>Still, time after time, I staked higher and higher, and still won. The +excitement in the room rose to fever pitch. The silence was interrupted +by a deep-muttered chorus of oaths and exclamations in different +languages, every time the gold was shovelled across to my side of the +table—even the imperturbable croupier dashed his rake on the floor in a +(French) fury of astonishment at my success. But one man present +preserved his self-possession, and that man was my friend. He came to my +side, and whispering in English, begged me to leave the place, satisfied +with what I had already gained. I must do him the justice to say that he +repeated his warnings and entreaties several times, and only left me and +went away, after I had rejected his advice (I was to all intents and +purposes gambling drunk) in terms which rendered it impossible for him +to address me again that night.</p> + +<p>Shortly after he had gone, a hoarse voice behind me cried, "Permit me, +my dear sir—permit me to restore to their proper place two napoleons +which you have dropped. Wonderful luck, sir! I pledge you my word of +honour, as an old soldier, in the course of my long experience in this +sort of thing, I never saw such luck as yours—never! Go on, sir—<i>Sacre +mille bombes!</i> Go on boldly, and break the bank!"</p> + +<p>I turned round and saw, nodding and smiling at me with inveterate +civility, a tall man, dressed in a frogged and braided surtout.</p> + +<p>If I had been in my senses, I should have considered him, personally, as +being rather a suspicious specimen of an old soldier. He had goggling, +bloodshot eyes, mangy moustaches, and a broken nose. His voice betrayed +a barrack-room intonation of the worst order, and he had the dirtiest +pair of hands I ever saw—even in France. These little personal +peculiarities exercised, however, no repelling influence on me. In the +mad excitement, the reckless triumph of that moment, I was ready to +"fraternize" with anybody who encouraged me in my game. I accepted the +old soldier's offered pinch of snuff; clapped him on the back, and swore +he was the honestest fellow in the world—the most glorious relic of the +Grand Army that I had ever met with. "Go on!" cried my military friend, +snapping his fingers in ecstasy—"Go on, and win! Break the bank—<i>Mille +tonnerres!</i> my gallant English comrade, break the bank!"</p> + +<p>And I <i>did</i> go on—went on at such a rate, that in another quarter of an +hour the croupier called out, "Gentlemen, the bank has discontinued for +to-night." All the notes, and all the gold in that "bank," now lay in a +heap under my hands; the whole floating capital of the gambling-house +was waiting to pour into my pockets!</p> + +<p>"Tie up the money in your pocket-handkerchief, my worthy sir," said the +old soldier, as I wildly plunged my hands into my heap of gold. "Tie it +up, as we used to tie up a bit of dinner in the Grand Army; your +winnings are too heavy for any breeches-pockets that ever were sewed. +There! that's it—shovel them in, notes and all! <i>Credie!</i> what luck! +Stop! another napoleon on the floor. <i>Ah! sacre petit polisson de +Napoleon!</i> have I found thee at last? Now then, sir—two tight double +knots each way with your honourable permission, and the money's safe. +Feel it! feel it, fortunate sir! hard and round as a cannon-ball—<i>A +bas</i> if they had only fired such cannon-balls at us at Austerlitz—<i>nom +d'une pipe!</i> if they only had! And now, as an ancient grenadier, as an +ex-brave of the French army, what remains for me to do? I ask what? +Simply this, to entreat my valued English friend to drink a bottle of +champagne with me, and toast the goddess Fortune in foaming goblets +before we part!"</p> + +<p>"Excellent ex-brave! Convivial ancient grenadier! Champagne by all +means! An English cheer for an old soldier! Hurrah! hurrah! Another +English cheer for the goddess Fortune! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!"</p> + +<p>"Bravo! the Englishman; the amiable, gracious Englishman, in whose veins +circulates the vivacious blood of France! Another glass? <i>A bas!</i>—the +bottle is empty! Never mind! <i>Vive le vin!</i> I, the old soldier, order +another bottle, and half a pound of <i>bonbons</i> with it!"</p> + +<p>"No, no, ex-brave; never—ancient grenadier! <i>Your</i> bottle last time; +<i>my</i> bottle this! Behold it! Toast away! The French Army! the great +Napoleon! the present company! the croupier! the honest croupier's wife +and daughters—if he has any! the ladies generally! everybody in the +world!"</p> + +<p>By the time the second bottle of champagne was emptied, I felt as if I +had been drinking liquid fire—my brain seemed all aflame. No excess in +wine had ever had this effect on me before in my life. Was it the result +of a stimulant acting upon my system when I was in a highly excited +state? Was my stomach in a particularly disordered condition? Or was the +champagne amazingly strong?</p> + +<p>"Ex-brave of the French Army!" cried I, in a mad state of exhilaration, +"<i>I</i> am on fire! how are <i>you</i>? You have set me on fire! Do you hear, my +hero of Austerlitz? Let us have a third bottle of champagne to put the +flame out!"</p> + +<p>The old soldier wagged his head, rolled his goggle-eyes, until I +expected to see them slip out of their sockets; placed his dirty +forefinger by the side of his broken nose; solemnly ejaculated "Coffee!" +and immediately ran off into an inner room.</p> + +<p>The word pronounced by the eccentric veteran seemed to have a magical +effect on the rest of the company present. With one accord they all rose +to depart. Probably they had expected to profit by my intoxication; but +finding that my new friend was benevolently bent on preventing me from +getting dead drunk, had now abandoned all hope of thriving pleasantly on +my winnings. Whatever their motive might be, at any rate they went away +in a body. When the old soldier returned, and sat down again opposite to +me at the table, we had the room to ourselves. I could see the croupier, +in a sort of vestibule which opened out of it, eating his supper in +solitude. The silence was now deeper than ever.</p> + +<p>A sudden change, too, had come over the "ex-brave." He assumed a +portentously solemn look; and when he spoke to me again, his speech was +ornamented by no oaths, enforced by no finger-snapping, enlivened by no +apostrophes or exclamations.</p> + +<p>"Listen, my dear sir," said he, in mysteriously confidential +tones—"listen to an old soldier's advice. I have been to the mistress +of the house (a very charming woman, with a genius for cookery!) to +impress on her the necessity of making us some particularly strong and +good coffee. You must drink this coffee in order to get rid of your +little amiable exaltation of spirits before you think of going home—you +<i>must</i>, my good and gracious friend! With all that money to take home +to-night, it is a sacred duty to yourself to have your wits about you. +You are known to be a winner to an enormous extent by several gentlemen +present to-night, who, in a certain point of view, are very worthy and +excellent fellows; but they are mortal men, my dear sir, and they have +their amiable weaknesses! Need I say more? Ah, no, no! you understand +me! Now, this is what you must do—send for a cabriolet when you feel +quite well again—draw up all the windows when you get into it—and tell +the driver to take you home only through the large and well-lighted +thoroughfares. Do this; and you and your money will be safe. Do this; +and to-morrow you will thank an old soldier for giving you a word of +honest advice."</p> + +<p>Just as the ex-brave ended his oration in very lachrymose tones, the +coffee came in, ready poured out in two cups. My attentive friend handed +me one of the cups with a bow. I was parched with thirst, and drank it +off at a draft. Almost instantly afterward I was seized with a fit of +giddiness, and felt more completely intoxicated than ever. The room +whirled round and round furiously; the old soldier seemed to be +regularly bobbing up and down before me like the piston of a +steam-engine. I was half deafened by a violent singing in my ears; a +feeling of utter bewilderment, helplessness, idiocy, overcame me. I rose +from my chair, holding on by the table to keep my balance; and stammered +out that I felt dreadfully unwell—so unwell that I did not know how I +was to get home.</p> + +<p>"My dear friend," answered the old soldier—and even his voice seemed to +be bobbing up and down as he spoke—"my dear friend, it would be madness +to go home in <i>your</i> state; you would be sure to lose your money; you +might be robbed and murdered with the greatest ease. <i>I</i> am going to +sleep here: <i>do</i> you sleep here, too—they make up capital beds in this +house—take one; sleep off the effects of the wine, and go home safely +with your winnings to-morrow—to-morrow, in broad daylight."</p> + +<p>I had but two ideas left: one, that I must never let go hold of my +handkerchief full of money; the other, that I must lie down somewhere +immediately, and fall off into a comfortable sleep. So I agreed to the +proposal about the bed, and took the offered arm of the old soldier, +carrying my money with my disengaged hand. Preceded by the croupier, we +passed along some passages and up a flight of stairs into the bedroom +which I was to occupy. The ex-brave shook me warmly by the hand, +proposed that we should breakfast together, and then, followed by the +croupier, left me for the night.</p> + +<p>I ran to the wash-hand stand; drank some of the water in my jug; poured +the rest out, and plunged my face into it; then sat down in a chair and +tried to compose myself. I soon felt better. The change for my lungs, +from the fetid atmosphere of the gambling-room to the cool air of the +apartment I now occupied, the almost equally refreshing change for my +eyes, from the glaring gaslights of the "salon" to the dim, quiet +flicker of one bedroom-candle, aided wonderfully the restorative effects +of cold water. The giddiness left me, and I began to feel a little like +a reasonable being again. My first thought was of the risk of sleeping +all night in a gambling-house; my second, of the still greater risk of +trying to get out after the house was closed, and of going home alone at +night through the streets of Paris with a large sum of money about me. I +had slept in worse places than this on my travels; so I determined to +lock, bolt, and barricade my door, and take my chance till the next +morning.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, I secured myself against all intrusion; looked under the +bed, and into the cupboard; tried the fastening of the window; and then, +satisfied that I had taken every proper precaution, pulled off my upper +clothing, put my light, which was a dim one, on the hearth among a +feathery litter of wood-ashes, and got into bed, with the handkerchief +full of money under my pillow.</p> + +<p>I soon felt not only that I could not go to sleep, but that I could not +even close my eyes. I was wide awake, and in a high fever. Every nerve +in my body trembled—every one of my senses seemed to be preternaturally +sharpened. I tossed and rolled, and tried every kind of position, and +perseveringly sought out the cold corners of the bed, and all to no +purpose. Now I thrust my arms over the clothes; now I poked them under +the clothes; now I violently shot my legs straight out down to the +bottom of the bed; now I convulsively coiled them up as near my chin as +they would go; now I shook out my crumpled pillow, changed it to the +cool side, patted it flat, and lay down quietly on my back; now I +fiercely doubled it in two, set it up on end, thrust it against the +board of the bed, and tried a sitting posture. Every effort was in vain; +I groaned with vexation as I felt that I was in for a sleepless night.</p> + +<p>What could I do? I had no book to read. And yet, unless I found out some +method of diverting my mind, I felt certain that I was in the condition +to imagine all sorts of horrors; to rack my brain with forebodings of +every possible and impossible danger; in short, to pass the night in +suffering all conceivable varieties of nervous terror.</p> + +<p>I raised myself on my elbow, and looked about the room—which was +brightened by a lovely moonlight pouring straight through the window—to +see if it contained any pictures or ornaments that I could at all +clearly distinguish. While my eyes wandered from wall to wall, a +remembrance of Le Maistre's delightful little book, "Voyage autour de ma +Chambre," occurred to me. I resolved to imitate the French author, and +find occupation and amusement enough to relieve the tedium of my +wakefulness, by making a mental inventory of every article of furniture +I could see, and by following up to their sources the multitude of +associations which even a chair, a table, or a wash-hand stand may be +made to call forth.</p> + +<p>In the nervous, unsettled state of my mind at that moment, I found it +much easier to make my inventory than to make my reflections, and +thereupon soon gave up all hope of thinking in Le Maistre's fanciful +track—or, indeed, of thinking at all. I looked about the room at the +different articles of furniture, and did nothing more.</p> + +<p>There was, first, the bed I was lying in; a four-post bed, of all things +in the world to meet with in Paris—yes, a thorough clumsy British +four-poster, with a regular top lined with chintz—the regular fringed +valance all round—the regular stifling, unwholesome curtains, which I +remembered having mechanically drawn back against the posts without +particularly noticing the bed when I first got into the room. Then there +was the marble-topped wash-hand stand, from which the water I had +spilled, in my hurry to pour it out, was still dripping, slowly and more +slowly, on to the brick floor. Then two small chairs, with my coat, +waistcoat, and trousers flung on them. Then a large elbow-chair covered +with dirty white dimity, with my cravat and shirt collar thrown over the +back. Then a chest of drawers with two of the brass handles off, and a +tawdry, broken china inkstand placed on it by way of ornament for the +top. Then the dressing-table, adorned by a very small looking-glass, and +a very large pincushion. Then the window—an unusually large window. +Then a dark old picture, which the feeble candle dimly showed me. It was +the picture of a fellow in a high Spanish hat, crowned with a plume of +towering feathers. A swarthy, sinister ruffian, looking upward, shading +his eyes with his hand, and looking intently upward—it might be at some +tall gallows on which he was going to be hanged. At any rate, he had the +appearance of thoroughly deserving it.</p> + +<p>This picture put a kind of constraint upon me to look upward too—at the +top of the bed. It was a gloomy and not an interesting object, and I +looked back at the picture. I counted the feathers in the man's +hat—they stood out in relief—three white, two green. I observed the +crown of his hat, which was of a conical shape, according to the fashion +supposed to have been favoured by Guido Fawkes. I wondered what he was +looking up at. It couldn't be at the stars; such a desperado was neither +astrologer nor astronomer. It must be at the high gallows, and he was +going to be hanged presently. Would the executioner come into possession +of his conical crowned hat and plume of feathers? I counted the feathers +again—three white, two green.</p> + +<p>While I still lingered over this very improving and intellectual +employment, my thoughts insensibly began to wander. The moonlight +shining into the room reminded me of a certain moonlight night in +England—the night after a picnic party in a Welsh valley. Every +incident of the drive homeward through lovely scenery, which the +moonlight made lovelier than ever, came back to my remembrance, though I +had never given the picnic a thought for years; though, if I had <i>tried</i> +to recollect it, I could certainly have recalled little or nothing of +that scene long past. Of all the wonderful faculties that help to tell +us we are immortal, which speaks the sublime truth more eloquently than +memory? Here was I, in a strange house of the most suspicious character, +in a situation of uncertainty, and even of peril, which might seem to +make the cool exercise of my recollection almost out of the question; +nevertheless, remembering, quite involuntarily, places, people, +conversations, minute circumstances of every kind, which I had thought +forgotten forever; which I could not possibly have recalled at will, +even under the most favourable auspices. And what cause had produced in +a moment the whole of this strange, complicated, mysterious effect? +Nothing but some rays of moonlight shining in at my bedroom window.</p> + +<p>I was still thinking of the picnic—of our merriment on the drive +home—of the sentimental young lady who <i>would</i> quote "Childe Harold" +because it was moonlight. I was absorbed by these past scenes and past +amusements, when, in an instant, the thread on which my memories hung +snapped asunder; my attention immediately came back to present things +more vividly than ever, and I found myself, I neither knew why nor +wherefore, looking hard at the picture again.</p> + +<p>Looking for what?</p> + +<p>Good God! the man had pulled his hat down on his brows! No! the hat +itself was gone! Where was the conical crown? Where the feathers—three +white, two green? Not there! In place of the hat and feathers, what +dusky object was it that now hid his forehead, his eyes, his shading +hand?</p> + +<p>Was the bed moving?</p> + +<p>I turned on my back and looked up. Was I mad? drunk? dreaming? giddy +again? or was the top of the bed really moving down—sinking slowly, +regularly, silently, horribly, right down throughout the whole of its +length and breadth—right down upon me, as I lay underneath?</p> + +<p>My blood seemed to stand still. A deadly, paralyzing coldness stole all +over me as I turned my head round on the pillow and determined to test +whether the bed-top was really moving or not, by keeping my eye on the +man in the picture.</p> + +<p>The next look in that direction was enough. The dull, black, frowzy +outline of the valance above me was within an inch of being parallel +with his waist. I still looked breathlessly. And steadily and +slowly—very slowly—I saw the figure, and the line of frame below the +figure, vanish, as the valance moved down before it.</p> + +<p>I am, constitutionally, anything but timid. I have been on more than one +occasion in peril of my life, and have not lost my self-possession for +an instant; but when the conviction first settled on my mind that the +bed-top was really moving, was steadily and continuously sinking down +upon me, I looked up shuddering, helpless, panic-stricken, beneath the +hideous machinery for murder, which was advancing closer and closer to +suffocate me where I lay.</p> + +<p>I looked up, motionless, speechless, breathless. The candle, fully +spent, went out; but the moonlight still brightened the room. Down and +down, without pausing and without sounding, came the bed-top, and still +my panic terror seemed to bind me faster and faster to the mattress on +which I lay—down and down it sank, till the dusty odour from the lining +of the canopy came stealing into my nostrils.</p> + +<p>At that final moment the instinct of self-preservation startled me out +of my trance, and I moved at last. There was just room for me to roll +myself sidewise off the bed. As I dropped noiselessly to the floor, the +edge of the murderous canopy touched me on the shoulder.</p> + +<p>Without stopping to draw my breath, without wiping the cold sweat from +my face, I rose instantly on my knees to watch the bed-top. I was +literally spellbound by it. If I had heard footsteps behind me, I could +not have turned round; if a means of escape had been miraculously +provided for me, I could not have moved to take advantage of it. The +whole life in me was, at that moment, concentrated in my eyes.</p> + +<p>It descended—the whole canopy, with the fringe round it, came +down—down—close down; so close that there was not room now to squeeze +my finger between the bed-top and the bed. I felt at the side, and +discovered that what had appeared to me from beneath to be the ordinary +light canopy of a four-post bed was in reality a thick, broad mattress, +the substance of which was concealed by the valance and its fringe. I +looked up and saw the four posts rising hideously bare. In the middle of +the bed-top was a huge wooden screw that had evidently worked it down +through a hole in the ceiling, just as ordinary presses are worked down +on the substance selected for compression. The frightful apparatus moved +without making the faintest noise. There had been no creaking as it came +down; there was now not the faintest sound from the room above. Amidst a +dead and awful silence I beheld before me—in the nineteenth century, +and in the civilized capital of France—such a machine for secret murder +by suffocation as might have existed in the worst days of the +Inquisition, in the lonely inns among the Hartz Mountains, in the +mysterious tribunals of Westphalia! Still, as I looked on it, I could +not move, I could hardly breathe, but I began to recover the power of +thinking, and in a moment I discovered the murderous conspiracy framed +against me in all its horror.</p> + +<p>My cup of coffee had been drugged, and drugged too strongly. I had been +saved from being smothered by having taken an overdose of some narcotic. +How I had chafed and fretted at the fever fit which had preserved my +life by keeping me awake! How recklessly I had confided myself to the +two wretches who had led me into this room, determined, for the sake of +my winnings, to kill me in my sleep by the surest and most horrible +contrivance for secretly accomplishing my destruction! How many men, +winners like me, had slept, as I had proposed to sleep, in that bed, and +had never been seen or heard of more! I shuddered at the bare idea of +it.</p> + +<p>But ere long all thought was again suspended by the sight of the +murderous canopy moving once more. After it had remained on the bed—as +nearly as I could guess—about ten minutes, it began to move up again. +The villains who worked it from above evidently believed that their +purpose was now accomplished. Slowly and silently, as it had descended, +that horrible bed-top rose toward its former place. When it reached the +upper extremities of the four posts, it reached the ceiling too. Neither +hole nor screw could be seen; the bed became in appearance an ordinary +bed again—the canopy an ordinary canopy—even to the most suspicious +eyes.</p> + +<p>Now, for the first time, I was able to move—to rise from my knees—to +dress myself in my upper clothing—and to consider of how I should +escape. If I betrayed by the smallest noise that the attempt to +suffocate me had failed, I was certain to be murdered. Had I made any +noise already? I listened intently, looking toward the door.</p> + +<p>No! no footsteps in the passage outside—no sound of a tread, light or +heavy, in the room above—absolute silence everywhere. Besides locking +and bolting my door, I had moved an old wooden chest against it, which I +had found under the bed. To remove this chest (my blood ran cold as I +thought of what its contents <i>might</i> be!) without making some +disturbance was impossible; and, moreover, to think of escaping through +the house, now barred up for the night, was sheer insanity. Only one +chance was left me—the window. I stole to it on tiptoe.</p> + +<p>My bedroom was on the first floor, above an entresol, and looked into +the back street. I raised my hand to open the window, knowing that on +that action hung, by the merest hair-breadth, my chance of safety. They +keep vigilant watch in a House of Murder. If any part of the frame +cracked, if the hinge creaked, I was a lost man! It must have occupied +me at least five minutes, reckoning by time—five <i>hours</i> reckoning by +suspense—to open that window. I succeeded in doing it silently—in +doing it with all the dexterity of a house-breaker—and then looked down +into the street. To leap the distance beneath me would be almost certain +destruction! Next, I looked round at the sides of the house. Down the +left side ran a thick water-pipe—it passed close by the outer edge of +the window. The moment I saw the pipe, I knew I was saved. My breath +came and went freely for the first time since I had seen the canopy of +the bed moving down upon me!</p> + +<p>To some men the means of escape which I had discovered might have seemed +difficult and dangerous enough—to <i>me</i> the prospect of slipping down +the pipe into the street did not suggest even a thought of peril. I had +always been accustomed, by the practise of gymnastics, to keep up my +schoolboy powers as a daring and expert climber; and knew that my head, +hands, and feet would serve me faithfully in any hazards of ascent or +descent. I had already got one leg over the window-sill, when I +remembered the handkerchief filled with money under my pillow. I could +well have afforded to leave it behind me, but I was revengefully +determined that the miscreants of the gambling-house should miss their +plunder as well as their victim. So I went back to the bed and tied the +heavy handkerchief at my back by my cravat.</p> + +<p>Just as I had made it tight and fixed it in a comfortable place, I +thought I heard a sound of breathing outside the door. The chill feeling +of horror ran through me again as I listened. No! dead silence still in +the passage—I had only heard the night air blowing softly into the +room. The next moment I was on the window-sill—and the next I had a +firm grip on the water-pipe with my hands and knees.</p> + +<p>I slid down into the street easily and quietly, as I thought I should, +and immediately set off at the top of my speed to a branch "Prefecture" +of Police, which I knew was situated in the immediate neighbourhood. A +"Sub-prefect," and several picked men among his subordinates, happened +to be up, maturing, I believe, some scheme for discovering the +perpetrator of a mysterious murder which all Paris was talking of just +then. When I began my story, in a breathless hurry and in very bad +French, I could see that the Sub-prefect suspected me of being a drunken +Englishman who had robbed somebody; but he soon altered his opinion as I +went on, and before I had anything like concluded, he shoved all the +papers before him into a drawer, put on his hat, supplied me with +another (for I was bareheaded), ordered a file of soldiers, desired his +expert followers to get ready all sorts of tools for breaking open doors +and ripping up brick flooring, and took my arm, in the most friendly and +familiar manner possible, to lead me with him out of the house. I will +venture to say that when the Sub-prefect was a little boy, and was taken +for the first time to the play, he was not half as much pleased as he +was now at the job in prospect for him at the gambling-house!</p> + +<p>Away we went through the streets, the Sub-prefect cross-examining and +congratulating me in the same breath as we marched at the head of our +formidable <i>posse comitatus</i>. Sentinels were placed at the back and +front of the house the moment we got to it, a tremendous battery of +knocks was directed against the door; a light appeared at a window; I +was told to conceal myself behind the police—then came more knocks, and +a cry of "Open in the name of the law!" At that terrible summons bolts +and locks gave way before an invisible hand, and the moment after the +Sub-prefect was in the passage, confronting a waiter half dressed and +ghastly pale. This was the short dialogue which immediately took place:</p> + +<p>"We want to see the Englishman who is sleeping in this house."</p> + +<p>"He went away hours ago."</p> + +<p>"He did no such thing. His friend went away; <i>he</i> remained. Show us to +his bedroom!"</p> + +<p>"I swear to you, Monsieur le Sous-prefect, he is not here! he—"</p> + +<p>"I swear to you, Monsieur le Garçon, he is. He slept here—he didn't +find your bed comfortable—he came to us to complain of it—here he is +among my men—and here am I ready to look for a flea or two in his +bedstead. Renaudin! (calling to one of the subordinates, and pointing to +the waiter), collar that man, and tie his hands behind him. Now, then, +gentlemen, let us walk upstairs!"</p> + +<p>Every man and woman in the house was secured—the "Old Soldier" the +first. Then I identified the bed in which I had slept, and then we went +into the room above.</p> + +<p>No object that was at all extraordinary appeared in any part of it. The +Sub-prefect looked round the place, commanded everybody to be silent, +stamped twice on the floor, called for a candle, looked attentively at +the spot he had stamped on, and ordered the flooring there to be +carefully taken up. This was done in no time. Lights were produced, and +we saw a deep raftered cavity between the floor of this room and the +ceiling of the room beneath. Through this cavity there ran +perpendicularly a sort of case of iron thickly greased; and inside the +case appeared the screw, which communicated with the bed-top below. +Extra lengths of screw, freshly oiled; levers covered with felt; all the +complete upper works of a heavy press—constructed with infernal +ingenuity so as to join the fixtures below, and when taken to pieces +again to go into the smallest possible compass—were next discovered and +pulled out on the floor. After some little difficulty the Sub-prefect +succeeded in putting the machinery together, and, leaving his men to +work it, descended with me to the bedroom. The smothering canopy was +then lowered, but not so noiselessly as I had seen it lowered. When I +mentioned this to the Sub-prefect, his answer, simple as it was, had a +terrible significance. "My men," said he, "are working down the bed-top +for the first time—the men whose money you won were in better +practise."</p> + +<p>We left the house in the sole possession of two police agents—every one +of the inmates being removed to prison on the spot. The Sub-prefect, +after taking down my "procès verbal" in his office, returned with me to +my hotel to get my passport. "Do you think," I asked, as I gave it to +him, "that any men have really been smothered in that bed, as they tried +to smother <i>me</i>?"</p> + +<p>"I have seen dozens of drowned men laid out at the Morgue," answered the +Sub-prefect, "in whose pocketbooks were found letters stating that they +had committed suicide in the Seine, because they had lost everything at +the gaming-table. Do I know how many of those men entered the same +gambling-house that <i>you</i> entered? won as <i>you</i> won? took that bed as +<i>you</i> took it? slept in it? were smothered in it? and were privately +thrown into the river, with a letter of explanation written by the +murderers and placed in their pocketbooks? No man can say how many or +how few have suffered the fate from which you have escaped. The people +of the gambling house kept their bedstead machinery a secret from +us—even from the police! The dead kept the rest of the secret for them. +Good-night, or rather good-morning, Monsieur Faulkner! Be at my office +again at nine o'clock—in the meantime, au revoir!"</p> + +<p>The rest of my story is soon told. I was examined and reexamined; the +gambling-house was strictly searched all through from top to bottom; the +prisoners were separately interrogated; and two of the less guilty among +them made a confession. I discovered that the Old Soldier was the master +of the gambling-house—<i>justice</i> discovered that he had been drummed out +of the army as a vagabond years ago; that he had been guilty of all +sorts of villainies since; that he was in possession of stolen property, +which the owners identified; and that he, the croupier, another +accomplice, and the woman who had made my cup of coffee, were all in the +secret of the bedstead. There appeared some reason to doubt whether the +inferior persons attached to the house knew anything of the suffocating +machinery; and they received the benefit of that doubt, by being treated +simply as thieves and vagabonds. As for the Old Soldier and his two head +myrmidons, they went to the galleys; the woman who had drugged my coffee +was imprisoned for I forget how many years; the regular attendants at +the gambling-house were considered "suspicious," and placed under +"surveillance"; and I became, for one whole week (which is a long time), +the head "lion" in Parisian society. My adventure was dramatized by +three illustrious play-makers, but never saw theatrical daylight; for +the censorship forbade the introduction on the stage of a correct copy +of the gambling-house bedstead.</p> + +<p>One good result was produced by my adventure, which any censorship must +have approved: it cured me of ever again trying "Rouge et Noir" as an +amusement. The sight of a green cloth, with packs of cards and heaps of +money on it, will henceforth be forever associated in my mind with the +sight of a bed canopy descending to suffocate me in the silence and +darkness of the night.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_TORTURE_BY_HOPE" id="THE_TORTURE_BY_HOPE"></a>THE TORTURE BY HOPE</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Villiers de l'Isle Adam</span></h3> + + +<p>Many years ago, as evening was closing in, the venerable Pedro Arbuez +d'Espila, sixth prior of the Dominicans of Segovia, and third Grand +Inquisitor of Spain, followed by a <i>fra redemptor</i>, and preceded by two +familiars of the Holy Office, the latter carrying lanterns, made their +way to a subterranean dungeon. The bolt of a massive door creaked, and +they entered a mephitic <i>in-pace</i>, where the dim light revealed between +rings fastened to the wall a blood-stained rack, a brazier, and a jug. +On a pile of straw, loaded with fetters and his neck encircled by an +iron carcan, sat a haggard man, of uncertain age, clothed in rags.</p> + +<p>This prisoner was no other than Rabbi Aser Abarbanel, a Jew of Arragon, +who—accused of usury and pitiless scorn for the poor—had been daily +subjected to torture for more than a year. Yet "his blindness was as +dense as his hide," and he had refused to abjure his faith.</p> + +<p>Proud of a filiation dating back thousands of years, proud of his +ancestors—for all Jews worthy of the name are vain of their blood—he +descended Talmudically from Othoniel and consequently from Ipsiboa, the +wife of the last judge of Israel, a circumstance which had sustained his +courage amid incessant torture. With tears in his eyes at the thought of +this resolute soul rejecting salvation, the venerable Pedro Arbuez +d'Espila, approaching the shuddering rabbi, addressed him as follows:</p> + +<p>"My son, rejoice: your trials here below are about to end. If in the +presence of such obstinacy I was forced to permit, with deep regret, the +use of great severity, my task of fraternal correction has its limits. +You are the fig tree which, having failed so many times to bear fruit, +at last withered, but God alone can judge your soul. Perhaps Infinite +Mercy will shine upon you at the last moment! We must hope so. There are +examples. So sleep in peace to-night. To-morrow you will be included in +the <i>auto da fé</i>: that is, you will be exposed to the <i>quéma-dero</i>, the +symbolical flames of the Everlasting Fire: It burns, as you know, only +at a distance, my son; and Death is at least two hours (often three) in +coming, on account of the wet, iced bandages, with which we protect the +heads and hearts of the condemned. There will be forty-three of you. +Placed in the last row, you will have time to invoke God and offer to +Him this baptism of fire, which is of the Holy Spirit. Hope in the +Light, and rest."</p> + +<p>With these words, having signed to his companions to unchain the +prisoner, the prior tenderly embraced him. Then came the turn of the +<i>fra redemptor</i>, who, in a low tone, entreated the Jew's forgiveness for +what he had made him suffer for the purpose of redeeming him; then the +two familiars silently kissed him. This ceremony over, the captive was +left, solitary and bewildered, in the darkness.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Rabbi Aser Abarbanel, with parched lips and visage worn by suffering, at +first gazed at the closed door with vacant eyes. Closed? The word +unconsciously roused a vague fancy in his mind, the fancy that he had +seen for an instant the light of the lanterns through a chink between +the door and the wall. A morbid idea of hope, due to the weakness of his +brain, stirred his whole being. He dragged himself toward the strange +<i>appearance</i>. Then, very gently and cautiously, slipping one finger into +the crevice, he drew the door toward him. Marvellous! By an +extraordinary accident the familiar who closed it had turned the huge +key an instant before it struck the stone casing, so that the rusty bolt +not having entered the hole, the door again rolled on its hinges.</p> + +<p>The rabbi ventured to glance outside. By the aid of a sort of luminous +dusk he distinguished at first a semicircle of walls indented by winding +stairs; and opposite to him, at the top of five or six stone steps, a +sort of black portal, opening into an immense corridor, whose first +arches only were visible from below.</p> + +<p>Stretching himself flat he crept to the threshold. Yes, it was really a +corridor, but endless in length. A wan light illumined it: lamps +suspended from the vaulted ceiling lightened at intervals the dull hue +of the atmosphere—the distance was veiled in shadow. Not a single door +appeared in the whole extent! Only on one side, the left, heavily grated +loopholes sunk in the walls, admitted a light which must be that of +evening, for crimson bars at intervals rested on the flags of the +pavement. What a terrible silence! Yet, yonder, at the far end of that +passage there might be a doorway of escape! The Jew's vacillating hope +was tenacious, for it was <i>the last</i>.</p> + +<p>Without hesitating, he ventured on the flags, keeping close under the +loopholes, trying to make himself part of the blackness of the long +walls. He advanced slowly, dragging himself along on his breast, forcing +back the cry of pain when some raw wound sent a keen pang through his +whole body.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the sound of a sandaled foot approaching reached his ears. He +trembled violently, fear stifled him, his sight grew dim. Well, it was +over, no doubt. He pressed himself into a niche and half lifeless with +terror, waited.</p> + +<p>It was a familiar hurrying along. He passed swiftly by, holding in his +clenched hand an instrument of torture—a frightful figure—and +vanished. The suspense which the rabbi had endured seemed to have +suspended the functions of life, and he lay nearly an hour unable to +move. Fearing an increase of tortures if he were captured, he thought of +returning to his dungeon. But the old hope whispered in his soul that +divine <i>perhaps</i>, which comforts us in our sorest trials. A miracle had +happened. He could doubt no longer. He began to crawl toward the chance +of escape. Exhausted by suffering and hunger, trembling with pain, he +pressed onward. The sepulchral corridor seemed to lengthen mysteriously, +while he, still advancing, gazed into the gloom where there <i>must</i> be +some avenue of escape.</p> + +<p>Oh! oh! He again heard footsteps, but this time they were slower, more +heavy. The white and black forms of two inquisitors appeared, emerging +from the obscurity beyond. They were conversing in low tones, and seemed +to be discussing some important subject, for they were gesticulating +vehemently.</p> + +<p>At this spectacle Rabbi Aser Abarbanel closed his eyes: his heart beat +so violently that it almost suffocated him; his rags were damp with the +cold sweat of agony; he lay motionless by the wall, his mouth wide open, +under the rays of a lamp, praying to the God of David.</p> + +<p>Just opposite to him the two inquisitors paused under the light of the +lamp—doubtless owing to some accident due to the course of their +argument. One, while listening to his companion, gazed at the rabbi! +And, beneath the look—whose absence of expression the hapless man did +not at first notice—he fancied he again felt the burning pincers scorch +his flesh, he was to be once more a living wound. Fainting, breathless, +with fluttering eyelids, he shivered at the touch of the monk's floating +robe. But—strange yet natural fact—the inquisitor's gaze was evidently +that of a man deeply absorbed in his intended reply, engrossed by what +he was hearing; his eyes were fixed—and seemed to look at the Jew +<i>without seeing him</i>.</p> + +<p>In fact, after the lapse of a few minutes, the two gloomy figures slowly +pursued their way, still conversing in low tones, toward the place +whence the prisoner had come; HE HAD NOT BEEN SEEN! Amid the horrible +confusion of the rabbi's thoughts, the idea darted through his brain: +"Can I be already dead that they did not see me?" A hideous impression +roused him from his lethargy: in looking at the wall against which his +face was pressed, he imagined he beheld two fierce eyes watching him! He +flung his head back in a sudden frenzy of fright, his hair fairly +bristling! Yet, no! No. His hand groped over the stones: it was the +<i>reflection</i> of the inquisitor's eyes, still retained in his own, which +had been refracted from two spots on the wall.</p> + +<p>Forward! He must hasten toward that goal which he fancied (absurdly, no +doubt) to be deliverance, toward the darkness from which he was now +barely thirty paces distant. He pressed forward faster on his knees, his +hands, at full length, dragging himself painfully along, and soon +entered the dark portion of this terrible corridor.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the poor wretch felt a gust of cold air on the hands resting +upon the flags; it came from under the little door to which the two +walls led.</p> + +<p>Oh, Heaven, if that door should open outward. Every nerve in the +miserable fugitive's body thrilled with hope. He examined it from top to +bottom, though scarcely able to distinguish its outlines in the +surrounding darkness. He passed his hand over it: no bolt, no lock! A +latch! He started up, the latch yielded to the pressure of his thumb: +the door silently swung open before him.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Halleluia!" murmured the rabbi in a transport of gratitude as, standing +on the threshold, he beheld the scene before him.</p> + +<p>The door had opened into the gardens, above which arched a starlit sky, +into spring, liberty, life! It revealed the neighbouring fields, +stretching toward the sierras, whose sinuous blue lines were relieved +against the horizon. Yonder lay freedom! O, to escape! He would journey +all night through the lemon groves, whose fragrance reached him. Once in +the mountains and he was safe! He inhaled the delicious air; the breeze +revived him, his lungs expanded! He felt in his swelling heart the <i>Veni +foràs</i> of Lazarus! And to thank once more the God who had bestowed this +mercy upon him, he extended his arms, raising his eyes toward Heaven. It +was an ecstasy of joy!</p> + +<p>Then he fancied he saw the shadow of his arms approach him—fancied that +he felt these shadowy arms inclose, embrace him—and that he was pressed +tenderly to some one's breast. A tall figure actually did stand directly +before him. He lowered his eyes—and remained motionless, gasping for +breath, dazed, with fixed eyes, fairly drivelling with terror.</p> + +<p>Horror! He was in the clasp of the Grand Inquisitor himself, the +venerable Pedro Arbuez d'Espila who gazed at him with tearful eyes, like +a good shepherd who had found his stray lamb.</p> + +<p>The dark-robed priest pressed the hapless Jew to his heart with so +fervent an outburst of love, that the edges of the monochal haircloth +rubbed the Dominican's breast. And while Aser Abarbanel with protruding +eyes gasped in agony in the ascetic's embrace, vaguely comprehending +that all the phases of this fatal evening were only a prearranged +torture, that of <span class="smcap">Hope</span>, the Grand Inquisitor, with an accent of touching +reproach and a look of consternation, murmured in his ear, his breath +parched and burning from long fasting:</p> + +<p>"What, my son! On the eve, perchance, of salvation—you wished to leave +us?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_BOX_WITH_THE_IRON_CLAMPS" id="THE_BOX_WITH_THE_IRON_CLAMPS"></a>THE BOX WITH THE IRON CLAMPS</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Florence Marryat</span></h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="IA" id="IA"></a>I</h3> + + +<p>Molton Chase is a charming, old-fashioned country house, which has been +in the possession of the Clayton family for centuries past; and as Harry +Clayton, its present owner, has plenty of money, and (having tasted the +pleasures of matrimony for only five years) has no knowledge (as yet) of +the delights of college and school bills coming in at Christmas-time, it +is his will to fill the Chase at that season with guests, to each of +whom he extends a welcome, as hearty as it is sincere.</p> + +<p>"Bella! are you not going to join the riding-party this afternoon?" he +said across the luncheon-table to his wife, one day in a December not +long ago.</p> + +<p>"Bella" was a dimpled little woman, whose artless expression of +countenance would well bear comparison with the honest, genial face +opposite to her, and who replied at once—</p> + +<p>"No! not this afternoon, Harry, dear. You know the Damers may come at +any time between this and seven o'clock, and I should not like to be out +when they arrive."</p> + +<p>"And may I ask Mrs. Clayton who <i>are</i> the Damers," inquired a friend of +her husband, who, on account of being handsome, considered himself +licensed to be pert—"that their advent should be the cause of our +losing the pleasure of your company this afternoon?"</p> + +<p>But the last thing Bella Clayton ever did was to take offence.</p> + +<p>"The Damers are my cousins, Captain Moss," she replied; "at least +Blanche Damer is."</p> + +<p>At this juncture a dark-eyed man who was sitting at the other end of the +table dropped the flirting converse he had been maintaining with a +younger sister of Mrs. Clayton's, and appeared to become interested in +what his hostess was saying.</p> + +<p>"Colonel Damer," he continued, "has been in India for the last twelve +years, and only returned to England a month ago; therefore it would seem +unkind on the first visit he has paid to his relatives that there should +be no one at home to welcome him."</p> + +<p>"Has Mrs. Damer been abroad for as long a time?" resumed her questioner, +a vision arising on his mental faculties of a lemon-coloured woman with +shoes down at heel.</p> + +<p>"Oh dear no!" replied his hostess. "Blanche came to England about five +years ago, but her health has been too delicate to rejoin her husband in +India since. Have we all finished, Harry, dear?"—and in another minute +the luncheon-table was cleared.</p> + +<p>As Mrs. Clayton crossed the hall soon afterwards to visit her nursery, +the same dark-eyed man who had regarded her fixedly when she mentioned +the name of Blanche Damer followed and accosted her.</p> + +<p>"Is it long since you have seen your cousin Mrs. Damer, Mrs. Clayton?"</p> + +<p>"I saw her about three years ago, Mr. Laurence; but she had a severe +illness soon after that, and has been living on the Continent ever +since. Why do you ask?"</p> + +<p>"For no especial reason," he answered smiling. "Perhaps I am a little +jealous lest this new-comer to whose arrival you look forward with so +much interest should usurp more of your time and attention than we +less-favoured ones can spare."</p> + +<p>He spoke with a degree of sarcasm, real or feigned, which Mrs. Clayton +immediately resented.</p> + +<p>"I am not aware that I have been in the habit of neglecting my guests, +Mr. Laurence," she replied; "but my cousin Blanche is more likely to +remind me of my duties than to tempt me to forget them."</p> + +<p>"Forgive me," he said, earnestly. "You have mistaken my meaning +altogether. But are you very intimate with this lady?"</p> + +<p>"Very much so," was the answer. "We were brought up together, and loved +each other as sisters until she married and went to India. For some +years after her return home our intercourse was renewed, and only +broken, on the occasion of her being ill and going abroad, as I have +described to you. Her husband, I have, of course, seen less of, but I +like what I know of him, and am anxious to show them both all the +hospitality in my power. She is a charming creature, and I am sure you +will admire her."</p> + +<p>"Doubtless I shall," he replied; "that is if she does not lay claim to +all Mrs. Clayton's interest in the affairs of Molton Chase."</p> + +<p>"No fear of that," laughed the cheery little lady as she ascended the +stairs, and left Mr. Laurence standing in the hall beneath.</p> + +<p>"Clayton," observed that gentleman, as he re-entered the luncheon-room +and drew his host into the privacy of a bay-window, "I really am afraid +I shall have to leave you this evening—if you won't think it rude of me +to go so suddenly."</p> + +<p>"But <i>why</i>, my dear fellow?" exclaimed Harry Clayton, as his blue eyes +searched into the other's soul. "What earthly reason can you have for +going, when your fixed plan was to stay with us over Christmas Day?"</p> + +<p>"Well! there is lots of work waiting for me to do, you know; and really +the time slips away so, and time is money to a slave like +myself—that—"</p> + +<p>"Now, my dear Laurence," said Harry Clayton conclusively, "you know you +are only making excuses. All the work that was absolutely necessary for +you to do before Christmas was finished before you came here, and you +said you felt yourself licensed to take a whole month's holiday. Now, +was not that the case?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Laurence could not deny the fact, and so he looked undecided, and +was silent.</p> + +<p>"Don't let me hear any more about your going before Christmas Day," said +his host, "or I shall be offended, and so will Bella; to say nothing of +Bella's sister—eh, Laurence!"</p> + +<p>Whereupon Mr. Laurence felt himself bound to remain; and saying in his +own mind that fate was against him, dropped the subject of his departure +altogether.</p> + +<p>One hour later, the riding party being then some miles from Molton +Chase, a travelling carriage laden with trunks drove up to the house, +and Mrs. Clayton, all blushes and smiles, stood on the hall-steps to +welcome her expected guests.</p> + +<p>Colonel Damer was the first to alight. He was a middle-aged man, but +with a fine soldierly bearing, which took off from his years; and he was +so eager to see to the safe exit of his wife from the carriage-door that +he had not time to do more than take off his hat to blooming Bella on +the steps.</p> + +<p>"Now, my love," he exclaimed as the lady's form appeared, "pray take +care; two steps: that's right—here you are, safe."</p> + +<p>And then Mrs. Damer, being securely landed, was permitted to fly into +the cousinly arms which were opened to receive her.</p> + +<p>"My dear Bella!"</p> + +<p>"My dearest Blanche—I am so delighted to see you again. Why, you are +positively frozen! Pray come in at once to the fire. Colonel Damer, my +servants will see to the luggage—do leave it to them, and come and warm +yourselves."</p> + +<p>A couple of men-servants now came forward and offered to see to the +unloading of the carriage—but Mrs. Damer did not move.</p> + +<p>"Will you not go in, my love, as your cousin proposes?" said her +husband. "I can see to the boxes if you should wish me to do so."</p> + +<p>"No, thank you," was the low reply; and there was such a ring of +melancholy in the voice of Mrs. Damer that a stranger would have been +attracted by it. "I prefer waiting until the carriage is unpacked."</p> + +<p>"Never mind the luggage, Blanche," whispered Mrs. Clayton, in her +coaxing manner. "Come in to the fire, dear—I have so much to tell you."</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute, Bella," said her cousin; and the entreaty was so firm +that it met with no further opposition.</p> + +<p>"One—two—three—four," exclaimed Colonel Damer, as the boxes +successively came to the ground. "I am afraid you will think we are +going to take you by storm, Mrs. Clayton; but perhaps you know my wife's +fancy for a large travelling <i>kit</i> of old. Is that all, Blanche?"</p> + +<p>"That is all—thank you," in the same low melancholy tones in which she +had spoken before. "Now, Bella, dear, which is to be my room?"</p> + +<p>"You would rather go there first, Blanche?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, please—I'm tired. Will you carry up that box for me?" she +continued, pointing out one of the trunks to the servant.</p> + +<p>"Directly, ma'am," he returned, as he was looking for change for a +sovereign wherewith to accommodate Colonel Damer—but the lady lingered +until he was at leisure. Then he shouldered the box next to the one she +had indicated, and she directed his attention to the fact, and made him +change his burden.</p> + +<p>"They'll all go up in time, ma'am," the man remarked; but Mrs. Damer, +answering nothing, did not set her foot upon the stairs until he was +halfway up them, with the trunk she had desired him to take first.</p> + +<p>Then she leaned wearily upon Bella Clayton's arm, pressing it fondly to +her side, and so the two went together to the bedroom which had been +appointed for the reception of the new guests. It was a large and +cosily-furnished apartment, with a dressing-room opening from it. When +the ladies arrived there they found the servant awaiting them with the +box in question.</p> + +<p>"Where will you have it placed, ma'am?" he demanded of Mrs. Damer.</p> + +<p>"Under the bed, please."</p> + +<p>But the bedstead was a French one, and the mahogany sides were so deep +that nothing could get beneath them but dust; and the trunk, although +small, was heavy and strong and clamped with iron, not at all the sort +of trunk that would go <i>anywhere</i>.</p> + +<p>"Nothing will go under the bed, ma'am!" said the servant in reply.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Damer slightly changed colour.</p> + +<p>"Never mind then: leave it there. Oh! what a comfort a good fire is," +she continued, turning to the hearth-rug, and throwing herself into an +arm-chair. "We have had such a cold drive from the station."</p> + +<p>"But about your box, Blanche?" said Mrs. Clayton, who had no idea of her +friends being put to any inconvenience. "It can't stand there; you'll +unpack it, won't you? or shall I have it moved into the passage?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, thank you, Bella—please let it stand where it is: it will do +very well indeed."</p> + +<p>"What will do very well?" exclaimed Colonel Damer, who now entered the +bedroom, followed by a servant with another trunk.</p> + +<p>"Only Blanche's box, Colonel Damer," said Bella Clayton. "She doesn't +wish to unpack it, and it will be in her way here, I'm afraid. It +<i>might</i> stand in your dressing-room."—This she said as a "feeler," +knowing that some gentlemen do not like to be inconvenienced, even in +their dressing-rooms.</p> + +<p>But Colonel Damer was as unselfish as it was possible for an old Indian +to be.</p> + +<p>"Of course it can," he replied. "Here (to the servant), just shoulder +that box, will you, and move it into the next room."</p> + +<p>The man took up the article in question rather carelessly, and nearly +let it fall again. Mrs. Damer darted forward as if to save it.</p> + +<p>"Pray put it down," she said, nervously. "I have no wish to have it +moved—I shall require it by-and-by; it will be no inconvenience—"</p> + +<p>"Just as you like, dear," said Mrs. Clayton, who was becoming rather +tired of the little discussion. "And now take off your things, dear +Blanche, and let me ring for some tea."</p> + +<p>Colonel Damer walked into his dressing-room and left the two ladies +alone. The remainder of the luggage was brought upstairs; the tea was +ordered and served, and whilst Mrs. Clayton busied herself in pouring it +out, Mrs. Damer sank back upon a sofa which stood by the fire, and +conversed with her cousin.</p> + +<p>She had been beautiful, this woman, in her earlier youth, though no one +would have thought it to see her now. As Bella handed her the tea she +glanced towards the thin hand stretched out to receive it, and from +thence to the worn face and hollow eyes, and could scarcely believe she +saw the same person she had parted from three years before.</p> + +<p>But she had not been so intimate with her of late, and she was almost +afraid of commenting upon her cousin's altered appearance, for fear it +might wound her; all she said was:</p> + +<p>"You look very delicate still, dear Blanche; I was in hopes the change +to the Continent would have set you up and made you stronger than you +were when you left England."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; I never shall be well again," was Mrs. Damer's careless reply: +"it's an old story now, Bella, and it's no use talking about it. Whom +have you staying in the house at present, dear?"</p> + +<p>"Well, we are nearly full," rejoined Mrs. Clayton. "There is my old +godfather, General Knox—you remember him, I know—and his son and +daughter; and the Ainsleys and their family; ditto, the Bayleys and the +Armstrongs, and then, for single men, we have young Brooke, and Harry's +old friend, Charley Moss, and Herbert Laurence, and—are you ill, +Blanchey?"</p> + +<p>An exclamation had burst from Mrs. Damer—hardly an exclamation, so much +as a half-smothered cry—but whether of pain or fear, it was hard to +determine.</p> + +<p>"Are you ill?" reiterated Mrs. Clayton, full of anxiety for her +fragile-looking cousin.</p> + +<p>"No," replied Blanche Damer, pressing her hand to her side, but still +deadly pale from the effect of whatever emotion she had gone through; +"it is nothing; I feel faint after our long journey."</p> + +<p>Colonel Damer had also heard the sound, and now appeared upon the +threshold of his dressing-room. He was one of those well-meaning, but +fussy men, who can never have two women alone for a quarter of an hour +without intruding on their privacy.</p> + +<p>"Did you call, my dearest?" he asked of his wife. "Do you want +anything?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, thank you," replied Bella for her cousin; "Blanche is only a +little tired and overcome by her travelling."</p> + +<p>"I think, after all, that I will move that trunk away for you into my +room," he said, advancing towards the box which had already been the +subject of discussion. Mrs. Damer started from the sofa with a face of +crimson.</p> + +<p>"I <i>beg</i> you will leave my boxes alone," she said, with an imploring +tone in her voice which was quite unfitted to the occasion. "I have not +brought one more than I need, and I wish them to remain under my own +eye."</p> + +<p>"There must be something very valuable in that receptacle," said Colonel +Damer, facetiously, as he beat a retreat to his own quarters.</p> + +<p>"Is it your linen box?" demanded Mrs. Clayton of her cousin.</p> + +<p>"Yes," in a hesitating manner; "that is, it contains several things that +I have in daily use; but go on about your visitors, Bella: are there any +more?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think so: where had I got to?—oh! to the bachelors: well, +there are Mr. Brooke and Captain Moss, and Mr. Laurence (the poet, you +know; Harry was introduced to him last season by Captain Moss), and my +brother Alfred; and that's all."</p> + +<p>"A very respectable list," said Mrs. Damer, languidly. "What kind of a +man is the—the poet you spoke of?"</p> + +<p>"Laurence?—oh, he seems a very pleasant man; but he is very silent and +abstracted, as I suppose a poet should be. My sister Carrie is here, and +they have quite got up a flirtation together; however, I don't suppose +it will come to anything."</p> + +<p>"And your nursery department?"</p> + +<p>"Thriving, thank you; I think you <i>will</i> be astonished to see my boy. +Old Mrs. Clayton says he is twice the size that Harry was at that age; +and the little girls can run about and talk almost as well as I can. But +I must not expect you, Blanche, to take the same interest in babies that +I do."</p> + +<p>This she added, remembering that the woman before her was childless. +Mrs. Damer moved uneasily on her couch, but she said nothing; and soon +after the sound of a gong reverberating through the hall warned Mrs. +Clayton that the dinner was not far off and the riding-party must have +returned; so, leaving her friend to her toilet, she took her departure.</p> + +<p>As she left the room, Mrs. Damer was alone. She had no maid of her own, +and she had refused the offices of Mrs. Clayton, assuring her that she +was used to dress herself; but she made little progress in that +department, as she lay on the couch in the firelight, with her face +buried in her hands, and thoughts coursing through her mind of which +heaven alone knew the tendency.</p> + +<p>"Come, my darling," said the kind, coaxing voice of her husband, as, +after knocking more than once without receiving any answer, he entered +her room, fully dressed, and found her still arrayed in her travelling +things, and none of her boxes unpacked. "You will never be ready for +dinner at this rate. Shall I make an excuse for your not appearing at +table this evening? I am sure Mrs. Clayton would wish you to keep your +room if you are too tired to dress."</p> + +<p>"I am not too tired, Harry," said Mrs. Damer, rising from the couch, +"and I shall be ready in ten minutes," unlocking and turning over the +contents of a box as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"Better not, perhaps, my love," interposed the colonel, in mild +expostulation; "you will be better in bed, and can see your kind friends +to-morrow morning."</p> + +<p>"I am going down to dinner to-night," she answered, gently, but +decisively. She was a graceful woman now she stood on her feet, and +threw off the heavy wraps in which she had travelled, with a slight, +willowy figure, and a complexion which was almost transparent in its +delicacy; but her face was very thin, and her large blue eyes had a +scared and haggard look in them, which was scarcely less painful to +witness than the appearance of anxiety which was expressed by the +knitted brows by which they were surmounted. As she now raised her fair +attenuated hands to rearrange her hair, which had once been abundant and +glossy, her husband could not avoid remarking upon the change which had +passed over it.</p> + +<p>"I had no idea you had lost your hair so much, darling," he said; "I +have not seen it down before to-night. Why, where is it all gone to?" he +continued, as he lifted the light mass in his hands, and remembered of +what a length and weight it used to be, when he last parted from her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know," she rejoined, sadly; "gone, with my youth, I +suppose, Henry."</p> + +<p>"My poor girl!" he said, gently, "you have suffered very much in this +separation. I had no right to leave you alone for so many years. But it +is all over now, dearest, and I will take such good care of you that you +will be obliged to get well and strong again."</p> + +<p>She turned round suddenly from the glass, and pressed her lips upon the +hand which held her hair.</p> + +<p>"Don't," she murmured; "pray don't speak to me so, Henry! I can't bear +it; I can't indeed!"</p> + +<p>He thought it was from excess of feeling that she spoke; and so it was, +though not as he imagined. So he changed the subject lightly, and bade +her be lazy no longer, but put on her dress, if she was really +determined to make one of the party at dinner that evening.</p> + +<p>In another minute, Mrs. Damer had brushed her diminished hair into the +fashion in which she ordinarily wore it; thrown on an evening-robe of +black, which, while it contrasted well with her fairness, showed the +falling away of her figure in a painful degree; and was ready to +accompany her husband downstairs.</p> + +<p>They were met at the door of the drawing-room by their host, who was +eager to show cordiality towards guests of whom his wife thought so +much, and having also been acquainted himself with Mrs. Damer since her +return to England. He led her up to the sofa whereon Bella sat; and, +dinner being almost immediately announced, the little hostess was busy +pairing off her couples.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Laurence!" she exclaimed; and then looking around the room, "where +<i>is</i> Mr. Laurence?" So that that gentleman was forced to leave the +window-curtains, behind which he had ensconced himself, and advance into +the centre of the room. "Oh, here you are at last; will you take Mrs. +Damer down to dinner?" and proceeding immediately with the usual form of +introduction—"Mr. Laurence—Mrs. Damer."</p> + +<p>They bowed to each other; but over the lady's face, as she went through +her share of the introduction, there passed so indescribable, and yet so +unmistakable a change, that Mrs. Clayton, although not very quick, could +not help observing it, and she said, involuntarily—</p> + +<p>"Have you met Mr. Laurence before, Blanche?"</p> + +<p>"I believe I have had that pleasure—in London—many years ago."</p> + +<p>The last words came out so faintly that they were almost +undistinguishable.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you tell me so?" said Bella Clayton, reproachfully, to Mr. +Laurence.</p> + +<p>He was beginning to stammer out some excuse about its having been so +long ago, when Mrs. Damer came to his aid, in her clear, cold voice—</p> + +<p>"It <i>was</i> very long ago: we must both be forgiven for having forgotten +the circumstance."</p> + +<p>"Well, you must renew your acquaintanceship at dinner," said Mrs. +Clayton, blithely, as she trotted off to make matters pleasant between +the rest of her visitors. As she did so, Mr. Laurence remained standing +by the sofa, but he did not attempt to address Mrs. Damer. Only, when +the room was nearly cleared, he held out his arm to her, and she rose to +accept it. But the next minute she had sunk back again upon the sofa, +and Mrs. Clayton was at her cousin's side. Mrs. Damer had fainted.</p> + +<p>"Poor darling!" exclaimed Colonel Damer, as he pressed forward to the +side of his wife. "I was afraid coming down to-night would be too much +for her, but she would make the attempt; she has so much spirit. Pray +don't delay the dinner, Mrs. Clayton; I will stay by her, if you will +excuse the apparent rudeness, until she is sufficiently recovered to go +to bed."</p> + +<p>But even as he spoke his wife raised herself from the many arms which +supported her, and essayed to gain her feet.</p> + +<p>"Bella, dear! I am all right again. Pray, if you love me, don't make a +scene about a little fatigue. I often faint now: let me go up to my +bedroom and lie down, as I ought to have done at first, and I shall be +quite well to-morrow morning."</p> + +<p>She would accept no one's help—not even her husband's, though it +distressed him greatly that she refused it—but walked out of the room +of her own accord, and toiled wearily up the staircase which led her to +the higher stories; whilst more than one pair of eyes watched her +ascent, and more than one appetite was spoilt for the coming meal.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think that Blanche is looking very ill?" demanded Bella +Clayton of Colonel Damer, at the dinner-table. She had been much struck +herself with the great alteration in her cousin's looks, and fancied +that her husband was not so alarmed about it as he ought to be.</p> + +<p>"I do, indeed," he replied; "but it is the last thing she will +acknowledge herself. She has very bad spirits and appetite; appears +always in a low fever, and is so nervous that the least thing will +frighten her. That, to me, is the worst and most surprising change of +all: such a high-couraged creature as she used to be."</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," replied Mrs. Clayton; "I can hardly imagine Blanche being +nervous at anything. It must have come on since her visit to the +Continent, for she was not so when she stayed here last."</p> + +<p>"When was that?" demanded the Colonel, anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Just three years ago this Christmas," was the answer. "I don't think I +ever saw her look better than she did then, and she was the life of the +house. But soon afterwards she went to Paris, and then we heard of her +illness, and this is my first meeting with her since that time. I was +very much shocked when she got out of the carriage: I should scarcely +have known her again." Here Mrs. Clayton stopped, seeing that the +attention of Mr. Laurence, who sat opposite to her, appeared to be +riveted on her words, and Colonel Damer relapsed into thought and spoke +no more.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile Mrs. Damer had gained her bedroom. Women had come to +attend upon her, sent by their mistress, and laden with offers of +refreshment and help of every kind, but she had dismissed them and +chosen to be alone. She felt too weak to be very restless, but she had +sat by the fire and cried, until she was so exhausted that her bed +suggested itself to her, as the best place in which she could be; but +rising to undress, preparatory to seeking it, she had nearly fallen, and +catching feebly at the bedpost had missed it, and sunk down by the side +of the solid black box, which was clamped with iron and fastened with a +padlock, and respecting which she had been so particular a few hours +before. She felt as if she was dying, and as if this were the fittest +place for her to die on. "There is nothing in my possession," she cried, +"that really belongs to me but <i>this</i>—this which I loathe and abhor, +and love and weep over at one and the same moment." And, strange to +relate, Mrs. Damer turned on her side and kneeling by the iron-clamped +chest pressed her lips upon its hard, unyielding surface, as if it had +life wherewith to answer her embrace. And then the wearied creature +dragged herself up again into an unsteady position, and managed to +sustain it until she was ready to lie down upon her bed.</p> + +<p>The next morning she was much better. Colonel Damer and Bella Clayton +laid their heads together and decided that she was to remain in bed +until after breakfast, therefore she was spared meeting with the +assembled strangers until the dinner-hour again, for luncheon was a +desultory meal at Molton Chase, and scarcely any of the gentlemen were +present at it that day. After luncheon Mrs. Clayton proposed driving +Mrs. Damer out in her pony-chaise.</p> + +<p>"I don't think you will find it cold, dear, and we can come home by the +lower shrubberies and meet the gentlemen as they return from shooting," +Colonel Damer being one of the shooting party. But Mrs. Damer had +declined the drive, and made her cousin understand so plainly that she +preferred being left alone, that Mrs. Clayton felt no compunction in +acceding to her wishes, and laying herself out to please the other +ladies staying in the house.</p> + +<p>And Mrs. Damer did wish to be alone. She wanted to think over the +incidents of the night before, and devise some plan by which she could +persuade her husband to leave the Grange as soon as possible without +provoking questions which she might find it difficult to answer. When +the sound of the wheels of her cousin's pony-chaise had died away, and +the great stillness pervading Molton Grange proclaimed that she was the +sole inmate left behind, she dressed herself in a warm cloak, and +drawing the hood over her head prepared for a stroll about the grounds. +A little walk she thought would do her good, and with this intention she +left the house. The Grange gardens were extensive and curiously laid +out, and there were many winding shrubbery paths about them, which +strangers were apt to find easier to enter than to find their way out of +again. Into one of these Mrs. Damer now turned her steps for the sake of +privacy and shelter; but she had not gone far before, on turning an +abrupt corner, she came suddenly upon the figure of the gentleman she +had been introduced to the night before, Mr. Laurence, who she had +imagined to be with the shooting party. He was half lying, half sitting +across a rustic seat which encircled the huge trunk of an old tree, with +his eyes bent upon the ground and a cigar between his lips. He was more +an intellectual and fine-looking than a handsome man, but he possessed +two gifts which are much more winning than beauty, a mind of great +power, and the art of fascination. As Mrs. Damer came full in view of +him, too suddenly to stop herself or to retreat, he rose quickly from +the attitude he had assumed when he thought himself secure from +interruption and stood in her pathway. She attempted to pass him with an +inclination of the head, but he put out his hand and stopped her.</p> + +<p>"Blanche! you must speak to me; you shall not pass like this; I insist +upon it!" and she tried in vain to disengage her arm from his detaining +clasp.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Laurence, what right have you to hold me thus?"</p> + +<p>"What right, Blanche? The right of every man over the woman who loves +him!"</p> + +<p>"That is your right over me no longer. I have tried to avoid you. You +have both seen and known it! No <i>gentleman</i> would force himself upon my +notice in this manner."</p> + +<p>"Your taunt fails to have any effect upon me. I have sought an +explanation of your extraordinary conduct from you in vain. My letters +have been unanswered, my entreaties for a last interview disregarded; +and now that chance has brought us together again, I must have what I +have a right to ask from your own lips. I did not devise this meeting; I +did not even know you had returned to England till yesterday, and then I +sought to avoid you; but it was fated that we should meet, and it is +fated that you satisfy my curiosity."</p> + +<p>"What do you want to know?" she asked, in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"First, have you ceased to love me?"</p> + +<p>The angry light which had flashed across her face when he used force to +detain her died away; the pallid lips commenced to tremble, and in the +sunken eyes large tear-drops rose and hung quivering upon the long +eyelashes.</p> + +<p>"Enough, Blanche," Mr. Laurence continued, in a softer voice. "Nature +answers me. I will not give you the needless pain of speaking. Then, why +did you forsake me? Why did you leave England without one line of +farewell, and why have you refused to hold any communication with me +since that time?"</p> + +<p>"I <i>could</i> not," she murmured. "You do not know; you cannot feel; you +could never understand my feelings on that occasion."</p> + +<p>"That is no answer to my question, Blanche," he said firmly, "and an +answer I will have. What was the immediate cause of your breaking faith +with me? I loved you, you know how well. What drove you from me? Was it +fear, or indifference, or a sudden remorse?"</p> + +<p>"It was," she commenced slowly, and then as if gathering up a great +resolution, she suddenly exclaimed, "Do you <i>really</i> wish to know what +parted us?"</p> + +<p>"I really intend to know," he replied, and the old power which he had +held over her recommenced its sway. "Whatever it was it has not tended +to your happiness," he continued, "if I may judge from your looks. You +are terribly changed, Blanche! I think even I could have made you +happier than you appear to have been."</p> + +<p>"I have had enough to change me," she replied. "If you will know then, +come with me, and I will show you."</p> + +<p>"To-day?"</p> + +<p>"At once; to-morrow may be too late." She began to walk towards the +house as she spoke, rapidly and irregularly, her heart beating fast, but +no trace of weakness in her limbs; and Herbert Laurence followed her, he +scarcely knew why, expecting that she had desired it.</p> + +<p>Into Molton Grange she went, up the broad staircase and to her chamber +door before she paused to see if he was following. When she did so she +found that he stood just behind her on the wide landing.</p> + +<p>"You can enter," she said, throwing open the door of her bedroom, "don't +be afraid; there is nothing here except the cause for which I parted +with you." In her agitation and excitement, scarcely pausing to fasten +the door behind her, Mrs. Damer fell down on her knees before the little +black box with its iron clamps and ponderous padlock; and drawing a key +from her bosom, applied it to the lock, and in another minute had thrown +back the heavy lid. Having displaced some linen which lay at the top, +she carefully removed some lighter materials, and then calling to the +man behind her, bid him look in and be satisfied. Mr. Laurence advanced +to the box, quite ignorant as to the reason of her demand; but as his +eye fell upon its contents, he started backwards and covered his face +with his hands. As he drew them slowly away again he met the sad, +earnest look with which the kneeling woman greeted him, and for a few +moments they gazed at one another in complete silence. Then Mrs. Damer +withdrew her eyes from his and rearranged the contents of the black box; +the heavy lid shut with a clang, the padlock was fast again, the key in +her bosom, and she rose to her feet and prepared to leave the room in +the same unbroken silence. But he again detained her, and this time his +voice was hoarse and changed.</p> + +<p>"Blanche! tell me, is this the truth?"</p> + +<p>"As I believe in heaven," she answered.</p> + +<p>"And this was the reason that we parted—this the sole cause of our +estrangement?"</p> + +<p>"Was it not enough?" she said. "I erred, but it was as one in a dream. +When I awoke I could no longer err and be at peace. At peace did I say? +I have known no peace since I knew you; but I should have died and waked +up in hell, if I had not parted with you. This is all the truth, believe +it or not as you will; but there may, there can be nothing in future +between you and me. Pray let me pass you."</p> + +<p>"But that—that—box, Blanche!" exclaimed Herbert Laurence, with drops +of sweat, notwithstanding the temperature of the day, upon his forehead. +"It was an accident, a misfortune; <i>you</i> did not do it?"</p> + +<p>She turned upon him eyes which were full of mingled horror and scorn.</p> + +<p>"I <i>do</i> it!" she said; "what are you dreaming of? I was mad; but not so +mad as that! How could you think it?" and the tears rose in her eyes +more at the supposition which his question had raised than at the idea +that he could so misjudge her.</p> + +<p>"But why do you keep this? why do you carry it about with you, Blanche? +It is pure insanity on your part. How long is it since you have +travelled in company with that dreadful box?"</p> + +<p>"More than two years," she said in a fearful whisper. "I have tried to +get rid of it, but to no purpose; there was always some one in the way. +I have reasoned with myself, and prayed to be delivered from it, but I +have never found an opportunity. And now, what does it matter? The +burden and heat of the day are past."</p> + +<p>"Let me do it for you," said Mr. Laurence. "Whatever our future relation +to one another, I cannot consent that you should run so terrible a risk +through fault of mine. The strain upon your mind has been too great +already. Would to heaven I could have borne it for you! but you forbid +me even the privilege of knowing that you suffered. Now that I have +ascertained it, it must be my care that the cause of our separation +shall at least live in your memory only." And as he finished speaking he +attempted to lift the box; but Mrs. Damer sprang forward and prevented +him.</p> + +<p>"Leave it!" she cried; "do not dare to touch it; it is <i>mine</i>! It has +gone wherever I have gone for years. Do you think, for the little space +that is left me, that I would part with the only link left between me +and my dread past?" and saying this she threw herself upon the black +trunk and burst into tears.</p> + +<p>"Blanche! you love me as you ever did," exclaimed Herbert Laurence. +"These tears confess it. Let me make amends to you for this; let me try +to make the happiness of your future life!"</p> + +<p>But before his sentence was concluded Mrs. Damer had risen from her +drooping attitude and stood before him.</p> + +<p>"Make amends!" she echoed scornfully. "How can you 'make amends'? +Nothing can wipe out the memory of the shame and misery that I have +passed through, nothing restore the quiet conscience I have lost. I do +not know if I love you still or not. When I think of it, my head swims, +and I only feel confused and anxious. But I am sure of one thing, that +the horror of my remorse for even having listened to you has power to +overwhelm any regret that may be lingering in my unworthy breast, and +that the mere fact of your bodily presence is agony to me. When I met +you to-day I was battling with my invention to devise some means of +leaving the place where you are without exciting suspicion. If you ever +loved, have pity on me now; take the initiative, and rid me of +yourself."</p> + +<p>"Is this your final decision, Blanche?" he asked, slowly. "Will you not +regret it when too late, and you are left alone with only <i>that</i>?"</p> + +<p>She shuddered, and he caught at the fact as a sign of relenting.</p> + +<p>"Dearest, loveliest," he commenced.—This woman had been the loveliest +to him in days gone past, and though she was so terribly changed in eyes +that regarded her less, Herbert Laurence, her once lover, could still +trace above the languor and debility and distress of her present +appearance, the fresh, sparkling woman who had sacrificed herself for +his sake; and although his style of address signified more than he +really thought for her, the knowledge of how much she had undergone +since their separation had the power to make him imagine that this +partial reanimation of an old flame was a proof that the fire which +kindled it had never perished. Therefore it did not appear absurd in his +mental eyes to preface his appeal to Mrs. Damer thus: "Dearest, +loveliest—" but she turned upon him as though he had insulted her.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Laurence!" she exclaimed, "I have told you that the past is past; +be good enough to take me at my word. Do you think that I have lived +over two years of solitary shame and grief, to break the heart that +trusts in me <i>now</i>? If I had any wish, or any thought to the contrary, +it would be impossible. I am enveloped by kind words and acts, by care +and attention, which chain me as closely to my home as if I were kept a +prisoner between four walls. I could not free myself if I would," she +continued, throwing back her arms, as though she tried to break an +invisible thrall. "I must die first; the cords of gratitude are bound +about me so closely. It is killing me, as nothing else could kill," she +added, in a lower voice. "I lived under your loss, and the knowledge of +my own disgrace; but I cannot live under his perpetual kindness and +perfect trust. It cannot last much longer: for mercy's sake, leave me in +peace until the end comes!"</p> + +<p>"And the box?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"I will provide for the box before that time," she answered, sadly; "but +if you have any fear, keep the key yourself: the lock is not one that +can be forced."</p> + +<p>She took the key from her bosom, where it hung on a broad black ribbon, +as she spoke, and handed it to him. He accepted it without demur.</p> + +<p>"You are so rash," he said; "it will be safer with me: let me take the +box also?"</p> + +<p>"No, no!" said Mrs. Damer, hurriedly; "you shall not; and it would be no +use. If it were out of my sight, I should dream that it was found, and +talk of it in my sleep. I often rise in the night now to see if it is +safe. Nothing could do away with it. If you buried it, some one would +dig it up; if you threw it in the water, it would float. It would lie +still nowhere but on my heart, where it ought to be!—it ought to be!"</p> + +<p>Her eyes had reassumed the wild, restless expression which they took +whilst speaking of the past, and her voice had sunk to a low, fearful +whisper.</p> + +<p>"This is madness," muttered Herbert Laurence; and he was right. On the +subject of the black box Mrs. Damer's brain was turned.</p> + +<p>He was just about to speak to her again, and try to reason her out of +her folly, when voices were heard merrily talking together in the hall, +and her face worked with the dread of discovery.</p> + +<p>"Go!" she said; "pray, go at once. I have told you everything." And in +another moment Herbert Laurence had dashed through the passage to the +privacy of his own room; and Mrs. Clayton, glowing from her drive, and +with a fine rosy baby in her arms, had entered the apartment of her +cousin.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="IIA" id="IIA"></a>II</h3> + + +<p>Bella found her cousin sitting in an arm-chair, with the cloak still +over her shoulders, and a face of ashy whiteness, the reaction of her +excitement.</p> + +<p>"My dear, how ill you look!" was her first exclamation. "Have you been +out?"</p> + +<p>"I went a little way into the shrubberies," said Mrs. Damer; "but the +day turned so cold."</p> + +<p>"Do you think so? We have all been saying what a genial afternoon it is: +but it certainly does not seem to have agreed with you. Look at my boy: +isn't he a fine fellow?—he has been out all day in the garden. I often +wish you had a child, Blanchey."</p> + +<p>"Do you, dear? it is more than I do."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but you can't tell, till they are really yours, how much pleasure +they give you; no one knows who has not been a mother."</p> + +<p>"No; I suppose not."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Damer shivered as she said the words, and looked into the baby's +fat, unmeaning face with eyes of sad import. Mrs. Clayton thought she +had wounded her cousin, and stooped to kiss the slight offence away; but +she fancied that Blanche almost shrunk from her embrace.</p> + +<p>"She must be really ill," thought the kindly little Bella, who had no +notion of such a thing as heart-sickness for an apparently happy married +woman. "She ought to see a doctor: I shall tell Colonel Damer so."</p> + +<p>In another half-hour they were at her side together, urging her to take +their advice.</p> + +<p>"Now, my darling," said the Colonel, when Mrs. Damer faintly protested +against being made a fuss about, "you must be good for my sake. You know +how precious you are to me, and how it would grieve me to have you laid +up; let me send for Dr. Barlow, as your cousin advises. You were very +much overcome by the long journey here, and I am afraid the subsequent +excitement of seeing your kind friends has been too much for you. You do +not half know how dear you are to me, Blanche, or you would not refuse +such a trifling request. Here have I been, for five years, dearest, only +looking forward from day to day to meeting my dear loving little wife +again; and then to have you so ill as this the first month of our +reunion, is a great trial to me. Pray let me send for Dr. Barlow."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Damer pleaded for delay. She had become chilled through being +out in the shrubberies; she had not yet got over the fatigue of her +journey; she had caught a cold whilst crossing from Havre to Folkestone: +it was anything and everything but an illness which required medical +attendance. If she were not better in the morning, she promised to make +no opposition to their wishes.</p> + +<p>So she forced herself to rise and dress for dinner. She appeared there +calm and collected, and continued so throughout the evening, talking +with Mr. Laurence quite as much as with the rest of the company; and she +went to bed at the same hour as the other guests of Molton Grange, +receiving with her cousin's good-night, congratulations on the evident +improvement of her health.</p> + +<p>"I cannot quite make out what has come to that cousin of yours, Bella," +said Harry Clayton to his wife, as they too retired for the night; "she +doesn't appear half such a jolly woman as she used to be."</p> + +<p>"She is certainly very much altered," was Mrs. Clayton's response; "but +I think it must be chiefly owing to her health; a feeling of debility is +so very depressing."</p> + +<p>"I suppose it can't be anything on her mind, Bella?" suggested the +husband, after a pause.</p> + +<p>"On her <i>mind</i>, Harry!" said Bella, sitting up in bed in her wonderment; +"of course not; why, how could it be? She has everything she can wish +for; and, I am sure, no woman could have a more devoted husband than +Colonel Damer. He has been speaking a great deal about her to me to-day, +and his anxiety is something enormous. On her <i>mind</i>!—what a funny +idea, Harry; what could have put that in your head?"</p> + +<p>"I am sure I don't know," was the husband's reply, rather ruefully +given, as if conscious he had made a great mistake.</p> + +<p>"You old <i>goose</i>," said his wife, with an emphatic kiss, as she composed +herself to her innocent slumbers.</p> + +<p>But before they were broken by nature, in the gray of the morning, Mrs. +Clayton was roused by a tapping at the bedroom door; a tapping to which +all Mr. Clayton's shouts to "come in," only served as a renewal.</p> + +<p>"Who can it be, Harry?—do get up and see," said Bella.</p> + +<p>So Harry got up, like a dutiful husband, and opened the door, and the +figure of Colonel Damer, robed in a dressing-gown, and looking very +shadowy and unreal in the dawning, presented itself on the threshold.</p> + +<p>"Is your wife here?" demanded the Colonel briefly.</p> + +<p>"Of course she is," said Mr. Clayton, wondering what the Colonel wanted +with her.</p> + +<p>"Will she come to Mrs. Damer? she is <i>very</i> ill," was the next sentence, +delivered tremblingly.</p> + +<p>"Very ill!" exclaimed Bella, jumping out of bed and wrapping herself in +a dressing-gown. "How do you mean, Colonel Damer?—when did it happen?"</p> + +<p>"God knows!" he said, in an agitated voice; "but for some time after she +fell asleep she was feverish and excited, and spoke much. I woke +suddenly in the night and missed her, and going in search of her with a +light, found her fallen on the landing."</p> + +<p>"Fainted?" said Bella.</p> + +<p>"I don't know now whether it was a faint or a fit," he replied, "but I +incline to the latter belief. I carried her back to her bed, and gave +her some restoratives, not liking to disturb you—"</p> + +<p>"Oh! why didn't you, Colonel Damer?" interposed his hostess.</p> + +<p>"—and thought she was better, till just now, when she had another +attack of unconsciousness, and is so weak after it she cannot move. She +has fever too, I am sure, from the rapidity of her pulse, and I don't +think her head is quite clear."</p> + +<p>"Harry, dear, send for Dr. Barlow at once," thrusting her naked feet +into slippers, "and come back with me, Colonel Damer; she should not be +left for a minute."</p> + +<p>And she passed swiftly along the corridor to her cousin's room. As she +neared that of Mr. Laurence, the door opened a little, and a voice asked +huskily—</p> + +<p>"Is anything the matter, Mrs. Clayton? I have been listening to noises +in the house for the last hour."</p> + +<p>"My cousin, Mrs. Damer, has been taken ill, Mr. Laurence, but we have +sent for the doctor; I am going to her now."</p> + +<p>And as the door closed again she fancied that she heard a sigh.</p> + +<p>Blanche Damer was lying on her pillows very hot and flushed, with that +anxious, perturbed look which the eyes assume when the brain is only +half clouded, and can feel itself to be wandering.</p> + +<p>"Blanche, dearest," cried Bella, as she caught sight of her face, "what +is the matter? How did this happen?"</p> + +<p>"I dreamt that he had taken it," said Mrs. Damer, slowly and sadly; "but +it was a mistake: he must not have it yet—not yet! only a little while +to wait now!—but he has the key."</p> + +<p>"Her mind is wandering at present," said Colonel Damer, who had followed +Mrs. Clayton into the room.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Colonel Damer," exclaimed Bella, tearfully, "how dreadful it +is!—she frightens me! Could she have knocked her head in falling? Have +you no idea why she got up and went into the passage?"</p> + +<p>"Not the slightest," he returned. And now that she examined him under +the morning light, which was by this time streaming through the open +shutters, Bella Clayton saw how aged and haggard his night's anxiety had +made him look. "My wife has been very subject to both sleeping-talking +and walking since my return, and I have several times missed her, as I +did last night, and found her walking about the room in her sleep, but +she has never been like this before. When I first found her in the +passage, I asked her why she had gone there, or what she wanted, and she +said, 'the key.' When I had relifted her into bed, I found her bunch of +keys as usual, on the dressing-table, therefore I imagine she could not +then have known what she was talking about. I trust Dr. Barlow will not +be long in coming; I am deeply anxious."</p> + +<p>And he looked the truth of what he uttered; whilst poor little Mrs. +Clayton could only press his hand and entreat him to be hopeful; and his +wife lay on her pillows, and silently stared into vacancy.</p> + +<p>As soon as the doctor arrived he pronounced the patient to be suffering +from an attack of pressure on the brain, and wished to know whether she +had not been subjected to some great mental shock or strain.</p> + +<p>Here Colonel Damer came forward and stoutly denied the possibility of +such a thing. He had joined his wife from India a month ago, at which +time she was, though in delicate, not in bad health, and he had never +left her since. They had crossed from Havre to Folkestone three days +before, and Mrs. Damer had not complained of any unusual sickness or +fatigue. She was a person of a highly excitable and nervous temperament, +and her appetite and spirit were variable; otherwise there had been +nothing in her state of health to call for anxiety on the part of her +friends.</p> + +<p>Dr. Barlow listened to all these statements, and believed as much of +them as he chose. However he waived the subject of the cause of the +disaster; the fact that it had occurred was undeniable; and the remedies +for such emergencies were immediately resorted to. But all proved alike +ineffectual, for the simple reason that the irrevocable fiat had gone +forth, and Blanche Damer was appointed to die.</p> + +<p>As the day wore on, and the case assumed a darker aspect, and the +doctor's prognostications became less hopeful, Colonel Damer worked +himself into a perfect frenzy of fear.</p> + +<p>"Save her, Dr. Barlow," he had said to that gentleman, in the insane +manner in which people are used to address the Faculty, as if it was in +their power to do more than help the efforts of nature. "Save her life, +for God's sake! and there is nothing that I can do for you, of earthly +good, that shall not be yours. Shall I call in other advice? Shall I +telegraph to London? Is there anyone there who can save her? It is my +life as well as hers that is trembling in the scale. For the love of +heaven, do not stand on ceremony, but only tell me what is best to be +done!"</p> + +<p>Of course Dr. Barlow told him that if he was not perfectly satisfied, he +should wish him to telegraph to town for further advice, and mentioned +several names celebrated in such cases; at the same time he assured +Colonel Damer that he did not believe any number of doctors could do +more for the patient than he was doing, and that it was impossible to +guess at the probable termination of the illness for some days to come.</p> + +<p>Bella Clayton gave up the duty of amusing her guests, and stationed +herself at the bedside of her cousin; and the unhappy husband wandered +in and out of the room like a ghost; trying to think upon each fresh +visit, that there was a slight improvement in the symptoms, and spending +the intervening time in praying for the life which he fondly imagined +had been devoted to himself. Meanwhile, whenever Mrs. Damer opened her +lips, it was to ramble on in this manner:</p> + +<p>"Dying!" her hollow voice would exclaim; "crushed to death beneath the +weight of a pyramid of blessings that lies like lead upon my chest and +reaches to the ceiling. Kind words—fond care, and sweet +attentions—they bow me down to the earth! I am stifling beneath the +burden of their silent reproaches. Two and two are four; and four and +four is eight; eight times locked should be secure—but there is a worm +that dieth not, and a fire that is not quenched."</p> + +<p>"Oh! don't come in here, Colonel Damer," poor Bella would exclaim, as +the unhappy man would creep to the foot of the bed and stand listening, +with blanched cheeks, to the delirious ravings of his wife. "She doesn't +know what she is saying, remember; and she will be better to-morrow, +doubtless. Don't distress yourself more, by listening to all this +nonsense."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe she will ever be better, Mrs. Clayton," he replied, on +one of these occasions. This was on the third day.</p> + +<p>"Dearest!" the sick woman resumed, in a plaintively soft voice, without +being in the least disturbed by the conversation around her, "if you +have ever loved me, you will believe in this hour that I love you in +return. If you have given me your love, I have given you more than my +life."</p> + +<p>"Does she speak of me?" demanded Colonel Damer.</p> + +<p>"I think so," said Bella Clayton, sadly.</p> + +<p>"Take it off! take it off!" cried Mrs. Damer, starting with +terror—"this box—this iron-clamped box which presses on my soul. What +have I done? Where shall I go? How am I to meet him again?"</p> + +<p>"What does she say?" asked the Colonel, trembling.</p> + +<p>"Colonel Damer, I must beg you to quit the room," said Bella, weeping. +"I cannot bear to stay here with both of you. Pray leave me alone with +Blanche until she is quieter."</p> + +<p>And so the husband left the chamber, with fellow tears in his eyes, and +she set herself to the painful task of attempting to soothe the +delirious woman.</p> + +<p>"If he would only strike me," moaned Mrs. Damer, "or frown at me, or +tell me that I lie, I could bear it better; but he is killing me with +kindness. Where is the box?—open it—let him see all. I am ready to +die. But I forgot—there is no key, and no one shall touch it: it is +mine—mine. Hark! I hear it! I hear it! How could I put it there? Let me +go—no one shall hold me! Let me go, I say—I <i>hear</i> it; and—and—the +world is nothing to me!"</p> + +<p>At last, when they had almost despaired of ever seeing her sleep again, +there came an uninterrupted hour of repose from sheer weariness; and +then wide-open hollow eyes—a changed voice sounding with the +question—"Bella! have I been ill?" and Mrs. Damer's delirium was over.</p> + +<p>Over with her life. For on his next visit Dr. Barlow found her sensible +but cold and pulseless, and broke to her friends the news that twelve +hours more would end her existence.</p> + +<p>Colonel Damer went wild, and telegraphed at once to London for men who +arrived when his wife was ready to be coffined. Bella heard the decree +and wept silently; and a great gloom fell upon the guests of Molton +Chase, who had been left altogether on poor Harry's hands since Mrs. +Damer's illness.</p> + +<p>The dying woman lay very silent and exhausted for some time after she +had waked from that brief, memory-restoring sleep. When she next spoke, +she said, observing her cousin's swollen eyes—</p> + +<p>"Am I dying, Bella?"</p> + +<p>Poor little Mrs. Clayton did not at all know what answer to make to such +a direct question, but she managed to stammer out something which, +whatever it was meant for, was taken as affirmative by the one it most +concerned.</p> + +<p>"I thought so. Shall I never be able to get out of bed again?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid not, darling—you are so weak!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am—I can hardly raise my hand. And yet I must rise if I can. I +have something so particular to do."</p> + +<p>"Cannot I do it for you, Blanche?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Will</i> you do it, Bella?"</p> + +<p>"Anything—everything, love! How can you ask me?"</p> + +<p>"And you will promise secrecy? Let me look in your face. Yes, it is a +true face, as it has ever been, and I can trust you. Have the black box +moved out of my room before I die, Bella—mind, <i>before</i> I die, and +placed in your own dressing-room."</p> + +<p>"What, dear, your linen box?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my linen box, or whatever you choose to call it. Take it away <i>at +once</i>, Bella. Tell no one; and when I am dead, have it buried in my +grave. Surely you could manage so much for me!"</p> + +<p>"And Colonel Damer?"</p> + +<p>"If you speak to him about it, Bella, or to your husband, or to any one, +I'll never forgive you, and I'm dying!" cried Mrs. Damer, almost rising +in her excitement. "Oh! why have I delayed it so long, why did I not see +to this before? I cannot even die in peace."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, dearest Blanche, I will do it, indeed I will," said Mrs. +Clayton, alarmed at her emotion; "and no one shall know of it but +myself. Shall I send it to my room at once? You may trust entirely to my +discretion. Pray, have no fear!"</p> + +<p>"Yes! at once—directly; it cannot be too soon!" said Mrs. Damer, +falling back exhausted on her pillow. So a servant was called, and the +iron-clamped box was carried away from the sick-room and secreted in +Mrs. Clayton's private apartment. Mrs. Damer seemed so weak, that her +cousin suggested summoning her husband to her side, but she appeared to +shrink from an interview with him.</p> + +<p>"I have nothing to say but what will make him sad to think of +afterwards," she murmured. "Let me die with you alone, dear Bella. It is +better so."</p> + +<p>So Colonel Damer, although he went backwards and forwards all the night, +was not called at any particular moment to see the last of his wife, and +Blanche had her wish. She died alone with her faithful little cousin +before the morning broke. As she was just going, she said, in a vague +sort of manner—</p> + +<p>"Tell him, Bella, that I forgive him as I hope to be forgiven. And that +I have seen Heaven open to-night, and a child spirit pleading with the +Woman-born for us; and that the burden is lifted off my soul at last." +And then she added solemnly—"I will arise and go to my Father—," and +went before she could finish the sentence.</p> + +<p>Innocent Bella repeated her last message in perfect faith to Colonel +Damer.</p> + +<p>"She told me to tell you, that she felt herself forgiven, and that she +had seen Heaven opened for her, and the weight of her sins was lifted +off her soul. Oh! Colonel Damer, pray think of that, and take comfort. +She is happier than you could make her."</p> + +<p>But the poor faithful husband was, for the present, beyond all reach of +comfort.</p> + +<p>The London doctors arrived with the daylight, and had to be solemnly +entertained at breakfast, and warmed and comforted before they were +despatched home again. The Christmas guests were all packing up their +boxes, preparatory to taking their leave of Molton Chase, for it was +impossible to think of festivities with such a bereavement in the house. +And Harry Clayton told his wife that he was very thankful that they +thought of doing so.</p> + +<p>"It has been a most unfortunate business altogether, Bella, and of +course they all felt it, poor things; and the more so because they could +take no active part in it. The house has had a pall over it the last +week; and it would have been still worse if they had remained. As for +Laurence, I never saw a man so cut up. He has eaten nothing since your +poor cousin was taken ill. One would think she had been his sister, or +his dearest friend."</p> + +<p>"Is he going with the rest, Harry?"</p> + +<p>"No; he will stay till after the funeral; then he is going abroad. He +feels deeply with you, Bella, and desired me to tell you so."</p> + +<p>"He is very good—thank him in my name."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>But released from the care of thinking for her guests, and sitting +crying alone in her dressing-room, poor Mrs. Clayton could not imagine +what to do with the iron-clamped black box. She had promised Blanche not +to confide in her husband, or Colonel Damer. The latter, having no +family vault, wished to lay the remains of his wife amongst those of the +Claytons in the country churchyard of Molton; but how to get the black +box conveyed to the grave without the knowledge of the chief mourners +was a mystery beyond the fathoming of Bella's open heart. But in the +midst of her perplexity, Fate sent her aid. On the second day of her +cousin's death, a gentle tap sounded at her chamber door, and on her +invitation to enter being answered, she was surprised to see Mr. +Laurence on the threshold—come, as she imagined, to offer his sympathy +in person.</p> + +<p>"This is very kind of you, Mr. Laurence," she said.</p> + +<p>"I can scarcely claim your gratitude, Mrs. Clayton. I have sought you to +speak on a very important but painful subject. May I ask your attention +for a few moments?"</p> + +<p>"Of course you may!" And she motioned him to a seat.</p> + +<p>"It concerns her whom we have lost. Mrs. Clayton, tell me truly—did you +love your cousin?"</p> + +<p>"Dearly—very dearly, Mr. Laurence. We were brought up together."</p> + +<p>"Then I may depend on your discretion; and if you wish to save her +memory you must exercise it in her behalf. There is a small iron-clamped +black trunk amongst her boxes, which must not fall into Colonel Damer's +hands. Will you have that box conveyed from her chamber to your own, and +(if you will so far trust my honour) make it over to me?"</p> + +<p>"To you, Mr. Laurence—the iron-bound box? What possible knowledge can +you have of my cousin's secret?"</p> + +<p>"Her secret?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—she confided that box to my care the night she died. She made me +promise to do (without question) what you have just asked me to perform, +and I did it. The trunk is already here."</p> + +<p>And throwing open a cupboard at the side of the room, she showed him the +chest which he had mentioned.</p> + +<p>"I see that it is," he answered. "How do you design disposing of it?"</p> + +<p>"She wished it to be buried in her grave."</p> + +<p>"That is impossible in its present state. The contents must be removed."</p> + +<p>"But how?" Mrs. Clayton demanded, in surprise. "It is locked and double +locked, and there is no key."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> have the key," he answered, gravely.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Mr. Laurence," exclaimed his hostess, trembling, "there is some +dreadful mystery here. For heaven's sake tell me what it is! What +connection can you possibly have with this box of my poor cousin's, if +you have only met her once in your life?"</p> + +<p>"Did she say so?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"No; but I fancied so. Have you known her? When? where? and why did you +not tell us so before?"</p> + +<p>"How can I tell you now?" he said, gazing into the pure womanly face +upraised to his own, bearing an expression which was half-surprise and +half-fear but which seemed as though it could never dream of anything +like shame.</p> + +<p>"You are too good and too happy, Mrs. Clayton, to know of, or be able to +sympathize with, the troubles and temptations which preceded our fatal +friendship and her fall."</p> + +<p>"Blanche's <i>fall</i>!" ejaculated Bella Clayton, in a voice of horror.</p> + +<p>"Don't interrupt me, please, Mrs. Clayton," he said, hurriedly, covering +his face with his hands, "or I shall never be able to tell you the +wretched story. I knew your cousin years ago. Had you any suspicion that +she was unhappy in her marriage?"</p> + +<p>"No! none!" replied Bella, with looks of surprise.</p> + +<p>"She <i>was</i> then, thoroughly unhappy, as scores of women are, simply +because the hearts of the men they are bound to are opposed to theirs in +every taste and feeling. I met her when she first returned to England, +and—it is the old story, Mrs. Clayton—I loved her, and was mad enough +to tell her so. When a selfish man and an unselfish woman have mutually +confessed their preference for each other, the result is easily +anticipated. I ruined her—forgive my plain speaking—and she still +loved on, and forgave me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Blanche!" exclaimed Bella Clayton, hiding her hot face in her +hands.</p> + +<p>"We lived in a fool's paradise for some months, and then one day she +left her house and went to the Continent, without giving me any warning +of her intention. I was thunderstruck when I heard it, and deeply hurt, +and as soon as I had traced her to Paris, I followed and demanded an +explanation of her conduct. But she refused to see me, and when she +found me pertinacious, left the city as suddenly as she had done that of +London. Since which time she has answered no letters of mine, nor did we +ever meet until, most unexpectedly, I met her in your house. My pride, +after her first refusals to see me, was too great to permit me to renew +my entreaties, and so I called her a flirt, and inconstant. I tried to +banish her remembrance from my heart—and I thought I had succeeded."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my poor darling!" exclaimed Mrs. Clayton. "This accounts then for +her holding aloof from all her relations for so long a time, by which +means she estranged herself from many of them. She was working out her +penitence and deep remorse in solitary misery; and she would not even +let me share her confidence. But about the box, Mr. Laurence; what has +all this to do with the black box?"</p> + +<p>"When I met her in your shrubbery the other day, and reproached her for +her desertion of me, insisting upon her giving me the reason of her +change of mind, she bade me follow her to her own apartment. There, +unlocking the box before you, she showed me its contents."</p> + +<p>"And they are—?" inquired Mrs. Clayton, breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"Would you like to see them?" he demanded, taking a key from his pocket. +"I have as much right to show them you as she would have had. But is +your love for her dead memory and reputation strong enough to insure +your eternal secrecy on the subject?"</p> + +<p>"It is," said Bella Clayton, decidedly.</p> + +<p>"This box," continued Mr. Laurence, applying the key he held to the lock +of the iron-clamped black trunk, "has accompanied my poor girl on all +her travels for the last two years. The dreadful secret of its contents +which she bore in silent, solitary misery all that time has been, I +believe, the ultimate cause of her death, by proving too heavy a burden +for the sensitive and proud spirit which was forced to endure the +knowledge of its shame. She was killed by her remorse. If you have +courage, Mrs. Clayton, for the sight, look at <i>this</i>—and pity the +feelings I must endure as I kneel here and look at it with you."</p> + +<p>He threw back the lid and the topmost linen as he spoke, and Bella +Clayton pressed eagerly forward to see, carefully laid amidst withered +flowers and folds of cambric, the tiny skeleton of a new-born creature +whose angel was even then beholding the face of his Father in Heaven.</p> + +<p>She covered her eyes with her clasped hands, no less to shut out the +sight than to catch the womanly tears which poured forth at it, and then +she cried between her sobs—</p> + +<p>"Oh! my poor, poor Blanche, what must she not have suffered! God have +mercy on her soul!"</p> + +<p>"Amen!" said Herbert Laurence.</p> + +<p>"You will let me take the box away with me, Mrs. Clayton?" he asked, +gently.</p> + +<p>She looked up as he spoke, and the tears were standing in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes—yes," she said; "take it away; do what you will with it, only +never speak of it to me again."</p> + +<p>He never did but once, and that was but an allusion. On the evening of +the day on which they committed the remains of Blanche Damer to the +dust, he lay in wait for Mrs. Clayton on the landing.</p> + +<p>"All has been done as she desired," he whispered; and Mrs. Clayton asked +for no further explanation. The secret of which she had been made an +unwilling recipient pressed so heavily on her conscience, that she was +thankful when he left Molton Grange and went abroad, as he had expressed +his intention of doing.</p> + +<p>Since which time she has never seen Herbert Laurence again; and Colonel +Damer, whose grief at the funeral and for some time after was nearly +frenzied, having—like most men who mourn much outwardly—found a source +of consolation in the shape of another wife, the story of Blanche +Damer's life and death is remembered, for aught her cousin knows to the +contrary, by none but herself.</p> + +<p>I feel that an objection will be raised to this episode by some people +on the score of its being <i>unnatural</i>; to whom all I can say in answer +is, that the principal incident on which the interest of it turns—that +of the unhappy Mrs. Damer having been made so great a coward by +conscience that she carried the proof of her frailty about with her for +years, too fearful of discovery to permit it to leave her sight—is <i>a +fact</i>.</p> + +<p>To vary the circumstances under which the discovery of the contents of +the black box was finally made, and to alter the names of places and +people so as to avoid general recognition, I have made my province: to +relate the story itself, since, in the form I now present it to my +readers, it can give pain to no one, I consider my privilege.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MY_FASCINATING_FRIEND" id="MY_FASCINATING_FRIEND"></a>MY FASCINATING FRIEND</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">William Archer</span></h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="IB" id="IB"></a>I</h3> + + +<p>Nature has cursed me with a retiring disposition. I have gone round the +world without making a single friend by the way. Coming out of my own +shell is as difficult to me as drawing others out of theirs. There are +some men who go through life extracting the substance of every one they +meet, as one picks out periwinkles with a pin. To me my fellow-men are +oysters, and I have no oyster-knife; my sole consolation (if it be one) +is that my own values absolutely defy the oyster-knives of others. Not +more than twice or thrice in my life have I met a fellow-creature at +whose "Open Sesame" the treasures of my heart and brain stood instantly +revealed. My Fascinating Friend was one of these rare and sympathetic +beings.</p> + +<p>I was lounging away a few days at Monaco, awaiting a summons to join +some relations in Italy. One afternoon I had started for an aimless and +rambling climb among the olive-terraces on the lower slopes of the Tête +du Chien. Finding an exquisite coign of vantage amid the roots of a +gnarled old trunk springing from a built-up semicircular patch of level +ground, I sat me down to rest, and read, and dream. Below me, a little +to the right, Monaco jutted out into the purple sea. I could distinguish +carriages and pedestrians coming and going on the chaussée between the +promontory and Monte Carlo, but I was far too high for any sound to +reach me. Away to the left the coast took a magnificent sweep, past the +clustering houses of Roccabruna, past the mountains at whose base +Mentone nestled unseen, past the Italian frontier, past the bight of +Ventimiglia, to where the Capo di Bordighera stood faintly outlined +between sea and sky. There was not a solitary sail on the whole expanse +of the Mediterranean. A line of white, curving at rhythmic intervals +along a small patch of sandy beach, showed that there was a gentle swell +upon the sea, but its surface was mirror-like. A lovelier scene there is +not in the world, and it was at its very loveliest. I took the <i>Saturday +Review</i> from my pocket, and was soon immersed in an article on the +commutation of tithes.</p> + +<p>I was aroused from my absorption by the rattle of a small stone hopping +down the steep track, half path, half stairway, by which I had ascended. +It had been loosened by the foot of a descending wayfarer, in whom, as +he picked his way slowly downward, I recognized a middle-aged German +(that I supposed to be his nationality) who had been very assiduous at +the roulette-tables of the Casino for some days past. There was nothing +remarkable in his appearance, his spectacled eyes, squat nose, and +square-cropped bristling beard being simply characteristic of his class +and country. He did not notice me as he went by, being too intent on his +footing to look about him; but I was so placed that it was a minute or +more before he passed out of sight round a bend in the path. He was just +turning the corner, and my eyes were still fixed on him, when I was +conscious of another figure within my field of vision. This second comer +had descended the same pathway, but had loosened no stones on his +passage. He trod with such exquisite lightness and agility that he had +passed close by me without my being aware of his presence, while he, for +his part, had his eyes fixed with a curious intensity on the thick-set +figure of the German, upon whom, at his rate of progress, he must have +been gaining rapidly. A glance showed me that he was a young man of +slender figure, dressed in a suit of dark-coloured tweed, of English +cut, and wearing a light-brown wide-awake hat. Just as my eye fell upon +him he put his hand into the inner breast-pocket of his coat, and drew +from it something which, as he was now well past me, I could not see. At +the same moment some small object, probably jerked out of his pocket by +mistake, fell almost noiselessly on the path at his feet. In his +apparently eager haste he did not notice his loss, but was gliding +onward, leaving what I took to be his purse lying on the path. It was +clearly my duty to call his attention to it; so I said, "Hi!" an +interjection which I have found serves its purpose in all countries. He +gave a perceptible start, and looked round at me over his shoulder. I +pointed to the object he had dropped, and said, "<i>Voilà!</i>" He had thrust +back into his pocket the thing, whatever it was, which he held in his +hand, and now turned round to look where I was pointing. "Ah!" he said +in English, "my cigarette-case! I am much obliged to you," and he +stooped and picked it up.</p> + +<p>"I thought it was your purse," I said.</p> + +<p>"I would rather have lost my purse than this," he said, with a light +laugh. He had apparently abandoned his intention of overtaking the +German, who had meanwhile passed out of sight.</p> + +<p>"Are you such an enthusiastic smoker?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I go in for quality, not quantity," he replied; "and a Spanish friend +has just given me some incomparable <i>cigarritos</i>." He opened the case as +he ascended the few steps which brought him up to my little plateau. +"Have one?" he said, holding it out to me with the most winning smile I +have ever seen on any human face.</p> + +<p>I was about to take one from the left-hand side of the case, when he +turned it away and presented the other side to me.</p> + +<p>"No, no!" he said; "these flat ones are my common brand. The round ones +are the gems."</p> + +<p>"I am robbing you," I said, as I took one.</p> + +<p>"Not if you are smoker enough to appreciate it," he said, as he +stretched himself on the ground beside me, and produced from a little +gold match-box a wax vesta, with which he lighted my cigarette and his +own.</p> + +<p>So graceful was his whole personality, so easy and charming his manner, +that it did not strike me as in the least odd that he should thus make +friends with me by the mere exchange of half a dozen words. I looked at +him as he lay resting on his elbows and smoking lazily. He had thrown +his hat off, and his wavy hair, longish and of an opaque charcoal black, +fell over his temples while he shook it back behind his ears. He was a +little above the middle height, of dark complexion, with large and soft +black eyes and arched eyebrows, a small and rather broad nose (the worst +feature in his face), full curving and sensitive lips, and a very strong +and rounded chin. He was absolutely beardless, but a slight black down +on the upper lip announced a coming mustache. His age could not have +been more than twenty. The cut of his clothes, as I have said, was +English, but his large black satin neck-cloth, flowing out over the +collar of his coat, was such as no home-keeping Englishman would ever +have dared to appear in. This detail, combined with his accent, +perfectly pure but a trifle precise and deliberate, led me to take him +for an Englishman brought up on the Continent—probably in Italy, for +there was no French intonation in his speech. His voice was rich, but +deep—a light baritone.</p> + +<p>He took up my <i>Saturday Review</i>.</p> + +<p>"The Bible of the Englishman abroad," he said. "One of the institutions +that makes me proud of our country."</p> + +<p>"I have it sent me every week," I said.</p> + +<p>"So had my father," he replied. "He used to say, 'Shakespeare we share +with the Americans, but damn it, the <i>Saturday Review</i> is all our own!' +He was one of the old school, my father."</p> + +<p>"And the good school," I said, with enthusiasm. "So am I."</p> + +<p>"Now, I'm a bit of a Radical," my new friend rejoined, looking up with a +smile, which made the confession charming rather than objectionable; and +from this point we started upon a discussion, every word of which I +could write down if I chose, such a lasting impression did it make upon +me. He was indeed a brilliant talker, having read much and travelled +enormously for one so young. "I think I have lived in every country in +Europe," he said, "except Russia. Somehow it has never interested me." I +found that he was a Cambridge man, or, at least, was intimately +acquainted with Cambridge life and thought; and this was another bond +between us. His Radicalism was not very formidable; it amounted to +little more, indeed, than a turn for humorous paradox. Our discussion +reminded me of Fuller's description of the wit-combats between Ben +Jonson and Shakespeare at the "Mermaid." I was the Spanish galleon, my +Fascinating Friend was the English man-of-war, ready "to take advantage +of all winds by the quickness of his wit and invention." An hour sped +away delightfully, the only thing I did not greatly enjoy being the +cigarette, which seemed to me no better than many I had smoked before.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of my cigarettes?" he said, as I threw away the +stump.</p> + +<p>I felt that a blunt expression of opinion would be in bad taste after +his generosity in offering an utter stranger the best he had. +"Exquisite!" I answered.</p> + +<p>"I thought you would say so," he replied, gravely. "Have another!"</p> + +<p>"Let me try one of your common ones," I said.</p> + +<p>"No, you shan't!" he replied, closing the case with a sudden snap, which +endangered my fingers, but softening the <i>brusquerie</i> of the proceeding +by one of his enthralling smiles; then he added, using one of the odd +idioms which gave his speech a peculiar piquancy, "I don't palm off upon +my friends what I have of second best." He re-opened the case and held +it out to me. To have refused would have been to confess that I did not +appreciate his "gems" as he called them. I smoked another, in which I +still failed to find any unusual fragrance; but the aroma of my +new-found friend's whole personality was so keen and subtle, that it may +have deadened my nerves to any more material sensation.</p> + +<p>We lay talking until the pink flush of evening spread along the horizon, +and in it Corsica, invisible before, seemed to body itself forth from +nothingness like an island of phantom peaks and headlands. Then we rose, +and, in the quickly gathering dusk, took our way down among the +olive-yards, and through the orange-gardens to Monte Carlo.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="IIB" id="IIB"></a>II</h3> + + +<p>My acquaintance with my Fascinating Friend lasted little more than +forty-eight hours, but during that time we were inseparable. He was not +at my hotel, but on that first evening I persuaded him to dine with me, +and soon after breakfast on the following morning I went in search of +him; I was at the Russie, he at the Hôtel de Paris. I found him smoking +in the veranda, and at a table not far distant sat the German of the +previous afternoon, finishing a tolerably copious <i>déjeûner à la +fourchette</i>. As soon as he had scraped his plate quite clean and +finished the last dregs of his bottle of wine, he rose and took his way +to the Casino. After a few minutes' talk with my Fascinating Friend, I +suggested a stroll over to Monaco. He agreed, and we spent the whole day +together, loitering and lounging, talking and dreaming. We went to the +Casino in the afternoon to hear the concert, and I discovered my friend +to be a cultivated musician. Then we strolled into the gambling-room for +an hour, but neither of us played. The German was busy at one of the +roulette-tables, and seemed to be winning considerably. That evening I +dined with my friend at the table d'hôte of his hotel. At the other end +of the table I could see the German sitting silent and unnoticing, rapt +in the joys of deglutition.</p> + +<p>Next morning, by arrangement, my friend called upon me at my hotel, and +over one of his cigarettes, to which I was getting accustomed, we +discussed our plan for the day. I suggested a wider flight than +yesterday's. Had he ever been to Eza, the old Saracen robber-nest +perched on a rock a thousand feet above the sea, halfway between Monaco +and Villafranca? No, he had not been there, and after some consideration +he agreed to accompany me. We went by rail to the little station on the +seashore, and then attacked the arduous ascent. The day was perfect, +though rather too warm for climbing, and we had frequent rests among the +olive-trees, with delightfully discursive talks on all things under the +sun. My companion's charm grew upon me moment by moment. There was in +his manner a sort of refined coquetry of amiability which I found +irresistible. It was combined with a frankness of sympathy and interest +subtly flattering to a man of my unsocial habit of mind. I was conscious +every now and then that he was drawing me out; but to be drawn out so +gently and genially was, to me, a novel and delightful experience. It +produced in me one of those effusions of communicativeness to which, I +am told, all reticent people are occasionally subject. I have myself +given way to them some three or four times in my life, and found myself +pouring forth to perfect strangers such intimate details of feeling and +experience as I would rather die than impart to my dearest friend. Three +or four times, I say, have I found myself suddenly and inexplicably +brought within the influence of some invisible truth-compelling +talisman, which drew from me confessions the rack could not have +extorted; but never has the influence been so irresistible as in the +case of my Fascinating Friend. I told him what I had told to no other +human soul—what I had told to the lonely glacier, to the lurid +storm-cloud, to the seething sea, but had never breathed in mortal +ear—I told him the tragedy of my life. How well I remember the scene! +We were resting beneath the chestnut-trees that shadow a stretch of +level sward immediately below the last short stage of ascent that leads +into the heart of the squalid village now nestling in the crevices of +the old Moslem fastness. The midday hush was on sea and sky. Far out on +the horizon a level line of smoke showed where an unseen steamer was +crawling along under the edge of the sapphire sphere. As I reached the +climax of my tale an old woman, bent almost double beneath a huge fagot +of firewood, passed us on her way to the village. I remember that it +crossed my mind to wonder whether there was any capacity in the nature +of such as she for suffering at all comparable to that which I was +describing. My companion's sympathy was subtle and soothing. There was +in my tale an element of the grotesque which might have tempted a vulgar +nature to flippancy. No smile crossed my companion's lips. He turned +away his head, on pretense of watching the receding figure of the old +peasant-woman. When he looked at me again, his deep dark eyes were +suffused with a moisture which enhanced the mystery of their tenderness. +In that moment I felt, as I had never felt before, what it is to find a +friend.</p> + +<p>We returned to Monte Carlo late in the afternoon, and I found a telegram +at my hotel begging me to be in Genoa the following morning. I had +barely time to bundle my traps together and swallow a hasty meal before +my train was due. I scrawled a note to my new found confidant, +expressing most sincerely my sorrow at parting from him so soon and so +suddenly, and my hope that ere long we should meet again.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="IIIB" id="IIIB"></a>III</h3> + + +<p>The train was already at the platform when I reached the station. There +were one or two first-class through carriages on it, which, for a French +railway, were unusually empty. In one of them I saw at the window the +head of the German, and from a certain subdued radiance in his +expression, I judged that he must be carrying off a considerable "pile" +from the gaming-table. His personality was not of the most attractive, +and there was something in his squat nose suggestive of stertorous +possibilities which, under ordinary circumstances, would have held me +aloof from him. But—shall I confess it?—he had for me a certain +sentimental attraction, because he was associated in my mind with that +first meeting with my forty-eight hours' friend. I looked into his +compartment; an overcoat and valise lay in the opposite corner from his, +showing that seat to be engaged, but two corners were still left me to +choose from. I installed myself in one of them, face to face with the +valise and overcoat, and awaited the signal to start. The cry of "En +voiture, messieurs!" soon came, and a lithe figure sprang into the +carriage. It was my Fascinating Friend! For a single moment I thought +that a flash of annoyance crossed his features on finding me there, but +the impression vanished at once, for his greeting was as full of +cordiality as of surprise. We soon exchanged explanations. He, like +myself, had been called away by telegram, not to Genoa, but to Rome; he, +like myself, had left a note expressing his heartfelt regret at our +sudden separation. As we sped along, skirting bays that shone burnished +in the evening light, and rumbling every now and then through a +tunnel-pierced promontory, we resumed the almost affectionate converse +interrupted only an hour before, and I found him a more delightful +companion than ever. His exquisitely playful fantasy seemed to be acting +at high pressure, as in the case of a man who is talking to pass the +time under the stimulus of a delightful anticipation. I suspected that +he was hurrying to some peculiarly agreeable rendezvous in Rome, and I +hinted my suspicion, which he laughed off in such a way as to confirm +it. The German, in the mean time, sat stolid and unmoved, making some +pencilled calculations in a little pocket-book. He clearly did not +understand English.</p> + +<p>As we approached Ventimiglia my friend rose, took down his valise from +the rack, and, turning his back to me, made some changes in its +arrangement, which I, of course, did not see. He then locked it +carefully and kept it beside him. At Ventimiglia we had all to turn out +to undergo the inspection of the Italian <i>dogana</i>. My friend's valise +was his sole luggage, and I noticed, rather to my surprise, that he gave +the custom-house official a very large bribe—two or three gold +pieces—to make his inspection of it purely nominal, and forego the +opening of either of the inside compartments. The German, on the other +hand, had a small portmanteau and a large dispatch box, both of which he +opened with a certain ostentation, and I observed that the official's +eyes glittered under his raised eyebrows as he looked into the contents +of the dispatch-box. On returning to the train we all three resumed our +old places, and the German drew the shade of a sleeping-cap over his +eyes and settled himself down for the night. It was now quite dark, but +the moon was shining.</p> + +<p>"Have you a large supply of the 'gems' in your valise?" I asked, +smiling, curious to know his reason for a subterfuge which accorded ill +with his ordinary straight-forwardness, and remembering that tobacco is +absolutely prohibited at the Italian frontier.</p> + +<p>"Unfortunately, no," he said; "my 'gems' are all gone, and I have only +my common cigarettes remaining. Will you try them, such as they are?" +and he held out his case, both sides of which were now filled with the +flat cigarettes. We each took one and lighted it, but he began giving me +an account of a meeting he had had with Lord Beaconsfield, which he +detailed so fully and with so much enthusiasm, that, after a whiff or +two he allowed his cigarette to go out. I could not understand his taste +in tobacco. These cigarettes which he despised seemed to me at once more +delicate and more peculiar than the others. They had a flavour which was +quite unknown to me. I was much interested in his vivid account of the +personality of that great man, whom I admired then, while he was yet +with us, and whom, as a knight of the Primrose League, I now revere; but +our climb of the morning, and the scrambling departure of the afternoon, +were beginning to tell on me, and I became irresistibly drowsy. +Gradually, and in spite of myself, my eyes closed. I could still hear my +companion's voice mingling with the heavy breathing of the German, who +had been asleep for some time; but soon even these sounds ceased to +penetrate the mist of languor, the end of my cigarette dropped from +between my fingers and I knew no more.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>My awakening was slow and spasmodic. There was a clearly perceptible +interval—probably several minutes—between the first stirrings of +consciousness and the full clarification of my faculties. I began to be +aware of the rumble and oscillation of the train without realizing what +was meant. Then I opened my eyes and blinked at the lamp, and vaguely +noted the yellow oil washing to and fro in the bowl. Then the white +square of the "Avis aux Voyageurs" caught my eye in the gloom under the +luggage-rack, and beneath it, on the seat, I saw the light reflected +from the lock of the German's portmanteau. Next I was conscious of the +German himself still sleeping in his corner, but no longer puffing and +grunting as when I had fallen asleep. Then I raised my head, looked +round the carriage, and the next moment sprang bolt upright in dismay.</p> + +<p>Where was my Fascinating Friend?</p> + +<p>Gone! vanished! There was not a trace of him. His valise, his +great-coat, all had disappeared. Only in the little cigar-ash box on the +window-frame I saw the flat cigarette which he had barely lighted—how +long before? I looked at my watch: it must have been about an hour and a +half ago.</p> + +<p>By this time I had all my faculties about me. I looked across at the +German, intending to ask him if he knew anything of our late +travelling-companion. Then I noticed that his head had fallen forward in +such a way that it seemed to me suffocation must be imminent. I +approached him, and put down my head to look into his face. As I did so +I saw a roundish black object on the oil-cloth floor not far from the +toe of his boot. The lamplight was reflected at a single point from its +convex surface. I put down my hand and touched it. It was liquid. I +looked at my fingers—they were not black, but red. I think (but am not +sure) that I screamed aloud. I shrank to the other end of the carriage, +and it was some moments before I had sufficient presence of mind to look +for a means of communicating with the guard. Of course there was none. I +was alone for an indefinite time with a dead man. But was he dead? I had +little doubt, from the way his head hung, that his throat was cut, and a +horrible fascination drew me to his side to examine. No; there was no +sign of the hideous fissure I expected to find beneath the gray bristles +of his beard. His head fell forward again into the same position, and I +saw with horror that I had left two bloody fingermarks upon the gray +shade of his sleeping-cap. Then I noticed for the first time that the +window he was facing stood open, for a gust of wind came through it and +blew back the lapel of his coat. What was that on his waistcoat? I tore +the coat back and examined: it was a small triangular hole just over the +heart, and round it there was a dark circle about the size of a +shilling, where the blood had soaked through the light material. In +examining it I did what the murderer had not done—disturbed the +equilibrium of the body, which fell over against me.</p> + +<p>At that moment I heard a loud voice behind me, coming from I knew not +where. I nearly fainted with terror. The train was still going at full +speed; the compartment was empty, save for myself and the ghastly object +which lay in my arms; and yet I seemed to hear a voice almost at my ear. +There it was again! I summoned up courage to look round. It was the +guard of the train clinging on outside the window and demanding +"Biglietti!" By this time, he, too, saw that something was amiss. He +opened the door and swung himself into the carriage. "Dio mio!" I heard +him exclaim, as I actually flung myself into his arms and pointed to the +body now lying in a huddled heap amid its own blood on the floor. Then, +for the first time in my life, I positively swooned away, and knew no +more.</p> + +<p>When I came to myself the train had stopped at a small station, the name +of which I do not know to this day. There was a Babel of speech going on +around, not one word of which I could understand. I was on the platform, +supported between two men in uniform, with cocked hats and cockades. In +vain I tried to tell my story. I knew little or no Italian, and, though +there were one or two Frenchmen in the train, they were useless as +interpreters, for on the one hand my power of speaking French seemed to +have departed in my agitation, and on the other hand none of the +Italians understood it. In vain I tried to make them understand that a +"giovane" had travelled in the compartment with us who had now +disappeared. The Italian guard, who had come on at Ventimiglia, +evidently had no recollection of him. He merely shook his head, said +"Non capisco," and inquired if I was "Prussiano." The train had already +been delayed some time, and, after a consultation between the +station-master, the guard, the syndic of the village, who had been +summoned in haste, it was determined to hand the matter over to the +authorities at Genoa. The two carabinieri sat one on each side of me +facing the engine, and on the opposite seat the body was stretched out +with a luggage tarpaulin over it. In this hideous fashion I passed the +four or five remaining hours of the journey to Genoa.</p> + +<p>The next week I spent in an Italian prison, a very uncomfortable yet +quite unromantic place of abode. Fortunately, my friends were by this +time in Genoa, and they succeeded in obtaining some slight mitigation of +my discomforts. At the end of that time I was released, there being no +evidence against me. The testimony of the French guard, of the +booking-clerk at Monaco, and of the staff of the Hôtel de Paris, +established the existence of my Fascinating Friend, which was at first +called in question; but no trace could be found of him. With him had +disappeared his victim's dispatch-box, in which were stored the proceeds +of several days of successful gambling. Robbery, however, did not seem +to have been the primary motive of the crime, for his watch, purse, and +the heavy jewelry about his person were all untouched. From the German +Consul at Genoa I learned privately, after my release, that the murdered +man, though in fact a Prussian, had lived long in Russia, and was +suspected of having had an unofficial connection with the St. Petersburg +police. It was thought, indeed, that the capital with which he had +commenced his operation at Monte Carlo was the reward of some special +act of treachery; so that the anarchists, if it was indeed they who +struck the blow, had merely suffered Judas to put his thirty pieces out +to usance, in order to pay back to their enemies with interest the +blood-money of their friends.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="IVB" id="IVB"></a>IV</h3> + + +<p>About two years later I happened one day to make an afternoon call in +Mayfair, at the house of a lady well known in the social and political +world, who honours me, if I may say so, with her friendship. Her +drawing-room was crowded, and the cheerful ring of afternoon tea-cups +was audible through the pleasant medley of women's voices. I joined a +group around the hostess, where an animated discussion was in progress +on the Irish Coercion Bill, then the leading political topic of the day. +The argument interested me deeply; but it is one of my mental +peculiarities that when several conversations are going on around me I +can by no means keep my attention exclusively fixed upon the one in +which I am myself engaged. Odds and ends from all the others find their +way into my ears and my consciousness, and I am sometimes accused of +absence of mind, when my fault is in reality a too great alertness of +the sense of hearing. In this instance the conversation of three or four +groups was more or less audible to me; but it was not long before my +attention was absorbed by the voice of a lady, seated at the other side +of the circular ottoman on which I myself had taken my place.</p> + +<p>She was talking merrily, and her hearers, in one of whom, as I glanced +over my shoulder, I recognized an ex-Cabinet Minister, seemed to be +greatly entertained. As her back was toward me, all I could see of the +lady herself was her short black hair falling over the handsome fur +collar of her mantle.</p> + +<p>"He was so tragic about it," she was saying, "that it was really +<i>impayable</i>. The lady was beautiful, wealthy, accomplished, and I don't +know what else. The rival was an Australian squatter, with a beard as +thick as his native bush. My communicative friend—I scarcely knew even +his name when he poured forth his woes to me—thought that he had an +advantage in his light moustache, with a military twirl in it. They were +all three travelling in Switzerland, but the Australian had gone off to +make the ascent of some peak or other, leaving the field to the foe for +a couple of days at least. On the first day the foe made the most of his +time, and had nearly brought matters to a crisis. The next morning he +got himself up as exquisitely as possible, in order to clinch his +conquest, but found to his disgust that he had left his dressing-case +with his razors at the last stopping-place. There was nothing for it but +to try the village barber, who was also the village stationer, and +draper, and ironmonger, and chemist—a sort of Alpine Whiteley, in fact. +His face had just been soaped—what do you call it?—lathered, is it +not? and the barber had actually taken hold of his nose so as to get his +head into the right position, when, in the mirror opposite, he saw the +door open, and—oh, horror!—who should walk into the shop but the fair +one herself! He gave such a start that the barber gashed his chin. His +eyes met hers in the mirror; for a moment he saw her lips quiver and +tremble, and then she burst into shrieks of uncontrollable laughter, and +rushed out of the shop. If you knew the pompous little man, I am sure +you would sympathize with her. I know I did when he told me the story. +His heart sank within him, but he acted like a Briton. He determined to +take no notice of the <i>contretemps</i>, but return boldly to the attack. +She received him demurely at first, but the moment she raised her eyes +to his face, and saw the patch of sticking-plaster on his chin, she was +again seized with such convulsions that she had to rush from the room. +'She is now in Melbourne,' he said, almost with a sob, 'and I assure +you, my dear friend, that I never now touch a razor without an impulse, +to which I expect I shall one day succumb, to put it to a desperate +use.'"</p> + +<p>There was a singing in my ears, and my brain was whirling. This story, +heartlessly and irreverently told, was the tragedy of my life!</p> + +<p>I had breathed it to no human soul—<i>save one</i>!</p> + +<p>I rose from my seat, wondering within myself whether my agitation was +visible to those around me, and went over to the other side of the room +whence I could obtain a view of the speaker. There were the deep, dark +eyes, there were the full sensuous lips, the upper shaded with an +impalpable down, there was the charcoal-black hair! I knew too well that +rich contralto voice! It was my Fascinating Friend!</p> + +<p>Before I had fully realized the situation she rose, handed her empty +tea-cup to the Cabinet-Minister, bowed to him and his companion, and +made her way up to the hostess, evidently intending to take her leave. +As she turned away, after shaking hands cordially with Lady X——, her +eyes met mine intently fixed upon her. She did not start, she neither +flushed nor turned pale; she simply raised for an instant her finely +arched eyebrows, and as her tall figure sailed past me out of the room, +she turned upon me the same exquisite and irresistible smile with which +my Fascinating Friend had offered me his cigarette-case that evening +among the olive-trees.</p> + +<p>I hurried up to Lady X——.</p> + +<p>"Who is the lady who has just left the room?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that is the Baroness M——," she replied. "She is half an +Englishwoman, half a Pole. She was my daughter's bosom friend at +Girton—a most interesting girl."</p> + +<p>"Is she a politician?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"No; that's the one thing I don't like about her. She is not a bit of a +patriot; she makes a joke of her country's wrongs and sufferings. Should +you like to meet her? Dine with us the day after to-morrow. She is to be +here."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I dined at Lady X——'s on the appointed day, but the Baroness was not +there. Urgent family affairs had called her suddenly to Poland.</p> + +<p>A week later the assassination of the Czar sent a thrill of horror +through the civilized world.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Don't you think your friend might be held an accessory after the fact +to the death of the German?" asked the Novelist, when all the flattering +comments, which were many, were at an end. "And an accessory before the +fact to the assassination of the Czar?" chimed in the Editor. "Why +didn't he go straight from Lady ——'s house to the nearest +police-station and put the police on the track of his 'Fascinating +Friend'?" "What a question!" the Romancer exclaimed, starting from his +seat and pacing restlessly about the deck. "How could any man with a +palate for the rarest flavours of life resist the temptation of taking +that woman down to dinner? And, besides, hadn't he eaten salt with her? +Hadn't he smoked the social cigarette with her? Shade of De Quincey! are +we to treat like a vulgar criminal a mistress of the finest of the fine +arts? Shall we be such crawling creatures as to seek to lay by the heels +a Muse of Murder? Are we a generation of detectives, that we should do +this thing?" "So my friend put it to me," said the Critic dryly, "not +quite so eloquently, but to that effect. Between ourselves, though, I +believe he was influenced more by consideration of his personal safety +than by admiration for murder as a fine art. He remembered the fate of +the German, and was unwilling to share it." "He adopted a policy of +non-intervention," said the Eminent Tragedian, who in his hours of +leisure, was something of a politician. "I should rather say of <i>laissez +faire</i>, or, more precisely, of <i>laissez assassiner</i>," laughed the +Editor. "What was the Fascinating Friend supposed to have in her +portmanteau?" asked Beatrice. "What was she so anxious to conceal from +the custom-house officers?" "Her woman's clothes, I imagine," the Critic +replied, "though I don't hold myself bound to explain all the ins and +outs of her proceedings." "Then she <i>was</i> a wonderful woman," replied +the fair questioner, as one having authority, "if she could get a +respectable gown and 'fixings,' as the Americans say, into a small +portmanteau. But," she added, "I very soon suspected she was a woman." +"Why?" asked several voices simultaneously. "Why, because she drew him +out so easily," was the reply. "You think, in fact," said the Romancer, +"that however little its victim was aware of it, there was a touch of +the <i>Ewig-weibliche</i> in her fascination?" "Precisely."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_LOST_ROOM" id="THE_LOST_ROOM"></a>THE LOST ROOM</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Fitz-James O'Brien</span></h3> + + +<p>It was oppressively warm. The sun had long disappeared, but seemed to +have left its vital spirit of heat behind it. The air rested; the leaves +of the acacia-trees that shrouded my windows hung plumb-like on their +delicate stalks. The smoke of my cigar scarce rose above my head, but +hung about me in a pale blue cloud, which I had to dissipate with +languid waves of my hand. My shirt was open at the throat, and my chest +heaved laboriously in the effort to catch some breaths of fresher air. +The noises of the city seemed to be wrapped in slumber, and the +shrilling of the mosquitos was the only sound that broke the stillness.</p> + +<p>As I lay with my feet elevated on the back of a chair, wrapped in that +peculiar frame of mind in which thought assumes a species of lifeless +motion, the strange fancy seized me of making a languid inventory of the +principal articles of furniture in my room. It was a task well suited to +the mood in which I found myself. Their forms were duskily defined in +the dim twilight that floated shadowily through the chamber; it was no +labour to note and particularize each, and from the place where I sat I +could command a view of all my possessions without even turning my head.</p> + +<p>There was, <i>imprimis</i>, that ghostly lithograph by Calame. It was a mere +black spot on the white wall, but my inner vision scrutinized every +detail of the picture. A wild, desolate, midnight heath, with a spectral +oak-tree in the centre of the foreground. The wind blows fiercely, and +the jagged branches, clothed scantily with ill-grown leaves, are swept +to the left continually by its giant force.</p> + +<p>A formless wrack of clouds streams across the awful sky, and the rain +sweeps almost parallel with the horizon. Beyond, the heath stretches off +into endless blackness, in the extreme of which either fancy or art has +conjured up some undefinable shapes that seem riding into space. At the +base of the huge oak stands a shrouded figure. His mantle is wound by +the blast in tight folds around his form, and the long cock's feather in +his hat is blown upright, till it seems as if it stood on end with fear. +His features are not visible, for he has grasped his cloak with both +hands, and drawn it from either side across his face. The picture is +seemingly objectless. It tells no tale, but there is a weird power about +it that haunts one, and it was for that I bought it.</p> + +<p>Next to the picture comes the round blot that hangs below it, which I +know to be a smoking-cap. It has my coat of arms embroidered on the +front, and for that reason I never wear it; though, when properly +arranged on my head, with its long blue silken tassel hanging down by my +cheek, I believe it becomes me well. I remember the time when it was in +the course of manufacture. I remember the tiny little hands that pushed +the coloured silks so nimbly through the cloth that was stretched on the +embroidery-frame,—the vast trouble I was put to to get a coloured copy +of my armorial bearings for the heraldic work which was to decorate the +front of the band,—the pursings up of the little mouth, and the +contractions of the young forehead, as their possessor plunged into a +profound sea of cogitation touching the way in which the cloud should be +represented from which the armed hand, that is my crest, issues,—the +heavenly moment when the tiny hands placed it on my head, in a position +that I could not bear for more than a few seconds, and I, kinglike, +immediately assumed my royal prerogative after the coronation, and +instantly levied a tax on my only subjects which was, however, not paid +unwillingly. Ah! the cap is there, but the embroiderer has fled; for +Atropos was severing the web of life above her head while she was +weaving that silken shelter for mine!</p> + +<p>How uncouthly the huge piano that occupies the corner at the left of the +door looms out in the uncertain twilight! I neither play nor sing, yet I +own a piano. It is a comfort to me to look at it, and to feel that the +music is there, although I am not able to break the spell that binds it. +It is pleasant to know that Bellini and Mozart, Cimarosa, Porpora, Glück +and all such,—or at least their souls,—sleep in that unwieldy case. +There lie embalmed, as it were, all operas, sonatas, oratorios, +nocturnos, marches, songs and dances, that ever climbed into existence +through the four bars that wall in melody. Once I was entirely repaid +for the investment of my funds in that instrument which I never use. +Blokeeta, the composer, came to see me. Of course his instincts urged +him as irresistibly to my piano as if some magnetic power lay within it +compelling him to approach. He tuned it, he played on it. All night +long, until the gray and spectral dawn rose out of the depths of the +midnight, he sat and played, and I lay smoking by the window listening. +Wild, unearthly, and sometimes insufferably painful, were the +improvisations of Blokeeta. The chords of the instrument seemed breaking +with anguish. Lost souls shrieked in his dismal preludes; the half-heard +utterances of spirits in pain, that groped at inconceivable distances +from anything lovely or harmonious, seemed to rise dimly up out of the +waves of sound that gathered under his hands. Melancholy human love +wandered out on distant heaths, or beneath dank and gloomy cypresses, +murmuring its unanswered sorrow, or hateful gnomes sported and sang in +the stagnant swamps triumphing in unearthly tones over the knight whom +they had lured to his death. Such was Blokeeta's night's entertainment; +and when he at length closed the piano, and hurried away through the +cold morning, he left a memory about the instrument from which I could +never escape.</p> + +<p>Those snow-shoes that hang in the space between the mirror and the door +recall Canadian wanderings,—a long race through the dense forests, over +the frozen snow through whose brittle crust the slender hoofs of the +caribou that we were pursuing sank at every step, until the poor +creature despairingly turned at bay in a small juniper coppice, and we +heartlessly shot him down. And I remember how Gabriel, the <i>habitant</i>, +and François, the half-breed, cut his throat, and how the hot blood +rushed out in a torrent over the snowy soil; and I recall the snow +<i>cabane</i> that Gabriel built, where we all three slept so warmly; and the +great fire that glowed at our feet, painting all kinds of demoniac +shapes on the black screen of forest that lay without; and the +deer-steaks that we roasted for our breakfast; and the savage +drunkenness of Gabriel in the morning, he having been privately drinking +out of my brandy-flask all the night long.</p> + +<p>That long haftless dagger that dangles over the mantelpiece makes my +heart swell. I found it, when a boy, in a hoary old castle in which one +of my maternal ancestors once lived. That same ancestor—who, by the +way, yet lives in history—was a strange old sea-king, who dwelt on the +extremest point of the southwestern coast of Ireland. He owned the whole +of that fertile island called Inniskeiran, which directly faces Cape +Clear, where between them the Atlantic rolls furiously, forming what the +fishermen of the place call "the Sound." An awful place in winter is +that same Sound. On certain days no boat can live there for a moment, +and Cape Clear is frequently cut off for days from any communication +with the mainland.</p> + +<p>This old sea-king—Sir Florence O'Driscoll by name—passed a stormy +life. From the summit of his castle he watched the ocean, and when any +richly laden vessels bound from the South to the industrious Galway +merchants, hove in sight, Sir Florence hoisted the sails of his galley, +and it went hard with him if he did not tow into harbor ship and crew. +In this way he lived; not a very honest mode of livelihood, certainly, +according to our modern ideas, but quite reconcilable with the morals of +the time. As may be supposed, Sir Florence got into trouble. Complaints +were laid against him at the English court by the plundered merchants, +and the Irish viking set out for London, to plead his own cause before +good Queen Bess, as she was called. He had one powerful recommendation: +he was a marvellously handsome man. Not Celtic by descent, but half +Spanish, half Danish in blood, he had the great northern stature with +the regular features, flashing eyes, and dark hair of the Iberian race. +This may account for the fact that his stay at the English court was +much longer than was necessary, as also for the tradition, which a local +historian mentions, that the English Queen evinced a preference for the +Irish chieftain, of other nature than that usually shown by monarch to +subject.</p> + +<p>Previous to his departure, Sir Florence had intrusted the care of his +property to an Englishman named Hull. During the long absence of the +knight, this person managed to ingratiate himself with the local +authorities, and gain their favour so far that they were willing to +support him in almost any scheme. After a protracted stay, Sir Florence, +pardoned of all his misdeeds, returned to his home. Home no longer. Hull +was in possession, and refused to yield an acre of the lands he had so +nefariously acquired. It was no use appealing to the law, for its +officers were in the opposite interest. It was no use appealing to the +Queen, for she had another lover, and had forgotten the poor Irish +knight by this time; and so the viking passed the best portion of his +life in unsuccessful attempts to reclaim his vast estates, and was +eventually, in his old age, obliged to content himself with his castle +by the sea and the island of Inniskeiran, the only spot of which the +usurper was unable to deprive him. So this old story of my kinsman's +fate looms up out of the darkness that enshrouds that haftless dagger +hanging on the wall.</p> + +<p>It was somewhat after the foregoing fashion that I dreamily made the +inventory of my personal property. As I turned my eyes on each object, +one after the other,—or the places where they lay, for the room was now +so dark that it was almost impossible to see with any distinctness,—a +crowd of memories connected with each rose up before me, and, perforce, +I had to indulge them. So I proceeded but slowly, and at last my cigar +shortened to a hot and bitter morsel that I could barely hold between my +lips, while it seemed to me that the night grew each moment more +insufferably oppressive. While I was revolving some impossible means of +cooling my wretched body, the cigar stump began to burn my lips. I flung +it angrily through the open window, and stooped out to watch it falling. +It first lighted on the leaves of the acacia, sending out a spray of red +sparkles, then, rolling off, it fell plump on the dark walk in the +garden, faintly illuminating for a moment the dusky trees and breathless +flowers. Whether it was the contrast between the red flash of the +cigar-stump and the silent darkness of the garden, or whether it was +that I detected by the sudden light a faint waving of the leaves, I know +not; but something suggested to me that the garden was cool. I will take +a turn there, thought I, just as I am; it cannot be warmer than this +room, and however still the atmosphere, there is always a feeling of +liberty and spaciousness in the open air, that partially supplies one's +wants. With this idea running through my head, I arose, lit another +cigar, and passed out into the long, intricate corridors that led to the +main staircase. As I crossed the threshold of my room, with what a +different feeling I should have passed it had I known that I was never +to set foot in it again!</p> + +<p>I lived in a very large house, in which I occupied two rooms on the +second floor. The house was old-fashioned, and all the floors +communicated by a huge circular staircase that wound up through the +centre of the building, while at every landing long, rambling corridors +stretched off into mysterious nooks and corners. This palace of mine was +very high, and its resources, in the way of crannies and windings, +seemed to be interminable. Nothing seemed to stop anywhere. Cul-de-sacs +were unknown on the premises. The corridors and passages, like +mathematical lines, seemed capable of indefinite extension, and the +object of the architect must have been to erect an edifice in which +people might go ahead forever. The whole place was gloomy, not so much +because it was large, but because an unearthly nakedness seemed to +pervade the structure. The staircases, corridors, halls, and vestibules +all partook of a desert-like desolation. There was nothing on the walls +to break the sombre monotony of those long vistas of shade. No carvings +on the wainscoting, no moulded masks peering down from the simply severe +cornices, no marble vases on the landings. There was an eminent +dreariness and want of life—so rare in an American establishment—all +over the abode. It was Hood's haunted house put in order and newly +painted. The servants, too, were shadowy, and chary of their visits. +Bells rang three times before the gloomy chambermaid could be induced to +present herself; and the negro waiter, a ghoul-like looking creature +from Congo, obeyed the summons only when one's patience was exhausted or +one's want satisfied in some other way. When he did come, one felt sorry +that he had not stayed away altogether, so sullen and savage did he +appear. He moved along the echoless floors with a slow, noiseless +shamble, until his dusky figure, advancing from the gloom, seemed like +some reluctant afreet, compelled by the superior power of his master to +disclose himself. When the doors of all the chambers were closed, and no +light illuminated the long corridor save the red, unwholesome glare of a +small oil lamp on a table at the end, where late lodgers lit their +candles, one could not by any possibility conjure up a sadder or more +desolate prospect.</p> + +<p>Yet the house suited me. Of meditative and sedentary habits, I enjoyed +the extreme quiet. There were but few lodgers, from which I infer that +the landlord did not drive a very thriving trade; and these, probably +oppressed by the sombre spirit of the place, were quiet and ghost-like +in their movements. The proprietor I scarcely ever saw. My bills were +deposited by unseen hands every month on my table, while I was out +walking or riding, and my pecuniary response was intrusted to the +attendant afreet. On the whole, when the bustling, wide-awake spirit of +New York is taken into consideration, the sombre, half-vivified +character of the house in which I lived was an anomaly that no one +appreciated better than I who lived there.</p> + +<p>I felt my way down the wide, dark staircase in my pursuit of zephyrs. +The garden, as I entered it, did feel somewhat cooler than my own room, +and I puffed my cigar along the dim, cypress-shrouded walks with a +sensation of comparative relief. It was very dark. The tall-growing +flowers that bordered the path were so wrapped in gloom as to present +the aspect of solid pyramidal masses, all the details of leaves and +blossoms being buried in an embracing darkness, while the trees had lost +all form, and seemed like masses of overhanging cloud. It was a place +and time to excite the imagination; for in the impenetrable cavities of +endless gloom there was room for the most riotous fancies to play at +will. I walked and walked, and the echoes of my footsteps on the +ungravelled and mossy path suggested a double feeling. I felt alone and +yet in company at the same time. The solitariness of the place made +itself distinct enough in the stillness, broken alone by the hollow +reverberations of my step, while those very reverberations seemed to +imbue me with an undefined feeling that I was not alone. I was not, +therefore, much startled when I was suddenly accosted from beneath the +solid darkness of an immense cypress by a voice saying, "Will you give +me a light, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," I replied, trying in vain to distinguish the speaker amidst +the impenetrable dark.</p> + +<p>Somebody advanced, and I held out my cigar. All I could gather +definitively about the individual who thus accosted me was that he must +have been of extremely small stature; for I, who am by no means an +overgrown man, had to stoop considerably in handing him my cigar. The +vigorous puff that he gave his own lighted up my Havana for a moment, +and I fancied that I caught a glimpse of long, wild hair. The flash was, +however, so momentary that I could not even say certainly whether this +was an actual impression or the mere effort of imagination to embody +that which the senses had failed to distinguish.</p> + +<p>"Sir, you are out late," said this unknown to me, as he, with +half-uttered thanks, handed me back my cigar, for which I had to grope +in the gloom.</p> + +<p>"Not later than usual," I replied, dryly.</p> + +<p>"Hum! you are fond of late wanderings, then?"</p> + +<p>"That is just as the fancy seizes me."</p> + +<p>"Do you live here?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Queer house, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"I have only found it quiet."</p> + +<p>"Hum! But you <i>will</i> find it queer, take my word for it." This was +earnestly uttered; and I felt at the same time a bony finger laid on my +arm, that cut it sharply like a blunted knife.</p> + +<p>"I cannot take your word for any such assertion," I replied rudely, +shaking off the bony finger with an irrepressible motion of disgust.</p> + +<p>"No offence, no offence," muttered my unseen companion rapidly, in a +strange, subdued voice, that would have been shrill had it been louder; +"your being angry does not alter the matter. You will find it a queer +house. Everybody finds it a queer house. Do you know who live there?"</p> + +<p>"I never busy myself, sir, about other people's affairs," I answered +sharply, for the individual's manner, combined with my utter uncertainty +as to his appearance, oppressed me with an irksome longing to be rid of +him.</p> + +<p>"O, you don't? Well, I do. I know what they are—well, well, well!" and +as he pronounced the three last words his voice rose with each, until, +with the last, it reached a shrill shriek that echoed horribly among the +lonely walks. "Do you know what they eat?" he continued.</p> + +<p>"No, sir,—nor care."</p> + +<p>"O, but you will care. You must care. You shall care. I'll tell you what +they are. They are enchanters. They are ghouls. They are cannibals. Did +you never remark their eyes, and how they gloated on you when you +passed? Did you never remark the food that they served up at your table? +Did you never in the dead of night hear muffled and unearthly footsteps +gliding along the corridors, and stealthy hands turning the handle of +your door? Does not some magnetic influence fold itself continually +around you when they pass, and send a thrill through spirit and body, +and a cold shiver that no sunshine will chase away? O, you have! You +have felt all these things! I know it!"</p> + +<p>The earnest rapidity, the subdued tones, the eagerness of accent, with +which all this was uttered, impressed me most uncomfortably. It really +seemed as if I could recall all those weird occurrences and influences +of which he spoke; and I shuddered in spite of myself in the midst of +the impenetrable darkness that surrounded me.</p> + +<p>"Hum!" said I, assuming, without knowing it, a confidential tone, "may I +ask you how you know these things?"</p> + +<p>"How I know them? Because I am their enemy; because they tremble at my +whisper; because I hang upon their track with the perseverance of a +bloodhound and the stealthiness of a tiger; because—because—I was <i>of</i> +them once!"</p> + +<p>"Wretch!" I cried excitedly, for involuntarily his eager tones had +wrought me up to a high pitch of spasmodic nervousness, "then you mean +to say that you——"</p> + +<p>As I uttered this word, obeying an uncontrollable impulse, I stretched +forth my hand in the direction of the speaker and made a blind clutch. +The tips of my fingers seemed to touch a surface as smooth as glass, +that glided suddenly from under them. A sharp, angry hiss sounded +through the gloom, followed by a whirring noise, as if some projectile +passed rapidly by, and the next moment I felt instinctively that I was +alone.</p> + +<p>A most disagreeable feeling instantly assailed me;—a prophetic instinct +that some terrible misfortune menaced me; an eager and overpowering +anxiety to get back to my own room without loss of time. I turned and +ran blindly along the dark cypress alley, every dusky clump of flowers +that rose blackly in the borders making my heart each moment cease to +beat. The echoes of my own footsteps seemed to redouble and assume the +sounds of unknown pursuers following fast upon my track. The boughs of +lilac-bushes and syringas, that here and there stretched partly across +the walk, seemed to have been furnished suddenly with hooked hands that +sought to grasp me as I flew by, and each moment I expected to behold +some awful and impassable barrier fall across my track and wall me up +forever.</p> + +<p>At length I reached the wide entrance. With a single leap I sprang up +the four or five steps that formed the stoop, and dashed along the hall, +up the wide, echoing stairs, and again along the dim, funereal corridors +until I paused, breathless and panting, at the door of my room. Once so +far, I stopped for an instant and leaned heavily against one of the +panels, panting lustily after my late run. I had, however, scarcely +rested my whole weight against the door, when it suddenly gave way, and +I staggered in head-foremost. To my utter astonishment the room I had +left in profound darkness was now a blaze of light. So intense was the +illumination that, for a few seconds while the pupils of my eyes were +contracting under the sudden change, I saw absolutely nothing save the +dazzling glare. This fact in itself, coming on me with such utter +suddenness, was sufficient to prolong my confusion, and it was not until +after several minutes had elapsed that I perceived the room was not only +illuminated, but occupied. And such occupants! Amazement at the scene +took such possession of me that I was incapable of either moving or +uttering a word. All that I could do was to lean against the wall, and +stare blankly at the strange picture.</p> + +<p>It might have been a scene out of Faublas, or Gramont's Memoirs, or +happened in some palace of Minister Foucque.</p> + +<p>Round a large table in the centre of the room, where I had left a +student-like litter of books and papers, were seated half a dozen +persons. Three were men and three were women. The table was heaped with +a prodigality of luxuries. Luscious eastern fruits were piled up in +silver filigree vases, through whose meshes their glowing rinds shone in +the contrasts of a thousand hues. Small silver dishes that Benvenuto +might have designed, filled with succulent and aromatic meats, were +distributed upon a cloth of snowy damask. Bottles of every shape, +slender ones from the Rhine, stout fellows from Holland, sturdy ones +from Spain, and quaint basket-woven flasks from Italy, absolutely +littered the board. Drinking-glasses of every size and hue filled up the +interstices, and the thirsty German flagon stood side by side with the +aërial bubbles of Venetian glass that rest so lightly on their +threadlike stems. An odour of luxury and sensuality floated through the +apartment. The lamps that burned in every direction seemed to diffuse a +subtle incense on the air, and in a large vase that stood on the floor I +saw a mass of magnolias, tuberoses, and jasmines grouped together, +stifling each other with their honeyed and heavy fragrance.</p> + +<p>The inhabitants of my room seemed beings well suited to so sensual an +atmosphere. The women were strangely beautiful, and all were attired in +dresses of the most fantastic devices and brilliant hues. Their figures +were round, supple, and elastic; their eyes dark and languishing; their +lips full, ripe, and of the richest bloom. The three men wore +half-masks, so that all I could distinguish were heavy jaws, pointed +beards, and brawny throats that rose like massive pillars out of their +doublets. All six lay reclining on Roman couches about the table, +drinking down the purple wines in large draughts, and tossing back their +heads and laughing wildly.</p> + +<p>I stood, I suppose, for some three minutes, with my back against the +wall staring vacantly at the bacchanal vision, before any of the +revellers appeared to notice my presence. At length, without any +expression to indicate whether I had been observed from the beginning or +not, two of the women arose from their couches, and, approaching, took +each a hand and led me to the table. I obeyed their motions +mechanically. I sat on a couch, between them as they indicated. I +unresistingly permitted them to wind their arms about my neck.</p> + +<p>"You must drink," said one, pouring out a large glass of red wine, "here +is Clos Vougeout of a rare vintage; and here," pushing a flask of +amber-hued wine before me, "is Lachryma Christi."</p> + +<p>"You must eat," said the other, drawing the silver dishes toward her. +"Here are cutlets stewed with olives, and here are slices of a <i>filet</i> +stuffed with bruised sweet chestnuts"—and as she spoke, she, without +waiting for a reply, proceeded to help me.</p> + +<p>The sight of the food recalled to me the warnings I had received in the +garden. This sudden effort of memory restored to me my other faculties +at the same instant. I sprang to my feet, thrusting the women from me +with each hand.</p> + +<p>"Demons!" I almost shouted. "I will have none of your accursed food. I +know you. You are cannibals, you are ghouls, you are enchanters. Begone, +I tell you! Leave my room in peace!"</p> + +<p>A shout of laughter from all six was the only effect that my passionate +speech produced. The men rolled on their couches, and their half-masks +quivered with the convulsions of their mirth. The women shrieked, and +tossed the slender wine-glasses wildly aloft, and turned to me and flung +themselves on my bosom fairly sobbing with laughter.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I continued, as soon as the noisy mirth had subsided, "yes, I +say, leave my room instantly! I will have none of your unnatural orgies +here!"</p> + +<p>"His room!" shrieked the woman on my right.</p> + +<p>"His room!" echoed she on my left.</p> + +<p>"His room! He calls it his room!" shouted the whole party, as they +rolled once more into jocular convulsions.</p> + +<p>"How know you that it is your room?" said one of the men who sat +opposite to me, at length, after the laughter had once more somewhat +subsided.</p> + +<p>"How do I know?" I replied indignantly. "How do I know my own room? How +could I mistake it, pray? There's my furniture—my piano——"</p> + +<p>"He calls that a piano," shouted my neighbours, again in convulsions as +I pointed to the corner where my huge piano, sacred to the memory of +Blokeeta, used to stand. "O, yes! It is his room. There—there is his +piano!"</p> + +<p>The peculiar emphasis they laid on the word "piano" caused me to +scrutinize the article I was indicating more thoroughly. Up to this +time, though utterly amazed at the entrance of these people into my +chamber, and connecting them somewhat with the wild stories I had heard +in the garden, I still had a sort of indefinite idea that the whole +thing was a masquerading freak got up in my absence, and that the +bacchanalian orgie I was witnessing was nothing more than a portion of +some elaborate hoax of which I was to be the victim. But when my eyes +turned to the corner where I had left a huge and cumbrous piano, and +beheld a vast and sombre organ lifting its fluted front to the very +ceiling, and convinced myself, by a hurried process of memory, that it +occupied the very spot in which I had left my own instrument, the little +self-possession that I had left forsook me. I gazed around me +bewildered.</p> + +<p>In like manner everything was changed. In the place of that old haftless +dagger, connected with so many historic associations personal to myself, +I beheld a Turkish yataghan dangling by its belt of crimson silk, while +the jewels in the hilt blazed as the lamplight played upon them. In the +spot where hung my cherished smoking cap, memorial of a buried love, a +knightly casque was suspended on the crest of which a golden dragon +stood in the act of springing. That strange lithograph of Calame was no +longer a lithograph, but it seemed to me that the portion of the wall +which it covered, of the exact shape and size, had been cut out, and, in +place of the picture, a <i>real</i> scene on the same scale, and with real +actors, was distinctly visible. The old oak was there, and the stormy +sky was there; but I saw the branches of the oak sway with the tempest, +and the clouds drive before the wind. The wanderer in his cloak was +gone; but in his place I beheld a circle of wild figures, men and women, +dancing with linked hands around the hole of the great tree, chanting +some wild fragment of a song, to which the winds roared an unearthly +chorus. The snow-shoes, too, on whose sinewy woof I had sped for many +days amidst Canadian wastes, had vanished, and in their place lay a pair +of strange up-curled Turkish slippers, that had, perhaps, been many a +time shuffled off at the doors of mosques, beneath the steady blaze of +an orient sun.</p> + +<p>All was changed. Wherever my eyes turned they missed familiar objects, +yet encountered strange representatives. Still, in all the substitutes +there seemed to me a reminiscence of what they replaced. They seemed +only for a time transmuted into other shapes, and there lingered around +them the atmosphere of what they once had been. Thus I could have sworn +the room to have been mine, yet there was nothing in it that I could +rightly claim. Everything reminded me of some former possession that it +was not. I looked for the acacia at the window, and lo! long silken +palm-leaves swayed in through the open lattice; yet they had the same +motion and the same air of my favourite tree, and seemed to murmur to +me, "Though we seem to be palm-leaves, yet are we acacia-leaves; yea, +those very ones on which you used to watch the butterflies alight and +the rain patter while you smoked and dreamed!" So in all things; the +room was, yet was not, mine; and a sickening consciousness of my utter +inability to reconcile its identity with its appearance overwhelmed me, +and choked my reason.</p> + +<p>"Well, have you determined whether or not this is your room?" asked the +girl on my left, proffering me a huge tumbler creaming over with +champagne, and laughing wickedly as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"It is mine," I answered, doggedly, striking the glass rudely with my +hand, and dashing the aromatic wine over the white cloth. "I know that +it is mine; and ye are jugglers and enchanters who want to drive me +mad."</p> + +<p>"Hush! hush!" she said, gently, not in the least angered by my rough +treatment. "You are excited. Alf shall play something to soothe you."</p> + +<p>At her signal, one of the men sat down at the organ. After a short, +wild, spasmodic prelude, he began what seemed to me to be a symphony of +recollections. Dark and sombre, and all through full of quivering and +intense agony, it appeared to recall a dark and dismal night, on a cold +reef, around which an unseen but terribly audible ocean broke with +eternal fury. It seemed as if a lonely pair were on the reef, one +living, the other dead; one clasping his arms around the tender neck and +naked bosom of the other, striving to warm her into life, when his own +vitality was being each moment sucked from him by the icy breath of the +storm. Here and there a terrible wailing minor key would tremble through +the chords like the shriek of sea-birds, or the warning of advancing +death. While the man played I could scarce restrain myself. It seemed to +be Blokeeta whom I listened to, and on whom I gazed. That wondrous night +of pleasure and pain that I had once passed listening to him seemed to +have been taken up again at the spot where it had broken off, and the +same hand was continuing it. I stared at the man called Alf. There he +sat with his cloak and doublet, and long rapier and mask of black +velvet. But there was something in the air of the peaked beard, a +familiar mystery in the wild mass of raven hair that fell as if +wind-blown over his shoulders, which riveted my memory.</p> + +<p>"Blokeeta! Blokeeta!" I shouted, starting up furiously from the couch on +which I was lying, and bursting the fair arms that were linked around my +neck as if they had been hateful chains,—"Blokeeta! my friend! speak to +me, I entreat you! Tell these horrid enchanters to leave me. Say that I +hate them. Say that I command them to leave my room."</p> + +<p>The man at the organ stirred not in answer to my appeal. He ceased +playing, and the dying sound of the last note he had touched faded off +into a melancholy moan. The other men and the women burst once more into +peals of mocking laughter.</p> + +<p>"Why will you persist in calling this your room?" said the woman next +me, with a smile meant to be kind, but to me inexpressibly loathsome. +"Have we not shown you by the furniture, by the general appearance of +the place, that you are mistaken, and that this cannot be your +apartment? Rest content, then, with us. You are welcome here, and need +no longer trouble yourself about your room."</p> + +<p>"Rest content!" I answered madly; "live with ghosts, eat of awful meats, +and see awful sights! Never! never! You have cast some enchantment over +the place that has disguised it; but for all that I know it to be my +room. You shall leave it!"</p> + +<p>"Softly, softly!" said another of the sirens. "Let us settle this +amicably. This poor gentleman seems obstinate and inclined to make an +uproar. Now we do not want an uproar. We love the night and its quiet; +and there is no night that we love so well as that on which the moon is +coffined in clouds. Is it not so, my brothers?"</p> + +<p>An awful and sinister smile gleamed on the countenances of her unearthly +audience, and seemed to glide visibly from underneath their masks.</p> + +<p>"Now," she continued, "I have a proposition to make. It would be +ridiculous for us to surrender this room simply because this gentleman +states that it is his; and yet I feel anxious to gratify, as far as may +be fair, his wild assertion of ownership. A room, after all, is not much +to us; we can get one easily enough, but still we should be loath to +give this apartment up to so imperious a demand. We are willing, +however, to <i>risk</i> its loss. That is to say,"—turning to me,—"I +propose that we play for the room. If you win, we will immediately +surrender it to you just as it stands; if, on the contrary, you lose, +you shall bind yourself to depart and never molest us again."</p> + +<p>Agonized at the ever-darkening mysteries that seemed to thicken around +me, and despairing of being able to dissipate them by the mere exercise +of my own will, I caught almost gladly at the chance thus presented to +me. The idea of my loss or my gain scarce entered into my calculations. +All I felt was an indefinite knowledge that I might, in the way +proposed, regain in an instant, that quiet chamber and that peace of +mind of which I had so strangely been deprived.</p> + +<p>"I agree!" I cried eagerly; "I agree. Anything to rid myself of such +unearthly company!"</p> + +<p>The woman touched a small golden bell that stood near her on the table, +and it had scarce ceased to tinkle when a negro dwarf entered with a +silver tray on which were dice-boxes and dice. A shudder passed over me +as I thought in this stunted African I could trace a resemblance to the +ghoul-like black servant to whose attendance I had been accustomed.</p> + +<p>"Now," said my neighbour, seizing one of the dice-boxes and giving me +the other, "the highest wins. Shall I throw first?"</p> + +<p>I nodded assent. She rattled the dice, and I felt an inexpressible load +lifted from my heart as she threw fifteen.</p> + +<p>"It is your turn," she said, with a mocking smile; "but before you +throw, I repeat the offer I made you before. Live with us. Be one of us. +We will initiate you into our mysteries and enjoyments,—enjoyments of +which you can form no idea unless you experience them. Come; it is not +too late yet to change your mind. Be with us!"</p> + +<p>My reply was a fierce oath, as I rattled the dice with spasmodic +nervousness and flung them on the board. They rolled over and over +again, and during that brief instant I felt a suspense, the intensity of +which I have never known before or since. At last they lay before me. A +shout of the same horrible, maddening laughter rang in my ears. I peered +in vain at the dice, but my sight was so confused that I could not +distinguish the amount of the cast. This lasted for a few moments. Then +my sight grew clear, and I sank back almost lifeless with despair as I +saw that I had thrown but <i>twelve</i>!</p> + +<p>"Lost! lost!" screamed my neighbour, with a wild laugh. "Lost! lost!" +shouted the deep voices of the masked men. "Leave us, coward!" they all +cried; "you are not fit to be one of us. Remember your promise; leave +us!"</p> + +<p>Then it seemed as if some unseen power caught me by the shoulders and +thrust me toward the door. In vain I resisted. In vain I screamed and +shouted for help. In vain I implored them for pity. All the reply I had +was those mocking peals of merriment, while, under the invisible +influence, I staggered like a drunken man toward the door. As I reached +the threshold the organ pealed out a wild triumphal strain. The power +that impelled me concentrated itself into one vigorous impulse that sent +me blindly staggering out into the echoing corridor, and as the door +closed swiftly behind me, I caught one glimpse of the apartment I had +left forever. A change passed like a shadow over it. The lamps died out, +the siren women and masked men vanished, the flowers, the fruits, the +bright silver and bizarre furniture faded swiftly, and I saw again, for +the tenth of a second, my own old chamber restored. There was the acacia +waving darkly; there was the table littered with books; there was the +ghostly lithograph, the dearly beloved smoking-cap, the Canadian +snow-shoes, the ancestral dagger. And there, at the piano, organ no +longer, sat Blokeeta playing.</p> + +<p>The next instant the door closed violently, and I was left standing in +the corridor stunned and despairing.</p> + +<p>As soon as I had partially recovered my comprehension I rushed madly to +the door, with the dim idea of beating it in. My fingers touched a cold +and solid wall. There was no door! I felt all along the corridor for +many yards on both sides. There was not even a crevice to give me hope. +I rushed downstairs shouting madly. No one answered. In the vestibule I +met the negro; I seized him by the collar and demanded my room. The +demon showed his white and awful teeth, which were filed into a saw-like +shape, and extricating himself from my grasp with a sudden jerk, fled +down the passage with a gibbering laugh. Nothing but echo answered to my +despairing shrieks. The lonely garden resounded with my cries as I +strode madly through the dark walls, and the tall funereal cypresses +seemed to bury me beneath their heavy shadows. I met no one,—could find +no one. I had to bear my sorrow and despair alone.</p> + +<p>Since that awful hour I have never found my room. Everywhere I look for +it, yet never see it. Shall I ever find it?</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Masterpieces of Mystery, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTERPIECES OF MYSTERY *** + +***** This file should be named 29704-h.htm or 29704-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/7/0/29704/ + +Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Masterpieces of Mystery + Riddle Stories + +Author: Various + +Editor: Joseph Lewis French + +Release Date: August 15, 2009 [EBook #29704] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTERPIECES OF MYSTERY *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + Masterpieces of Mystery + + _In Four Volumes_ + + RIDDLE STORIES + + Edited by Joseph Lewis French + + +Garden City New York +Doubleday, Page & Company +1922 + +COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION +INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN + +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES +AT THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. + + + + +NOTE + + +The Editor desires especially to acknowledge assistance in granting the +use of original material, and for helpful advice and suggestion, to +Professor Brander Matthews of Columbia University, to Mrs. Anna +Katherine Green Rohlfs, to Cleveland Moffett, to Arthur Reeve, creator +of "Craig Kennedy," to Wilbur Daniel Steele, to Ralph Adams Cram, to +Chester Bailey Fernald, to Brian Brown, to Mrs. Lillian M. Robins of the +publisher's office, and to Charles E. Farrington of the Brooklyn Public +Library. + + + + +FOREWORD + + +A distinguished American writer of fiction said to me lately: "Did you +ever think of the vital American way we live? We are always going after +mental gymnastics." Now the mystery story is mental gymnastics. By the +time the reader has followed a chain of facts through he has exercised +his mind,--given himself a mental breather. But the claims of the true +mystery story do not end with the general reader. It is entitled to the +consideration of the discriminating because it indubitably takes its own +place as a gauge of mastery in the field of the short story. + +The demand was never quite so keen as it is now. The currents of +literature as of all things change swiftly these times. This world of +ours has become very sophisticated. It has suffered itself to be +exploited till there is no external wonder left. Retroactively the +demand for mystery, which is the very soul of interest, must find new +expression. Thus we turn inward for fresh thrills to the human comedy, +and outward to the realm of the supernatural. + +The riddle story is the most naive form of the mystery story. It may +contain a certain element of the supernatural--be tinged with +mysticism--but its motive and the revelation thereof must be frankly +materialistic--of the earth, earthy. In this respect it is very closely +allied to the detective story. The model riddle story should be utterly +mundane in motive--told in direct terms. Here again the genius of that +great modern master asserts itself, and in "The Oblong Box" we have an +early model of its kind. The stories of this collection cover a wide +range and are the choice of reading in several literatures. + +JOSEPH LEWIS FRENCH. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. THE MYSTERIOUS CARD _Cleveland Moffett_ + + II. THE GREAT VALDEZ SAPPHIRE _Anonymous_ + + III. THE OBLONG BOX _Edgar Allan Poe_ + + IV. THE BIRTH-MARK _Nathaniel Hawthorne_ + + V. A TERRIBLY STRANGE BED _Wilkie Collins_ + + VI. THE TORTURE BY HOPE _Villiers de l'Isle Adam_ + + VII. THE BOX WITH THE IRON CLAMPS _Florence Marryat_ + + VIII. MY FASCINATING FRIEND _William Archer_ + + IX. THE LOST ROOM _Fitz-James O'Brien_ + + + + +MASTERPIECES OF MYSTERY + +_RIDDLE STORIES_ + + + + +THE MYSTERIOUS CARD + +CLEVELAND MOFFETT + +Courtesy of the Author. + + + +I + + +Richard Burwell, of New York, will never cease to regret that the French +language was not made a part of his education. + +This is why: + +On the second evening after Burwell arrived in Paris, feeling lonely +without his wife and daughter, who were still visiting a friend in +London, his mind naturally turned to the theatre. So, after consulting +the daily amusement calendar, he decided to visit the _Folies Bergere_, +which he had heard of as one of the notable sights. During an +intermission he went into the beautiful garden, where gay crowds were +strolling among the flowers, and lights, and fountains. He had just +seated himself at a little three-legged table, with a view to enjoying +the novel scene, when his attention was attracted by a lovely woman, +gowned strikingly, though in perfect taste, who passed near him, leaning +on the arm of a gentleman. The only thing that he noticed about this +gentleman was that he wore eye-glasses. + +Now Burwell had never posed as a captivator of the fair sex, and could +scarcely credit his eyes when the lady left the side of her escort and, +turning back as if she had forgotten something, passed close by him, and +deftly placed a card on his table. The card bore some French words +written in purple ink, but, not knowing that language, he was unable to +make out their meaning. The lady paid no further heed to him, but, +rejoining the gentleman with the eye-glasses, swept out of the place +with the grace and dignity of a princess. Burwell remained staring at +the card. + +Needless to say, he thought no more of the performance or of the other +attractions about him. Everything seemed flat and tawdry compared with +the radiant vision that had appeared and disappeared so mysteriously. +His one desire now was to discover the meaning of the words written on +the card. + +Calling a fiacre, he drove to the Hotel Continental, where he was +staying. Proceeding directly to the office and taking the manager aside, +Burwell asked if he would be kind enough to translate a few words of +French into English. There were no more than twenty words in all. + +"Why, certainly," said the manager, with French politeness, and cast his +eyes over the card. As he read, his face grew rigid with astonishment, +and, looking at his questioner sharply, he exclaimed: "Where did you get +this, monsieur?" + +Burwell started to explain, but was interrupted by: "That will do, that +will do. You must leave the hotel." + +"What do you mean?" asked the man from New York, in amazement. + +"You must leave the hotel now--to-night--without fail," commanded the +manager excitedly. + +Now it was Burwell's turn to grow angry, and he declared heatedly that +if he wasn't wanted in this hotel there were plenty of others in Paris +where he would be welcome. And, with an assumption of dignity, but +piqued at heart, he settled his bill, sent for his belongings, and drove +up the Rue de la Paix to the Hotel Bellevue, where he spent the night. + +The next morning he met the proprietor, who seemed to be a good fellow, +and, being inclined now to view the incident of the previous evening +from its ridiculous side, Burwell explained what had befallen him, and +was pleased to find a sympathetic listener. + +"Why, the man was a fool," declared the proprietor. "Let me see the +card; I will tell you what it means." But as he read, his face and +manner changed instantly. + +"This is a serious matter," he said sternly. "Now I understand why my +confrere refused to entertain you. I regret, monsieur, but I shall be +obliged to do as he did." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Simply that you cannot remain here." + +With that he turned on his heel, and the indignant guest could not +prevail upon him to give any explanation. + +"We'll see about this," said Burwell, thoroughly angered. + +It was now nearly noon, and the New Yorker remembered an engagement to +lunch with a friend from Boston, who, with his family, was stopping at +the Hotel de l'Alma. With his luggage on the carriage, he ordered the +_cocher_ to drive directly there, determined to take counsel with his +countryman before selecting new quarters. His friend was highly +indignant when he heard the story--a fact that gave Burwell no little +comfort, knowing, as he did, that the man was accustomed to foreign ways +from long residence abroad. + +"It is some silly mistake, my dear fellow; I wouldn't pay any attention +to it. Just have your luggage taken down and stay here. It is a nice, +homelike place, and it will be very jolly, all being together. But, +first, let me prepare a little 'nerve settler' for you." + +After the two had lingered a moment over their Manhattan cocktails, +Burwell's friend excused himself to call the ladies. He had proceeded +only two or three steps when he turned, and said: "Let's see that +mysterious card that has raised all this row." + +He had scarcely withdrawn it from Burwell's hand when he started back, +and exclaimed:-- + +"Great God, man! Do you mean to say--this is simply--" + +Then, with a sudden movement of his hand to his head, he left the room. + +He was gone perhaps five minutes, and when he returned his face was +white. + +"I am awfully sorry," he said nervously; "but the ladies tell me +they--that is, my wife--she has a frightful headache. You will have to +excuse us from the lunch." + +Instantly realizing that this was only a flimsy pretense, and deeply +hurt by his friend's behaviour, the mystified man arose at once and left +without another word. He was now determined to solve this mystery at any +cost. What could be the meaning of the words on that infernal piece of +pasteboard? + +Profiting by his humiliating experiences, he took good care not to show +the card to any one at the hotel where he now established himself,--a +comfortable little place near the Grand Opera House. + +All through the afternoon he thought of nothing but the card, and turned +over in his mind various ways of learning its meaning without getting +himself into further trouble. That evening he went again to the _Folies +Bergere_ in the hope of finding the mysterious woman, for he was now +more than ever anxious to discover who she was. It even occurred to him +that she might be one of those beautiful Nihilist conspirators, or, +perhaps, a Russian spy, such as he had read of in novels. But he failed +to find her, either then or on the three subsequent evenings which he +passed in the same place. Meanwhile the card was burning in his pocket +like a hot coal. He dreaded the thought of meeting anyone that he knew, +while this horrible cloud hung over him. He bought a French-English +dictionary and tried to pick out the meaning word by word, but failed. +It was all Greek to him. For the first time in his life, Burwell +regretted that he had not studied French at college. + +After various vain attempts to either solve or forget the torturing +riddle, he saw no other course than to lay the problem before a +detective agency. He accordingly put his case in the hands of an _agent +de la surete_ who was recommended as a competent and trustworthy man. +They had a talk together in a private room, and, of course, Burwell +showed the card. To his relief, his adviser at least showed no sign of +taking offence. Only he did not and would not explain what the words +meant. + +"It is better," he said, "that monsieur should not know the nature of +this document for the present. I will do myself the honour to call upon +monsieur to-morrow at his hotel, and then monsieur shall know +everything." + +"Then it is really serious?" asked the unfortunate man. + +"Very serious," was the answer. + +The next twenty-four hours Burwell passed in a fever of anxiety. As his +mind conjured up one fearful possibility after another he deeply +regretted that he had not torn up the miserable card at the start. He +even seized it,--prepared to strip it into fragments, and so end the +whole affair. And then his Yankee stubbornness again asserted itself, +and he determined to see the thing out, come what might. + +"After all," he reasoned, "it is no crime for a man to pick up a card +that a lady drops on his table." + +Crime or no crime, however, it looked very much as if he had committed +some grave offence when, the next day, his detective drove up in a +carriage, accompanied by a uniformed official, and requested the +astounded American to accompany them to the police headquarters. + +"What for?" he asked. + +"It is only a formality," said the detective; and when Burwell still +protested the man in uniform remarked: "You'd better come quietly, +monsieur; you will have to come, anyway." + +An hour later, after severe cross-examination by another official, who +demanded many facts about the New Yorker's age, place of birth, +residence, occupation, etc., the bewildered man found himself in the +Conciergerie prison. Why he was there or what was about to befall him +Burwell had no means of knowing; but before the day was over he +succeeded in having a message sent to the American Legation, where he +demanded immediate protection as a citizen of the United States. It was +not until evening, however, that the Secretary of Legation, a +consequential person, called at the prison. There followed a stormy +interview, in which the prisoner used some strong language, the French +officers gesticulated violently and talked very fast, and the Secretary +calmly listened to both sides, said little, and smoked a good cigar. + +"I will lay your case before the American minister," he said as he rose +to go, "and let you know the result to-morrow." + +"But this is an outrage. Do you mean to say--" Before he could finish, +however, the Secretary, with a strangely suspicious glance, turned and +left the room. + +That night Burwell slept in a cell. + +The next morning he received another visit from the non-committal +Secretary, who informed him that matters had been arranged, and that he +would be set at liberty forthwith. + +"I must tell you, though," he said, "that I have had great difficulty in +accomplishing this, and your liberty is granted only on condition that +you leave the country within twenty-four hours, and never under any +conditions return." + +Burwell stormed, raged, and pleaded; but it availed nothing. The +Secretary was inexorable, and yet he positively refused to throw any +light upon the causes of this monstrous injustice. + +"Here is your card," he said, handing him a large envelope closed with +the seal of Legation. "I advise you to burn it and never refer to the +matter again." + +That night the ill-fated man took the train for London, his heart +consumed by hatred for the whole French nation, together with a burning +desire for vengeance. He wired his wife to meet him at the station, and +for a long time debated with himself whether he should at once tell her +the sickening truth. In the end he decided that it was better to keep +silent. No sooner, however, had she seen him than her woman's instinct +told her that he was labouring under some mental strain. And he saw in a +moment that to withhold from her his burning secret was impossible, +especially when she began to talk of the trip they had planned through +France. Of course no trivial reason would satisfy her for his refusal to +make this trip, since they had been looking forward to it for years; and +yet it was impossible now for him to set foot on French soil. + +So he finally told her the whole story, she laughing and weeping in +turn. To her, as to him, it seemed incredible that such overwhelming +disasters could have grown out of so small a cause, and, being a fluent +French scholar, she demanded a sight of the fatal piece of pasteboard. +In vain her husband tried to divert her by proposing a trip through +Italy. She would consent to nothing until she had seen the mysterious +card which Burwell was now convinced he ought long ago to have +destroyed. After refusing for awhile to let her see it, he finally +yielded. But, although he had learned to dread the consequences of +showing that cursed card, he was little prepared for what followed. She +read it turned pale, gasped for breath, and nearly fell to the floor. + +"I told you not to read it," he said; and then, growing tender at the +sight of her distress, he took her hand in his and begged her to be +calm. "At least tell me what the thing means," he said. "We can bear it +together; you surely can trust me." + +But she, as if stung by rage, pushed him from her and declared, in a +tone such as he had never heard from her before, that never, never again +would she live with him. "You are a monster!" she exclaimed. And those +were the last words he heard from her lips. + +Failing utterly in all efforts at reconciliation, the half-crazed man +took the first steamer for New York, having suffered in scarcely a +fortnight more than in all his previous life. His whole pleasure trip +had been ruined, he had failed to consummate important business +arrangements, and now he saw his home broken up and his happiness +ruined. During the voyage he scarcely left his stateroom, but lay there +prostrated with agony. In this black despondency the one thing that +sustained him was the thought of meeting his partner, Jack Evelyth, the +friend of his boyhood, the sharer of his success, the bravest, most +loyal fellow in the world. In the face of even the most damning +circumstances, he felt that Evelyth's rugged common sense would evolve +some way of escape from this hideous nightmare. Upon landing at New York +he hardly waited for the gang-plank to be lowered before he rushed on +shore and grasped the hand of his partner, who was waiting on the wharf. + +"Jack," was his first word, "I am in dreadful trouble, and you are the +only man in the world who can help me." + +An hour later Burwell sat at his friend's dinner table, talking over the +situation. + +Evelyth was all kindness, and several times as he listened to Burwell's +story his eyes filled with tears. + +"It does not seem possible, Richard," he said, "that such things can be; +but I will stand by you; we will fight it out together. But we cannot +strike in the dark. Let me see this card." + +"There is the damned thing," Burwell said, throwing it on the table. + +Evelyth opened the envelope, took out the card, and fixed his eyes on +the sprawling purple characters. + +"Can you read it?" Burwell asked excitedly. + +"Perfectly," his partner said. The next moment he turned pale, and his +voice broke. Then he clasped the tortured man's hand in his with a +strong grip. "Richard," he said slowly, "if my only child had been +brought here dead it would not have caused me more sorrow than this +does. You have brought me the worst news one man could bring another." + +His agitation and genuine suffering affected Burwell like a death +sentence. + +"Speak, man," he cried; "do not spare me. I can bear anything rather +than this awful uncertainty. Tell me what the card means." + +Evelyth took a swallow of brandy and sat with head bent on his clasped +hands. + +"No, I can't do it; there are some things a man must not do." + +Then he was silent again, his brows knitted. Finally he said solemnly:-- + +"No, I can't see any other way out of it. We have been true to each +other all our lives; we have worked together and looked forward to never +separating. I would rather fail and die than see this happen. But we +have got to separate, old friend; we have got to separate." + +They sat there talking until late into the night. But nothing that +Burwell could do or say availed against his friend's decision. There was +nothing for it but that Evelyth should buy his partner's share of the +business or that Burwell buy out the other. The man was more than fair +in the financial proposition he made; he was generous, as he always had +been, but his determination was inflexible; the two must separate. And +they did. + +With his old partner's desertion, it seemed to Burwell that the world +was leagued against him. It was only three weeks from the day on which +he had received the mysterious card; yet in that time he had lost all +that he valued in the world,--wife, friends, and business. What next to +do with the fatal card was the sickening problem that now possessed him. + +He dared not show it; yet he dared not destroy it. He loathed it; yet he +could not let it go from his possession. Upon returning to his house he +locked the accursed thing away in his safe as if it had been a package +of dynamite or a bottle of deadly poison. Yet not a day passed that he +did not open the drawer where the thing was kept and scan with loathing +the mysterious purple scrawl. + +In desperation he finally made up his mind to take up the study of the +language in which the hateful thing was written. And still he dreaded +the approach of the day when he should decipher its awful meaning. + +One afternoon, less than a week after his arrival in New York, as he was +crossing Twenty-third Street on the way to his French teacher, he saw a +carriage rolling up Broadway. In the carriage was a face that caught his +attention like a flash. As he looked again he recognized the woman who +had been the cause of his undoing. Instantly he sprang into another cab +and ordered the driver to follow after. He found the house where she was +living. He called there several times; but always received the same +reply, that she was too much engaged to see anyone. Next he was told +that she was ill, and on the following day the servant said she was much +worse. Three physicians had been summoned in consultation. He sought out +one of these and told him it was a matter of life or death that he see +this woman. The doctor was a kindly man and promised to assist him. +Through his influence, it came about that on that very night Burwell +stood by the bedside of this mysterious woman. She was beautiful still, +though her face was worn with illness. + +"Do you recognize me?" he asked tremblingly, as he leaned over the bed, +clutching in one hand an envelope containing the mysterious card. "Do +you remember seeing me at the _Folies Bergere_ a month ago?" + +"Yes," she murmured, after a moment's study of his face; and he noted +with relief that she spoke English. + +"Then, for God's sake, tell me, what does it all mean?" he gasped, +quivering with excitement. + +"I gave you the card because I wanted you to--to--" + +Here a terrible spasm of coughing shook her whole body, and she fell +back exhausted. + +An agonizing despair tugged at Burwell's heart. Frantically snatching +the card from its envelope, he held it close to the woman's face. + +"Tell me! Tell me!" + +With a supreme effort, the pale figure slowly raised itself on the +pillow, its fingers clutching at the counterpane. + +Then the sunken eyes fluttered--forced themselves open--and stared in +stony amazement upon the fatal card, while the trembling lips moved +noiselessly, as if in an attempt to speak. As Burwell, choking with +eagerness, bent his head slowly to hers, a suggestion of a smile +flickered across the woman's face. Again the mouth quivered, the man's +head bent nearer and nearer to hers, his eyes riveted upon the lips. +Then, as if to aid her in deciphering the mystery, he turned his eyes to +the card. + +With a cry of horror he sprang to his feet, his eyeballs starting from +their sockets. Almost at the same moment the woman fell heavily upon the +pillow. + +Every vestige of the writing had faded! The card was blank! + +The woman lay there dead. + + + + +II + +The Card Unveiled + + +No physician was ever more scrupulous than I have been, during my thirty +years of practice, in observing the code of professional secrecy; and it +is only for grave reasons, partly in the interests of medical science, +largely as a warning to intelligent people, that I place upon record the +following statements. + +One morning a gentleman called at my offices to consult me about some +nervous trouble. From the moment I saw him, the man made a deep +impression on me, not so much by the pallor and worn look of his face as +by a certain intense sadness in his eyes, as if all hope had gone out of +his life. I wrote a prescription for him, and advised him to try the +benefits of an ocean voyage. He seemed to shiver at the idea, and said +that he had been abroad too much, already. + +As he handed me my fee, my eye fell upon the palm of his hand, and I saw +there, plainly marked on the Mount of Saturn, a cross surrounded by two +circles. I should explain that for the greater part of my life I have +been a constant and enthusiastic student of palmistry. During my travels +in the Orient, after taking my degree, I spent months studying this +fascinating art at the best sources of information in the world. I have +read everything published on palmistry in every known language, and my +library on the subject is perhaps the most complete in existence. In my +time I have examined at least fourteen thousand palms, and taken casts +of many of the more interesting of them. But I had never seen such a +palm as this; at least, never but once, and the horror of the case was +so great that I shudder even now when I call it to mind. + +"Pardon me," I said, keeping the patient's hand in mine, "would you let +me look at your palm?" + +I tried to speak indifferently, as if the matter were of small +consequence, and for some moments I bent over the hand in silence. Then, +taking a magnifying glass from my desk, I looked at it still more +closely. I was not mistaken; here was indeed the sinister double circle +on Saturn's mount, with the cross inside,--a marking so rare as to +portend some stupendous destiny of good or evil, more probably the +latter. + +I saw that the man was uneasy under my scrutiny, and, presently, with +some hesitation, as if mustering courage, he asked: "Is there anything +remarkable about my hand?" + +"Yes," I said, "there is. Tell me, did not something very unusual, +something very horrible, happen to you about ten or eleven years ago?" + +I saw by the way the man started that I had struck near the mark, and, +studying the stream of fine lines that crossed his lifeline from the +Mount of Venus, I added: "Were you not in some foreign country at that +time?" + +The man's face blanched, but he only looked at me steadily out of those +mournful eyes. Now I took his other hand, and compared the two, line by +line, mount by mount, noting the short square fingers, the heavy thumb, +with amazing willpower in its upper joint, and gazing again and again at +that ominous sign on Saturn. + +"Your life has been strangely unhappy, your years have been clouded by +some evil influence." + +"My God," he said weakly, sinking into a chair, "how can you know these +things?" + +"It is easy to know what one sees," I said, and tried to draw him out +about his past, but the words seemed to stick in his throat. + +"I will come back and talk to you again," he said, and he went away +without giving me his name or any revelation of his life. + +Several times he called during subsequent weeks, and gradually seemed to +take on a measure of confidence in my presence. He would talk freely of +his physical condition, which seemed to cause him much anxiety. He even +insisted upon my making the most careful examination of all his organs, +especially of his eyes, which, he said, had troubled him at various +times. Upon making the usual tests, I found that he was suffering from a +most uncommon form of colour blindness, that seemed to vary in its +manifestations, and to be connected with certain hallucinations or +abnormal mental states which recurred periodically, and about which I +had great difficulty in persuading him to speak. At each visit I took +occasion to study his hand anew, and each reading of the palm gave me +stronger conviction that here was a life mystery that would abundantly +repay any pains taken in unravelling it. + +While I was in this state of mind, consumed with a desire to know more +of my unhappy acquaintance and yet not daring to press him with +questions, there came a tragic happening that revealed to me with +startling suddenness the secret I was bent on knowing. One night, very +late,--in fact it was about four o'clock in the morning,--I received an +urgent summons to the bedside of a man who had been shot. As I bent over +him I saw that it was my friend, and for the first time I realized that +he was a man of wealth and position, for he lived in a beautifully +furnished house filled with art treasures and looked after by a retinue +of servants. From one of these I learned that he was Richard Burwell, +one of New York's most respected citizens--in fact, one of her +best-known philanthropists, a man who for years had devoted his life and +fortune to good works among the poor. + +But what most excited my surprise was the presence in the house of two +officers, who informed me that Mr. Burwell was under arrest, charged +with murder. The officers assured me that it was only out of deference +to his well-known standing in the community that the prisoner had been +allowed the privilege of receiving medical treatment in his own home; +their orders were peremptory to keep him under close surveillance. + +Giving no time to further questionings, I at once proceeded to examine +the injured man, and found that he was suffering from a bullet wound in +the back at about the height of the fifth rib. On probing for the +bullet, I found that it had lodged near the heart, and decided that it +would be exceedingly dangerous to try to remove it immediately. So I +contented myself with administering a sleeping potion. + +As soon as I was free to leave Burwell's bedside I returned to the +officers and obtained from them details of what had happened. A woman's +body had been found a few hours before, shockingly mutilated, on Water +Street, one of the dark ways in the swarming region along the river +front. It had been found at about two o'clock in the morning by some +printers from the office of the _Courier des Etats Unis_, who, in coming +from their work, had heard cries of distress and hurried to the rescue. +As they drew near they saw a man spring away from something huddled on +the sidewalk, and plunge into the shadows of the night, running from +them at full speed. + +Suspecting at once that here was the mysterious assassin so long vainly +sought for many similar crimes, they dashed after the fleeing man, who +darted right and left through the maze of dark streets, giving out +little cries like a squirrel as he ran. Seeing that they were losing +ground, one of the printers fired at the fleeing shadow, his shot being +followed by a scream of pain, and hurrying up they found a man writhing +on the ground. The man was Richard Burwell. + +The news that my sad-faced friend had been implicated in such a +revolting occurrence shocked me inexpressibly, and I was greatly +relieved the next day to learn from the papers that a most unfortunate +mistake had been made. The evidence given before the coroner's jury was +such as to abundantly exonerate Burwell from all shadow of guilt. The +man's own testimony, taken at his bedside, was in itself almost +conclusive in his favour. When asked to explain his presence so late at +night in such a part of the city, Burwell stated that he had spent the +evening at the Florence Mission, where he had made an address to some +unfortunates gathered there, and that later he had gone with a young +missionary worker to visit a woman living on Frankfort Street, who was +dying of consumption. This statement was borne out by the missionary +worker himself, who testified that Burwell had been most tender in his +ministrations to the poor woman and had not left her until death had +relieved her sufferings. + +Another point which made it plain that the printers had mistaken their +man in the darkness, was the statement made by all of them that, as they +came running up, they had overheard some words spoken by the murderer, +and that these words were in their own language, French. Now it was +shown conclusively that Burwell did not know the French language, that +indeed he had not even an elementary knowledge of it. + +Another point in his favour was a discovery made at the spot where the +body was found. Some profane and ribald words, also in French, had been +scrawled in chalk on the door and doorsill, being in the nature of a +coarse defiance to the police to find the assassin, and experts in +handwriting who were called testified unanimously that Burwell, who +wrote a refined, scholarly hand, could never have formed those misshapen +words. + +Furthermore, at the time of his arrest no evidence was found on the +clothes or person of Burwell, nothing in the nature of bruises or +bloodstains that would tend to implicate him in the crime. The outcome +of the matter was that he was honourably discharged by the coroner's +jury, who were unanimous in declaring him innocent, and who brought in a +verdict that the unfortunate woman had come to her death at the hand of +some person or persons unknown. + +On visiting my patient late on the afternoon of the second day I saw +that his case was very grave, and I at once instructed the nurses and +attendants to prepare for an operation. The man's life depended upon my +being able to extract the bullet, and the chance of doing this was very +small. Mr. Burwell realized that his condition was critical, and, +beckoning me to him, told me that he wished to make a statement he felt +might be his last. He spoke with agitation which was increased by an +unforeseen happening. For just then a servant entered the room and +whispered to me that there was a gentleman downstairs who insisted upon +seeing me, and who urged business of great importance. This message the +sick man overheard, and lifting himself with an effort, he said +excitedly: "Tell me, is he a tall man with glasses?" + +The servant hesitated. + +"I knew it; you cannot deceive me; that man will haunt me to my grave. +Send him away, doctor; I beg of you not to see him." + +Humouring my patient, I sent word to the stranger that I could not see +him, but, in an undertone, instructed the servant to say that the man +might call at my office the next morning. Then, turning to Burwell, I +begged him to compose himself and save his strength for the ordeal +awaiting him. + +"No, no," he said, "I need my strength now to tell you what you must +know to find the truth. You are the only man who has understood that +there has been some terrible influence at work in my life. You are the +only man competent to study out what that influence is, and I have made +provision in my will that you shall do so after I am gone. I know that +you will heed my wishes?" + +The intense sadness of his eyes made my heart sink; I could only grip +his hand and remain silent. + +"Thank you; I was sure I might count on your devotion. Now, tell me, +doctor, you have examined me carefully, have you not?" + +I nodded. + +"In every way known to medical science?" + +I nodded again. + +"And have you found anything wrong with me,--I mean, besides this +bullet, anything abnormal?" + +"As I have told you, your eyesight is defective; I should like to +examine your eyes more thoroughly when you are better." + +"I shall never be better; besides it isn't my eyes; I mean myself, my +soul,--you haven't found anything wrong there?" + +"Certainly not; the whole city knows the beauty of your character and +your life." + +"Tut, tut; the city knows nothing. For ten years I have lived so much +with the poor that people have almost forgotten my previous active life +when I was busy with money-making and happy in my home. But there is a +man out West, whose head is white and whose heart is heavy, who has not +forgotten, and there is a woman in London, a silent, lonely woman, who +has not forgotten. The man was my partner, poor Jack Evelyth; the woman +was my wife. How can a man be so cursed, doctor, that his love and +friendship bring only misery to those who share it? How can it be that +one who has in his heart only good thoughts can be constantly under the +shadow of evil? This charge of murder is only one of several cases in my +life where, through no fault of mine, the shadow of guilt has been cast +upon me. + +"Years ago, when my wife and I were perfectly happy, a child was born to +us, and a few months later, when it was only a tender, helpless little +thing that its mother loved with all her heart, it was strangled in its +cradle, and we never knew who strangled it, for the deed was done one +night when there was absolutely no one in the house but my wife and +myself. There was no doubt about the crime, for there on the tiny neck +were the finger marks where some cruel hand had closed until life went. + +"Then a few years later, when my partner and I were on the eve of +fortune, our advance was set back by the robbery of our safe. Some one +opened it in the night, someone who knew the combination, for it was the +work of no burglar, and yet there were only two persons in the world who +knew that combination, my partner and myself. I tried to be brave when +these things happened, but as my life went on it seemed more and more as +if some curse were on me. + +"Eleven years ago I went abroad with my wife and daughter. Business took +me to Paris, and I left the ladies in London, expecting to have them +join me in a few days. But they never did join me, for the curse was on +me still, and before I had been forty-eight hours in the French capital +something happened that completed the wreck of my life. It doesn't seem +possible, does it, that a simple white card with some words scrawled on +it in purple ink could effect a man's undoing? And yet that was my fate. +The card was given me by a beautiful woman with eyes like stars. She is +dead long ago, and why she wished to harm me I never knew. You must find +that out. + +"You see I did not know the language of the country, and, wishing to +have the words translated,--surely that was natural enough,--I showed +the card to others. But no one would tell me what it meant. And, worse +than that, wherever I showed it, and to whatever person, there evil came +upon me quickly. I was driven from one hotel after another; an old +acquaintance turned his back on me; I was arrested and thrown into +prison; I was ordered to leave the country." + +The sick man paused for a moment in his weakness, but with an effort +forced himself to continue:-- + +"When I went back to London, sure of comfort in the love of my wife, she +too, on seeing the card, drove me from her with cruel words. And when +finally, in deepest despair, I returned to New York, dear old Jack, the +friend of a life-time, broke with me when I showed him what was written. +What the words were I do not know, and suppose no one will ever know, +for the ink has faded these many years. You will find the card in my +safe with other papers. But I want you, when I am gone, to find out the +mystery of my life; and--and--about my fortune, that must be held until +you have decided. There is no one who needs my money as much as the poor +in this city, and I have bequeathed it to them unless--" + +In an agony of mind, Mr. Burwell struggled to go on, I soothing and +encouraging him. + +"Unless you find what I am afraid to think, but--but--yes, I must say +it,--that I have not been a good man, as the world thinks, but have--O +doctor, if you find that I have unknowingly harmed any human being, I +want that person, or these persons, to have my fortune. Promise that." + +Seeing the wild light in Burwell's eyes, and the fever that was burning +him, I gave the promise asked of me, and the sick man sank back calmer. + +A little later, the nurse and attendants came for the operation. As they +were about to administer the ether, Burwell pushed them from him, and +insisted on having brought to his bedside an iron box from the safe. + +"The card is here," he said, laying his trembling hand upon the box, +"you will remember your promise!" + +Those were his last words, for he did not survive the operation. + +Early the next morning I received this message: "The stranger of +yesterday begs to see you"; and presently a gentleman of fine presence +and strength of face, a tall, dark-complexioned man wearing glasses, was +shown into the room. + +"Mr. Burwell is dead, is he not?" were his first words. + +"Who told you?" + +"No one told me, but I know it, and I thank God for it." + +There was something in the stranger's intense earnestness that convinced +me of his right to speak thus, and I listened attentively. + +"That you may have confidence in the statement I am about to make, I +will first tell you who I am"; and he handed me a card that caused me to +lift my eyes in wonder, for it bore a very great name, that of one of +Europe's most famous savants. + +"You have done me much honour, sir," I said with respectful inclination. + +"On the contrary you will oblige me by considering me in your debt, and +by never revealing my connection with this wretched man. I am moved to +speak partly from considerations of human justice, largely in the +interest of medical science. It is right for me to tell you, doctor, +that your patient was beyond question the Water Street assassin." + +"Impossible!" I cried. + +"You will not say so when I have finished my story, which takes me back +to Paris, to the time, eleven years ago, when this man was making his +first visit to the French capital." + +"The mysterious card!" I exclaimed. + +"Ah, he has told you of his experience, but not of what befell the night +before, when he first met my sister." + +"Your sister?" + +"Yes, it was she who gave him the card, and, in trying to befriend him, +made him suffer. She was in ill health at the time, so much so that we +had left our native India for extended journeyings. Alas! we delayed too +long, for my sister died in New York, only a few weeks later, and I +honestly believe her taking off was hastened by anxiety inspired by this +man." + +"Strange," I murmured, "how the life of a simple New York merchant could +become entangled with that of a great lady of the East." + +"Yet so it was. You must know that my sister's condition was due mainly +to an over fondness for certain occult investigations, from which I had +vainly tried to dissuade her. She had once befriended some adepts, who, +in return, had taught her things about the soul she had better have left +unlearned. At various times while with her I had seen strange things +happen, but I never realized what unearthly powers were in her until +that night in Paris. We were returning from a drive in the Bois; it was +about ten o'clock, and the city lay beautiful around us as Paris looks +on a perfect summer's night. Suddenly my sister gave a cry of pain and +put her hand to her heart. Then, changing from French to the language of +our country, she explained to me quickly that something frightful was +taking place there, where she pointed her finger across the river, that +we must go to the place at once--the driver must lash his horses--every +second was precious. + +"So affected was I by her intense conviction, and such confidence had I +in my sister's wisdom, that I did not oppose her, but told the man to +drive as she directed. The carriage fairly flew across the bridge, down +the Boulevard St. Germain, then to the left, threading its way through +the narrow streets that lie along the Seine. This way and that, straight +ahead here, a turn there, she directing our course, never hesitating, as +if drawn by some unseen power, and always urging the driver on to +greater speed. Finally, we came to a black-mouthed, evil-looking alley, +so narrow and roughly paved that the carriage could scarcely advance. + +"'Come on!' my sister cried, springing to the ground; 'we will go on +foot, we are nearly there. Thank God, we may yet be in time.' + +"No one was in sight as we hurried along the dark alley, and scarcely a +light was visible, but presently a smothered scream broke the silence, +and, touching my arm, my sister exclaimed:-- + +"'There, draw your weapon, quick, and take the man at any cost!' + +"So swiftly did everything happen after that that I hardly know my +actions, but a few minutes later I held pinioned in my arms a man whose +blows and writhings had been all in vain; for you must know that much +exercise in the jungle had made me strong of limb. As soon as I had made +the fellow fast I looked down and found moaning on the ground a poor +woman, who explained with tears and broken words that the man had been +in the very act of strangling her. Searching him I found a long-bladed +knife of curious shape, and keen as a razor, which had been brought for +what horrible purpose you may perhaps divine. + +"Imagine my surprise, on dragging the man back to the carriage, to find, +instead of the ruffianly assassin I expected, a gentleman as far as +could be judged from face and manner. Fine eyes, white hands, careful +speech, all the signs of refinement and the dress of a man of means. + +"'How can this be?' I said to my sister in our own tongue as we drove +away, I holding my prisoner on the opposite seat where he sat silent. + +"'It is a _kulos_-man,' she said, shivering, 'it is a fiend-soul. There +are a few such in the whole world, perhaps two or three in all.' + +"'But he has a good face.' + +"'You have not seen his real face yet; I will show it to you, +presently.' + +"In the strangeness of these happenings and the still greater +strangeness of my sister's words, I had all but lost the power of +wonder. So we sat without further word until the carriage stopped at the +little chateau we had taken near the Parc Monteau. + +"I could never properly describe what happened that night; my knowledge +of these things is too limited. I simply obeyed my sister in all that +she directed, and kept my eyes on this man as no hawk ever watched its +prey. She began by questioning him, speaking in a kindly tone which I +could ill understand. He seemed embarrassed, dazed, and professed to +have no knowledge of what had occurred, or how he had come where we +found him. To all my inquiries as to the woman or the crime he shook his +head blankly, and thus aroused my wrath. + +"'Be not angry with him, brother; he is not lying, it is the other +soul.' + +"She asked him about his name and country, and he replied without +hesitation that he was Richard Burwell, a merchant from New York, just +arrived in Paris, travelling for pleasure in Europe with his wife and +daughter. This seemed reasonable, for the man spoke English, and, +strangely enough, seemed to have no knowledge of French, although we +both remember hearing him speak French to the woman. + +"'There is no doubt,' my sister said, 'It is indeed a _kulos_-man; It +knows that I am here, that I am Its master. Look, look!' she cried +sharply, at the same time putting her eyes so close to the man's face +that their fierce light seemed to burn into him. What power she +exercised I do not know, nor whether some words she spoke, +unintelligible to me, had to do with what followed, but instantly there +came over this man, this pleasant-looking, respectable American citizen, +such a change as is not made by death worms gnawing in a grave. Now +there was a fiend grovelling at her feet, a foul, sin-stained fiend. + +"'Now you see the demon-soul,' said my sister. 'Watch It writhe and +struggle; it has served me well, brother, sayest thou not so, the lore I +gained from our wise men?' + +"The horror of what followed chilled my blood; nor would I trust my +memory were it not that there remained and still remains plain proof of +all that I affirm. This hideous creature, dwarfed, crouching, devoid of +all resemblance to the man we had but now beheld, chattering to us in +curious old-time French, poured out such horrid blasphemy as would have +blanched the cheek of Satan, and made recital of such evil deeds as +never mortal ear gave heed to. And as she willed my sister checked It or +allowed It to go on. What it all meant was more than I could tell. To me +it seemed as if these tales of wickedness had no connection with our +modern life, or with the world around us, and so I judged presently from +what my sister said. + +"'Speak of the later time, since thou wast in this clay.' + +"Then I perceived that the creature came to things of which I knew: It +spoke of New York, of a wife, a child, a friend. It told of strangling +the child, of robbing the friend; and was going on to tell God knows +what other horrid deeds when my sister stopped It. + +"'Stand as thou didst in killing the little babe, stand, stand!' and +once more she spoke some words unknown to me. Instantly the demon sprang +forward, and, bending Its clawlike hands, clutched them around some +little throat that was not there,--but I could see it in my mind. And +the look on its face was a blackest glimpse of hell. + +"'And now stand as thou didst in robbing the friend, stand, stand'; and +again came the unknown words, and again the fiend obeyed. + +"'These we will take for future use,' said my sister. And bidding me +watch the creature carefully until she should return, she left the room, +and, after none too short an absence, returned bearing a black box that +was an apparatus for photography, and something more besides,--some +newer, stranger kind of photography that she had learned. Then, on a +strangely fashioned card, a transparent white card, composed of many +layers of finest Oriental paper, she took the pictures of the creature +in those two creeping poses. And when it all was done, the card seemed +as white as before, and empty of all meaning until one held it up and +examined it intently. Then the pictures showed. + +And between the two there was a third picture, which somehow seemed to +show, at the same time, two faces in one, two souls, my sister said, the +kindly visaged man we first had seen, and then the fiend. + +"Now my sister asked for pen and ink and I gave her my pocket pen which +was filled with purple ink. Handing this to the _kulos_-man she bade him +write under the first picture: 'Thus I killed my babe.' And under the +second picture: 'Thus I robbed my friend.' And under the third, the one +that was between the other two: 'This is the soul of Richard Burwell.' +An odd thing about this writing was that it was in the same old French +the creature had used in speech, and yet Burwell knew no French. + +"My sister was about to finish with the creature when a new idea took +her, and she said, looking at It as before:--'Of all thy crimes which +one is the worst? Speak, I command thee!' + +"Then the fiend told how once It had killed every soul in a house of +holy women and buried the bodies in a cellar under a heavy door. + +"Where was the house?' + +"'At No. 19 Rue Picpus, next to the old graveyard.' + +"'And when was this?' + +"Here the fiend seemed to break into fierce rebellion, writhing on the +floor with hideous contortions, and pouring forth words that meant +nothing to me, but seemed to reach my sister's understanding, for she +interrupted from time to time, with quick, stern words that finally +brought It to subjection. + +"'Enough,' she said, 'I know all,' and then she spoke some words again, +her eyes fixed as before, and the reverse change came. Before us stood +once more the honest-looking, fine-appearing gentleman, Richard Burwell, +of New York. + +"'Excuse me, madame,' he said, awkwardly, but with deference; 'I must +have dosed a little. I am not myself to-night.' + +"'No,' said my sister, 'you have not been yourself to-night.' + +"A little later I accompanied the man to the Continental Hotel, where he +was stopping, and, returning to my sister, I talked with her until late +into the night. I was alarmed to see that she was wrought to a nervous +tension that augured ill for her health. I urged her to sleep, but she +would not. + +"'No,' she said, 'think of the awful responsibility that rests upon me.' +And then she went on with her strange theories and explanations, of +which I understood only that here was a power for evil more terrible +than a pestilence, menacing all humanity. + +"'Once in many cycles it happens,' she said, 'that a _kulos_-soul pushes +itself within the body of a new-born child, when the pure soul waiting +to enter is delayed. Then the two live together through that life, and +this hideous principle of evil has a chance upon the earth. It is my +will, as I feel it my duty, to see this poor man again. The chances are +that he will never know us, for the shock of this night to his normal +soul is so great as to wipe out memory.' + +"The next evening, about the same hour, my sister insisted that I should +go with her to the _Folies Bergere_, a concert garden, none too well +frequented, and when I remonstrated, she said: 'I must go,--It is +there,' and the words sent a shiver through me. + +"We drove to this place, and passing into the garden, presently +discovered Richard Burwell seated at a little table, enjoying the scene +of pleasure, which was plainly new to him. My sister hesitated a moment +what to do, and then, leaving my arm, she advanced to the table and +dropped before Burwell's eyes the card she had prepared. A moment later, +with a look of pity on her beautiful face, she rejoined me and we went +away. It was plain he did not know us." + +To so much of the savant's strange recital I had listened with absorbed +interest, though without a word, but now I burst in with questions. + +"What was your sister's idea in giving Burwell the card?" I asked. + +"It was in the hope that she might make the man understand his terrible +condition, that is, teach the pure soul to know its loathsome +companion." + +"And did her effort succeed?" + +"Alas! it did not; my sister's purpose was defeated by the man's +inability to see the pictures that were plain to every other eye. It is +impossible for the _kulos_-man to know his own degradation." + +"And yet this man has for years been leading a most exemplary life?" + +My visitor shook his head. "I grant you there has been improvement, due +largely to experiments I have conducted upon him according to my +sister's wishes. But the fiend soul was never driven out. It grieves me +to tell you, doctor, that not only was this man the Water Street +assassin, but he was the mysterious murderer, the long-sought-for +mutilator of women, whose red crimes have baffled the police of Europe +and America for the past ten years." + +"You know this," said I, starting up, "and yet did not denounce him?" + +"It would have been impossible to prove such a charge, and besides, I +had made oath to my sister that I would use the man only for these +soul-experiments. What are his crimes compared with the great secret of +knowledge I am now able to give the world?" + +"A secret of knowledge?" + +"Yes," said the savant, with intense earnestness, "I may tell you now, +doctor, what the whole world will know, ere long, that it is possible to +compel every living person to reveal the innermost secrets of his or her +life, so long as memory remains, for memory is only the power of +producing in the brain material pictures that may be projected +externally by the thought rays and made to impress themselves upon the +photographic plate, precisely as ordinary pictures do." + +"You mean," I exclaimed, "that you can photograph the two principles of +good and evil that exist in us?" + +"Exactly that. The great truth of a dual soul existence, that was dimly +apprehended by one of your Western novelists, has been demonstrated by +me in the laboratory with my camera. It is my purpose, at the proper +time, to entrust this precious knowledge to a chosen few who will +perpetuate it and use it worthily." + +"Wonderful, wonderful!" I cried, "and now tell me, if you will, about +the house on the Rue Picpus. Did you ever visit the place?" + +"We did, and found that no buildings had stood there for fifty years, so +we did not pursue the search."[1] + +[Footnote 1: Years later, some workmen in Paris, making excavations in +the Rue Picpus, came upon a heavy door buried under a mass of debris, +under an old cemetery. On lifting the door they found a vault-like +chamber in which were a number of female skeletons, and graven on the +walls were blasphemous words written in French, which experts declared +dated from fully two hundred years before. They also declared this +handwriting identical with that found on the door at the Water Street +murder in New York. Thus we may deduce a theory of fiend reincarnation; +for it would seem clear, almost to the point of demonstration, that this +murder of the seventeenth century was the work of the same evil soul +that killed the poor woman on Water Street towards the end of the +nineteenth century.] + +"And the writing on the card, have you any memory of it, for Burwell +told me that the words have faded?" + +"I have something better than that; I have a photograph of both card and +writing, which my sister was careful to take. I had a notion that the +ink in my pocket pen would fade, for it was a poor affair. This +photograph I will bring you to-morrow." + +"Bring it to Burwell's house," I said. + + * * * * * + +The next morning the stranger called as agreed upon. + +"Here is the photograph of the card," he said. + +"And here is the original card," I answered, breaking the seal of the +envelope I had taken from Burwell's iron box. "I have waited for your +arrival to look at it. Yes, the writing has indeed vanished; the card +seems quite blank." + +"Not when you hold it this way," said the stranger, and as he tipped the +card I saw such a horrid revelation as I can never forget. In an instant +I realized how the shock of seeing that card had been too great for the +soul of wife or friend to bear. In these pictures was the secret of a +cursed life. The resemblance to Burwell was unmistakable, the proof +against him was overwhelming. In looking upon that piece of pasteboard +the wife had seen a crime which the mother could never forgive, the +partner had seen a crime which the friend could never forgive. Think of +a loved face suddenly melting before your eyes into a grinning skull, +then into a mass of putrefaction, then into the ugliest fiend of hell, +leering at you, distorted with all the marks of vice and shame. That is +what I saw, that is what they had seen! + +"Let us lay these two cards in the coffin," said my companion +impressively, "we have done what we could." + +Eager to be rid of the hateful piece of pasteboard (for who could say +that the curse was not still clinging about it?), I took the strange +man's arm, and together we advanced into the adjoining room where the +body lay. I had seen Burwell as he breathed his last, and knew that +there had been a peaceful look on his face as he died. But now, as we +laid the two white cards on the still, breast, the savant suddenly +touched my arm, and pointing to the dead man's face, now frightfully +distorted, whispered:--"See, even in death It followed him. Let us close +the coffin quickly." + + + + +THE GREAT VALDEZ SAPPHIRE + +(ANONYMOUS) + + +I know more about it than anyone else in the world, its present owner +not excepted. I can give its whole history, from the Cingalese who found +it, the Spanish adventurer who stole it, the cardinal who bought it, the +Pope who graciously accepted it, the favoured son of the Church who +received it, the gay and giddy duchess who pawned it, down to the +eminent prelate who now holds it in trust as a family heirloom. + +It will occupy a chapter to itself in my forthcoming work on "Historic +Stones," where full details of its weight, size, colour, and value may +be found. At present I am going to relate an incident in its history +which, for obvious reasons, will not be published--which, in fact, I +trust the reader will consider related in strict confidence. + +I had never seen the stone itself when I began to write about it, and it +was not till one evening last spring, while staying with my nephew, Sir +Thomas Acton, that I came within measurable distance of it. A dinner +party was impending, and, at my instigation, the Bishop of Northchurch +and Miss Panton, his daughter and heiress, were among the invited +guests. + +The dinner was a particularly good one, I remember that distinctly. In +fact, I felt myself partly responsible for it, having engaged the new +cook--a talented young Italian, pupil of the admirable old _chef_ at my +club. We had gone over the _menu_ carefully together, with a result +refreshing in its novelty, but not so daring as to disturb the minds of +the innocent country guests who were bidden thereto. + +The first spoonful of soup was reassuring, and I looked to the end of +the table to exchange a congratulatory glance with Leta. What was amiss? +No response. Her pretty face was flushed, her smile constrained, she was +talking with quite unnecessary _empressement_ to her neighbour, Sir +Harry Landor, though Leta is one of those few women who understand the +importance of letting a man settle down tranquilly and with an +undisturbed mind to the business of dining, allowing no topic of serious +interest to come on before the _releves_, and reserving mere +conversational brilliancy for the _entremets_. + +Guests all right? No disappointments? I had gone through the list with +her, selecting just the right people to be asked to meet the Landors, +our new neighbours. Not a mere cumbrous county gathering, nor yet a +showy imported party from town, but a skillful blending of both. Had +anything happened already? I had been late for dinner and missed the +arrivals in the drawing-room. It was Leta's fault. She has got into a +way of coming into my room and putting the last touches to my toilet. I +let her, for I am doubtful of myself nowadays after many years' +dependence on the best of valets. Her taste is generally beyond dispute, +but to-day she had indulged in a feminine vagary that provoked me and +made me late for dinner. + +"Are you going to wear your sapphire, Uncle Paul!" she cried in a tone +of dismay. "Oh, why not the ruby?" + +"You _would_ have your way about the table decorations," I gently +reminded her. "With that service of Crown Derby _repousse_ and orchids, +the ruby would look absolutely barbaric. Now if you would have had the +Limoges set, white candles, and a yellow silk centre--" + +"Oh, but--I'm _so_ disappointed--I wanted the bishop to see your +ruby--or one of your engraved gems--" + +"My dear, it is on the bishop's account I put this on. You know his +daughter is heiress of the great Valdez sapphire--" + +"Of course she is, and when he has the charge of a stone three times as +big as yours, what's the use of wearing it? The ruby, dear Uncle Paul, +_please_!" + +She was desperately in earnest I could see, and considering the +obligations which I am supposed to be under to her and Tom, it was but a +little matter to yield, but it involved a good deal of extra trouble. +Studs, sleeve-links, watch-guard, all carefully selected to go with the +sapphire, had to be changed, the emerald which I chose as a compromise +requiring more florid accompaniments of a deeper tone of gold; and the +dinner hour struck as I replaced my jewel case, the one relic left me of +a once handsome fortune, in my fireproof safe. + +The emerald looked very well that evening, however. I kept my eyes upon +it for comfort when Miss Panton proved trying. + +She was a lean, yellow, dictatorial young person with no conversation. I +spoke of her father's celebrated sapphires. "_My_ sapphires," she +amended sourly; "though I am legally debarred from making any profitable +use of them." She furthermore informed me that she viewed them as +useless gauds, which ought to be disposed of for the benefit of the +heathen. I gave the subject up, and while she discoursed of the work of +the Blue Ribbon Army among the Bosjesmans I tried to understand a +certain dislocation in the arrangement of the table. Surely we were more +or less in number than we should be? Opposite side all right. Who was +extra on ours? I leaned forward. Lady Landor on one side of Tom, on the +other who? I caught glimpses of plumes pink and green nodding over a +dinner plate, and beneath them a pink nose in a green visage with a +nutcracker chin altogether unknown to me. A sharp gray eye shot a +sideway glance down the table and caught me peeping, and I retreated, +having only marked in addition two clawlike hands, with pointed ruffles +and a mass of brilliant rings, making good play with a knife and fork. +Who was she? At intervals a high acid voice could be heard addressing +Tom, and a laugh that made me shudder; it had the quality of the scream +of a bird of prey or the yell of a jackal. I had heard that sort of +laugh before, and it always made me feel like a defenseless rabbit. + +Every time it sounded I saw Leta's fan flutter more furiously and her +manner grow more nervously animated. Poor dear girl! I never in all my +recollection wished a dinner at an end so earnestly so as to assure her +of my support and sympathy, though without the faintest conception why +either should be required. + +The ices at last. A _menu_ card folded in two was laid beside me. I read +it unobserved. "Keep the B. from joining us in the drawing-room." The +B.--? The bishop, of course. With pleasure. But why? And how? _That's_ +the question, never mind "why." Could I lure him into the library--the +billiard room--the conservatory? I doubted it, and I doubted still more +what I should do with him when I got him there. + +The bishop is a grand and stately ecclesiastic of the mediaeval type, +broad-chested, deep-voiced, martial of bearing. I could picture him +charging mace in hand at the head of his vassals, or delivering over a +dissenter of the period to the rack and thumb-screw, but not pottering +among rare editions, tall copies and Grolier bindings, nor condescending +to a quiet cigar among the tree ferns and orchids. Leta must and should +be obeyed, I swore, nevertheless, even if I were driven to lock the door +in the fearless old fashion of a bygone day, and declare I'd shoot any +man who left while a drop remained in the bottles. + +The ladies were rising. The lady at the head of the line smirked and +nodded her pink plumes coquettishly at Tom, while her hawk's eyes roved +keen and predatory over us all. She stopped suddenly, creating a block +and confusion. + +"Ah, the dear bishop! _You_ there, and I never saw you! You must come +and have a nice long chat presently. By-by--!" She shook her fan at him +over my shoulder and tripped on. Leta, passing me last, gave me a look +of profound despair. + +"Lady Carwitchet!" somebody exclaimed. "I couldn't believe my eyes." + +"Thought she was dead or in penal servitude. Never should have expected +to see her _here_," said someone else behind me confidentially. + +"What Carwitchet? Not the mother of the Carwitchet who--" + +"Just so. The Carwitchet who--" Tom assented with a shrug. "We needn't +go farther, as she's my guest. Just my luck. I met them at Buxton, +thought them uncommonly good company--in fact, Carwitchet laid me under +a great obligation about a horse I was nearly let in for buying--and +gave them a general invitation here, as one does, you know. Never +expected her to turn up with her luggage this afternoon just before +dinner, to stay a week, or a fortnight if Carwitchet can join her." A +groan of sympathy ran round the table. "It can't be helped. I've told +you this just to show that I shouldn't have asked you here to meet this +sort of people of my own free will; but, as it is, please say no more +about them." The subject was not dropped by any means, and I took care +that it should not be. At our end of the table one story after another +went buzzing round--_sotto voce_, out of deference to Tom--but perfectly +audible. + +"Carwitchet? Ah, yes. Mixed up in that Rawlings divorce case, wasn't he? +A bad lot. Turned out of the Dragoon Guards for cheating at cards, or +picking pockets, or something--remember the row at the Cerulean Club? +Scandalous exposure--and that forged letter business--oh, that was the +mother--prosecution hushed up somehow. Ought to be serving her fourteen +years--and that business of poor Farrars, the banker--got hold of some +of his secrets and blackmailed him till he blew his brains out--" + +It was so exciting that I clean forgot the bishop, till a low gasp at my +elbow startled me. He was lying back in his chair, his mighty shaven +jowl a ghastly white, his fierce imperious eyebrows drooping limp over +his fishlike eyes, his splendid figure shrunk and contracted. He was +trying with a shaken hand to pour out wine. The decanter clattered +against the glass and the wine spilled on the cloth. + +"I'm afraid you find the room too warm. Shall we go into the library?" + +He rose hastily and followed me like a lamb. + +He recovered himself once we got into the hall, and affably rejected all +my proffers of brandy and soda--medical advice--everything else my +limited experience could suggest. He only demanded his carriage +"directly" and that Miss Panton should be summoned forthwith. + +I made the best use I could of the time left me. + +"I'm uncommonly sorry you do not feel equal to staying a little longer, +my lord. I counted on showing you my few trifles of precious stones, the +salvage from the wreck of my possessions. Nothing in comparison with +your own collection." + +The bishop clasped his hand over his heart. His breath came short and +quick. + +"A return of that dizziness," he explained with a faint smile. "You are +thinking of the Valdez sapphire, are you not? Some day," he went on with +forced composure, "I may have the pleasure of showing it to you. It is +at my banker's just now." + +Miss Panton's steps were heard in the hall. "You are well known as a +connoisseur, Mr. Acton," he went on hurriedly. "Is your collection +valuable? If so, _keep it safe; don' trust a ring off your hand, or the +key of your jewel-case out of your pocket till the house is clear +again_." The words rushed from his lips in an impetuous whisper, he gave +me a meaning glance, and departed with his daughter. I went back to the +drawing-room, my head swimming with bewilderment. + +"What! The dear bishop gone!" screamed Lady Carwitchet from the central +ottoman where she sat, surrounded by most of the gentlemen, all +apparently well entertained by her conversation. "And I wanted to talk +over old times with him so badly. His poor wife was my greatest friend. +Mira Montanaro, daughter of the great banker, you know. It's not +possible that that miserable little prig is my poor Mira's girl. The +heiress of all the Montanaros in a black-lace gown worth twopence! When +I think of her mother's beauty and her toilets! Does she ever wear the +sapphires? Has anyone ever seen her in them? Eleven large stones in a +lovely antique setting, and the great Valdez sapphire--worth thousands +and thousands--for the pendant." No one replied. "I wanted to get a rise +out of the bishop to-night. It used to make him so mad when I wore +this." + +She fumbled among the laces at her throat, and clawed out a pendant that +hung to a velvet band around her neck. I fairly gasped when she removed +her hand. A sapphire of irregular shape flashed out its blue lightning +on us. Such a stone! A true, rich, cornflower blue even by that wretched +artificial light, with soft velvety depths of colour and dazzling +clearness of tint in its lights and shades--a stone to remember! I +stretched out my hand involuntarily, but Lady Carwitchet drew back with +a coquettish squeal. "No! no! You mustn't look any closer. Tell me what +you think of it now. Isn't it pretty?" + +"Superb!" was all I could ejaculate, staring at the azure splendour of +that miraculous jewel in a sort of trance. + +She gave a shrill cackling laugh of mockery. + +"The great Mr. Acton taken in by a bit of Palais Royal gimcrackery! What +an advertisement for Bogaerts et Cie! They are perfect artists in +frauds. Don't you remember their stand at the first Paris Exhibition? +They had imitations there of every celebrated stone; but I never +expected anything made by man could delude Mr. Acton, never!" And she +went off into another mocking cackle, and all the idiots round her +haw-hawed knowingly, as if they had seen the joke all along. I was too +bewildered to reply, which was on the whole lucky. "I suppose I musn't +tell why I came to give quite a big sum in francs for this?" she went +on, tapping her closed lips with her closed fan, and cocking her eye at +us all like a parrot wanting to be coaxed to talk. "It's a queer story." + +I didn't want to hear her anecdote, especially as I saw she wanted to +tell it. What I _did_ want was to see that pendant again. She had thrust +it back among her laces, only the loop which held it to the velvet being +visible. It was set with three small sapphires, and even from a distance +I clearly made them out to be imitations, and poor ones. I felt a queer +thrill of self-mistrust. Was the large stone no better? Could I, even +for an instant, have been dazzled by a sham, and a sham of that quality? +The events of the evening had flurried and confused me. I wished to +think them over in quiet. I would go to bed. + +My rooms at the Manor are the best in the house. Leta will have it so. I +must explain their position for a reason to be understood later. My +bedroom is in the southeast angle of the house; it opens on one side +into a sitting-room in the east corridor, the rest of which is taken up +by the suite of rooms occupied by Tom and Leta; and on the other side +into my bathroom, the first room in the south corridor where the +principal guest chambers are, to one of which it was originally the +dressing-room. Passing this room I noticed a couple of housemaids +preparing it for the night, and discovered with a shiver that Lady +Carwitchet was to be my next-door neighbour. It gave me a turn. + +The bishop's strange warning must have unnerved me. I was perfectly safe +from her ladyship. The disused door into her room was locked, and the +key safe on the housekeeper's bunch. It was also undiscoverable on her +side, the recess in which it stood being completely filled by a large +wardrobe. On my side hung a thick sound-proof _portiere_. Nevertheless, +I resolved not to use that room while she inhabited the next one. I +removed my possessions, fastened the door of communication with my +bedroom and dragged a heavy ottoman across it. + +Then I stowed away my emerald in my strong-box. It is built into the +wall of my sitting-room, and masked by the lower part of an old carved +oak bureau. I put away even the rings I wore habitually, keeping out +only an inferior cat's-eye for workaday wear. I had just made all safe +when Leta tapped at the door and came in to wish me good night. She +looked flushed and harassed and ready to cry. "Uncle Paul," she began, +"I want you to go up to town at once, and stay away till I send for +you." + +"My dear--!" I was too amazed to expostulate. + +"We've got a--a pestilence among us," she declared, her foot tapping the +ground angrily, "and the least we can do is to go into quarantine. Oh, +I'm so sorry and so ashamed! The poor bishop! I'll take good care that +no one else shall meet that woman here. You did your best for me, Uncle +Paul, and managed admirably, but it was all no use. I hoped against hope +that what between the dusk of the drawing-room before dinner, and being +put at opposite ends of the table, we might get through without a +meeting--" + +"But, my dear, explain. Why shouldn't the bishop and Lady Carwitchet +meet? Why is it worse for him than anyone else?" + +"Why? I thought everybody had heard of that dreadful wife of his who +nearly broke his heart. If he married her for her money it served him +right, but Lady Landor says she was very handsome and really in love +with him at first. Then Lady Carwitchet got hold of her and led her into +all sorts of mischief. She left her husband--he was only a rector with a +country living in those days--and went to live in town, got into a +horrid fast set, and made herself notorious. You _must_ have heard of +her." + +"I heard of her sapphires, my dear. But I was in Brazil at the time." + +"I wish you had been at home. You might have found her out. She was +furious because her husband refused to let her wear the great Valdez +sapphire. It had been in the Montanaro family for some generations, and +her father settled it first on her and then on her little girl--the +bishop being trustee. He felt obliged to take away the little girl, and +send her off to be brought up by some old aunts in the country, and he +locked up the sapphire. Lady Carwitchet tells as a splendid joke how +they got the copy made in Paris, and it did just as well for the people +to stare at. No wonder the bishop hates the very name of the stone." + +"How long will she stay here?" I asked dismally. + +"Till Lord Carwitchet can come and escort her to Paris to visit some +American friends. Goodness knows when that will be! Do go up to town, +Uncle Paul!" + +I refused indignantly. The very least I could do was to stand by my poor +young relatives in their troubles and help them through. I did so. I +wore that inferior cat's eye for six weeks! + +It is a time I cannot think of even now without a shudder. The more I +saw of that terrible old woman the more I detested her, and we saw a +very great deal of her. Leta kept her word, and neither accepted nor +gave invitations all that time. We were cut off from all society but +that of old General Fairford, who would go anywhere and meet anyone to +get a rubber after dinner; the doctor, a sporting widower; and the +Duberlys, a giddy, rather rackety young couple who had taken the Dower +House for a year. Lady Carwitchet seemed perfectly content. She revelled +in the soft living and good fare of the Manor House, the drives in +Leta's big barouche, and Domenico's dinners, as one to whom short +commons were not unknown. She had a hungry way of grabbing and grasping +at everything she could--the shillings she won at whist, the best fruit +at dessert, the postage stamps in the library inkstand--that was +infinitely suggestive. Sometimes I could have pitied her, she was so +greedy, so spiteful, so friendless. She always made me think of some +wicked old pirate putting into a peaceful port to provision and repair +his battered old hulk, obliged to live on friendly terms with the +natives, but his piratical old nostrils asniff for plunder and his +piratical old soul longing to be off marauding once more. When would +that be? Not till the arrival in Paris of her distinguished American +friends, of whom we heard a great deal. "Charming people, the Bokums of +Chicago, the American branch of the English Beauchamps, you know!" They +seemed to be taking an unconscionable time to get there. She would have +insisted on being driven over to Northchurch to call at the palace, but +that the bishop was understood to be holding confirmations at the other +end of the diocese. + +I was alone in the house one afternoon sitting by my window, toying with +the key of my safe, and wondering whether I dare treat myself to a peep +at my treasures, when a suspicious movement in the park below caught my +attention. A black figure certainly dodged from behind one tree to the +next, and then into the shadow of the park paling instead of keeping to +the footpath. It looked queer. I caught up my field glass and marked him +at one point where he was bound to come into the open for a few steps. +He crossed the strip of turf with giant strides and got into cover +again, but not quick enough to prevent me recognizing him. It was--great +heavens!--the bishop! In a soft hat pulled over his forehead, with a +long cloak and a big stick he looked like a poacher. + +Guided by some mysterious instinct I hurried to meet him. I opened the +conservatory door, and in he rushed like a hunted rabbit. Without +explanation I led him up the wide staircase to my room, where he dropped +into a chair and wiped his face. + +"You are astonished, Mr. Acton," he panted. "I will explain directly. +Thanks." He tossed off the glass of brandy I had poured out without +waiting for the qualifying soda, and looked better. + +"I am in serious trouble. You can help me. I've had a shock to-day--a +grievous shock." He stopped and tried to pull himself together. "I must +trust you implicitly, Mr. Acton, I have no choice. Tell me what you +think of this." He drew a case from his breast pocket and opened it. "I +promised you should see the Valdez sapphire. Look there!" + +The Valdez sapphire! A great big shining lump of blue crystal--flawless +and of perfect colour--that was all. I took it up, breathed on it, drew +out my magnifier, looked at it in one light and another. What was wrong +with it? I could not say. Nine experts out of ten would undoubtedly have +pronounced the stone genuine. I, by virtue of some mysterious instinct +that has hitherto always guided me aright, was the unlucky tenth. I +looked at the bishop. His eyes met mine. There was no need of spoken +word between us. + +"Has Lady Carwitchet shown you her sapphire?" was his most unexpected +question. "She has? Now, Mr. Acton, on your honour as a connoisseur and +a gentleman, which of the two is the Valdez?" + +"Not this one." I could say naught else. + +"You were my last hope." He broke off, and dropped his face on his +folded arms with a groan that shook the table on which he rested, while +I stood dismayed at myself for having let so hasty a judgment escape me. +He lifted a ghastly countenance to me. "She vowed she would see me +ruined and disgraced. I made her my enemy by crossing some of her +schemes once, and she never forgives. She will keep her word. I shall +appear before the world as a fraudulent trustee. I can neither produce +the valuable confided to my charge nor make the loss good. I have only +an incredible story to tell," he dropped his head and groaned again. +"Who will believe me?" + +"I will, for one." + +"Ah, you? Yes, you know her. She took my wife from me, Mr. Acton. Heaven +only knows what the hold was that she had over poor Mira. She encouraged +her to set me at defiance and eventually to leave me. She was answerable +for all the scandalous folly and extravagance of poor Mira's life in +Paris--spare me the telling of the story. She left her at last to die +alone and uncared for. I reached my wife to find her dying of a fever +from which Lady Carwitchet and her crew had fled. She was raving in +delirium, and died without recognizing me. Some trouble she had been in +which I must never know oppressed her. At the very last she roused from +a long stupor and spoke to the nurse. 'Tell him to get the sapphire +back--she stole it. She has robbed my child.' Those were her last words. +The nurse understood no English, and treated them as wandering; but _I_ +heard them, and knew she was sane when she spoke." + +"What did you do?" + +"What could I? I saw Lady Carwitchet, who laughed at me, and defied me +to make her confess or disgorge. I took the pendant to more than one +eminent jeweller on pretense of having the setting seen to, and all have +examined and admired without giving a hint of there being anything +wrong. I allowed a celebrated mineralogist to see it; he gave no sign--" + +"Perhaps they are right and we are wrong." + +"No, no. Listen. I heard of an old Dutchman celebrated for his +imitations. I went to him, and he told me at once that he had been +allowed by Montanaro to copy the Valdez--setting and all--for the Paris +Exhibition. I showed him this, and he claimed it for his own work at +once, and pointed out his private mark upon it. You must take your +magnifier to find it; a Greek Beta. He also told me that he had sold it +to Lady Carwitchet more than a year ago." + +"It is a terrible position." + +"It is. My co-trustee died lately. I have never dared to have another +appointed. I am bound to hand over the sapphire to my daughter on her +marriage, if her husband consents to take the name of Montanaro." + +The bishop's face was ghastly pale, and the moisture started on his +brow. I racked my brain for some word of comfort. + +"Miss Panton may never marry." + +"But she will!" he shouted. "That is the blow that has been dealt me +to-day. My chaplain--actually, my chaplain--tells me that he is going +out as a temperance missionary to equatorial Africa, and has the +assurance to add that he believes my daughter is not indisposed to +accompany him!" His consummating wrath acted as a momentary stimulant. +He sat upright, his eyes flashing and his brow thunderous. I felt for +that chaplain. Then he collapsed miserably. "The sapphires will have to +be produced, identified, revalued. How shall I come out of it? Think of +the disgrace, the ripping up of old scandals! Even if I were to compound +with Lady Carwitchet, the sum she hinted at was too monstrous. She wants +more than my money. Help me, Mr. Acton! For the sake of your own family +interest, help me!" + +"I beg your pardon--family interests? I don't understand." + +"If my daughter is childless, her next of kin is poor Marmaduke Panton, +who is dying at Cannes, not married, or likely to marry; and failing +him, your nephew, Sir Thomas Acton, succeeds." + +My nephew Tom! Leta, or Leta's baby, might come to be the possible +inheritor of the great Valdez sapphire! The blood rushed to my head as I +looked at the great shining swindle before me. "What diabolic jugglery +was at work when the exchange was made?" I demanded fiercely. + +"It must have been on the last occasion of her wearing the sapphires in +London. I ought never to have let her out of my sight." + +"You must put a stop to Miss Panton's marriage in the first place," I +pronounced as autocratically as he could have done himself. + +"Not to be thought of," he admitted helplessly. "Mira has my force of +character. She knows her rights, and she will have her jewels. I want +you to take charge of the--thing for me. If it's in the house she'll +make me produce it. She'll inquire at the banker's. If _you_ have it we +can gain time, if but for a day or two." He broke off. Carriage wheels +were crashing on the gravel outside. We looked at one another in +consternation. Flight was imperative. I hurried him downstairs and out +of the conservatory just as the door-bell rang. I think we both lost our +heads in the confusion. He shoved the case into my hands, and I pocketed +it, without a thought of the awful responsibility I was incurring, and +saw him disappear into the shelter of the friendly night. + +When I think of what my feelings were that evening--of my murderous +hatred of that smirking jesting Jezebel who sat opposite me at dinner, +my wrathful indignation at the thought of the poor little expected heir +defrauded ere his birth; of the crushing contempt I felt for myself and +the bishop as a pair of witless idiots unable to see our way out of the +dilemma; all this boiling and surging through my soul, I can only +wonder--Domenico having given himself a holiday, and the kitchen-maid +doing her worst and wickedest--that gout or jaundice did not put an end +to this story at once. + +"Uncle Paul!" Leta was looking her sweetest when she tripped into my +room next morning. "I've news for you. She," pointing a delicate +forefinger in the direction of the corridor, "is going! Her Bokums have +reached Paris at last, and sent for her to join them at the Grand +Hotel." + +I was thunderstruck. The longed-for deliverance had but come to remove +hopelessly and forever out of my reach Lady Carwitchet and the great +Valdez sapphire. + +"Why, aren't you overjoyed? I am. We are going to celebrate the event by +a dinner-party. Tom's hospitable soul is vexed by the lack of +entertainment we had provided for her. We must ask the Brownleys some +day or other, and they will be delighted to meet anything in the way of +a ladyship, or such smart folks as the Duberly-Parkers. Then we may as +well have the Blomfields, and air that awful modern Sevres +dessert-service she gave us when we were married." I had no objection to +make, and she went on, rubbing her soft cheek against my shoulder like +the purring little cat she was: "Now I want you to do something to +please me--and Mrs. Blomfield. She has set her heart on seeing your +rubies, and though I know you hate her about as much as you do that +Sevres china--" + +"What! Wear my rubies with that! I won't. I'll tell you what I will do, +though. I've got some carbuncles as big as prize gooseberries, a whole +set. Then you have only to put those Bohemian glass vases and candelabra +on the table, and let your gardener do his worst with his great forced, +scentless, vulgar blooms, and we shall all be in keeping." Leta pouted. +An idea struck me. "Or I'll do as you wish, on one condition. You get +Lady Carwitchet to wear her big sapphire, and don't tell her I wish it." + +I lived through the next few days as one in some evil dream. The +sapphires, like twin spectres, haunted me day and night. Was ever man so +tantalized? To hold the shadow and see the substance dangled temptingly +within reach. The bishop made no sign of ridding me of my unwelcome +charge, and the thought of what might happen in a case of +burglary--fire--earthquake--made me start and tremble at all sorts of +inopportune moments. + +I kept faith with Leta, and reluctantly produced my beautiful rubies on +the night of her dinner party. Emerging from my room I came full upon +Lady Carwitchet in the corridor. She was dressed for dinner, and at her +throat I caught the blue gleam of the great sapphire. Leta had kept +faith with me. I don't know what I stammered in reply to her ladyship's +remarks; my whole soul was absorbed in the contemplation of the +intoxicating loveliness of the gem. _That_ a Palais Royal deception! +Incredible! My fingers twitched, my breath came short and fierce with +the lust of possession. She must have seen the covetous glare in my +eyes. A look of gratified spiteful complacency overspread her features, +as she swept on ahead and descended the stairs before me. I followed her +to the drawing-room door. She stopped suddenly, and murmuring something +unintelligible hurried back again. + +Everybody was assembled there that I expected to see, with an addition. +Not a welcome one by the look on Tom's face. He stood on the hearth-rug +conversing with a great hulking, high-shouldered fellow, sallow-faced, +with a heavy moustache and drooping eyelids, from the corners of which +flashed out a sudden suspicious look as I approached, which lighted up +into a greedy one as it rested on my rubies, and seemed unaccountably +familiar to me, till Lady Carwitchet tripping past me exclaimed: + +"He has come at last! My naughty, naughty boy! Mr. Acton, this is my +son, Lord Carwitchet!" + +I broke off short in the midst of my polite acknowledgments to stare +blankly at her. The sapphire was gone! A great gilt cross, with a Scotch +pebble like an acid drop, was her sole decoration. + +"I had to put my pendant away," she explained confidentially; "the clasp +had got broken somehow." I didn't believe a word. + +Lord Carwitchet contributed little to the general entertainment at +dinner, but fell into confidential talk with Mrs. Duberly-Parker. I +caught a few unintelligible remarks across the table. They referred, I +subsequently discovered, to the lady's little book on Northchurch races, +and I recollected that the Spring Meeting was on, and to-morrow "Cup +Day." After dinner there was great talk about getting up a party to go +on General Fairford's drag. Lady Carwitchet was in ecstasies and tried +to coax me into joining. Leta declined positively. Tom accepted sulkily. + +The look in Lord Carwitchet's eye returned to my mind as I locked up my +rubies that night. It made him look so like his mother! I went round my +fastenings with unusual care. Safe and closets and desk and doors, I +tried them all. Coming at last to the bathroom, it opened at once. It +was the housemaid's doing. She had evidently taken advantage of my +having abandoned the room to give it "a thorough spring cleaning," and I +anathematized her. The furniture was all piled together and veiled with +sheets, the carpet and felt curtain were gone, there were new brooms +about. As I peered around, a voice close at my ear made me jump--Lady +Carwitchet's! + +"I tell you I have nothing, not a penny! I shall have to borrow my train +fare before I can leave this. They'll be glad enough to lend it." + +Not only had the _portiere_ been removed, but the door behind it had +been unlocked and left open for convenience of dusting behind the +wardrobe. I might as well have been in the bedroom. + +"Don't tell me," I recognized Carwitchet's growl. "You've not been here +all this time for nothing. You've been collecting for a Kilburn cot or +getting subscriptions for the distressed Irish landlords. I know you. +Now I'm not going to see myself ruined for the want of a paltry hundred +or so. I tell you the colt is a dead certainty. If I could have got a +thousand or two on him last week, we might have ended our dog days +millionaires. Hand over what you can. You've money's worth, if not +money. Where's that sapphire you stole?" + +"I didn't. I can show you the receipted bill. All _I_ possess is +honestly come by. What could you do with it, even if I gave it you? You +couldn't sell it as the Valdez, and you can't get it cut up as you might +if it were real." + +"If it's only bogus, why are you always in such a flutter about it? I'll +do something with it, never fear. Hand over." + +"I can't. I haven't got it. I had to raise something on it before I left +town." + +"Will you swear it's not in that wardrobe? I dare say you will. I mean +to see. Give me those keys." + +I heard a struggle and a jingle, then the wardrobe door must have been +flung open, for a streak of light struck through a crack in the wood of +the back. Creeping close and peeping through, I could see an awful +sight. Lady Carwitchet in a flannel wrapper, minus hair, teeth, +complexion, pointing a skinny forefinger that quivered with rage at her +son, who was out of the range of my vision. + +"Stop that, and throw those keys down here directly, or I'll rouse the +house. Sir Thomas is a magistrate, and will lock you up as soon as look +at you." She clutched at the bell rope as she spoke. "I'll swear I'm in +danger of my life from you and give you in charge. Yes, and when you're +in prison I'll keep you there till you die. I've often thought I'd do +it. How about the hotel robberies last summer at Cowes, eh? Mightn't the +police be grateful for a hint or two? And how about--" + +The keys fell with a crash on the bed, accompanied by some bad language +in an apologetic tone, and the door slammed to. I crept trembling to +bed. + +This new and horrible complication of the situation filled me with +dismay. Lord Carwitchet's wolfish glance at my rubies took a new +meaning. They were safe enough, I believed--but the sapphire! If he +disbelieved his mother, how long would she be able to keep it from his +clutches? That she had some plot of her own of which the bishop would +eventually be the victim I did not doubt, or why had she not made her +bargain with him long ago? But supposing she took fright, lost her head, +allowed her son to wrest the jewel from her, or gave consent to its +being mutilated, divided! I lay in a cold perspiration till morning. + +My terrors haunted me all day. They were with me at breakfast time when +Lady Carwitchet, tripping in smiling, made a last attempt to induce me +to accompany her and keep her "bad, bad boy" from getting among "those +horrid betting men." + +They haunted me through the long peaceful day with Leta and the +_tete-a-tete_ dinner, but they swarmed around and beset me sorest when, +sitting alone over my sitting-room fire, I listened for the return of +the drag party. I read my newspaper and brewed myself some hot strong +drink, but there comes a time of night when no fire can warm and no +drink can cheer. The bishop's despairing face kept me company, and his +troubles and the wrongs of the future heir took possession of me. Then +the uncanny noises that make all old houses ghostly during the small +hours began to make themselves heard. Muffled footsteps trod the +corridor, stopping to listen at every door, door latches gently clicked, +boards creaked unreasonably, sounds of stealthy movements came from the +locked-up bathroom. The welcome crash of wheels at last, and the sound +of the front-door bell. I could hear Lady Carwitchet making her shrill +_adieux_ to her friends and her steps in the corridor. She was softly +humming a little song as she approached. I heard her unlock her bedroom +door before she entered--an odd thing to do. Tom came sleepily stumbling +to his room later. I put my head out. "Where is Lord Carwitchet?" + +"Haven't you seen him? He left us hours ago. Not come home, eh? Well, +he's welcome to stay away. I don't want to see more of him." Tom's brow +was dark and his voice surly. "I gave him to understand as much." +Whatever had happened, Tom was evidently too disgusted to explain just +then. + +I went back to my fire unaccountably relieved, and brewed myself another +and a stronger brew. It warmed me this time, but excited me foolishly. +There must be some way out of the difficulty. I felt now as if I could +almost see it if I gave my mind to it. Why--suppose--there might be no +difficulty after all! The bishop was a nervous old gentleman. He might +have been mistaken all through, Bogaerts might have been mistaken, I +might--no. I could not have been mistaken--or I thought not. I fidgeted +and fumed and argued with myself till I found I should have no peace of +mind without a look at the stone in my possession, and I actually went +to the safe and took the case out. + +The sapphire certainly looked different by lamplight. I sat and stared, +and all but overpersuaded my better judgment into giving it a verdict. +Bogaerts's mark--I suddenly remembered it. I took my magnifier and held +the pendant to the light. There, scratched upon the stone, was the Greek +Beta! There came a tap on my door, and before I could answer, the handle +turned softly and Lord Carwitchet stood before me. I whipped the case +into my dressing-gown pocket and stared at him. He was not pleasant to +look at, especially at that time of night. He had a dishevelled, +desperate air, his voice was hoarse, his red-rimmed eyes wild. + +"I beg your pardon," he began civilly enough. "I saw your light burning, +and thought, as we go by the early train to-morrow, you might allow me +to consult you now on a little business of my mother's." His eyes roved +about the room. Was he trying to find the whereabouts of my safe? "You +know a lot about precious stones, don't you?" + +"So my friends are kind enough to say. Won't you sit down? I have +unluckily little chance of indulging the taste on my own account," was +my cautious reply. + +"But you've written a book about them, and know them when you see them, +don't you? Now my mother has given me something, and would like you to +give a guess at its value. Perhaps you can put me in the way of +disposing of it?" + +"I certainly can do so if it is worth anything. Is that it?" I was in a +fever of excitement, for I guessed what was clutched in his palm. He +held out to me the Valdez sapphire. + +How it shone and sparkled like a great blue star! I made myself a +deprecating smile as I took it from him, but how dare I call it false to +its face? As well accuse the sun in heaven of being a cheap imitation. I +faltered and prevaricated feebly. Where was my moral courage, and where +was the good, honest, thumping lie that should have aided me? "I have +the best authority for recognizing this as a very good copy of a famous +stone in the possession of the Bishop of Northchurch." His scowl grew so +black that I saw he believed me, and I went on more cheerily: "This was +manufactured by Johannes Bogaerts--I can give you his address, and you +can make inquiries yourself--by special permission of the then owner, +the late Leone Montanaro." + +"Hand it back!" he interrupted (his other remarks were outrageous, but +satisfactory to hear); but I waved him off. I couldn't give it up. It +fascinated me. I toyed with it, I caressed it. I made it display its +different tones of colour. I must see the two stones together. I must +see it outshine its paltry rival. It was a whimsical frenzy that seized +me--I can call it by no other name. + +"Would you like to see the original? Curiously enough, I have it here. +The bishop has left it in my charge." + +The wolfish light flamed up in Carwitchet's eyes as I drew forth the +case. He laid the Valdez down on a sheet of paper, and I placed the +other, still in its case, beside it. In that moment they looked +identical, except for the little loop of sham stones, replaced by a +plain gold band in the bishop's jewel. Carwitchet leaned across the +table eagerly, the table gave a lurch, the lamp tottered, crashed over, +and we were left in semidarkness. + +"Don't stir!" Carwitchet shouted. "The paraffin is all over the place!" +He seized my sofa blanket, and flung it over the table while I stood +helpless. "There, that's safe now. Have you candles on the +chimney-piece? I've got matches." + +He looked very white and excited as he lit up. "Might have been an +awkward job with all that burning paraffin running about," he said quite +pleasantly. "I hope no real harm is done." I was lifting the rug with +shaking hands. The two stones lay as I had placed them. No! I nearly +dropped it back again. It was the stone in the case that had the loop +with the three sham sapphires! + +Carwitchet picked the other up hastily. "So you say this is rubbish?" he +asked, his eyes sparkling wickedly, and an attempt at mortification in +his tone. + +"Utter rubbish!" I pronounced, with truth and decision, snapping up the +case and pocketing it. "Lady Carwitchet must have known it." + +"Ah, well, it's disappointing, isn't it? Good-by, we shall not meet +again." + +I shook hands with him most cordially. "Good-by, Lord Carwitchet. _So_ +glad to have met you and your mother. It has been a source of the +_greatest_ pleasure, I assure you." + +I have never seen the Carwitchets since. The bishop drove over next day +in rather better spirits. Miss Panton had refused the chaplain. + +"It doesn't matter, my lord," I said to him heartily. "We've all been +under some strange misconception. The stone in your possession is the +veritable one. I could swear to that anywhere. The sapphire Lady +Carwitchet wears is only an excellent imitation, and--I have seen it +with my own eyes--is the one bearing Bogaerts's mark, the Greek Beta." + + + + +THE OBLONG BOX + +EDGAR ALLAN POE + + +Some years ago I engaged passage from Charleston, S. C., to the city of +New York, in the fine packet-ship _Independence_, Captain Hardy. We were +to sail on the fifteenth of the month (June), weather permitting; and on +the fourteenth I went on board to arrange some matters in my stateroom. + +I found that we were to have a great many passengers, including a more +than usual number of ladies. On the list were several of my +acquaintances; and among other names I was rejoiced to see that of Mr. +Cornelius Wyatt, a young artist, for whom I entertained feelings of warm +friendship. He had been, with me, a fellow-student at C---- University, +where we were very much together. He had the ordinary temperament of +genius, and was a compound of misanthropy, sensibility, and enthusiasm. +To these qualities he united the warmest and truest heart which ever +beat in a human bosom. + +I observed that his name was carded upon three staterooms: and upon +again referring to the list of passengers I found that he had engaged +passage for himself, wife, and two sisters--his own. The staterooms were +sufficiently roomy, and each had two berths, one above the other. These +berths, to be sure, were so exceedingly narrow as to be insufficient for +more than one person; still, I could not comprehend why there were three +staterooms for these four persons. I was, just at that epoch, in one of +those moody frames of mind which make a man abnormally inquisitive about +trifles: and I confess with shame that I busied myself in a variety of +ill-bred and preposterous conjectures about this matter of the +supernumerary stateroom. It was no business of mine, to be sure; but +with none the less pertinacity did I occupy myself in attempts to +resolve the enigma. At last I reached a conclusion which wrought in me +great wonder why I had not arrived at it before. "It is a servant, of +course," I said; "what a fool I am not sooner to have thought of so +obvious a solution!" And then I again repaired to the list, but here I +saw distinctly that no servant was to come with the party: although, in +fact, it had been the original design to bring one, for the words "and +servant" had been first written and then overscored. "Oh, extra baggage, +to be sure," I now said to myself; "something he wishes not to be put in +the hold, something to be kept under his own eye,--ah, I have it! a +painting or so, and this is what he has been bargaining about with +Nicolino, the Italian Jew." This idea satisfied me and I dismissed my +curiosity for the nonce. + +Wyatt's two sisters I knew very well, and most amiable and clever girls +they were. His wife he had newly married, and I had never yet seen her. +He had often talked about her in my presence, however, and in his usual +style of enthusiasm. He described her as of surpassing beauty, wit, and +accomplishment. I was, therefore, quite anxious to make her +acquaintance. + +On the day in which I visited the ship (the fourteenth), Wyatt and party +were also to visit it, so the Captain informed me, and I waited on board +an hour longer than I had designed in hope of being presented to the +bride; but then an apology came. "Mrs. W. was a little indisposed, and +would decline coming on board until to-morrow at the hour of sailing." + +The morrow having arrived, I was going from my hotel to the wharf, when +Captain Hardy met me and said that, "owing to circumstances" (a stupid +but convenient phrase), "he rather thought the _Independence_ would not +sail for a day or two, and that when all was ready he would send up and +let me know." This I thought strange, for there was a stiff southerly +breeze; but as "the circumstances" were not forthcoming, although I +pumped for them with much perseverance, I had nothing to do but to +return home and digest my impatience at leisure. + +I did not receive the expected message from the Captain for nearly a +week. It came at length, however, and I immediately went on board. The +ship was crowded with passengers, and everything was in the bustle +attendant upon making sail. Wyatt's party arrived in about ten minutes +after myself. There were the two sisters, the bride, and the artist--the +latter in one of his customary fits of moody misanthropy. I was too well +used to these, however, to pay them any special attention. He did not +even introduce me to his wife; this courtesy devolving, perforce, upon +his sister Marian, a very sweet and intelligent girl, who in a few +hurried words made us acquainted. + +Mrs. Wyatt had been closely veiled; and when she raised her veil in +acknowledging my bow, I confess that I was very profoundly astonished. I +should have been much more so, however, had not long experience advised +me not to trust, with too implicit a reliance, the enthusiastic +descriptions of my friend the artist, when indulging in comments upon +the loveliness of woman. When beauty was the theme, I well knew with +what facility he soared into the regions of the purely ideal. + +The truth is, I could not help regarding Mrs. Wyatt as a decidedly +plain-looking woman. If not positively ugly, she was not, I think, very +far from it. She was dressed, however, in exquisite taste, and then I +had no doubt that she had captivated my friend's heart by the more +enduring graces of the intellect and soul. She said very few words, and +passed at once into her stateroom with Mr. W. + +My old inquisitiveness now returned. There was no servant, that was a +settled point. I looked, therefore, for the extra baggage. After some +delay a cart arrived at the wharf with an oblong pine box, which was +everything that seemed to be expected. Immediately upon its arrival we +made sail, and in a short time were safely over the bar and standing out +to sea. + +The box in question was, as I say, oblong. It was about six feet in +length by two and a half in breadth: I observed it attentively and like +to be precise. Now, this shape was peculiar; and no sooner had I seen it +than I took credit to myself for the accuracy of my guessing. I had +reached the conclusion, it will be remembered, that the extra baggage of +my friend the artist would prove to be pictures, or at least a picture, +for I knew he had been for several weeks in conference with Nicolino; +and now here was a box, which, from its shape, could possibly contain +nothing in the world but a copy of Leonardo's _Last Supper_; and a copy +of this very _Last Supper_, done by Rubini the younger at Florence, I +had known for some time to be in the possession of Nicolino. This point, +therefore, I considered as sufficiently settled. I chuckled excessively +when I thought of my acumen. It was the first time I had ever known +Wyatt to keep from me any of his artistical secrets; but here he +evidently intended to steal a march upon me and smuggle a fine picture +to New York, under my very nose; expecting me to know nothing of the +matter. I resolved to quiz him well, now and hereafter. + +One thing, however, annoyed me not a little. The box did not go into the +extra stateroom. It was deposited in Wyatt's own; and there, too, it +remained, occupying very nearly the whole of the floor, no doubt to the +exceeding discomfort of the artist and his wife; this the more +especially as the tar or paint with which it was lettered in sprawling +capitals emitted a strong, disagreeable, and, to my fancy, a peculiarly +disgusting odour. On the lid were painted the words: "Mrs. Adelaide +Curtis, Albany, New York. Charge of Cornelius Wyatt, Esq. This side up. +To be handled with care." + +Now, I was aware that Mrs. Adelaide Curtis of Albany was the artist's +wife's mother; but then I looked upon the whole address as a +mystification, intended especially for myself. I made up my mind, of +course, that the box and contents would never get farther north than the +studio of my misanthropic friend in Chambers Street, New York. + +For the first three or four days we had fine weather, although the wind +was dead ahead, having chopped round to the northward immediately upon +our losing sight of the coast. The passengers were, consequently, in +high spirits and disposed to be social. I must except, however, Wyatt +and his sisters, who behaved stiffly, and, I could not help thinking, +uncourteously, to the rest of the party. Wyatt's conduct I did not so +much regard. He was gloomy, even beyond his usual habit,--in fact, he +was morose; but in him I was prepared for eccentricity. For the sisters, +however, I could make no excuse. They secluded themselves in their +staterooms during the greater part of the passage, and absolutely +refused, although I repeatedly urged them, to hold communication with +any person on board. + +Mrs. Wyatt herself was far more agreeable. That is to say, she was +chatty; and to be chatty is no slight recommendation at sea. She became +excessively intimate with most of the ladies; and, to my profound +astonishment, evinced no equivocal disposition to coquet with the men. +She amused us all very much. I say "amused," and scarcely know how to +explain myself. The truth is, I soon found that Mrs. W. was far oftener +laughed at than with. The gentlemen said little about her; but the +ladies in a little while pronounced her "a good-hearted thing, rather +indifferent-looking, totally uneducated, and decidedly vulgar." The +great wonder was, how Wyatt had been entrapped into such a match. Wealth +was the general solution, but this I knew to be no solution at all; for +Wyatt had told me that she neither brought him a dollar nor had any +expectations from any source whatever. "He had married," he said, "for +love, and for love only; and his bride was far more than worthy of his +love." When I thought of these expressions on the part of my friend, I +confess that I felt indescribably puzzled. Could it be possible that he +was taking leave of his senses? What else could I think? He, so refined, +so intellectual, so fastidious, with so exquisite a perception of the +faulty, and so keen an appreciation of the beautiful! To be sure, the +lady seemed especially fond of him, particularly so in his absence, when +she made herself ridiculous by frequent quotations of what had been said +by her "beloved husband, Mr. Wyatt." The word "husband" seemed forever, +to use one of her own delicate expressions,--forever "on the tip of her +tongue." In the meantime it was observed by all on board that he avoided +her in the most pointed manner, and, for the most part, shut himself up +alone in his stateroom, where, in fact, he might have been said to live +altogether, leaving his wife at full liberty to amuse herself as she +thought best in the public society of the main cabin. + +My conclusion, from what I saw and heard, was that the artist, by some +unaccountable freak of fate, or perhaps in some fit of enthusiastic and +fanciful passion, had been induced to unite himself with a person +altogether beneath him, and that the natural result, entire and speedy +disgust, had ensued. I pitied him from the bottom of my heart, but could +not, for that reason, quite forgive his incommunicativeness in the +matter of the _Last Supper_. For this I resolved to have my revenge. + +One day he came up on deck, and, taking his arm as had been my wont, I +sauntered with him backward and forward. His gloom, however (which I +considered quite natural under the circumstances), seemed entirely +unabated. He said little, and that moodily, and with evident effort. I +ventured a jest or two, and he made a sickening attempt at a smile. Poor +fellow! as I thought of his wife I wondered that he could have heart to +put on even the semblance of mirth. At last I ventured a home thrust. I +determined to commence a series of covert insinuations, or innuendos, +about the oblong box, just to let him perceive, gradually, that I was +not altogether the butt, or victim, of his little bit of pleasant +mystification. My first observation was by way of opening a masked +battery. I said something about the "peculiar shape of that box"; and, +as I spoke the words I smiled knowingly, winked, and touched him gently +with my forefinger in the ribs. + +The manner in which Wyatt received this harmless pleasantry convinced me +at once that he was mad. At first he stared at me as if he found it +impossible to comprehend the witticism of my remark; but as its point +seemed slowly to make its way into his brain, his eyes, in the same +proportion, seemed protruding from their sockets. Then he grew very red, +then hideously pale, then, as if highly amused with what I had +insinuated, he began a loud and boisterous laugh, which, to my +astonishment, he kept up, with gradually increasing vigour, for ten +minutes or more. In conclusion, he fell flat and heavily upon the deck. +When I ran to uplift him, to all appearance he was dead. + +I called assistance, and, with much difficulty, we brought him to +himself. Upon reviving he spoke incoherently for some time. At length we +bled him and put him to bed. The next morning he was quite recovered, so +far as regarded his mere bodily health. Of his mind I say nothing, of +course. I avoided him during the rest of the passage, by advice of the +Captain, who seemed to coincide with me altogether in my views of his +insanity, but cautioned me to say nothing on this head to any person on +board. + +Several circumstances occurred immediately after this fit of Wyatt's +which contributed to heighten the curiosity with which I was already +possessed. Among other things, this: I had been nervous; drank too much +strong green tea, and slept ill at night,--in fact, for two nights I +could not be properly said to sleep at all. Now, my stateroom opened +into the main cabin or dining-room, as did those of all the single men +on board. Wyatt's three rooms were in the after-cabin, which was +separated from the main one by a slight sliding door, never locked even +at night. As we were almost constantly on a wind, and the breeze was not +a little stiff, the ship heeled to leeward very considerably; and +whenever her starboard side was to leeward the sliding door between the +cabins slid open and so remained, nobody taking the trouble to get up +and shut it. But my berth was in such a position that when my own +stateroom door was open, as well as the sliding door in question (and my +own door was always open on account of the heat), I could see into the +after-cabin quite distinctly, and just at that portion of it, too, where +were situated the staterooms of Mr. Wyatt. Well, during two nights (not +consecutive), while I lay awake, I clearly saw Mrs. W., about eleven +o'clock upon each night, steal cautiously from the stateroom of Mr. W. +and enter the extra room, where she remained until daybreak, when she +was called by her husband and went back. That they were virtually +separated was clear. They had separate apartments, no doubt in +contemplation of a more permanent divorce; and here, after all, I +thought, was the mystery of the extra stateroom. + +There was another circumstance, too, which interested me much. During +the two wakeful nights in question, and immediately after the +disappearance of Mrs. Wyatt into the extra stateroom, I was attracted by +certain singular, cautious, subdued noises in that of her husband. After +listening to them for some time with thoughtful attention, I at length +succeeded perfectly in translating their import. They were sounds +occasioned by the artist in prying open the oblong box by means of a +chisel and mallet, the latter being apparently muffled or deadened by +some soft woollen or cotton substance in which its head was enveloped. + +In this manner I fancied I could distinguish the precise moment when he +fairly disengaged the lid, also that I could determine when he removed +it altogether, and when he deposited it upon the lower berth in his +room; this latter point I knew, for example, by certain slight taps +which the lid made in striking against the wooden edges of the berth as +he endeavoured to lay it down very gently, there being no room for it on +the floor. After this there was a dead stillness, and I heard nothing +more, upon either occasion, until nearly daybreak; unless, perhaps, I +may mention a low sobbing or murmuring sound, so very much suppressed as +to be nearly inaudible, if, indeed, the whole of this latter noise were +not rather produced by my own imagination. I say it seemed to resemble +sobbing or sighing, but, of course, it could not have been either. I +rather think it was a ringing in my own ears. Mr. Wyatt, no doubt, +according to custom, was merely giving the rein to one of his hobbies, +indulging in one of his fits of artistic enthusiasm. He had opened his +oblong box in order to feast his eyes on the pictorial treasure within. +There was nothing in this, however, to make him sob. I repeat, +therefore, that it must have been simply a freak of my own fancy, +distempered by good Captain Hardy's green tea. Just before dawn, on each +of the two nights of which I speak, I distinctly heard Mr. Wyatt replace +the lid upon the oblong box, and force the nails into their old places +by means of the muffled mallet. Having done this, he issued from his +stateroom, fully dressed, and proceeded to call Mrs. W. from hers. + +We had been at sea seven days, and were now off Cape Hatteras, when +there came a tremendously heavy blow from the southwest. We were, in a +measure, prepared for it, however, as the weather had been holding out +threats for some time. Everything was made snug, alow and aloft; and, as +the wind steadily freshened, we lay to, at length, under spanker and +foretopsail, both double-reefed. + +In this trim we rode safely enough for forty-eight hours, the ship +proving herself an excellent sea-boat in many respects, and shipping no +water of any consequence. At the end of this period, however, the gale +had freshened into a hurricane, and our after-sail split into ribbons, +bringing us so much in the trough of the water that we shipped several +prodigious seas, one immediately after the other. By this accident we +lost three men overboard with the caboose, and nearly the whole of the +larboard bulwarks. Scarcely had we recovered our senses before the +foretopsail went into shreds, when we got up a storm staysail, and with +this did pretty well for some hours, the ship heading the sea much more +steadily than before. + +The gale still held on, however, and we saw no signs of its abating. The +rigging was found to be ill-fitted and greatly strained; and on the +third day of the blow, about five in the afternoon, our mizzen-mast, in +a heavy lurch to windward, went by the board. For an hour or more we +tried in vain to get rid of it, on account of the prodigious rolling of +the ship; and, before we had succeeded, the carpenter came aft and +announced four feet water in the hold. To add to our dilemma, we found +the pumps choked and nearly useless. + +All was now confusion and despair, but an effort was made to lighten the +ship by throwing overboard as much of her cargo as could be reached, and +by cutting away the two masts that remained. This we at last +accomplished, but we were still unable to do anything at the pumps; and, +in the meantime, the leak gained on us very fast. + +At sundown the gale had sensibly diminished in violence, and, as the sea +went down with it, we still entertained faint hopes of saving ourselves +in the boats. At eight P.M., the clouds broke away to windward, and we +had the advantage of a full moon, a piece of good fortune which served +wonderfully to cheer our drooping spirits. + +After incredible labour we succeeded, at length, in getting the +long-boat over the side without material accident, and into this we +crowded the whole of the crew and most of the passengers. This party +made off immediately, and, after undergoing much suffering, finally +arrived in safety at Ocracoke Inlet, on the third day after the wreck. + +Fourteen passengers, with the Captain, remained on board, resolving to +trust their fortunes to the jolly-boat at the stern. We lowered it +without difficulty, although it was only by a miracle that we prevented +it from swamping as it touched the water. It contained, when afloat, the +Captain and his wife, Mr. Wyatt and party, a Mexican officer, wife, four +children, and myself, with a negro valet. + +We had no room, of course, for anything except a few positively +necessary instruments, some provisions, and the clothes upon our backs. +No one had thought of even attempting to save anything more. What must +have been the astonishment of all, then, when, having proceeded a few +fathoms from the ship, Mr. Wyatt stood up in the stern-sheets and coolly +demanded of Captain Hardy that the boat should be put back for the +purpose of taking in his oblong box! + +"Sit down, Mr. Wyatt," replied the Captain, somewhat sternly; "you will +capsize us if you do not sit quite still. Our gunwale is almost in the +water now." + +"The box!" vociferated Mr. Wyatt, still standing, "the box, I say! +Captain Hardy, you cannot, you will not refuse me. Its weight will be +but a trifle, it is nothing, mere nothing. By the mother who bore +you--for the love of Heaven--by your hope of salvation, I implore you to +put back for the box!" + +The Captain for a moment seemed touched by the earnest appeal of the +artist, but he regained his stern composure, and merely said: + +"Mr. Wyatt, you are mad. I cannot listen to you. Sit down, I say, or you +will swamp the boat. Stay! hold him, seize him! he is about to spring +overboard! There--I knew it--he is over!" + +As the Captain said this, Mr. Wyatt, in fact, sprang from the boat, and, +as we were yet in the lee of the wreck, succeeded, by almost superhuman +exertion, in getting hold of a rope which hung from the forechains. In +another moment he was on board, and rushing frantically down into the +cabin. + +In the meantime we had been swept astern of the ship, and being quite +out of her lee, were at the mercy of the tremendous sea which was still +running. We made a determined effort to put back, but our little boat +was like a feather in the breath of the tempest. We saw at a glance that +the doom of the unfortunate artist was sealed. + +As our distance from the wreck rapidly increased, the madman (for as +such only could we regard him) was seen to emerge from the companionway, +up which, by dint of strength that appeared gigantic, he dragged, +bodily, the oblong box. While we gazed in the extremity of astonishment, +he passed rapidly several turns of a three-inch rope, first around the +box and then around his body. In another instant both body and box were +in the sea, disappearing suddenly, at once and forever. + +We lingered awhile sadly upon our oars, with our eyes riveted upon the +spot. At length we pulled away. The silence remained unbroken for an +hour. Finally I hazarded a remark. + +"Did you observe, Captain, how suddenly they sank? Was not that an +exceedingly singular thing? I confess that I entertained some feeble +hope of his final deliverance when I saw him lash himself to the box and +commit himself to the sea." + +"They sank as a matter of course," replied the Captain, "and that like a +shot. They will soon rise again, however, but not till the salt melts." + +"The salt!" I ejaculated. + +"Hush!" said the Captain, pointing to the wife and sisters of the +deceased. "We must talk of these things at some more appropriate time." + + * * * * * + +We suffered much and made a narrow escape; but fortune befriended us, as +well as our mates in the long-boat. We landed, in fine, more dead than +alive, after four days of intense distress, upon the beach opposite +Roanoke Island. We remained here a week, were not ill-treated by the +wreckers, and at length obtained a passage to New York. + +About a month after the loss of the _Independence_, I happened to meet +Captain Hardy in Broadway. Our conversation turned, naturally, upon the +disaster, and especially upon the sad fate of poor Wyatt. I thus learned +the following particulars: + +The artist had engaged passage for himself, wife, two sisters, and a +servant. His wife was indeed, as she had been represented, a most lovely +and most accomplished woman. On the morning of the fourteenth of June +(the day in which I first visited the ship), the lady suddenly sickened +and died. The young husband was frantic with grief, but circumstances +imperatively forbade the deferring his voyage to New York. It was +necessary to take to her mother the corpse of his adored wife, and, on +the other hand, the universal prejudice which would prevent his doing so +openly was well known. Nine tenths of the passengers would have +abandoned the ship rather than take passage with a dead body. + +In this dilemma Captain Hardy arranged that the corpse, being first +partially embalmed and packed, with a large quantity of salt in a box of +suitable dimensions, should be conveyed on board as merchandise. Nothing +was to be said of the lady's decease; and, as it was well understood +that Mr. Wyatt had engaged passage for his wife, it became necessary +that some person should personate her during the voyage. This the +deceased lady's maid was easily prevailed on to do. The extra stateroom, +originally engaged for this girl during her mistress's life, was now +merely retained. In this stateroom the pseudo-wife slept, of course, +every night. In the daytime she performed, to the best of her ability, +the part of her mistress, whose person, it had been carefully +ascertained, was unknown to any of the passengers on board. + +My own mistake arose, naturally enough, through too careless, too +inquisitive, and too impulsive a temperament. But of late it is a rare +thing that I sleep soundly at night. There is a countenance which haunts +me, turn as I will. There is an hysterical laugh which will forever ring +within my ears. + + + + +THE BIRTH-MARK + +NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE + + +In the latter part of the last century, there lived a man of science--an +eminent proficient in every branch of natural philosophy--who, not long +before our story opens, had made experience of a spiritual affinity, +more attractive than any chemical one. He had left his laboratory to the +care of an assistant, cleared his fine countenance from the +furnace-smoke, washed the stain of acids from his fingers, and persuaded +a beautiful woman to become his wife. In those days, when the +comparatively recent discovery of electricity, and other kindred +mysteries of nature, seemed to open paths into the region of miracle, it +was not unusual for the love of science to rival the love of woman, in +its depth and absorbing energy. The higher intellect, the imagination, +the spirit, and even the heart, might all find their congenial aliment +in pursuits which, as some of their ardent votaries believed, would +ascend from one step of powerful intelligence to another, until the +philosopher should lay his hand on the secret of creative force, and +perhaps make new worlds for himself. We know not whether Aylmer +possessed this degree of faith in man's ultimate control over nature. He +had devoted himself, however, too unreservedly to scientific studies, +ever to be weaned from them by any second passion. His love for his +young wife might prove the stronger of the two; but it could only be by +intertwining itself with his love of science, and uniting the strength +of the latter to its own. + +Such an union accordingly took place, and was attended with truly +remarkable consequences, and a deeply impressive moral. One day, very +soon after their marriage, Aylmer sat gazing at his wife, with a trouble +in his countenance that grew stronger, until he spoke. + +"Georgiana," said he, "has it never occurred to you that the mark upon +your cheek might be removed?" + +"No, indeed," said she, smiling; but perceiving the seriousness of his +manner, she blushed deeply. "To tell you the truth, it has been so often +called a charm, that I was simple enough to imagine it might be so." + +"Ah, upon another face, perhaps it might," replied her husband. "But +never on yours! No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from +the hand of Nature, that this slightest possible defect--which we +hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty--shocks me, as being the +visible mark of earthly imperfection." + +"Shocks you, my husband!" cried Georgiana, deeply hurt; at first +reddening with momentary anger, but then bursting into tears. "Then why +did you take me from my mother's side? You cannot love what shocks you!" + +To explain this conversation, it must be mentioned, that, in the centre +of Georgiana's left cheek, there was a singular mark, deeply interwoven, +as it were, with the texture and substance of her face. In the usual +state of her complexion,--a healthy, though delicate bloom,--the mark +wore a tint of deeper crimson, which imperfectly defined its shape amid +the surrounding rosiness. When she blushed, it gradually became more +indistinct, and finally vanished amid the triumphant rush of blood, that +bathed the whole cheek with its brilliant glow. But, if any shifting +emotion caused her to turn pale, there was the mark again, a crimson +stain upon the snow, in what Aylmer sometimes deemed an almost fearful +distinctness. Its shape bore not a little similarity to the human hand, +though of the smallest pigmy size. Georgiana's lovers were wont to say, +that some fairy, at her birth-hour, had laid her tiny hand upon the +infant's cheek, and left this impress there, in token of the magic +endowments that were to give her such sway over all hearts. Many a +desperate swain would have risked life for the privilege of pressing his +lips to the mysterious hand. It must not be concealed, however, that the +impression wrought by this fairy sign-manual varied exceedingly, +according to the difference of temperament in the beholders. Some +fastidious persons--but they were exclusively of her own sex--affirmed +that the Bloody Hand, as they chose to call it, quite destroyed the +effect of Georgiana's beauty, and rendered her countenance even hideous. +But it would be as reasonable to say, that one of those small blue +stains, which sometimes occur in the purest statuary marble, would +convert the Eve of Powers to a monster. Masculine observers, if the +birth-mark did not heighten their admiration, contented themselves with +wishing it away, that the world might possess one living specimen of +ideal loveliness, without the semblance of a flaw. After his +marriage--for he thought little or nothing of the matter before--Aylmer +discovered that this was the case with himself. + +Had she been less beautiful--if Envy's self could have found aught else +to sneer at--he might have felt his affection heightened by the +prettiness of this mimic hand, now vaguely portrayed, now lost, now +stealing forth again, and glimmering to-and-fro with every pulse of +emotion that throbbed within her heart. But, seeing her otherwise so +perfect, he found this one defect grow more and more intolerable, with +every moment of their united lives. It was the fatal flaw of humanity, +which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her +productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that +their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain. The Crimson Hand +expressed the ineludible gripe, in which mortality clutches the highest +and purest of earthly mould, degrading them into kindred with the +lowest, and even with the very brutes, like whom their visible frames +return to dust. In this manner, selecting it as the symbol of his wife's +liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death, Aylmer's sombre imagination +was not long in rendering the birth-mark a frightful object, causing him +more trouble and horror than ever Georgiana's beauty, whether of soul or +sense, had given him delight. + +At all the seasons which should have been their happiest, he invariably, +and without intending it--nay, in spite of a purpose to the +contrary--reverted to this one disastrous topic. Trifling as it at first +appeared, it so connected itself with innumerable trains of thought, and +modes of feeling, that it became the central point of all. With the +morning twilight, Aylmer opened his eyes upon his wife's face, and +recognized the symbol of imperfection; and when they sat together at the +evening hearth, his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek, and beheld, +flickering with the blaze of the wood fire, the spectral Hand that wrote +mortality where he would fain have worshipped. Georgiana soon learned to +shudder at his gaze. It needed but a glance, with the peculiar +expression that his face often wore, to change the roses of her cheek +into a death-like paleness, amid which the Crimson Hand was brought +strongly out, like a bas-relief of ruby on the whitest marble. + +Late, one night, when the lights were growing dim, so as hardly to +betray the stain on the poor wife's cheek, she herself, for the first +time, voluntarily took up the subject. + +"Do you remember, my dear Aylmer," said she, with a feeble attempt at a +smile--"have you any recollection of a dream, last night, about this +odious Hand?" + +"None!--none whatever!" replied Aylmer, starting; but then he added in a +dry, cold tone, affected for the sake of concealing the real depth of +his emotion:--"I might well dream of it; for, before I fell asleep, it +had taken a pretty firm hold of my fancy." + +"And you did dream of it," continued Georgiana hastily; for she dreaded +lest a gush of tears should interrupt what she had to say--"A terrible +dream! I wonder that you can forget it. Is it possible to forget this +one expression?--'It is in her heart now--we must have it +out!'--Reflect, my husband; for by all means I would have you recall +that dream." + +The mind is in a sad state, when Sleep, the all-involving, cannot +confine her spectres within the dim region of her sway, but suffers them +to break forth, affrighting this actual life with secrets that perchance +belong to a deeper one. Aylmer now remembered his dream. He had fancied +himself, with his servant Aminadab, attempting an operation for the +removal of the birth-mark. But the deeper went the knife, the deeper +sank the Hand, until at length its tiny grasp appeared to have caught +hold of Georgiana's heart; whence, however, her husband was inexorably +resolved to cut or wrench it away. + +When the dream had shaped itself perfectly in his memory, Aylmer sat in +his wife's presence with a guilty feeling. Truth often finds its way to +the mind close-muffled in robes of sleep, and then speaks with +uncompromising directness of matters in regard to which we practise an +unconscious self-deception, during our waking moments. Until now, he had +not been aware of the tyrannizing influence acquired by one idea over +his mind, and of the lengths which he might find in his heart to go, for +the sake of giving himself peace. + +"Aylmer," resumed Georgiana, solemnly, "I know not what may be the cost +to both of us, to rid me of this fatal birth-mark. Perhaps its removal +may cause cureless deformity. Or, it may be, the stain goes as deep as +life itself. Again, do we know that there is a possibility, on any +terms, of unclasping the firm gripe of this little Hand, which was laid +upon me before I came into the world?" + +"Dearest Georgiana, I have spent much thought upon the subject," hastily +interrupted Aylmer--"I am convinced of the perfect practicability of its +removal." + +"If there be the remotest possibility of it," continued Georgiana, "let +the attempt be made, at whatever risk. Danger is nothing to me; for +life--while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and +disgust--life is a burthen which I would fling down with joy. Either +remove this dreadful Hand, or take my wretched life! You have deep +science! All the world bears witness of it. You have achieved great +wonders! Cannot you remove this little, little mark, which I cover with +the tips of two small fingers! Is this beyond your power, for the sake +of your own peace, and to save your poor wife from madness?" + +"Noblest--dearest--tenderest wife!" cried Aylmer, rapturously. "Doubt +not my power. I have already given this matter the deepest +thought--thought which might almost have enlightened me to create a +being less perfect than yourself. Georgiana, you have led me deeper than +ever into the heart of science. I feel myself fully competent to render +this dear cheek as faultless as its fellow; and then, most beloved, what +will be my triumph, when I shall have corrected what Nature left +imperfect, in her fairest work! Even Pygmalion, when his sculptured +woman assumed life, felt not greater ecstasy than mine will be." + +"It is resolved, then," said Georgiana, faintly smiling,--"And, Aylmer, +spare me not, though you should find the birth-mark take refuge in my +heart at last." + +Her husband tenderly kissed her cheek--her right cheek--not that which +bore the impress of the Crimson Hand. + +The next day, Aylmer apprised his wife of a plan that he had formed, +whereby he might have opportunity for the intense thought and constant +watchfulness which the proposed operation would require; while +Georgiana, likewise, would enjoy the perfect repose essential to its +success. They were to seclude themselves in the extensive apartments +occupied by Aylmer as a laboratory, and where, during his toilsome +youth, he had made discoveries in the elemental powers of nature, that +had roused the admiration of all the learned societies in Europe. Seated +calmly in this laboratory, the pale philosopher had investigated the +secrets of the highest cloud-region, and of the profoundest mines; he +had satisfied himself of the causes that kindled and kept alive the +fires of the volcano; and had explained the mystery of fountains, and +how it is that they gush forth, some so bright and pure, and others with +such rich medicinal virtues, from the dark bosom of the earth. Here, +too, at an earlier period, he had studied the wonders of the human +frame, and attempted to fathom the very process by which Nature +assimilates all her precious influences from earth and air, and from the +spiritual world, to create and foster Man, her masterpiece. The latter +pursuit, however, Aylmer had long laid aside, in unwilling recognition +of the truth, against which all seekers sooner or later stumble, that +our great creative Mother, while she amuses us with apparently working +in the broadest sunshine, is yet severely careful to keep her own +secrets, and, in spite of her pretended openness, shows us nothing but +results. She permits us indeed to mar, but seldom to mend, and, like a +jealous patentee, on no account to make. Now, however, Aylmer resumed +these half-forgotten investigations; not, of course, with such hopes or +wishes as first suggested them; but because they involved much +physiological truth, and lay in the path of his proposed scheme for the +treatment of Georgiana. + +As he led her over the threshold of the laboratory, Georgiana was cold +and tremulous. Aylmer looked cheerfully into her face, with intent to +reassure her, but was so startled with the intense glow of the +birth-mark upon the whiteness of her cheek, that he could not restrain a +strong convulsive shudder. His wife fainted. + +"Aminadab! Aminadab!" shouted Aylmer, stamping violently on the floor. + +Forthwith, there issued from an inner apartment a man of low stature, +but bulky frame, with shaggy hair hanging about his visage, which was +grimed with the vapours of the furnace. This personage had been Aylmer's +under-worker during his whole scientific career, and was admirably +fitted for that office by his great mechanical readiness, and the skill +with which, while incapable of comprehending a single principle, he +executed all the practical details of his master's experiments. With his +vast strength, his shaggy hair, his smoky aspect, and the indescribable +earthiness that encrusted him, he seemed to represent man's physical +nature; while Aylmer's slender figure, and pale, intellectual face, were +no less apt a type of the spiritual element. + +"Throw open the door of the boudoir, Aminadab," said Aylmer, "and burn a +pastille." + +"Yes, master," answered Aminadab, looking intently at the lifeless form +of Georgiana; and then he muttered to himself:--"If she were my wife, +I'd never part with that birth-mark." + +When Georgiana recovered consciousness, she found herself breathing an +atmosphere of penetrating fragrance, the gentle potency of which had +recalled her from her death-like faintness. The scene around her looked +like enchantment. Aylmer had converted those smoky, dingy, sombre rooms, +where he had spent his brightest years in recondite pursuits, into a +series of beautiful apartments, not unfit to be the secluded abode of a +lovely woman. The walls were hung with gorgeous curtains, which imparted +the combination of grandeur and grace, that no other species of +adornment can achieve; and as they fell from the ceiling to the floor, +their rich and ponderous folds, concealing all angles and straight +lines, appeared to shut in the scene from infinite space. For aught +Georgiana knew, it might be a pavilion among the clouds. And Aylmer, +excluding the sunshine, which would have interfered with his chemical +processes, had supplied its place with perfumed lamps, emitting flames +of various hue, but all uniting in a soft, empurpled radiance. He now +knelt by his wife's side, watching her earnestly, but without alarm; for +he was confident in his science, and felt that he could draw a magic +circle round her, within which no evil might intrude. + +"Where am I?--Ah, I remember!" said Georgiana, faintly; and she placed +her hand over her cheek, to hide the terrible mark from her husband's +eyes. + +"Fear not, dearest!" exclaimed he. "Do not shrink from me! Believe me, +Georgiana, I even rejoice in this single imperfection, since it will be +such a rapture to remove it." + +"Oh, spare me!" sadly replied his wife. "Pray do not look at it again. I +never can forget that convulsive shudder." + +In order to soothe Georgiana, and, as it were, to release her mind from +the burthen of actual things, Aylmer now put in practice some of the +light and playful secrets which science had taught him among its +profounder lore. Airy figures, absolutely bodiless ideas, and forms of +unsubstantial beauty, came and danced before her, imprinting their +momentary footsteps on beams of light. Though she had some indistinct +idea of the method of these optical phenomena, still the illusion was +almost perfect enough to warrant the belief that her husband possessed +sway over the spiritual world. Then again, when she felt a wish to look +forth from her seclusion, immediately, as if her thoughts were answered, +the procession of external existence flitted across a screen. The +scenery and the figures of actual life were perfectly represented, but +with that bewitching, yet indescribable difference, which always makes a +picture, an image, or a shadow, so much more attractive than the +original. When wearied of this, Aylmer bade her cast her eyes upon a +vessel, containing a quantity of earth. She did so, with little interest +at first, but was soon startled, to perceive the germ of a plant, +shooting upward from the soil. Then came the slender stalk--the leaves +gradually unfolded themselves--and amid them was a perfect and lovely +flower. + +"It is magical!" cried Georgiana, "I dare not touch it." + +"Nay, pluck it," answered Aylmer, "pluck it, and inhale its brief +perfume while you may. The flower will wither in a few moments, and +leave nothing save its brown seed-vessels--but thence may be perpetuated +a race as ephemeral as itself." + +But Georgiana had no sooner touched the flower than the whole plant +suffered a blight, its leaves turning coal-black, as if by the agency of +fire. + +"There was too powerful a stimulus," said Aylmer thoughtfully. + +To make up for this abortive experiment, he proposed to take her +portrait by a scientific process of his own invention. It was to be +effected by rays of light striking upon a polished plate of metal. +Georgiana assented--but, on looking at the result, was affrighted to +find the features of the portrait blurred and indefinable; while the +minute figure of a hand appeared where the cheek should have been. +Aylmer snatched the metallic plate, and threw it into a jar of corrosive +acid. + +Soon, however, he forgot these mortifying failures. In the intervals of +study and chemical experiment, he came to her, flushed and exhausted, +but seemed invigorated by her presence, and spoke in glowing language of +the resources of his art. He gave a history of the long dynasty of the +Alchemists, who spent so many ages in quest of the universal solvent, by +which the Golden Principle might be elicited from all things vile and +base. Aylmer appeared to believe, that, by the plainest scientific +logic, it was altogether within the limits of possibility to discover +this long-sought medium; but, he added, a philosopher who should go deep +enough to acquire the power, would attain too lofty a wisdom to stoop to +the exercise of it. Not less singular were his opinions in regard to the +Elixir Vitae. He more than intimated, that it was at his option to +concoct a liquid that should prolong life for years--perhaps +interminably--but that it would produce a discord in nature, which all +the world, and chiefly the quaffer of the immortal nostrum, would find +cause to curse. + +"Aylmer, are you in earnest?" asked Georgiana, looking at him with +amazement and fear; "it is terrible to possess such power, or even to +dream of possessing it!" + +"Oh, do not tremble, my love!" said her husband, "I would not wrong +either you or myself, by working such inharmonious effects upon our +lives. But I would have you consider how trifling, in comparison, is the +skill requisite to remove this little Hand." + +At the mention of the birth-mark, Georgiana, as usual, shrank, as if a +red-hot iron had touched her cheek. + +Again Aylmer applied himself to his labours. She could hear his voice in +the distant furnace-room, giving directions to Aminadab, whose harsh, +uncouth, misshapen tones were audible in response, more like the grunt +or growl of a brute than human speech. After hours of absence, Aylmer +reappeared, and proposed that she should now examine his cabinet of +chemical products, and natural treasures of the earth. Among the former +he showed her a small vial, in which, he remarked, was contained a +gentle yet most powerful fragrance, capable of impregnating all the +breezes that blow across a kingdom. They were of inestimable value, the +contents of that little vial; and, as he said so, he threw some of the +perfume into the air, and filled the room with piercing and invigorating +delight. + +"And what is this?" asked Georgiana, pointing to a small crystal globe, +containing a gold-coloured liquid. "It is so beautiful to the eye, that +I could imagine it the Elixir of Life." + +"In one sense it is," replied Aylmer, "or rather the Elixir of +Immortality. It is the most precious poison that ever was concocted in +this world. By its aid, I could apportion the life-time of any mortal at +whom you might point your finger. The strength of the dose would +determine whether he were to linger out years, or drop dead in the midst +of a breath. No king, on his guarded throne, could keep his life, if I, +in my private station, should deem that the welfare of millions +justified me in depriving him of it." + +"Why do you keep such a terrible drug?" inquired Georgiana in horror. + +"Do not mistrust me, dearest!" said her husband, smiling; "its virtuous +potency is yet greater than its harmful one. But, see! here is a +powerful cosmetic. With a few drops of this, in a vase of water, +freckles may be washed away as easily as the hands are cleansed. A +stronger infusion would take the blood out of the cheek, and leave the +rosiest beauty a pale ghost." + +"Is it with this lotion that you intend to bathe my cheek?" asked +Georgiana, anxiously. + +"Oh, no!" hastily replied her husband,--"this is merely superficial. +Your case demands a remedy that shall go deeper." + +In his interviews with Georgiana, Aylmer generally made minute inquiries +as to her sensations, and whether the confinement of the rooms, and the +temperature of the atmosphere, agreed with her. These questions had such +a particular drift, that Georgiana began to conjecture that she was +already subjected to certain physical influences, either breathed in +with the fragrant air, or taken with her food. She fancied, +likewise--but it might be altogether fancy--that there was a stirring up +of her system: a strange, indefinite sensation creeping through her +veins, and tingling, half-painfully, half-pleasurably, at her heart. +Still, whenever she dared to look into the mirror, there she beheld +herself, pale as a white rose, and with the crimson birth-mark stamped +upon her cheek. Not even Aylmer now hated it so much as she. + +To dispel the tedium of the hours which her husband found it necessary +to devote to the processes of combination and analysis, Georgiana turned +over the volumes of his scientific library. In many dark old tomes, she +met with chapters full of romance and poetry. They were the works of the +philosophers of the middle ages, such as Albertus, Magnus, Cornelius +Agrippa, Paracelsus, and the famous friar who created the prophetic +Brazen Head. All these antique naturalists stood in advance of their +centuries, yet were imbued with some of their credulity, and therefore +were believed, and perhaps imagined themselves, to have acquired from +the investigation of nature a power above nature, and from physics a +sway over the spiritual world. Hardly less curious and imaginative were +the early volumes of the Transactions of the Royal Society, in which the +members, knowing little of the limits of natural possibility, were +continually recording wonders, or proposing methods whereby wonders +might be wrought. + +But, to Georgiana, the most engrossing volume was a large folio from her +husband's own hand, in which he had recorded every experiment of his +scientific career, with its original aim, the methods adopted for its +development, and its final success or failure, with the circumstances to +which either event was attributable. The book, in truth, was both the +history and emblem of his ardent, ambitious, imaginative, yet practical +and laborious, life. He handled physical details, as if there were +nothing beyond them; yet spiritualized them all, and redeemed himself +from materialism, by his strong and eager aspiration towards the +infinite. In his grasp, the veriest clod of earth assumed a soul. +Georgiana, as she read, reverenced Aylmer, and loved him more profoundly +than ever, but with a less entire dependence on his judgment than +heretofore. Much as he had accomplished, she could not but observe that +his most splendid successes were almost invariably failures, if compared +with the ideal at which he aimed. His brightest diamonds were the merest +pebbles, and felt to be so by himself, in comparison with the +inestimable gems which lay hidden beyond his reach. The volume, rich +with achievements that had won renown for its author, was yet as +melancholy a record as ever mortal hand had penned. It was the sad +confession, and continual exemplification, of the short-comings of the +composite man--the spirit burthened with clay and working in matter; and +of the despair that assails the higher nature, at finding itself so +miserably thwarted by the earthly part. Perhaps every man of genius, in +whatever sphere, might recognize the image of his own experience in +Aylmer's journal. + +So deeply did these reflections affect Georgiana, that she laid her face +upon the open volume, and burst into tears. In this situation she was +found by her husband. + +"It is dangerous to read in a sorcerer's books," said he, with a smile, +though his countenance was uneasy and displeased. "Georgiana, there are +pages in that volume, which I can scarcely glance over and keep my +senses. Take heed lest it prove as detrimental to you!" + +"It has made me worship you more than ever," said she. + +"Ah! wait for this one success," rejoined he, "then worship me if you +will. I shall deem myself hardly unworthy of it. But, come! I have +sought you for the luxury of your voice. Sing to me, dearest!" + +So she poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst of +his spirit. He then took his leave, with a boyish exuberance of gaiety, +assuring her that her seclusion would endure but a little longer, and +that the result was already certain. Scarcely had he departed, when +Georgiana felt irresistibly impelled to follow him. She had forgotten to +inform Aylmer of a symptom, which, for two or three hours past, had +begun to excite her attention. It was a sensation in the fatal +birth-mark, not painful, but which induced a restlessness throughout her +system. Hastening after her husband, she intruded, for the first time, +into the laboratory. + +The first thing that struck her eyes was the furnace, that hot and +feverish worker, with the intense glow of its fire, which, by the +quantities of soot clustered above it, seemed to have been burning for +ages. There was a distilling apparatus in full operation. Around the +room were retorts, tubes, cylinders, crucibles, and other apparatus of +chemical research. An electrical machine stood ready for immediate use. +The atmosphere felt oppressively close, and was tainted with gaseous +odours, which had been tormented forth by the processes of science. The +severe and homely simplicity of the apartment, with its naked walls and +brick pavement, looked strange, accustomed as Georgiana had become to +the fantastic elegance of her boudoir. But what chiefly, indeed almost +solely, drew her attention, was the aspect of Aylmer himself. + +He was pale as death, anxious, and absorbed, and hung over the furnace +as if it depended upon his utmost watchfulness whether the liquid, which +it was distilling, should be the draught of immortal happiness or +misery. How different from the sanguine and joyous mien that he had +assumed for Georgiana's encouragement! + +"Carefully now, Aminadab! Carefully, thou human machine! Carefully, thou +man of clay!" muttered Aylmer, more to himself than his assistant. "Now, +if there be a thought too much or too little, it is all over!" + +"Hoh! hoh!" mumbled Aminadab--"look, master, look!" + +Aylmer raised his eyes hastily, and at first reddened, then grew paler +than ever, on beholding Georgiana. He rushed towards her, and seized her +arm with a grip that left the print of his fingers upon it. + +"Why do you come hither? Have you no trust in your husband?" cried he +impetuously. "Would you throw the blight of that fatal birth-mark over +my labours? It is not well done. Go, prying woman, go!" + +"Nay, Aylmer," said Georgiana, with the firmness of which she possessed +no stinted endowment, "it is not you that have a right to complain. You +mistrust your wife! You have concealed the anxiety with which you watch +the development of this experiment. Think not so unworthily of me, my +husband! Tell me all the risk we run; and fear not that I shall shrink, +for my share in it is far less than your own!" + +"No, no, Georgiana!" said Aylmer impatiently, "it must not be." + +"I submit," replied she calmly. "And, Aylmer, I shall quaff whatever +draught you bring me; but it will be on the same principle that would +induce me to take a dose of poison, if offered by your hand." + +"My noble wife," said Aylmer, deeply moved, "I knew not the height and +depth of your nature, until now. Nothing shall be concealed. Know, then, +that this Crimson Hand, superficial as it seems, has clutched its grasp +into your being, with a strength of which I had no previous conception. +I have already administered agents powerful enough to do aught except to +change your entire physical system. Only one thing remains to be tried. +If that fail us, we are ruined!" + +"Why did you hesitate to tell me this?" asked she. + +"Because, Georgiana," said Aylmer, in a low voice, "there is danger!" + +"Danger? There is but one danger--that this horrible stigma shall be +left upon my cheek!" cried Georgiana. "Remove it! remove it!--whatever +be the cost--or we shall both go mad!" + +"Heaven knows, your words are too true," said Aylmer, sadly. "And now, +dearest, return to your boudoir. In a little while, all will be tested." + +He conducted her back, and took leave of her with a solemn tenderness, +which spoke far more than his words how much was now at stake. After his +departure, Georgiana became wrapt in musings. She considered the +character of Aylmer, and did it completer justice than at any previous +moment. Her heart exulted, while it trembled, at his honourable love, so +pure and lofty that it would accept nothing less than perfection, nor +miserably make itself contented with an earthlier nature than he had +dreamed of. She felt how much more precious was such a sentiment, than +that meaner kind which would have borne with the imperfection for her +sake, and have been guilty of treason to holy love, by degrading its +perfect idea to the level of the actual. And, with her whole spirit, she +prayed, that, for a single moment, she might satisfy his highest and +deepest conception. Longer than one moment, she well knew, it could not +be; for his spirit was ever on the march--ever ascending--and each +instant required something that was beyond the scope of the instant +before. + +The sound of her husband's footsteps aroused her. He bore a crystal +goblet, containing a liquor colourless as water, but bright enough to be +the draught of immortality. Aylmer was pale; but it seemed rather the +consequence of a highly wrought state of mind, and tension of spirit, +than of fear or doubt. + +"The concoction of the draught has been perfect," said he, in answer to +Georgiana's look. "Unless all my science have deceived me, it cannot +fail." + +"Save on your account, my dearest Aylmer," observed his wife, "I might +wish to put off this birth-mark of mortality by relinquishing mortality +itself, in preference to any other mode. Life is but a sad possession to +those who have attained precisely the degree of moral advancement at +which I stand. Were I weaker and blinder, it might be happiness. Were I +stronger, it might be endured hopefully. But, being what I find myself, +methinks I am of all mortals the most fit to die." + +"You are fit for heaven without tasting death!" replied her husband. +"But why do we speak of dying? The draught cannot fail. Behold its +effect upon this plant!" + +On the window-seat there stood a geranium, diseased with yellow +blotches, which had overspread all its leaves. Aylmer poured a small +quantity of the liquid upon the soil in which it grew. In a little time, +when the roots of the plant had taken up the moisture, the unsightly +blotches began to be extinguished in a living verdure. + +"There needed no proof," said Georgiana, quietly. "Give me the goblet. I +joyfully stake all upon your word." + +"Drink, then, thou lofty creature!" exclaimed Aylmer, with fervid +admiration. "There is no taint of imperfection on thy spirit. Thy +sensible frame, too, shall soon be all perfect!" + +She quaffed the liquid, and returned the goblet to his hand. + +"It is grateful," said she, with a placid smile. "Methinks it is like +water from a heavenly fountain; for it contains I know not what of +unobtrusive fragrance and deliciousness. It allays a feverish thirst, +that had parched me for many days. Now, dearest, let me sleep. My +earthly senses are closing over my spirit, like the leaves around the +heart of a rose, at sunset." + +She spoke the last words with a gentle reluctance, as if it required +almost more energy than she could command to pronounce the faint and +lingering syllables. Scarcely had they loitered through her lips, ere +she was lost in slumber. Aylmer sat by her side, watching her aspect +with the emotions proper to a man, the whole value of whose existence +was involved in the process now to be tested. Mingled with this mood, +however, was the philosophic investigation, characteristic of the man of +science. Not the minutest symptom escaped him. A heightened flush of the +cheek--a slight irregularity of breath--a quiver of the eyelid--a hardly +perceptible tremor through the frame--such were the details which, as +the moments passed, he wrote down in his folio volume. Intense thought +had set its stamp upon every previous page of that volume; but the +thoughts of years were all concentrated upon the last. + +While thus employed, he failed not to gaze often at the fatal Hand, and +not without a shudder. Yet once, by a strange and unaccountable impulse, +he pressed it with his lips. His spirit recoiled, however, in the very +act, and Georgiana, out of the midst of her deep sleep, moved uneasily +and murmured, as if in remonstrance. Again, Aylmer resumed his watch. +Nor was it without avail. The Crimson Hand, which at first had been +strongly visible upon the marble paleness of Georgiana's cheek now grew +more faintly outlined. She remained not less pale than ever; but the +birth-mark, with every breath that came and went, lost somewhat of its +former distinctness. Its presence had been awful; its departure was more +awful still. Watch the stain of the rainbow fading out of the sky; and +you will know how that mysterious symbol passed away. + +"By Heaven, it is well-nigh gone!" said Aylmer to himself, in almost +irrepressible ecstasy. "I can scarcely trace it now. Success! Success! +And now it is like the faintest rose-colour. The slightest flush of +blood across her cheek would overcome it. But she is so pale!" + +He drew aside the window-curtain, and suffered the light of natural day +to fall into the room, and rest upon her cheek. At the same time, he +heard a gross, hoarse chuckle, which he had long known as his servant +Aminadab's expression of delight. + +"Ah, clod! Ah, earthly mass!" cried Aylmer, laughing in a sort of +frenzy. "You have served me well! Matter and Spirit--Earth and +Heaven--have both done their part in this! Laugh, thing of the senses! +You have earned the right to laugh." + +These exclamations broke Georgiana's sleep. She slowly unclosed her +eyes, and gazed into the mirror, which her husband had arranged for that +purpose. A faint smile flitted over her lips, when she recognized how +barely perceptible was now that Crimson Hand, which had once blazed +forth with such disastrous brilliancy as to scare away all their +happiness. But then her eyes sought Aylmer's face, with a trouble and +anxiety that he could by no means account for. + +"My poor Aylmer!" murmured she. + +"Poor? Nay, richest! Happiest! Most favoured!" exclaimed he. "My +peerless bride, it is successful! You are perfect!" + +"My poor Aylmer!" she repeated, with a more than human tenderness. "You +have aimed loftily!--you have done nobly! Do not repent, that, with so +high and pure a feeling, you have rejected the best the earth could +offer. Aylmer--dearest Aylmer, I am dying!" + +Alas, it was too true! The fatal Hand had grappled with the mystery of +life, and was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union +with a mortal frame. As the last crimson tint of the birth-mark--that +sole token of human imperfection--faded from her cheek, the parting +breath of the now perfect woman passed into the atmosphere, and her +soul, lingering a moment near her husband, took its heavenward flight. +Then a hoarse, chuckling laugh was heard again! Thus ever does the gross +Fatality of Earth exult in its invariable triumph over the immortal +essence, which, in this dim sphere of half-development, demands the +completeness of a higher state. Yet, had Aylmer reached a profounder +wisdom, he need not thus have flung away the happiness, which would have +woven his mortal life of the self-same texture with the celestial. The +momentary circumstance was too strong for him; he failed to look beyond +the shadowy scope of Time, and living once for all in Eternity, to find +the perfect Future in the present. + + + + +A TERRIBLY STRANGE BED + +WILKIE COLLINS + + +Shortly after my education at college was finished, I happened to be +staying at Paris with an English friend. We were both young men then, +and lived, I am afraid, rather a wild life, in the delightful city of +our sojourn. One night we were idling about the neighbourhood of the +Palais Royal, doubtful to what amusement we should next betake +ourselves. My friend proposed a visit to Frascati's; but his suggestion +was not to my taste. I knew Frascati's, as the French saying is, by +heart; had lost and won plenty of five-franc pieces there, merely for +amusement's sake, until it was amusement no longer, and was thoroughly +tired, in fact, of all the ghastly respectabilities of such a social +anomaly as a respectable gambling-house. + +"For Heaven's sake," said I to my friend, "let us go somewhere where we +can see a little genuine, blackguard, poverty-stricken gaming, with no +false gingerbread glitter thrown over it at all. Let us get away from +fashionable Frascati's, to a house where they don't mind letting in a +man with a ragged coat, or a man with no coat, ragged or otherwise." + +"Very well," said my friend, "we needn't go out of the Palais Royal to +find the sort of company you want. Here's the place just before us; as +blackguard a place, by all report, as you could possibly wish to see." + +In another minute we arrived at the door, and entered the house. + +When we got upstairs, and had left our hats and sticks with the +doorkeeper, we were admitted into the chief gambling-room. We did not +find many people assembled there. But, few as the men were who looked up +at us on our entrance, they were all types--lamentably true types--of +their respective classes. + +We had come to see blackguards; but these men were something worse. +There is a comic side, more or less appreciable, in all blackguardism: +here there was nothing but tragedy--mute, weird tragedy. The quiet in +the room was horrible. The thin, haggard, long-haired young man, whose +sunken eyes fiercely watched the turning up of the cards, never spoke; +the flabby, fat-faced, pimply player, who pricked his piece of +pasteboard perseveringly, to register how often black won, and how often +red, never spoke; the dirty, wrinkled old man, with the vulture eyes and +the darned great-coat, who had lost his last sou, and still looked on +desperately after he could play no longer, never spoke. Even the voice +of the croupier sounded as if it were strangely dulled and thickened in +the atmosphere of the room. I had entered the place to laugh, but the +spectacle before me was something to weep over. I soon found it +necessary to take refuge in excitement from the depression of spirits +which was fast stealing on me. Unfortunately I sought the nearest +excitement, by going to the table and beginning to play. Still more +unfortunately, as the event will show, I won--won prodigiously; won +incredibly; won at such a rate that the regular players at the table +crowded round me; and staring at my stakes with hungry, superstitious +eyes, whispered to one another that the English stranger was going to +break the bank. + +The game was Rouge et Noir. I had played at it in every city in Europe, +without, however, the care or the wish to study the Theory of +Chances--that philosopher's stone of all gamblers! And a gambler, +in the strict sense of the word, I had never been. I was heart-whole +from the corroding passion for play. My gaming was a mere idle +amusement. I never resorted to it by necessity, because I never knew +what it was to want money. I never practised it so incessantly as to +lose more than I could afford, or to gain more than I could coolly +pocket without being thrown off my balance by my good luck. In short, +I had hitherto frequented gambling-tables--just as I frequented +ball-rooms and opera-houses--because they amused me, and because I +had nothing better to do with my leisure hours. + +But on this occasion it was very different--now, for the first time in +my life, I felt what the passion for play really was. My successes first +bewildered, and then, in the most literal meaning of the word, +intoxicated me. Incredible as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, +that I only lost when I attempted to estimate chances, and played +according to previous calculation. If I left everything to luck, and +staked without any care or consideration, I was sure to win--to win in +the face of every recognized probability in favour of the bank. At first +some of the men present ventured their money safely enough on my colour; +but I speedily increased my stakes to sums which they dared not risk. +One after another they left off playing, and breathlessly looked on at +my game. + +Still, time after time, I staked higher and higher, and still won. The +excitement in the room rose to fever pitch. The silence was interrupted +by a deep-muttered chorus of oaths and exclamations in different +languages, every time the gold was shovelled across to my side of the +table--even the imperturbable croupier dashed his rake on the floor in a +(French) fury of astonishment at my success. But one man present +preserved his self-possession, and that man was my friend. He came to my +side, and whispering in English, begged me to leave the place, satisfied +with what I had already gained. I must do him the justice to say that he +repeated his warnings and entreaties several times, and only left me and +went away, after I had rejected his advice (I was to all intents and +purposes gambling drunk) in terms which rendered it impossible for him +to address me again that night. + +Shortly after he had gone, a hoarse voice behind me cried, "Permit me, +my dear sir--permit me to restore to their proper place two napoleons +which you have dropped. Wonderful luck, sir! I pledge you my word of +honour, as an old soldier, in the course of my long experience in this +sort of thing, I never saw such luck as yours--never! Go on, sir--_Sacre +mille bombes!_ Go on boldly, and break the bank!" + +I turned round and saw, nodding and smiling at me with inveterate +civility, a tall man, dressed in a frogged and braided surtout. + +If I had been in my senses, I should have considered him, personally, as +being rather a suspicious specimen of an old soldier. He had goggling, +bloodshot eyes, mangy moustaches, and a broken nose. His voice betrayed +a barrack-room intonation of the worst order, and he had the dirtiest +pair of hands I ever saw--even in France. These little personal +peculiarities exercised, however, no repelling influence on me. In the +mad excitement, the reckless triumph of that moment, I was ready to +"fraternize" with anybody who encouraged me in my game. I accepted the +old soldier's offered pinch of snuff; clapped him on the back, and swore +he was the honestest fellow in the world--the most glorious relic of the +Grand Army that I had ever met with. "Go on!" cried my military friend, +snapping his fingers in ecstasy--"Go on, and win! Break the bank--_Mille +tonnerres!_ my gallant English comrade, break the bank!" + +And I _did_ go on--went on at such a rate, that in another quarter of an +hour the croupier called out, "Gentlemen, the bank has discontinued for +to-night." All the notes, and all the gold in that "bank," now lay in a +heap under my hands; the whole floating capital of the gambling-house +was waiting to pour into my pockets! + +"Tie up the money in your pocket-handkerchief, my worthy sir," said the +old soldier, as I wildly plunged my hands into my heap of gold. "Tie it +up, as we used to tie up a bit of dinner in the Grand Army; your +winnings are too heavy for any breeches-pockets that ever were sewed. +There! that's it--shovel them in, notes and all! _Credie!_ what luck! +Stop! another napoleon on the floor. _Ah! sacre petit polisson de +Napoleon!_ have I found thee at last? Now then, sir--two tight double +knots each way with your honourable permission, and the money's safe. +Feel it! feel it, fortunate sir! hard and round as a cannon-ball--_A +bas_ if they had only fired such cannon-balls at us at Austerlitz--_nom +d'une pipe!_ if they only had! And now, as an ancient grenadier, as an +ex-brave of the French army, what remains for me to do? I ask what? +Simply this, to entreat my valued English friend to drink a bottle of +champagne with me, and toast the goddess Fortune in foaming goblets +before we part!" + +"Excellent ex-brave! Convivial ancient grenadier! Champagne by all +means! An English cheer for an old soldier! Hurrah! hurrah! Another +English cheer for the goddess Fortune! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" + +"Bravo! the Englishman; the amiable, gracious Englishman, in whose veins +circulates the vivacious blood of France! Another glass? _A bas!_--the +bottle is empty! Never mind! _Vive le vin!_ I, the old soldier, order +another bottle, and half a pound of _bonbons_ with it!" + +"No, no, ex-brave; never--ancient grenadier! _Your_ bottle last time; +_my_ bottle this! Behold it! Toast away! The French Army! the great +Napoleon! the present company! the croupier! the honest croupier's wife +and daughters--if he has any! the ladies generally! everybody in the +world!" + +By the time the second bottle of champagne was emptied, I felt as if I +had been drinking liquid fire--my brain seemed all aflame. No excess in +wine had ever had this effect on me before in my life. Was it the result +of a stimulant acting upon my system when I was in a highly excited +state? Was my stomach in a particularly disordered condition? Or was the +champagne amazingly strong? + +"Ex-brave of the French Army!" cried I, in a mad state of exhilaration, +"_I_ am on fire! how are _you_? You have set me on fire! Do you hear, my +hero of Austerlitz? Let us have a third bottle of champagne to put the +flame out!" + +The old soldier wagged his head, rolled his goggle-eyes, until I +expected to see them slip out of their sockets; placed his dirty +forefinger by the side of his broken nose; solemnly ejaculated "Coffee!" +and immediately ran off into an inner room. + +The word pronounced by the eccentric veteran seemed to have a magical +effect on the rest of the company present. With one accord they all rose +to depart. Probably they had expected to profit by my intoxication; but +finding that my new friend was benevolently bent on preventing me from +getting dead drunk, had now abandoned all hope of thriving pleasantly on +my winnings. Whatever their motive might be, at any rate they went away +in a body. When the old soldier returned, and sat down again opposite to +me at the table, we had the room to ourselves. I could see the croupier, +in a sort of vestibule which opened out of it, eating his supper in +solitude. The silence was now deeper than ever. + +A sudden change, too, had come over the "ex-brave." He assumed a +portentously solemn look; and when he spoke to me again, his speech was +ornamented by no oaths, enforced by no finger-snapping, enlivened by no +apostrophes or exclamations. + +"Listen, my dear sir," said he, in mysteriously confidential +tones--"listen to an old soldier's advice. I have been to the mistress +of the house (a very charming woman, with a genius for cookery!) to +impress on her the necessity of making us some particularly strong and +good coffee. You must drink this coffee in order to get rid of your +little amiable exaltation of spirits before you think of going home--you +_must_, my good and gracious friend! With all that money to take home +to-night, it is a sacred duty to yourself to have your wits about you. +You are known to be a winner to an enormous extent by several gentlemen +present to-night, who, in a certain point of view, are very worthy and +excellent fellows; but they are mortal men, my dear sir, and they have +their amiable weaknesses! Need I say more? Ah, no, no! you understand +me! Now, this is what you must do--send for a cabriolet when you feel +quite well again--draw up all the windows when you get into it--and tell +the driver to take you home only through the large and well-lighted +thoroughfares. Do this; and you and your money will be safe. Do this; +and to-morrow you will thank an old soldier for giving you a word of +honest advice." + +Just as the ex-brave ended his oration in very lachrymose tones, the +coffee came in, ready poured out in two cups. My attentive friend handed +me one of the cups with a bow. I was parched with thirst, and drank it +off at a draft. Almost instantly afterward I was seized with a fit of +giddiness, and felt more completely intoxicated than ever. The room +whirled round and round furiously; the old soldier seemed to be +regularly bobbing up and down before me like the piston of a +steam-engine. I was half deafened by a violent singing in my ears; a +feeling of utter bewilderment, helplessness, idiocy, overcame me. I rose +from my chair, holding on by the table to keep my balance; and stammered +out that I felt dreadfully unwell--so unwell that I did not know how I +was to get home. + +"My dear friend," answered the old soldier--and even his voice seemed to +be bobbing up and down as he spoke--"my dear friend, it would be madness +to go home in _your_ state; you would be sure to lose your money; you +might be robbed and murdered with the greatest ease. _I_ am going to +sleep here: _do_ you sleep here, too--they make up capital beds in this +house--take one; sleep off the effects of the wine, and go home safely +with your winnings to-morrow--to-morrow, in broad daylight." + +I had but two ideas left: one, that I must never let go hold of my +handkerchief full of money; the other, that I must lie down somewhere +immediately, and fall off into a comfortable sleep. So I agreed to the +proposal about the bed, and took the offered arm of the old soldier, +carrying my money with my disengaged hand. Preceded by the croupier, we +passed along some passages and up a flight of stairs into the bedroom +which I was to occupy. The ex-brave shook me warmly by the hand, +proposed that we should breakfast together, and then, followed by the +croupier, left me for the night. + +I ran to the wash-hand stand; drank some of the water in my jug; poured +the rest out, and plunged my face into it; then sat down in a chair and +tried to compose myself. I soon felt better. The change for my lungs, +from the fetid atmosphere of the gambling-room to the cool air of the +apartment I now occupied, the almost equally refreshing change for my +eyes, from the glaring gaslights of the "salon" to the dim, quiet +flicker of one bedroom-candle, aided wonderfully the restorative effects +of cold water. The giddiness left me, and I began to feel a little like +a reasonable being again. My first thought was of the risk of sleeping +all night in a gambling-house; my second, of the still greater risk of +trying to get out after the house was closed, and of going home alone at +night through the streets of Paris with a large sum of money about me. I +had slept in worse places than this on my travels; so I determined to +lock, bolt, and barricade my door, and take my chance till the next +morning. + +Accordingly, I secured myself against all intrusion; looked under the +bed, and into the cupboard; tried the fastening of the window; and then, +satisfied that I had taken every proper precaution, pulled off my upper +clothing, put my light, which was a dim one, on the hearth among a +feathery litter of wood-ashes, and got into bed, with the handkerchief +full of money under my pillow. + +I soon felt not only that I could not go to sleep, but that I could not +even close my eyes. I was wide awake, and in a high fever. Every nerve +in my body trembled--every one of my senses seemed to be preternaturally +sharpened. I tossed and rolled, and tried every kind of position, and +perseveringly sought out the cold corners of the bed, and all to no +purpose. Now I thrust my arms over the clothes; now I poked them under +the clothes; now I violently shot my legs straight out down to the +bottom of the bed; now I convulsively coiled them up as near my chin as +they would go; now I shook out my crumpled pillow, changed it to the +cool side, patted it flat, and lay down quietly on my back; now I +fiercely doubled it in two, set it up on end, thrust it against the +board of the bed, and tried a sitting posture. Every effort was in vain; +I groaned with vexation as I felt that I was in for a sleepless night. + +What could I do? I had no book to read. And yet, unless I found out some +method of diverting my mind, I felt certain that I was in the condition +to imagine all sorts of horrors; to rack my brain with forebodings of +every possible and impossible danger; in short, to pass the night in +suffering all conceivable varieties of nervous terror. + +I raised myself on my elbow, and looked about the room--which was +brightened by a lovely moonlight pouring straight through the window--to +see if it contained any pictures or ornaments that I could at all +clearly distinguish. While my eyes wandered from wall to wall, a +remembrance of Le Maistre's delightful little book, "Voyage autour de ma +Chambre," occurred to me. I resolved to imitate the French author, and +find occupation and amusement enough to relieve the tedium of my +wakefulness, by making a mental inventory of every article of furniture +I could see, and by following up to their sources the multitude of +associations which even a chair, a table, or a wash-hand stand may be +made to call forth. + +In the nervous, unsettled state of my mind at that moment, I found it +much easier to make my inventory than to make my reflections, and +thereupon soon gave up all hope of thinking in Le Maistre's fanciful +track--or, indeed, of thinking at all. I looked about the room at the +different articles of furniture, and did nothing more. + +There was, first, the bed I was lying in; a four-post bed, of all things +in the world to meet with in Paris--yes, a thorough clumsy British +four-poster, with a regular top lined with chintz--the regular fringed +valance all round--the regular stifling, unwholesome curtains, which I +remembered having mechanically drawn back against the posts without +particularly noticing the bed when I first got into the room. Then there +was the marble-topped wash-hand stand, from which the water I had +spilled, in my hurry to pour it out, was still dripping, slowly and more +slowly, on to the brick floor. Then two small chairs, with my coat, +waistcoat, and trousers flung on them. Then a large elbow-chair covered +with dirty white dimity, with my cravat and shirt collar thrown over the +back. Then a chest of drawers with two of the brass handles off, and a +tawdry, broken china inkstand placed on it by way of ornament for the +top. Then the dressing-table, adorned by a very small looking-glass, and +a very large pincushion. Then the window--an unusually large window. +Then a dark old picture, which the feeble candle dimly showed me. It was +the picture of a fellow in a high Spanish hat, crowned with a plume of +towering feathers. A swarthy, sinister ruffian, looking upward, shading +his eyes with his hand, and looking intently upward--it might be at some +tall gallows on which he was going to be hanged. At any rate, he had the +appearance of thoroughly deserving it. + +This picture put a kind of constraint upon me to look upward too--at the +top of the bed. It was a gloomy and not an interesting object, and I +looked back at the picture. I counted the feathers in the man's +hat--they stood out in relief--three white, two green. I observed the +crown of his hat, which was of a conical shape, according to the fashion +supposed to have been favoured by Guido Fawkes. I wondered what he was +looking up at. It couldn't be at the stars; such a desperado was neither +astrologer nor astronomer. It must be at the high gallows, and he was +going to be hanged presently. Would the executioner come into possession +of his conical crowned hat and plume of feathers? I counted the feathers +again--three white, two green. + +While I still lingered over this very improving and intellectual +employment, my thoughts insensibly began to wander. The moonlight +shining into the room reminded me of a certain moonlight night in +England--the night after a picnic party in a Welsh valley. Every +incident of the drive homeward through lovely scenery, which the +moonlight made lovelier than ever, came back to my remembrance, though I +had never given the picnic a thought for years; though, if I had _tried_ +to recollect it, I could certainly have recalled little or nothing of +that scene long past. Of all the wonderful faculties that help to tell +us we are immortal, which speaks the sublime truth more eloquently than +memory? Here was I, in a strange house of the most suspicious character, +in a situation of uncertainty, and even of peril, which might seem to +make the cool exercise of my recollection almost out of the question; +nevertheless, remembering, quite involuntarily, places, people, +conversations, minute circumstances of every kind, which I had thought +forgotten forever; which I could not possibly have recalled at will, +even under the most favourable auspices. And what cause had produced in +a moment the whole of this strange, complicated, mysterious effect? +Nothing but some rays of moonlight shining in at my bedroom window. + +I was still thinking of the picnic--of our merriment on the drive +home--of the sentimental young lady who _would_ quote "Childe Harold" +because it was moonlight. I was absorbed by these past scenes and past +amusements, when, in an instant, the thread on which my memories hung +snapped asunder; my attention immediately came back to present things +more vividly than ever, and I found myself, I neither knew why nor +wherefore, looking hard at the picture again. + +Looking for what? + +Good God! the man had pulled his hat down on his brows! No! the hat +itself was gone! Where was the conical crown? Where the feathers--three +white, two green? Not there! In place of the hat and feathers, what +dusky object was it that now hid his forehead, his eyes, his shading +hand? + +Was the bed moving? + +I turned on my back and looked up. Was I mad? drunk? dreaming? giddy +again? or was the top of the bed really moving down--sinking slowly, +regularly, silently, horribly, right down throughout the whole of its +length and breadth--right down upon me, as I lay underneath? + +My blood seemed to stand still. A deadly, paralyzing coldness stole all +over me as I turned my head round on the pillow and determined to test +whether the bed-top was really moving or not, by keeping my eye on the +man in the picture. + +The next look in that direction was enough. The dull, black, frowzy +outline of the valance above me was within an inch of being parallel +with his waist. I still looked breathlessly. And steadily and +slowly--very slowly--I saw the figure, and the line of frame below the +figure, vanish, as the valance moved down before it. + +I am, constitutionally, anything but timid. I have been on more than one +occasion in peril of my life, and have not lost my self-possession for +an instant; but when the conviction first settled on my mind that the +bed-top was really moving, was steadily and continuously sinking down +upon me, I looked up shuddering, helpless, panic-stricken, beneath the +hideous machinery for murder, which was advancing closer and closer to +suffocate me where I lay. + +I looked up, motionless, speechless, breathless. The candle, fully +spent, went out; but the moonlight still brightened the room. Down and +down, without pausing and without sounding, came the bed-top, and still +my panic terror seemed to bind me faster and faster to the mattress on +which I lay--down and down it sank, till the dusty odour from the lining +of the canopy came stealing into my nostrils. + +At that final moment the instinct of self-preservation startled me out +of my trance, and I moved at last. There was just room for me to roll +myself sidewise off the bed. As I dropped noiselessly to the floor, the +edge of the murderous canopy touched me on the shoulder. + +Without stopping to draw my breath, without wiping the cold sweat from +my face, I rose instantly on my knees to watch the bed-top. I was +literally spellbound by it. If I had heard footsteps behind me, I could +not have turned round; if a means of escape had been miraculously +provided for me, I could not have moved to take advantage of it. The +whole life in me was, at that moment, concentrated in my eyes. + +It descended--the whole canopy, with the fringe round it, came +down--down--close down; so close that there was not room now to squeeze +my finger between the bed-top and the bed. I felt at the side, and +discovered that what had appeared to me from beneath to be the ordinary +light canopy of a four-post bed was in reality a thick, broad mattress, +the substance of which was concealed by the valance and its fringe. I +looked up and saw the four posts rising hideously bare. In the middle of +the bed-top was a huge wooden screw that had evidently worked it down +through a hole in the ceiling, just as ordinary presses are worked down +on the substance selected for compression. The frightful apparatus moved +without making the faintest noise. There had been no creaking as it came +down; there was now not the faintest sound from the room above. Amidst a +dead and awful silence I beheld before me--in the nineteenth century, +and in the civilized capital of France--such a machine for secret murder +by suffocation as might have existed in the worst days of the +Inquisition, in the lonely inns among the Hartz Mountains, in the +mysterious tribunals of Westphalia! Still, as I looked on it, I could +not move, I could hardly breathe, but I began to recover the power of +thinking, and in a moment I discovered the murderous conspiracy framed +against me in all its horror. + +My cup of coffee had been drugged, and drugged too strongly. I had been +saved from being smothered by having taken an overdose of some narcotic. +How I had chafed and fretted at the fever fit which had preserved my +life by keeping me awake! How recklessly I had confided myself to the +two wretches who had led me into this room, determined, for the sake of +my winnings, to kill me in my sleep by the surest and most horrible +contrivance for secretly accomplishing my destruction! How many men, +winners like me, had slept, as I had proposed to sleep, in that bed, and +had never been seen or heard of more! I shuddered at the bare idea of +it. + +But ere long all thought was again suspended by the sight of the +murderous canopy moving once more. After it had remained on the bed--as +nearly as I could guess--about ten minutes, it began to move up again. +The villains who worked it from above evidently believed that their +purpose was now accomplished. Slowly and silently, as it had descended, +that horrible bed-top rose toward its former place. When it reached the +upper extremities of the four posts, it reached the ceiling too. Neither +hole nor screw could be seen; the bed became in appearance an ordinary +bed again--the canopy an ordinary canopy--even to the most suspicious +eyes. + +Now, for the first time, I was able to move--to rise from my knees--to +dress myself in my upper clothing--and to consider of how I should +escape. If I betrayed by the smallest noise that the attempt to +suffocate me had failed, I was certain to be murdered. Had I made any +noise already? I listened intently, looking toward the door. + +No! no footsteps in the passage outside--no sound of a tread, light or +heavy, in the room above--absolute silence everywhere. Besides locking +and bolting my door, I had moved an old wooden chest against it, which I +had found under the bed. To remove this chest (my blood ran cold as I +thought of what its contents _might_ be!) without making some +disturbance was impossible; and, moreover, to think of escaping through +the house, now barred up for the night, was sheer insanity. Only one +chance was left me--the window. I stole to it on tiptoe. + +My bedroom was on the first floor, above an entresol, and looked into +the back street. I raised my hand to open the window, knowing that on +that action hung, by the merest hair-breadth, my chance of safety. They +keep vigilant watch in a House of Murder. If any part of the frame +cracked, if the hinge creaked, I was a lost man! It must have occupied +me at least five minutes, reckoning by time--five _hours_ reckoning by +suspense--to open that window. I succeeded in doing it silently--in +doing it with all the dexterity of a house-breaker--and then looked down +into the street. To leap the distance beneath me would be almost certain +destruction! Next, I looked round at the sides of the house. Down the +left side ran a thick water-pipe--it passed close by the outer edge of +the window. The moment I saw the pipe, I knew I was saved. My breath +came and went freely for the first time since I had seen the canopy of +the bed moving down upon me! + +To some men the means of escape which I had discovered might have seemed +difficult and dangerous enough--to _me_ the prospect of slipping down +the pipe into the street did not suggest even a thought of peril. I had +always been accustomed, by the practise of gymnastics, to keep up my +schoolboy powers as a daring and expert climber; and knew that my head, +hands, and feet would serve me faithfully in any hazards of ascent or +descent. I had already got one leg over the window-sill, when I +remembered the handkerchief filled with money under my pillow. I could +well have afforded to leave it behind me, but I was revengefully +determined that the miscreants of the gambling-house should miss their +plunder as well as their victim. So I went back to the bed and tied the +heavy handkerchief at my back by my cravat. + +Just as I had made it tight and fixed it in a comfortable place, I +thought I heard a sound of breathing outside the door. The chill feeling +of horror ran through me again as I listened. No! dead silence still in +the passage--I had only heard the night air blowing softly into the +room. The next moment I was on the window-sill--and the next I had a +firm grip on the water-pipe with my hands and knees. + +I slid down into the street easily and quietly, as I thought I should, +and immediately set off at the top of my speed to a branch "Prefecture" +of Police, which I knew was situated in the immediate neighbourhood. A +"Sub-prefect," and several picked men among his subordinates, happened +to be up, maturing, I believe, some scheme for discovering the +perpetrator of a mysterious murder which all Paris was talking of just +then. When I began my story, in a breathless hurry and in very bad +French, I could see that the Sub-prefect suspected me of being a drunken +Englishman who had robbed somebody; but he soon altered his opinion as I +went on, and before I had anything like concluded, he shoved all the +papers before him into a drawer, put on his hat, supplied me with +another (for I was bareheaded), ordered a file of soldiers, desired his +expert followers to get ready all sorts of tools for breaking open doors +and ripping up brick flooring, and took my arm, in the most friendly and +familiar manner possible, to lead me with him out of the house. I will +venture to say that when the Sub-prefect was a little boy, and was taken +for the first time to the play, he was not half as much pleased as he +was now at the job in prospect for him at the gambling-house! + +Away we went through the streets, the Sub-prefect cross-examining and +congratulating me in the same breath as we marched at the head of our +formidable _posse comitatus_. Sentinels were placed at the back and +front of the house the moment we got to it, a tremendous battery of +knocks was directed against the door; a light appeared at a window; I +was told to conceal myself behind the police--then came more knocks, and +a cry of "Open in the name of the law!" At that terrible summons bolts +and locks gave way before an invisible hand, and the moment after the +Sub-prefect was in the passage, confronting a waiter half dressed and +ghastly pale. This was the short dialogue which immediately took place: + +"We want to see the Englishman who is sleeping in this house." + +"He went away hours ago." + +"He did no such thing. His friend went away; _he_ remained. Show us to +his bedroom!" + +"I swear to you, Monsieur le Sous-prefect, he is not here! he--" + +"I swear to you, Monsieur le Garcon, he is. He slept here--he didn't +find your bed comfortable--he came to us to complain of it--here he is +among my men--and here am I ready to look for a flea or two in his +bedstead. Renaudin! (calling to one of the subordinates, and pointing to +the waiter), collar that man, and tie his hands behind him. Now, then, +gentlemen, let us walk upstairs!" + +Every man and woman in the house was secured--the "Old Soldier" the +first. Then I identified the bed in which I had slept, and then we went +into the room above. + +No object that was at all extraordinary appeared in any part of it. The +Sub-prefect looked round the place, commanded everybody to be silent, +stamped twice on the floor, called for a candle, looked attentively at +the spot he had stamped on, and ordered the flooring there to be +carefully taken up. This was done in no time. Lights were produced, and +we saw a deep raftered cavity between the floor of this room and the +ceiling of the room beneath. Through this cavity there ran +perpendicularly a sort of case of iron thickly greased; and inside the +case appeared the screw, which communicated with the bed-top below. +Extra lengths of screw, freshly oiled; levers covered with felt; all the +complete upper works of a heavy press--constructed with infernal +ingenuity so as to join the fixtures below, and when taken to pieces +again to go into the smallest possible compass--were next discovered and +pulled out on the floor. After some little difficulty the Sub-prefect +succeeded in putting the machinery together, and, leaving his men to +work it, descended with me to the bedroom. The smothering canopy was +then lowered, but not so noiselessly as I had seen it lowered. When I +mentioned this to the Sub-prefect, his answer, simple as it was, had a +terrible significance. "My men," said he, "are working down the bed-top +for the first time--the men whose money you won were in better +practise." + +We left the house in the sole possession of two police agents--every one +of the inmates being removed to prison on the spot. The Sub-prefect, +after taking down my "proces verbal" in his office, returned with me to +my hotel to get my passport. "Do you think," I asked, as I gave it to +him, "that any men have really been smothered in that bed, as they tried +to smother _me_?" + +"I have seen dozens of drowned men laid out at the Morgue," answered the +Sub-prefect, "in whose pocketbooks were found letters stating that they +had committed suicide in the Seine, because they had lost everything at +the gaming-table. Do I know how many of those men entered the same +gambling-house that _you_ entered? won as _you_ won? took that bed as +_you_ took it? slept in it? were smothered in it? and were privately +thrown into the river, with a letter of explanation written by the +murderers and placed in their pocketbooks? No man can say how many or +how few have suffered the fate from which you have escaped. The people +of the gambling house kept their bedstead machinery a secret from +us--even from the police! The dead kept the rest of the secret for them. +Good-night, or rather good-morning, Monsieur Faulkner! Be at my office +again at nine o'clock--in the meantime, au revoir!" + +The rest of my story is soon told. I was examined and reexamined; the +gambling-house was strictly searched all through from top to bottom; the +prisoners were separately interrogated; and two of the less guilty among +them made a confession. I discovered that the Old Soldier was the master +of the gambling-house--_justice_ discovered that he had been drummed out +of the army as a vagabond years ago; that he had been guilty of all +sorts of villainies since; that he was in possession of stolen property, +which the owners identified; and that he, the croupier, another +accomplice, and the woman who had made my cup of coffee, were all in the +secret of the bedstead. There appeared some reason to doubt whether the +inferior persons attached to the house knew anything of the suffocating +machinery; and they received the benefit of that doubt, by being treated +simply as thieves and vagabonds. As for the Old Soldier and his two head +myrmidons, they went to the galleys; the woman who had drugged my coffee +was imprisoned for I forget how many years; the regular attendants at +the gambling-house were considered "suspicious," and placed under +"surveillance"; and I became, for one whole week (which is a long time), +the head "lion" in Parisian society. My adventure was dramatized by +three illustrious play-makers, but never saw theatrical daylight; for +the censorship forbade the introduction on the stage of a correct copy +of the gambling-house bedstead. + +One good result was produced by my adventure, which any censorship must +have approved: it cured me of ever again trying "Rouge et Noir" as an +amusement. The sight of a green cloth, with packs of cards and heaps of +money on it, will henceforth be forever associated in my mind with the +sight of a bed canopy descending to suffocate me in the silence and +darkness of the night. + + + + +THE TORTURE BY HOPE + +VILLIERS DE L'ISLE ADAM + + +Many years ago, as evening was closing in, the venerable Pedro Arbuez +d'Espila, sixth prior of the Dominicans of Segovia, and third Grand +Inquisitor of Spain, followed by a _fra redemptor_, and preceded by two +familiars of the Holy Office, the latter carrying lanterns, made their +way to a subterranean dungeon. The bolt of a massive door creaked, and +they entered a mephitic _in-pace_, where the dim light revealed between +rings fastened to the wall a blood-stained rack, a brazier, and a jug. +On a pile of straw, loaded with fetters and his neck encircled by an +iron carcan, sat a haggard man, of uncertain age, clothed in rags. + +This prisoner was no other than Rabbi Aser Abarbanel, a Jew of Arragon, +who--accused of usury and pitiless scorn for the poor--had been daily +subjected to torture for more than a year. Yet "his blindness was as +dense as his hide," and he had refused to abjure his faith. + +Proud of a filiation dating back thousands of years, proud of his +ancestors--for all Jews worthy of the name are vain of their blood--he +descended Talmudically from Othoniel and consequently from Ipsiboa, the +wife of the last judge of Israel, a circumstance which had sustained his +courage amid incessant torture. With tears in his eyes at the thought of +this resolute soul rejecting salvation, the venerable Pedro Arbuez +d'Espila, approaching the shuddering rabbi, addressed him as follows: + +"My son, rejoice: your trials here below are about to end. If in the +presence of such obstinacy I was forced to permit, with deep regret, the +use of great severity, my task of fraternal correction has its limits. +You are the fig tree which, having failed so many times to bear fruit, +at last withered, but God alone can judge your soul. Perhaps Infinite +Mercy will shine upon you at the last moment! We must hope so. There are +examples. So sleep in peace to-night. To-morrow you will be included in +the _auto da fe_: that is, you will be exposed to the _quema-dero_, the +symbolical flames of the Everlasting Fire: It burns, as you know, only +at a distance, my son; and Death is at least two hours (often three) in +coming, on account of the wet, iced bandages, with which we protect the +heads and hearts of the condemned. There will be forty-three of you. +Placed in the last row, you will have time to invoke God and offer to +Him this baptism of fire, which is of the Holy Spirit. Hope in the +Light, and rest." + +With these words, having signed to his companions to unchain the +prisoner, the prior tenderly embraced him. Then came the turn of the +_fra redemptor_, who, in a low tone, entreated the Jew's forgiveness for +what he had made him suffer for the purpose of redeeming him; then the +two familiars silently kissed him. This ceremony over, the captive was +left, solitary and bewildered, in the darkness. + + * * * * * + +Rabbi Aser Abarbanel, with parched lips and visage worn by suffering, at +first gazed at the closed door with vacant eyes. Closed? The word +unconsciously roused a vague fancy in his mind, the fancy that he had +seen for an instant the light of the lanterns through a chink between +the door and the wall. A morbid idea of hope, due to the weakness of his +brain, stirred his whole being. He dragged himself toward the strange +_appearance_. Then, very gently and cautiously, slipping one finger into +the crevice, he drew the door toward him. Marvellous! By an +extraordinary accident the familiar who closed it had turned the huge +key an instant before it struck the stone casing, so that the rusty bolt +not having entered the hole, the door again rolled on its hinges. + +The rabbi ventured to glance outside. By the aid of a sort of luminous +dusk he distinguished at first a semicircle of walls indented by winding +stairs; and opposite to him, at the top of five or six stone steps, a +sort of black portal, opening into an immense corridor, whose first +arches only were visible from below. + +Stretching himself flat he crept to the threshold. Yes, it was really a +corridor, but endless in length. A wan light illumined it: lamps +suspended from the vaulted ceiling lightened at intervals the dull hue +of the atmosphere--the distance was veiled in shadow. Not a single door +appeared in the whole extent! Only on one side, the left, heavily grated +loopholes sunk in the walls, admitted a light which must be that of +evening, for crimson bars at intervals rested on the flags of the +pavement. What a terrible silence! Yet, yonder, at the far end of that +passage there might be a doorway of escape! The Jew's vacillating hope +was tenacious, for it was _the last_. + +Without hesitating, he ventured on the flags, keeping close under the +loopholes, trying to make himself part of the blackness of the long +walls. He advanced slowly, dragging himself along on his breast, forcing +back the cry of pain when some raw wound sent a keen pang through his +whole body. + +Suddenly the sound of a sandaled foot approaching reached his ears. He +trembled violently, fear stifled him, his sight grew dim. Well, it was +over, no doubt. He pressed himself into a niche and half lifeless with +terror, waited. + +It was a familiar hurrying along. He passed swiftly by, holding in his +clenched hand an instrument of torture--a frightful figure--and +vanished. The suspense which the rabbi had endured seemed to have +suspended the functions of life, and he lay nearly an hour unable to +move. Fearing an increase of tortures if he were captured, he thought of +returning to his dungeon. But the old hope whispered in his soul that +divine _perhaps_, which comforts us in our sorest trials. A miracle had +happened. He could doubt no longer. He began to crawl toward the chance +of escape. Exhausted by suffering and hunger, trembling with pain, he +pressed onward. The sepulchral corridor seemed to lengthen mysteriously, +while he, still advancing, gazed into the gloom where there _must_ be +some avenue of escape. + +Oh! oh! He again heard footsteps, but this time they were slower, more +heavy. The white and black forms of two inquisitors appeared, emerging +from the obscurity beyond. They were conversing in low tones, and seemed +to be discussing some important subject, for they were gesticulating +vehemently. + +At this spectacle Rabbi Aser Abarbanel closed his eyes: his heart beat +so violently that it almost suffocated him; his rags were damp with the +cold sweat of agony; he lay motionless by the wall, his mouth wide open, +under the rays of a lamp, praying to the God of David. + +Just opposite to him the two inquisitors paused under the light of the +lamp--doubtless owing to some accident due to the course of their +argument. One, while listening to his companion, gazed at the rabbi! +And, beneath the look--whose absence of expression the hapless man did +not at first notice--he fancied he again felt the burning pincers scorch +his flesh, he was to be once more a living wound. Fainting, breathless, +with fluttering eyelids, he shivered at the touch of the monk's floating +robe. But--strange yet natural fact--the inquisitor's gaze was evidently +that of a man deeply absorbed in his intended reply, engrossed by what +he was hearing; his eyes were fixed--and seemed to look at the Jew +_without seeing him_. + +In fact, after the lapse of a few minutes, the two gloomy figures slowly +pursued their way, still conversing in low tones, toward the place +whence the prisoner had come; HE HAD NOT BEEN SEEN! Amid the horrible +confusion of the rabbi's thoughts, the idea darted through his brain: +"Can I be already dead that they did not see me?" A hideous impression +roused him from his lethargy: in looking at the wall against which his +face was pressed, he imagined he beheld two fierce eyes watching him! He +flung his head back in a sudden frenzy of fright, his hair fairly +bristling! Yet, no! No. His hand groped over the stones: it was the +_reflection_ of the inquisitor's eyes, still retained in his own, which +had been refracted from two spots on the wall. + +Forward! He must hasten toward that goal which he fancied (absurdly, no +doubt) to be deliverance, toward the darkness from which he was now +barely thirty paces distant. He pressed forward faster on his knees, his +hands, at full length, dragging himself painfully along, and soon +entered the dark portion of this terrible corridor. + +Suddenly the poor wretch felt a gust of cold air on the hands resting +upon the flags; it came from under the little door to which the two +walls led. + +Oh, Heaven, if that door should open outward. Every nerve in the +miserable fugitive's body thrilled with hope. He examined it from top to +bottom, though scarcely able to distinguish its outlines in the +surrounding darkness. He passed his hand over it: no bolt, no lock! A +latch! He started up, the latch yielded to the pressure of his thumb: +the door silently swung open before him. + + * * * * * + +"Halleluia!" murmured the rabbi in a transport of gratitude as, standing +on the threshold, he beheld the scene before him. + +The door had opened into the gardens, above which arched a starlit sky, +into spring, liberty, life! It revealed the neighbouring fields, +stretching toward the sierras, whose sinuous blue lines were relieved +against the horizon. Yonder lay freedom! O, to escape! He would journey +all night through the lemon groves, whose fragrance reached him. Once in +the mountains and he was safe! He inhaled the delicious air; the breeze +revived him, his lungs expanded! He felt in his swelling heart the _Veni +foras_ of Lazarus! And to thank once more the God who had bestowed this +mercy upon him, he extended his arms, raising his eyes toward Heaven. It +was an ecstasy of joy! + +Then he fancied he saw the shadow of his arms approach him--fancied that +he felt these shadowy arms inclose, embrace him--and that he was pressed +tenderly to some one's breast. A tall figure actually did stand directly +before him. He lowered his eyes--and remained motionless, gasping for +breath, dazed, with fixed eyes, fairly drivelling with terror. + +Horror! He was in the clasp of the Grand Inquisitor himself, the +venerable Pedro Arbuez d'Espila who gazed at him with tearful eyes, like +a good shepherd who had found his stray lamb. + +The dark-robed priest pressed the hapless Jew to his heart with so +fervent an outburst of love, that the edges of the monochal haircloth +rubbed the Dominican's breast. And while Aser Abarbanel with protruding +eyes gasped in agony in the ascetic's embrace, vaguely comprehending +that all the phases of this fatal evening were only a prearranged +torture, that of HOPE, the Grand Inquisitor, with an accent of touching +reproach and a look of consternation, murmured in his ear, his breath +parched and burning from long fasting: + +"What, my son! On the eve, perchance, of salvation--you wished to leave +us?" + + + + +THE BOX WITH THE IRON CLAMPS + +FLORENCE MARRYAT + + + + +I + + +Molton Chase is a charming, old-fashioned country house, which has been +in the possession of the Clayton family for centuries past; and as Harry +Clayton, its present owner, has plenty of money, and (having tasted the +pleasures of matrimony for only five years) has no knowledge (as yet) of +the delights of college and school bills coming in at Christmas-time, it +is his will to fill the Chase at that season with guests, to each of +whom he extends a welcome, as hearty as it is sincere. + +"Bella! are you not going to join the riding-party this afternoon?" he +said across the luncheon-table to his wife, one day in a December not +long ago. + +"Bella" was a dimpled little woman, whose artless expression of +countenance would well bear comparison with the honest, genial face +opposite to her, and who replied at once-- + +"No! not this afternoon, Harry, dear. You know the Damers may come at +any time between this and seven o'clock, and I should not like to be out +when they arrive." + +"And may I ask Mrs. Clayton who _are_ the Damers," inquired a friend of +her husband, who, on account of being handsome, considered himself +licensed to be pert--"that their advent should be the cause of our +losing the pleasure of your company this afternoon?" + +But the last thing Bella Clayton ever did was to take offence. + +"The Damers are my cousins, Captain Moss," she replied; "at least +Blanche Damer is." + +At this juncture a dark-eyed man who was sitting at the other end of the +table dropped the flirting converse he had been maintaining with a +younger sister of Mrs. Clayton's, and appeared to become interested in +what his hostess was saying. + +"Colonel Damer," he continued, "has been in India for the last twelve +years, and only returned to England a month ago; therefore it would seem +unkind on the first visit he has paid to his relatives that there should +be no one at home to welcome him." + +"Has Mrs. Damer been abroad for as long a time?" resumed her questioner, +a vision arising on his mental faculties of a lemon-coloured woman with +shoes down at heel. + +"Oh dear no!" replied his hostess. "Blanche came to England about five +years ago, but her health has been too delicate to rejoin her husband in +India since. Have we all finished, Harry, dear?"--and in another minute +the luncheon-table was cleared. + +As Mrs. Clayton crossed the hall soon afterwards to visit her nursery, +the same dark-eyed man who had regarded her fixedly when she mentioned +the name of Blanche Damer followed and accosted her. + +"Is it long since you have seen your cousin Mrs. Damer, Mrs. Clayton?" + +"I saw her about three years ago, Mr. Laurence; but she had a severe +illness soon after that, and has been living on the Continent ever +since. Why do you ask?" + +"For no especial reason," he answered smiling. "Perhaps I am a little +jealous lest this new-comer to whose arrival you look forward with so +much interest should usurp more of your time and attention than we +less-favoured ones can spare." + +He spoke with a degree of sarcasm, real or feigned, which Mrs. Clayton +immediately resented. + +"I am not aware that I have been in the habit of neglecting my guests, +Mr. Laurence," she replied; "but my cousin Blanche is more likely to +remind me of my duties than to tempt me to forget them." + +"Forgive me," he said, earnestly. "You have mistaken my meaning +altogether. But are you very intimate with this lady?" + +"Very much so," was the answer. "We were brought up together, and loved +each other as sisters until she married and went to India. For some +years after her return home our intercourse was renewed, and only +broken, on the occasion of her being ill and going abroad, as I have +described to you. Her husband, I have, of course, seen less of, but I +like what I know of him, and am anxious to show them both all the +hospitality in my power. She is a charming creature, and I am sure you +will admire her." + +"Doubtless I shall," he replied; "that is if she does not lay claim to +all Mrs. Clayton's interest in the affairs of Molton Chase." + +"No fear of that," laughed the cheery little lady as she ascended the +stairs, and left Mr. Laurence standing in the hall beneath. + +"Clayton," observed that gentleman, as he re-entered the luncheon-room +and drew his host into the privacy of a bay-window, "I really am afraid +I shall have to leave you this evening--if you won't think it rude of me +to go so suddenly." + +"But _why_, my dear fellow?" exclaimed Harry Clayton, as his blue eyes +searched into the other's soul. "What earthly reason can you have for +going, when your fixed plan was to stay with us over Christmas Day?" + +"Well! there is lots of work waiting for me to do, you know; and really +the time slips away so, and time is money to a slave like +myself--that--" + +"Now, my dear Laurence," said Harry Clayton conclusively, "you know you +are only making excuses. All the work that was absolutely necessary for +you to do before Christmas was finished before you came here, and you +said you felt yourself licensed to take a whole month's holiday. Now, +was not that the case?" + +Mr. Laurence could not deny the fact, and so he looked undecided, and +was silent. + +"Don't let me hear any more about your going before Christmas Day," said +his host, "or I shall be offended, and so will Bella; to say nothing of +Bella's sister--eh, Laurence!" + +Whereupon Mr. Laurence felt himself bound to remain; and saying in his +own mind that fate was against him, dropped the subject of his departure +altogether. + +One hour later, the riding party being then some miles from Molton +Chase, a travelling carriage laden with trunks drove up to the house, +and Mrs. Clayton, all blushes and smiles, stood on the hall-steps to +welcome her expected guests. + +Colonel Damer was the first to alight. He was a middle-aged man, but +with a fine soldierly bearing, which took off from his years; and he was +so eager to see to the safe exit of his wife from the carriage-door that +he had not time to do more than take off his hat to blooming Bella on +the steps. + +"Now, my love," he exclaimed as the lady's form appeared, "pray take +care; two steps: that's right--here you are, safe." + +And then Mrs. Damer, being securely landed, was permitted to fly into +the cousinly arms which were opened to receive her. + +"My dear Bella!" + +"My dearest Blanche--I am so delighted to see you again. Why, you are +positively frozen! Pray come in at once to the fire. Colonel Damer, my +servants will see to the luggage--do leave it to them, and come and warm +yourselves." + +A couple of men-servants now came forward and offered to see to the +unloading of the carriage--but Mrs. Damer did not move. + +"Will you not go in, my love, as your cousin proposes?" said her +husband. "I can see to the boxes if you should wish me to do so." + +"No, thank you," was the low reply; and there was such a ring of +melancholy in the voice of Mrs. Damer that a stranger would have been +attracted by it. "I prefer waiting until the carriage is unpacked." + +"Never mind the luggage, Blanche," whispered Mrs. Clayton, in her +coaxing manner. "Come in to the fire, dear--I have so much to tell you." + +"Wait a minute, Bella," said her cousin; and the entreaty was so firm +that it met with no further opposition. + +"One--two--three--four," exclaimed Colonel Damer, as the boxes +successively came to the ground. "I am afraid you will think we are +going to take you by storm, Mrs. Clayton; but perhaps you know my wife's +fancy for a large travelling _kit_ of old. Is that all, Blanche?" + +"That is all--thank you," in the same low melancholy tones in which she +had spoken before. "Now, Bella, dear, which is to be my room?" + +"You would rather go there first, Blanche?" + +"Yes, please--I'm tired. Will you carry up that box for me?" she +continued, pointing out one of the trunks to the servant. + +"Directly, ma'am," he returned, as he was looking for change for a +sovereign wherewith to accommodate Colonel Damer--but the lady lingered +until he was at leisure. Then he shouldered the box next to the one she +had indicated, and she directed his attention to the fact, and made him +change his burden. + +"They'll all go up in time, ma'am," the man remarked; but Mrs. Damer, +answering nothing, did not set her foot upon the stairs until he was +halfway up them, with the trunk she had desired him to take first. + +Then she leaned wearily upon Bella Clayton's arm, pressing it fondly to +her side, and so the two went together to the bedroom which had been +appointed for the reception of the new guests. It was a large and +cosily-furnished apartment, with a dressing-room opening from it. When +the ladies arrived there they found the servant awaiting them with the +box in question. + +"Where will you have it placed, ma'am?" he demanded of Mrs. Damer. + +"Under the bed, please." + +But the bedstead was a French one, and the mahogany sides were so deep +that nothing could get beneath them but dust; and the trunk, although +small, was heavy and strong and clamped with iron, not at all the sort +of trunk that would go _anywhere_. + +"Nothing will go under the bed, ma'am!" said the servant in reply. + +Mrs. Damer slightly changed colour. + +"Never mind then: leave it there. Oh! what a comfort a good fire is," +she continued, turning to the hearth-rug, and throwing herself into an +arm-chair. "We have had such a cold drive from the station." + +"But about your box, Blanche?" said Mrs. Clayton, who had no idea of her +friends being put to any inconvenience. "It can't stand there; you'll +unpack it, won't you? or shall I have it moved into the passage?" + +"Oh, no, thank you, Bella--please let it stand where it is: it will do +very well indeed." + +"What will do very well?" exclaimed Colonel Damer, who now entered the +bedroom, followed by a servant with another trunk. + +"Only Blanche's box, Colonel Damer," said Bella Clayton. "She doesn't +wish to unpack it, and it will be in her way here, I'm afraid. It +_might_ stand in your dressing-room."--This she said as a "feeler," +knowing that some gentlemen do not like to be inconvenienced, even in +their dressing-rooms. + +But Colonel Damer was as unselfish as it was possible for an old Indian +to be. + +"Of course it can," he replied. "Here (to the servant), just shoulder +that box, will you, and move it into the next room." + +The man took up the article in question rather carelessly, and nearly +let it fall again. Mrs. Damer darted forward as if to save it. + +"Pray put it down," she said, nervously. "I have no wish to have it +moved--I shall require it by-and-by; it will be no inconvenience--" + +"Just as you like, dear," said Mrs. Clayton, who was becoming rather +tired of the little discussion. "And now take off your things, dear +Blanche, and let me ring for some tea." + +Colonel Damer walked into his dressing-room and left the two ladies +alone. The remainder of the luggage was brought upstairs; the tea was +ordered and served, and whilst Mrs. Clayton busied herself in pouring it +out, Mrs. Damer sank back upon a sofa which stood by the fire, and +conversed with her cousin. + +She had been beautiful, this woman, in her earlier youth, though no one +would have thought it to see her now. As Bella handed her the tea she +glanced towards the thin hand stretched out to receive it, and from +thence to the worn face and hollow eyes, and could scarcely believe she +saw the same person she had parted from three years before. + +But she had not been so intimate with her of late, and she was almost +afraid of commenting upon her cousin's altered appearance, for fear it +might wound her; all she said was: + +"You look very delicate still, dear Blanche; I was in hopes the change +to the Continent would have set you up and made you stronger than you +were when you left England." + +"Oh, no; I never shall be well again," was Mrs. Damer's careless reply: +"it's an old story now, Bella, and it's no use talking about it. Whom +have you staying in the house at present, dear?" + +"Well, we are nearly full," rejoined Mrs. Clayton. "There is my old +godfather, General Knox--you remember him, I know--and his son and +daughter; and the Ainsleys and their family; ditto, the Bayleys and the +Armstrongs, and then, for single men, we have young Brooke, and Harry's +old friend, Charley Moss, and Herbert Laurence, and--are you ill, +Blanchey?" + +An exclamation had burst from Mrs. Damer--hardly an exclamation, so much +as a half-smothered cry--but whether of pain or fear, it was hard to +determine. + +"Are you ill?" reiterated Mrs. Clayton, full of anxiety for her +fragile-looking cousin. + +"No," replied Blanche Damer, pressing her hand to her side, but still +deadly pale from the effect of whatever emotion she had gone through; +"it is nothing; I feel faint after our long journey." + +Colonel Damer had also heard the sound, and now appeared upon the +threshold of his dressing-room. He was one of those well-meaning, but +fussy men, who can never have two women alone for a quarter of an hour +without intruding on their privacy. + +"Did you call, my dearest?" he asked of his wife. "Do you want +anything?" + +"Nothing, thank you," replied Bella for her cousin; "Blanche is only a +little tired and overcome by her travelling." + +"I think, after all, that I will move that trunk away for you into my +room," he said, advancing towards the box which had already been the +subject of discussion. Mrs. Damer started from the sofa with a face of +crimson. + +"I _beg_ you will leave my boxes alone," she said, with an imploring +tone in her voice which was quite unfitted to the occasion. "I have not +brought one more than I need, and I wish them to remain under my own +eye." + +"There must be something very valuable in that receptacle," said Colonel +Damer, facetiously, as he beat a retreat to his own quarters. + +"Is it your linen box?" demanded Mrs. Clayton of her cousin. + +"Yes," in a hesitating manner; "that is, it contains several things that +I have in daily use; but go on about your visitors, Bella: are there any +more?" + +"I don't think so: where had I got to?--oh! to the bachelors: well, +there are Mr. Brooke and Captain Moss, and Mr. Laurence (the poet, you +know; Harry was introduced to him last season by Captain Moss), and my +brother Alfred; and that's all." + +"A very respectable list," said Mrs. Damer, languidly. "What kind of a +man is the--the poet you spoke of?" + +"Laurence?--oh, he seems a very pleasant man; but he is very silent and +abstracted, as I suppose a poet should be. My sister Carrie is here, and +they have quite got up a flirtation together; however, I don't suppose +it will come to anything." + +"And your nursery department?" + +"Thriving, thank you; I think you _will_ be astonished to see my boy. +Old Mrs. Clayton says he is twice the size that Harry was at that age; +and the little girls can run about and talk almost as well as I can. But +I must not expect you, Blanche, to take the same interest in babies that +I do." + +This she added, remembering that the woman before her was childless. +Mrs. Damer moved uneasily on her couch, but she said nothing; and soon +after the sound of a gong reverberating through the hall warned Mrs. +Clayton that the dinner was not far off and the riding-party must have +returned; so, leaving her friend to her toilet, she took her departure. + +As she left the room, Mrs. Damer was alone. She had no maid of her own, +and she had refused the offices of Mrs. Clayton, assuring her that she +was used to dress herself; but she made little progress in that +department, as she lay on the couch in the firelight, with her face +buried in her hands, and thoughts coursing through her mind of which +heaven alone knew the tendency. + +"Come, my darling," said the kind, coaxing voice of her husband, as, +after knocking more than once without receiving any answer, he entered +her room, fully dressed, and found her still arrayed in her travelling +things, and none of her boxes unpacked. "You will never be ready for +dinner at this rate. Shall I make an excuse for your not appearing at +table this evening? I am sure Mrs. Clayton would wish you to keep your +room if you are too tired to dress." + +"I am not too tired, Harry," said Mrs. Damer, rising from the couch, +"and I shall be ready in ten minutes," unlocking and turning over the +contents of a box as she spoke. + +"Better not, perhaps, my love," interposed the colonel, in mild +expostulation; "you will be better in bed, and can see your kind friends +to-morrow morning." + +"I am going down to dinner to-night," she answered, gently, but +decisively. She was a graceful woman now she stood on her feet, and +threw off the heavy wraps in which she had travelled, with a slight, +willowy figure, and a complexion which was almost transparent in its +delicacy; but her face was very thin, and her large blue eyes had a +scared and haggard look in them, which was scarcely less painful to +witness than the appearance of anxiety which was expressed by the +knitted brows by which they were surmounted. As she now raised her fair +attenuated hands to rearrange her hair, which had once been abundant and +glossy, her husband could not avoid remarking upon the change which had +passed over it. + +"I had no idea you had lost your hair so much, darling," he said; "I +have not seen it down before to-night. Why, where is it all gone to?" he +continued, as he lifted the light mass in his hands, and remembered of +what a length and weight it used to be, when he last parted from her. + +"Oh, I don't know," she rejoined, sadly; "gone, with my youth, I +suppose, Henry." + +"My poor girl!" he said, gently, "you have suffered very much in this +separation. I had no right to leave you alone for so many years. But it +is all over now, dearest, and I will take such good care of you that you +will be obliged to get well and strong again." + +She turned round suddenly from the glass, and pressed her lips upon the +hand which held her hair. + +"Don't," she murmured; "pray don't speak to me so, Henry! I can't bear +it; I can't indeed!" + +He thought it was from excess of feeling that she spoke; and so it was, +though not as he imagined. So he changed the subject lightly, and bade +her be lazy no longer, but put on her dress, if she was really +determined to make one of the party at dinner that evening. + +In another minute, Mrs. Damer had brushed her diminished hair into the +fashion in which she ordinarily wore it; thrown on an evening-robe of +black, which, while it contrasted well with her fairness, showed the +falling away of her figure in a painful degree; and was ready to +accompany her husband downstairs. + +They were met at the door of the drawing-room by their host, who was +eager to show cordiality towards guests of whom his wife thought so +much, and having also been acquainted himself with Mrs. Damer since her +return to England. He led her up to the sofa whereon Bella sat; and, +dinner being almost immediately announced, the little hostess was busy +pairing off her couples. + +"Mr. Laurence!" she exclaimed; and then looking around the room, "where +_is_ Mr. Laurence?" So that that gentleman was forced to leave the +window-curtains, behind which he had ensconced himself, and advance into +the centre of the room. "Oh, here you are at last; will you take Mrs. +Damer down to dinner?" and proceeding immediately with the usual form of +introduction--"Mr. Laurence--Mrs. Damer." + +They bowed to each other; but over the lady's face, as she went through +her share of the introduction, there passed so indescribable, and yet so +unmistakable a change, that Mrs. Clayton, although not very quick, could +not help observing it, and she said, involuntarily-- + +"Have you met Mr. Laurence before, Blanche?" + +"I believe I have had that pleasure--in London--many years ago." + +The last words came out so faintly that they were almost +undistinguishable. + +"Why didn't you tell me so?" said Bella Clayton, reproachfully, to Mr. +Laurence. + +He was beginning to stammer out some excuse about its having been so +long ago, when Mrs. Damer came to his aid, in her clear, cold voice-- + +"It _was_ very long ago: we must both be forgiven for having forgotten +the circumstance." + +"Well, you must renew your acquaintanceship at dinner," said Mrs. +Clayton, blithely, as she trotted off to make matters pleasant between +the rest of her visitors. As she did so, Mr. Laurence remained standing +by the sofa, but he did not attempt to address Mrs. Damer. Only, when +the room was nearly cleared, he held out his arm to her, and she rose to +accept it. But the next minute she had sunk back again upon the sofa, +and Mrs. Clayton was at her cousin's side. Mrs. Damer had fainted. + +"Poor darling!" exclaimed Colonel Damer, as he pressed forward to the +side of his wife. "I was afraid coming down to-night would be too much +for her, but she would make the attempt; she has so much spirit. Pray +don't delay the dinner, Mrs. Clayton; I will stay by her, if you will +excuse the apparent rudeness, until she is sufficiently recovered to go +to bed." + +But even as he spoke his wife raised herself from the many arms which +supported her, and essayed to gain her feet. + +"Bella, dear! I am all right again. Pray, if you love me, don't make a +scene about a little fatigue. I often faint now: let me go up to my +bedroom and lie down, as I ought to have done at first, and I shall be +quite well to-morrow morning." + +She would accept no one's help--not even her husband's, though it +distressed him greatly that she refused it--but walked out of the room +of her own accord, and toiled wearily up the staircase which led her to +the higher stories; whilst more than one pair of eyes watched her +ascent, and more than one appetite was spoilt for the coming meal. + +"Don't you think that Blanche is looking very ill?" demanded Bella +Clayton of Colonel Damer, at the dinner-table. She had been much struck +herself with the great alteration in her cousin's looks, and fancied +that her husband was not so alarmed about it as he ought to be. + +"I do, indeed," he replied; "but it is the last thing she will +acknowledge herself. She has very bad spirits and appetite; appears +always in a low fever, and is so nervous that the least thing will +frighten her. That, to me, is the worst and most surprising change of +all: such a high-couraged creature as she used to be." + +"Yes, indeed," replied Mrs. Clayton; "I can hardly imagine Blanche being +nervous at anything. It must have come on since her visit to the +Continent, for she was not so when she stayed here last." + +"When was that?" demanded the Colonel, anxiously. + +"Just three years ago this Christmas," was the answer. "I don't think I +ever saw her look better than she did then, and she was the life of the +house. But soon afterwards she went to Paris, and then we heard of her +illness, and this is my first meeting with her since that time. I was +very much shocked when she got out of the carriage: I should scarcely +have known her again." Here Mrs. Clayton stopped, seeing that the +attention of Mr. Laurence, who sat opposite to her, appeared to be +riveted on her words, and Colonel Damer relapsed into thought and spoke +no more. + +In the meanwhile Mrs. Damer had gained her bedroom. Women had come to +attend upon her, sent by their mistress, and laden with offers of +refreshment and help of every kind, but she had dismissed them and +chosen to be alone. She felt too weak to be very restless, but she had +sat by the fire and cried, until she was so exhausted that her bed +suggested itself to her, as the best place in which she could be; but +rising to undress, preparatory to seeking it, she had nearly fallen, and +catching feebly at the bedpost had missed it, and sunk down by the side +of the solid black box, which was clamped with iron and fastened with a +padlock, and respecting which she had been so particular a few hours +before. She felt as if she was dying, and as if this were the fittest +place for her to die on. "There is nothing in my possession," she cried, +"that really belongs to me but _this_--this which I loathe and abhor, +and love and weep over at one and the same moment." And, strange to +relate, Mrs. Damer turned on her side and kneeling by the iron-clamped +chest pressed her lips upon its hard, unyielding surface, as if it had +life wherewith to answer her embrace. And then the wearied creature +dragged herself up again into an unsteady position, and managed to +sustain it until she was ready to lie down upon her bed. + +The next morning she was much better. Colonel Damer and Bella Clayton +laid their heads together and decided that she was to remain in bed +until after breakfast, therefore she was spared meeting with the +assembled strangers until the dinner-hour again, for luncheon was a +desultory meal at Molton Chase, and scarcely any of the gentlemen were +present at it that day. After luncheon Mrs. Clayton proposed driving +Mrs. Damer out in her pony-chaise. + +"I don't think you will find it cold, dear, and we can come home by the +lower shrubberies and meet the gentlemen as they return from shooting," +Colonel Damer being one of the shooting party. But Mrs. Damer had +declined the drive, and made her cousin understand so plainly that she +preferred being left alone, that Mrs. Clayton felt no compunction in +acceding to her wishes, and laying herself out to please the other +ladies staying in the house. + +And Mrs. Damer did wish to be alone. She wanted to think over the +incidents of the night before, and devise some plan by which she could +persuade her husband to leave the Grange as soon as possible without +provoking questions which she might find it difficult to answer. When +the sound of the wheels of her cousin's pony-chaise had died away, and +the great stillness pervading Molton Grange proclaimed that she was the +sole inmate left behind, she dressed herself in a warm cloak, and +drawing the hood over her head prepared for a stroll about the grounds. +A little walk she thought would do her good, and with this intention she +left the house. The Grange gardens were extensive and curiously laid +out, and there were many winding shrubbery paths about them, which +strangers were apt to find easier to enter than to find their way out of +again. Into one of these Mrs. Damer now turned her steps for the sake of +privacy and shelter; but she had not gone far before, on turning an +abrupt corner, she came suddenly upon the figure of the gentleman she +had been introduced to the night before, Mr. Laurence, who she had +imagined to be with the shooting party. He was half lying, half sitting +across a rustic seat which encircled the huge trunk of an old tree, with +his eyes bent upon the ground and a cigar between his lips. He was more +an intellectual and fine-looking than a handsome man, but he possessed +two gifts which are much more winning than beauty, a mind of great +power, and the art of fascination. As Mrs. Damer came full in view of +him, too suddenly to stop herself or to retreat, he rose quickly from +the attitude he had assumed when he thought himself secure from +interruption and stood in her pathway. She attempted to pass him with an +inclination of the head, but he put out his hand and stopped her. + +"Blanche! you must speak to me; you shall not pass like this; I insist +upon it!" and she tried in vain to disengage her arm from his detaining +clasp. + +"Mr. Laurence, what right have you to hold me thus?" + +"What right, Blanche? The right of every man over the woman who loves +him!" + +"That is your right over me no longer. I have tried to avoid you. You +have both seen and known it! No _gentleman_ would force himself upon my +notice in this manner." + +"Your taunt fails to have any effect upon me. I have sought an +explanation of your extraordinary conduct from you in vain. My letters +have been unanswered, my entreaties for a last interview disregarded; +and now that chance has brought us together again, I must have what I +have a right to ask from your own lips. I did not devise this meeting; I +did not even know you had returned to England till yesterday, and then I +sought to avoid you; but it was fated that we should meet, and it is +fated that you satisfy my curiosity." + +"What do you want to know?" she asked, in a low voice. + +"First, have you ceased to love me?" + +The angry light which had flashed across her face when he used force to +detain her died away; the pallid lips commenced to tremble, and in the +sunken eyes large tear-drops rose and hung quivering upon the long +eyelashes. + +"Enough, Blanche," Mr. Laurence continued, in a softer voice. "Nature +answers me. I will not give you the needless pain of speaking. Then, why +did you forsake me? Why did you leave England without one line of +farewell, and why have you refused to hold any communication with me +since that time?" + +"I _could_ not," she murmured. "You do not know; you cannot feel; you +could never understand my feelings on that occasion." + +"That is no answer to my question, Blanche," he said firmly, "and an +answer I will have. What was the immediate cause of your breaking faith +with me? I loved you, you know how well. What drove you from me? Was it +fear, or indifference, or a sudden remorse?" + +"It was," she commenced slowly, and then as if gathering up a great +resolution, she suddenly exclaimed, "Do you _really_ wish to know what +parted us?" + +"I really intend to know," he replied, and the old power which he had +held over her recommenced its sway. "Whatever it was it has not tended +to your happiness," he continued, "if I may judge from your looks. You +are terribly changed, Blanche! I think even I could have made you +happier than you appear to have been." + +"I have had enough to change me," she replied. "If you will know then, +come with me, and I will show you." + +"To-day?" + +"At once; to-morrow may be too late." She began to walk towards the +house as she spoke, rapidly and irregularly, her heart beating fast, but +no trace of weakness in her limbs; and Herbert Laurence followed her, he +scarcely knew why, expecting that she had desired it. + +Into Molton Grange she went, up the broad staircase and to her chamber +door before she paused to see if he was following. When she did so she +found that he stood just behind her on the wide landing. + +"You can enter," she said, throwing open the door of her bedroom, "don't +be afraid; there is nothing here except the cause for which I parted +with you." In her agitation and excitement, scarcely pausing to fasten +the door behind her, Mrs. Damer fell down on her knees before the little +black box with its iron clamps and ponderous padlock; and drawing a key +from her bosom, applied it to the lock, and in another minute had thrown +back the heavy lid. Having displaced some linen which lay at the top, +she carefully removed some lighter materials, and then calling to the +man behind her, bid him look in and be satisfied. Mr. Laurence advanced +to the box, quite ignorant as to the reason of her demand; but as his +eye fell upon its contents, he started backwards and covered his face +with his hands. As he drew them slowly away again he met the sad, +earnest look with which the kneeling woman greeted him, and for a few +moments they gazed at one another in complete silence. Then Mrs. Damer +withdrew her eyes from his and rearranged the contents of the black box; +the heavy lid shut with a clang, the padlock was fast again, the key in +her bosom, and she rose to her feet and prepared to leave the room in +the same unbroken silence. But he again detained her, and this time his +voice was hoarse and changed. + +"Blanche! tell me, is this the truth?" + +"As I believe in heaven," she answered. + +"And this was the reason that we parted--this the sole cause of our +estrangement?" + +"Was it not enough?" she said. "I erred, but it was as one in a dream. +When I awoke I could no longer err and be at peace. At peace did I say? +I have known no peace since I knew you; but I should have died and waked +up in hell, if I had not parted with you. This is all the truth, believe +it or not as you will; but there may, there can be nothing in future +between you and me. Pray let me pass you." + +"But that--that--box, Blanche!" exclaimed Herbert Laurence, with drops +of sweat, notwithstanding the temperature of the day, upon his forehead. +"It was an accident, a misfortune; _you_ did not do it?" + +She turned upon him eyes which were full of mingled horror and scorn. + +"I _do_ it!" she said; "what are you dreaming of? I was mad; but not so +mad as that! How could you think it?" and the tears rose in her eyes +more at the supposition which his question had raised than at the idea +that he could so misjudge her. + +"But why do you keep this? why do you carry it about with you, Blanche? +It is pure insanity on your part. How long is it since you have +travelled in company with that dreadful box?" + +"More than two years," she said in a fearful whisper. "I have tried to +get rid of it, but to no purpose; there was always some one in the way. +I have reasoned with myself, and prayed to be delivered from it, but I +have never found an opportunity. And now, what does it matter? The +burden and heat of the day are past." + +"Let me do it for you," said Mr. Laurence. "Whatever our future relation +to one another, I cannot consent that you should run so terrible a risk +through fault of mine. The strain upon your mind has been too great +already. Would to heaven I could have borne it for you! but you forbid +me even the privilege of knowing that you suffered. Now that I have +ascertained it, it must be my care that the cause of our separation +shall at least live in your memory only." And as he finished speaking he +attempted to lift the box; but Mrs. Damer sprang forward and prevented +him. + +"Leave it!" she cried; "do not dare to touch it; it is _mine_! It has +gone wherever I have gone for years. Do you think, for the little space +that is left me, that I would part with the only link left between me +and my dread past?" and saying this she threw herself upon the black +trunk and burst into tears. + +"Blanche! you love me as you ever did," exclaimed Herbert Laurence. +"These tears confess it. Let me make amends to you for this; let me try +to make the happiness of your future life!" + +But before his sentence was concluded Mrs. Damer had risen from her +drooping attitude and stood before him. + +"Make amends!" she echoed scornfully. "How can you 'make amends'? +Nothing can wipe out the memory of the shame and misery that I have +passed through, nothing restore the quiet conscience I have lost. I do +not know if I love you still or not. When I think of it, my head swims, +and I only feel confused and anxious. But I am sure of one thing, that +the horror of my remorse for even having listened to you has power to +overwhelm any regret that may be lingering in my unworthy breast, and +that the mere fact of your bodily presence is agony to me. When I met +you to-day I was battling with my invention to devise some means of +leaving the place where you are without exciting suspicion. If you ever +loved, have pity on me now; take the initiative, and rid me of +yourself." + +"Is this your final decision, Blanche?" he asked, slowly. "Will you not +regret it when too late, and you are left alone with only _that_?" + +She shuddered, and he caught at the fact as a sign of relenting. + +"Dearest, loveliest," he commenced.--This woman had been the loveliest +to him in days gone past, and though she was so terribly changed in eyes +that regarded her less, Herbert Laurence, her once lover, could still +trace above the languor and debility and distress of her present +appearance, the fresh, sparkling woman who had sacrificed herself for +his sake; and although his style of address signified more than he +really thought for her, the knowledge of how much she had undergone +since their separation had the power to make him imagine that this +partial reanimation of an old flame was a proof that the fire which +kindled it had never perished. Therefore it did not appear absurd in his +mental eyes to preface his appeal to Mrs. Damer thus: "Dearest, +loveliest--" but she turned upon him as though he had insulted her. + +"Mr. Laurence!" she exclaimed, "I have told you that the past is past; +be good enough to take me at my word. Do you think that I have lived +over two years of solitary shame and grief, to break the heart that +trusts in me _now_? If I had any wish, or any thought to the contrary, +it would be impossible. I am enveloped by kind words and acts, by care +and attention, which chain me as closely to my home as if I were kept a +prisoner between four walls. I could not free myself if I would," she +continued, throwing back her arms, as though she tried to break an +invisible thrall. "I must die first; the cords of gratitude are bound +about me so closely. It is killing me, as nothing else could kill," she +added, in a lower voice. "I lived under your loss, and the knowledge of +my own disgrace; but I cannot live under his perpetual kindness and +perfect trust. It cannot last much longer: for mercy's sake, leave me in +peace until the end comes!" + +"And the box?" he demanded. + +"I will provide for the box before that time," she answered, sadly; "but +if you have any fear, keep the key yourself: the lock is not one that +can be forced." + +She took the key from her bosom, where it hung on a broad black ribbon, +as she spoke, and handed it to him. He accepted it without demur. + +"You are so rash," he said; "it will be safer with me: let me take the +box also?" + +"No, no!" said Mrs. Damer, hurriedly; "you shall not; and it would be no +use. If it were out of my sight, I should dream that it was found, and +talk of it in my sleep. I often rise in the night now to see if it is +safe. Nothing could do away with it. If you buried it, some one would +dig it up; if you threw it in the water, it would float. It would lie +still nowhere but on my heart, where it ought to be!--it ought to be!" + +Her eyes had reassumed the wild, restless expression which they took +whilst speaking of the past, and her voice had sunk to a low, fearful +whisper. + +"This is madness," muttered Herbert Laurence; and he was right. On the +subject of the black box Mrs. Damer's brain was turned. + +He was just about to speak to her again, and try to reason her out of +her folly, when voices were heard merrily talking together in the hall, +and her face worked with the dread of discovery. + +"Go!" she said; "pray, go at once. I have told you everything." And in +another moment Herbert Laurence had dashed through the passage to the +privacy of his own room; and Mrs. Clayton, glowing from her drive, and +with a fine rosy baby in her arms, had entered the apartment of her +cousin. + + + + +II + + +Bella found her cousin sitting in an arm-chair, with the cloak still +over her shoulders, and a face of ashy whiteness, the reaction of her +excitement. + +"My dear, how ill you look!" was her first exclamation. "Have you been +out?" + +"I went a little way into the shrubberies," said Mrs. Damer; "but the +day turned so cold." + +"Do you think so? We have all been saying what a genial afternoon it is: +but it certainly does not seem to have agreed with you. Look at my boy: +isn't he a fine fellow?--he has been out all day in the garden. I often +wish you had a child, Blanchey." + +"Do you, dear? it is more than I do." + +"Ah, but you can't tell, till they are really yours, how much pleasure +they give you; no one knows who has not been a mother." + +"No; I suppose not." + +Mrs. Damer shivered as she said the words, and looked into the baby's +fat, unmeaning face with eyes of sad import. Mrs. Clayton thought she +had wounded her cousin, and stooped to kiss the slight offence away; but +she fancied that Blanche almost shrunk from her embrace. + +"She must be really ill," thought the kindly little Bella, who had no +notion of such a thing as heart-sickness for an apparently happy married +woman. "She ought to see a doctor: I shall tell Colonel Damer so." + +In another half-hour they were at her side together, urging her to take +their advice. + +"Now, my darling," said the Colonel, when Mrs. Damer faintly protested +against being made a fuss about, "you must be good for my sake. You know +how precious you are to me, and how it would grieve me to have you laid +up; let me send for Dr. Barlow, as your cousin advises. You were very +much overcome by the long journey here, and I am afraid the subsequent +excitement of seeing your kind friends has been too much for you. You do +not half know how dear you are to me, Blanche, or you would not refuse +such a trifling request. Here have I been, for five years, dearest, only +looking forward from day to day to meeting my dear loving little wife +again; and then to have you so ill as this the first month of our +reunion, is a great trial to me. Pray let me send for Dr. Barlow." + +But Mrs. Damer pleaded for delay. She had become chilled through being +out in the shrubberies; she had not yet got over the fatigue of her +journey; she had caught a cold whilst crossing from Havre to Folkestone: +it was anything and everything but an illness which required medical +attendance. If she were not better in the morning, she promised to make +no opposition to their wishes. + +So she forced herself to rise and dress for dinner. She appeared there +calm and collected, and continued so throughout the evening, talking +with Mr. Laurence quite as much as with the rest of the company; and she +went to bed at the same hour as the other guests of Molton Grange, +receiving with her cousin's good-night, congratulations on the evident +improvement of her health. + +"I cannot quite make out what has come to that cousin of yours, Bella," +said Harry Clayton to his wife, as they too retired for the night; "she +doesn't appear half such a jolly woman as she used to be." + +"She is certainly very much altered," was Mrs. Clayton's response; "but +I think it must be chiefly owing to her health; a feeling of debility is +so very depressing." + +"I suppose it can't be anything on her mind, Bella?" suggested the +husband, after a pause. + +"On her _mind_, Harry!" said Bella, sitting up in bed in her wonderment; +"of course not; why, how could it be? She has everything she can wish +for; and, I am sure, no woman could have a more devoted husband than +Colonel Damer. He has been speaking a great deal about her to me to-day, +and his anxiety is something enormous. On her _mind_!--what a funny +idea, Harry; what could have put that in your head?" + +"I am sure I don't know," was the husband's reply, rather ruefully +given, as if conscious he had made a great mistake. + +"You old _goose_," said his wife, with an emphatic kiss, as she composed +herself to her innocent slumbers. + +But before they were broken by nature, in the gray of the morning, Mrs. +Clayton was roused by a tapping at the bedroom door; a tapping to which +all Mr. Clayton's shouts to "come in," only served as a renewal. + +"Who can it be, Harry?--do get up and see," said Bella. + +So Harry got up, like a dutiful husband, and opened the door, and the +figure of Colonel Damer, robed in a dressing-gown, and looking very +shadowy and unreal in the dawning, presented itself on the threshold. + +"Is your wife here?" demanded the Colonel briefly. + +"Of course she is," said Mr. Clayton, wondering what the Colonel wanted +with her. + +"Will she come to Mrs. Damer? she is _very_ ill," was the next sentence, +delivered tremblingly. + +"Very ill!" exclaimed Bella, jumping out of bed and wrapping herself in +a dressing-gown. "How do you mean, Colonel Damer?--when did it happen?" + +"God knows!" he said, in an agitated voice; "but for some time after she +fell asleep she was feverish and excited, and spoke much. I woke +suddenly in the night and missed her, and going in search of her with a +light, found her fallen on the landing." + +"Fainted?" said Bella. + +"I don't know now whether it was a faint or a fit," he replied, "but I +incline to the latter belief. I carried her back to her bed, and gave +her some restoratives, not liking to disturb you--" + +"Oh! why didn't you, Colonel Damer?" interposed his hostess. + +"--and thought she was better, till just now, when she had another +attack of unconsciousness, and is so weak after it she cannot move. She +has fever too, I am sure, from the rapidity of her pulse, and I don't +think her head is quite clear." + +"Harry, dear, send for Dr. Barlow at once," thrusting her naked feet +into slippers, "and come back with me, Colonel Damer; she should not be +left for a minute." + +And she passed swiftly along the corridor to her cousin's room. As she +neared that of Mr. Laurence, the door opened a little, and a voice asked +huskily-- + +"Is anything the matter, Mrs. Clayton? I have been listening to noises +in the house for the last hour." + +"My cousin, Mrs. Damer, has been taken ill, Mr. Laurence, but we have +sent for the doctor; I am going to her now." + +And as the door closed again she fancied that she heard a sigh. + +Blanche Damer was lying on her pillows very hot and flushed, with that +anxious, perturbed look which the eyes assume when the brain is only +half clouded, and can feel itself to be wandering. + +"Blanche, dearest," cried Bella, as she caught sight of her face, "what +is the matter? How did this happen?" + +"I dreamt that he had taken it," said Mrs. Damer, slowly and sadly; "but +it was a mistake: he must not have it yet--not yet! only a little while +to wait now!--but he has the key." + +"Her mind is wandering at present," said Colonel Damer, who had followed +Mrs. Clayton into the room. + +"Oh, Colonel Damer," exclaimed Bella, tearfully, "how dreadful it +is!--she frightens me! Could she have knocked her head in falling? Have +you no idea why she got up and went into the passage?" + +"Not the slightest," he returned. And now that she examined him under +the morning light, which was by this time streaming through the open +shutters, Bella Clayton saw how aged and haggard his night's anxiety had +made him look. "My wife has been very subject to both sleeping-talking +and walking since my return, and I have several times missed her, as I +did last night, and found her walking about the room in her sleep, but +she has never been like this before. When I first found her in the +passage, I asked her why she had gone there, or what she wanted, and she +said, 'the key.' When I had relifted her into bed, I found her bunch of +keys as usual, on the dressing-table, therefore I imagine she could not +then have known what she was talking about. I trust Dr. Barlow will not +be long in coming; I am deeply anxious." + +And he looked the truth of what he uttered; whilst poor little Mrs. +Clayton could only press his hand and entreat him to be hopeful; and his +wife lay on her pillows, and silently stared into vacancy. + +As soon as the doctor arrived he pronounced the patient to be suffering +from an attack of pressure on the brain, and wished to know whether she +had not been subjected to some great mental shock or strain. + +Here Colonel Damer came forward and stoutly denied the possibility of +such a thing. He had joined his wife from India a month ago, at which +time she was, though in delicate, not in bad health, and he had never +left her since. They had crossed from Havre to Folkestone three days +before, and Mrs. Damer had not complained of any unusual sickness or +fatigue. She was a person of a highly excitable and nervous temperament, +and her appetite and spirit were variable; otherwise there had been +nothing in her state of health to call for anxiety on the part of her +friends. + +Dr. Barlow listened to all these statements, and believed as much of +them as he chose. However he waived the subject of the cause of the +disaster; the fact that it had occurred was undeniable; and the remedies +for such emergencies were immediately resorted to. But all proved alike +ineffectual, for the simple reason that the irrevocable fiat had gone +forth, and Blanche Damer was appointed to die. + +As the day wore on, and the case assumed a darker aspect, and the +doctor's prognostications became less hopeful, Colonel Damer worked +himself into a perfect frenzy of fear. + +"Save her, Dr. Barlow," he had said to that gentleman, in the insane +manner in which people are used to address the Faculty, as if it was in +their power to do more than help the efforts of nature. "Save her life, +for God's sake! and there is nothing that I can do for you, of earthly +good, that shall not be yours. Shall I call in other advice? Shall I +telegraph to London? Is there anyone there who can save her? It is my +life as well as hers that is trembling in the scale. For the love of +heaven, do not stand on ceremony, but only tell me what is best to be +done!" + +Of course Dr. Barlow told him that if he was not perfectly satisfied, he +should wish him to telegraph to town for further advice, and mentioned +several names celebrated in such cases; at the same time he assured +Colonel Damer that he did not believe any number of doctors could do +more for the patient than he was doing, and that it was impossible to +guess at the probable termination of the illness for some days to come. + +Bella Clayton gave up the duty of amusing her guests, and stationed +herself at the bedside of her cousin; and the unhappy husband wandered +in and out of the room like a ghost; trying to think upon each fresh +visit, that there was a slight improvement in the symptoms, and spending +the intervening time in praying for the life which he fondly imagined +had been devoted to himself. Meanwhile, whenever Mrs. Damer opened her +lips, it was to ramble on in this manner: + +"Dying!" her hollow voice would exclaim; "crushed to death beneath the +weight of a pyramid of blessings that lies like lead upon my chest and +reaches to the ceiling. Kind words--fond care, and sweet +attentions--they bow me down to the earth! I am stifling beneath the +burden of their silent reproaches. Two and two are four; and four and +four is eight; eight times locked should be secure--but there is a worm +that dieth not, and a fire that is not quenched." + +"Oh! don't come in here, Colonel Damer," poor Bella would exclaim, as +the unhappy man would creep to the foot of the bed and stand listening, +with blanched cheeks, to the delirious ravings of his wife. "She doesn't +know what she is saying, remember; and she will be better to-morrow, +doubtless. Don't distress yourself more, by listening to all this +nonsense." + +"I don't believe she will ever be better, Mrs. Clayton," he replied, on +one of these occasions. This was on the third day. + +"Dearest!" the sick woman resumed, in a plaintively soft voice, without +being in the least disturbed by the conversation around her, "if you +have ever loved me, you will believe in this hour that I love you in +return. If you have given me your love, I have given you more than my +life." + +"Does she speak of me?" demanded Colonel Damer. + +"I think so," said Bella Clayton, sadly. + +"Take it off! take it off!" cried Mrs. Damer, starting with +terror--"this box--this iron-clamped box which presses on my soul. What +have I done? Where shall I go? How am I to meet him again?" + +"What does she say?" asked the Colonel, trembling. + +"Colonel Damer, I must beg you to quit the room," said Bella, weeping. +"I cannot bear to stay here with both of you. Pray leave me alone with +Blanche until she is quieter." + +And so the husband left the chamber, with fellow tears in his eyes, and +she set herself to the painful task of attempting to soothe the +delirious woman. + +"If he would only strike me," moaned Mrs. Damer, "or frown at me, or +tell me that I lie, I could bear it better; but he is killing me with +kindness. Where is the box?--open it--let him see all. I am ready to +die. But I forgot--there is no key, and no one shall touch it: it is +mine--mine. Hark! I hear it! I hear it! How could I put it there? Let me +go--no one shall hold me! Let me go, I say--I _hear_ it; and--and--the +world is nothing to me!" + +At last, when they had almost despaired of ever seeing her sleep again, +there came an uninterrupted hour of repose from sheer weariness; and +then wide-open hollow eyes--a changed voice sounding with the +question--"Bella! have I been ill?" and Mrs. Damer's delirium was over. + +Over with her life. For on his next visit Dr. Barlow found her sensible +but cold and pulseless, and broke to her friends the news that twelve +hours more would end her existence. + +Colonel Damer went wild, and telegraphed at once to London for men who +arrived when his wife was ready to be coffined. Bella heard the decree +and wept silently; and a great gloom fell upon the guests of Molton +Chase, who had been left altogether on poor Harry's hands since Mrs. +Damer's illness. + +The dying woman lay very silent and exhausted for some time after she +had waked from that brief, memory-restoring sleep. When she next spoke, +she said, observing her cousin's swollen eyes-- + +"Am I dying, Bella?" + +Poor little Mrs. Clayton did not at all know what answer to make to such +a direct question, but she managed to stammer out something which, +whatever it was meant for, was taken as affirmative by the one it most +concerned. + +"I thought so. Shall I never be able to get out of bed again?" + +"I am afraid not, darling--you are so weak!" + +"Yes, I am--I can hardly raise my hand. And yet I must rise if I can. I +have something so particular to do." + +"Cannot I do it for you, Blanche?" + +"_Will_ you do it, Bella?" + +"Anything--everything, love! How can you ask me?" + +"And you will promise secrecy? Let me look in your face. Yes, it is a +true face, as it has ever been, and I can trust you. Have the black box +moved out of my room before I die, Bella--mind, _before_ I die, and +placed in your own dressing-room." + +"What, dear, your linen box?" + +"Yes, my linen box, or whatever you choose to call it. Take it away _at +once_, Bella. Tell no one; and when I am dead, have it buried in my +grave. Surely you could manage so much for me!" + +"And Colonel Damer?" + +"If you speak to him about it, Bella, or to your husband, or to any one, +I'll never forgive you, and I'm dying!" cried Mrs. Damer, almost rising +in her excitement. "Oh! why have I delayed it so long, why did I not see +to this before? I cannot even die in peace." + +"Yes, yes, dearest Blanche, I will do it, indeed I will," said Mrs. +Clayton, alarmed at her emotion; "and no one shall know of it but +myself. Shall I send it to my room at once? You may trust entirely to my +discretion. Pray, have no fear!" + +"Yes! at once--directly; it cannot be too soon!" said Mrs. Damer, +falling back exhausted on her pillow. So a servant was called, and the +iron-clamped box was carried away from the sick-room and secreted in +Mrs. Clayton's private apartment. Mrs. Damer seemed so weak, that her +cousin suggested summoning her husband to her side, but she appeared to +shrink from an interview with him. + +"I have nothing to say but what will make him sad to think of +afterwards," she murmured. "Let me die with you alone, dear Bella. It is +better so." + +So Colonel Damer, although he went backwards and forwards all the night, +was not called at any particular moment to see the last of his wife, and +Blanche had her wish. She died alone with her faithful little cousin +before the morning broke. As she was just going, she said, in a vague +sort of manner-- + +"Tell him, Bella, that I forgive him as I hope to be forgiven. And that +I have seen Heaven open to-night, and a child spirit pleading with the +Woman-born for us; and that the burden is lifted off my soul at last." +And then she added solemnly--"I will arise and go to my Father--," and +went before she could finish the sentence. + +Innocent Bella repeated her last message in perfect faith to Colonel +Damer. + +"She told me to tell you, that she felt herself forgiven, and that she +had seen Heaven opened for her, and the weight of her sins was lifted +off her soul. Oh! Colonel Damer, pray think of that, and take comfort. +She is happier than you could make her." + +But the poor faithful husband was, for the present, beyond all reach of +comfort. + +The London doctors arrived with the daylight, and had to be solemnly +entertained at breakfast, and warmed and comforted before they were +despatched home again. The Christmas guests were all packing up their +boxes, preparatory to taking their leave of Molton Chase, for it was +impossible to think of festivities with such a bereavement in the house. +And Harry Clayton told his wife that he was very thankful that they +thought of doing so. + +"It has been a most unfortunate business altogether, Bella, and of +course they all felt it, poor things; and the more so because they could +take no active part in it. The house has had a pall over it the last +week; and it would have been still worse if they had remained. As for +Laurence, I never saw a man so cut up. He has eaten nothing since your +poor cousin was taken ill. One would think she had been his sister, or +his dearest friend." + +"Is he going with the rest, Harry?" + +"No; he will stay till after the funeral; then he is going abroad. He +feels deeply with you, Bella, and desired me to tell you so." + +"He is very good--thank him in my name." + + * * * * * + +But released from the care of thinking for her guests, and sitting +crying alone in her dressing-room, poor Mrs. Clayton could not imagine +what to do with the iron-clamped black box. She had promised Blanche not +to confide in her husband, or Colonel Damer. The latter, having no +family vault, wished to lay the remains of his wife amongst those of the +Claytons in the country churchyard of Molton; but how to get the black +box conveyed to the grave without the knowledge of the chief mourners +was a mystery beyond the fathoming of Bella's open heart. But in the +midst of her perplexity, Fate sent her aid. On the second day of her +cousin's death, a gentle tap sounded at her chamber door, and on her +invitation to enter being answered, she was surprised to see Mr. +Laurence on the threshold--come, as she imagined, to offer his sympathy +in person. + +"This is very kind of you, Mr. Laurence," she said. + +"I can scarcely claim your gratitude, Mrs. Clayton. I have sought you to +speak on a very important but painful subject. May I ask your attention +for a few moments?" + +"Of course you may!" And she motioned him to a seat. + +"It concerns her whom we have lost. Mrs. Clayton, tell me truly--did you +love your cousin?" + +"Dearly--very dearly, Mr. Laurence. We were brought up together." + +"Then I may depend on your discretion; and if you wish to save her +memory you must exercise it in her behalf. There is a small iron-clamped +black trunk amongst her boxes, which must not fall into Colonel Damer's +hands. Will you have that box conveyed from her chamber to your own, and +(if you will so far trust my honour) make it over to me?" + +"To you, Mr. Laurence--the iron-bound box? What possible knowledge can +you have of my cousin's secret?" + +"Her secret?" + +"Yes--she confided that box to my care the night she died. She made me +promise to do (without question) what you have just asked me to perform, +and I did it. The trunk is already here." + +And throwing open a cupboard at the side of the room, she showed him the +chest which he had mentioned. + +"I see that it is," he answered. "How do you design disposing of it?" + +"She wished it to be buried in her grave." + +"That is impossible in its present state. The contents must be removed." + +"But how?" Mrs. Clayton demanded, in surprise. "It is locked and double +locked, and there is no key." + +"_I_ have the key," he answered, gravely. + +"Oh! Mr. Laurence," exclaimed his hostess, trembling, "there is some +dreadful mystery here. For heaven's sake tell me what it is! What +connection can you possibly have with this box of my poor cousin's, if +you have only met her once in your life?" + +"Did she say so?" he asked. + +"No; but I fancied so. Have you known her? When? where? and why did you +not tell us so before?" + +"How can I tell you now?" he said, gazing into the pure womanly face +upraised to his own, bearing an expression which was half-surprise and +half-fear but which seemed as though it could never dream of anything +like shame. + +"You are too good and too happy, Mrs. Clayton, to know of, or be able to +sympathize with, the troubles and temptations which preceded our fatal +friendship and her fall." + +"Blanche's _fall_!" ejaculated Bella Clayton, in a voice of horror. + +"Don't interrupt me, please, Mrs. Clayton," he said, hurriedly, covering +his face with his hands, "or I shall never be able to tell you the +wretched story. I knew your cousin years ago. Had you any suspicion that +she was unhappy in her marriage?" + +"No! none!" replied Bella, with looks of surprise. + +"She _was_ then, thoroughly unhappy, as scores of women are, simply +because the hearts of the men they are bound to are opposed to theirs in +every taste and feeling. I met her when she first returned to England, +and--it is the old story, Mrs. Clayton--I loved her, and was mad enough +to tell her so. When a selfish man and an unselfish woman have mutually +confessed their preference for each other, the result is easily +anticipated. I ruined her--forgive my plain speaking--and she still +loved on, and forgave me." + +"Oh, Blanche!" exclaimed Bella Clayton, hiding her hot face in her +hands. + +"We lived in a fool's paradise for some months, and then one day she +left her house and went to the Continent, without giving me any warning +of her intention. I was thunderstruck when I heard it, and deeply hurt, +and as soon as I had traced her to Paris, I followed and demanded an +explanation of her conduct. But she refused to see me, and when she +found me pertinacious, left the city as suddenly as she had done that of +London. Since which time she has answered no letters of mine, nor did we +ever meet until, most unexpectedly, I met her in your house. My pride, +after her first refusals to see me, was too great to permit me to renew +my entreaties, and so I called her a flirt, and inconstant. I tried to +banish her remembrance from my heart--and I thought I had succeeded." + +"Oh, my poor darling!" exclaimed Mrs. Clayton. "This accounts then for +her holding aloof from all her relations for so long a time, by which +means she estranged herself from many of them. She was working out her +penitence and deep remorse in solitary misery; and she would not even +let me share her confidence. But about the box, Mr. Laurence; what has +all this to do with the black box?" + +"When I met her in your shrubbery the other day, and reproached her for +her desertion of me, insisting upon her giving me the reason of her +change of mind, she bade me follow her to her own apartment. There, +unlocking the box before you, she showed me its contents." + +"And they are--?" inquired Mrs. Clayton, breathlessly. + +"Would you like to see them?" he demanded, taking a key from his pocket. +"I have as much right to show them you as she would have had. But is +your love for her dead memory and reputation strong enough to insure +your eternal secrecy on the subject?" + +"It is," said Bella Clayton, decidedly. + +"This box," continued Mr. Laurence, applying the key he held to the lock +of the iron-clamped black trunk, "has accompanied my poor girl on all +her travels for the last two years. The dreadful secret of its contents +which she bore in silent, solitary misery all that time has been, I +believe, the ultimate cause of her death, by proving too heavy a burden +for the sensitive and proud spirit which was forced to endure the +knowledge of its shame. She was killed by her remorse. If you have +courage, Mrs. Clayton, for the sight, look at _this_--and pity the +feelings I must endure as I kneel here and look at it with you." + +He threw back the lid and the topmost linen as he spoke, and Bella +Clayton pressed eagerly forward to see, carefully laid amidst withered +flowers and folds of cambric, the tiny skeleton of a new-born creature +whose angel was even then beholding the face of his Father in Heaven. + +She covered her eyes with her clasped hands, no less to shut out the +sight than to catch the womanly tears which poured forth at it, and then +she cried between her sobs-- + +"Oh! my poor, poor Blanche, what must she not have suffered! God have +mercy on her soul!" + +"Amen!" said Herbert Laurence. + +"You will let me take the box away with me, Mrs. Clayton?" he asked, +gently. + +She looked up as he spoke, and the tears were standing in his eyes. + +"Yes--yes," she said; "take it away; do what you will with it, only +never speak of it to me again." + +He never did but once, and that was but an allusion. On the evening of +the day on which they committed the remains of Blanche Damer to the +dust, he lay in wait for Mrs. Clayton on the landing. + +"All has been done as she desired," he whispered; and Mrs. Clayton asked +for no further explanation. The secret of which she had been made an +unwilling recipient pressed so heavily on her conscience, that she was +thankful when he left Molton Grange and went abroad, as he had expressed +his intention of doing. + +Since which time she has never seen Herbert Laurence again; and Colonel +Damer, whose grief at the funeral and for some time after was nearly +frenzied, having--like most men who mourn much outwardly--found a source +of consolation in the shape of another wife, the story of Blanche +Damer's life and death is remembered, for aught her cousin knows to the +contrary, by none but herself. + +I feel that an objection will be raised to this episode by some people +on the score of its being _unnatural_; to whom all I can say in answer +is, that the principal incident on which the interest of it turns--that +of the unhappy Mrs. Damer having been made so great a coward by +conscience that she carried the proof of her frailty about with her for +years, too fearful of discovery to permit it to leave her sight--is _a +fact_. + +To vary the circumstances under which the discovery of the contents of +the black box was finally made, and to alter the names of places and +people so as to avoid general recognition, I have made my province: to +relate the story itself, since, in the form I now present it to my +readers, it can give pain to no one, I consider my privilege. + + + + +MY FASCINATING FRIEND + +William Archer + + + + +I + + +Nature has cursed me with a retiring disposition. I have gone round the +world without making a single friend by the way. Coming out of my own +shell is as difficult to me as drawing others out of theirs. There are +some men who go through life extracting the substance of every one they +meet, as one picks out periwinkles with a pin. To me my fellow-men are +oysters, and I have no oyster-knife; my sole consolation (if it be one) +is that my own values absolutely defy the oyster-knives of others. Not +more than twice or thrice in my life have I met a fellow-creature at +whose "Open Sesame" the treasures of my heart and brain stood instantly +revealed. My Fascinating Friend was one of these rare and sympathetic +beings. + +I was lounging away a few days at Monaco, awaiting a summons to join +some relations in Italy. One afternoon I had started for an aimless and +rambling climb among the olive-terraces on the lower slopes of the Tete +du Chien. Finding an exquisite coign of vantage amid the roots of a +gnarled old trunk springing from a built-up semicircular patch of level +ground, I sat me down to rest, and read, and dream. Below me, a little +to the right, Monaco jutted out into the purple sea. I could distinguish +carriages and pedestrians coming and going on the chaussee between the +promontory and Monte Carlo, but I was far too high for any sound to +reach me. Away to the left the coast took a magnificent sweep, past the +clustering houses of Roccabruna, past the mountains at whose base +Mentone nestled unseen, past the Italian frontier, past the bight of +Ventimiglia, to where the Capo di Bordighera stood faintly outlined +between sea and sky. There was not a solitary sail on the whole expanse +of the Mediterranean. A line of white, curving at rhythmic intervals +along a small patch of sandy beach, showed that there was a gentle swell +upon the sea, but its surface was mirror-like. A lovelier scene there is +not in the world, and it was at its very loveliest. I took the _Saturday +Review_ from my pocket, and was soon immersed in an article on the +commutation of tithes. + +I was aroused from my absorption by the rattle of a small stone hopping +down the steep track, half path, half stairway, by which I had ascended. +It had been loosened by the foot of a descending wayfarer, in whom, as +he picked his way slowly downward, I recognized a middle-aged German +(that I supposed to be his nationality) who had been very assiduous at +the roulette-tables of the Casino for some days past. There was nothing +remarkable in his appearance, his spectacled eyes, squat nose, and +square-cropped bristling beard being simply characteristic of his class +and country. He did not notice me as he went by, being too intent on his +footing to look about him; but I was so placed that it was a minute or +more before he passed out of sight round a bend in the path. He was just +turning the corner, and my eyes were still fixed on him, when I was +conscious of another figure within my field of vision. This second comer +had descended the same pathway, but had loosened no stones on his +passage. He trod with such exquisite lightness and agility that he had +passed close by me without my being aware of his presence, while he, for +his part, had his eyes fixed with a curious intensity on the thick-set +figure of the German, upon whom, at his rate of progress, he must have +been gaining rapidly. A glance showed me that he was a young man of +slender figure, dressed in a suit of dark-coloured tweed, of English +cut, and wearing a light-brown wide-awake hat. Just as my eye fell upon +him he put his hand into the inner breast-pocket of his coat, and drew +from it something which, as he was now well past me, I could not see. At +the same moment some small object, probably jerked out of his pocket by +mistake, fell almost noiselessly on the path at his feet. In his +apparently eager haste he did not notice his loss, but was gliding +onward, leaving what I took to be his purse lying on the path. It was +clearly my duty to call his attention to it; so I said, "Hi!" an +interjection which I have found serves its purpose in all countries. He +gave a perceptible start, and looked round at me over his shoulder. I +pointed to the object he had dropped, and said, "_Voila!_" He had thrust +back into his pocket the thing, whatever it was, which he held in his +hand, and now turned round to look where I was pointing. "Ah!" he said +in English, "my cigarette-case! I am much obliged to you," and he +stooped and picked it up. + +"I thought it was your purse," I said. + +"I would rather have lost my purse than this," he said, with a light +laugh. He had apparently abandoned his intention of overtaking the +German, who had meanwhile passed out of sight. + +"Are you such an enthusiastic smoker?" I asked. + +"I go in for quality, not quantity," he replied; "and a Spanish friend +has just given me some incomparable _cigarritos_." He opened the case as +he ascended the few steps which brought him up to my little plateau. +"Have one?" he said, holding it out to me with the most winning smile I +have ever seen on any human face. + +I was about to take one from the left-hand side of the case, when he +turned it away and presented the other side to me. + +"No, no!" he said; "these flat ones are my common brand. The round ones +are the gems." + +"I am robbing you," I said, as I took one. + +"Not if you are smoker enough to appreciate it," he said, as he +stretched himself on the ground beside me, and produced from a little +gold match-box a wax vesta, with which he lighted my cigarette and his +own. + +So graceful was his whole personality, so easy and charming his manner, +that it did not strike me as in the least odd that he should thus make +friends with me by the mere exchange of half a dozen words. I looked at +him as he lay resting on his elbows and smoking lazily. He had thrown +his hat off, and his wavy hair, longish and of an opaque charcoal black, +fell over his temples while he shook it back behind his ears. He was a +little above the middle height, of dark complexion, with large and soft +black eyes and arched eyebrows, a small and rather broad nose (the worst +feature in his face), full curving and sensitive lips, and a very strong +and rounded chin. He was absolutely beardless, but a slight black down +on the upper lip announced a coming mustache. His age could not have +been more than twenty. The cut of his clothes, as I have said, was +English, but his large black satin neck-cloth, flowing out over the +collar of his coat, was such as no home-keeping Englishman would ever +have dared to appear in. This detail, combined with his accent, +perfectly pure but a trifle precise and deliberate, led me to take him +for an Englishman brought up on the Continent--probably in Italy, for +there was no French intonation in his speech. His voice was rich, but +deep--a light baritone. + +He took up my _Saturday Review_. + +"The Bible of the Englishman abroad," he said. "One of the institutions +that makes me proud of our country." + +"I have it sent me every week," I said. + +"So had my father," he replied. "He used to say, 'Shakespeare we share +with the Americans, but damn it, the _Saturday Review_ is all our own!' +He was one of the old school, my father." + +"And the good school," I said, with enthusiasm. "So am I." + +"Now, I'm a bit of a Radical," my new friend rejoined, looking up with a +smile, which made the confession charming rather than objectionable; and +from this point we started upon a discussion, every word of which I +could write down if I chose, such a lasting impression did it make upon +me. He was indeed a brilliant talker, having read much and travelled +enormously for one so young. "I think I have lived in every country in +Europe," he said, "except Russia. Somehow it has never interested me." I +found that he was a Cambridge man, or, at least, was intimately +acquainted with Cambridge life and thought; and this was another bond +between us. His Radicalism was not very formidable; it amounted to +little more, indeed, than a turn for humorous paradox. Our discussion +reminded me of Fuller's description of the wit-combats between Ben +Jonson and Shakespeare at the "Mermaid." I was the Spanish galleon, my +Fascinating Friend was the English man-of-war, ready "to take advantage +of all winds by the quickness of his wit and invention." An hour sped +away delightfully, the only thing I did not greatly enjoy being the +cigarette, which seemed to me no better than many I had smoked before. + +"What do you think of my cigarettes?" he said, as I threw away the +stump. + +I felt that a blunt expression of opinion would be in bad taste after +his generosity in offering an utter stranger the best he had. +"Exquisite!" I answered. + +"I thought you would say so," he replied, gravely. "Have another!" + +"Let me try one of your common ones," I said. + +"No, you shan't!" he replied, closing the case with a sudden snap, which +endangered my fingers, but softening the _brusquerie_ of the proceeding +by one of his enthralling smiles; then he added, using one of the odd +idioms which gave his speech a peculiar piquancy, "I don't palm off upon +my friends what I have of second best." He re-opened the case and held +it out to me. To have refused would have been to confess that I did not +appreciate his "gems" as he called them. I smoked another, in which I +still failed to find any unusual fragrance; but the aroma of my +new-found friend's whole personality was so keen and subtle, that it may +have deadened my nerves to any more material sensation. + +We lay talking until the pink flush of evening spread along the horizon, +and in it Corsica, invisible before, seemed to body itself forth from +nothingness like an island of phantom peaks and headlands. Then we rose, +and, in the quickly gathering dusk, took our way down among the +olive-yards, and through the orange-gardens to Monte Carlo. + + + + +II + + +My acquaintance with my Fascinating Friend lasted little more than +forty-eight hours, but during that time we were inseparable. He was not +at my hotel, but on that first evening I persuaded him to dine with me, +and soon after breakfast on the following morning I went in search of +him; I was at the Russie, he at the Hotel de Paris. I found him smoking +in the veranda, and at a table not far distant sat the German of the +previous afternoon, finishing a tolerably copious _dejeuner a la +fourchette_. As soon as he had scraped his plate quite clean and +finished the last dregs of his bottle of wine, he rose and took his way +to the Casino. After a few minutes' talk with my Fascinating Friend, I +suggested a stroll over to Monaco. He agreed, and we spent the whole day +together, loitering and lounging, talking and dreaming. We went to the +Casino in the afternoon to hear the concert, and I discovered my friend +to be a cultivated musician. Then we strolled into the gambling-room for +an hour, but neither of us played. The German was busy at one of the +roulette-tables, and seemed to be winning considerably. That evening I +dined with my friend at the table d'hote of his hotel. At the other end +of the table I could see the German sitting silent and unnoticing, rapt +in the joys of deglutition. + +Next morning, by arrangement, my friend called upon me at my hotel, and +over one of his cigarettes, to which I was getting accustomed, we +discussed our plan for the day. I suggested a wider flight than +yesterday's. Had he ever been to Eza, the old Saracen robber-nest +perched on a rock a thousand feet above the sea, halfway between Monaco +and Villafranca? No, he had not been there, and after some consideration +he agreed to accompany me. We went by rail to the little station on the +seashore, and then attacked the arduous ascent. The day was perfect, +though rather too warm for climbing, and we had frequent rests among the +olive-trees, with delightfully discursive talks on all things under the +sun. My companion's charm grew upon me moment by moment. There was in +his manner a sort of refined coquetry of amiability which I found +irresistible. It was combined with a frankness of sympathy and interest +subtly flattering to a man of my unsocial habit of mind. I was conscious +every now and then that he was drawing me out; but to be drawn out so +gently and genially was, to me, a novel and delightful experience. It +produced in me one of those effusions of communicativeness to which, I +am told, all reticent people are occasionally subject. I have myself +given way to them some three or four times in my life, and found myself +pouring forth to perfect strangers such intimate details of feeling and +experience as I would rather die than impart to my dearest friend. Three +or four times, I say, have I found myself suddenly and inexplicably +brought within the influence of some invisible truth-compelling +talisman, which drew from me confessions the rack could not have +extorted; but never has the influence been so irresistible as in the +case of my Fascinating Friend. I told him what I had told to no other +human soul--what I had told to the lonely glacier, to the lurid +storm-cloud, to the seething sea, but had never breathed in mortal +ear--I told him the tragedy of my life. How well I remember the scene! +We were resting beneath the chestnut-trees that shadow a stretch of +level sward immediately below the last short stage of ascent that leads +into the heart of the squalid village now nestling in the crevices of +the old Moslem fastness. The midday hush was on sea and sky. Far out on +the horizon a level line of smoke showed where an unseen steamer was +crawling along under the edge of the sapphire sphere. As I reached the +climax of my tale an old woman, bent almost double beneath a huge fagot +of firewood, passed us on her way to the village. I remember that it +crossed my mind to wonder whether there was any capacity in the nature +of such as she for suffering at all comparable to that which I was +describing. My companion's sympathy was subtle and soothing. There was +in my tale an element of the grotesque which might have tempted a vulgar +nature to flippancy. No smile crossed my companion's lips. He turned +away his head, on pretense of watching the receding figure of the old +peasant-woman. When he looked at me again, his deep dark eyes were +suffused with a moisture which enhanced the mystery of their tenderness. +In that moment I felt, as I had never felt before, what it is to find a +friend. + +We returned to Monte Carlo late in the afternoon, and I found a telegram +at my hotel begging me to be in Genoa the following morning. I had +barely time to bundle my traps together and swallow a hasty meal before +my train was due. I scrawled a note to my new found confidant, +expressing most sincerely my sorrow at parting from him so soon and so +suddenly, and my hope that ere long we should meet again. + + + + +III + + +The train was already at the platform when I reached the station. There +were one or two first-class through carriages on it, which, for a French +railway, were unusually empty. In one of them I saw at the window the +head of the German, and from a certain subdued radiance in his +expression, I judged that he must be carrying off a considerable "pile" +from the gaming-table. His personality was not of the most attractive, +and there was something in his squat nose suggestive of stertorous +possibilities which, under ordinary circumstances, would have held me +aloof from him. But--shall I confess it?--he had for me a certain +sentimental attraction, because he was associated in my mind with that +first meeting with my forty-eight hours' friend. I looked into his +compartment; an overcoat and valise lay in the opposite corner from his, +showing that seat to be engaged, but two corners were still left me to +choose from. I installed myself in one of them, face to face with the +valise and overcoat, and awaited the signal to start. The cry of "En +voiture, messieurs!" soon came, and a lithe figure sprang into the +carriage. It was my Fascinating Friend! For a single moment I thought +that a flash of annoyance crossed his features on finding me there, but +the impression vanished at once, for his greeting was as full of +cordiality as of surprise. We soon exchanged explanations. He, like +myself, had been called away by telegram, not to Genoa, but to Rome; he, +like myself, had left a note expressing his heartfelt regret at our +sudden separation. As we sped along, skirting bays that shone burnished +in the evening light, and rumbling every now and then through a +tunnel-pierced promontory, we resumed the almost affectionate converse +interrupted only an hour before, and I found him a more delightful +companion than ever. His exquisitely playful fantasy seemed to be acting +at high pressure, as in the case of a man who is talking to pass the +time under the stimulus of a delightful anticipation. I suspected that +he was hurrying to some peculiarly agreeable rendezvous in Rome, and I +hinted my suspicion, which he laughed off in such a way as to confirm +it. The German, in the mean time, sat stolid and unmoved, making some +pencilled calculations in a little pocket-book. He clearly did not +understand English. + +As we approached Ventimiglia my friend rose, took down his valise from +the rack, and, turning his back to me, made some changes in its +arrangement, which I, of course, did not see. He then locked it +carefully and kept it beside him. At Ventimiglia we had all to turn out +to undergo the inspection of the Italian _dogana_. My friend's valise +was his sole luggage, and I noticed, rather to my surprise, that he gave +the custom-house official a very large bribe--two or three gold +pieces--to make his inspection of it purely nominal, and forego the +opening of either of the inside compartments. The German, on the other +hand, had a small portmanteau and a large dispatch box, both of which he +opened with a certain ostentation, and I observed that the official's +eyes glittered under his raised eyebrows as he looked into the contents +of the dispatch-box. On returning to the train we all three resumed our +old places, and the German drew the shade of a sleeping-cap over his +eyes and settled himself down for the night. It was now quite dark, but +the moon was shining. + +"Have you a large supply of the 'gems' in your valise?" I asked, +smiling, curious to know his reason for a subterfuge which accorded ill +with his ordinary straight-forwardness, and remembering that tobacco is +absolutely prohibited at the Italian frontier. + +"Unfortunately, no," he said; "my 'gems' are all gone, and I have only +my common cigarettes remaining. Will you try them, such as they are?" +and he held out his case, both sides of which were now filled with the +flat cigarettes. We each took one and lighted it, but he began giving me +an account of a meeting he had had with Lord Beaconsfield, which he +detailed so fully and with so much enthusiasm, that, after a whiff or +two he allowed his cigarette to go out. I could not understand his taste +in tobacco. These cigarettes which he despised seemed to me at once more +delicate and more peculiar than the others. They had a flavour which was +quite unknown to me. I was much interested in his vivid account of the +personality of that great man, whom I admired then, while he was yet +with us, and whom, as a knight of the Primrose League, I now revere; but +our climb of the morning, and the scrambling departure of the afternoon, +were beginning to tell on me, and I became irresistibly drowsy. +Gradually, and in spite of myself, my eyes closed. I could still hear my +companion's voice mingling with the heavy breathing of the German, who +had been asleep for some time; but soon even these sounds ceased to +penetrate the mist of languor, the end of my cigarette dropped from +between my fingers and I knew no more. + + * * * * * + +My awakening was slow and spasmodic. There was a clearly perceptible +interval--probably several minutes--between the first stirrings of +consciousness and the full clarification of my faculties. I began to be +aware of the rumble and oscillation of the train without realizing what +was meant. Then I opened my eyes and blinked at the lamp, and vaguely +noted the yellow oil washing to and fro in the bowl. Then the white +square of the "Avis aux Voyageurs" caught my eye in the gloom under the +luggage-rack, and beneath it, on the seat, I saw the light reflected +from the lock of the German's portmanteau. Next I was conscious of the +German himself still sleeping in his corner, but no longer puffing and +grunting as when I had fallen asleep. Then I raised my head, looked +round the carriage, and the next moment sprang bolt upright in dismay. + +Where was my Fascinating Friend? + +Gone! vanished! There was not a trace of him. His valise, his +great-coat, all had disappeared. Only in the little cigar-ash box on the +window-frame I saw the flat cigarette which he had barely lighted--how +long before? I looked at my watch: it must have been about an hour and a +half ago. + +By this time I had all my faculties about me. I looked across at the +German, intending to ask him if he knew anything of our late +travelling-companion. Then I noticed that his head had fallen forward in +such a way that it seemed to me suffocation must be imminent. I +approached him, and put down my head to look into his face. As I did so +I saw a roundish black object on the oil-cloth floor not far from the +toe of his boot. The lamplight was reflected at a single point from its +convex surface. I put down my hand and touched it. It was liquid. I +looked at my fingers--they were not black, but red. I think (but am not +sure) that I screamed aloud. I shrank to the other end of the carriage, +and it was some moments before I had sufficient presence of mind to look +for a means of communicating with the guard. Of course there was none. I +was alone for an indefinite time with a dead man. But was he dead? I had +little doubt, from the way his head hung, that his throat was cut, and a +horrible fascination drew me to his side to examine. No; there was no +sign of the hideous fissure I expected to find beneath the gray bristles +of his beard. His head fell forward again into the same position, and I +saw with horror that I had left two bloody fingermarks upon the gray +shade of his sleeping-cap. Then I noticed for the first time that the +window he was facing stood open, for a gust of wind came through it and +blew back the lapel of his coat. What was that on his waistcoat? I tore +the coat back and examined: it was a small triangular hole just over the +heart, and round it there was a dark circle about the size of a +shilling, where the blood had soaked through the light material. In +examining it I did what the murderer had not done--disturbed the +equilibrium of the body, which fell over against me. + +At that moment I heard a loud voice behind me, coming from I knew not +where. I nearly fainted with terror. The train was still going at full +speed; the compartment was empty, save for myself and the ghastly object +which lay in my arms; and yet I seemed to hear a voice almost at my ear. +There it was again! I summoned up courage to look round. It was the +guard of the train clinging on outside the window and demanding +"Biglietti!" By this time, he, too, saw that something was amiss. He +opened the door and swung himself into the carriage. "Dio mio!" I heard +him exclaim, as I actually flung myself into his arms and pointed to the +body now lying in a huddled heap amid its own blood on the floor. Then, +for the first time in my life, I positively swooned away, and knew no +more. + +When I came to myself the train had stopped at a small station, the name +of which I do not know to this day. There was a Babel of speech going on +around, not one word of which I could understand. I was on the platform, +supported between two men in uniform, with cocked hats and cockades. In +vain I tried to tell my story. I knew little or no Italian, and, though +there were one or two Frenchmen in the train, they were useless as +interpreters, for on the one hand my power of speaking French seemed to +have departed in my agitation, and on the other hand none of the +Italians understood it. In vain I tried to make them understand that a +"giovane" had travelled in the compartment with us who had now +disappeared. The Italian guard, who had come on at Ventimiglia, +evidently had no recollection of him. He merely shook his head, said +"Non capisco," and inquired if I was "Prussiano." The train had already +been delayed some time, and, after a consultation between the +station-master, the guard, the syndic of the village, who had been +summoned in haste, it was determined to hand the matter over to the +authorities at Genoa. The two carabinieri sat one on each side of me +facing the engine, and on the opposite seat the body was stretched out +with a luggage tarpaulin over it. In this hideous fashion I passed the +four or five remaining hours of the journey to Genoa. + +The next week I spent in an Italian prison, a very uncomfortable yet +quite unromantic place of abode. Fortunately, my friends were by this +time in Genoa, and they succeeded in obtaining some slight mitigation of +my discomforts. At the end of that time I was released, there being no +evidence against me. The testimony of the French guard, of the +booking-clerk at Monaco, and of the staff of the Hotel de Paris, +established the existence of my Fascinating Friend, which was at first +called in question; but no trace could be found of him. With him had +disappeared his victim's dispatch-box, in which were stored the proceeds +of several days of successful gambling. Robbery, however, did not seem +to have been the primary motive of the crime, for his watch, purse, and +the heavy jewelry about his person were all untouched. From the German +Consul at Genoa I learned privately, after my release, that the murdered +man, though in fact a Prussian, had lived long in Russia, and was +suspected of having had an unofficial connection with the St. Petersburg +police. It was thought, indeed, that the capital with which he had +commenced his operation at Monte Carlo was the reward of some special +act of treachery; so that the anarchists, if it was indeed they who +struck the blow, had merely suffered Judas to put his thirty pieces out +to usance, in order to pay back to their enemies with interest the +blood-money of their friends. + + + + +IV + + +About two years later I happened one day to make an afternoon call in +Mayfair, at the house of a lady well known in the social and political +world, who honours me, if I may say so, with her friendship. Her +drawing-room was crowded, and the cheerful ring of afternoon tea-cups +was audible through the pleasant medley of women's voices. I joined a +group around the hostess, where an animated discussion was in progress +on the Irish Coercion Bill, then the leading political topic of the day. +The argument interested me deeply; but it is one of my mental +peculiarities that when several conversations are going on around me I +can by no means keep my attention exclusively fixed upon the one in +which I am myself engaged. Odds and ends from all the others find their +way into my ears and my consciousness, and I am sometimes accused of +absence of mind, when my fault is in reality a too great alertness of +the sense of hearing. In this instance the conversation of three or four +groups was more or less audible to me; but it was not long before my +attention was absorbed by the voice of a lady, seated at the other side +of the circular ottoman on which I myself had taken my place. + +She was talking merrily, and her hearers, in one of whom, as I glanced +over my shoulder, I recognized an ex-Cabinet Minister, seemed to be +greatly entertained. As her back was toward me, all I could see of the +lady herself was her short black hair falling over the handsome fur +collar of her mantle. + +"He was so tragic about it," she was saying, "that it was really +_impayable_. The lady was beautiful, wealthy, accomplished, and I don't +know what else. The rival was an Australian squatter, with a beard as +thick as his native bush. My communicative friend--I scarcely knew even +his name when he poured forth his woes to me--thought that he had an +advantage in his light moustache, with a military twirl in it. They were +all three travelling in Switzerland, but the Australian had gone off to +make the ascent of some peak or other, leaving the field to the foe for +a couple of days at least. On the first day the foe made the most of his +time, and had nearly brought matters to a crisis. The next morning he +got himself up as exquisitely as possible, in order to clinch his +conquest, but found to his disgust that he had left his dressing-case +with his razors at the last stopping-place. There was nothing for it but +to try the village barber, who was also the village stationer, and +draper, and ironmonger, and chemist--a sort of Alpine Whiteley, in fact. +His face had just been soaped--what do you call it?--lathered, is it +not? and the barber had actually taken hold of his nose so as to get his +head into the right position, when, in the mirror opposite, he saw the +door open, and--oh, horror!--who should walk into the shop but the fair +one herself! He gave such a start that the barber gashed his chin. His +eyes met hers in the mirror; for a moment he saw her lips quiver and +tremble, and then she burst into shrieks of uncontrollable laughter, and +rushed out of the shop. If you knew the pompous little man, I am sure +you would sympathize with her. I know I did when he told me the story. +His heart sank within him, but he acted like a Briton. He determined to +take no notice of the _contretemps_, but return boldly to the attack. +She received him demurely at first, but the moment she raised her eyes +to his face, and saw the patch of sticking-plaster on his chin, she was +again seized with such convulsions that she had to rush from the room. +'She is now in Melbourne,' he said, almost with a sob, 'and I assure +you, my dear friend, that I never now touch a razor without an impulse, +to which I expect I shall one day succumb, to put it to a desperate +use.'" + +There was a singing in my ears, and my brain was whirling. This story, +heartlessly and irreverently told, was the tragedy of my life! + +I had breathed it to no human soul--_save one_! + +I rose from my seat, wondering within myself whether my agitation was +visible to those around me, and went over to the other side of the room +whence I could obtain a view of the speaker. There were the deep, dark +eyes, there were the full sensuous lips, the upper shaded with an +impalpable down, there was the charcoal-black hair! I knew too well that +rich contralto voice! It was my Fascinating Friend! + +Before I had fully realized the situation she rose, handed her empty +tea-cup to the Cabinet-Minister, bowed to him and his companion, and +made her way up to the hostess, evidently intending to take her leave. +As she turned away, after shaking hands cordially with Lady X----, her +eyes met mine intently fixed upon her. She did not start, she neither +flushed nor turned pale; she simply raised for an instant her finely +arched eyebrows, and as her tall figure sailed past me out of the room, +she turned upon me the same exquisite and irresistible smile with which +my Fascinating Friend had offered me his cigarette-case that evening +among the olive-trees. + +I hurried up to Lady X----. + +"Who is the lady who has just left the room?" I asked. + +"Oh, that is the Baroness M----," she replied. "She is half an +Englishwoman, half a Pole. She was my daughter's bosom friend at +Girton--a most interesting girl." + +"Is she a politician?" I asked. + +"No; that's the one thing I don't like about her. She is not a bit of a +patriot; she makes a joke of her country's wrongs and sufferings. Should +you like to meet her? Dine with us the day after to-morrow. She is to be +here." + + * * * * * + +I dined at Lady X----'s on the appointed day, but the Baroness was not +there. Urgent family affairs had called her suddenly to Poland. + +A week later the assassination of the Czar sent a thrill of horror +through the civilized world. + + * * * * * + +"Don't you think your friend might be held an accessory after the fact +to the death of the German?" asked the Novelist, when all the flattering +comments, which were many, were at an end. "And an accessory before the +fact to the assassination of the Czar?" chimed in the Editor. "Why +didn't he go straight from Lady ----'s house to the nearest +police-station and put the police on the track of his 'Fascinating +Friend'?" "What a question!" the Romancer exclaimed, starting from his +seat and pacing restlessly about the deck. "How could any man with a +palate for the rarest flavours of life resist the temptation of taking +that woman down to dinner? And, besides, hadn't he eaten salt with her? +Hadn't he smoked the social cigarette with her? Shade of De Quincey! are +we to treat like a vulgar criminal a mistress of the finest of the fine +arts? Shall we be such crawling creatures as to seek to lay by the heels +a Muse of Murder? Are we a generation of detectives, that we should do +this thing?" "So my friend put it to me," said the Critic dryly, "not +quite so eloquently, but to that effect. Between ourselves, though, I +believe he was influenced more by consideration of his personal safety +than by admiration for murder as a fine art. He remembered the fate of +the German, and was unwilling to share it." "He adopted a policy of +non-intervention," said the Eminent Tragedian, who in his hours of +leisure, was something of a politician. "I should rather say of _laissez +faire_, or, more precisely, of _laissez assassiner_," laughed the +Editor. "What was the Fascinating Friend supposed to have in her +portmanteau?" asked Beatrice. "What was she so anxious to conceal from +the custom-house officers?" "Her woman's clothes, I imagine," the Critic +replied, "though I don't hold myself bound to explain all the ins and +outs of her proceedings." "Then she _was_ a wonderful woman," replied +the fair questioner, as one having authority, "if she could get a +respectable gown and 'fixings,' as the Americans say, into a small +portmanteau. But," she added, "I very soon suspected she was a woman." +"Why?" asked several voices simultaneously. "Why, because she drew him +out so easily," was the reply. "You think, in fact," said the Romancer, +"that however little its victim was aware of it, there was a touch of +the _Ewig-weibliche_ in her fascination?" "Precisely." + + + + +THE LOST ROOM + +FITZ-JAMES O'BRIEN + + +It was oppressively warm. The sun had long disappeared, but seemed to +have left its vital spirit of heat behind it. The air rested; the leaves +of the acacia-trees that shrouded my windows hung plumb-like on their +delicate stalks. The smoke of my cigar scarce rose above my head, but +hung about me in a pale blue cloud, which I had to dissipate with +languid waves of my hand. My shirt was open at the throat, and my chest +heaved laboriously in the effort to catch some breaths of fresher air. +The noises of the city seemed to be wrapped in slumber, and the +shrilling of the mosquitos was the only sound that broke the stillness. + +As I lay with my feet elevated on the back of a chair, wrapped in that +peculiar frame of mind in which thought assumes a species of lifeless +motion, the strange fancy seized me of making a languid inventory of the +principal articles of furniture in my room. It was a task well suited to +the mood in which I found myself. Their forms were duskily defined in +the dim twilight that floated shadowily through the chamber; it was no +labour to note and particularize each, and from the place where I sat I +could command a view of all my possessions without even turning my head. + +There was, _imprimis_, that ghostly lithograph by Calame. It was a mere +black spot on the white wall, but my inner vision scrutinized every +detail of the picture. A wild, desolate, midnight heath, with a spectral +oak-tree in the centre of the foreground. The wind blows fiercely, and +the jagged branches, clothed scantily with ill-grown leaves, are swept +to the left continually by its giant force. + +A formless wrack of clouds streams across the awful sky, and the rain +sweeps almost parallel with the horizon. Beyond, the heath stretches off +into endless blackness, in the extreme of which either fancy or art has +conjured up some undefinable shapes that seem riding into space. At the +base of the huge oak stands a shrouded figure. His mantle is wound by +the blast in tight folds around his form, and the long cock's feather in +his hat is blown upright, till it seems as if it stood on end with fear. +His features are not visible, for he has grasped his cloak with both +hands, and drawn it from either side across his face. The picture is +seemingly objectless. It tells no tale, but there is a weird power about +it that haunts one, and it was for that I bought it. + +Next to the picture comes the round blot that hangs below it, which I +know to be a smoking-cap. It has my coat of arms embroidered on the +front, and for that reason I never wear it; though, when properly +arranged on my head, with its long blue silken tassel hanging down by my +cheek, I believe it becomes me well. I remember the time when it was in +the course of manufacture. I remember the tiny little hands that pushed +the coloured silks so nimbly through the cloth that was stretched on the +embroidery-frame,--the vast trouble I was put to to get a coloured copy +of my armorial bearings for the heraldic work which was to decorate the +front of the band,--the pursings up of the little mouth, and the +contractions of the young forehead, as their possessor plunged into a +profound sea of cogitation touching the way in which the cloud should be +represented from which the armed hand, that is my crest, issues,--the +heavenly moment when the tiny hands placed it on my head, in a position +that I could not bear for more than a few seconds, and I, kinglike, +immediately assumed my royal prerogative after the coronation, and +instantly levied a tax on my only subjects which was, however, not paid +unwillingly. Ah! the cap is there, but the embroiderer has fled; for +Atropos was severing the web of life above her head while she was +weaving that silken shelter for mine! + +How uncouthly the huge piano that occupies the corner at the left of the +door looms out in the uncertain twilight! I neither play nor sing, yet I +own a piano. It is a comfort to me to look at it, and to feel that the +music is there, although I am not able to break the spell that binds it. +It is pleasant to know that Bellini and Mozart, Cimarosa, Porpora, Glueck +and all such,--or at least their souls,--sleep in that unwieldy case. +There lie embalmed, as it were, all operas, sonatas, oratorios, +nocturnos, marches, songs and dances, that ever climbed into existence +through the four bars that wall in melody. Once I was entirely repaid +for the investment of my funds in that instrument which I never use. +Blokeeta, the composer, came to see me. Of course his instincts urged +him as irresistibly to my piano as if some magnetic power lay within it +compelling him to approach. He tuned it, he played on it. All night +long, until the gray and spectral dawn rose out of the depths of the +midnight, he sat and played, and I lay smoking by the window listening. +Wild, unearthly, and sometimes insufferably painful, were the +improvisations of Blokeeta. The chords of the instrument seemed breaking +with anguish. Lost souls shrieked in his dismal preludes; the half-heard +utterances of spirits in pain, that groped at inconceivable distances +from anything lovely or harmonious, seemed to rise dimly up out of the +waves of sound that gathered under his hands. Melancholy human love +wandered out on distant heaths, or beneath dank and gloomy cypresses, +murmuring its unanswered sorrow, or hateful gnomes sported and sang in +the stagnant swamps triumphing in unearthly tones over the knight whom +they had lured to his death. Such was Blokeeta's night's entertainment; +and when he at length closed the piano, and hurried away through the +cold morning, he left a memory about the instrument from which I could +never escape. + +Those snow-shoes that hang in the space between the mirror and the door +recall Canadian wanderings,--a long race through the dense forests, over +the frozen snow through whose brittle crust the slender hoofs of the +caribou that we were pursuing sank at every step, until the poor +creature despairingly turned at bay in a small juniper coppice, and we +heartlessly shot him down. And I remember how Gabriel, the _habitant_, +and Francois, the half-breed, cut his throat, and how the hot blood +rushed out in a torrent over the snowy soil; and I recall the snow +_cabane_ that Gabriel built, where we all three slept so warmly; and the +great fire that glowed at our feet, painting all kinds of demoniac +shapes on the black screen of forest that lay without; and the +deer-steaks that we roasted for our breakfast; and the savage +drunkenness of Gabriel in the morning, he having been privately drinking +out of my brandy-flask all the night long. + +That long haftless dagger that dangles over the mantelpiece makes my +heart swell. I found it, when a boy, in a hoary old castle in which one +of my maternal ancestors once lived. That same ancestor--who, by the +way, yet lives in history--was a strange old sea-king, who dwelt on the +extremest point of the southwestern coast of Ireland. He owned the whole +of that fertile island called Inniskeiran, which directly faces Cape +Clear, where between them the Atlantic rolls furiously, forming what the +fishermen of the place call "the Sound." An awful place in winter is +that same Sound. On certain days no boat can live there for a moment, +and Cape Clear is frequently cut off for days from any communication +with the mainland. + +This old sea-king--Sir Florence O'Driscoll by name--passed a stormy +life. From the summit of his castle he watched the ocean, and when any +richly laden vessels bound from the South to the industrious Galway +merchants, hove in sight, Sir Florence hoisted the sails of his galley, +and it went hard with him if he did not tow into harbor ship and crew. +In this way he lived; not a very honest mode of livelihood, certainly, +according to our modern ideas, but quite reconcilable with the morals of +the time. As may be supposed, Sir Florence got into trouble. Complaints +were laid against him at the English court by the plundered merchants, +and the Irish viking set out for London, to plead his own cause before +good Queen Bess, as she was called. He had one powerful recommendation: +he was a marvellously handsome man. Not Celtic by descent, but half +Spanish, half Danish in blood, he had the great northern stature with +the regular features, flashing eyes, and dark hair of the Iberian race. +This may account for the fact that his stay at the English court was +much longer than was necessary, as also for the tradition, which a local +historian mentions, that the English Queen evinced a preference for the +Irish chieftain, of other nature than that usually shown by monarch to +subject. + +Previous to his departure, Sir Florence had intrusted the care of his +property to an Englishman named Hull. During the long absence of the +knight, this person managed to ingratiate himself with the local +authorities, and gain their favour so far that they were willing to +support him in almost any scheme. After a protracted stay, Sir Florence, +pardoned of all his misdeeds, returned to his home. Home no longer. Hull +was in possession, and refused to yield an acre of the lands he had so +nefariously acquired. It was no use appealing to the law, for its +officers were in the opposite interest. It was no use appealing to the +Queen, for she had another lover, and had forgotten the poor Irish +knight by this time; and so the viking passed the best portion of his +life in unsuccessful attempts to reclaim his vast estates, and was +eventually, in his old age, obliged to content himself with his castle +by the sea and the island of Inniskeiran, the only spot of which the +usurper was unable to deprive him. So this old story of my kinsman's +fate looms up out of the darkness that enshrouds that haftless dagger +hanging on the wall. + +It was somewhat after the foregoing fashion that I dreamily made the +inventory of my personal property. As I turned my eyes on each object, +one after the other,--or the places where they lay, for the room was now +so dark that it was almost impossible to see with any distinctness,--a +crowd of memories connected with each rose up before me, and, perforce, +I had to indulge them. So I proceeded but slowly, and at last my cigar +shortened to a hot and bitter morsel that I could barely hold between my +lips, while it seemed to me that the night grew each moment more +insufferably oppressive. While I was revolving some impossible means of +cooling my wretched body, the cigar stump began to burn my lips. I flung +it angrily through the open window, and stooped out to watch it falling. +It first lighted on the leaves of the acacia, sending out a spray of red +sparkles, then, rolling off, it fell plump on the dark walk in the +garden, faintly illuminating for a moment the dusky trees and breathless +flowers. Whether it was the contrast between the red flash of the +cigar-stump and the silent darkness of the garden, or whether it was +that I detected by the sudden light a faint waving of the leaves, I know +not; but something suggested to me that the garden was cool. I will take +a turn there, thought I, just as I am; it cannot be warmer than this +room, and however still the atmosphere, there is always a feeling of +liberty and spaciousness in the open air, that partially supplies one's +wants. With this idea running through my head, I arose, lit another +cigar, and passed out into the long, intricate corridors that led to the +main staircase. As I crossed the threshold of my room, with what a +different feeling I should have passed it had I known that I was never +to set foot in it again! + +I lived in a very large house, in which I occupied two rooms on the +second floor. The house was old-fashioned, and all the floors +communicated by a huge circular staircase that wound up through the +centre of the building, while at every landing long, rambling corridors +stretched off into mysterious nooks and corners. This palace of mine was +very high, and its resources, in the way of crannies and windings, +seemed to be interminable. Nothing seemed to stop anywhere. Cul-de-sacs +were unknown on the premises. The corridors and passages, like +mathematical lines, seemed capable of indefinite extension, and the +object of the architect must have been to erect an edifice in which +people might go ahead forever. The whole place was gloomy, not so much +because it was large, but because an unearthly nakedness seemed to +pervade the structure. The staircases, corridors, halls, and vestibules +all partook of a desert-like desolation. There was nothing on the walls +to break the sombre monotony of those long vistas of shade. No carvings +on the wainscoting, no moulded masks peering down from the simply severe +cornices, no marble vases on the landings. There was an eminent +dreariness and want of life--so rare in an American establishment--all +over the abode. It was Hood's haunted house put in order and newly +painted. The servants, too, were shadowy, and chary of their visits. +Bells rang three times before the gloomy chambermaid could be induced to +present herself; and the negro waiter, a ghoul-like looking creature +from Congo, obeyed the summons only when one's patience was exhausted or +one's want satisfied in some other way. When he did come, one felt sorry +that he had not stayed away altogether, so sullen and savage did he +appear. He moved along the echoless floors with a slow, noiseless +shamble, until his dusky figure, advancing from the gloom, seemed like +some reluctant afreet, compelled by the superior power of his master to +disclose himself. When the doors of all the chambers were closed, and no +light illuminated the long corridor save the red, unwholesome glare of a +small oil lamp on a table at the end, where late lodgers lit their +candles, one could not by any possibility conjure up a sadder or more +desolate prospect. + +Yet the house suited me. Of meditative and sedentary habits, I enjoyed +the extreme quiet. There were but few lodgers, from which I infer that +the landlord did not drive a very thriving trade; and these, probably +oppressed by the sombre spirit of the place, were quiet and ghost-like +in their movements. The proprietor I scarcely ever saw. My bills were +deposited by unseen hands every month on my table, while I was out +walking or riding, and my pecuniary response was intrusted to the +attendant afreet. On the whole, when the bustling, wide-awake spirit of +New York is taken into consideration, the sombre, half-vivified +character of the house in which I lived was an anomaly that no one +appreciated better than I who lived there. + +I felt my way down the wide, dark staircase in my pursuit of zephyrs. +The garden, as I entered it, did feel somewhat cooler than my own room, +and I puffed my cigar along the dim, cypress-shrouded walks with a +sensation of comparative relief. It was very dark. The tall-growing +flowers that bordered the path were so wrapped in gloom as to present +the aspect of solid pyramidal masses, all the details of leaves and +blossoms being buried in an embracing darkness, while the trees had lost +all form, and seemed like masses of overhanging cloud. It was a place +and time to excite the imagination; for in the impenetrable cavities of +endless gloom there was room for the most riotous fancies to play at +will. I walked and walked, and the echoes of my footsteps on the +ungravelled and mossy path suggested a double feeling. I felt alone and +yet in company at the same time. The solitariness of the place made +itself distinct enough in the stillness, broken alone by the hollow +reverberations of my step, while those very reverberations seemed to +imbue me with an undefined feeling that I was not alone. I was not, +therefore, much startled when I was suddenly accosted from beneath the +solid darkness of an immense cypress by a voice saying, "Will you give +me a light, sir?" + +"Certainly," I replied, trying in vain to distinguish the speaker amidst +the impenetrable dark. + +Somebody advanced, and I held out my cigar. All I could gather +definitively about the individual who thus accosted me was that he must +have been of extremely small stature; for I, who am by no means an +overgrown man, had to stoop considerably in handing him my cigar. The +vigorous puff that he gave his own lighted up my Havana for a moment, +and I fancied that I caught a glimpse of long, wild hair. The flash was, +however, so momentary that I could not even say certainly whether this +was an actual impression or the mere effort of imagination to embody +that which the senses had failed to distinguish. + +"Sir, you are out late," said this unknown to me, as he, with +half-uttered thanks, handed me back my cigar, for which I had to grope +in the gloom. + +"Not later than usual," I replied, dryly. + +"Hum! you are fond of late wanderings, then?" + +"That is just as the fancy seizes me." + +"Do you live here?" + +"Yes." + +"Queer house, isn't it?" + +"I have only found it quiet." + +"Hum! But you _will_ find it queer, take my word for it." This was +earnestly uttered; and I felt at the same time a bony finger laid on my +arm, that cut it sharply like a blunted knife. + +"I cannot take your word for any such assertion," I replied rudely, +shaking off the bony finger with an irrepressible motion of disgust. + +"No offence, no offence," muttered my unseen companion rapidly, in a +strange, subdued voice, that would have been shrill had it been louder; +"your being angry does not alter the matter. You will find it a queer +house. Everybody finds it a queer house. Do you know who live there?" + +"I never busy myself, sir, about other people's affairs," I answered +sharply, for the individual's manner, combined with my utter uncertainty +as to his appearance, oppressed me with an irksome longing to be rid of +him. + +"O, you don't? Well, I do. I know what they are--well, well, well!" and +as he pronounced the three last words his voice rose with each, until, +with the last, it reached a shrill shriek that echoed horribly among the +lonely walks. "Do you know what they eat?" he continued. + +"No, sir,--nor care." + +"O, but you will care. You must care. You shall care. I'll tell you what +they are. They are enchanters. They are ghouls. They are cannibals. Did +you never remark their eyes, and how they gloated on you when you +passed? Did you never remark the food that they served up at your table? +Did you never in the dead of night hear muffled and unearthly footsteps +gliding along the corridors, and stealthy hands turning the handle of +your door? Does not some magnetic influence fold itself continually +around you when they pass, and send a thrill through spirit and body, +and a cold shiver that no sunshine will chase away? O, you have! You +have felt all these things! I know it!" + +The earnest rapidity, the subdued tones, the eagerness of accent, with +which all this was uttered, impressed me most uncomfortably. It really +seemed as if I could recall all those weird occurrences and influences +of which he spoke; and I shuddered in spite of myself in the midst of +the impenetrable darkness that surrounded me. + +"Hum!" said I, assuming, without knowing it, a confidential tone, "may I +ask you how you know these things?" + +"How I know them? Because I am their enemy; because they tremble at my +whisper; because I hang upon their track with the perseverance of a +bloodhound and the stealthiness of a tiger; because--because--I was _of_ +them once!" + +"Wretch!" I cried excitedly, for involuntarily his eager tones had +wrought me up to a high pitch of spasmodic nervousness, "then you mean +to say that you----" + +As I uttered this word, obeying an uncontrollable impulse, I stretched +forth my hand in the direction of the speaker and made a blind clutch. +The tips of my fingers seemed to touch a surface as smooth as glass, +that glided suddenly from under them. A sharp, angry hiss sounded +through the gloom, followed by a whirring noise, as if some projectile +passed rapidly by, and the next moment I felt instinctively that I was +alone. + +A most disagreeable feeling instantly assailed me;--a prophetic instinct +that some terrible misfortune menaced me; an eager and overpowering +anxiety to get back to my own room without loss of time. I turned and +ran blindly along the dark cypress alley, every dusky clump of flowers +that rose blackly in the borders making my heart each moment cease to +beat. The echoes of my own footsteps seemed to redouble and assume the +sounds of unknown pursuers following fast upon my track. The boughs of +lilac-bushes and syringas, that here and there stretched partly across +the walk, seemed to have been furnished suddenly with hooked hands that +sought to grasp me as I flew by, and each moment I expected to behold +some awful and impassable barrier fall across my track and wall me up +forever. + +At length I reached the wide entrance. With a single leap I sprang up +the four or five steps that formed the stoop, and dashed along the hall, +up the wide, echoing stairs, and again along the dim, funereal corridors +until I paused, breathless and panting, at the door of my room. Once so +far, I stopped for an instant and leaned heavily against one of the +panels, panting lustily after my late run. I had, however, scarcely +rested my whole weight against the door, when it suddenly gave way, and +I staggered in head-foremost. To my utter astonishment the room I had +left in profound darkness was now a blaze of light. So intense was the +illumination that, for a few seconds while the pupils of my eyes were +contracting under the sudden change, I saw absolutely nothing save the +dazzling glare. This fact in itself, coming on me with such utter +suddenness, was sufficient to prolong my confusion, and it was not until +after several minutes had elapsed that I perceived the room was not only +illuminated, but occupied. And such occupants! Amazement at the scene +took such possession of me that I was incapable of either moving or +uttering a word. All that I could do was to lean against the wall, and +stare blankly at the strange picture. + +It might have been a scene out of Faublas, or Gramont's Memoirs, or +happened in some palace of Minister Foucque. + +Round a large table in the centre of the room, where I had left a +student-like litter of books and papers, were seated half a dozen +persons. Three were men and three were women. The table was heaped with +a prodigality of luxuries. Luscious eastern fruits were piled up in +silver filigree vases, through whose meshes their glowing rinds shone in +the contrasts of a thousand hues. Small silver dishes that Benvenuto +might have designed, filled with succulent and aromatic meats, were +distributed upon a cloth of snowy damask. Bottles of every shape, +slender ones from the Rhine, stout fellows from Holland, sturdy ones +from Spain, and quaint basket-woven flasks from Italy, absolutely +littered the board. Drinking-glasses of every size and hue filled up the +interstices, and the thirsty German flagon stood side by side with the +aerial bubbles of Venetian glass that rest so lightly on their +threadlike stems. An odour of luxury and sensuality floated through the +apartment. The lamps that burned in every direction seemed to diffuse a +subtle incense on the air, and in a large vase that stood on the floor I +saw a mass of magnolias, tuberoses, and jasmines grouped together, +stifling each other with their honeyed and heavy fragrance. + +The inhabitants of my room seemed beings well suited to so sensual an +atmosphere. The women were strangely beautiful, and all were attired in +dresses of the most fantastic devices and brilliant hues. Their figures +were round, supple, and elastic; their eyes dark and languishing; their +lips full, ripe, and of the richest bloom. The three men wore +half-masks, so that all I could distinguish were heavy jaws, pointed +beards, and brawny throats that rose like massive pillars out of their +doublets. All six lay reclining on Roman couches about the table, +drinking down the purple wines in large draughts, and tossing back their +heads and laughing wildly. + +I stood, I suppose, for some three minutes, with my back against the +wall staring vacantly at the bacchanal vision, before any of the +revellers appeared to notice my presence. At length, without any +expression to indicate whether I had been observed from the beginning or +not, two of the women arose from their couches, and, approaching, took +each a hand and led me to the table. I obeyed their motions +mechanically. I sat on a couch, between them as they indicated. I +unresistingly permitted them to wind their arms about my neck. + +"You must drink," said one, pouring out a large glass of red wine, "here +is Clos Vougeout of a rare vintage; and here," pushing a flask of +amber-hued wine before me, "is Lachryma Christi." + +"You must eat," said the other, drawing the silver dishes toward her. +"Here are cutlets stewed with olives, and here are slices of a _filet_ +stuffed with bruised sweet chestnuts"--and as she spoke, she, without +waiting for a reply, proceeded to help me. + +The sight of the food recalled to me the warnings I had received in the +garden. This sudden effort of memory restored to me my other faculties +at the same instant. I sprang to my feet, thrusting the women from me +with each hand. + +"Demons!" I almost shouted. "I will have none of your accursed food. I +know you. You are cannibals, you are ghouls, you are enchanters. Begone, +I tell you! Leave my room in peace!" + +A shout of laughter from all six was the only effect that my passionate +speech produced. The men rolled on their couches, and their half-masks +quivered with the convulsions of their mirth. The women shrieked, and +tossed the slender wine-glasses wildly aloft, and turned to me and flung +themselves on my bosom fairly sobbing with laughter. + +"Yes," I continued, as soon as the noisy mirth had subsided, "yes, I +say, leave my room instantly! I will have none of your unnatural orgies +here!" + +"His room!" shrieked the woman on my right. + +"His room!" echoed she on my left. + +"His room! He calls it his room!" shouted the whole party, as they +rolled once more into jocular convulsions. + +"How know you that it is your room?" said one of the men who sat +opposite to me, at length, after the laughter had once more somewhat +subsided. + +"How do I know?" I replied indignantly. "How do I know my own room? How +could I mistake it, pray? There's my furniture--my piano----" + +"He calls that a piano," shouted my neighbours, again in convulsions as +I pointed to the corner where my huge piano, sacred to the memory of +Blokeeta, used to stand. "O, yes! It is his room. There--there is his +piano!" + +The peculiar emphasis they laid on the word "piano" caused me to +scrutinize the article I was indicating more thoroughly. Up to this +time, though utterly amazed at the entrance of these people into my +chamber, and connecting them somewhat with the wild stories I had heard +in the garden, I still had a sort of indefinite idea that the whole +thing was a masquerading freak got up in my absence, and that the +bacchanalian orgie I was witnessing was nothing more than a portion of +some elaborate hoax of which I was to be the victim. But when my eyes +turned to the corner where I had left a huge and cumbrous piano, and +beheld a vast and sombre organ lifting its fluted front to the very +ceiling, and convinced myself, by a hurried process of memory, that it +occupied the very spot in which I had left my own instrument, the little +self-possession that I had left forsook me. I gazed around me +bewildered. + +In like manner everything was changed. In the place of that old haftless +dagger, connected with so many historic associations personal to myself, +I beheld a Turkish yataghan dangling by its belt of crimson silk, while +the jewels in the hilt blazed as the lamplight played upon them. In the +spot where hung my cherished smoking cap, memorial of a buried love, a +knightly casque was suspended on the crest of which a golden dragon +stood in the act of springing. That strange lithograph of Calame was no +longer a lithograph, but it seemed to me that the portion of the wall +which it covered, of the exact shape and size, had been cut out, and, in +place of the picture, a _real_ scene on the same scale, and with real +actors, was distinctly visible. The old oak was there, and the stormy +sky was there; but I saw the branches of the oak sway with the tempest, +and the clouds drive before the wind. The wanderer in his cloak was +gone; but in his place I beheld a circle of wild figures, men and women, +dancing with linked hands around the hole of the great tree, chanting +some wild fragment of a song, to which the winds roared an unearthly +chorus. The snow-shoes, too, on whose sinewy woof I had sped for many +days amidst Canadian wastes, had vanished, and in their place lay a pair +of strange up-curled Turkish slippers, that had, perhaps, been many a +time shuffled off at the doors of mosques, beneath the steady blaze of +an orient sun. + +All was changed. Wherever my eyes turned they missed familiar objects, +yet encountered strange representatives. Still, in all the substitutes +there seemed to me a reminiscence of what they replaced. They seemed +only for a time transmuted into other shapes, and there lingered around +them the atmosphere of what they once had been. Thus I could have sworn +the room to have been mine, yet there was nothing in it that I could +rightly claim. Everything reminded me of some former possession that it +was not. I looked for the acacia at the window, and lo! long silken +palm-leaves swayed in through the open lattice; yet they had the same +motion and the same air of my favourite tree, and seemed to murmur to +me, "Though we seem to be palm-leaves, yet are we acacia-leaves; yea, +those very ones on which you used to watch the butterflies alight and +the rain patter while you smoked and dreamed!" So in all things; the +room was, yet was not, mine; and a sickening consciousness of my utter +inability to reconcile its identity with its appearance overwhelmed me, +and choked my reason. + +"Well, have you determined whether or not this is your room?" asked the +girl on my left, proffering me a huge tumbler creaming over with +champagne, and laughing wickedly as she spoke. + +"It is mine," I answered, doggedly, striking the glass rudely with my +hand, and dashing the aromatic wine over the white cloth. "I know that +it is mine; and ye are jugglers and enchanters who want to drive me +mad." + +"Hush! hush!" she said, gently, not in the least angered by my rough +treatment. "You are excited. Alf shall play something to soothe you." + +At her signal, one of the men sat down at the organ. After a short, +wild, spasmodic prelude, he began what seemed to me to be a symphony of +recollections. Dark and sombre, and all through full of quivering and +intense agony, it appeared to recall a dark and dismal night, on a cold +reef, around which an unseen but terribly audible ocean broke with +eternal fury. It seemed as if a lonely pair were on the reef, one +living, the other dead; one clasping his arms around the tender neck and +naked bosom of the other, striving to warm her into life, when his own +vitality was being each moment sucked from him by the icy breath of the +storm. Here and there a terrible wailing minor key would tremble through +the chords like the shriek of sea-birds, or the warning of advancing +death. While the man played I could scarce restrain myself. It seemed to +be Blokeeta whom I listened to, and on whom I gazed. That wondrous night +of pleasure and pain that I had once passed listening to him seemed to +have been taken up again at the spot where it had broken off, and the +same hand was continuing it. I stared at the man called Alf. There he +sat with his cloak and doublet, and long rapier and mask of black +velvet. But there was something in the air of the peaked beard, a +familiar mystery in the wild mass of raven hair that fell as if +wind-blown over his shoulders, which riveted my memory. + +"Blokeeta! Blokeeta!" I shouted, starting up furiously from the couch on +which I was lying, and bursting the fair arms that were linked around my +neck as if they had been hateful chains,--"Blokeeta! my friend! speak to +me, I entreat you! Tell these horrid enchanters to leave me. Say that I +hate them. Say that I command them to leave my room." + +The man at the organ stirred not in answer to my appeal. He ceased +playing, and the dying sound of the last note he had touched faded off +into a melancholy moan. The other men and the women burst once more into +peals of mocking laughter. + +"Why will you persist in calling this your room?" said the woman next +me, with a smile meant to be kind, but to me inexpressibly loathsome. +"Have we not shown you by the furniture, by the general appearance of +the place, that you are mistaken, and that this cannot be your +apartment? Rest content, then, with us. You are welcome here, and need +no longer trouble yourself about your room." + +"Rest content!" I answered madly; "live with ghosts, eat of awful meats, +and see awful sights! Never! never! You have cast some enchantment over +the place that has disguised it; but for all that I know it to be my +room. You shall leave it!" + +"Softly, softly!" said another of the sirens. "Let us settle this +amicably. This poor gentleman seems obstinate and inclined to make an +uproar. Now we do not want an uproar. We love the night and its quiet; +and there is no night that we love so well as that on which the moon is +coffined in clouds. Is it not so, my brothers?" + +An awful and sinister smile gleamed on the countenances of her unearthly +audience, and seemed to glide visibly from underneath their masks. + +"Now," she continued, "I have a proposition to make. It would be +ridiculous for us to surrender this room simply because this gentleman +states that it is his; and yet I feel anxious to gratify, as far as may +be fair, his wild assertion of ownership. A room, after all, is not much +to us; we can get one easily enough, but still we should be loath to +give this apartment up to so imperious a demand. We are willing, +however, to _risk_ its loss. That is to say,"--turning to me,--"I +propose that we play for the room. If you win, we will immediately +surrender it to you just as it stands; if, on the contrary, you lose, +you shall bind yourself to depart and never molest us again." + +Agonized at the ever-darkening mysteries that seemed to thicken around +me, and despairing of being able to dissipate them by the mere exercise +of my own will, I caught almost gladly at the chance thus presented to +me. The idea of my loss or my gain scarce entered into my calculations. +All I felt was an indefinite knowledge that I might, in the way +proposed, regain in an instant, that quiet chamber and that peace of +mind of which I had so strangely been deprived. + +"I agree!" I cried eagerly; "I agree. Anything to rid myself of such +unearthly company!" + +The woman touched a small golden bell that stood near her on the table, +and it had scarce ceased to tinkle when a negro dwarf entered with a +silver tray on which were dice-boxes and dice. A shudder passed over me +as I thought in this stunted African I could trace a resemblance to the +ghoul-like black servant to whose attendance I had been accustomed. + +"Now," said my neighbour, seizing one of the dice-boxes and giving me +the other, "the highest wins. Shall I throw first?" + +I nodded assent. She rattled the dice, and I felt an inexpressible load +lifted from my heart as she threw fifteen. + +"It is your turn," she said, with a mocking smile; "but before you +throw, I repeat the offer I made you before. Live with us. Be one of us. +We will initiate you into our mysteries and enjoyments,--enjoyments of +which you can form no idea unless you experience them. Come; it is not +too late yet to change your mind. Be with us!" + +My reply was a fierce oath, as I rattled the dice with spasmodic +nervousness and flung them on the board. They rolled over and over +again, and during that brief instant I felt a suspense, the intensity of +which I have never known before or since. At last they lay before me. A +shout of the same horrible, maddening laughter rang in my ears. I peered +in vain at the dice, but my sight was so confused that I could not +distinguish the amount of the cast. This lasted for a few moments. Then +my sight grew clear, and I sank back almost lifeless with despair as I +saw that I had thrown but _twelve_! + +"Lost! lost!" screamed my neighbour, with a wild laugh. "Lost! lost!" +shouted the deep voices of the masked men. "Leave us, coward!" they all +cried; "you are not fit to be one of us. Remember your promise; leave +us!" + +Then it seemed as if some unseen power caught me by the shoulders and +thrust me toward the door. In vain I resisted. In vain I screamed and +shouted for help. In vain I implored them for pity. All the reply I had +was those mocking peals of merriment, while, under the invisible +influence, I staggered like a drunken man toward the door. As I reached +the threshold the organ pealed out a wild triumphal strain. The power +that impelled me concentrated itself into one vigorous impulse that sent +me blindly staggering out into the echoing corridor, and as the door +closed swiftly behind me, I caught one glimpse of the apartment I had +left forever. A change passed like a shadow over it. The lamps died out, +the siren women and masked men vanished, the flowers, the fruits, the +bright silver and bizarre furniture faded swiftly, and I saw again, for +the tenth of a second, my own old chamber restored. There was the acacia +waving darkly; there was the table littered with books; there was the +ghostly lithograph, the dearly beloved smoking-cap, the Canadian +snow-shoes, the ancestral dagger. And there, at the piano, organ no +longer, sat Blokeeta playing. + +The next instant the door closed violently, and I was left standing in +the corridor stunned and despairing. + +As soon as I had partially recovered my comprehension I rushed madly to +the door, with the dim idea of beating it in. My fingers touched a cold +and solid wall. There was no door! I felt all along the corridor for +many yards on both sides. There was not even a crevice to give me hope. +I rushed downstairs shouting madly. No one answered. In the vestibule I +met the negro; I seized him by the collar and demanded my room. The +demon showed his white and awful teeth, which were filed into a saw-like +shape, and extricating himself from my grasp with a sudden jerk, fled +down the passage with a gibbering laugh. Nothing but echo answered to my +despairing shrieks. The lonely garden resounded with my cries as I +strode madly through the dark walls, and the tall funereal cypresses +seemed to bury me beneath their heavy shadows. I met no one,--could find +no one. I had to bear my sorrow and despair alone. + +Since that awful hour I have never found my room. Everywhere I look for +it, yet never see it. Shall I ever find it? + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Masterpieces of Mystery, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTERPIECES OF MYSTERY *** + +***** This file should be named 29704.txt or 29704.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/7/0/29704/ + +Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +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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