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diff --git a/37917.txt b/37917.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6edf1bf --- /dev/null +++ b/37917.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10797 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Across the Stream, by Edward Frederic Benson + +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: Across the Stream + +Author: Edward Frederic Benson + +Release Date: November 3, 2011 [EBook #37917] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ACROSS THE STREAM *** + + + + +Produced by Polyvios J. Simopoulos + + + + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: + + In Memoriam + + Michael S. Hart (1947-2011), + + Inventor of the e-Book + + and + + Founder of Project Gutenberg +] + + + + +================= +Across the Stream +by E. F. Benson +================= + + + + + +ACROSS THE STREAM + +BY E. F. BENSON + + + + + +LONDON +JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. +1919 + + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +There is a very large class of persons alive to-day who believe that not +only is communication with the dead possible, but that they themselves +have had actual experience of it. Many of these are eminent in +scientific research, and on any other subject the world in general would +accept their evidence. + +There is possibly a larger class of persons who hold that all such +communications, if genuine, come not from the dead but from the devil. +This is the taught opinion of the Roman Catholic Church. + +A third class, far more numerous than both of these, is sure that any +one who holds either of these beliefs is a dupe of conjurers, or the +victim of his own disordered brain. This type of robust intellect has, +during the last ten decades, affirmed that hypnotism, aviation in +machines heavier than air, telepathy, wireless telegraphy, and other +non-proved phenomena, are superstitious and unscientific balderdash. In +an earlier century it was equally certain that the earth did not go +round the sun. It is, happily, never disconcerted by the frequency with +which the superstitions and impossibilities of one generation become the +science of the next. + +The first part of this book may be accepted by the first of these three +classes, the second by the second, and none of it by the third. Its aim +is to state rather than solve the subject with which it deals, and to +suggest that the dead and the devil alike may be able to communicate +with the living. + +E. F. BENSON. + + + + +_BOOK I_ + + + +CHAPTER I + +Certain scenes, certain pictures of his very early years of childhood, +stood out for Archie like clear sunlit peaks above the dim clouds that +shrouded the time when the power of memory was only beginning to +germinate. He had no doubt (and was probably right about it) as to which +the earliest of those was: it was the face of his nurse Blessington, +leaning over his crib. She held a candle in her hand which a little +dazzled him, but the sight of her face, tender and anxious, and divinely +reassuring, was the point of that memory. He had been asleep, and had +awoke with a start, and, finding himself alone in the midst of the +immense desolation of the dark that pressed on him like an invader from +all sides, he had lifted up his voice and yelled. Then, as by a +conjuring-trick, Blessington had appeared with her comforting presence +that quite robbed the dark of its terrors. It must still have been early +in the night, for she had not yet gone to bed, and had on above her +smooth grey hair her cap with its adorable blue ribands in it. At her +throat was the brooch made of the same stuff as the shining shillings +with which a year or two later she bought the buns and sponge-cakes for +tea. He remembered no more than that; he knew nothing of what she had +said: the whole of that memory consisted in the fact of the secure +comfort and relief which her face brought. It was just a vignette of +memory, the earliest of all; there was nothing whatever before it, and +nothing for some time after. + +Gradually the horizon widened; scenes and situations in which Archie was +still a detached observer, as if looking through a telescope, made +themselves visible. He remembered gazing through the bars of the high +nursery fire-guard at the joyful glow of the fuel. At the corner of the +grate (he remembered this with extreme distinctness), there was a black +coal, the edge of which was soft and bubbly. A thin streamer of smoke +blew out of it, and from time to time this smoke caught light and flared +very satisfactorily. But all that, the joyfulness and the satisfaction, +was external to him; it was the coals and the streams of burning gas +that were in themselves joyful and satisfactory. That must have been in +the winter, and it was in the same winter perhaps that he came home with +Blessington and two other children--girls, and larger than himself--whom +he grew to believe were his sisters, through a wood of fir-trees between +the trunks of which shone a round red ball that resembled the coals in +the nursery-grate. He knew--perhaps Blessington, perhaps a sister, +perhaps his mother had told him--that it was Christmas Eve, and he saw +that when Blessington spoke to him she steamed delightfully at the +mouth, as if there had been a hot bath just inside her lips. At her +suggestion he found he could do it, too, and his sisters also; +whereafter they played hot-baths all the way home. But of the Christmas +Day that followed he had no recollection whatever. + +His observation became a little less detached; he began to form in his +mind an explorer's map of the places where these phenomena occurred, to +be dimly aware that he was taking some sort of part in them, and was not +a mere spectator, and one summer evening he definitely knew that the +day-nursery and the night-nursery and the room beyond where his sisters +slept were all part of the red-brick house which he and others +inhabited, just as, according to Blessington, the rabbit which he had +seen pop into its hole in the wood beyond the lawn, had a home within +it. He had already had his bath, on a patch of sunlight that lay across +the nursery-floor, and escaping, slippery as a trout, from Blessington's +towelling hands, had run with a squeal of delight across to the window. +Outside was the lawn, which hitherto he had thought of as a thing apart, +a picture by itself, and beyond was the wood where the rabbit had a +house. On the lawn was his mother, playing croquet with his two sisters, +and of a sudden it flashed upon him that the wood and the rabbit, the +lawn and the croquet-players, the night-nursery, Blessington, the shine +of the sun low in the west, and his own wet self were all in some queer +manner part of the same thing, and made up that to which he and +Blessington went back when, at the limit of their walk, she said it was +time to go home. + +"Oh, there's mummy," he cried. "Mummy!" And he danced naked at the +window. + +Blessington caught him in the towel again. + +"Well, I never!" she said. "That's not the way for a young gentleman to +behave. There, let me dry you, dear, and put your night-shirt on, and +you shall say good-night to your mamma out of the window." + +This was duly done, and it struck Archie as a very novel and delightful +discovery that he could say good-night to his mother when she was on the +croquet-lawn and he up in the night-nursery. It shed a new light on +existence generally, and coloured with a new interest the few drowsy +moments which intervened between his being put into bed and falling +asleep. Blessington still moved quietly about the room, emptying his +bath, and putting his clothes tidy, and he just remembered her kissing +him when she had finished. He was already too suffused with drowsiness +to make any response, and he slid softly out over the tides of sleep. + +That night he became acquainted with a new sort of experience, something +hitherto quite foreign to him. Once again he woke in the night and found +himself surrounded by the vast dark, save where, in a corner of the +nursery, there burned the shaded night-light. But now there was no sense +of terror; he did not want to call for Blessington, but lay open-eyed +and absorbed in the amazing thing that was happening. The night-nursery +(where he knew he was), and he with it, were expanding and extending, +till they comprised the lawn and the wood beyond the lawn, and all else +that he had ever known. His sisters and his mother and father were all +there, though he could not see them; Blessington was there, and Graves +the butler, and Walter and William, the two footmen. He could not see +them, any more than he could see the moon and the sun, which were there +also, but they were there as part of an unusual presence that filled the +place. He could not see that unusual presence either, but it was +tremendously real and filled him not in the least with awe, but with the +feeling with which Blessington's face and his mother's face inspired +him... And the next thing that he was aware of was the rattle of the +blind, and Blessington's voice saying, "Eh, what a time of morning to +have slept to. I know a sleepy-head!" + +He recounted this remarkable experience to Blessington at breakfast, who +was quite sure that it was all a dream; a nice dream, but a dream. + +"Wasn't a dream," said Archie firmly. + +"And where did Mr. Contradiction go?" asked Blessington. + +Archie knew where Mr. Contradiction went, for Mr. Contradiction lived in +a very dull corner of the nursery with his face to the wall for five +minutes. + +"Well, it didn't seem like a dream," he said. "May I get down?" + +"Yes, and say your grace." + +"Thank God for my good dinner," said Archie, who was not attending. + +"Say it again, dear," said Blessington; "and think." + +"I meant breakfast," said Archie. "Amen." + +The discovery of the connection, made last night, between himself in the +night-nursery and his mother on the lawn, which proved that the lawn and +the house were part of the same thing, produced further results that +day. Instead of memory consisting of different and severed pictures, it +began to flow into one coherent whole. He knew, of course, already that +at the end of the nursery passage was a wooden wicket-gate, and that +outside that was the long gallery that skirted round three sides of the +hall, while on the fourth ran a broad staircase each step of which had +to be surmounted and descended either by a series of jumps, or, if the +feet were tired, by the extension of one foot on to the next stair where +it was joined by the other; but he began now to put these isolated facts +together, and form them into the conception of a house. When the +staircase was negotiated you found yourself in a large oak-floored hall, +where you were not allowed to slide on purpose, though both Blessington +and his mother had the sense to distinguish between deliberate and +unintentional slidings. There were bright rugs spread here and there +over the hall, forming islands in a glassy sea. Archie knew it was not +made of glass really, but he chose to think that it was, for it had the +qualities of a looking-glass in that it reflected his own bare-legged +form above it, and the slipperiness of glass as exhibited in the +window-panes of the nursery, and he chose also to think that it was to +the hall-floor that the hymn alluded which was sung last Sunday morning +in a dazzling and populous place to which his mother had taken him. The +people who sang loudest were two rows of boys dressed in crinkly white +night-shirts, in company with some grown-up men who were attired in the +same curious manner. But none of them went to bed, and at a pause in the +proceedings Archie had suddenly asked his mother, in a piercing voice, +why they didn't go to bed. Evidently that had puzzled her too, for she +had no reply to give him except "Hush, darling!" which wasn't an answer +at all. Then another man had begun talking all by himself. He had a +quantity of hair on his chin which wagged in so delightful a manner when +he spoke that Archie watched him entranced for a little, and then, +afraid that his mother was missing this lovely sight, said: + +"O mummy, _isn't_ that a funny man?" + +Upon which Blessington, magically communicated with, appeared by his +side and whispered that they were going for a walk, and towed him down +the aisle, still rapturously looking back at the funny man. Archie had +thought it all very entertaining, but he was told afterwards by his +father that he had disgraced himself and should not go to church again +for many Sundays to come. + +Archie was frightened of his father, and always went warily by the door +of the room at the dark corner of the hall where this tremendous person +lived. There were other dangers about that corner, for on the floor were +two tiger-skins which looked as if the animal in question had, with the +exception of its head, been squashed out flat, like as when he and +Blessington sometimes put a flower they had gathered on their walks +between two sheets of blotting-paper, and piled books on the top, so +that it ceased to be a flower, and became the map of a flower. Archie +wished the tigers' heads had been pressed in the same way; as it was, +they were disconcertingly solid and life-like, with long teeth and +snarling mouths and glaring eyes. He had always made Blessington come +right up to his father's door with him when he went in to say +good-night, so that she should pilot him safely past the tigers on his +entry and escort him by them again on his return. But one night his +father had come out with him, and, finding Blessington waiting there, +had divined, as by some awful black magic, why the nurse was waiting, +and had decreed that Archie should in future make his way across the +danger zone unattended. But, next evening, the trembling Archie, +hurrying away in the dusk, had fallen down on the glassy sea between the +awful Scylla and Charybdis, and, convinced that his last hour had come, +when these two cruel heads beheld him prostrate on the floor, had cried +himself to sleep from terror of that awful ending. But next day his +mother, who understood about things in general better than anybody, had +caused the tigers to make friends with him, and in token of their amity +they had each of them presented him with a whisker-hair. That assured +their friendship, and they wished it to be understood that their +snarlings and glarings were directed, not at Archie, but at Archie's +enemies. This naturally changed their whole aspect, and Archie, after he +had wished his father good-night, kissed the hairy heads that had once +been so terrifying, and thanked them for successfully keeping his +enemies from molesting him. + +But though now the presence of the tigers, ceasing to be a terror by +night, had become a protection to Archie, their corner of the hall still +constituted a danger zone to be gone by swiftly and silently, lest a +raised voice or an incautious noise should cause him to be called from +within the closed door of his father's room. There were risks in that +room; you never quite knew whether you were not going to be blamed for +doing something which you had no idea was blame-worthy. One day Archie +had found a lovely wax match with a blue head to it on the floor, and +had put it in his pocket, where he fingered it delightedly, for he knew +it to be the sort which flamed when you rubbed it against your boot or +the bricks of the house, as he had seen his father do. But then, when a +little later he had come to sit on his father's knee and be shown +pictures in a book of natural history, it was detected that his small +fingers smelled of phosphorus, and when the reason was discovered, he +was told by his father that he had stolen that match. To Archie's mind +there was something inexplicably unfair and unjust about this; he knew +quite well that the match was not his, but he had no idea that it was +stealing if you appropriated something that was dropped on the floor. A +thing dropped on the floor was nobody's, and anybody, so he supposed, +might take it. It had been quite another affair when he had taken eight +lumps of sugar out of the basin on the tea-table in the drawing-room and +hidden them in his domino-box. He had been perfectly well aware that he +was stealing them, and had no sense of injustice when his mother had +promptly and soundly smacked him for it. But he intensely resented being +told by his father that he had stolen (even though he was not smacked) +when he had not the least idea that a match dropped on the floor was a +stealable article at all, and he felt it far more bitter to be unjustly +blamed than justly punished. + +"But I didn't know it was stealing, daddy," said he. + +"But didn't you know it wasn't yours?" + +"Yes." + +"And didn't you know that to take what isn't yours is stealing?" + +Archie couldn't explain, but he was still quite sure he had not been +stealing... + +His father's room then, at least when that potentate was in it, was a +place where extreme caution was necessary, and, however cautious you +were (he had not felt guilty of the smallest temerity in picking up that +match), you could never be quite sure that Fate, like some great +concealed cat, would not pounce upon you from the most unexpected +quarter. But, considered in itself, the room had a tremendous attraction +for him. There was a delicious smell about it, subtly compounded of the +leather backs of books and the aroma of tobacco, which to Archie's +dawning perception had something virile and masculine about it. He could +understand the manliness of the place, it answered to something that was +shared by him, and not shared by his mother or Blessington or his +sisters, and belonged to a man. The furniture and the appurtenances of +the room conveyed the same message; they were strong and solid, without +frillings or frippery, and had a decisive air and a purpose about them +which somehow concerned that mysterious difference between boys and +girls and between men and women. His mother's sitting-room, it is true, +seemed to Archie a fairy-palace of loveliness, with its spindle-legged +tables, its lace-edged curtains, its soft, silky cushions, its china, +its glittering silver toys on a particular black lacquer table, its +nameless feminine fragrance. But this room, with its solid leather +chairs, which held small limbs as in a tender male embrace, its gun-case +in the corner, its whip-rack, its few solid, sober pictures which hung +above the book-shelves, struck a different and more intimate and more +intelligible note. Archie felt that he knew what it was all about... it +was about a man, to which _genus_ he himself belonged. This particular +specimen, his father, might be unjust to him, and severe to him, but in +some secret inexplicable manner Archie understood him, though fearing +him, better than he understood either his mother or Blessington, both of +whom he loved. His two sisters, in the same way, had a quality of enigma +about them. + +These floating impressions, the untranslatable instincts of early +childhood, began to thicken, when Archie was getting on for six years +old, into thoughts capable of being solidified into language. He could +not have solidified them himself, but if any one capable of presenting +them to him in actual words had asked him, "Is it this you mean?" he +would have assented. And his solidified thoughts would have taken the +following mould: + +There was something odd about females, and it was a mystery into which +he did not at all want to enquire. They wore skirts, which perhaps +concealed some abnormality, which would be fearful to contemplate. They +had soft faces and soft bodies; when his mother took him on her +knee--she already said that he was getting too big a boy to sit on her +knee, which to Archie sounded very grand and delightful--she was soft to +his shoulder, and her cheek was soft to his. But when he sat on his +father's knee he felt a hard, firm substance behind him, and the +contrast was similar to the contrast between his mother's soft cushions +and his father's leather-clad chairs. And his father had a hard, bristly +cheek on which to receive Archie's good-night kiss. Judged by the +standards of pleasure and luxury, it was not nearly as nice as his +mother's, but it gave him, however great need there was for caution, a +sense of identity with himself. He was of that species... And this +conception of abnormality in women was strongly confirmed when, one +morning, he went as usual to his mother's bedroom to see her before she +went down to breakfast. She had been late in getting up that day, and, +not finding her in her bedroom, Archie's attention had been arrested by +hearing sounds from her bathroom next door, and very naturally had +turned the handle in order to enter. But a voice from inside had said: + +"Is that you, darling? Wait just a minute." + +"But I want to come in now," said Archie. "I'm coming in." + +"Archie, I shall be very angry if you come in before I give you leave," +said the voice. Then there were rustlings. "Come in now." + +And there was his mother standing by her bath, which smelt deliciously +fragrant, in a lovely blue bath-towel dressing-gown. + +"Good-morning, darling," said she. "But you must never come into a +lady's bathroom unless she gives you leave." + +"Why not?" said Archie. "You come to see me in my bath without my saying +'Yes.'" + +She gave that delicious bubble of laughter that reminded Archie of the +sound of cool lemonade being poured out of the bottle. + +"I shan't when you're as old as me," she said. "I shall always ask your +leave. And probably you won't give it me." + +"Why not? It's only me," said Archie. + +"You'll know when you're older," said she. + +Archie rather despised that argument: it seemed to apply to so many +situations in life. But he had already formed the very excellent habit +of crediting his mother with the gift of common sense, for was it not +she who had discovered that the snarl of the tiger-heads was a snarl not +at Archie, but at his enemies? But on this occasion it merely confirmed +his conviction that women were somehow deformed. They wore skirts +instead of breeches, and though, judging by his younger sister, they +were normal up to about the level of the knee, it seemed likely that +their legs extended no farther, but that they became like peg-tops, +swelling out in one round piece till their bodies were reached. What +confirmed this impression was that they seemed to run from their knees +instead of striding with a swung leg. Blessington always ran like that: +her feet twinkled in ridiculously short steps, and after a moment or two +she said: + +"Eh, I can't run any more. I've got a bone in my leg." + +"And haven't I?" asked Archie. + +"No, dear: you're just made of gristle and quicksilver," said +Blessington, with a sudden lyrical spasm as she looked at the shining +face of her most beloved. + +"What's quicksilver?" asked Archie. "And why haven't I got a bone in my +leg? O-o-oh!" and a sudden thought struck him. "Have women got bones in +their legs and not boys? Is that why they can't run properly? Mummy +can't run, nor can you; but William can, damn him." + +"Master Archie!" said Blessington in her most severe voice. + +"What for?" asked Archie. + +"You must never say that, Master Archie," said Blessington, who only +called him Master Archie on impressive occasions. "You must never say +what you said after 'William can.'" + +"But daddy said it to William this morning," said Archie. + +Blessington still wore the iron mask on her face. It was lucky for her +that Archie did not know how puzzled she was as to the correct answer. + +"Your papa says what he thinks fit," she said, "and that is right for +him. But young gentlemen never say it." + +"How old shall I have to be--" began Archie. + +"And look at your shoe-lace all untied," said Blessington with extreme +promptitude. "Do it up at once, or you'll be treading on it. And then it +will be time for you to go in, and you can write your letter to Miss +Marjorie before your dinner." + +Miss Marjorie was the elder of Archie's two sisters. She was ten years +older than he, and at the present time was staying with her grandmother, +whom Archie strongly suspected of being either a witch or a man. She was +large and rustling, and had a bass voice and a small moustache and a +small husband, who was an earl, to whom, when he came to stay with +Archie's father, who appeared to be his son, every one paid a great deal +of unnecessary attention. Both of them, Archie's father, and Archie's +father's father, were lords, and Archie distinctly thought he ought to +be a lord too, considering that both his father and his grandfather +were. Blessington had hinted that he would be a lord too, some day, if +he were good, but when pressed she couldn't say when. In fact, there was +a ridiculous reticence about the whole matter, for when he had asked his +mother, in the presence of his grandfather, when he was going to be a +lord, his grandfather, quite inexplicably, had giggled with laughter, +and said: + +"I've got one foot in the grave already, Archie, and you want me to have +both." + +That was a very cryptic remark, and when Archie asked William the +footman what grandpapa Tintagel had meant, William had said that he +couldn't say, sir. On which Archie, looking hastily round, and feeling +sure that Blessington was not present, had repeated "Damn you, William," +as daddy said. + +Then William, after endeavouring not to show two rows of jolly white +teeth, had said: + +"You must never say that to me, Master Archie." + +In fact, there was clearly a league. Blessington and William, who didn't +love each other, as Archie had ascertained by direct questions to each, +were at one over the question of him not saying that. Under the stress +of independent evidence, Archie decided not to say it any more, without +further experiments as to the effect "it" would have on his mother. If +William and Blessington were both agreed about it, it had clearly better +not be done, any more than it was wise to walk about among the flowers +of the big, herbaceous border. The gardener and the gardener's boy and +his mother were all of one mind about that, and the gardener's boy had +threatened to turn the hose on to him if he caught him at it. The +gardener's boy was quite grown up, and so for Archie he had a weight of +authority that befitted his years. + +It was a lovely, disconnected life. There were all sorts of delightful +and highly coloured strands that contributed to it, and others of a more +sombre hue, and others again quite secret, which concerned Archie alone, +and of which he never spoke to anybody. Of the delightful and highly +coloured strands there were many. Waking in the morning, and knowing +that there was going to be another day was one of them, and perhaps that +was the most delightful of all except when, rarely, it was clouded with +some trouble of the evening before, as when Archie had broken a window +in his father's study in the laudable attempt to kill a wasp with a +fire-shovel, and had been told by Blessington that his father wished to +see him the moment he was dressed in the morning. But usually the +wakings were ecstatic; and often he used to return to consciousness in +those summer months long before Blessington came in to call him. The +window was always open--all the windows in the night-nursery were opened +as soon as he got into bed--and the blinds were up, and on the ceiling +was the most delicious green light, for the early sun shone through the +branches of the beeches outside, and painted Archie's ceiling with a +pale, milky green which was adorable to contemplate. He would pull up +his night-shirt, and with his bare arms clasp his bare knees, and, lying +on his back, rather unsteadily anchored, would roll backwards and +forwards looking at the green light, and rehearsing all the delightful +probabilities of the day. Sometimes his mother had promised him that he +should go out fishing on the lake when his lessons were done, and this +implied the wonderful experience of seeing Walter or William come out on +to the lawn, and pour out of a tin gardening can a mixture of mustard +and water. When the footman did that it was certain that in a short time +the grass would be covered with worms, which William put in a tin box +lined with moss. Then Archie and William, sometimes with a sister, whose +presence, Archie thought, was not wholly desirable, since she impeded +the free flow of talk between him and William, would go down to the +lake, and William, who could do everything, put worms on hooks (they did +not seem to mind, for they said no word of protest), and sculled across +to the sluice above which was deep water, where the fish fed, and away +from the reeds, where the line got entangled, so that it was impossible +to know whether you were engaged with a fish or a vegetable. The +fishing-rod came out of his father's study--that was another delightful +male attribute about the room--and when Archie went in to ask for it, +William came too, not in his livery, but in ordinary clothes, and his +father said, "Take good care of Master Archie, William. Good sport, +Archie." Sometimes again, if he was not busy, Lord Davidstow came out +with Archie instead of William. That was somehow an honour, but Archie +did not like it so much. + +Once there was a great happening. William produced a curious object that +looked like the bowl of a spoon with hooks set all round it. He said +there were going to be no worms this time, and, instead of drifting +about, he rowed up and down, while Archie, with his rod over the stern, +saw the spoon flashing through the water. Then a great shadow came over +it, and Archie felt the rod bend in his hands. He was so excited that he +stepped on to the seat of the boat, in order to see better, and promptly +fell overboard. + +He was not the least frightened, and rather enjoyed the splash and the +sense of soda-water round him. With both hands he held on to the +fishing-rod, which seemed an absolutely essential thing to do, and sank +down, down in the deep water, seeing it green and yellow above his head. +And then instantly he knew he was going to be drowned, and a feeling +precisely identical to that which he had experienced one night when he +woke, of a universal presence round about him, took complete possession +of him. Then, even before he was conscious of the least sense of choking +or discomfort, but was still only aware of coolness and depth and +greenness, a great dark splaying object came right down upon him from +above, and he found himself tucked underneath a human arm, coatless and +in shirt-sleeves which he took to be William's. But still Archie did not +let go of the fishing-rod, and mistakenly trying to speak, bidding +William take care of it, his mouth and apparently his whole interior +filled with water, and drowning suddenly seemed to be a disagreeable +process. Next moment, however, his head emerged from the water again, +and William caught hold of the boat. + +"Let go the rod, Master Archie," said he, "and catch hold of the boat." + +"But there's a fish on it," spluttered Archie. + +"Do as I tell you, sir," said William quite crossly. + +Archie had been told that, when he went out in the boat with William, he +had to do precisely as William told him. He was not, it is true, in the +boat at the moment, but the injunction probably applied. So he let go of +the rod, and the moment afterwards found himself violently propelled +over the side of the boat, and tumbled all abroad on the floor of it. +They were but a dozen yards from land, and William having once got +Archie into the boat, grabbed hold of the rod with his spare hand, and +swam, shoving the boat in front of him. + +"Oh, well done, William. Oh, William, I love you," screamed Archie when, +having righted himself, he observed this brilliant manoeuvre. "Is the +fish there still?" + +William scrambled up the bank, still holding the rod. + +"Run indoors at once, Master Archie," he said. "Don't wait a moment." + +"But William, is the fish--" began Archie. + +"Do as I tell you, sir," said William again. "I'll bring the fish for +you, if I get him." + +Archie ran with backward glances across the lawn, where he was met by +Blessington who had observed the accident out of the window, and, before +he could explain half the thrilling things that had happened, was +undressed and rubbed down and put between blankets. And then, after a +few minutes, in came William, having also changed his clothes, with a +great pike, and his father followed and shook hands with William, and +his mother did the same, saying things that made William blush and stand +first on one foot and then on the other, murmuring: "It was nothing at +all, my lady," and Archie asked if he and William might go out again +that afternoon, and catch another pike. Then in came his younger sister, +Jeannie, who was only two years his senior. She appeared to be on the +point of crying, and she flung her arms round Archie's neck in an +uncomfortable sort of way, and Archie told her she was messing him. +After that, in reaction from those thrilling affairs, he felt suddenly +tired, and, being encouraged to go to sleep, nestled down in the +blankets and woke up to find that there was his fish stuffed for dinner, +and for himself and William an era of unexampled popularity. + +Archie did not understand at the time why he had suddenly blossomed into +such favouritism, unless it was for having clung tight to his father's +fishing-rod but he enjoyed it immensely. It was pleasant, too, not long +afterwards, to be given a gold watch by his father, to present to +William, with a gold chain provided by his mother. And William permitted +him to put the gold watch into one waistcoat pocket, and the end of the +gold chain into the other, and his father and mother and Jeannie all +shook hands with William again (every one seemed to be spending their +time in shaking hands with William). So Archie, since William was his +friend more than anybody else's, kissed him, in order to mark the +difference between himself and other people with regard to him. He was +surprised to find that William had got a soft cheek like his mother's, +and supposed that men's faces grew hard as they grew older. He instantly +mentioned this surprising fact, and William appeared rather glad to +leave the room. But in all Archie's life no event ever occurred which +approached the splendour and public magnificence of this whole +experience. + +Every day the world widened, and, lying looking at the green light on +the ceiling in the cool still mornings of that summer which seemed to +last for years and years, Archie found himself not only speculating on +what fresh joys the day would bring, but joining together in his mind +the happenings that at the time seemed disconnected, but which proved to +be part of a continuous thread of existence. Just as the nursery +passage, and the steep stairs, and his father's room, and the lawn, and +the lake passed from being isolated phenomena into pieces of a whole, so +things that happened proved to be the experiences of the person who was +known to others as Archie Morris, and to Archie as himself. Sometimes he +so tingled with vigour when he woke that, contrary to orders, he stepped +out of bed and leaned out of the window, to look at the bright dewy +world, with one ear alert to hear Blessington's foot along the passage, +in order to leap back into bed again, for now he had the night-nursery +to himself, and Blessington slept next door. At that hour the lawn would +be covered with a shimmering grey mantle, pearl-coloured, and here and +there a few diamonds had got in by mistake which shone with just the +brilliance of his mother's necklace. Perhaps these were the bed-clothes +of the lawn, and when day came, they were covered over by the green +bed-spread like that which lay on his own bed. The lake away to the +right had different bed-clothes, thicker ones, but of the same colour. +No doubt they were thicker because the lake was colder, for on some +mornings he could not see through them at all. To the left, out of the +window, rose the wood where the rabbits lived; sometimes one of them, an +early riser like Archie, would have found a gap in the netting and was +out on the lawn nibbling the grass. The gardener did not approve of +that, for the lawn, it appeared, belonged to the people who lived in +Archie's house, and not to the folk in the wood, and this was a trespass +on the part of the rabbits, for which the punishment, rather a severe +one, was death by shooting. This had added a new terror to the notice in +another wood where he and Blessington sometimes walked, which announced +that trespassers would be prosecuted. Blessington was foolhardy enough +to disregard that notice altogether, saying that it was his daddy's +notice, and didn't apply to them; but for some time Archie never chose +that walk for fear that Blessington might be wrong about it, and that +they would meet somebody in the wood who would instantly shoot them both +for trespassing. But in childish fashion he kept those terrors to +himself, sooner than enquire about them, till one day they actually did +meet in that wood a man with a gun. Then in a sudden wild terror Archie +clung to Blessington, crying out, "Oh, ask him not to shoot us this +time!" + +"Eh, darling," said Blessington. "Who's going to shoot us? It's only one +of your daddy's keepers." + +"No, but he will shoot us," screamed Archie. "We're trespassers, and +he'll shoot us like the rabbits." + +Matters being thereupon explained, and Archie convinced that he and +Blessington were not going to be shot for trespassing, he found that he +could make up for himself an entrancing story of how Master Rabbit and +his nurse (who were good) never trespassed on the lawn, and that the +rabbits he saw there corresponded to Grandmamma Tintagel, and so he did +not care whether they were shot or not. + +These stories which he told himself in the early morning, looking out on +to the lawn, or lying curled up on his back in bed, looking at the green +ceiling, were not vague, dream-like imaginings, but were endowed with a +vividness that made Blessington's entry with his bath and his clothes +seem less real than they. It became impossible indeed for him to +disentangle reality (as judged by people like his father and the +gardener) from imagination. He told himself so strongly that there was +Grandmamma Tintagel sitting on the lawn, trespassing and nibbling grass +for her breakfast, that her presence there, or her absence when there +was no trespassing rabbit, became things as vivid as his subsequent +dressing and breakfast. Had he been definitely asked if he believed it +was Grandmamma Tintagel, he would have said "No"; but in his imaginative +life, so hard for a child to dissociate from his real life, there was no +question as to her identity. It happened also that at this time his +mother was reading to him the realest of all books, namely, _Alice in +Wonderland_. No imaginative boy of five could possibly doubt the actual +existence of the White Rabbit in that convincing history, and Archie +would not have been surprised if, one morning, there had proved to be a +white rabbit sitting by the fence, who looked at his watch and put on +his gloves. Yet he never spoke of this possibility even to Blessington +or William; it did not belong to the sphere of things about which it was +reasonable to converse to grown-up people, simply because they were +stupid about certain matters and would not understand him. The fact that +Grandmamma Tintagel sometimes sat on the lawn in the early morning was +among the topics which he kept quite completely to himself. + +There were other such topics. Sometimes, when he lay in bed, waiting for +Blessington to call him, and did not choose to get up and look out of +the window, it was because these other secret affairs engaged him. If he +lay still, and stared at the green-hued ceiling, curious waves of shadow +appeared to pass over it, and it seemed like that sunny floor of water +that had closed above his head on the morning when he fell out of the +boat. There was he lying in bed deep below some surface of liquid light +that cut him off from the outer world, and he wondered if in a moment a +splayed starfish of arms and legs which turned out to be William would +dive down for him, and bring him up among the common things again. But +William never made this impressive entry through the ceiling, and if he +stared long enough, Archie only seemed to himself to slip down and down, +gently and rapturously, through deep water, and another world, the world +of hidden things that dwelt below the surface, came slowly into +existence, like as when, on mounting a slope, fresh valleys and +hillsides arise and unfurl themselves. Only, in this case, you had to go +down somewhere inside yourself to become aware of them. And something, +some inner consciousness, recognized and hailed them. It was not that he +was getting sleepy, and sinking into the waters of dreams; rather the +experience was the result of a more vivid life and awakened perceptions. +But he never got further than that, and during the day he was far too +busy with the affairs of normal life to trouble about those perceptions +that dawned on him on still quiet mornings when he lay a-bed and stared +at the ceiling with its flickering green lights and moving shadows. + + + +CHAPTER II + +Archie's birthday was in November, and for a day or two before that +tremendous annual event there was always a certain atmosphere of mystery +abroad, which he was conscious of at odd minutes. He met Marjorie on the +morning of the day before he would be six, walking down the nursery +passage with a parcel in her hand, the contents of which she would not +divulge. That afternoon, too, his mother drove into the neighbouring +town in the motor, and would not take him with her, on the excuse that +she had some shopping to do, though it was the commonest thing in the +world for her to take him with her when she went shopping. This year he +vaguely connected these odd happenings with his birthday, as he did also +the fact that a week ago Blessington had brought a total stranger into +the nursery, who had very politely asked him to take off his coat. The +stranger had then knelt down on the floor in front of him, and had +produced a tape, with which he proceeded to measure Archie all over, +from his hip to his knee and his knee to his ankle, and round his waist, +and round his chest, and all along his arms, making notes of those +things in a book. Blessington had told him that Mr. Johnson wanted to +see how much he had grown, which was certainly a very gratifying +attention, especially since Archie had grown a good deal, and was +extremely proud of the fact. Mr. Johnson congratulated him too, and said +that he himself hadn't grown as much as that for many a year, and tried +to account for his visit on general grounds of interest in Archie. But +in spite of that Archie connected this call with his birthday, though he +did not arrive at the deduction that it meant clothes. + +His mother came up to tea in the nursery on her return from her +mysterious drive, and said that she had just caught sight of the fairy +Abracadabra as she drove down the High Street; she had not known that +Abracadabra was in the neighbourhood. She asked Archie if Abracadabra +had called while she was out, and Archie, after a moment's pause, said +that he hadn't seen her... but in that pause something of the glory +faded out of the bright trailing clouds. When he was asked that directly +he did not feel sure whether he believed in Abracadabra in the same way +in which he believed in Blessington or Jeannie. So short a time +ago--last summer only--Alice in Wonderland and the identity of +Grandmamma Tintagel had been so much realler than the paltry happenings +that took place in the light of common day. Now, quite suddenly and +unexpectedly, at the mere question as to whether he had seen Abracadabra +they all began to fade; indeed, it was more than fading: it was as if +they passed out of sight behind a corner. + +Archie had been told that he must never, if he could help it, hurt +people's feelings. The particular occasion when that had been brought +home to him was when his sister Jeannie had to wear a rather delightful +sort of band round her front teeth, which showed a tendency to grow +crooked. She was shy about it and hoped nobody saw it, and when Archie +called the attention of the public to it, she turned very red. He had +not had the least intention of embarrassing her, for he thought the band +rather nice himself, and would have liked to have had one had his teeth +been sufficiently advanced for such a decoration. But on this occasion +he saw instantly and clearly that he must not hurt his mother's feelings +by expressing scepticism about Abracadabra. Perhaps his mother still +believed in her herself (though there were difficulties about supposing +that, seeing that if Abracadabra was not Abracadabra she was certainly +his mother); but, in any case, she thought Archie believed in +Abracadabra, which made quite sufficient reason for his appearing to do +so. If Abracadabra was an invention designed to awe, delight, and +mystify him, the most elementary obligation of not embarrassing other +people enjoined on him that he must be awed, delighted, and mystified. +Perhaps by next year something would have happened to Abracadabra, for +nowadays she only made her appearance on his birthday, whereas he could +remember when she paid Jeannie also a birthday visit. But this year she +had not come on Jeannie's birthday, and the various members of the +family had given her birthday presents themselves, which did not happen +when Abracadabra came, for she was the chief dispenser of offerings. + +So Archie replied that Abracadabra had not been during his mother's +absence, and, in order to spare his mother the mortification of knowing +that he had doubts about that benevolent fairy, laid himself out to ask +intelligent questions. + +"Why didn't you speak to her, mummy?" he said, "when you saw her in the +High Street?" + +"Because she was in a hurry; she went by like a flash of lightning, in +her pearl chariot." + +"Was there any thunder?" asked he. + +"Yes, just one clap; but that might have been the wheels of the chariot. +What do you think she'll bring you?" + +Archie was holding his mother's hand, and slipping her rings up and down +her fingers. As he held it, he suddenly became aware what one of these +presents would be. + +"A clock-work train," he said quickly. + +He knew more than that about the clock-work train. He felt perfectly +certain that it was in his mother's bedroom at this moment, reposing in +the big cupboard where she kept her dresses. + +"Do you want a clock-work train?" she asked. + +"Yes, mummy, frightfully," said he, feeling that he was playing a part, +for he knew his mother knew that he wanted a clock-work train. + +"What else?" + +"Oh, thousands of things. Particularly a pen that writes without your +dipping it in the ink." + +"Well, if I were you I should write down all the things you want, and +leave the paper lying on your counterpane when you go to sleep." + +"What'll that do?" asked Archie. + +"It's the fairy-post. Instead of putting letters into boxes to be posted +when you want them to reach the fairies, you have always to put them on +your bed. Mind you address it to Her Fairy Majesty the Empress +Abracadabra. Then, when the fairies come round to collect the post, they +will find it there, and take it to Abracadabra. And perhaps if she comes +to-morrow--let me see, it must be a year since she was here--she will +bring a few things for your birthday. I can't tell; but I think that is +the best chance of getting them." + +Certainly this seemed a very pleasant sort of plan; Archie had never +heard of it before, and the extremely matter-of-fact tone in which his +mother spoke lit again a dawning hope in his mind that perhaps it was +all true. Why shouldn't be a fairy Abracadabra, and a fairy-post, just +as there had been, and now was no longer, a glassy sea between the rugs +in the hall, and snarling tigers to keep off his enemies? If you +believed a thing enough, it became real, with a few trifling +exceptions--as, for instance, when, on one of the days last summer, a +day crammed full of the most delightful events, Archie had found himself +firmly believing that that particular day was never coming to an end. +True, it had come to an end, but that perhaps was because he hadn't +believed strongly enough... There was a lovely story which his mother +had read him about a man called Joshua, who wanted a day to remain until +he had killed all his enemies, and sure enough the sun stood still until +he had accomplished that emphatic task. He never doubted that, because +it came out of the Bible, and in the spirit of Joshua he set himself now +to believe in Abracadabra and the fairy-post. And, with that in his +mind, he kept his eyes firmly away from the cupboard where his mother +kept her dresses that evening, when her maid opened it, lest he should +see there the parcel which he felt secretly convinced was there, and +contained the clock-work train which his mother had bought, and which +Abracadabra would to-morrow assuredly bring out of the basket of pure +gold with which she habitually travelled. + +Archie put the letter for the fairy-post on his bed, and determined to +keep awake so that he should see the fairy postman come for it. It was a +very cold night, and a big fire burned in his grate, so that, though the +windows as usual were all open, there was a clear, brisk warmth about +the room and a frosty and soapy smell, for his bright brown hair had +been washed that night--this was a special evening bath-night, for by +now baths had been promoted to the morning--and stuck up all over his +head in a novel and independent manner. Blessington had dried it by the +fire for him with hot towels, and a very extraordinary thing had +happened, for when she brushed it afterwards it gave forth little +cracklings, which she told him was electricity which was the thing that +made the lamps burn. She had allowed him to take a brush to bed with +him, and make more cracklings for five minutes until she returned to put +his light out, and Archie made a wonderful story to himself as he looked +at the fire, that he would get an electric lamp and paste it to his +head, so that he should be able to read by the light of his hair. All at +once this seemed so feasible, so easy of belief that he pictured to +himself everybody walking about the house in the evening lit by +themselves... And then William came round the corner (he did not know +what corner), carrying an electric pike for a birthday present to +himself, and when Blessington stole in five minutes afterwards, Archie's +brush had slipped from his fingers and his breath came evenly between +his parted lips. There was a gap in his front teeth because a tooth had +come out only to-day, embedded in a piece of toffy he was eating, which +had made Archie squeal with laughter, for here was a new substance +called tooth-toffee... And Blessington softly lifted his arm and laid it +under the bedclothes without awaking him, and looked at him a moment +with her old face beaming with love, and put down on his chair out of +sight at the bottom of his bed the new sailor-suit, and took away the +note to her Fairy Majesty the Empress Abracadabra. + +* * * * * + +Archie woke next morning and instantly remembered that he had attained +the magnificent age of six. Six had long seemed to him one of the most +delightful ages to be. Eighteen was another, mainly because William was +eighteen, but six was the best of all, for at eighteen you must +inevitably feel that you have lived your life, and that there is nothing +much left to live for; for the rest would be but a slow descent into the +vale of years. But to-day he was six, and it was his birthday, and... +and there was no sign of the letter he had written to Abracadabra on his +counterpane. But it might have slipped on to the floor, and not have +been taken away by fairies after all. Or it might have slipped over the +bottom of the bed; and Archie got up to see. No: there was no note +there, but on the chair at the foot of his bed was a suit of +sailor-clothes... + +Archie gave a gasp: certainly their presence there constituted a +possibility that they were for him; but he hardly dared let himself +contemplate so dazzling a prospect, for fear it should be whisked out of +sight. Yet who could they be for, if not for him? They couldn't be +Blessington's, for she was a female, and wore mystery-cloaking skirts. +Sailor-suits were boys' clothes: Harry Travers, the son of a +neighbouring squire, aged eight, had a sailor-suit--it was the thing +that Archie most envied about that young man. Harry had taken the coat +and trousers off one day in the summer when the two boys were playing in +the copse by the lower end of the lake, and had let Archie put them on +for three minutes. That had been a thrilling adventure; it implied +undressing out of doors, which was a very unusual thing to do, and he +loved the feeling of the rough serge down his bare calves. He had, of +course, offered Harry the privilege of putting on his knickerbockers and +jacket, if he could get into them without splitting them, but Harry, +from that Pisgah-summit of eight years, had no desire to go back to the +childish things of the land of bondage, but had danced about bare-legged +while Archie enjoyed his three minutes in these voluminous and grown-up +lendings. And now perhaps for him, too, not for three minutes only, but +for every day... and he took a leap back into bed again as Blessington's +tread sounded on the boards outside. + +Archie pretended to be asleep, for he wanted to be awakened by +Blessington and hear his birthday greetings. He loved the return of +consciousness in the morning--when he had not already been awake, and +speculating about Grandmamma Tintagel on the lawn--to find Blessington, +with her hand on his shoulder, gently stirring him, and her face close +to his, whispering to him, "Eh, it's time to get up." So this morning, +not for the first time, he simulated sleep in order to recapture that +lovely sense of being awakened by love. (You must understand that he did +not put it to himself like that, for Archie, just at the age of six, was +not a mature and self-conscious prig, but he wanted to know what +Blessington's greeting to him would be, when she thought she woke him up +on the morning of his sixth birthday.) + +From the narrow chink of his eyelids not quite closed, he could see some +of her movements. She took the exciting suit of sailor-clothes from the +bottom of his bed, and laid it on the chair where she always put his +clothes with a flannel shirt of a quite unusual shape, and his socks on +top. Already Archie had heart-burnings at the knowledge of his knowledge +of the sailor-suit. Blessington meant it to be a surprise to him, and a +surprise he determined it should be. In the interval there was another +surprise: how would Blessington wake him? She would be sure to rise to +the immense importance of the occasion. She moved quietly about; she +shut the windows, and brought in his bath. And then she came close up to +his bed. He felt her hand stealing underneath the bedclothes to his +shoulder and she shook it gently--"Eh, Master Six," she said. + +Oh, she had done exactly the right thing! She had divined Archie, as he +had divined himself, knowing himself. That was just the only thing to +think about this morning. He ceased to imagine: Blessington, out of her +simplicity of love, had given the real birthday greeting. + +He rolled a little sideways, and there was her face close to his, and +her hand still underneath his bed-clothes. He put up both of his hands +and caught it. + +"Many happy returns," said Blessington. "Wake up, my darling: it's your +birthday. Happy returns," she repeated. + +Archie released her hand and flung his arm round her neck. + +"Oh, Blessington, isn't it fun?" he said. "What did you do when you were +six?" + +"I got up directly," said Blessington, kissing him, "and had my bath and +put my clothes on. Now, will you do the same, for I'm going downstairs +for ten minutes, and then I shall be back." + +"All right," said Archie. + +She went out, and Archie again, as with the question of Abracadabra last +night, felt he must make it a surprise that there were sailor-clothes on +his chair. It was quite likely that he would not be supposed to notice +them at once, and so he stripped off his night-shirt, and took his bath +in the prescribed manner. He had to lie down on the floor first of all, +and wave his legs about; then he had to stand upright, still with no +clothes on, and put his hands each side of his waist, and wave his body +about eight times in each direction. Then he was allowed to pour out the +hot water into his bath, in order to encourage himself, but before he +stepped into that delicious steamy warmth he had to bend down eight +times with a long frosty expulsion of breath, and stand up eight times +with a great draught of cold air in his lungs. All this had been +explained to him by a stranger--not Mr. Johnson--who, a year ago, had +come into his nursery and had been very much interested in his anatomy. +Archie understood that this was a doctor, though he didn't give him any +medicine, but had merely showed him how to do these things, after first +putting a sort of plug on Archie's chest which communicated with two +other plugs that the stranger put in his ears. Then Archie had to say +"ninety-nine" several times, which seemed to be a sort of game, though +it didn't lead any further (the doctor, for instance, didn't say "a +hundred"), and then he had to promise to practise those contortions +every morning. + +All this was done, and Archie fled from the cold of the morning to his +bath. The water was of that divinest temperature so that when he stopped +still it was lovely, but when he moved he almost screamed with the +rapturous heat of it. It cooled a little as he sat in it, and, still +remembering that he was six, he poured a sponge-full down his spine. +That over, he might wash his face and his neck, and well behind his ears +with soap. Up till a few months ago Blessington had always superintended +the bath, and done these things for him; but now he did them for himself +as agent, with Blessington as inspector-general in the background, who +might always make the strictest scrutiny into the place behind the ears +and the toe-nails to see that the effects of the bath were perfectly +satisfactory. If not, Blessington superintended again for the next three +mornings; so Archie was very careful, since it was so much grander to +wash oneself than to be washed by anybody else. + +Then came the most exciting part of the bath, for close at the side of +it was a big tin full of the coldest possible water. He had then to +stand up in his bath, and, after washing his face in the cold water, to +put cold water everywhere within reach of him on one arm and then the +other, on a chest, on a stomach, on one leg and on another right down to +the foot, and finally (a vocal piece) to squeeze a full sponge down his +back. Archie squealed at this, and flew for a towel. + +He flung himself into his new clothes and was already half-dressed when +Blessington returned. + +"Oh, Blessington," he said, "look at me, and they're just as easy to +manage as the old ones, and may I go to see Harry after breakfast and +show him?" + +"Master Harry will be here for tea," said Blessington. + +"Yes, but I want him to know sooner than that. Did they come just +ordinarily, like other clothes? Or are they a birthday present?" + +"Well, I should say they were a birthday present," said Blessington. + +"Who from?" demanded Archie. + +And then suddenly he guessed. + +"Oh, Blessington," he said. "I like them better than anything!" he said. + +"Well, dear, and I wish you health to wear them and strength to tear +them," she said. "Eh, but how you're disarranging my cap!" + +Archie promptly handselled his clothes by spilling egg on the coat, and +bread-and-butter upside down on the trousers, and, when the time came +for him to make his public entry into the world, was seized with a +sudden fit of shyness at the thought of anybody seeing him. The +housemaid would stare, and William would laugh, and Marjorie would +pretend not to know him, and for the moment of leaving the day-nursery +(which from this morning was to be known as Archie's sitting-room) he +would almost have wished himself back in his knickerbockers. But the +remembered rough touch of the serge on his legs provided encouragement, +and soon the new glories burst upon a sympathetic and not a mocking +world. They were at breakfast downstairs, and Archie, though he had +already had his, was bidden by his father to have a cup of coffee, which +he poured out himself at the side-table, and to drink it slowly, and at +the bottom of it, among the melted sugar, there came to his astonished +eyes the gleam of silver, and there was a new half-crown with his +father's happy returns. Thereafter came a hurried visit to Harry, a +motor drive with his mother and Jeannie, Archie sitting on the box-seat +and permitted to blow the bugle practically as often as he wanted, and +the return to dinner, to find that the two things he liked best, namely +boiled rabbit and spotted dog pudding, formed that memorable repast. + +Up till now he had received only two birthday presents, the clothes and +the half-crown, and he could not help feeling that a visit from +Abracadabra was more than likely, since no one else had made the +slightest allusion to clock-work trains or pens that wrote without being +dipped. But in the afternoon, as he returned home from his walk with +Blessington and Jeannie in the early dusk, he received an impression +which was to be more inextricably connected with his sixth birthday than +even the sailor suit. They were within a few yards of the front-door +when there ran out of the bushes Cyrus, the great blue Persian cat. He +held something in his mouth, which Archie saw to be a bird. There he +stood for a moment with the gleaming eyes of the successful hunter, and +twitching tail, and then trotted in front of them towards the porch. +Simultaneously Jeannie called out: + +"Oh, Blessington, Cyrus has caught a thrush. We must get it from him; it +may be still alive." + +Till then Archie had only thought about the cleverness of Cyrus in +catching a bird, which was clearly a very remarkable feat, since Cyrus +could only run and climb, and a bird could fly. But, as Jeannie spoke, +he suddenly thought of himself in the jaws of a tiger, of the clutch of +the long white teeth, of the fear, and the helplessness; and a queer +tremor made him catch his breath, as there smote upon him an emotion +that had never yet been awakened by the passage of his sunny days. Pity +took hold of him for the bright-eyed bird. It suffered; his imagination +told him that, and never yet had the fact of suffering come home to him. + +They hemmed Cyrus in, and Blessington took the thrush out of his mouth, +while Cyrus growled and struck at her with his paws, and then, greatly +incensed, bounded out into the garden again, so as not to lose the +chance, at this cat-hour of dusk, of a further stalk and capture. They +carried the bird into the hall, where they looked at it, but it lay +quite still in Blessington's hand, with its helpless little claws +relaxed, and with its eyes fast glazing in death. Its beak was open, and +on its speckled breast were two oozing drops of blood, that stained the +feathers. + +"Eh, poor thing, it's dead," said Blessington. + +Archie felt all the desolation of an unavailing pity. + +"No, it can't be dead, Blessington," he said. "It'll get all right, +won't it?" and his lip quivered. + +"No, dear, it's quite dead," said Blessington; "but if you like we'll +bury it. There'll be just time before tea. Shall I run upstairs and get +a box to bury it in?" + +Without doubt this was a consoling and attractive proposal, and while +Blessington went to get a suitable coffin, Archie held the "small slain +body" in reverent hands. It was warm and soft and still; by now the +bright eyes had grown quite dull, and the blood on the speckled breast +was beginning to coagulate, and once again, even with the novel prospect +of a bird-funeral in front of him, Archie's heart melted in pity. + +"Why did Cyrus kill it, Jeannie?" he said. "The thrush hadn't done any +harm." + +"Cats do kill birds," said Jeannie. "Same as birds kill worms, or you +and William kill worms when you go out fishing." + +"Yes, but worms aren't birds," said Archie. "Worms aren't nice; they +don't fly and sing. It's an awful shame." + +Blessington returned with a suitable cardboard box which had held +chocolates, and into this fragrant coffin the little limp body was +inserted. This certainly distracted Archie from his new-found emotion. + +"Oh, that will be nice for it," he said. "It will smell the chocolate." + +"It can't; it's dead," said hopeless Jeannie. + +But Blessington understood better. + +"Yes, dear, the chocolate will be nice for it," she said, "and then +we'll cover it up with leaves and put the lid on." + +"Oh, and may it have a cris--a crisantepum?" said Archie. "May I pick +one?" + +"Yes, just one." + +Archie laid this above the bird's head, and the lid was put on. + +"Oh, and let's have a procession to the tool-shed to get a trowel," said +Jeannie. + +"Yes!" squealed Archie, now thoroughly immersed in the fascinating +ritual. "And I'll carry the coffin and go first, and you and Blessington +shall walk behind and sing." + +"Well, we must be quick," said Blessington. + +"No, not quick," said Jeannie. "It's a funeral. What shall we sing?" + +"Oh, anything. 'The Walrus and the Carpenter.' That's sad, because the +oysters were dead." + +So, to the moving strains, the procession headed across the lawn, and +found a trowel in the tool-shed, and excavated a grave underneath the +laurestinus. The coffin was once more opened to see that the thrush was +quite comfortable, and then deposited in its sepulchre, and the earth +filled in above it. But Archie felt that the ceremony was still +incomplete. + +"Ought we to say a prayer, Jeannie?" he said. + +"No, it's only a thrush." + +Archie considered a moment. + +"I don't care," he said. "I shall all the same." + +He took off his sailor cap and knelt down, closing his eyes. + +"God bless the poor thrush," he said. "Good-night, thrush. I can't think +of anything more. Amen. Say Amen, Jeannie." + +"Amen," said Jeannie. + +"And do get up from that damp earth, dear," said Blessington. "And let's +see who can run the fastest back to the house." + +Blessington ran the least fast, and Archie tripped over a croquet-hoop, +and so Jeannie won, and very nearly began telling her mother about it +all before Archie arrived. But, though breathless, he shrilly chipped +in. + +"And then I picked a crisantepum, and we had a procession across the +lawn, and made a lovely grave by the tool-house, and I said prayers, +though Jeannie told me you didn't have prayers for thrushes. Mummy, when +I grow up, may I be a clergyman?" + +"Why, dear?" + +"Don't they have lots of funerals?" + +"Pooh; that's the undertaker," said Jeannie. "Besides, I did say Amen, +Archie." + +"I know. But mummy, why did Cyrus kill the thrush? Why did he want to +hurt it and kill it? That was the part I didn't like, and I expect the +thrush hated it. Wasn't it cruel of him? But if he kills another, may we +have another funeral?" + +He stood still a moment, cudgelling his small brain in order to grasp +exactly what he felt. + +"The poor thrush!" he said. "I wish Cyrus hadn't killed it. But, if it's +got to be dead, I like funerals." + +* * * * * + +Tea, on such solemn occasions as birthday feasts, took place for Archie, +not in the nursery, but in the drawing-room, as better providing the +proper pomp. He appreciated that, and secretly was pleased that Harry +Travers should be ushered by William into the drawing-room, and have the +door held open for him, and be announced as Mr. Travers. With that +streak of snobbishness common to almost all small boys Archie thought it +rather jolly, without swaggering at all, to be able to greet his friend +in the midst of these glories, so that he could see their splendour for +himself. In other ways, he would have perhaps preferred the nursery, and +certainly would have done so when the moment came for him to cut his +birthday-cake, for the sugar on the side of it cracked and exploded, as +such confectionery will do, when Archie hewed his way down that white +perpendicular cliff, and (a number of fragments falling on the floor), +he had to stand quite still, knife in hand, till William got a +housemaid's brush and scoop and removed the debris, for fear it should +be trodden into the carpet. + +Marjorie had not appeared at tea at all, and when this sumptuous affair +was over, Jeannie and Harry and Archie gathered round Lady Davidstow on +the hearthrug with a box of chocolates planted at a fair and equal +distance between them, and she told them the most delicious story about +a boy whose mother had lost his birthdays, so that year after year went +by without his having a birthday at all. The lights had been put out, +and only the magic of leaping fire-light guided their hands to the +chocolate-box, and every moment the phantasy of the story got more and +more interwoven with the reality of the chocolates. Eventually, while +the birthday-less boy's mother was clearing out the big cupboard +underneath the stairs, she came across all his birthdays put away in a +purple box with a gold lock on it. + +"Was it the cupboard underneath the stairs in the hall here?" asked +Archie, for questions were permitted. + +"Yes. There they all were: eight birthdays in all, so he had one every +day for more than a week. My dears! What's that?" + +It certainly was very startling. A noise like a mixture between the +Chinese gong and the bell for the servants' dinner broke in upon the +quiet, with the most appalling clamour. Archie swallowed a chocolate +whole, and Harry, with great prudence, took two more in a damp hand to +sustain him in these rather alarming occurrences. + +"It sounds as if it was in the hall," said Lady Davidstow. "Harry, will +you open the door and see what it is?" + +"Yes, I'll go," he said firmly. "But--but shan't Archie come too?" + +The noise ceased as suddenly as it had begun, and with a pleasing sense +of terror the two boys went to the drawing-room door and opened it. + +"But it's quite dark," said Archie. "Oh, mummy, what _is_ happening?" + +"I can't think. I only know one person who makes a noise the least like +that." + +"Oh, is it Abracadabra?" asked Archie excitedly, finding that his +scepticism of the day before had vanished like smoke. It had occurred to +him that Abracadabra was his mother, but here was his mother telling +them stories. + +"Well, the only time I ever heard her sneeze it was just like that," +said Lady Davidstow. + +Archie came running back, shrieking with laughter. + +"And what does she do when she blows her nose?" he asked. + +The words were hardly out of his mouth when a piercing trumpet-blast +sounded, and his mother got up. + +"She did it then," she whispered. "What had we better do? Shall we go +into the hall? She would like us to be there to meet her, perhaps, if +she's coming." + +She went to the door, followed by the children, and they all looked out +into the black hall. The wood-fire in the hearth there had died down to +a mere smoulder of red, which sent its illumination hardly farther than +the stone fender-curb. + +"But there's something there," said Lady Davidstow in an awe-struck +whisper. "There's something sitting in the chair." + +"Oh, mummy," said Archie, coming close to her. "I don't think I like +it." + +"I'm sure there's nothing to be frightened at, Archie," said she. "Which +of us shall go and see what it is?" + +There was no volunteer for this hazardous job, for now, with eyes more +accustomed to the faint light, they could all see that it was not +Something there, but Somebody. The outlines of a head, of a body, of +legs all clothed in black, could be seen, and Somebody sat there +perfectly still... + +Then all of a sudden the gong and the bell and the trumpet broke out +into a clamour fit to wake the dead, the great chandelier in the hall +flared into light, and the black figure sprang up, throwing its darkness +behind it, and there, glittering with silks and gems and gold and the +flowers of fairyland, stood Abracadabra. She had on a huge poke-bonnet +which cast a shadow over her face, and left it terrifyingly vague. Her +bonnet was trimmed with sunflowers and lilies of the valley, and round +the edge of it went a row of diamonds which were quite as big as the +drops in a glass chandelier. Another necklace of the same brilliance +went round her throat and rested on a crimson satin bodice covered with +gold. From her shoulders sprang spangled wings, and from below her +skirt, with its garlands of roses, were silver shoes with diamond +buckles. In her hand she carried a blue wand hung with bells, and by her +side was a clothes-basket (such was its shape) made of gold. + +She stamped her foot with rage. + +"Here's a nice welcome, Lady Davidstow," she said in a thin, cracked +voice. "I sneezed to show I was coming, and, when I got through the +keyhole, I found the hall dark, and no one to receive me. How dare you?" + +Lady Davidstow advanced with faltering steps and fell on her knees. + +"Oh, your majesty, forgive me," she said. + +"Why should I forgive you?" squeaked the infuriated fairy. "Why +shouldn't I take you away in my basket and put you in the Tower of +Toads?" + +Archie gasped. He would have given much for a touch of yesterday's +scepticism, but he couldn't find an atom of it. The thought of his +mother being whisked off to the Tower of Toads was insupportable. + +"Oh, please don't," he said. + +"And who is that?" asked Abracadabra. + +Archie almost wished he hadn't spoken, and took hold of Jeannie on one +side and Harry on the other. + +"It's me; it's Archie," he said. + +"And you don't want me to take your ridiculous mother away?" she asked. + +"No, please don't," said Archie. + +"Very well, as it's your birthday, I won't. Instead I'll make her extra +lady-in-waiting on my peacock-staircase, and mistress of my +tortoise-shell robes." + +"Oh, mummy, that will be lovely for you," said Archie, remembering that +his mother was something of the kind to somebody already. + +Then there came the giving of presents, with the surprises that occurred +during such processes. Archie was told to advance and put his hand in +the left far corner of the golden basket, and, as he prepared to do so, +Abracadabra sneezed so loudly that he fled back to the bottom stair of +the staircase where they had been all commanded to sit. There was a +tennis racquet for Harry, but the lights all went out when he had just +reached the clothes-basket, and Abracadabra blew her nose so +preposterously that his ear sang with it afterwards. There was a great +parcel for Lady Davidstow, as big as a football, which was found to +contain, when all the paper was stripped off, nothing more than a single +acid drop, in order to teach the mistress of the tortoise-shell robes +better manners when her mistress came to pay a visit, and Blessington, +summoned from the nursery, was presented with a new cap. But the bulk of +the gifts, as was proper, was for Archie, a clock-work train, and a pen +that needed no dipping, and a fishing-rod, and a second suit of +sailor-clothes. And then the light went out again, and Abracadabra began +sneezing and blowing her nose with such deafening violence that the +screen which stood just behind her rocked with the concussion, and the +children, at the suggestion of the mistress of the tortoise-shell robes, +groped their way back into the drawing-room with their presents, and +shut the door till Abracadabra was better. And when, from the cessation +of these awful noises, they conjectured she might be better, and +ventured out into the hall again, that audience-chamber was just as +usual, and Archie's father came out of his room, looking vexed, and +asking what that beastly noise was about. But when he heard it was +Abracadabra, who had gone away again, he was greatly upset and said that +it wasn't a beastly noise at all, but the loveliest music he had ever +heard. + +Then came bed-time, and Archie, still excited, said his prayers with a +special impromptu clause for Abracadabra, and another for the thrush, +which he suddenly remembered again, and then lay staring at the fire +with his hands clasped round his knees, as his custom was. Certainly +Abracadabra had been wonderfully real to-day, and certainly she was not +his mother. Then he recollected that Marjorie had not appeared at all, +and wondered if Marjorie perhaps was Abracadabra, or if the thrush was +Abracadabra, of Cyrus... And his hands relaxed their hold on his knees, +and when Blessington came in he did not know that she kissed him and +tucked the bed-clothes up under his chin. + + + +CHAPTER III + +Archie did not often come into contact with Miss Schwarz, his sisters' +governess; she was not a person to be lightly encountered. Sometimes, if +Blessington was busy, he and Jeannie went out for their walk with his +eldest sister and Miss Schwarz, and on these occasions Miss Schwarz and +Marjorie would talk together in an unknown guttural tongue, very ugly to +hear, which Archie vaguely understood was German, and the sort of thing +that everybody spoke in the country to which Miss Schwarz went for her +holiday at Midsummer and Christmas. That uncouth jargon, full of such +noises as you made when you cleared your throat, was quite +unintelligible, and it seemed odd that Marjorie should converse in it +when she could speak ordinary English; but it somehow seemed to suit +Miss Schwarz, who had a sallow face, prominent teeth, and cold grey +eyes. Otherwise he did not often meet her, for she led an odd secret +existence in his sisters' school-room, breakfasting and having lunch +downstairs in the dining-room, but eating her evening meal all by +herself in the school-room. She had a black, unrustling dress for the +day, and a black rustling dress for the evening, and a necklace of onyx +beads which she used to finger with her dry thin hands, which reminded +Archie of the claws of a bird. His mother had told him that, after +Christmas, he would do his lessons with Miss Schwarz, and this prospect +rather terrified him. He supposed that Miss Schwarz would probably teach +him in the guttural language that Jeannie was beginning to understand +too, and he had moments of secret terror when he pictured Miss Schwarz, +enraged at his not comprehending her, striking at him with those +claw-like hands. + +He was coming upstairs one evening, rather later than usual, for his +father had been showing him the contents of a cabinet of butterflies, +and Archie, enraptured with the gorgeous, brilliant creatures, had +begged to be allowed to wait till the gong rang for dinner. On his way +upstairs he remembered that he had lent Jeannie the pen that wrote +without being dipped, with which to write her German exercise. She had +gone to bed early that night with a bad cold, and Archie, recognizing +the impossibility of going to sleep without the precious pen in his +possession again, ran along the passage to the school-room, where he was +likely to find it. This might entail a momentary encounter with Miss +Schwarz, but the recovery of the pen was essential, and he entered. + +Miss Schwarz had finished her dinner, and was sitting by the fire on +which steamed a kettle. She held a big glass in her hand, and was +pouring something into it from a bottle. There was a high colour in her +usually sallow face, and as she saw Archie she made one of those +guttural exclamations. + +"What do you want?" she said, and though she spoke English, Archie +noticed that she spoke it in the same thick, guttural manner as German. + +Archie froze with terror. This was quite a new Miss Schwarz, a gleaming, +eager Miss Schwarz. + +"Oh, I lent Jeannie my pen," he stammered. "I came to look for it, but +it doesn't matter." + +"Nonsense! That is not why!" said Miss Schwarz angrily. Then she +suddenly seemed to take hold of herself. "_Ach_, that sweet little pen. +You will find it on the table, my dear. Luke, and find it. And then say +good-night to poor Miss Schwarz. _Ach_, I am so ill this evening. Such a +heartburn, and I was just about to take the medicine vat makes it +better. Do not tell any one, dear Archie, that poor Miss Schwarz is ill. +I wish to troble nobody. Poor Miss Schwarz naiver geeve troble if she +can 'elp. _Ach_, you have your pen! Good-night, my deear." + +Archie fled down the passage to the nursery with terror giving wings to +his heels. This Miss Schwarz angry one moment, and affectionate and +effusive the next, was a new and a more awful person than the one he was +acquainted with, and he felt sure she must be very ill indeed. It would +be a terrible affair if Miss Schwarz was found dead in her bed, in spite +of her medicine, just because he had not told anybody that she was ill, +and so a doctor had not been fetched. There would be a burden on his +conscience for ever if he did not tell somebody. He burst into the +nursery with a wild look behind him, to make sure that Miss Schwarz was +not following him in her evening rustling dress. + +"Oh Blessington," he cried, "Miss Schwarz is ill; do go and see what is +the matter. I went to the school-room for my pen, and she was sitting by +the fire, all red, and angry, and then polite, mixing her medicine." + +Blessington got up from her rocking-chair. + +"Eh, I'll go and see," she said. + +"Don't tell her I told you," said Archie. + +"Nay, of course I won't. Now you begin your undressing, and I'll be back +very soon." + +Excited and frightened and yet hugely interested, Archie stood at the +door of his room listening. Suddenly he heard the sound of Miss +Schwarz's voice raised almost to a scream. Then there came the crash of +a glass, and the ringing of a bell, while still Miss Schwarz's voice +gabbled on, shrill and guttural. Trembling, and yet unable to resist the +call of his curiosity, he stole to the corner of the nursery passage, +and saw William come upstairs and go along to the school-room. Then +Blessington came out, and, instead of coming back to the nursery, she +went downstairs, and presently his father came up again with her. He, +too, went along the school-room passage, and suddenly, as if a tap had +been turned off, the shrill voice ceased. Once, for a moment, it broke +out again, and as suddenly stopped, and then came the very odd sight of +Miss Schwarz being led along the landing to her room by his father and +Blessington. Blessington and Miss Schwarz entered together, his father +went downstairs after a moment's conversation with William, and +presently William came along the landing towards the nursery. + +"Oh, William, what's happened?" said Archie. "Is Miss Schwarz very ill?" + +"Well, she ain't very well," said William. "Lumme!" + +"What does that mean?" asked Archie. + +"It don't mean anything particular, Master Archie." + +"Will Miss Schwarz be better in the morning?" asked Archie. + +"Lord, yes. They're always better in the morning, though they don't feel +so. Now Blessington won't be back yet awhile, so I'm to look after you, +and see you safe to bed." + +Suddenly the thought of lying helpless in bed, with no Blessington next +door, and the possibility of Miss Schwarz guessing that Archie had told +of her illness, filled him with awful apprehension. She might come +screaming down the passage, with her claw-like hands starving for +Archie's face. + +"Oh, William, don't leave me till Blessington comes back," he entreated. + +"No, sir, of course I won't. There, let me undo your shoes for you. +You've got the laces in a knot." + +"And she won't hurt Blessington either?" asked Archie. + +"Bless you, no sir," said William. "And there's your night-shirt. Now +jump into bed, and I'll open the windows." + +William put out the light, and Archie, with a delicious sense of +security seeing him seated by the fire, dozed off. Once, just before he +got fairly to sleep, an awful vision of Miss Schwarz's red face came +across the field of his closed eyelids, and he started up. But in a +moment William was by him. + +"It's all right, sir," he said. "I'm on the look out." + +* * * * * + +There was a decided air of mystery concerning Miss Schwarz next morning. +She was better, but she remained unseen, and nobody would answer any +questions about her. But in the afternoon Archie met Walter and the odd +man carrying her luggage downstairs, and he gleaned the information that +she was going away, and again, later in the day, Archie saw a housemaid +coming out of her bedroom with a basket full of her medicine-bottles, +and he drew the conclusion that she must have been ill a long time +without anybody knowing. Not a syllable of news could he obtain from +anybody, and, as the image of Miss Schwarz faded now that her dark, +ill-omened presence was withdrawn, there was left in Archie's mind no +more than a general sense of some connection between screaming voices, +red faces, indistinct utterance, and the drinking of yellow medicine out +of a large glass, instead of the usual small one. + +There was a pleasant holiday sense for a few days after the departure of +Miss Schwarz, for Marjorie took Jeannie's and Archie's lessons, which +made a perfect festival of learning; but immediately almost came the +ominous news that a new governess was coming next day. Archie believed +that Miss Schwarz was a typical specimen of the genus governess, who +were all probably in league together, and that some colleague of Miss +Schwarz's, bent on avenging her, would render his own security a very +precarious matter. It was, indeed, some consolation to know that Miss +Bampton was a personal friend of his mother's and was not a "regular" +governess at all but was just going to stay at Lacebury and teach +lessons; yet Archie wondered, when he went downstairs on the morning +after her arrival, whether he would not detect, under the guise of his +mother's friend, some secret agent of Miss Schwarz. + +Jeannie had lately been promoted to have breakfast with the rest of the +family, and as Archie opened the door he heard a burst of laughter. +There was Miss Schwarz's secret agent sitting next his father, and she +it must have been who had made them all laugh, for she was not laughing +herself, and Archie already knew that a joke was laughed at most by the +people who hadn't made it. She was a little roundabout person, with blue +eyes and a short nose and pincenez, and she got up as he entered. + +"And is this Archie?" she said. "Why, I always thought of Archie as a +baby. And here's an able-bodied seaman! How are you, Archie?" + +Archie stared a moment. He reviewed his suspicion about governesses in +general, but certainly if this plump, genial female was a secret +colleague of Miss Schwarz her disguise was of the most ingenious kind. +But it was as well to be careful. + +"I'm quite well, thank you," he said, and, perceiving that a kiss had +been intended, presented a sideways cheek. Miss Bampton made a sucking +sound against it, and sat down again. + +"Well, as I was saying," she went on, "the only plan of teaching is the +co-operative principle. There are such heaps of jolly things to learn, +that if the girls and I have a meeting, as I suggested, after breakfast, +I'm sure we can find plenty of subjects between us. So I summon the +meeting for a quarter past ten in the school-room." + +Archie suddenly felt he was being left out. A meeting to discuss what +you were going to learn sounded most promising in the way of lessons. He +ran round to his mother's side. + +"Oh, mummy, may I go to the meeting?" he said. + +"You must ask Miss Bampton," said she. + +Archie stifled his sense of distrust, for he wanted tremendously to go +to a meeting where you settled what you were going to learn. He hated +lessons, in the ordinary acceptation of that term, with their tiresome +copy-books, in which he had to write the same moral maxim all down the +page, and the stupid exercise--called French lesson--in which he had to +address himself to a cat, and say in French "of a cat," "to a cat," +"with the female cat," "with the male cat," and a thing called +geography, which was a brown book with lists of countries and capital +towns in it. But co-operative lessons, though he had no idea what +co-operation meant, sounded far more attractive. + +"May I come to the meeting, Miss Bampton?" he said. + +"Yes, my dear, of course," said Miss Bampton, "if your mother will let +you." + +Thereupon there dawned for Archie a great light. Hitherto his lessons +had been conducted by his mother, with occasional tuition from his +father, and they had always made the impression that they were tasks, +not difficult in themselves, but dull. He had learned the various modes +of access in French to male and female cats, he had grasped the fact +that Rome and not Berlin was the capital of Italy, and Paris not Vienna +the capital of France. But these pieces of information were mere +disconnected formulae, lessons, in other words, which had to be learned, +and which, if imperfectly learned, caused him to be called lazy or +inattentive. In the same way, the fact that he had to write in a +laborious round hand all down the page "To be good is to be happy" meant +nothing more than the necessity of filling the page without a plethora +of blots or erasures. But from the date of this exciting meeting on +co-operative learning, a whole new horizon dawned on him. It was settled +at once that he was to do his lessons with Miss Bampton, and from that +moment they ceased to be lessons at all. Instead of the lists of +countries and capitals to be learned by heart, there was provided a +jig-saw puzzle of the map of Europe, and Italy became a leg and foot, +perpetually kicking Sicily, and Rome the button through which Italy's +bootlace passed. And, instead of the dreary copy-book maxims heading +each page, Miss Bampton, in a hand quite as perfect as Mr. Darnell's, +wrote the most stimulating sentiments on the top of each blank leaf. "He +would not sit down, so we bit him" was one, and Archie, with the tip of +his tongue at the corner of his mouth, an attitude which is almost +indispensable to round-hand orthography, was filled with delightful +conjectures as to who the person was who would not sit down, and who +were those tigerish people who bit him in consequence. And then Miss +Bampton had the most delightful plans of where lessons might be done. +One day, when it was snowing hard, she conceived the brilliant plan of +doing lessons in the motor in the garage, which gave the most +extraordinary stimulus to the proceedings, for early English history was +the lesson that morning, and so she and Archie and Jeannie were royal +Anglo-Saxons, specially invited to come in their coach to the coronation +of William the Conqueror (1066), and it would never do if, at the +Coronation banquet afterwards, he asked them questions about their +ancestors and they didn't know. Another day, when the sun shone +frostily, and the lawn was covered with hoar-frost they wrapped +themselves up in furs, and worked at geography, as Laplanders, in the +summer-house. Marjorie was too old to need such spurs to industry, but +Miss Bampton had enticing schemes for her also, giving her verse +translations of Heine and Goethe, and encouraging her to see how near +she got to the original when she translated them back into their native +tongue. + +The Christmas holidays, looked forward to with such eager expectation in +the baleful reign of Miss Schwarz, drew near; but now, instead of +counting the hours till the moment when Miss Schwarz, safe in the motor, +would blow claw-fingered kisses to them, the children got up a Round +Robin (or rather, a triangular Robin, which Marjorie translated into +German), begging Miss Bampton to stop with them for the holidays. For +she was as admirable in play-time as she was over their lessons: she +told them enchanting stories on their walks, and painted for them in +real smelly oil-paints the most lovely snow-scenes, pine-woods laden +with whiteness, and cottages with red blinds lit from within. Never had +any one such a repertory of games to be played in the long dark hours +between tea and bed-time, and it was during one of these that Archie +made a curious discovery. + +The game in question was "Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?" One of them +thought of anything in heaven or earth or in the waters under the earth, +and the rest, by questions answered only by "Yes" or "No," had to arrive +at it. On this occasion Miss Bampton had thought: it was known to be +Animal and not in the house. + +Archie was sitting on the floor in the school-room leaning against Miss +Bampton's knee. He had been staring at the coals, holding Miss Bampton's +hand in his, when suddenly there came over him precisely the same +sensation that he remembered feeling one night, years ago, when he woke +and imagined himself and the night-nursery expanding and extending till +they embraced all that existed. That sensation throbbed and thrilled +through him now, and he said: + +"Oh, Miss Bampton, how easy! Why, it's the longest tail-feather of the +thrush that Cyrus killed." + +"Oh, Archie, don't guess," said Jeannie. "It's no use just guessing." + +"But it is!" said Archie. "I'm not guessing. I know. Isn't it, Miss +Bampton?" + +It certainly was, and so, by the rules of the game, since it had been +guessed in under five minutes, Miss Bampton had to think again. But now +Archie tried in vain to recapture the mood that made Miss Bampton's mind +so transparently clear to him. He knew what that mood felt like, that +falling away of the limitations of consciousness, that expansion and +extension of himself; but he could not feel it; it would not come by +effort on his part; it came, he must suppose, as it chose, like a +sneeze... + +As Christmas drew near another amazing talent of Miss Bampton's showed +itself. Marjorie had been up to London one day, to combine the pains of +the dentist with the pleasure of a play, and came back with a comforted +tooth and the strong desire to act. Instantly Miss Bampton rose to the +occasion. + +"Let's get up a play to act to your father and mother on New Year's +night," she said. + +"Oh, it would be fun," said Marjorie. "But what play could we act?" + +"I'll write you one," said Miss Bampton. And write it she did, with a +speed and a lavishness of plot that would have astonished more +deliberate dramatists. There was a villain, a usurper king (Miss +Bampton); there was a fairy (Marjorie); there was the rightful and +youthful king (Archie); who lived (Act I) in painful squalor in a +dungeon, attended only by the jailer's daughter (Jeannie) who knew his +identity and loved him, whether he was in a dungeon or on a throne. +Luckily, he loved her too, anywhere, and they were kind to a +beggar-woman, who turned out to be the fairy, and did the rest. Miss +Bampton was consigned to the lowest dungeon, and everybody else lived +happily ever afterwards. + +Then came the question of dresses, and Marjorie rather thoughtlessly +exclaimed: + +"I'm sure mother will let me have her Abracadabra clothes for the fairy. +Oh--I forgot," she added, remembering that Archie was present. + +There was an attempt (feeble, so Archie thought it) on the part of Miss +Bampton to explain this away. She said that Abracadabra kept a suit of +birthday clothes in every house she visited. Archie received the +information quite politely, said, "Oh, I see," and remained wholly +incredulous. His faith in the Abracadabra myth had tottered before; this +was the blow that finally and completely compassed its ruin, and it +disappeared in the limbo of discredited imaginings, like the glassy sea +between the rugs in the hall, and the snarl of the tigers at his +enemies. Never again would the combined crash of the servant's +dinner-bell and the Chinese gong make him wonder at the magnificence of +Abracadabra's sneezings, and when the play arrived at the stage of +dress-rehearsal it was no shock to see Marjorie in Abracadabra's +poke-bonnet and bediamonded bodice. + +But it must not be supposed that, with the disappearance of those +childish illusions, the world became in any way duller or less highly +coloured to Archie; it grew, on the contrary, more and more fairy-like. +The outburst of spring that year filled him with an ecstasy that could +best be expressed by running fast and jumping in the air with shouts of +joy. The unfolding of gummy buds on the horse-chestnut by the lake +filled him with a rapture all the keener because he could not comprehend +it; presently, the sight of pale green five-fingered leaves, weak as +new-dropped lambs, made him race round and round Blessington till she +got giddy. There was a smell of damp earth in the air, of young +varnished grass-blades pushing up among the discoloured and faded +foliage of the lawn, and, for the hard bright skies or the sullen clouds +of winter, a new and tender blue was poured over the heavens, and clouds +white as washed fleeces pursued one another aloft, even as their shadows +bowled over the earth beneath. Birds began to sing again, and sparrows, +chattering in the ivy, pulled straws and twigs about, practising for the +nest-building time which would soon be upon them. A purplish mist hung +over the birch-trees, and soon it changed to a mist of green as the buds +expanded. Violets hidden behind their leaves bedecked the lane-sides, +and one morning the first primrose appeared. Last year, no doubt, and in +all preceding springs the same things had happened; but now for the +first time they were significant, and penetrated further than the mere +field of vision. They filled Archie with an unreasoning joy. + +Anything in the shape of natural history received strong encouragement +from Lord Davidstow, as well as anything (Archie did not fully grasp +this) that tended to keep him out of doors when his short lessons were +done, and he and Jeannie started this year a series of joint +collections. Certain rules had to be observed: flowers that they picked +must be duly pressed and mounted on sheets of cartridge paper, and their +names must be ascertained. One bird's egg might be taken in the absence +of the mother-bird from any nest which contained four, and must be blown +and put in its labelled cell in the egg-cabinet; but when three +specimens of any sort had been collected, no more must be acquired. +That, perhaps, was the collection Archie liked best, though the joys of +the aquarium ran it close. The aquarium was a big bread-bowl lined at +the bottom with spa and crystals, and in it lived caddis-worms and +water-snails and a dace--probably weak in the head, for he had allowed +himself to be caught in the landing-net without the least effort to get +out of the way. He had an inordinate passion for small bread-pills, in +pursuit of which he was so violently active that he often hit his nose +against the side of the aquarium so hard that you could positively hear +the stunning blow. When satiated he would still continue to rush after +bread-pills, but, after holding them in his mouth a moment, he would +expel them again with such force that he resembled some submarine +discharging torpedoes. + +Then there was the butterfly and moth collection, which was of short +duration, and was abandoned on account of a terrible happening. The +insects were emptied into the killing-bottle, and when dead transfixed +with a pin, and set. But one morning Archie, examining the setting-board +to see if they were stiff and ready to be transferred into the +cork-lined boxes, found, to his horror, that, so far from being stiff, +two butterflies, a tortoiseshell and a brimstone, were alive still, with +waving antennae and twitching bodies. That dreadful incident poisoned the +joy of that collection; he felt himself guiltier of a worse outrage than +Cyrus, and all Blessington's well-meant consolations that insects hardly +felt anything at all would not induce him to run the risk of committing +further atrocities. For a day and a night the two had writhed under +their crucifixion, and that day the caterpillars were released from +their breeding-cage (even including that piece of preciousness, the +caterpillar of the convolvulus hawk with a horn on his tail), and the +killing-bottle was relegated to the attic. + +The Sunday church-goings for which an intermission had been ordained in +consequence of Archie's infant remarks about the amusingness of the man +with the wagging beard, had long ago been resumed again, and this year +he had a sudden attack of spurious and sentimental religion that caused +his mother some little anxiety. He developed a dreadful conscience, and +came to her with a serious face and confessed trivial wrong-doings. +(This phase, she comforted herself to think, occurred in the autumn of +this year, at a time when there was nothing much to be done in the way +of collecting.) One morning Archie came to her with a crime that sorely +oppressed him. Nearly two years ago, somebody had sent her a painted +Easter egg, an ostrich's egg, adorned with gilt designs of a cross and a +crown and some rays, which Archie had been forbidden to touch. + +"I touched it," he said. "I wetted my finger and rubbed it on the crown, +and some of it came off." + +"Well, dear, of course you shouldn't have done it, if I had told you not +to," she said. "But don't bother about it any more. What made you come +and tell me so long after?" + +Archie grew more solemn still. + +"I was leaning out of the nursery-window," he said, "and I heard Charles +singing 'A few more years shall roll.' So I came and told you before I +'was asleep within the tomb.'" + +His mother laughed, quite as if she was amused. + +"We'll hope there'll be more than a few years before that, darling," she +said. + +"And shall I be forgiven now I've told you?" asked Archie. + +"Yes, of course. Don't think anything more about it." + +Archie would have preferred a more sentimental treatment of his offence, +and rather wished his mother bore a stronger resemblance to Mrs. +Montgomery, in the _Wide, Wide World_, whose edifying tears fell so fast +and frequently, and after this he tended to keep his misdeeds more to +himself and repent of them in secret. Simultaneously also the copy of +the _Wide, Wide World_, which he had discovered in a passage book-case, +mysteriously vanished, and no one appeared to have the slightest idea +where it had gone. So, unable to stuff himself further with that brand +of mawkishness, the desire that his mother should be more like Mrs. +Montgomery faded somewhat, and there seemed but little pleasure in +repentance at all, if your confessions were received in so unsentimental +a manner, and it was no fun really keeping them to oneself. But for some +weeks Sunday morning service in church (he had expressed a wish to go to +evening church as well, but his mother had told him that once was as +much as was good for him) became the emotional centre of his life, +though his religion was strangely mixed up with a far more mundane +attraction. There was a particular choir-boy there with blue eyes, pink +cheeks, and a crop of yellow curls who sang solos, and thrilled Archie +with a secret and perfectly sexless emotion. Only last Sunday he had +sung "Oh, for the wings of a dove," and religion and childish adoration +together had brought Archie to the verge of tears. He longed to be good, +to live, until a few more years should roll (for he felt that he was +going to die young), a noble and beautiful life; he longed also to fly +away and be at rest with the choir-boy. He made up pathetic scenes in +which he should be lying on his death-bed, with his weeping family round +him, and the choir-boy would sing to him as he died, and they would +smile at each other. When this vision proved almost too painful for +contemplation he would console himself by picturing an alternative +scheme, in which there were to be no death-beds at all, but instead he +would get into the church choir, and sit next the choir-boy, and they +would sing duets together before a rapt congregation. But, adorable +though his idol was, he did not really want to know him, or even find +out who he was. The idol existed for him in some remote sphere, becoming +incarnate just for an hour on Sunday morning, a golden-haired surpliced +voice, that suggested the vanished thrills of the _Wide, Wide World_. He +pronounced certain words rather oddly, and had a slight lisp which +Archie tried to copy, until one day his father told him never to say +"Yeth" again, or he should write out "Yes" a hundred times. + +Then came the most exciting discovery: this vocal angel proved to be the +son of the head-keeper, and it was therefore perfectly easy to make his +acquaintance. The notion of meeting him face to face, of exchanging a +"good-morning" with him was almost overpowering, and yet Archie +instinctively shrank from bringing the idol into contact with actual +life. He began to choose for his walk the rather dank and gloomy path +that led past the keeper's cottage, and yet, when that abode where the +idol lived came within sight, Archie, with beating heart would avert his +eyes, for fear he should see him. Then one day, as they got opposite the +gate, a small boy in corduroy knickerbockers with a rather greasy scarf +round his neck and a snuffling nose came out, and touched his cap. There +could be no doubt about his identity, and Archie suffered the first real +disillusionment of his life. The fading of Abracadabra was nothing to +this: that had been a gradual disillusionment, whereas this was sudden +as a lightning-stroke. He was a shattered idol, and from that moment +Archie could hardly recall what it had been about, or recapture the +faintest sense of the emotion which had filled him before that encounter +in the wood which caused it to reel and totter and fall prone from its +unsubstantial pedestal. This blow, on the top of the robust reception of +his confession, did much to restore Archie to the ways of normal +boyhood, and it was really rather a relief to his mother, when his +expanding experimenting nature took a very different turn, and he became +for a time obstreperously naughty. She thought, quite rightly, that this +evinced a greater vigour. That it undoubtedly did, and the imagination +contained in some of Archie's exploits rivalled the more visionary power +that constructed death-bed scenes for himself and the idealization +(cruelly shattered) of the choir-boy. + +One very dreary November afternoon, shortly after his seventh birthday, +he was sitting alone in his mother's room. All day the sullen heavens +had poured their oblique deluge on the earth, and sheets of water were +being flung against the windows by the cold south-easterly gale. Archie +was suffering from a slight cold, and had not been out of doors for a +couple of days, and this unusual detention in the house had caused him +to be very cross, and also had dammed up within him a store of energy +which could not disperse itself innocuously in violent movement. Jeannie +had gone for a motor-drive with his mother, Marjorie and Miss Bampton +were closely engaged over their rotten German, and Archie that morning +had been stingingly rebuked by his father for sliding down the banisters +in the hall, a mode of progress strictly forbidden. Blessington had not +been less stinging, for an hour ago Archie had been extremely rude to +her, and, with a dignity that he both respected and resented, she had +said, "Then I've nothing more to say to you, Master Archie, till you've +remembered your manners again." And had thereupon continued her sewing. + +Archie knew he had been rude, but his sense of that was not yet strong +enough to enable him to apologize, though of sufficient energy to make +him feel woebegone and neglected. He had been allowed by his mother to +sit in her room that afternoon, when she went out with Jeannie, and to +investigate what was known as her "work-box," which contained her +"treasures." In earlier days these had been a source of deep delight: +there was a minute china elephant with a silk palanquin on his back; +there was a porcupine's quill, there was a set of dolls' tea-things, a +pink umbrella, the ferrule of which was a pencil, a chain of amber. Once +these had held magic for Archie: they were "mummy's treasures," and +could only be seen on wet afternoons or in hours of toothache. But +to-day they appeared to him perfectly rubbishy; not a gleam of glamour +remained; they were as dull as the leaden skies of this interminable +afternoon. + +Archie lay in the window-seat, and wondered that his sailor-trousers +only a year ago had given him so complete a sense of happiness. He +rubbed one leg against the other, trying to recollect how it was that +that rough serge against his bare calf felt so manly. He tried to +interest himself in _Alice in Wonderland_, and marvelled that he could +have cared about an adventure with a pack of cards. He longed to throw +the book at the foolish Dresden shepherdess that stood on the +mantelpiece. He supposed there would be trouble if he did, that his +mother would be vexed, but trouble was better than this nothing-at-all. +Probably it would rain again to-morrow, and he would have another day +indoors, and the thought of Nothing Happening either to-day or to-morrow +seemed the same as the thought of nothing happening for ever and ever. + +There was a bright fire in the hearth and beyond the steel fender a +thick hearthrug of long white sheep's wool. Suddenly Archie remembered +the odour that diffused itself when, one day, a fragment of hot coal +flew out of the fire, and lodged in this same hearthrug. There was a +fatty, burning smell, most curious, and simultaneously the wild, +irresistible desire of doing something positively wicked enthralled him. +Instantly he knew what he was going to do, and with set, determined +face, he took the fire-shovel in one hand and the tongs in the other, +and heaped the shovel high with burning coals. He emptied them on the +hearthrug. + +The smoke of singeing, burning wool arose, and he took several more +lumps of glowing coal from the fire-place and deposited them on the rug. +Then a panic seized him, and he tried to stamp the conflagration out. +But he only stamped the glowing coals more firmly in, and, though amazed +at his audacity, he did not really want to extinguish it. He wanted +something to happen. Quite deliberately, though with cheeks burning with +excitement, he walked out of the room, leaving the door open, and +simultaneously heard the crunch of the gravel under the wheels of his +mother's returning motor. He did not wish to see her, and went straight +to the night-nursery (now his exclusive bedroom) and locked himself in. +But he was not in the least sorry for what he had done: if anything he +wished he had put more coals there. Nor was he frightened at the thought +of possible consequences. Merely, he did not care what happened, so long +as something happened. That, he reflected, it was pretty certain to do. +But he made no plans. + +Before very long he heard some one turning the handle of his door, and +he kept quite still. Then his father's voice said: + +"Are you there, Archie?" And still he said nothing. + +The voice grew louder and the handle rattled. + +"Archie, open your door immediately," said his father. + +Not in the least knowing why, Archie proceeded to do so. He still felt +absolutely defiant and desperate, but for some instinctive reason he +obeyed. + +Enormous and terrible, his father stood before him. + +"Did you put those coals on your mother's hearthrug?" asked Lord +Davidstow. + +"No," said Archie. + +"Then how did you know they were there?" asked his father. + +Archie had something of the joy of the desperate adventurer. + +"Because I put them there," he said. + +"Then you have lied to me as well." + +"Yes," said Archie. + +Lord Davidstow pointed to the door. + +"Go downstairs at once," he said, "and wait in my study." + +Archie obeyed, still not knowing why. At the top of the stairs was +standing his mother, who took a step forward towards him. + +"Archie, my darling--" she began. + +"Leave the boy to me," said his father, who was following him. Archie +marched downstairs, still without a tremor. It occurred to him that his +father was going to kill him, as Cyrus killed the thrush. There was a +whispered conversation between his mother and father and he heard his +mother say, "No, don't, don't," and he felt sure that this referred to +his being killed. But he was quite certain that, whatever happened, he +was not going to say he was sorry. + +He went into his father's study and shut the door. On the table he +noticed that there was standing one of Miss Schwarz's medicine-bottles, +and a syphon beside it, and wondered whether Miss Schwarz had come back. +But there was no other sign of her. + +In another moment his father entered. + +"Now, you thoroughly deserve a good whipping, Archie," he said. "You +might have burned the house down, and if you were a poor boy you'd have +been put into prison for this. But your mother has been pleading for +you, and, if you'll say you are sorry, and beg her pardon for burning +her hearthrug, I'll let you off just this time." + +Well, he was not going to be killed, but he was going to be whipped. +Archie felt his heart beating small and fast with apprehension; but he +was not sorry, and did not intend to say he was. + +"Well?" said his father. + +"I'm not sorry," said Archie. + +"I'll give you one more chance," said his father, moving towards a +cupboard above one of the bookcases. + +"I'm not sorry," said Archie again. + +His father opened the cupboard. + +"Lock the door," he said. + +But, before he could lock it, it was opened from without, and his mother +entered. His father had already a cane in his hand, and he turned round +as she came in. She looked at him and then at Miss Schwarz's +medicine-bottle on the table. + +"Go away, Marion," he said. "I'm going to give the boy a lesson." + +She pointed at the bottle. + +"You had better learn yours first," she said. + +"Never mind that. Archie says he's not sorry. It is my duty to teach +him." + +Suddenly Archie felt tremendously interested. He had no idea what all +this was about, or what his father's lesson was, but he felt he was in +the presence of some drama apart from his own. It was with a sense of +the interruption of this that he saw his mother turn to him. + +"Archie, my dear," she said. "You have vexed and grieved me very much. +Supposing I had felt wicked and had burned you stylograph pen, shouldn't +I be sorry for having injured you? And aren't you sorry for having +burned my hearthrug? What had I done to deserve that? Hadn't I given you +leave to sit in my room, and look at my treasures? Why did you hurt me?" + +Immediately the whole affair wore a different aspect. Instead of anger +and justice, there was the sound of love. His heart melted, and he ran +to her. + +"Oh mummy, I didn't mean to vex you," he cried. "I didn't think of that. +You hadn't done anything beastly to me." + +He burst into tears. + +"Oh, mummy, forgive me," he said. "I don't mind being whipped, at least +not much; but I'm sorry; I beg your pardon. Please stop my allowance +till I've paid for it." + +"Yes, dear, it's only right that you should pay some of it. You shall +have no more allowance for three weeks. Now go straight upstairs, and go +to bed till I come to you and tell you that you may get up. And +Blessington tells me you have been rude to her. Go and beg her pardon +first." + +* * * * * + +The effect of this episode on Archie's mind was that his mother +understood, and his father didn't. The prospect of a whipping had not +made him falter in his resolve not to say he was sorry, so long as he +wasn't sorry, but the moment his mother had put his misdeeds in a +sensible light he saw them sensibly, and would not have minded being +whipped if by that drastic method he could have borne witness to the +reality of his sorrow. But only three days later he received six smart +cuts with that horrible cane for climbing on to the unparapetted roof of +the house out of his bedroom window, which he had been expressly +forbidden to do. But then there was no question of being sorry or +not--as a matter of fact he was not--summary justice was executed for +mere disobedience, and, before doing the same thing again, he added up +the pleasure of going on the roof, and balanced it against the pain +inflicted on the tight seat of his sailor-trousers as he bent over a +chair, and found it wanting. + +It was during this same month which saw his seven completed years that +he did a very strange and unintelligible thing, though he suffered it +rather than committed it. He did it, that is to say, quite +involuntarily, and did not know he was doing it till it was done. This +was the manner of it. + +Miss Bampton had set him one of her delightful exercises in handwriting +in his copy-book. "Never brush your teeth with the housemaid's broom" +she had written in her beautiful copper-plate hand at the top of the +page, and Archie was sitting with his tongue out copying this remarkable +maxim, and amusing himself with conjectures as to what other strange +habits such people as were likely to brush their teeth with the +housemaid's broom might be supposed to have--perhaps they would lace +their boots with the tongs, or write their letters with a poker... He +had got about half-way down the page when suddenly there came over him +that sensation with which he was beginning to become familiar, that +feeling of extension and expansion within himself, that falling away of +the limitations of consciousness which opened some new interior world to +him. + +His pen paused, and then in the wrist of his right hand and in the +fingers that still held his pen he felt a curious imperative kind of +twitching, and knew that they wanted to write of their own volition, as +it were, though it was not his copy that they were concerned with. Under +this sensation of absolute compulsion, he took a sheet of paper that lay +at his elbow, and let his pen rest on it, watching with the intensest +curiosity what it would do. He had no idea what would happen, but he +felt that something had to be written. For a couple of minutes perhaps +his pen traced random lines on the paper, moving from left to right with +a much greater speed than it was wont to go, and the letters began to +form themselves with a rapidity and certainty unknown to his careful, +halting calligraphy, and in firm upright characters. He saw his own name +traced on the paper followed by a sentence, and then his pen (still +apparently obedient to some unknown impulse from his fingers) gave a +great dash and stopped altogether. And this is what he read: + + "Archie, do let me talk to you sometimes. + + "MARTIN." + +The queer sensation had ceased altogether, and Archie stared blankly at +the words that he knew his hand had written. But what they meant, he had +no notion, nor did he know who Martin was. The whole thing was quite +unintelligible to him, both the impulse that made him write, and that +which he had written. + +Miss Bampton had left the room on some errand, when she had set Archie +his copy, and came back at this moment expecting to find the copy +finished. She looked over his shoulder to see how he was getting on. + +"My dear, haven't you got further than that?" she said. "I thought you +would have finished it by this time." + +She saw the other piece of paper half-concealed by Archie's left hand. + +"Why, you've been writing something else," she said. "That's why you +haven't got on further. Let me look." + +"Please not," said Archie. "It's private." + +Miss Bampton remembered that, a week ago, Archie had been seized with a +strong desire for literary composition, and had composed a very +remarkable short story, which may be given in full. + + "CHAPTER I + + "There was once a merderer with yellow eyes, and his wife said to him, + + "'If you merder me you will be hung.' + + "And he was hung on Tuesday next. + + "FINIS." + +When Archie had brought this yarn to her she had laughed so +uncontrollably that he was hurt. So, in the hope of finding another such +(though Archie had no business to write stories in lesson-time) she +said: + +"My dear, do show me; I won't laugh." + +Archie hesitated; he felt shy about disclosing this sentence he had +written, but, on the other hand, Miss Bampton, who appeared to know +everything, might help him towards the interpretation. + +"Well, it's not a story," he said. "It's just this. I wrote it without +knowing. Oh, Miss Bampton, what does it mean, and who is Martin?" + +If it was Archie who hesitated before, it was Miss Bampton who hesitated +now. Suddenly she had a clever thought. + +"My dear, you've been thinking about the Martins that built in the +sandpit last spring," she said. "Don't you remember how you and Jeannie +made up a story about them?" + +This was true enough, but it failed to satisfy Archie. Also he had a +notion that Miss Bampton had made a call on her ingenuity in offering +this explanation. + +"But isn't there any other Martin?" he asked. + +"None that you ever knew, Archie," she said. "I think it's one of those +in the sandpit. Now get on with your copy, and we'll walk there before +your dinner." + +The incident passed into the medley of impressions that were crowding so +quickly into the storehouse of Archie's consciousness, but it did not +lie there quite unconnected with others. He laid it on the same shelf, +so to speak, as that which held the memory of his waking vision one +night in remote days, and held also the fact of his knowing what Miss +Bampton had thought of in the guessing game. But those were among the +secret things of which he spoke to nobody. One more impression for +secret pondering, though of different sort from those, he had lately +added to his store, and that was when a whipping seemed imminent, and he +saw one of Miss Schwarz's medicine-bottles standing on his father's +table. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Lady Davidstow and Miss Bampton were sitting together that night in Lady +Davidstow's bedroom. She had sent her maid away, saying that she would +not want her again that night, and now she held in her hand the sheet of +paper covered with lines of meaningless scribbles, with the one +intelligible sentence at the end, which Archie had written that day when +he should have been doing his copy. In the other hand she held a letter +written in ink that was now rather faded, and she was comparing the two. +She looked at them for some time in silence, then turned to Miss +Bampton. + +"Yes, you are quite right, Cathie," she said. "What Archie wrote might +actually be in Martin's handwriting. Look for yourself: there's the last +letter he ever wrote to me." + +Miss Bampton took the two papers from her. + +"There's absolutely no difference," she said. "The moment I saw what +Archie had written, I thought of Martin's handwriting. And then it was +signed 'Martin.' Are you sure he has never heard of him? Not that that +would account for the handwriting." + +Lady Davidstow shook her head. + +"I think it's impossible," she said. "Jeannie assured me she had never +spoken to him about Martin, nor has Blessington. He may have heard his +name. He probably has heard his name mentioned. I remember mentioning it +in Archie's hearing the other day, but he didn't pay the slightest +attention. And he can't possibly recollect him even in the vaguest way. +It is five years now since Martin died, and Archie was then only just +two, and for six months before that Martin was with me at Grives." + +Cathie Bampton laid down the two papers. + +"I can't think why you never told Archie about him," she said. + +Lady Davidstow's great grey eyes grew dim. + +"Ah, my dear, if you were Martin's mother and Archie's mother you would +know," she said. "If you had seen your eldest son die of consumption and +your second son threatened with it, you would understand how natural it +was not to tell Archie yet of the brother he had never consciously seen. +Jack agreed with me, too. I have long been prepared for Archie asking +questions, which certainly I would answer truthfully, and let the +knowledge come to him quietly by degrees. I may have done wrong; I don't +know. But I think I did right. I couldn't begin saying to Archie, 'You +had a brother, but he died.' More would have come out; that he died of +consumption; that for fear of that Archie lives so much in the open +air." + +"But, my dear, how will Archie begin to know unless you tell him?" + +"Oh, in many ways. There is Martin's picture, for instance, in my room. +Archie may ask who it is. Or, when he hears Martin's name mentioned, he +will ask some time who Martin was. Indeed, I have often thought it odd +that he hasn't. Only the other day Jack was talking to me about it, +suggesting that it was time that Archie knew. Indeed, he rather urged me +to tell him. And now, all of a sudden, we find Archie writing in +Martin's handwriting, and signing with Martin's name." + +"Shall you tell Lord Davidstow?" asked Miss Bampton. + +"No, I certainly shall not. Jack hates all that approaches the +neighbourhood of anything that might be called occult or spiritualistic. +He says 'Pshaw,' as you know, if even hypnotism is mentioned. I did tell +him about Archie's intuition in that guessing game, and, as you again +know, he asked you not to play it any more, though at the same time he +insisted that it was a mere guess on Archie's part." + +Cathie was silent a moment. + +"And those scribbles of Archie's?" she asked. "Do they not make it more +difficult for you to tell him about Martin now? A sensitive boy like +that might get it into his head that his dead brother was writing to +him." + +"Certainly I don't want Archie to think that," said his mother. "No, I +shall put off telling him now." + +"And if he asks?" said Miss Bampton. + +"I have an idea that he won't ask." + +She got up and moved about the room for a moment in silence. + +"My dear, all children have got a secret life of their own," she said, +"and, oh, how their mothers want to be admitted! But every young thing +has a walled-up place in his heart, to which he admits nobody, and, if +you ask to be admitted, not only is the door shut, but locked. We all +had our secret places, and I make a guess that this bit of paper--by the +way, mind you put it back in the school-room where Archie left it--lives +in Archie's secret place. How I long to get in, the darling! But all I +can do is to wait outside, and take what he gives me. Archie doesn't +tell me everything, why should he? He didn't tell me what it was that +made him put the burning coals out of the fire on to my hearthrug." + +"Probably he didn't know." + +"Something inside him knew, or else he wouldn't have done it. All we do +is accountable for by what is inside us. Impulses come from within." + +"But they are suggested by what is without," said Miss Bampton. + +"Yes; that's the box on which the match is struck, but the fire is in +the match. All you can do for a child, even your own child, is to +suggest, and hope he'll take your suggestions." + +Miss Bampton got up. + +"It's late; I must go," she said. "But I want to ask you one thing. Do +you believe in the possibility of Martin's having made a communication +to Archie?" + +"Yes; I think I do. That's why this affair has upset me so. The idea is +so strange and new, that I'm frightened about it, though why I should be +so I can't tell. With my whole heart I believe that my darling is living +somewhere in an existence as individual as ever, and even more vivid, +because the weakness and the illness and the weariness are past. So why +should I be frightened at the thought that he could communicate with +Archie? Ah, my dear, if only he would communicate with me! Or with Jack! +Poor Jack, how he would scout the idea! How shocked he would be! I +suppose that's part of my secret garden which I keep from Jack!" + +She held her friend a moment after kissing her. + +"Jack never really got over Martin's death," she said. "He couldn't +bring himself into line with it. It was then that it became a settled +habit with him to try to forget... Just lately he has been very bad. +There, good-night, my dear; I can't talk about it." + +* * * * * + +The whole incident affected Archie far less than it affected either his +mother or his governess, and next day when he found his scribbled paper +lying where he had left it the day before, it excited no further +curiosity in his mind. He put the thought of it away on his shelf of +secret things which had nothing to do with his ordinary normal life. In +certain moods, which, after all only lasted for a moment or two, the +things that shelf contained became far more real to him than any other +of his experiences; but for weeks and months at a time its contents +remained out of his reach, and if he shared them, as his mother had +said, with nobody else, he had no share in them himself except at these +odd, queer moments. So when, next day, he came across this curious +sentence again, caught by him, as by some process of wireless +telegraphy, he felt but little interest in it, though he sat for a +couple of minutes with his pen held idly in his hand, just to see if +anything else happened. But there was no sensation that ever so faintly +resembled the twitching and yearning of his hand to write he knew not +what, and he crumpled the paper up, and put it into the fire. Somewhere +below the threshold of his conscious self lay the perceptions that were +concerned with it, those perceptions that guessed what Miss Bampton had +thought of, that somehow swam up to the surface, as he used to lie in +bed of a morning, and sink into the depths that lay below the +green-tinted ceiling of his room; and, while they lay dormant, it was as +if they never existed. + +But now for some weeks there had been no light whatever on his ceiling, +and morning after morning he awoke with no sense of exhilaration at all +in the coming of another day, but with a drowsy depression lying thick +upon him, as he heard the rustle of the endless rain in the shrubs +outside, and languidly went through those exercises that used to +invigorate him but now only tired him. All through the month the damp +chilly weather persisted, and day after day the same lowering heavens +obscured the sun; never in this bright Sussex upland had there been so +continuous a succession of rain-streaked hours. The wonder of seeing the +lake slowly rising till it engulfed the lower end of the lawn, and made +an island of the summer-house failed to stir him, and there was no magic +in the unique experience of punting across the lawn to it. Then, one +morning early in December, the deluge was stayed, once more the sun slid +up a cloudless sky, and the whole nature of the world was changed. + +Archie had again been indoors for a couple of days, with a return of the +cold that really was responsible for the burning of his mother's +hearthrug, and once more the ecstasy of living possessed him. As +consolation for his imprisonment, he and Jeannie were both given a +holiday, and, breakfast over, they scampered out, and once more saw +their shadows racing in front of them. The game was to tread on somebody +else's shadow. Blessington's shadow did not count because anybody could +tread on that; but it required real agility to tread on Jeannie's, for +it had the nippiest way of dodging before your foot could really descend +on it. So they ran in circles round Blessington, and Marco, the collie, +ran in circles round them; and though it counted two to tread on Marco's +shadow (you must not hold Marco and then stamp on his shadow), no one +had got nearer than a doubtful claim to have trod on his tail. + +Quite suddenly Archie stopped; he had an odd, warm sensation in his +mouth that required investigation. Two days ago Jeannie's nose had bled, +which Archie thought rather grand. There had been rather a fuss about +it: she was laid down on the floor, and Miss Bampton put the door-key +down her back, and eventually some ice was brought, and it was all quite +important. But now it was not his nose that was bleeding, but his mouth. + +"Oh, I say, I'm bleeding in my mouth," he said. "That's just as good as +Jeannie's nose." + +Even while he spoke he felt rather giddy, and instantly Blessington's +arm was round him. + +"Eh, my dear," she said. "That'll never do. You lean against me, and +we'll go home very quietly. You mustn't chase any more shadders this +morning." + +As a matter of fact, Archie did not want to. He felt a rather enjoyable +lightness in his head, but he felt weak also, and disinclined to run. + +"Oh, here it is again," he said, and once more, now with a sensation of +choking, he coughed up blood. + +He saw Blessington's tender, anxious face above him, exactly as it had +appeared in the earliest of all his memories, and, as then, felt +absolutely comfortable in the thought that she was there. Her arm was +close round his neck now, and with her other hand she made a sign to +Jeannie. + +"Run straight back home, dear," she said, "and tell your mamma to come +out here at once, and bring William. Master Archie and I are going to +sit down quietly till she comes." + +Archie rather enjoyed all this. He was completely in Blessington's +hands, and utterly content to be so. Then Blessington did a very odd +thing. + +"Well, I'm so hot with seeing you and Miss Jeannie running about," she +said, "that I'm going to sit down, and wait for a bit. And you'll wait +with me, dear, won't you? There! Put your head on my knee and lie down. +I know you're hot with running about." + +As by a conjuring trick, Archie knew that Blessington's cloak with its +collar of rabbit's fur was tucked round him. It was rather odd to be +lying with his head on Blessington's knee out of doors in the winter, +but he had no desire to question the propriety of all this, for it +fitted in so well with his main desire, which was to stop still. A +couple of minutes ago he had been running about at top-speed; now he had +no wish except to do as he was told, to put himself into responsible +hands. It was all rather dreamlike; his mother and William were coming +here soon, but that seemed quite natural. And it was still rather grand +to bleed at the mouth. Then came a gentle singing in his ears, a +pleasant sense of complete indolence, that never quite passed into +unconsciousness, and presently it was just as natural to find himself in +William's arms. Out of a half-opened eye he saw William was in livery, +for the blue and white stripes of his low waistcoat were close to him, +and his cheek rested on William's shirt-front. And then he saw that +there was a bright red stain there which certainly was not part of +William's ordinary livery. + +"Oh, William, I've messed you," he said. "I am sorry." + +"That's all right, Master Archie," said William. "It wasn't a new shirt +this morning." + +Some dim reminiscence about something William had told him concerning +beer-money and washing came into his head. William had beer-money or +washing; he could not remember which. + +"I shall pay for it anyhow," he said. + +Still feeling rather dizzy, he had the impression of his own room with +Blessington and his mother near him. Apparently he had been laid on the +floor, for his bed looked tall beside him. Then he was not on the floor +any more, but in his bed, and whether it was at once or later, he never +knew, but presently there was in the room the stranger who once had made +him play the pointless game of saying "ninety-nine!" Here he was again +with a plug against Archie's chest, and two other plugs in his own ears. +Archie remembered him quite distinctly: he was a doctor who didn't give +any medicine. + +"Shall I say 'ninety-nine'?" he asked. + +"No, just think 'ninety-nine,' and don't talk. If you think +'ninety-nine' it will do just as well." + +Archie had no desire to do anything beyond what he was told to do. He +thought "ninety-nine," and the stranger smiled very kindly at him. + +"That's capital," he said. "Now just go on thinking 'ninety-nine'..." +and whether he floated out of the window, or vanished like the Cheshire +cat, or walked away in the ordinary manner, Archie was quite unaware. + +Then he was hungry, and, behold, there was Blessington with boiled +rabbit, and he was sleepy and hungry again, and again sleepy. Sometimes +his mother was there, and sometimes his father, who looked rather odd, +and sometimes William brought coals, though the housemaid usually did +that; and there was Blessington again, who washed his face, and then, +uncovering him limb by limb, washed these also. Archie could not +understand why he acquiesced in this odd state of things, or why he did +not ask to get up and run about and play the shadow-game again. But +merely he was quite content to lie still, and he hoped that when Jeannie +came and talked to him she would not suggest the resumption of the game +that had been so ecstatic but had been interrupted so suddenly. And Miss +Bampton came in, and read to him something she had been writing. He +noticed that she read from printed pages, not like the pages of an +ordinary book, but long strips. It appeared that it was a story she had +written which had got printed, and he asked whether his story about "the +merderer" would ever get printed. They all came in, and talked gently +and melted away again. + +Then arrived a memorable morning when, instead of being gently awakened +by Blessington, he awoke entirely of his own accord, and felt strong and +cross. Cross he certainly proved to be, for when the morning washing +began, which hitherto had been a pleasant and luxurious performance, he +found that Blessington could do nothing right. She put soap into his +eyes, she tickled his feet and scratched his shoulder with her +disgusting flannel. Archie made firm complaints against each of these +outrages, of a sort that would usually lead to rebuke on Blessington's +part. Indeed, he had not been nearly so rude on the occasion when he had +been told to apologize to her. + +But now she merely beamed at each disagreeable remark, and, instead of +scolding him, she made a most cryptic answer. + +"Eh, my darling," she said. "Thank God you feel like blaming me again." + +"What _do_ you mean, Blessington?" said Archie angrily. "Oh, do take +care of my little toe. You've nearly pulled it off once already." + +"Well then, I'll kiss it," said Blessington. And did. + +Archie looked at her. + +"Why are you crying?" he asked, wriggling his foot away from her. He did +not want it to be kissed. + +"Crying? I'm just laughing," said Blessington. And that was true; she +was laughing. But she was crying also. + +An idea struck Archie which had not occurred to him before. + +"Am I ill, Blessington?" he asked. "Am I going to die?" + +At that there was no question of what Blessington was doing. Her +laughing quite ceased, and she gave a great sob. + +"No, my darling, you're not going to die," she said. "Get that out of +your silly head. You're not..." + +And then she broke down altogether, and hid her face in the towel with +which she had been washing Archie's left foot. He saw her shoulders +shaking; he knew that, for some reason, she could not speak. But she was +crying, and was not cross with him for being cross. It behoved a man to +administer consolation. + +"Oh, don't cry, Blessington," he said. "What is there to cry about? +Unless it's because I'm so cross." + +"I don't mind your crossness," she said. "You let me finish wiping your +foot. And then I'll go down and tell your mamma--" + +"Oh, don't say I was cross," said Archie. "I'm sorry I was cross." + +"Nay, I'll just tell her how much better you feel this morning. And I +shouldn't wonder if there was a great treat coming, something you'll +like ever so much." + +"Is it another train?" asked Archie. + +"Bless the boy!" said she. "How you think about trains!" + +* * * * * + +Archie ate his breakfast, and passed an entrancing morning. Everybody +seemed desirous of congratulating him, as if he had done something +particularly meritorious, as on the occasion of his not getting drowned +when he jumped out of the boat after the pike. He held a sort of levee, +the most remarkable incident of which was the appearance of Miss Bampton +with a piece of white chalk, with which she drew on the green drugget by +his bed, so that he could easily see it, a great map of England and +Central Europe. There was the South of England, with London written +large, and here was Lacebury also conspicuously marked. Then there was +the English Channel with France below it, and Paris in the middle, and +away to the right, some distance below, the Lake of Geneva. Then, still +explaining, she made marks like caterpillars which were mountains, and +said that now the mountains were covered with snow, even down to the +tails of the caterpillars and below was the Lake of Geneva, quite blue. +All the roads were covered with snow up by the caterpillars' tails, and +there were no wheels on the carriages, but they slid over the frozen +snow instead. There was skating up there, for they made lakes which were +covered with ice. They just put water into flat places, and there was +your lake, and it instantly froze. It never rained there, but if it +wanted to do anything, it just snowed. Usually it didn't want to do +anything, and there was the sun and the snow, and wouldn't it be jolly +to go there? + +This presented itself to Archie's mind as a purely abstract proposition. +Of course it would be jolly to go to a place where you saw the real +mountains and had a glimpse of the real Lake of Geneva, and slid instead +of walking; but what next? Did any one ever go there? + +Apparently. Right at the tail of the caterpillar was a place called +Grives. There it was, written down: the railway only went as far as Bex, +and there the sledges began. And always the sun shone, so that you sat +out of doors with the snow all round you, and felt perfectly warm. + +Suddenly Archie could stand it no longer. It was like talking to a +starving man about roast beef. There was roast beef somewhere in the +world, and he wanted it so badly. In the same way something inside +Archie starved for sun and snow and thin air. + +"Oh, shut up, Miss Bampton," he said. "I want it so frightfully." + +His mother was sitting on the edge of his bed watching the map of +Europe. + +"Archie, we're going to Grives in a few days," she said. "You and +Blessington and Jeannie and I." + +* * * * * + +It was memorable moment when the boat rose up and then curtsied to the +big seas that were jostling each other up the Channel. Archie's only +knowledge of the sea was culled from a single visit to Brighton two +years ago, and the sea to him then appeared but one among an assembly of +unusual bright objects: nigger-minstrels and tin buckets and piers and +penny-in-the-slot machines. But on this bright winter day he hailed a +new and glorious creature, when he saw the steep white-capped waves, +grey in the bulk but lit with lovely green where they grew thin, come +streaming up to the ship's side and fall away again in puffs of white +smoke and squirts of high-flung foam. Warmly wrapped up in his new +fur-coat, he sat on deck sheltered from the weather and watched with +ecstatic wonder the rollicking, untamed creatures that sent the boat now +over on one side, now on the other, and threw it up and caught it again +within their firm, liquid embrace. Behind it lay a wake of white foam, +like a long string still tying them to dazzling chalk cliffs and the +wave-smothered pier, and overhead the masts, thrumming to the wind, +struck right and left across a wide arc of the sky, and their shadows +sped across the deck. These swervings and upliftings and descents of the +ship as she whacked her way across the shifting mountains produced in +him no physical discomfort, but only the sense that a new and glorious +being had come into his life. + +All too soon, even as the jig-saw puzzle of the map of Europe had warned +him by the narrowness of the straits, the shores of France began to rear +themselves up above the wave-moulded horizon, and presently another pier +received them, and men spoke a strange tongue (probably French, though +it might have been Hebrew) and made novel gestures, and wore blouses, +and boots that turned up at the toes more than was usual in England. +There were no platforms: you had to climb the sheer carriage side from +ground-level, and the engines were altogether different, and the +movement of the train was other than that he was accustomed to. Then, +sure enough, they came after nightfall to a great town, and drove across +it, keeping firmly to the wrong side of the road, though, as everybody +else did the same, there were not so many collisions as might have been +expected. Then came the novelty of eating dinner in a restaurant perched +up in another station, from the windows of which you could romantically +observe train after train sliding out into the winter night. Before long +Archie's train did the same, and then came the glorious experience of +undressing in a train, while it was going at full speed. There was never +so remarkable a bedroom, all gold and looking-glass and stamped leather, +and instead of his bed and Blessington's being put on the floor, one, +which Archie begged to have, was put above the other. Close by him in +the roof of the carriage was the electric light which, when you turned a +small handle the requisite distance, dwindled to a mere speck. At some +timeless hour he woke up, and found a very polite stranger in his +bedroom, to whom Blessington explained that they had neither spirits nor +lace nor tobacco in their luggage. And the total stranger then +apparently guessed that he had been misinformed, for he went away again +without another word. + +The clever train found its way without any mistake through the darkness +of the long winter's night, for next morning it was skimming along by +the edge of a lake so large that no wonder it appeared on the jig-saw +map of Europe. The lake at home, once an almost boundless sheet of +water, was no more than a wayside puddle to this; the hills at home were +no more than the tunnelled earth of moles compared with those slopes on +which the rows of pines looked smaller than the edging of a table-cloth +against the blue. Blue? Archie thought he had never known what blue was +till now, not what sunshine was until he saw the dazzle of it on those +sparkling slopes. And they, so his mother told him, were not mountains +at all: they were only hills; but soon he should see what mountains +meant. As they passed through the glittering towns that stood on the +edge of the lake, he could see the sleighs sliding over the streets with +jingle of bells crisply sounding in the alert air. Other smaller sleighs +were drawn by pleased, smiling dogs. There was never such a morning of +discoveries. The only drawback was that, though it ought only to have +been ten o'clock, the Swiss chose that it should be eleven, and thus an +hour of this immortal day was lost; but his mother told him that the +French had taken care of it, and would give it back to them when they +returned. + +All this was romantic enough, but the romance grew more deep-hued yet +when, in the early afternoon, Archie was packed into a sleigh and the +journey up through the pine-woods began. White-capped and white-cloaked +stood the red-trunked trees, and now and then, with a falling puff of +snow, a laden branch, free of its burden, sprang upwards again. Then the +pines were tired of climbing, and the sleigh left them and came out on +to a plateau high above the valley. And could that have been sunshine +down there? For the valley seemed choked with grey fog, and here above +was real sunshine and air that refreshed you as with wine. The hills +that had appeared so gigantic had sunk below them, but behind them rose +the spears and precipices, remote and blue, of the real mountains, and, +as they went upwards, these soared ever above them, and presently the +blue on them was tinged with apricot and rose in the glow of the +declining sun. And the driver cracked his whip, and the horses jingled +their bells in response, and, pointing with it to a row of toy houses +still far above them, he grinned at Archie and said "Grives." + +The rose of sunset had faded and the snows were turned to ivory-crystal +beneath the full moon when they entered the long, lit village street, +with its old carved wooden houses, deep-balconied towards the south, and +the modern hotels now just opening again for the winter season. These, +too, they left behind them, and again mounting a steep slope, came to +where, round a sudden corner, stood the big chalet which Archie's mother +had taken. + +"And here we are," she said. + +Archie sat staring. Somehow he felt he knew the house; perhaps it was a +house he had dreamed of. There were pines to right and left of it, just +as there were in this picture of a house that existed somewhere in his +mind; it had the same broad balconies, where you could lie all day in +the sun, and look over the village roofs below and across the valley +from which all afternoon they had climbed. He felt he knew it inside +too: there would be rooms with wooden walls, and china stoves--where had +he heard of china stoves?--and the smell of pine-wood haunting all the +house. It was extraordinarily interesting... + +A big, genial woman had turned up the electric light outside the door +when she heard the crack of the driver's whip, and stood bareheaded, +ready to welcome them. Archie felt that he knew something about her too. + +"Ah, _miladi_," she said to his mother in very crisp good English, yet +with a funny precision, as if she had learned it as a lesson, "I give +you welcome back to Grives. And how is my dear Madame Blessington?" + +Archie thought his mother interrupted these greetings rather suddenly. + +"How are you madame Seiler?" she said. "And here is my daughter Jeannie +and Archie"--and she added something in an undertone, which sounded like +the language Miss Schwarz used to talk. + +Madame Seiler whisked round with renewed cordiality. + +"And such lovely weather you have come to," she said. "The sun all day +and the frost all night. But we keep out the frost and let the sun in." + +They passed into the entrance-hall, aromatic and warm, heated by a big +china stove that roared pleasantly, and instantly, without any reason, +there came into Archie's mind the remembrance of the words his hand had +scribbled one morning with the signature "Martin." It came out of the +darkness like a light seen distantly at night; it flashed like a signal +and vanished again. But for one second it had been there, remote, but +visible and luminous. + +Lady Davidstow, for some obscure and grown-up reason, thought good at +supper that night to explain incidentally that she had written to Madame +Seiler that Blessington was coming, and that was how she had known +Blessington's name. Archie had a very strong and wholesome confidence in +his mother, but he knew that grown-up people sometimes made statements +which have got (by the rules) to be accepted, but which do not always +convince. Blessington's saying that she could not run any more because +she had a bone in her leg was an instance of this class of statement, as +also was the occasion when his mother spoke, a year ago, about +Abracadabra's sneezings. This mode of accounting for Madame Seiler's +knowing Blessington's name came under the same head: as far as it went +it might be true, and though it did not particularly interest him +whether it was true, so to speak, all the way, he felt that there was +something mildly mysterious about it. And, having made this unconvincing +statement, his mother at once passed on to more interesting topics. + +It was a blow, when Blessington called him next morning, to be told that +he was tired with the journey and must stop in bed for breakfast. That +was a perfectly unfounded statement, but, like those others, had +grumblingly to be accepted, though Archie knew quite well that he had +never felt less tired. + +"You mayn't feel it, dear," said Blessington, "but you are." + +"I should think I ought to know best," said Archie. + +"No, I know best," said Blessington firmly. "And your mamma says so, +too." + +Archie began to wonder they were not right. He did not feel tired, as he +had told Blessington, but something inside him said that it did not want +to run about, or even skate, but it was very well pleased that his body, +well wrapped up, should sit up in bed, and bask in the sun which blazed +in through the opened French window communicating with the big balcony +outside his room. Then, after breakfast, there came in his mother with a +big jovial man, whose name was Dr. Dobie. + +"I never saw such a lazy fellow," exclaimed this rather attractive +person. "Fancy not being up yet!" + +"They wouldn't let me," said Archie. + +"Well, as soon as I've had a look at you, up you shall get," said the +doctor. "But I can't wait till you're dressed. Now, undo your coat a +minute." + +Once again the instrument with plugs was produced, and the ninety-nine +game played. + +"That's capital," said the doctor, "and now in a minute I'll have done +with you. Just put that into your mouth with the end under your tongue. +There, like that." + +This was a very short process, and Dr. Dobie got up. + +"Now, my plan for you is this," he said. "You shall dress and lie out in +the sun on your balcony. And, after you've had dinner, you shall go for +a sleigh drive, and walk a little on your way back. Then balcony again, +till it's dark." + +"But mayn't I skate?" asked Archie, who didn't really want to. + +"No, not just yet. We'll have you skating before long, but not at +present. The more you do as you're told, the sooner you'll skate." + +During the next week, but so gradually that at no moment was it a +discovery, it dawned on Archie that he was ill, and that his illness +dated from the time when his mouth bled. The knowledge did not in the +least depress him, because with it came the absolute certainty in his +own mind that he was going to get quite well again. For the most part he +did not feel ill, though there was often an uncomfortable period towards +evening when he felt sometimes hot and sometimes cold, and one moment +would want another coat on, and soon would have liked to throw off all +the clothes he had. These odd feelings were accompanied by a sort of +extra vividness in his perceptions: he felt tingling and alert, and the +lights seemed brighter than their wont. But when this had been more +marked than usual in the evening, he always felt very tired next day, +and more than once he did not get up at all but had his bed pulled out +on to the balcony. Then, as the weeks passed on, there was less of this, +and before long he was allowed to tie his toboggan to the back of the +sleigh, and be towed up-hill through the pine-wood that climbed the +slopes behind the village. That was a delightful experience; on each +side stood the snowy trees frosted like a Christmas cake, now almost +meeting above the narrow track, and then standing away from it again, so +that the deluge of sun poured down as into a pool, while from in front +came the jingle of the horse's bells, and from below him the squeak of +his runners. Then they came out again on to the ski-ing slopes, where +visitors to Grives played the entrancing game of seeing, apparently, who +could fall down most often in the most complicated manner. Where the +slope was steepest there was erected a sort of platform, so that the +runner, flying down the slope above, was shot into the air, touching +ground again yards below. Or, on other mornings, when things went well, +and there had been no hot-and-cold period the evening before, he +tobogganed down the slope below the house to the edge of the +skating-rink and sat there in the snow, with everything round frozen +hard, yet feeling perfectly warm, so potent were the beams of this +ineffable sun through the thin, dry air. Jeannie was learning to skate +and progressed, in wobbling half-circles, and shrilly announced that +this and no other was the outside edge. Or four of the experts in a +railed-off and hallowed place at the end of the huge rink would put down +an orange, and proceed to weave a mystic dance in obedience to the +shouted orders of one of them. At one moment all four would be swiftly +converging on a back-edge to their orange, and, just at the moment when +a complicated collision seemed imminent, would somehow change their +direction, and, lo, all four were sailing outwards and forwards again in +big, sweeping curves. Then there were the hoarse, angry cries of the +curlers to listen to, and the pleasant sight of the stone sliding +swiftly down the ice and butting, with a hollow chunk, into any other +that stood in its way. And then a slow sliding stone would come down, +and people swept violently in front of it to encourage it not to lie +down and die, which for the most part it did. But always too soon, his +mother or Blessington would come to tell him that it was time to go home +again and he would tie his toboggan to the back of the sleigh, and be +pulled up-hill to the house. That was a tiresome moment, and Archie +found himself wondering, with a pang of jealousy, why, when so many were +hale and hearty round him, it should be just he who was obliged to go +and lie down on the roofed balcony, instead of skating or curling. But +even when he had set-backs, and had to lie all day on the balcony, he +never faltered in his belief that he was going to get well. + +Here then, in brief, were the outward aspects of Archie's life at +Grives, new and attractive and full of sun and dry, powdery snow. He +took no active part in the activities, and was but an observer, but all +the time there were inward aspects of his life, which no one shared with +him, and which no one ever observed. He was always on the alert, even on +those mornings of tiredness after he had had a rise of temperature the +evening before, for the development of a certain thing, the existence of +which came to him only in hints and whispers. But the thing itself was +always there, though he had no control over its manifestations. He could +no more bring it into the exterior life of the senses, he could no more +see or hear it or produce any evidence of it, as he willed, than he +could make the sun pierce and scatter the clouds, which for a whole week +in January alternately rained and snowed on to Grives. All he could do +was to wait for it, and he waited in a perpetual serene excitement. It +came always when he was alone: he got to think of solitude, in this +present stage, as an essential for its manifestation. And, as the weeks +went on, he associated it more and more with the balcony on which he lay +for the greater part of the day. It, the thing he waited for, and was +completely silent about even when he had intimate good-night talks with +his mother, was no other than "Martin" (whoever Martin might be) whose +presence had come into his mind with such unexpected vividness when +first he saw the chalet. Never was the idea of "Martin" absent from his +mind: it might lurk concealed behind the excitement of trailing after +the sleigh, or of watching the skaters on the ice, but at all times it +was ready to enfilade him. And, among all the diversions of the snow and +the ice and the sun, he had an inward eye turned towards this +inscrutable "Martin"--no winged nester in the sand-cliffs, but somebody, +somebody... + +Lessons in a mild way had begun again before this wretched rainy and +snowy week, and Miss Bampton sent out from home the most entrancing and +topical copies. "Hot outside-edge for lunch," was one, in allusion to +the news of Jeannie's skating; "Cold inside-edge for dinner" was +another. Whatever the weather was, Archie was out of doors all day, and +Jeannie, during lesson-time, used to sit out on his balcony and do her +more advanced tasks, which, with his, were taken in to Lady Davidstow +for correction. More often his mother used to sit on the balcony, too, +but during this damp, abominable week she suffered from a heavy cold, +and the lessons were brought to her by Jeannie. And on this particular +morning, Jeannie had finished her French translation first, and so went +in to her mother to have it corrected, leaving Archie to finish the last +three lines of his copy. + +Ever since his first entry into the house, there had been for him +nothing more than the perception of Martin's presence. With the patience +of a child who wants something, a thing only equalled by the patience of +a cat watching a mouse-hole, he had never taken his inward eye off this. +He was always ready for it. As Jeannie went in with her completed French +lesson, he laid down his pen, and looked for a moment at the streaming +icicles on the eaves of his shelter, and listened with a sense of +depression to the drip of the melted water that formed grey pits in the +whiteness of the snow below. Because there was a thaw, the air felt +colder than when there were twenty degrees of frost, and the blanket on +his couch was studded with condensed moisture. "It is warmer," thought +Archie to himself, "so it ought to _be_ warmer. But it's colder." + +At this moment he felt a sudden thrill in his right wrist, and thought +that a melted drop had fallen on it. But he saw there was no drop there, +and wondered at this sensation of touch. Then he saw his fingers begin +to twitch, and instantly recognized the sensation he had felt once +before. He swept his incomplete copy off his pad of blotting-paper, and +took his pen up again. Surely he could write on his blotting-paper. + +At first the meaningless scribbles appeared, made more grotesque and +senseless by the running of the ink. There was a pencil on the table by +him, and he took that up instead of the pen, while his hand twitched and +jerked to be at its task again. The day before he had pinched his finger +in the hinge of a slamming window, and he saw the moon-shaped blot of +blood below the nail quivering as his fingers starved to hold an +instrument of writing again. Then his hand settled down, like a hovering +bird on to a bough, as he picked up the pencil. + +For a little while the scribbles went on: then, watching the marks on +the blotting-paper just as an excited spectator watches the action of a +play, he saw words coming. His brain did not know what they were till +they appeared on the paper. + +"Archie, Archie," said the pencil, "I want to talk to you. I can't +always, but sometimes I can. Dear Archie, try to be ready when I get +through. Lovely to talk to you. Can't to mother." + +An incontrollable excitement seized the boy. "Oh, who is it?" he said +aloud. "Is it Martin?" + +He felt the twitching die away in his fingers, and presently he was left +sitting there, his copy on the floor and the scrawl on the +blotting-paper. But he had, somewhere inside him, a sense of +extraordinary satisfaction. Something or somebody had "got through," +whatever that meant. The words in pencil on his blotting-paper had "got +through." And he turned it over hastily, and picked up the unfinished +copy, as the door-handle into his room rattled, and Jeannie came out on +to the balcony again with her corrected French exercise. + +Several days of this chilly dripping weather, with the _foehn_ wind from +the south went by, and when that ceased, and the wind veered to the +north, blowing high over Grives, and raising feathers of snowdust on the +peaks to the north, while the sheltered valley basked in calm and +sunlight again, there were eventful days of carting the snow from the +rinks before any further development took place in Archie's secret life. +This carting of the snow was splendid fun, for, when a hand-sleigh of it +was piled high, Archie would squat on the front of it (thereby adding +considerably to the weight) and in a shrill voice direct the men who +pushed it to right or left, in order to reach the steep bank down which +they discharged their burden. When they were come to the edge of it, +some large, strong man lifted Archie off his perch, and waited with him, +while the sleigh was pushed to the very brink, and its burden overturned +in a jolly lumpy avalanche that poured down the built-up bank of the +rink. Then Archie mounted his throne again and was pulled back to where +the men with spades loaded up again... When the sleigh seemed to be +sufficiently full he called out "Stop," and made the return journey to +the side of the rink. This was all tremendously grand, and he had an +idea that the clearing of the rink could never have taken place without +him. Certainly his sleigh worked much faster than any other, for, in his +honour, those who pushed always ran to discharge their burden at top +speed, instead of going slowly like the others. + +"Oh, that was a pace," he would say as somebody lifted him off. "Look, +mummy, they're going to turn it over." + +The rink then was clear again (thanks to Archie's great exertions) +before his secret life made any step forward. But one afternoon, when he +had been watching the skating from his balcony, something further +occurred. He was alone, for his mother had gone down with Jeannie to the +rink, and Blessington had gone shopping, and there was a bell by him, by +means of which he could summon Madame Seiler if he wanted anything. But +he had no thoughts of summoning Madame Seiler; he was extremely content +to lie in the sun, and watch the rink sometimes, and sometimes to read a +fascinating book called _The Rose and the Ring_, which his mother had +given him. There were absurd pictures of Prince Bulbo, an enormously fat +young gentleman, whom Archie did not wish to resemble, but was rather +afraid of resembling, since Dr. Dobie at his last visit had told him he +was getting fat... + +It was all very peaceful and happy, and he had lost interest in +Jeannie's falls and even in Prince Bulbo's executions, and was staring +placidly at a very bright spot of glistening snow which caught the sun +at the edge of the rink, when lines of shadow began to pass over the +field of his vision, exactly as they used to pass over the green-lit +ceiling of his night-nursery at home. This was interesting: he did not +feel in the least sleepy, but very wide awake, and was conscious of +sinking down through this lovely luminous air, with the bright spot of +light getting every moment higher above him, when he suddenly heard his +name called. + +"Archie, Archie," said the voice, which was close to him, and +wonderfully friendly. And at the same moment he felt on the back of his +hand the touch of another hand that was smooth and young and somehow +familiar, though he had never felt it before. + +He tried not to disturb the impression. There was some sort of spell on +him, light as a gossamer-web, which the slightest movement, physical or +mental, on his part, might break. + +"Yes, I'm Archie," he said. + +But, the moment he spoke, he knew that he had spoken somehow in the +wrong way. Another part of him, not his lips and their voluntary +movements, should have answered. He ought to have thought the answer +with that part of him that saw the lines of shadow passing across the +bright steel surface of the rink below, that felt himself sinking down +and down beneath the bright spot opposite... He could not have +explained, but he knew it was so, and instantly there was he back on his +balcony again with _The Rose and the Ring_ in his hand, and Jeannie on +the rink. Madame Seiler clattering dishes in the kitchen, and himself +all alone, lying in the sunshine. He knew that something inside him had +been tremendously happy when his name was called and his hand touched in +that intimate manner, and, now that the touch and the voice were gone, +he felt something akin to what he felt when he was feverish, and +Blessington had said "good-night" and left him. But then, he always knew +that Blessington had only gone into the next room, and could be +summoned. And he could not summon him who had called "Archie" to him. He +had not the least doubt that it was Martin who had called, that it was +Martin's hand that had been laid on his. But who was this dear person +called "Martin," and where was Martin? Secure in the knowledge that it +was Martin who had come to him, and touched him and called to him, he +put down his book, and shut his eyes so that his feeling of being alone +should be intensified. + +"Martin," he whispered. "Oh, Martin!" + +He lay there tense and excited, sure that Martin would come again. Then +in a dim, child-like manner, not formulating anything to himself, but +only feeling his way, he knew he had called wrong. He must call +differently, if he hoped to have any reply, call from inside. But, the +more earnestly he attempted to "call from inside," the further he got +away from that "inside" mood, which he knew, but could not recapture. + +"Oh, what rot!" he said at length, and picked up _The Rose and the Ring_ +again to ascertain whether Bulbo was really going to be executed on this +second occasion when he piled his table on his bed and his chair on his +table, and his hat-box on his chair, and peeped out of the window from +his horrid cell, to see whether it was eight o'clock yet... + +Every day, in this return of frost and sunshine, Archie felt stronger, +and soon the desire to skate took firm hold of him. Oddly enough, the +pleasant Dr. Dobie began to agree with him, and within a day or two of +the time when Archie's desire to skate became a pressing need, Dr. Dobie +sanctioned it, and Archie had a humiliating hour or two. He had seen +Jeannie lean outwards, and announce the outside edge, he had seen +Jeannie lean a little inwards and proclaim the inside edge and round she +went in curves that Archie could not but envy. He had only got to lean +outwards and inwards like that, and surely he was master of his curves. +But he found that his curves were master of him, and tumbled him down +instead, or would have done so if a kind Swiss on skates had not always +been on hand to prevent any disaster of this kind. But then Jeannie had +learned, so it seemed to Archie, by falling down, and he resented the +hand that saved him from falling. + +"Do let me fall down," he said. "I can't learn unless I fall down." + +"Better not fall down, sir," said this amiable young man. "I hold you; +you learn best so." + +"But Jeannie didn't," said Archie. + +"No; but she is a girl," whispered his Swiss. + +"Oh, ought girls to fall down and not boys?" asked Archie, rather +interested in this new difference between the sexes. + +* * * * * + +Archie was allowed, by the end of January, to skate for half an hour +before lunch with his Swiss hovering over him like a friendly eagle, to +have lunch with Jeannie seated side by side on a toboggan at the edge of +the rink, and skate for half an hour again afterwards at the end of +which time a second eagle appeared in the person of Blessington or his +mother, and carried him off to the sleigh. Right on through half +February lasted the golden frosty weather; then came a great snowfall, +and with that the frost broke. The snow degenerated into rain, the wind +veered again into the slack south, and the roofs dripped and the trees +tossed their white burdens from them. But, as the snow melted, wonderful +things happened in the earth at the summons of the suns of spring, for +gentians pushed their lengthening stems up through the thinning crust, +and put forth their star-like flowers, deep as the blue of night and +brilliant as the blue of day. The call of the spring, though yet the +snow-wreaths lingered, pierced through them, and the listening grasses +and bulbs pricked up their little green ears above the soil. Wonderful +as last spring had been, the first that Archie had ever consciously +noticed, this Alpine Primavera was twice as magical, for winter was +caught in her very arms, and warmed to life again. Morning by morning +the pine-woods steamed like the hot flank of a horse, and when the mists +cleared nature's great colour-box had been busy again with fresh greens, +and more vivid reds on the tree-trunks, and weak, pale snowdrops and +mountain crocuses shone like silver and gold in the sheltered hollows. A +more tender blue took the place of the crystallized skies of winter, and +for the barren, brilliant light of the January sun was exchanged a +fruitful and caressing luminousness that flooded the world instead of +merely looking down upon it. Soon from the lower slopes the snow was +quite vanished, and instead of the tinkle of sleigh-bells there came +from the pastures the deeper note from the bells of feeding cattle, +which all winter long had been penned up in chalets, eating the dry +cakes of last year's harvest of grass. + +Archie had been lying in his balcony one morning writing an account of +these things to Miss Bampton. His mother had gone back to England to +take Jeannie home, but would be back at the end of the week, and in the +absence of an instructor Archie's task was to write a long letter daily +to somebody at home. This he enjoyed doing, for the search for words in +which to express himself had begun to interest him, and he had just +written: "If you listen very hard, you can almost hear the grass and the +flowers fizzing. Is it the sap? It's like fizzing anyhow. That's what I +mean." + +As he paused at the end of his third page, he felt something in his hand +that also reminded him of fizzing. There was that queer thrill and +twitching in his fingers, which he recognized at once, and words, not +searched for by him, but coming from some other source, began to trace +themselves on the blank fourth page. To-day there were no preliminary +scrawls, the firm, upright handwriting was coherent from the first. + + "Archie, I've got through again," it wrote. "Isn't it fun? If you want + a test ("Test?" thought Archie, "what's that?") you'll find a circle + cut on the bark of the pine opposite the front-door. Dig in the earth + just below it. There's a box and some things in it. I hid them." + +A wave of conscious excitement came over the boy, and instantly his hand +stopped writing. + +"Oh, bother; it's stopped," he said to himself. "I wish I hadn't +interrupted it." + +But he had interrupted it, and, since he could not get back into that +particular quiescence which, he had begun to see, always accompanied +these manifestations, he could at least do what the writing suggested, +and, slipping off his couch, he tip-toed downstairs in order not to let +Blessington hear his exit. + +There were two pine-trees, either of which might have been described as +opposite the front-door, and he searched in vain round the first of +these for any sign of the circle cut on the bark. Then, coming to the +other, he at once saw, with a sudden beating of his heart, a rough +circle cut in the bark just opposite his eyes. A grey ring of lichen had +grown into it, making it so conspicuous that he wondered he had never +noticed it before. Next moment he was down on his knees, grubbing up the +loose earth directly below it, with the eager, absolute certainty of +success. The earth came away very easily, and his hole was not yet a +foot deep when he saw something white and shining at the bottom of it, +and presently he drew out a small, round tin box, like that which stood +on the table in his father's study, and held tobacco. He hastily filled +the earth into his excavation again, and, undetected, tip-toed back to +his balcony. + +For a while the lid resisted his efforts to open it, but soon he got it +loose and looked inside. On the top lay a folded piece of paper; below +there was a stick of chocolate in lead paper, a pencil, a match-box, and +a photograph of a boy about nine years old whom Archie instantly knew to +be like himself. Then he opened the piece of folded paper, and saw words +written on it in a hand he knew quite well: + +"This is Martin Morris's," was the inscription, "and belongs to him +alone, and not anybody else at all ever." + +Archie read this, looked at the photograph again, and a flood of light +poured in on his mind. It was no wonder that he had felt that Martin was +friendly and affectionate, that Martin wanted to talk to him, that +Martin told him of the _cache_ he had made, for to whom should he tell +it but to his brother? + +Yes: Martin was here, for Martin had written to him, had called him... +And then, in a moment, more light flashed on him. Certainly Martin was +alive, but he was not alive in the sense that his mother was alive or +Blessington. In that sense Martin was dead. There was nothing in the +least shocking or terrifying in the discovery, and it burst upon him as +the sense of spring had done. It was just a natural thing, wonderfully +beautiful, to find out for certain, as he felt he had found out, that +there was close to him, always perhaps, and certainly at times, this +presence of the brother whom he had never seen, but who in some way, not +more inexplicable than the appearance of the blue gentians pricking up +through the snow, could occasionally speak to him, calling him by name, +or using his hand to write with. + +A few days afterwards Lady Davidstow arrived back from England, and on +the first evening of her return, after dusk had fallen, Archie was +sitting on the floor against her knee in front of the one open +fire-place in the house, where pine-logs fizzed and smouldered and burst +into flame, and glowed into a core of heat. Sometimes, for that pleasant +hour before bed-time, she read to him, but to-night there had been no +reading, for she had been telling him of the week she had passed at +home. They had moved up to London while she was there, and London was +miry and foggy and cold. + +"Altogether disgusting, dear," she said. "You don't want to go there, do +you?" + +"Not an atom," said Archie firmly. "I like this place better than any I +have ever been in." + +"I'm so glad, Archie. I was afraid you would dislike it after the frost +went." + +Archie was staring dreamily at the fire, and suddenly he knew that +Martin was here, and he looked quickly round wondering if, by any new +and lovely miracle, he should see the boy whose face was now familiar to +him from the photograph. But there was nothing visible; only the +firelight leaped on the wooden walls. + +"What is it, Archie?" asked his mother. + +Suddenly Archie felt that he could preserve his secret no longer. As on +the day in church when he wanted his mother to share with him the +pleasure of that glorious comedian, the man with the wagging beard, so +now he wanted her to share with him the secret joy of Martin's presence. + +"Mummy, I want to tell you about Martin," he said. "You know whom I +mean: Martin, my brother." + +"Archie, who has been telling you about Martin?" she asked. + +Archie laughed. + +"Why, Martin, of course. It's too lovely. Once he called me out loud, +and he writes for me. He's written for me three times, once at home and +twice here. I knew he was particularly here, the moment we got here. And +last time he told me about what he had hidden under the pine-tree, and I +found it. Don't you want to see it? I hid it away in the paper in my +portmanteau. Oh, and what is a test? He said it was a test." + +"A test? A test is a proof." + +Archie laughed again. + +"That makes sense," he said. "Now shall I show you the test? I kept it +all together with what he wrote to me about it first." + +He came back in a moment with his precious possession. + +"Look, that's what he wrote on the paper of my letter to Miss Bampton," +he said. "He said there was a circle cut on the pine-tree, and I found +it, and I dug as he told me, and found this. Look! Isn't it lovely, and +that's Martin's photograph, isn't it?" + +It was impossible to question the validity of this evidence, and, +indeed, Lady Davidstow had no desire to do so. For herself, she believed +implicitly in the fact of life everlasting, without which the whole +creation of God, with its pains and its agonies and its yearning and its +love, becomes the cruellest of all sorry jests concocted by the +omnipotent power of a mind infinitely brutal and cynical, who tortures +the puppets He has created with unutterable anguish, or ravishes their +souls with a joy as meaningless as dreams. Well she remembered Martin's +cutting the circle on the pine-tree, but what its significance was he +had never told her. But now, five years after his death, he had told it, +she could not doubt, to the brother who had no normal remembrance of +him. There they were, the little pathetic tokens of his childish +secrecy, a pencil, a piece of chocolate, a photograph, and, above all, +the well-formed, upright handwriting identical with that of the message +traced on the last page of Archie's unsent letter. How it happened, what +was the strange mechanism that fashioned by material means this +mysterious communication between the living and the dead she had no +idea, but of its having happened she had no doubt. + +She turned these relics over, she kissed the handwriting so long buried, +and tears of tender amazement rose in her eyes. + +"Oh Archie, my darling," she said. "You lucky boy!" + +"Aren't I?" said Archie. "But does Martin never write to you?" + +"No, dear; I suppose he cannot." + +"And why is he so particularly here?" demanded Archie. + +She paused a moment. + +"He died here," she said. + +"In this house?" asked he. "Which room?" + +"Blessington's." + +Archie gave a great sigh. + +"Oh, mummy, do let me have that room instead of mine!" he said. + + + + +_BOOK II_ + + + +CHAPTER V + +Archie was precariously perched on the side of his little Una-rigged, +red-sailed boat, looking with dancing blue eyes at the rocky coast all +smothered in billows and sunlit spray some quarter of a mile ahead, and +wondering if he would be able to make the harbour of Silorno on this +tack. He wondered also what was the best thing to do if he could not. +There seemed to be two alternatives, the one to beat out to sea again +and come in on another tack, the other to run before the wind to the +head of the bay, away to the right, where he knew there was a sandy +beach, tumble himself out as best he might, and, he was afraid, see his +beloved _Amphitrite_ being pounded to bits by the rollers; for, with all +his optimism, he could not picture himself hauling her up out of harm's +way. But even this seemed preferable to the other alternative, for to +beat out again in such a sea seemed really a challenge to the elements +to swamp him, in which case he was like to lose the _Amphitrite_ and his +own life as well. + +The wind was blowing with all the violence of a summer Italian gale +straight down the bay from the open sea. A high wall of rock against +which the breakers smashed themselves, and would smash anything else +that rode them, was in front of him; then came the narrow opening into +Silorno harbour for which he was making, after which the rocks, on the +top of which ran the road to Santa Margharita, continued right up to the +head of the bay. It had been rough when he started to sail there, in +order to get some cigarettes, which now were stowed away in his coat +which he had wrapped round them and placed where it would receive as +small a share as possible of the spray that from time to time fell in a +solid sheet into the boat. That seemed almost the most important thing +of all, to keep the cigarettes dry, for it would be too futile to have +taken all this trouble, and so greatly have ventured himself and his +_Amphitrite_, if at the end the cigarettes should prove to be a mash of +tobacco and salt water, for they were only in a cardboard box. And next +in importance came the need of demonstrating to his mother and Harry and +Helena and Jessie that he had been perfectly wise and prudent in sailing +across to Santa Margharita, in spite of their land-lubber fears, in a +freshening gale and a lumpy sea, in order to get these Egyptian +cigarettes instead of the despised Italian brand. He made no doubt that +the whole party of them were at this moment watching him through glasses +from the terraced garden of the Castello that sat perched at the top of +the steep, olive-clothed hill in front of him, and he spared a second to +wave a hand in their direction in case they were there. But he did it in +a rather hurried manner, for he wanted that hand to be ready to loosen +the sheet in case any more wind was on its way to him, and the other +hand must retain its hold on the tiller. + +Archie was clad in a jersey stained and whitened with salt-water, and +the rest of his attire consisted of grey flannel trousers. His coat was +defending to its last dry stitch the trophy of cigarettes; his shoes he +had put under his coat, for it was just as well to keep them dry, while, +if by any chance he had to swim, they would be of no use to him either +dry or wet. The sleeves of his jersey rolled up nearly to his shoulder, +disclosed slim, strong arms, incredibly browned with a month of +sea-bathing, and his sockless feet were of the same fine tan of constant +exposure. His hair, thick and dripping from the spray, had for the +present lost its tawny curliness, and he had to throw back his head from +time to time, in order to keep it out of his eyes. And in his mind there +was the same wildness of out-of-doors rapture that characterized the +youth of his supple body: he could have laughed with pleasure at the +mere fact of this doubtful battle between himself and the wind-maddened +sea. But all the time in some secret chamber of his brain there sat, so +to speak, a steadfast and keen observer, who was making notes with all +his might, and pushing them down into the cool caves of memory, to be +brought forth (in case Archie came safely to land) from their cold +storage, and fitted with words which should reproduce the exultation of +wind and sun and sea. And in a chamber more secret yet, a chamber not in +his brain but in his heart, sat the knowledge that among the others his +second cousin, Helena Vautier, in particular was surely looking at him +from the terraced garden high above the cliff. She should see (and, for +that matter, so should her sister Jessie) how to handle a boat. She had +been strong in her dissuasion of his starting at all, and that, if +Archie was quite honest with himself, was one of the principal reasons +why he had insisted on doing so. She had mentioned casually the other +day that there was nothing in the world she liked better than the +careless "go-to-the-deuce" attitude towards danger which to her +represented manliness, and Archie had been only too delighted to give +her this vigorous exhibition of it. But it tremendously pleased him +that, on his announcement of his intention to go across the bay, she +should have so strenuously dissuaded him. To his mind that conveyed the +impression that she liked him as much as she liked exhibitions of +manliness. + +He was already opposite the opening into the harbour and still several +hundred yards distant, and for the time all the attention of the +observer who some day was going to put this experience into words, and +of the other observer who knew that Helena was watching him, was +diverted to the job that engaged his more superficial self. But that +part of him, intent and eager though it was on the hazard that lay +before it, sang and shouted with glee at the fact that he was alone out +here on the sea. For this very sane and healthy personage, Archie +Morris, might almost be described as an aqua-maniac, so intense was his +passion for that gladdest and most glorious creature of God. He did not +want to be a sailor, for a sailor inhabited an impregnable fort which, +though surrounded by sea, was still impenetrably removed from it, and +defied it by means of colossal cylinders and pounding pistons and steel +sides. Best of all was to be swimming in the sea, but not far removed +from that was to coax and wheedle the sea through the medium of a big +sail and a tiny boat: being alone with the sea, as with all lovers, was +necessary to the full realization of passion. A river was a fair +substitute for the sea or a lake; but there had to be a quantity of +water. He loved to dive, and open his eyes under water, so as to see the +sun shining through it. That was a very early passion, dating from the +time when he had stepped out of a boat in his anxiety about a pike that +was on the end of his line... + +Then, for a moment, all other considerations were subordinated to keen +physical activity. The wind was sweeping him across the mouth of the +harbour, and he had either to put about at once to avoid being taken +onto the rocks at its northern end, or, risking being swamped, put his +helm even harder a-port, and tighten his sheet. With his habit of swift +decision, he determined to go for it, and, throwing his leg across the +tiller, he pulled on his sheet with both hands. The spray from the waves +that broke themselves on the rocks fell solid and drenched him, but next +moment, with but a yard or two to spare, he skimmed by them into the +broadening harbour. There the promontory on which the Castello stood +came between him and the wind, his sail flapped idly, and in dead calm +he picked up his sculls to row the _Amphitrite_ to her anchorage. But, +before he took them up, he laughed aloud. + +"Gosh, what sport!" he said. + +* * * * * + +The anchorage of the _Amphitrite_ lay in a bay not far from the entrance +to the harbour, screened by the steep-climbing olive groves belonging to +this Castello of Silorno which Archie's mother had taken for the months +of May and June: Silorno itself, that incredibly picturesque huddle of +pink and yellow walls, of campaniles, and lacemakers, who, with bright +coloured kerchiefs over their comely heads, plied their wooden bobbins +all day in the shade of its narrow streets, rose, roof over roof, at the +head of the harbour. A big cobbled piazza sloped down to the quay wall +where sailors chatted and dozed in the shadow all day, putting to sea +for their night-fishing by the light of flares about the time of sunset. +The village was impenetrable to wheeled traffic, for the road along the +bay came to an end at its outskirts, and thereafter became a narrow +cobbled track, built in steps where the steepness of its streets +demanded. Round the town rose an amphitheatre of hills broken only by +the low saddle, where the final promontory on which the Castello stood +swam out seawards in three wooded humps of hills. And, sitting here, you +could observe on days like these the breakers crashing on the reefs to +the right, where the seas rolled in from the open Mediterranean, while +the land-locked harbour, into which Archie had just brought his boat, +lay smooth as a mirror at your feet towards the left. Straight in front +ran the ascending path that passed below the Castello to the head of the +promontory, where enlightened Italian enterprise was building an +execrable and totally useless lighthouse to supplant the little Madonna +chapel that had stood there for centuries. + +Archie took down his sail, anchored the _Amphitrite_, and punted himself +across in a small boat to the landing-stage at the foot of the hill on +which the Castello stood. Here the trees stood untroubled by the gale +that poured high over them from the south, though on the other side of +the harbour the wind roared in the olives, and turned their green to the +grey of the underleaf, and the great surges beat and burst on the rocks +he had narrowly avoided. But here that tumultuous stir was unfelt, and +the resinous smell of pines and the clean odour of the eucalyptus-trees +hung in the warm and sheltered air. Out of that denser shade he passed +into the belt of olives that grew higher on the slope, mixed with angled +and contorted fig-trees, where the fruit was already beginning to swell +and ripen. Above rose the great grey bastion of the retaining fortress +wall, tufted with stone-crop and valerian that was rooted in the +crevices, and above that again was spread the umbrella of the stone-pine +that grew at the corner of the garden. The path he followed wound round +the base of this wall and passed below its easterly side, where he came +into the blast of the warm south wind again that swept along the face of +the Castello, and made the cypresses bend and buckle like fishing-rods +which feel the jerk and pull of some hooked giant of the waters. The +hillside here plunged very precipitously downwards to the bay three +hundred feet below, wrinkled with waves, and feathered with foam, and, +lover of the sea though he was, he felt content to observe that tumult +of windy water. Not a sail was visible right across to the farther shore +of the gulf, and to-night there would be no illumination of the +fishing-boats that in calm weather rode out there, twinkling and +populous as a town. But he stood looking at the sea a moment before he +turned into the narrow stone passage that led to the gate of the house, +as a man may look with love on his horse that, unruly and obstreperous, +has yet carried him so gallantly. + +A girl came up the cobbled way from the town just as he turned in. She +had on a very simple linen dress that the wind blew close to her body, +and a flapping linen sunbonnet, tied below her chin, to prevent the wind +capturing it. She was tall and slight, moved easily, as with a boyish +carelessness; a very pleasant face, also boyish and quite plain, peered +from under her flapping bonnet. Her hands were noticeable: they were +large but extremely well shaped, and the fingers showed both perception +and efficiency. It may be remarked that Archie had never noticed her +hands at all. + +"Hullo, Jess," said he. "I'm just back. Lord, I've had such a ripping +afternoon. And the cigarettes are quite dry. Where have you been?" + +"Just down into Silorno. Cousin Marion wanted a telegram sent about +their sleeping-berths to-morrow." + +Archie frowned. He had noticed that Jessie was often sent on errands. +People who can absolutely be relied on usually are. + +"I should have thought my mother might have sent Pasqualino," he +observed. + +The girl laughed. + +"Oh, she wanted to, but I said I would go instead. You see, Cousin +Marion and Helena were getting in what might be called rather a state +about you. I tried to infect them with my own calm, but they wouldn't +catch it. So I thought a little walk would be pleasant." + +"Oh, was Helena frightened?" asked Archie rather greedily. + +"Yes. So was Cousin Marion. I wasn't." + +"Then you were beastly unsympathetic. I had an awful shave getting into +the harbour," remarked Archie. + +"But you knew what you were about, and I didn't, nor did Helena. So I +preferred to have confidence in you and go for a walk, rather than +observe you in what looked remarkably like danger." + +Archie had walked up from the landing-stage with his shoes and his coat +under his arm. The coat was too wet to put on, so he dusted his feet +with it, and resumed his shoes. + +"Oh, a ripping afternoon," he said again. + +The sound of the clanging gate into the Castello was heard out in the +garden, and as they walked up the dim stone-flagged passage that led out +into it, another girl came running in. She, like her sister, was tall +and slight, but there the resemblance altogether ended. A delicate, +small-featured face, entirely feminine, gleamed below yellow hair; her +eyes, set rather wide apart, giving her an adorably childish look, +opened very widely below their dark eyelashes. Beside her, Jessie looked +somewhat like a well-bred plough-boy. + +"Oh, Archie!" she cried. "How horribly rash of you! Your mother and I +have had a terrible half-hour." + +"I bring you cigarettes to soothe your disordered nerves," said Archie +sententiously. "I am happy to say that they are dry, though I am not." + +Jessie had walked on, with that pleasant expression on her face that +might or might not be a smile, and the two were left alone for a moment. + +"As if I cared about the cigarettes," she said. + +"You did this morning. But you weren't really anxious, were you?" + +"Indeed I was. You were naughty to sail back in this gale. Do be good +now and change your clothes at once. I will bring you some fresh tea +into the garden. Cousin Marion and I have had tea. We drank cup after +cup to fortify ourselves, and looked over the wall at your boat between +each sip. Then we trembled and had another sip. Before you got past that +horrid rock, we had drained the teapot and broken our chairs with our +tremblings." + +The strict veracity of this entertaining summary did not of course +concern Archie; it was sufficient that it had Helena's light and +picturesque touch. It made a tableau that caused him to smile to himself +as he changed his shirt, that was now stiffening with salt, and put on a +pair of socks over his tanned feet. All this he did hurriedly, for it +was the last evening, so he told himself, that they would all be +together, by which he really meant that it was the last evening on which +Helena would be here, since to-morrow, at break of dawn, she and his +mother would start for England, leaving Jessie, Harry Travers, and +himself to follow after another fortnight. When, a week before, that +scheme had been suggested, it seemed to Archie the most admirable of +plans, since, though his mother and Helena would be gone, he would +secure another fortnight of intercourse with his beloved sea instead of +inhabiting that smoky cave known as London. But since then Helena had +begun to dawn on him, though as yet it would be an exaggeration to say +that he was in love with her. But she was dawning, her light illuminated +the sky above the horizon, and, if the plan was to be suggested again to +him in his present attitude of attracted expectancy, it is probable that +he would have voted for London and Helena, rather than an extension of +his days at the Castello. + +The scheme had originally been Helena's, and, like all her plans, had +been exceedingly well thought out, before it was produced in the guise +of an impulse, prompted by kindliness and thought for others. It was, +when edited as an impulse, of the simplest and most considerate sort. +The hot weather did not really suit Cousin Marion, so why should not +Cousin Marion go back to England with herself, Helena, as travelling +companion? Of course Silorno was the most delicious place, and she would +be ever so sorry to go, but certainly Cousin Marion felt the heat, and, +though she was far too unselfish to suggest breaking up the party, she +would be glad to go northwards earlier than the end of June, when her +two months' tenancy expired. + +Helena had produced this plan to Archie one morning as they sat after +breakfast under the stone-pine. + +"But my mother would not in the least mind going home alone, if she +preferred to go before the end of June," he said. + +Helena shook her head. + +"Oh, I know she would say she didn't mind," she said, "or she would stop +on in spite of her headaches sooner than break up the party--" + +"Has she been having headaches?" asked Archie. + +"Yes, but you mustn't know that. She told me not to tell any one," said +Helena, with complete self-possession. "Promise, Archie." + +"All right." + +Helena felt quite safe now. + +"So she must go back sooner than at the end of June," she continued, +"and clearly I am the right person to go with her, for she hates +travelling alone." + +"Oh, we'll all go then," said Archie. + +"It isn't the least necessary. Jessie or I must go with her, for she +certainly wouldn't hear of your going, and Jessie is enjoying this so +much that I couldn't bear that she should have her days here cut short. +So it's for me to go." + +"That's awfully good of you," said he, only as yet half convinced. + +"It isn't the least. It's a necessity, though you are so kind as to make +a virtue of it. And then there's this as well. Cousin Marion would never +consent to go, if she thought it was for her sake that I was going with +her. So you must go to her, and say you think that it's me whom the heat +doesn't suit, and you will see if she doesn't say at once that she will +go back with me. And the real reason for her going will be our secret, +just yours and mine." + +Archie looked at her for a moment in silence, and the silence was one of +unspoken admiration. Somehow this kindly thoughtful plan kindled his +appreciation of her beauty: her beauty took on a tenderer and more +touching look. Before now, it had vaguely occurred to him that, of the +two sisters, it was Jessie who most gave up her own way to serve the +ways of others; but this secret of Helena's made him feel that he had +done her an injustice. + +"But I don't want you to give up your time here if you enjoy it," he +said. + +"Ah, don't make me tell a fib, and say that I don't enjoy it," she said. +"I will if you press me. I'll say it bores me frightfully, sooner than +give up my plan." + +"Well, I think it's wonderfully kind of you," he said. "Now I'm to tell +my mother that you are feeling the heat, and see what she says. Is that +it?" + +"Yes, just that," said Helena. + +Archie had strolled indoors to put this plan to the test, and before he +returned a quarter of an hour later with his mother Helena had approved +of her own ingenuity very warmly. She had, if her scheme succeeded, +secured for herself an additional fortnight of the London season, for +she and Jessie were, for the present, going to make their home with +their cousins and she was already satisfied that her unselfishness had +made a considerable impression on Archie. This was the most important +thing: hitherto she felt she had failed to make her mark, so to speak. +He was on excellent friendly terms with her, just as he was with Jessie, +but she wanted (or at any rate wished for) something more than that. It +was not that she wanted him to flirt with her; she had much more serious +ends in view. She wanted (and here was her perspicacity) to dazzle his +eyes by means of touching his heart, for she guessed, with clear-sighted +vision, that he was the kind of young man who, if he did not mean +everything, would mean nothing, and she believed that she could not +entangle his affection by mere superficial appeals. And, indeed, she was +not a flirt herself; she was poor, and clever, and attractive, and she +proposed to use her cleverness and attraction in the legitimate pursuit +of securing a husband who was not poor. That Archie was now Lord +Davidstow, and at his father's death would be Lord Tintagel, was in his +favour, and to make an impression on him, and then to go +self-sacrificingly away, seemed to her a very promising manoeuvre. She +was not in the least afraid of leaving Jessie with him, for, with her +habitual adroitness, she had conveyed to her sister, by little sighs, +glances, and words that seemed to escape from her lips unawares, what +her design (yet without making it appear a design) on Archie was. She +had but allowed her feelings, all unconsciously, to betray themselves, +as when she said "Darling, wouldn't it be lovely to be Archie's sister, +instead of only cousin?" That put it quite plainly enough, and she felt +sure that Jessie understood. And, in addition to this impregnable +safeguard of Jessie's loyalty, she was satisfied that Jessie's +friendliness with Archie was of the most unsentimental character. +Indeed, to speak of her sense of security with regard to Jessie would be +a labouring of the point: she was so secure that her security scarcely +struck her, any more than the security of a house consciously strikes +its inhabitant. + +* * * * * + +The week that had passed between the acceptance of her plan and this, +the last night of her stay at Silorno, confirmed the soundness of her +strategy. Archie's frank friendliness towards herself had undergone a +subtle change, while his relations with her sister remained precisely on +the same calm tableland of comradeship. But below his comradeship with +herself, like the sun glowing faintly through a mist without heat at +present, but with penetration of light, she knew that there was growing +an emotional brightness. It was with light and with a nameless +quickening that his eye dwelt on her, and now as they sat in the deep +dusk of the garden, illumined only by the stars that twinkled like +minute golden oranges in the boughs of the stone-pine, she knew that he +was looking at the pale wraith of her face, which was all the starlight +left her with, in a manner that was not yet a week old. It was so dark, +here in the deep shade, that she saw nothing of his sun-tanned face +beyond a featureless oval, but when, from time to time, he drew on his +cigarette, it leaped into distinctness. There was emotion there, or, at +any rate, the stuff from which emotion is made; there was need, not yet +wholly conscious of itself, but waiting, like buried treasure, to be +released. + +And on her side, also, something was astir behind her calculated plan. +She felt sorry, until the wisdom of her project laid its calming hand +upon her again, that she was being so unselfish as to accompany Cousin +Marion back to town. It would have been extraordinarily pleasant to sit +here many times more with Archie, and both watch and take part in the +growth of the situation of which the seed had been deliberately planted +by herself. It was but a weak little spike as yet, but undeniably there +was the potentiality of growth in it. + +Suddenly his face leapt into light, as he struck a match, and the gain +of a fortnight's London season seemed to her insignificant. And the +success of her plan, the wisdom of which she still endorsed, was but a +frigid triumph, for she felt to a degree yet unknown to her his personal +charm. + +"Oh, Archie, I wish I wasn't going away," she said. "It has been a nice +time. I wish--no, I suppose that's selfish of me." + +"I want to know what is selfish of you," said he. + +"Do you? Well, as it's our last evening you shall. I wish I thought you +would miss me more." + +He moved just a shade closer to her. + +"Oh, I shall miss you quite enough," he said. + +She laughed. + +"I don't think you will," she said. "You'll have your bathing and your +boating and your writing. I expect you will have a very jolly time." + +He seemed to think over this. + +"Yes, I shall have all those things," he said. "And I like them. Why +shouldn't I? But--no, like you, I won't say that." + +"But I did," she remarked. + +"Well, I will too. I shall miss you much more than I should have missed +you if you had gone away a week ago." + +She, too, hesitated a moment. Then very coolly she replied: + +"Thank you very much." + +There was calculation in that: she had thought over her polite, chilly +manner swiftly but carefully. And she had calculated rightly. He chucked +away the cigarette he had only just lit. + +"Helena, have I offended you?" he asked. "Why do you speak like that?" + +Again she traversed a second's swift thought. + +"Of course you haven't offended me," she said lightly. "You'll have to +try harder than that if you want to offend me. My dear, do try again. +Try to make me feel hurt." + +Archie was a little excited. There was some small intimate contest going +on, that affected him physically, with secret delight, just as he was +affected in his limbs by some cross-current to the direction of his +swimming, or in his brain by the tussle for the word he wanted when he +was writing. He was sparring with something dear to him. + +"Try to hurt me," she said softly. + +"Very well," said he. "I'm glad you're going away to-morrow. Will that +do?" + +She laughed again. + +"It would do excellently well if you meant it," she said. "But you don't +mean it." + +"You're very hard to please," said he. + +"Not in the least. If you want to please me, say that you'll be very +glad to see me again in a few weeks." + +"I certainly shall, but I shan't say it. You know it quite well enough +without my assurance." + +She leaned forward a little. + +"But say it all the same, Archie," she said. "Say it quite out loud." + +Archie threw back his head and shouted at the stone-pine. + +"I shall be very glad to see you again in--what was it?--in a few +weeks," he cried. + +"Ah, that is nice of you. No, I'm not sure that it's nice, because +you've brought Jessie and Mr. Harry out into the garden." + +That seemed to be the case, for undeniably the two moved out into the +bright square of light cast from the lit passage within. Archie got up +swiftly and suddenly, with a bubble of laughter. + +"Oh, let's be like the garden scene in _Faust_," he whispered. "Don't +you know, when the two couples wander about? Ah, they've seen us: they +don't do that in well-conducted opera." + +This was true enough, for immediately Helena's name was called by her +sister. She gave a little sigh. + +"Yes, darling," she said. + +"Cousin Marion thinks it's time you went to bed," said Jessie. "And is +Archie there too? She wants to see him." + +Archie and Helena exchanged a quick glance in the darkness. They knew +it, rather than saw it: Helena, at any rate, was quite certain of it. + +"I must go in then," he said. "Your fault for making me shout." + +Helena recollected a revue that she and Archie had seen together. + +"The woman pays," she said in a histrionic falsetto, and without further +word ran into the house, feeling very well satisfied with herself. She +was sure that she had made herself a little enigmatical to him, had +roused his curiosity. Decidedly he wanted to know more... + +* * * * * + +Archie always slept in a hammock slung between the stone-pine and the +acacia in the garden, for though that year which he had spent at Grives, +with which our history of his childhood closed, seemed to have +eradicated the deadly seeds, he was still recommended to pass as much of +his time as possible out of doors. The fourteen years that had elapsed +since then had given him six feet of robust height, and there seemed now +but little danger of the hereditary foe again beleaguering him. He had +spent five years at Eton, and now had just finished his course at +Cambridge, where he had contrived to combine classics and rowing in a +thoroughly satisfactory manner, distinguishing himself in each. Even as +he seemed to have outgrown his physical weakness, so too he had +outgrown, to all appearance, those strange abnormal experiences which +had been his in childhood, his power of automatic writing and the +inexplicable communications from his dead brother. Certainly since his +fourteenth year there had been no more of them; it was as if they had +belonged entirely to the years when he trailed the clouds of glory that +hang about childhood. But even now, in the normal vigour of his young +manhood, they did not seem to him to be in the least unreal; indeed, +they were to him, in spite of their fantastic and unusual nature, the +most substantial treasures in his store-house of memory. The difference +was that now they were sealed up: some key had been turned on them in +his interior life, and they were inaccessible to him. But never for a +moment did he doubt that they were there: out of reach they might be, +but he still possessed them, and, though he made no effort to unlock the +door, he believed that the key to them was neither lost nor broken, but, +rusted, maybe, with unuse, still existed within him. Some day, he felt +sure, the impulse would come to him, either from without or within, to +search for it, and he knew precisely where, with every prospect of +finding, he would look for it. For he still had the power of letting +himself lapse into that trance-condition in which he sank into a depth +of sunlit waters, and in that mysterious abyss he knew he could find the +key to the sealed treasures. It was long since he had penetrated there, +but he knew his way. + +* * * * * + +To-night, as he lay in his hammock, he felt no wish or inclination to +sleep, but lay with eyes open looking into the sombre dark of the pine +above his head, where the stars twinkled at the edge of the needles of +the foliage. The gale that had raged that afternoon had blown itself +out: not a breath of breeze sighed in the pine, and of the fierceness of +those uproarious hours there was nothing left but the ever-diminishing +thunder of the waves three hundred feet below. From horizon to zenith +the sky was bare and kirtled with stars, and to the east over the hills +across the bay, the dove-colour that precedes the rising of the moon was +soaking through the heavens. A faint odour from the thicket of +tobacco-plants that grew at the foot of his hammock were spreading +through the air, ineffably fragrant, and the dew brought with it the +smell of damp and fruitful earth. + +Archie lay quite still, content to rest without sleep; he was sure that +he would go to sleep soon, imperceptibly to himself, and he waited quite +tranquilly for the soft tide to engulf him, letting his memory hover now +and then over his adventures of the afternoon, but always bringing it +back to the half-hour he had sat with Helena, close to where he now lay. +He had, as sleep approached, the vague sense of sinking into some quiet +depth; but his mind was too tranquilly disposed to do more than register +this impression, and then, quite suddenly, without the transition state +of drowsiness, he went fast asleep. He had noticed just before that the +moon had risen. + +He slept long and dreamlessly, and then began to dream with +extraordinary vividness. He dreamed that he had not gone to sleep at +all, but still lay in his hammock, in the shade of the pine, while the +garden outside was full of the white blaze of the moonlight and ebony +clear-cut shadows. The thunder of the surf had quite died away, the +tobacco-plants still gave out their odour, and the stars, a little +quenched by the moon, had faded in the boughs of the pine. And then he +perceived (but with no sense of strangeness) that there was something +new in the garden, for, close to the door into the house, was standing a +white marble statue. This brought his legs over the side of his hammock, +and he got up to go and look at it, and then remembered, so he thought, +all about it. It was the statue of Helena, which she had told him was a +gift from her to him, and it did not seem at all unnatural that it +should have been brought out and put in the garden. But, as he had not +seen it yet, he walked now across to it, and found an admirable and +lovely figure. It was clad in a long Greek chiton, low at the throat and +reaching nearly to her feet, which were sandalled. One hand was advanced +to him with a beckoning gesture; the other, with its exquisite arm bare +to the shoulder, hung by her side. The statue was life-size, for, as it +stood on its low marble plinth, the face was just on a level with his. +Exquisite in its fidelity and its beauty was that small head on its +slender neck, and it endorsed the message of her beckoning hand. The +lips, uncurled in a half-smile, mysteriously invited him; the body, too, +was a little inclined forward towards him; next moment, surely, she +would step down from her pedestal, and, like Galatea, shake off the +semblance of stone, and declare herself his. + +Standing there, entranced and strangely excited, Archie drank in the +amazing loveliness of the figure. White and flawless, without speck or +stain, the snow of the Parian quarries gleamed in the moonlight. And +then he saw that, just where the neck flowed, with the strength and +tenderness of a river, into the shoulders, there was a small dark spot, +and, taking a step nearer, he put out his hand to flick it away. But it +did not come away: it was as if some little excrescence had stuck to the +marble, and, making a second attempt, he felt that it was soft, and that +it grew a little longer. It moved, too; it wriggled like the head of a +worm, and then, with a faint feeling of disgust, he saw that it was +indeed the head of a worm protruding from the marble, just as a worm +comes up through earth. Even as he looked, there came another such speck +near the mouth; this also grew and wriggled, then came another on the +arm which was put forward to welcome him. + +Archie stood there, transfixed no longer by admiration and wonder, but +by an ever-growing sense of horror. Everywhere, from face and hair and +hand, and from the folds of the lovely Greek drapery there started out +those loathsome reptiles. Some nightmare of catalepsy invaded him; he +could not move, he could not call out, he could not turn away his eyes, +but he had to watch until where lately this masterpiece of lovely limbs +had stood, there was a column, as high as himself, of wriggling +corruption, bred apparently from within. Then, horror adding itself to +horror, this portent of decay began to move slowly towards him. + +Still he could not move, but at last, when it was not more than a foot +or two from him, he found his voice, and could scream for help. He could +just hear himself shouting, but no help came. Already he could feel the +touch of those horrible things, and with a supreme effort he managed to +move his head away from that myriad loathsome touch, and lo! he was +seated upright in his hammock, and the moon was low in the west, and +over the eastern hills was the light that preceded day. His face +streamed with the agony of the nightmare. + +He sat still a little while, drinking in reassurance from the miracle of +the tranquil dawn, and wondering at the suddenness with which he had +gone to sleep, so that his disquieting dream had seemed the +uninterrupted continuation of his consciousness. And, as his fright +faded, there faded also the memory of what his dream had been: there had +been something about a statue, something about worms, something +connected with Helena. Even as he thought about it, it continued to +recede from him, and before he dozed off again, the whole thing had +slipped out of his memory, and when, an hour later, he got up to +accompany the travellers on their early start, as far as the station, +there was nothing whatever left of it. He knew only that he had awoke in +a state of inexplicable terror, arising from some dream which had +vanished from his memory like a mist at dawn. + +The three left behind adjusted themselves, as friends can do, to their +narrowed circle, and moved sensibly closer to each other. They all had +their tasks to sweeten the enjoyment of their leisure, for to Jessie +fell the Martha-cares of the house, which she transacted by the aid of +an Italian dictionary with the cook Assunta; to Harry Travers, now a +junior don at Cambridge, the preparation of a course of history lectures +next term; to Archie the incessant practice in the endless and elusive +art of writing prose. The love of expressing what he loved in words was +no less than a passion with him, and it is almost needless to add that +the sea was his inspiring theme. He certainly had the prime essential of +devotion both to his subject and to the technique of his art, and these +little essays, called _Idylls of the Sea_, promised, if ever he could +persuade himself to finish them, to be a really exquisite piece of work. +They were the simplest sketches of fishers and ships and the like, but +to satisfy him, the sea had to sound in every line of them, even as it +sounded in the ears of those about whom he wrote. Just now he was trying +to recapture all that had made the ecstasy to him of that risky voyage +homewards across the bay a few days before, and to fire his words with +that thrill which he never quite despaired of communicating. + +As a rule, their day arranged itself very regularly: early breakfast was +succeeded by a couple of hours of task, and a couple more were spent in +bathing, no affair of hurried undressing, of chilly immersion and a +huddling on of clothes, but of long baskings on the shore, and a +mile-long ploughing, for Archie at least, out into the bay or along the +coast and round beyond the furthest promontory. Much though he liked the +companionship of the others, he was never sorry when first Jessie, and +then Harry turned shorewards again, for the companionship of the sea was +closest to him when he was alone. He would burrow his way through it on +the sidestroke, buried in the foam of his progress, and, when exhausted +and breathless, turn on to his back to be cradled and rocked by it, +secure in its enveloping presence, even as in the days of childhood he +would lie happy and serene in the knowledge that Blessington was close +by him. Or he would dive deep and see through "the fallen day" the +dazzle of the sun of the surface far above him, and then swim up again, +and, after the greenness and the paleness below, find a red and glowing +firmament. But best of all was it to swim out very far from land, and +then just exist with arms and legs spread wide, encompassed and +surrounded by mere sea. He did not want to think about anything at all, +or to belabour his brain with strivings to cast into words the +sea-sense; that would come afterwards, when with gnawed pencil and +erased sentences he sat in the garden; but he only opened himself out to +it, and drank it in through eye and ear and skin and widespread limbs... +And all this, even when physically he most realized this sea-sense, was +but a symbol, and the more vivid the physical consciousness of the sea +became, the dimmer it also became in the light of what it stood for. For +even as the sea, eternally incorruptible, received into itself, without +stain, all that the putrefying land with its ordure and sewers poured +into it, so round human life, with its sores and its decay, there lay an +immense and eternal incorruption, which purified all life as it passed +into it, and turned it into something pellucid and immortal. Dying would +be like that, dying was no more than being poured into this jubilant +ocean, and becoming part of its clean, exuberant life... + +But Archie had no intention of dying just yet, and indeed these +metaphysical speculations only reached him like the sound of chimes +blown across the water, while far clearer was Harry's voice, calling +from the beach, "Archie, it's after twelve"; and thereupon Archie would +turn on his chest and swim back to land, with a frill of foam encircling +his sunburnt throat and a wake of bubbles following the strokes of his +strong legs. Thereafter he would cast himself onto the beach with a +straw hat tipped over his eyes, and his sun-tanned legs and arms spread +star-fish fashion, and lie there drinking in the sun, while Harry and +Jessie reviled him for causing lunch, for which they hungered, to be +again half an hour behind the scheduled time. And Archie, lighting a +cigarette, turned on his elbow and called them greedy hogs for thinking +about lunch, when it was possible to lie in the sun, and swim in the +sea. Then, as likely as not, he would himself be aware of a celestial +appetite, and step into a pair of flannel trousers and a sea-stained +shirt, and in turn revile their tardiness in climbing the olived +terraces that lay between them and the Castello. + +They lunched in the garden, in a strip of shade outside the house, and +thereafter, without any pretence at all about the matter, Harry and +Jessie went to their rooms for an honest Italian siesta, with no excuse +of lying on beds and reading, but with the avowed object of lying on +beds and sleeping. But this two hours' swimming and basking and +communion with the sea, instead of making Archie sleepy, gave him his +most productive hours of work, and wide-eyed and eager he would sit with +jotted notes and scribbling-paper round him, read over the last few +pages of his current story, and correct and erase and rewrite with an +unquenchable optimism. There would be moments of despair, moments of +wrestling with a recalcitrant sentence, when he walked about in the +blaze of the sun, and bit his pencil till his teeth cracked through into +the lead, moments of triumph when the impalpable sensation he wished to +record seemed to surrender itself to the embrace of verbs and +adjectives. Up till tea-time, when the others shuffled (or so he termed +it) out of the house after their slumbers, he tasted the glories and the +travail of creation, or, it might be, the pangs of fruitless labour; but +he knew, at any rate, the joys of ecstatic mental activity. + +On one such day, some weeks after his mother and Helena had gone back to +England, he felt himself fit to burst with all that he had stored within +him, ready for expression. As they drank their coffee he had employed +himself in sharpening a couple of pencils (for the work of transcription +into ink came later in the day), so as not to interrupt, by any physical +intrusion, the flow of all he knew was ready to be crystallized into +words. Sometimes the least distraction broke some kind of thread when he +was in communication with the sea... It may be added that no one was +ever less pompous about his aspirations. + +To-day Harry observed the sharpening of the pencils, and commented. + +"So a masterpiece is signalled, Archie," he said. + +Archie blew the lead-dust from his finger. + +"Quite right, old boy," he said. "Lord! I'm full of great thoughts. Do +go to bed, and then I'll begin." + +Jessie joined in. + +"Archie, do let me hold your pencils for you," she said, "like Dora in +_David Copperfield_. I shall feel as if I was doing something." + +Archie laughed. + +"You would be," he remarked. "You would be making an uncommon nuisance +of yourself." + +"You are polite." + +"No, I'm not, I'm rude. I'm being rude on purpose. I want you to be +offended and go away. I want Harry to go away too. I want you both to +lie on your beds and snore like hogs." + +"I was thinking of getting a book and reading out here," said Jessie. "I +feel it's unsociable to leave you alone." + +"When you've finished being funny," remarked Archie, "you may go to bed. +You may get down at once. Say your grace and get down. You, too, Master +Harry. Oh, Harry, do you remember how you used to come to tea in the +nursery and Blessington made us behave properly till tea was over?" + +"Then did you behave improperly?" asked Jessie. + +"I don't think we did really. Once we went into the shrubbery and +changed clothes. At least I put on yours, but you couldn't put on mine +because they were too small. That's what Browning calls 'Time's +Revenges.' I couldn't put on yours now, could I? The Italian authorities +would prosecute me for indecency. Lord! what a little fellow you are, +Harry! Time for a little fellow to go to bed. Oh, don't rag; I never +said you weren't strong. Yes, Jessie, you're strong too, and it's like a +girl to pull my hair. Ah, do shut up." + +Archie had reasonable cause for complaint. Jessie had suddenly come +behind him, and taken a great handful of touzled hair into her grasp, so +that Archie's head was held immovable, while Harry tickled his ribs. You +can do nothing with your arms if your head is held quite still. +Presently the wicked ceased from troubling, and Archie was left alone. +But after Jessie had gone to her room she stood still a moment before +making herself comfortable for her nap, and then she laid across her +nose and mouth the outspread hand that had grasped Archie's hair. In her +fingers there remained some faint odour of warm sea-salt, and, as by a +separate memory of their own, there remained in them the sense of their +closing over that brown, bright, springy handful. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Archie thought no more either of his tickled ribs or his outraged hair +when his friends had definitely removed themselves, and with a sigh of +delight he took up a sharpened pencil and a block of scribbling paper. +He had grasped something, he thought, this morning, that must instantly +be committed to words, before he even read over his last page or two, +for his hand starved and itched to be writing. There was an odd +trembling in his fingers, and his conscious brain was full of what he +wanted to say. But when he put his pencil on to the block, and +concentrated his mind on that liquid message of the sea that had reached +him to-day, he found that his hand had nothing to write. His brain was +full of what he wanted to write, but his hand disowned the controlling +impulse. Again and once again he cast the thought in his brain into +reasonable language, but there his hand still stayed, as if some signal +was against it. Simply it would not proceed. + +Archie had known similar obstacles before, though they had never been so +strong as this. Probably the thought was not yet clarified enough, and +for that the usual remedy was a stroll about the garden, a look at the +sea from the parapetted wall. He tried this, returning again with a +conviction that now he would be able to give words to the impression +that was so strong in his conscious brain, and, as he took up his pencil +again, again his hand seemed to be yearning to write. There was that +coral-lipped anemone at the edge of the water, there was a shoal of +little fishes which, as they turned, became a sheet of dazzling silver, +... all that was ready for the hand that twitched in expectancy. But +again his hand would have nothing to say to that: the brain-signal +showed itself to an uncomprehending instrument. + +Suddenly, and with distaste, Archie perceived what was happening, and, +divorcing from his mind the message that his brain was tingling to +convey, he let his mere hand, untroubled by a fighting consciousness, do +what it chose. It was no longer in his own control: something, somebody +else possessed it. But it was with conscious reluctance that he resigned +this mechanism to the controlling agent who was not himself. He watched +with absolute detachment the words that came on his paper in a firm, +upright handwriting quite unlike his own. + + "Archie, you have had a warning," his hand wrote. "Now you must manage + for yourself. I shall watch, but I mayn't do more. You have got to do + your best and your highest. That's the root of probation. But I am + always your most loving brother. When you were a child I could reach + you... (Then followed some meaningless scribbles). But it's Martin." + +The pencil gave a great dash across the paper, and instantly Archie knew +that his hand had returned to its normal allegiance. At once the +sea-thoughts that had occupied him seethed and roared in his brain, and +his hand was straining to put them down. He tore off the involuntary +message from his block, and, laying it aside, plunged with all the force +of his conscious self into this ecstasy of conveying, with black marks +on white paper, all that had obsessed him this morning as he swam out to +sea, and lay between sun and water, the happiest of earthly animals, and +the nearest to the key of the symbol. Then, after a half-hour of pure +interpretation, that was finished too, and he lay back in his chair and +picked up the Martin-message again. It seemed a nonsensical affair when +he so regarded it. What was his warning, after all? What did that mean? +He had had no warning of any sort. But it was strange that, after all +those years of silence, Martin should come to guide him again, though at +the self-same time he told him not to look for further guidance. + +Archie put the paper with its well-remembered, upright handwriting back +on the table again, lay back in his long chair, drowsy, and fatigued +after his spell of fiery writing. Almost at once sleep began to invade +him; the outline of the stone-pine, etched against the sky, grew blurred +as his eyelids fluttered and closed. And then, without pause or +transition, he saw a white statue standing close to him, on the neck of +which there wriggled the tail of a worm, protruding from the fair white +surface, and instantly his forgotten dream leaped into his mind, with a +pang of horror. That was what his dream had been: there had been a +statue standing just there, white in the moonlight, and even as he +worshipped and adored it with love and boundless admiration, those foul +symbols of decay had wreathed about it. Next moment he plucked himself +from his dozing, and there was no statue there at all, but the far more +comfortable figure of Jessie, standing in its place, with laughter in +her eye. + +"Oh, that's what you do, Archie," she said, "when you pretend to come +out into the garden to work, and despise Harry and me for sleeping." + +Archie jumped up from his chair and brandished in her face the pages of +his consciously written manuscript. The leaf on which the message from +Martin was written still lay apart from those on the table. + +"I may have closed my eyes for one second," he said. "But I've written +all that since lunch. Oh, it's got the sea in it, Jessie; I really +believe there's the sea there. I'll read it you this evening, if you'll +apologize for saying that I go to sleep instead of writing." + +She picked up the other leaf. + +"Yes, I apologize," she said, "though you were asleep when I came out. +But I want to hear what you've written, so I apologize for having +thought so. And there's this other page as well." + +Archie took it from her. + +"That doesn't belong," he said. "That--" + +He paused a moment. + +"Do you remember what I told you about the messages I used to have from +Martin when I was a child?" he asked. + +Jessie nodded. + +"Yes; and they have ceased altogether for years, haven't they?" she said +quickly. + +"Until to-day. Just now, half an hour ago, I had another. But I can't +make anything out of it. He tells me that I've had a warning. I don't +know what it means." + +Jessie felt all the habitual contempt of the thoroughly normal and +healthy mind for anything akin to psychical experiences. All ghosts, in +her view, were to be classed under the headings of rats or +lobster-salad; all such things as table-tappings and the doings of +mediums under the heading of trickery. But, knowing what she did of +Archie's childish experiences, she could not put them down as trickery, +and so was unable exactly to despise them as fraudulent. For that very +reason she rather feared them; they made her feel uncomfortable. + +She glanced at the paper he held out to her, but without taking it. + +"Oh, Archie I distrust all that," she said. "I was really very glad when +you told me that for all these years you had had no communication from +him. Please don't have any more." + +He laughed. They had talked about this before. + +"But you don't understand," he said. "It has nothing to do with my +wanting or not; it just comes. This afternoon I couldn't help writing +any more than--than one can help sneezing." + +"You can if you rub your nose the wrong way," said Jessie flippantly. + +"No amount of rubbing my nose either the right way or the wrong way +would have the slightest effect," said Archie. "The thing is imperative: +if Martin wants me to write, I must write. But he says here that he's +not going to guide me; I must look after myself. I'm sorry for that." + +"I'm not," said Jessie quickly. "There's something strange and uncanny +about it. I'm not sure that I think it's right even." + +She paused a moment. + +"Archie, do you really believe that it is the spirit of Martin that +makes you write?" she said. "Are you sure--" + +He interrupted her. + +"I know what you mean," he said. "It's what the Roman Catholics teach, +that any communication of the sort, given that it is genuine, and not +some mere mediumistic trick, is not less than converse with some evil +being impersonating, masquerading as the spirit from whom the +communication apparently comes. Do you mean that?" + +Jessie frowned, fingering the edge of the table. + +"Yes, I suppose I do," she said. "I think the whole thing is dangerous; +I don't think it's a thing to meddle with." + +"But I don't meddle with it," said Archie. "It meddles with me. Besides, +did you ever hear of such an unwarranted assumption? Mightn't I almost +as well say that a letter which reaches me from my mother doesn't really +come from her, but from some evil creature impersonating her? It seems +simpler to suppose that it comes from her, that her signature is +genuine, just as I believe Martin's to be. Do you really think that when +I was a poor little consumptive chap at Grives I was really possessed by +an evil spirit? Isn't that rather too horrible an imagining? A nice +state the next world must be in, if that sort of thing is allowed! I +don't for a moment think it is. Can you reconcile with the idea of +supreme Love governing and creating all life, the notion that there, +behind the scenes, there are evil and awful beings who can get leave to +communicate with a child, as I was, pretending to be the spirit of the +brother I never knew? Does it sound likely?" + +Jessie paused a moment again. She hated the subject, she hated the idea +of Archie's being concerned in these dim avenues to the unseen. She had, +for herself, a perfectly unreasoning and childlike faith that there was +this world, and the next world, and that God reigned supreme over both. +But somehow it offended this instinctive attitude that the next world, +and those who had gone there, should be mixed up with this world. They +were not dead; she did not think they had ceased to exist; but they had +done with this world, and it was something like a profanity to meddle +with them. But then Archie had not meddled, as he most truly said: they +seemed to have meddled with him. Their meddling had stopped altogether +for a dozen years, and here on this half-sheet of paper was the evidence +that something of the sort had begun again. + +"I thought you had dropped all interest in it," she said. "I thought it +was all finished, like a childish fairy-story, like the Abracadabra +legend Cousin Marion told me about. Oh, there's tea; shall we have tea?" + +Pasqualino had spread their table underneath the stone-pine, and she +hailed this as a possible dismissal of the whole affair. She did not +want to talk any more about it, and, if below her silence there should +lurk a fear, she preferred to cover it up, not examine it. Archie got +up. + +"Certainly let us have tea," he said. "Perhaps your mind will be clearer +after tea. I'm not going to quit the question, Jessie. The historian is +at his histories, and we shall be alone, you and I, and I want to talk +it out. Something has happened, you see, this afternoon. Martin--or +somebody--has written again. You were quite right to imagine that for me +the whole thing was finished, had become an Abracadabra-myth as you +said. As far as normal life goes, I thought it had too. But I always +knew that it might come back. And it has come back without my asking for +it, though it--he--says he's going to leave me alone. But, after all, he +says, 'You've got to do your best and your highest.' Now I ask you, as a +reasonable female, does that look like a message from a devil? No, it's +Martin all right, bless him. But let's have tea." + +They moved across into the shadow of the pine, where the table sparkled +with the specks of stray sunshine that filtered through the boughs. And +Jessie, sane and normal, held on to those evidences of the kindly +ordinary human life, as an anchor to prevent her drifting out into +perilous seas. But to Archie no seas were perilous: they might engulf +his body and drown him, and, as it seemed to him, they might engulf his +spirit, but they were not perilous in his view. They were just the sea, +the great encompassing presence... + +"Archie, you are so odd," she said, knowing that he meant to have the +subject talked out, and that his will dominated hers, "You spend the day +bathing and sailing and writing; you eat and you sleep, and then +suddenly you spring a surprise upon me, and show me a letter you have +had from Martin. Which is you, the surprise or the Archie that I know?" + +Archie's mouth was extraordinarily full of rusk and cherry-jam. He +politely disposed of them before replying. + +"But they're both me," he said. "Of course we have all two existences." + +"Dual personality?" she asked. + +"Dual fiddlesticks. What I mean is that in everybody there is the +conscious self and the subconscious self, but they do not make a dual +personality, but one personality. Most people--you, for instance, or +Harry, or my mother--transact everything through the conscious +personality. For all practical purposes your subconscious self doesn't +exist. But in some, and I'm one of them--the subconscious self is +accessible. I can reach it if I want. I can make it act. It is the +essential life which we all of us contain, and, as such, it is that part +of ourselves with which the essential life of those who have quitted +this unessential life can communicate. Martin doesn't communicate with +that part of me which directs and controls my conversation with you. He +speaks to my subconscious self, and, by some rather unusual arrangement, +my subconscious life can speak to my conscious life and convey what he +says to my hand, or, as once happened, when at Grives I heard him call +me, to my ear. I am a medium in fact, though that would usually suggest +something charlatanish. I can bring my subconscious life to the surface; +sometimes, as when Martin speaks to it, it comes to the surface of its +own accord, with strong compulsion over my conscious self." + +He paused a moment. + +"It's all very odd," he said. "Until this afternoon, my subconscious +self had lain quite quiet for years. Now suddenly it asserts itself and +produces that page of writing, because Martin talked to it, and told it +to make my hand write. What other explanation is there, unless indeed +you imagine that I have merely perpetrated a silly hoax? But I swear to +you that something outside myself made me write. Baldly stated, it was +Martin who spoke to my subconscious self, and my subconscious self said +to my conscious self, 'Take a pencil and write.' I know that is so." + +Once again Jessie had to anchor herself against this current running out +to sea. There was Archie sitting opposite her, large and brown and +hungry, talking of things which were altogether fantastic, unless they +were dangerous. And somehow, they were not either fantastic or dangerous +to him; they were as ordinary as the cherry-jam which he was so +profusely eating. She had suddenly come on a great undiscovered tract of +country, dubious and full of dangers. + +"I dislike it all," she said. "I'm too ordinary, I suppose, my--my +subconscious self doesn't act, you would say. But what proof is there +that there is such a thing as the subconscious self? Why should I +suppose that there is anything of the sort? I have no reason to suppose +it. It is all nonsense." + +Archie laughed. + +"My dear Jessie," he said, "you are arguing not with me but with +yourself. You have an uneasy conviction that I am right." + +"Not a bit," she said. "I want a proof." + +Archie rubbed his hand over his head. + +"I wonder how I can give it you most easily," he said. "Of course there +are lots of ways, though it is quite a long time since I have practised +any of them." + +He thought for a moment. + +"Well, here's one," he said. "The subconscious self--to talk more +nonsense, as you say--is practically unlimited by the material laws of +the world. It is a sort of X-ray, a sort of wireless... I can set my +subconscious self to work, and I will, to prove its existence to you." + +His voice sank a little, and Jessie saw that his eyes were fixed on a +bright speck of sunlight that gleamed on the table-cloth. A sudden +ridiculous terror seized her. + +"Don't, Archie," she said. "It's such nonsense." + +"It isn't nonsense," said he quietly, "and you mustn't be such a baby. +There's nothing to be frightened at." + +As he spoke he took his eyes off the bright speck at which he had been +staring, and looked at her with his blue, dancing glance. + +"What are you going to do?" she said. + +"Whatever you like. Let me look at that bright spot there, while you sit +quiet, for two minutes, and I'll tell you anything you choose. Think of +something, anything will do, and I'll tell you what you're thinking +about." + +"Oh, just thought-reading," said she. + +"_Just_ thought-reading! But what is thought-reading? If you can +remember what you thought about when you went up to your bedroom to +sleep after lunch to-day, for instance, I'll tell you that. Or, there is +Harry writing his history lecture for next term at this moment. I'll +tell you the words he is writing. At least I think I shall be able to. +But I'm out of practice. I have not cultivated the particular mood for +years. But I had it when I was a child, and I expect I can get back into +it." + +Jessie felt an extreme curiosity about this. She had, even as Archie had +said, an uneasy conviction that he was right, and for her peace of mind +she longed to have that conviction shattered. In her reasonable self she +did not believe that Archie could possibly tell her what Harry was +writing, but behind that reasonable self sat something unreasonable +which wanted to be convinced that this was all nonsense. + +"But you won't have a fit or anything, will you?" she asked. + +"No. Pour boiling tea over me if I do, and I shall come to myself." + +"But what are you going to do?" + +"I'm going to look at something bright. That spot of sun on the +table-cloth will do. Then I shall just submerge, like a submarine, and +tell you what Harry is writing at this moment, if that is the test you +select. What fun it all is! I haven't done it, as I said, for ever so +long. Oh, take a bit of paper, and write down what I say. I don't +suppose I shall be able to remember it." + +Again his voice sank, as he fixed his eyes on the bright spot he had +indicated, and Jessie, watching him, pencil and paper in hand, saw an +extraordinary change come over his face. For a few seconds it got +troubled, and his eyes stared painfully, while his breath came quickly +in and out of his nostrils. Then he grew quite quiet again, his mouth +smiled, and he spoke very slowly as if the words were dictated by a +writer. + +"It is hopeless to try to comprehend in the whole," he said, "the +splendour of that unique age. We can only think of it in fragments. One +afternoon there was a new play by Sophocles; another day Pericles made +the funeral oration for the fallen; on another the great Propylaea to +the Acropolis were finished, Socrates talked in the market-place, or +supped with Alcibiades. In the space of a few years all those things +happened, and as yet more than twenty centuries have failed to grasp +their full significance. And in this, my last lecture to you--" + +Archie rubbed his eyes and sat up. + +"He has finished for the present," he said. + +There was a stir in the room just above them, where they sat in the +garden, and Harry looked out. + +"Any tea left?" he said. + +Archie looked up. + +"Hullo, Harry," he said. "I thought you were going to finish your +lecture and not appear till dinner." + +"I was, but I think I'll finish it up to-morrow." + +"Bring it down and read us as far as you've got," said Archie. "Jessie +won't mind." + +"All right. It got a little purplish at the end, and that's why I +stopped. I hate purples." + +He moved away from the window, and Archie spoke to Jessie. "Did I say +anything?" he asked. + +"Yes; I've got it all down." + +Archie jumped up. + +"Now you'll see," he said. "You won't sauce me again in--in the wicious +pride of your youth, as Mr. Venus remarked. I'm sure I got through that +time." + +* * * * * + +It was the knowledge that he had indeed "got through" that Jessie took +up to bed with her that night. Word for word Harry had read out at the +end of his lecture precisely the sentences that Archie, in that queer +dreamy state, had dictated to her, just before Harry had looked out of +the window and asked if there was any tea left. There was no room for +doubt: even as Archie had said, some piece of his mind had been able to +divine exactly what Harry was writing at that moment. In his conscious +state he could not know what that was, but according to his own account +certain people, of whom he was one, were able to direct not only their +conscious selves but also the subconscious self that lay below. It, so +he asserted, was practically unfettered by material laws: it could +perceive what was happening at a distance, at a spot invisible to it, +and it could penetrate as by some X-ray process into other minds. For +its free action (in his case at any rate) the conscious self had to be +obliterated; by looking at that bright spot on the table-cloth he had +been able to put it to sleep, to hypnotize it, thus allowing the +subconscious self to pass the portals where normally the conscious self +kept guard, and to do its errand. + +So far there was nothing to disquiet her or make her uncomfortable. It +was, as she had said, "just thought-reading," an example of a purely +natural law, which, however dimly understood, was fully admitted by +scientific investigators. No one, except the most hide-bound of pedants, +questioned the existence of the subconscious self, and, if here was an +example of an abnormal development of it, still there was nothing to +fight shy of. She had asked for a proof of its powers, and undeniably +she had got it... + +But Archie had gone far beyond that in his exposition of the powers of +the subconscious self, and it was this which caused her a very vivid +disquiet. Through the subconscious self, in those who had the gift of +releasing it, of allowing its activities, could come, so he believed, +communications from the individual consciousnesses which had passed out +of the material world. Even as the subconscious self could get into +touch with the thoughts of living people (as she had seen for herself +that afternoon), so also could it get into touch with the thoughts of +the dead. It was thus, so Archie announced, that when he was a mere +child, and knew nothing whatever of conscious and subconscious selves, +Martin, the brother whom he had never heard of, used his hand to write +with, as if it was his own, and with it wrote in the handwriting which +had been his. Jessie fully believed in the survival of personality; to +her the so-called dead had but passed on to a further and higher plane +of existence; but there was to her something inexplicably repugnant in +the notion that they could come back, and speak or write to those who +still lived on this plane of existence. + +Jessie lingered late by her window, overlooking the bay, trying to +disentangle and lay bare the roots of her repugnance. It was late; below +in the garden she could perceive the grey lines of Archie's hammock +swung between the acacia and the pine, and Archie lying there like a +chrysalis. He was just like that, she thought; most of the world were +only caterpillars, eating their way through the allotted span of their +years, but Archie was a stage more advanced than anybody she had ever +known. This world and the next were one to him, not by any spiritual +insight, but from that instinctive conviction that there was really no +difference between the living and the so-called dead. It was not by any +enlightenment, through any stress of prayer and aspiration that he had +arrived at that. He had been gifted with it as a child; he was a medium, +who by some special gift could talk to a brother, who had died long +years ago, with just the same naturalness as he talked to her. If he +died to-night, he would find nothing strange about it: he would but +burst his chrysalis, hang for a moment, weak and fluttering, and then +expand his wings. But to most people death was an awful affair. They +were caterpillars; they had to learn the intermediate stage, which he +was already familiar with. And yet the fact that he was a stage more +advanced coupled with it a sort of helplessness for him. There he lay in +his cocoon; any evil thing might attack him... + +Jessie shook herself, mind and body; she was being fantastic in her +fears and her misgivings, and with set purpose she forced herself to +drink in, be penetrated by the assured serenity of the material world +that lay spread before her. Above wheeled the stars in the silent sky, +and on the silent sea shone the constellations from the fishing-boats. +The trees stood motionless in the holy summer-hushed night beneath, +while, though all seemed to sleep, the great renewing forces of the +world were ripening the olives and enriching the twisted buds that would +flower in fresh harvest of azure on the Morning Glory when the sun +warmed them. There was nothing to disturb her; she could let her soul +lie open to the night and think out the cause for her disquietude. + +She hated the idea of commerce between the living and the dead; there +was the root of it. The strangeness of the idea made it seem unnatural. +Yet where, if she examined it more closely, was the unnaturalness? Why +should not loving souls, who had passed that tiny rivulet called Death +into the fuller life beyond, be allowed to call from the other side to +those they loved? Was there not something exquisite, something supremely +tender in the thought that Martin, who had been but little more than a +child when he died in that Swiss chalet, should tell Archie about the +cache he had made under the pine-tree? It was a childish communication, +it brought no message of consolation or encouragement; but it was just +what Martin, had he been alive on this side of Death, might have told +Archie. Besides, who knew that he did not give that as a test, as a +proof of his identity, for surely nothing could have been devised so +convincing? And if God willed that the dead should be able, under +certain circumstances, to speak from the sunlit beyond to those who +still moved among material shadows, who was she, Jessie, to question so +wonderful an ordinance? And if he could speak like that to a young and +innocent child, why should he not continue to speak to his brother when +he grew up? + +She looked elsewhere for the grounds of her repugnance, and for a moment +thought she had found them. For she had once been to a seance, at the +house of a professional medium, and that afternoon still was vivid and +degrading in her memory. They had all sat round a table in a darkened +room while the medium went into trance, and instantly ridiculous +knockings and melodies from a musical-box began to resound in the gloom. +These were supposed to be played by spirits called Durward and Felisy, +who, for some absolutely unconjecturable reason, liked spending the +afternoon in these puerile idiocies. Meantime, the medium breathed +heavily, which was the only evidence that he was in trance at all, and +after a while said, "Here's the dear Cardinal," in a husky voice, and +his niece, who sat next him, informed the circle that this was Cardinal +Newman, who, like Durward and Felisy, could find nothing better to do on +the other side than attend these awful sittings, for he always came when +you paid your guinea to the medium and sat in the dark. To encourage him +they lifted up their voices, at the suggestion of the medium's niece, +and sang "Lead, kindly Light," which gratified him so much that he +joined in singing the second verse and sang his own hymn to the tune +given in _Hymns Ancient and Modern_. Then, when the hymn was over, he +made some moral reflections and blessed them in Latin. Then there came +materializations; the head and shoulders of Durward appeared in the +middle of the table. He was dressed in white, and had a large black +beard, and round his ear the wire with which the beard was attached to +his face was clearly visible. During this the circle was warned to keep +their hands touching all round the table, for, if any one made a break, +the consequences to the medium might be very serious, since the spirit +had built itself up from material derived from the medium and the +"electric fluid" contributed by the sitters. So, if the electric fluid +was withdrawn the material would not be able to get back into the +medium, who would completely collapse and possibly die, though whether +Durward would thereupon again become a visible and permanent dweller on +this planet was not explained. By this time Jessie had been so convinced +of the wicked and profane fraudulence of all these proceedings that she +furtively withdrew one of her hands, and thus cut off the electric fluid +altogether. But Durward didn't mind a bit, but continued to tell them +about the joys of Paradise, which, according to his account, must have +been like the Crystal Palace erected in the middle of the Botanical +Gardens. And when he had regaled them enough he withdrew in the +direction where the medium sat, took off his beard, and became Felisy +with a veil and an alto voice. Surely all this was enough to make one +despair and contemn the whole idea of intercourse with spirits... + +But Jessie suddenly became aware of a basic illogicality in her +position. It was not intercourse with spirits she despised, but those +despicable swindlers who, with the aid of false beards and +musical-boxes, pretended that they could materialize and cause +communication with spirits. She did not deride the memory of that +afternoon because the spirits of Cardinal Newman and Durward and Felisy +had moved among them, but because they hadn't. It was no use accounting +for her repugnance towards genuine intercourse with spirits by her +repugnance towards quacks and charlatans. The whole history of +spiritualism teemed with these undesirable gentry and these faked +phenomena, but they had no more connection with Archie and his +communications from his brother than had a forged bank-note with the +credit of the Bank of England. She found she did believe that the +knowledge, say, of the cache beneath the pine-tree came to Archie from +other than normal human sources. It was known to no living being in the +world, so far as she could tell, and if she looked for an explanation +she must search for it in the supposition that the knowledge came to him +from a living intelligence beyond the veil. She intensely disliked being +forced to that conclusion, and now she knew why. It was for the reason +she had suggested to him this afternoon. + +These things came from those regions, those conditions of existence into +which people passed when they died. But in those regions there existed +not only the souls of the dead who lived in an environment and under +conditions at which we could not ever so faintly conjecture, but other +spirits, some good, some evil. Every good impulse that came into the +hearts of men, came from over there; so, too, did every evil impulse +that would blight, if it could, the garden of God. And who knew whether +the man who by that strange faculty which Archie possessed of opening +the doors of his subliminal self, through which, as he averred, these +messages came, might not open them to other and evil things? If +possession by an evil spirit was a psychical possibility (and certainly +it was not more fantastically strange than such phenomena as Archie +could produce) would it not be thus, and in no other way, that the evil +possession would enter? Yet in childhood Archie had, in ignorance and in +white defencelessness, opened more than once the door of his soul, and +no harm surely had come to him. Was she being unreasonable, full of fear +where no fear was, twittering with groundless and superstitious fancies? + +There was yet another side to the question. If the spirits of the dead +could indeed return, and speak of what they knew, was it not worth while +running some risk on the chance of the wonders they might tell of the +existence which now was theirs? Whatever else might be of interest in +human life, supreme over all was any hint or fragment of information +about the timeless and everlasting day that lay beyond the dawnings and +settings of the sun. Nay, more: if to any one was given this wonderful +gift by means of which voices could reach him from beyond the veil, was +it not his duty to use this endowment for the enlightenment and +consolation of those who mourned and who sat in darkness? God would +never have bestowed so spiritual a gift on any, if He did not mean it to +be used. The Christian Faith taught that the dead were alive in a wider +sense than ever they had been on earth; why then should it be forbidden, +to those who had this amazing gift, to speak with them, to learn about +their life? The Roman Church had fulminated its anathemas on Galileo, a +thing scarcely credible to a more enlightened age; it was more than +possible that its pronouncements against this intercourse with the dead +was but one instance the more of a similar cowardice and narrowness. Who +could doubt that a man of science three hundred years ago would have +been burned as a dabbler in diabolism and witchcraft, if he had +exhibited a manifestation of wireless telegraphy or an X-ray photograph? +But nowadays there was not a living being who did not rank such as the +discoveries of a natural law. The sorcery of one age was the science of +the next. + +Jessie propounded this to herself, and her reason could not find a flaw +in it. But something that sat behind her reason--superstition it might +be, or instinct, or spiritual perception--refused to accept the +conclusion. Like a child afraid of the dark, it trembled and hung back, +and no amount of logical assurance from its nurse, no amount of +demonstration that the room when dark contained only the familiar things +which the light made manifest, could reassure it. It didn't like the +dark; nothing could persuade it that danger did not lurk in blackness... + +Well, it was no use going over all the ground again, she knew it +thoroughly now. Reason made no headway against instinct, or instinct +against reason, and she swept the matter from her mind, and tried to +calm a certain intimate agitation that trembled there, by letting her +eyes pour into her soul the superb serenity of the Italian night. The +moon had risen and spread across the bay a silver path to the edge of +the world, and in the sky the wheeling innumerable worlds kept sentinel +over the earth. Never had she looked on a stillness more peaceful and +more steadfast. Not a breeze stirred in the cypresses, but in the +thickets of ilex below the Love that moved the sun and the other stars +thrilled in the hearts of innumerable nightingales. That Love permeated +everywhere; the world was soaked in its peace... + +And just then, over the hills to the north, there flickered a flash of +lightning from some storm very far away. Long afterwards, and scarcely +audible, came a muffled murmur of thunder. + +* * * * * + +Jessie came downstairs next morning before either of the two young men +were astir, and indeed, on going into the garden, she found Archie still +serenely slumbering in his hammock in spite of the sun that filtered +through the pine-tree on to his brown face and curly head. But perhaps +some intangible shaft from her pierced down into the gulfs of sleep, for +immediately he sat up, flushed with slumber like a child, but fresh and +bright-eyed from his night in the open air. + +"Hullo, Jess," he said. "You down already? I suppose I'd better get up. +Is it shocking for a young lady to see a young gentleman's bare feet and +his pyjamas? If so, you must shut your eyes. Now you're going to see +them. Don't scream." + +"I shall," said Jessie. "You always wear patent leather boots and a +fur-coat when we bathe." + +"Yes, that is so. But bear it for once. Lord, what a morning!" + +He threw off his blanket and dangled his legs over the side of the +hammock, and instantly lit a cigarette. + +"Archie, why do you smoke before breakfast?" she asked. + +"Because it makes me feel so jolly dizzy. Ah, you can't guess how good a +cigarette tastes when you have had nothing but your tongue and your +teeth in your mouth for eight or nine hours. Hullo! Here's the post. +English papers? Who cares for what happens in England? No letters for +me, two for Harry, and one for you. Good-bye; I shan't wash much because +I shall bathe all the morning." + +Jessie's letter proved to be from Helena, and its contents instantly +absorbed her whole attention. Colonel Vautier, her father and Lady +Tintagel's first cousin, had gone out to Egypt over some government +irrigation work, and, instead of coming back in June, would be detained +out there till September. In consequence, Lady Tintagel hoped that the +two girls would live with her instead of going back to their father's +house till his return. Helena's comment on this was enthusiastic, and +also very characteristic. + +"Darling Jessie," she said, after the statement of this proposal, "I do +hope you'll say 'yes.' Cousin Marion encloses a note for you, so you'll +see how much she wants us to, and Uncle Jack--I've begun to call him +Uncle Jack, though he isn't an uncle at all--gave quite a pleased sort +of grunt when it was mentioned, which means that he approves. So don't +be independent, and say you would sooner go back to Oakland Crescent, +because I've simply set my heart on stopping here. It's horrible at home +in the summer with the sun blazing into those little tiny rooms and the +smell of greens flooding the house. And it really would be a kindness to +Cousin Marion; she says so herself, as you'll find when you read her +note. And besides, there's another reason which I know you can guess. In +fact, I think it's our duty to come, and when duty takes the form of +anything so pleasant as this, there really is not the slightest reason +for neglecting it. And, as I'm the youngest, I feel that you should do +as I want. Besides, it's the greatest fun here. There are no end of +dances and parties and dinners, and there are horses to ride and +motor-cars. I'm having the loveliest tune, so it will be very selfish of +you if you want to go home. But I know you will say 'yes.'" + +A charming enclosure from Lady Tintagel accompanied this: + +"I so much hope that you and Helena will stop with us. You must think of +it as a great kindness to me, for it will be the utmost comfort to me, +now that both my girls are married, to have you two with me for the rest +of the season. I spoke to Archie about it while we were at Silorno, so +ask him whether he approves or not. I hope all goes well with you. Is +Archie quite black yet from bathing? Send me a line as soon as you have +thought it over. Helena is having the greatest success in town; every +one thinks her charming, and admires her enormously." + +Jessie read this over as she waited for Archie to rejoin her at +breakfast. There was every reason for accepting so cordial an +invitation, and it would give pleasure to Helena, to Cousin Marion, and +apparently also to Archie. She knew she would have to consent: there was +no cause that could be spoken about which she could possibly adduce for +refusing. A week ago that cause did not exist, but now she wondered how +she could bear to see Helena and Archie in the close companionship which +this would imply, and watch his feeling for her expanding from the bud +into the flower. If she had thought that Helena loved him it would all +be different. But she felt certain that Helena did not. There, for her, +was the poignancy of it... + +In a manner that she could not explain, Jessie knew that she knew the +tokens by which love betrays its existence. She, barely yet twenty-two, +had somewhere stored in her soul the language of love, which it speaks +even when it thinks it is dumb--talking in its sleep, it may be. She had +seen in the last week of Helena's sojourn here that Archie talked to her +like that. "There was neither speech nor language": he said nothing of +which the words betrayed his dawning passion, but his love spoke in his +silence, even as the rosy clouds high above the earth herald the dawn. +It was her own knowledge that enlightened her: she too knew the silent +language, and knew that Archie conversed in it, though no word came, +when he talked to Helena. Something kindled behind his eye, some secret +alertness possessed him... But there was the defencelessness and the +blindness of love, for when Helena answered him she but pretended to +talk the same tongue, and Jessie, knowing it, knew that she spoke a mere +paltry gibberish. It sounded the same, or it looked the same; but it was +nonsense, it was not authentic. Yet Archie never talked in the secret +tongue to Jessie; and, in consequence, she had never answered him in it. +To-day it seemed her native tongue when she talked to him, and all she +said must needs be translated out of that into the language of those who +were friends, dear friends, but no more than friends. + +All this was instantaneous: she seemed to read it between the lines of +Helena's letter. She recalled, too, between the lines, the tokens that +she knew. Archie would look at Harry, as they sat at dinner, then at his +mother, then at her, in order that in due time he might look at Helena. +And when he spoke to any of them they never got more than one ear and an +inattentive mind from him. The other ear and the attention were always +with Helena. Helena knew that quite well: no woman or girl could fail to +know it, and, by way of response, she had made this Scythian retreat to +England. No doubt that was clever of her, but in Jessie's opinion clever +people are found out even sooner than stupid ones. The only inexplicable +folk are the wise, and wisdom has very little to do with cleverness. +Wisdom is perhaps the cleverness of the soul, that looks down with pity +on the manoeuvres of the mind. + +Archie made his absurd entry. He had a dressing-gown on, perhaps some +sort of abbreviated bathing-dress, and canvas-shoes. + +"I didn't dress," he said, "for where's the use of dressing if you are +going to undress again almost immediately?" + +"Aren't you going to work this morning?" asked Jessie. + +"No. This one day, as Mr. Wordsworth said, we'll give to idleness. I'm +going to bathe all the morning instead of half the morning. I want a +holiday. I think I'm overworked. What's happening in that foolish +England, if you've read the papers?" + +"I haven't," said she. + +Suddenly his face changed; he began to talk the secret language, which +Jessie understood and Helena counterfeited. + +"And what other news?" he asked. "You had a letter from somebody." + +Jessie pretended not to understand what she knew so well. + +"Yes, I did have a letter," she said, determined that Archie should be +more direct than this. + +"From Helena or mother?" he said carelessly. "I haven't heard from +either of them, except that telegram to say they had got home safely." + +He was talking the secret language still; the very carelessness of his +tone betrayed it. + +"I heard from them both," she said. "The letter was from Helena, and +there was an enclosure from Cousin Marion." + +Archie said nothing in answer to this, but it seemed to the girl that +his silence was just as eloquent in the language without words. +Eventually he remarked that Harry was very late, and Jessie knew that he +had beaten her. He always did, just because he had nothing, with regard +to her, at stake. + +"Archie, I want to talk to you about what they have written to me," she +said. + +"Talk away," said Archie. "I say, what good little fishes!" + +Jessie was not proposing to yield like that. If he, in the code of the +secret language, professed an indifference to what he was longing to +hear, she would be indifferent too. + +To Archie's intense irritation she continued to talk about little +fishes, in a tone of great interest, till Harry's entrance. She agreed +they were very good; probably they were fresh sardines caught last night +by the fishers. Or were they... and she could not remember the Italian +name of the other little fish which were so like sardines. + +Archie's serene brow clouded, and he but grunted a greeting to Harry. +And next moment her heart smote her. She knew how easily Archie could +put the sun out for her without meaning to do it, but she had, out of a +sort of piqued femininity, intentionally done the same for him. She felt +as if she had spoiled a child's pleasure. He was so like a child, but +lovers were made of child-stuff. He got up almost immediately, and, full +of a tender penitence, she followed him. + +One behind the other they went out into the garden, where Archie, in a +superb unconsciousness of her presence, became instantly absorbed in the +despised English papers. + +"Archie!" she said. + +He rustled with his paper. + +"Oh, er--what?" he answered. + +"I wanted to talk to you about Helena's letter," she said, "only you +would talk about sardines. Put that paper down; I can't talk through the +paper." + +She noticed that he kept his finger on a paragraph, and she would have +betted her last shilling that he had no idea what that paragraph was +about. And, though a moment before she had been penitent, now she +stiffened herself and determined that he should meet her more gracefully +than that. + +"I'm sorry; I'm interrupting you," she said. "I'll tell you some other +time." + +Archie suddenly threw the paper into the air. + +"Oh, aren't we behaving like idiots?" he said. "At heart I am, and so +are you really. But I'll confess: I'm just longing to know what Helena +writes about. But aren't you an idiot, too? I shall like it enormously +if you say you are." + +"I am an idiot, too," said the girl. "And Cousin Marion wants Helena and +me to live with her till father comes home. She told me to ask you if +you approved." + +He leaned forward to her. + +"Ah, do, Jessie," he said. "I hope you will. I can't see why you +shouldn't. Can you?" + +She looked straight into the eager blue eyes that were so close to hers. +For her there was a wealth of frankness and friendliness, but the light +in them was not for her, and she knew it. + +"Helena wants to," she said. + +"Does that mean that you don't?" he asked. "I'm sorry if that is so." + +She got up. + +"No, it doesn't mean that a bit," she said. "It's delightful of you and +Cousin Marion to want us. Of course we'll come." + +Archie rose too. + +"That's perfectly ripping of you," he said. "We shall be a jolly party, +we four." + +Quite suddenly a pause fell, very awkwardly, very constrainedly. + +"You see, my father doesn't appear much," he said at length. "That's +what I meant. He is very often in the country, and--well, we don't see +him much." + +Archie soon took himself off to the sea, armed with paper and pencils, +for, with four hours in front of him, there would be much basking to be +done between his bathes. Already another of those sea-sketches was +beginning to take shape in his mind, and he found that there was no hour +so fruitful in inspiration as when, after a swim, he returned to this +empty, sandy beach, and lay spread out to the sun to be dried and +browned and made eager for another dip. So, to-day, after the first +swim, he lay for a while on his back with his arms across his face to +shield his eyes from the glare, and opened his brain, so to speak, to +let the sea-thoughts invade it. They came swarming in at his invitation, +and presently he turned over and propped himself on his elbow and began +to catch them and pin them to his paper. The rim of the sea, with its +weed-fringed rocks, its diaper of moving light in the shallow water, the +shoals of little fishes, almost invisible one moment, the next, as they +turned, becoming a shield of silver flakes, were all ready to be +hammered into sentences; and yet the hammer paused... + +Somehow at the back of his mind was a topic that inhibited his hand, or +would not allow the connection between hand and brain to be made, and he +thought he knew what this was, for only this morning he had heard that +Helena was to be an inmate of their house in London. Yet it did not seem +to be that which was preventing him, and he wondered whether it was the +thought of his father and his habitual intoxication, which was always +like a black background at home, and which just for a moment had popped +out into his conversation with Jessie, that hindered him. But that again +did not seem a sufficient cause for his inability to start the mechanism +which translated thought into language. + +And then he became aware that his fingers itched and ached to write with +a compelling force which he knew well. And yet only yesterday Martin had +said that he should not come to him again. But the quality of the force +seemed unmistakable, and presently he yielded to that which he really +had not the power to resist and wrote as his hand bade him write. + +There were but a few sentences scribbled, and then his pencil, as +usually happened when the message was complete, gave a dash. He had no +notion what he had written, and when it was finished he read it through. + + "Archie, I have come through this once more," it said, "to repeat that + you have been warned. But I can't get through again.--MARTIN." + +So here again was this inexplicable mention of a warning, and Archie's +conscious mind was blank with regard to any such warning. But the +repetition of it did not long occupy him, for immediately he found that +the inhibition between his brain and his hand was gone, and sentence +after sentence of his sea-sketch flowed through his fingers. By degrees, +but not till a couple of his pages were full, did the inspiration +exhaust itself, and then he lay back on the sand again full of the +ecstasy that always accompanies the completion of a piece of work that +has been done as the creator meant to do it. Bad or good, it has +fulfilled his intention. + +His brain brooded over that for a little, and then slipped back to the +incident that had preceded it. He could make nothing at all of it, and, +determining to dismiss it from his mind, and speak of it to nobody, he +tore up the sheet that contained the message, buried the fragments in +the sand, and lay back again roasting himself in the sun. Soon that +delectable warmth would increase on his bare limbs, till they cried out +for the cool embraces of the sea again, and he would fling himself into +it. But just for a little longer he would stew and stupefy himself in +the sun and with half-closed eyes watch the vibration of the hot air +over the beach and listen to the hiss of the ripples. Except for them +the morning was extremely quiet, the sun poured down over his outspread +limbs, the sea waited for him. And, as he lay there and dozed, the +memory of his evil dream went across his brain like a flash, and +vanished again. + +* * * * * + +Already the Italian days were beginning to draw to their sunny end; they +were numbered and could be easily counted. Both Archie and Jessie +counted them when they woke in the morning, and in the evening both said +to themselves, "Another day gone." But their reflections on this +diminishing tale and the colour of their emotions were absolutely +opposed, for while they both intensely enjoyed these Italian hours, +Jessie counted them with the grudging sense of a school-boy who +enumerates the remaining days of his holiday; but to Archie they were +the days of term-time which still (though enjoyable) must be got through +before the holidays began. Never before had he contemplated a stay in +town with eagerness; but now, as he thought of her who would be living +with them, he had never been so expectantly enamoured of London. + +At the close of their last day the divine serenity of June weather was +troubled, and, as evening drew on, the clouds, which for a few hours +past had been weaving wisps and streamers over the sky, grew to a thick +curtain that stretched from horizon to horizon. It was of opaque grey, +but here and there in it were lines and patches of much darker texture, +as if it had been rent, and had been darned again with a blacker thread. +Instead of the coolness which succeeded sunset, the heat, clear no +longer, but impure like the air of a closed room, got ever sultrier, +and, for the refreshment of the evening breeze from the sea, there was +exchanged a stifling stagnation. All life had gone out of the +atmosphere: it was as if some immense Othello was smothering the world. +The air was heavy and charged with electricity, but as yet no remote +winking of lightning nor rumble of thunder showed that there was relief +coming. + +They had dined out in the garden, where the candles burned unwaveringly +in the stillness, and afterwards had strolled to the far angle of the +supporting wall of the fortress, where, if anywhere, they might find +some hint of movement in this intolerable calm. But no breath visited +them even there, and the very bamboos that grew at the corner of the +garden-bed were as motionless as if they had been made of lead. + +Archie mopped his streaming forehead. + +"If it interests anybody," he remarked, "I may say that I am going to +die. I can't bear it any longer. I think I shall die in about half an +hour." + +Jessie fanned herself. That did not do a particle of good, it only +seemed to make her hotter, as when you stir the water in a hot bath. But +she tried to interest herself in Archie's approaching decease. + +"And are we to take your corpse back to England to-morrow?" she asked. + +"Just as you like. I shall have no more use for it. Lord, and I haven't +finished packing yet. Fancy having to pack in this heat." + +"You needn't, surely, if you're going to die." + +"I must. My immortal manuscript would be lost in the general confusion +caused by my death. Or shall I go to bed? It can't be hotter in my +hammock than here. Yes, I shall get into my pyjamas, go to bed, and do +my packing in the morning." + +He trailed off into the house, and presently appeared again attired for +bed and strolled across to them. + +"Well, I'll _wish_ you a good-night," he said, "but I very much doubt +whether you'll get it. You needn't do the same to me, for I know I +shan't, and your wishes would be hollow." + +He moved away again towards the stone-pine where his hammock was hung, a +pale tall ghost of a figure against the blackness. + +Then, quite suddenly, some panic impulse seized Jessie, the result +perhaps of her overstrung nerves and the overcharged atmosphere, and she +sprang up, not knowing why. + +"Wait a moment, Archie," she cried. "Don't go--something is going to +happen." + +Even as she spoke the whole world seemed enveloped in fire, and the core +of the fire, a white-hot line, plunged downwards into the stone-pine, +which was rent from top to bottom. Absolute blackness filled with the +deafening roar of the thunder and deluging rain succeeded, and they +rushed towards the shelter of the house. + +For a moment they all three stood there recovering their balance from +that tremendous crash and convulsion. Then Archie, with his soaked silk +clinging close to his shoulders and legs, turned to Jessie. + +"I wonder why you called out to me," he said. "What made you do it? You +saved my life, I expect." + +Jessie laughed; little as she was given to hysteria that laugh was +half-way towards uncontrollable tears. + +"Why, I didn't want you to die in half an hour," she said lightly. + +* * * * * + +But she remembered that moment when it came for her to save Archie's +life indeed. Some inexplicable signal from love had flashed upon her +that night, and should flash upon her again. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Helena was having breakfast by the open window of her bedroom in her +cousin's house. It was not yet nine in the morning, and, though she had +been dancing till three o'clock, she had already had her bath, and was +feeling as fresh as if she had had eight instead of hardly more than +four hours in bed. Outside the square was still empty of passengers, and +the pale primrose-coloured sunshine of a London June shone on a wet +roadway and rain-refreshed trees, for a shower had fallen not long ago, +and through the open window there came in the delicious smell of damp +earth. But she gave little heed to that or to the breakfast she was +eating with so admirable an appetite, for her brain, cool and alert in +this early hour, was very busy over her own concerns. Soon she would +have to go down to Cousin Marion and see if she could be of any use to +her, for it was quite worth while doing jobs for Cousin Marion, as she +always paid kindnesses back with a royal generosity. And she must get +some flowers to give a welcoming air to Archie's room, who with Jessie +was expected back to-day. That also would not be a waste of the time she +might have spent more directly on herself. She would get some for +Jessie, too, for she had the character of unselfish thoughtfulness to +keep up. It would be unnecessary to pay for them, for she could get them +at the shop where Cousin Marion dealed. + +Helena had enjoyed the most entrancing fortnight, during which time she +had occasionally thought of Silorno, and had oftener talked of it to +Cousin Marion, for she had that valuable social gift of appearing to +talk with keen attention of one thing while she was thinking about +something quite different. She could easily interject "Dear Archie, it +will be nice to have him back," or "Darling Jessie wrote me such a +delicious letter: she is enjoying herself!" and if Cousin Marion +expressed a wish to see the letter, it was equally easy to say that she +had torn it up. Meantime her brain would be busy with recollections of +the day before, as they bore on her plans for the day to come. They +might go off on to tangents for brief spaces, but her well-ordered and +singly-purposed mind was never long in recalling them to their main +topic. + +Helena had made something of a sensation during these last weeks. She +was not beautiful, but she was quite enchantingly pretty, and her mind +had the qualities which might rightly be supposed to underlie that +delicious face and inform those slim, graceful limbs. Nothing seemed to +mar her good-nature and her superb gift of enjoying herself. It was +worth while being agreeable to everybody, and if her lot happened for an +hour or two a day to be cast with elderly bores, she was indefatigable +in her attention to them at the time, and in telling their friends +afterwards how immensely she had enjoyed talking to them. It paid to do +that sort of thing, provided that it was done with a gaiety that made it +appear genuine and spontaneous: if your appreciation came bubbling out +of you, no one suspected you of design, and she seemed the most +designless, delicious girl in London, for it is next to impossible to +see through an object that dazzles you. To crown all these gifts, she +had the intensest power of enjoying herself, and there is not another +key that unlocks so many doors. In this whirl and mill-race of +entertainment which characterized the last gay summer that London would +see for long, there was no time to make friends, but only to take the +scalps of enthusiastic acquaintances. That perhaps was lucky for her. + +But Helena, as she finished her breakfast, recalled her mind from these +shining experiences, except in so far as they bore on the theme that +insistently occupied her. There was no doubt, especially after that +quiet talk in the paved garden outside the ball-room last night, that +Bertie Harlow was dazzled, according to plan. Heaven only knew when he +had last been to a ball, for he was close on forty (Helena had naturally +looked him up in a Peerage, since she liked to know about her friends), +and she felt pretty certain that he had danced with no one but her. You +could perhaps hardly call his share of the performance dancing; he had +"stepped a measure," and twice trodden on her toe; but, after all, it +did not matter whether your husband danced or not, since naturally, when +those relations had been arrived at, he would not dance with you. Many +women no doubt, when they were married, would think it an advantage that +their husbands did not dance, since then they would not dance with +anybody else. But it was not in Helena's nature prospectively to grudge +him such amusements, should he desire them, when once she had got him. +But she had to get him first, and to do that she had to keep him +dazzled. He must not get accustomed to her. + +Helena had a very strong belief in the desirability of simplifying life. +This did not in the least imply that she thought there was anything +attractive in the simple life: her simplification amounted to this, that +she formulated exactly what she wanted, and then without deflection of +aim did the very best with her efficient armoury of weapons to get it; +while the second clause in the simplification of life was to find out +what irritated or bored you, and with all your power eliminate it from +your existence. If you could not get what you wanted without getting +something that bored you, it was merely necessary to ascertain how the +balance between these conflicting interests lay. As practically applied +to the case in hand, she was aware that Lord Harlow bored her, though +not badly, and that his nose irritated her. That she would almost +certainly get used to, while on the other side of the scale were +quantities of things she liked. She liked immense wealth, position, and +the liberty she would undoubtedly enjoy if she married this amiable man, +whom so many had tried to capture. That in itself was an incentive to +her pride, and, without being a snob, she saw no objection to being a +Marchioness. + +But here the simplification ended, and a complication intruded itself. +It was not so long ago that she had sat under the stone-pine with +Archie, and seen his face glow in the darkness as he drew on his +cigarette. In point of attractiveness there was naturally no comparison +between her cousin and this amiable middle-aged man; but, owing to the +impossibility of even the most limited polyandry, it was clearly no use +to think of marrying them both, and all that was left was to choose +between them, supposing, as she most sincerely did, that it was, or soon +would be, for her to choose. Certainly she was not in love with Archie, +if she took as an example of that the ridiculous symptoms exhibited by +Daisy Hollinger, who by some strange freak was in love with Lord Harlow. +Helena had behaved very wisely over that, for she had instantly seen the +advantage of becoming great friends, in her sense of the word, with poor +Daisy, who poured out to her a farrago of amorous imbecility, and Helena +was sure that she was not in love with Archie like that. Anything so +insane seemed incomprehensible to her (and was). + +But Archie was a dear--she had quite wished he would kiss her that +night, of course in a cousinly fashion, which she would have scorned to +be offended with, whereas she did not in the least look forward to the +moment when Lord Harlow would kiss her. Apart from that, the +simplification of life came in again, and against Archie there were +certain items which it would be imprudent to disregard. His father was a +drunkard, and Archie himself had been consumptive as a child. +Consumption ran in families, for Archie's brother had died of it; and so +perhaps did drunkenness, though she did Archie the justice of trying and +failing to remember that she had ever seen him drink wine at all. These +were serious objections in a husband. + +There was another, perhaps not less serious. She knew from Cousin Marion +that Uncle Jack had lately lost a great deal of money; there was even +the question of shutting up or letting the London house next winter. Of +course, if she married Archie, they could not spend the winter down at +Lacebury, or live with poor Uncle Jack; but London, as wife of an +impoverished son, would be very different from London as the wife of a +very wealthy man who, so to speak, was nobody's son. Finally, there were +certain stories that Cousin Marion had told her about queer messages and +communications that had come to Archie, while he was still a child, from +his dead brother. That seemed to Helena's practical mind pure nonsense, +and yet she had been pleased to hear that, since he was but young in his +teens, these rather uncomfortable phenomena had ceased. She felt that +she did not believe in them; but, though they had no real existence, she +disliked the thought of them. And, though it was so long since there had +been any repetition of them, they might (though they were all nonsense) +crop up again. She had no belief in ghosts, but she would not willingly +have slept in a haunted room. The dead were dead, whereas she was very +much alive. + +Well, it was time to dress and go down to Cousin Marion. This long, +frank meditation (for she was always frank with herself, which perhaps +was the reason that she had so little of that commodity to spare for +other people) had helped considerably to clear her mind and provoke +simplification. And, like a good housewife who will permit no waste of +what can possibly be used, she thought she would have a very useful +function for Archie to perform when he arrived that evening. + +She found Lady Tintagel busy with her morning's post. There was a +quantity of invitations, most of which, owing to press of others, had to +be declined, and Helena having marked each of those with an "Accept" or +"Refuse," laid them aside to answer. There was one, where the Russian +dancers were to perform, which she very much regretted having to say +"no" to, since that evening was already filled, and wondered if by any +contrivance it would be possible to manage it. A glance at Lady +Tintagel's engagement book showed her that the prohibiting acceptance +was for a dinner and concert at Lady Awcock's, where all that was +stately and Victorian spent evenings of unparalleled dreariness. Helena +had already produced the most favourable impression on Lady Awcock by +listening to her practically endless dissertations on political society +forty years ago, and she thought she could manage it. + +"And shall I enter all the invitation you accept in your +engagement-book, Cousin Marion?" she asked. + +"Yes, my dear, will you? That's really all I have for you this morning. +What will you do with yourself?" + +Helena gathered up cards and engagement-book. + +"I think I shall stop at home," she said. "You often do want something +more, you know, and I hate not being here to do it for you." + +"Nothing of the sort. There's the motor for you if you want to go and +see anybody." + +Helena considered. + +"Oh, I should like to do one thing," she said. "It won't take long. May +I get some flowers for Archie's room and Jessie's? Flowers do look so +cool and refreshing when you've been a day and a night in the train." + +"Of course you may. It was nice of you to think of that. But then you do +think of rather nice things for other people." + +"Oh, shut up, Cousin Marion," laughed the girl. + +* * * * * + +Helena retired to the table in the window with her materials and +proceeded to execute a very neat and simple piece of work. The entries +in Lady Tintagel's engagement-book were only made in pencil, and she +erased the inconvenient Lady Awcock's name from the evening some +fortnight ahead and wrote in its place that of the giver of the Russian +party, to whom instead of a refusal she sent a line, in her cousin's +name, of grateful acceptance. Then she wrote a charming little letter of +penitence to Lady Awcock, abasing herself and at the same time pitying +herself. She had done the stupidest thing; for she had accepted Lady +Awcock's invitation on an evening when they were already engaged. The +letter proceeded: "I can't tell you how disappointed I am, dear Lady +Awcock, for I was so looking forward to another talk with you, and to +hear more of those interesting things you told me; but perhaps, if I +have not disgusted you beyond forgiveness, you would ask me again some +day. And would you be wonderfully kind and not tell Lady Tintagel what a +stupid thing I have done, for she lets me keep her engagement-book for +her, and if she knew, I am afraid she would never trust me again." + +This last touch thoroughly pleased Helena; it was confiding and +childlike. For the rest she relied on Cousin Marion not happening to +remember that they had once accepted an invitation to Lady Awcock's, +and, even if she did have some impression of it, her engagement-book, +with no such entry appearing in it, would show her that her memory had +played her false. But probably Cousin Marion would remember nothing +whatever about it; indeed, in the multiplicity of engagement, it seemed +to Helena that the risk she ran was negligible. + +Helena found time to go to Victoria to meet the travellers that +afternoon, and to reflect, as she waited for the boat-train to come in, +that she in her cool pink blouse and her skirt of Poiret stuff would +certainly present a very refreshing contrast to poor Jessie in +dishevelled and dusty travelling-clothes. She did not in the least want +Jessie to look bedraggled except in so far as she herself would gain by +the contrast, for she was good-natured enough not to want any one to be +at a disadvantage as long as that did not add to her own advantage. +Jessie was a dreadfully bad sailor, too; but it was quite enough that +she should have travelled for a night and a day, without hoping that she +had had a bad crossing. Helena merely wanted to appear fresh and +brilliant herself. At length the train came in, and, though she quite +distinctly saw Archie step out, she continued searching for him with her +eyes in the crowd, until he made his way up to her. + +"Ah, my dear," she said, "how lovely to see you! And don't be cross with +me for coming to meet you if it bores you to be met at the station. But +I did want to welcome you. And where's Jessie? There she is! Jessie +darling, what fun!" + +Archie did not look as if he was at all bored to be met at the station. + +"That's perfectly ripping of you," he said. "I am glad you came. We've +been baked and boiled all the way from Silorno. And the crossing! I +thought it was always calm in the summer." + +"Archie, don't allude to it," said Jessie. + +Helena took her sister's arm. + +"Darling Jessie, I am so sorry," she said. "Archie's a wretch for +mentioning it. Now you go straight to the motor and sit there quietly. +Archie and I will see to your luggage." + +If Archie, as is probable, drew the contrast he was intended to draw +between the sisters, Helena on her side drew another between him and +Lord Harlow. There he stood, looking eagerly at her as they waited the +emergence of their trunks, face and neck and hands so tanned by the sun +that every one else looked ill and anaemic by him. He was tall and lithe +and slender, with the quick movements of some wild animal, and in his +brown face his blue eyes shone like transparent turquoises. He seemed an +incarnation of sun and sea and wholesome virility, and, as the thought +of the rather heavy Kalmuck face of Lord Harlow, and staid aspect +suitable to his forty years, she almost wondered whether, in her +estimate made this morning, she had allowed enough for personal charm. +But there had been other factors as well, and who knew whether below +this engaging exterior there were not planted the seeds of tragic +outcome? But it was certainly pleasant to reflect that his exuberance of +young manhood would, she made no doubt, be all hers if she made up her +mind to want it. In any case, was there another girl in London who had +so attractive a second string to her bow? + +Archie had, on the appearance of one of their pieces of luggage, +insinuated himself into the crowd and Helena was left outside, when a +sight odd to see at a station attracted her attention. Beyond, the +platform lay empty, and out of some porter's shed there, there bounded a +big tabby cat with a mouse in its mouth. Its tail switched, its eyes +gleamed with the joy of the successful hunter; but it did not prepare to +eat the mouse immediately. It trotted a little farther off, lay down, +and, depositing its prey, dabbed at it softly with velvet paws and +sheathed claws. It even let it run a few inches away from it, and then +gently shepherded it back again. Once it let it seem to escape +altogether, gave it a start of at least a couple of yards, while it +watched it with quivering shoulders, and then playfully bounded in the +air, and reminded it that it was not its own master. Then there came a +dismal little squeak as from a slate-pencil; the poor mouse's troubles +were over, and a pleased cat blinked in the sun and licked its lips. + +Helena followed this gruesome little drama with an interest that +surprised and even rather shocked her. She was altogether on the side of +the cat; the cat, according to its lights, was not being cruel, it was +merely doing the natural thing with a mouse. It happened to like teasing +its prey, letting it think that it had escaped, sheathing the claws that +had caught it, and playing with it. There was nothing horrible about it: +the cat was doing as nature intended it to do. She was rather sorry for +the mouse, but that is what came of being a mouse... And there was +Archie, triumphant, with a porter and his rescued luggage. Archie had a +way with officials: he smiled at them in a confident, friendly way, and +they always did what he wanted and never searched his traps. + +* * * * * + +There was a dance somewhere that night, but Helena, letting the fact be +reluctantly dragged out of her that there was such a thing, only said +how nice it would be to go to bed early. + +"Are you tired, dear?" asked Lady Tintagel. + +Helena made a little deprecating face, the face of the prettiest little +martyr in the cause of truth ever beheld. + +"No, I can't exactly say I am," she said. "I think--I think I was +speaking on behalf of Archie and Jessie." + +"But I'm not tired either," said he. "Let's go to somebody's dance. I +can't dance an atom, but Helena shall teach me. There's nothing like +practice in public. What dance is it, by the way?" + +"Oh, that's all right," said she. "It's your Uncle and Aunt Toby. But, +Archie, I'm sure you're tired." + +"But I'm not, I tell you. It's whether you want to go." + +Lady Tintagel struck in. + +"If you all go on being so unselfish," she said, "you will never settle +anything. Try to be selfish for one moment Helena; it won't hurt. Do you +want to go?" + +"Enormously," said she, with a sign of resignation. + +"And you, Archie?" + +"Dying for it. Let's call a taxi." + +"And you, Jessie?" + +"I should hate it," said Jessie very confidently. + +The matter, of course, was settled on those lines, and Helena was duly +credited with having wanted to go enormously, but with having done her +utmost to efface herself for the sake of others. This was precisely the +end she had in view all along, and now, having had the dance, so to +speak, forced on her, she was quite free to enjoy herself. She had +produced precisely the impression she wanted on Archie and his mother, +and, though it was likely that Jessie, with her long familiarity with +such manoeuvres, was not equally unenlightened, she knew, by +corresponding familiarity, Jessie's loyalty. She gave a little butterfly +kiss to Cousin Marion, and a murmur of delighted thanks, and went to her +sister to finish up this very complete little picture. + +"Darling Jessie," she said, "go to bed soon and sleep well. I shall +tiptoe in, in the morning, and, if you're still asleep, I shall tell +them not to wake you till you ring. May I do that, Cousin Marion?" + +Jessie understood all this perfectly well, and her mouth had that curve +in it that might or might not be a smile. + +"Good-night," she said. "Have a nice dance, and teach Archie well." + +To speak of luck is often nothing more than another mode of expressing +the success that usually attends foresight; chance favours the wise +calculation. Helena last night had dropped the most casual hint to Lord +Harlow that she was probably going to this dance to-night, but she was +satisfied that he had been attending, and was not unprepared to see him +there. Even if she had not been able to come, she suspected that he +would do so, and her absence would have been delightfully explained to +him afterwards. But there he was, not dancing, but standing about near +the door of the ball-room, and quite obviously interested in arrivals. +Undoubtedly he saw the brilliant entry of herself and Archie, but she +contrived to put a few of the crowd between herself and him as she +passed near him, and for the present gave him no more than a glance and +a smile, a downdropt eye, and then one glance again, and passed with +Archie into the ball-room. There an ordinary old-fashioned waltz was in +progress, and not one of those anaemic strollings about which were +becoming popular, and she slid off with her radiant partner on to a +floor not overfull. She had a moment's misgiving when she remembered +that Archie had said he couldn't dance, for it would vex her to appear +in the clutch of a bungler; but, after all, Archie could hardly be +awkward if he tried. Immediately all her fears vanished, for they had +hardly gone up the short side of the room before she knew that if any +one was the bungler it was she. She might have guessed, from seeing him +walk and move, that he could dance; what she could not have guessed was +that anybody could dance like this. They floated, they glided; it was +the floor surely that moved under them; it was the wind of that +swinging, voluptuous tune that wafted them on as in some clear eddy of +sunlit water. + +"But, my dear, you said you couldn't dance," she exclaimed. + +"Oh, this sort of thing," said he. "I meant the steppings and crawlings +of the new style." + +Helena was too content to talk; her whole being glowed with the +satisfaction of this flowing movement. The floor got ever emptier: lines +of expectant fox-trotters and bunny-huggers stood round the wall, but +none of them objected to watching for a little longer the entrancing +couple who now had the floor almost to themselves. Couple after couple +dropped off and stood looking, and to Helena's gleaming eyes they passed +in streaks of black and white and many-coloured hues as she and Archie +moved ever more freely and largely over the untenanted space. She could +just see the faces of friends as she passed, and knew that Lord Harlow +had come in and was standing by the door. There was no question of luck +in that; he was but doing what she knew he was obliged to do. Then the +web of sound that poured out of the gallery grew more brightly coloured +as it quickened to its close, and still Archie and she moved without +effort as if they were part of it and of each other. And then the whole +fabric of that divine dream of melody and motion was shattered, for the +dance was over. + +Archie had not spoken either since he intimated that he had alluded to +steppings and crawlings, and now he paused for a moment in the middle of +the room, breathing just a little quickly and bewildered as with some +dazzling light. Ever since he had put his arm round the girl and taken +her hand in his, he had had that sense of sinking into sunlit waters, +where he arrived at his true and naked self. Now he had swum up again, +and he was clothed in black coat and white shirt, and Helena was +standing a step apart from him, and every one else at the edge of the +room was very far away. Instantly a mingling of wild consternation and +triumph seized him. + +"Oh, Helena, were we doing that all by ourselves?" he said. "How +frightful! Let's get out of it. But wasn't it divine? May we do it again +soon? Or will they have nothing but crawlings?" + +It appeared that crawlings were to be the next item, and Archie noticed +that in the crowd that now came about them again a particular man had +his eye on them, and was unmistakably burrowing towards them. + +"Yes, Archie; of course we will," said the girl. "Go and see your aunt, +and ask if we may have another waltz ever so soon. Oh, here's Lord +Harlow; I want to introduce you." + +This was done, and Lord Harlow turned to Helena again. + +"I feel as if I had been present at some Bacchic festival," he said in a +very precise voice. "But you should have vine-leaves in your hair, and +er--your partner a tunic and a thyrsus. I feel myself as prosaic as a +Bradshaw. But may I be your Bradshaw?" + +Helena looked from one to the other; if she had had a tail she would +certainly have been switching it. + +"Ah, do," she said. "A Bradshaw is quite indispensable. Archie, go and +get a thyrsus--will a poker do, Lord Harlow?--and persuade Mrs. Morris +to have another waltz before long." + +Now that the sheer animal exhilaration of that adorable waltz, which +quite precluded talking, was over, it seemed perfectly suitable, as she +plodded along the weary way of the fox-trot, to talk again, and in +answer to Lord Harlow, who had not caught Archie's name, she said: + +"Yes, Lord Davidstow. Surely I told you about him" (she knew that she +had purposely not done so). "He is Lady Tintagel's son, with whom I am +staying." + +Lord Harlow quietly assimilated this as he turned slowly round. + +"And does he do other things as well as he dances?" he asked. + +"I think he does," said she, "though I never really thought about it. +When people are such dears as Archie, one doesn't consider what they do. +They just are." + +"He certainly is. He appears very much alive." + +"Yes, he's madly alive." + +She gave him a swift glance, and, guessing she had gone far enough on +that tack, she put about. + +"I think it's possible to be too much alive," she said. "It's like a +hot-water bottle that is too hot: it burns you. But you can't help being +carried off your feet by it--I don't mean the hot-water bottle." + +He paused a moment for the purpose of phrasing. + +"I must weight you with a Bradshaw," he said. "That will keep you to +earth. We can't spare you." + +Helena laughed. + +"You say things _too_ neatly," she said. "What a delicious notion! What +have you done all day?" + +"I have waited for this evening." + +"And I hope it doesn't disappoint you now that it has come," she said. + +"It is up to my highest expectations just now," said he. + +Suddenly it flashed into Helena's mind that this was the temperature of +his wooing. He was engaged in that now: those neat and proper sentences, +turned as on a lathe, were the expression of it, they and the mild +pleased glances that he gave her; and yet, discreet and veiled as it all +was, she divined that, according to his nature and his years, it was +love that inspired it. She found it quite easy to adjust herself to that +level, and if his kiss (when the time came for that) was of the same +respectful and finished quality, she could deal with that too. But she +wondered how Archie would make love... It was necessary to fox-trot a +little longer, and, while trotting, trot also conversationally, and with +intention she let herself press a little more against his arm. + +"Oh, I am glad of that," she said lightly. "It is such a dreadful pity +when people are disappointed. But I think I would sooner anticipate +something nice and fail to get it, than not anticipate at all. Can you +imagine not looking forward to the delicious things you want?" + +"Do you want very much?" he asked. + +"Yes, everything. And I want it not only for myself but for everybody." + +She made the mental note that he was very shy, for he had nothing in +response to this, except that his shirt creaked. But that suited her +very well; she did not want him to follow this up, just yet. + +Meantime the sedate marchings and retreats and occasional revolution of +the fox-trot went decorously on. The room was very full, and, when there +was nowhere to march to, they stopped where they were and marked time +and rocked a little to and fro. Then perhaps a narrow lane opened in +front of them, and they waddled down it, brushing shoulders against the +hedges. She had seen Archie go to Mrs. Morris, after which he had +appeared for a moment in the gallery where the band was, and now he was +back again, standing near the door and watching her. She gave him little +glances from time to time, elevated her eyebrows as if in deprecation of +this unexhilarating performance, or smiled at him, guessing that he had +arranged for another waltz. + +At last the end came, the fox-trotters ceased to clutch each other, and +walked away with about as much Terpsichorean fervour as they had been +dancing with. Dull though the last twenty minutes had been from that +standpoint, Helena felt quite satisfied with it, while motion--or +perhaps emotion--had made her partner hot; he gently wiped his forehead +with a very fine cambric handkerchief. + +"Perfectly delicious," he said. "I should have liked that to go on for +ever. And how long shall I have to wait before it begins again?" + +Archie had sidled through the crowd up to them. + +"Helena, we're going to have another waltz at once," he cried. "Don't +let us waste any of it." + +She laid her hand on his arm. + +"We?" she said. "Are you quite certain?" + +"May I say 'we' also?" asked Lord Harlow. + +She turned towards him, but her hand still rested on Archie, and he felt +the slight pressure from her fingertips. + +"Oh, I was only teasing my cousin," she said. "I had promised him +another waltz. But, later, may I borrow my Bradshaw again?" + +The band struck up, setting her a-tingle for the repetition of what had +gone before. + +"Oh, Archie, come on," she cried. "_Au revoir_, Bradshaw." + +Alert for movement, with the heady tune of the waltz already mounting +into them like wine, they stepped off on to the floor. It was like +stepping on to some moving platform; it and the tune, without any +conscious effort of their own, seemed to carry them away. But Archie had +one question to ask before he abandoned himself. + +"Bradshaw?" he said. "I thought you told me his name was Harlow." + +She gave a little bubble of laughter. + +"Oh, that was only a joke," she said. "He told me that you and I were +like a Bacchic festival, and he felt as prosy as a Bradshaw in +consequence." + +"But what does it matter to him what we are like?" asked he. + +"Well, it was a compliment; he meant it nicely," said she. "Don't let us +talk; it rather spoils it." + +* * * * * + +Helena reviewed those manoeuvres when she got home that night, and she +congratulated herself on the neatness and efficiency of her +dispositions. She felt sure that she had stirred up a livelier ferment +in Lord Harlow, and had also managed to inspire him with a vague +distrust and jealousy of her intimacy with Archie. She suspected that he +was a little sluggish in his emotions, and this would serve admirably as +a stimulant. She quite realized that she had not yet brought him up to +the point of proposing to her, for his inured bachelor habits would want +a good deal of breaking; but it was clear to her that she had made a +crack in them, and that the judicious use of Archie might be profitably +used to widen that crack. Under the influence merely of her charms, he +might hold together for a long time yet, and she wanted him, if she +could have it entirely her own way, to propose to her about the end of +the season. The effect of Archie constantly with her would be +cumulative: it was not a wedge that would cause him to fly into +splinters forthwith; it would just widen the crack, prevent it closing +again, and then widen it a little more. + +And meanwhile it was extremely pleasant always to have this wedge in her +hand, to hammer from time to time, as it suited her main plan, and at +others to stroke and play with. She was not in love with Archie, but it +made her purr to see that he was certainly falling in love with her, to +dab him with sheathed claws, to wish that he had those material +advantages which had made her choose the elder man. It clearly served +her purpose to use him, and the using of him gave her pleasure. But the +pleasure was secondary--it was the assistance he gave her in breaking up +Lord Harlow that was of primary importance. + +* * * * * + +Archie brought all his gaiety and charm to bear on his love-making. +Falling in love did not appear to him, at this stage, anything but the +most exhilarating, almost hilarious experience. The flirtation that +Helena seemed to be having with Lord Harlow amused him enormously; not +for a moment did he believe that Helena meant anything. Lord Harlow was +not the only man on whom Helena exercised the perfectly legitimate +attraction of her extreme prettiness and her enthusiastic child-like +enjoyment. + +"Oh, every one is so kind and so awfully nice," she said to him one day +as they returned from an early morning ride. "I love them all by the +handful." + +"Including the Bradshaw?" asked he. + +"Yes, certainly including the Bradshaw. Don't you like him? He likes you +so much." + +Archie considered this. + +"I don't know if I like him or not," he said. "I don't think I ever +thought about it. He doesn't matter. But you matter awfully to him. Did +you know that you are the most outrageous flirt, Helena?" + +"Archie, how horrid of you!" said she. "Just because I like people, and +to a certain extent they like me. Why should I be cross and unpleasant +to people, as if it was wicked to like them?" + +"Well, if you'll give me long odds I will bet you that the Bradshaw asks +you to--to be his 'ABC' before the end of the season," said Archie. + +"My dear, what nonsense!" said she, with a sudden thrill of pleasure. +"What can have put that into your head?" + +"I can see it. That's the way a man like the Bradshaw looks at a girl +when his--his affections are engaged. He looks as if a very dear aunt +was dead. He has _amour triste_." + +That certainly hit off a type of gaze to which Helena felt that she had +been subjected, and she laughed. + +"Well, I'll give you five to one in half-crowns," she said. + +"Don't. Some day I shall have twelve and sixpence." + +They turned and cantered back along the soft track. The dew of night had +not yet vanished from the grass, and the geometric looking plane-leaves, +the rhododendrons, and the flower-beds were still varnished with +moisture, and, early though it was, riders and foot-passengers were +plentiful. Probably the day would be hot, for the heat haze, +purplish-brown in the distance, was beginning to form in the air, softly +veiling the further view. Presently they dropped again into a +walking-pace, and Helena, whose mind had been busy on Archie's +description of a certain sort of love-lorn look, spoke of a subject +suggested by it. + +"How do you think Jessie is?" she asked. + +"That's exactly what my mother asked me last night," said he. "She's +rather silent and preoccupied, isn't she?" + +"That struck me," said the girl. "I thought perhaps she wasn't very +well, but she told me there was nothing the matter. Darling Jessie is so +reserved. She never tells me anything. Certainly she looks well: do you +think she has anything on her mind?" + +"I don't see what she could have. But it's odd that it has struck all of +us." + +Helena sighed and shook her head with a pretty, unreproachful air. + +"I sometimes wish that Jessie would make more of a friend of me," she +said. "I try so hard to get close to her, but all the time I feel she is +keeping me at arm's length. It would be lovely to have a sister who +would admit me to her own, own self. But I always have to tap, so to +speak, at Jessie's door, and she so often says she won't open it." + +"Was she always like that?" asked Archie, seeing that Helena's eyes were +dim and bright. + +"Yes, but lately I think it has been worse. I wish Jessie would let me +in. However, I am always waiting, and I think Jessie knows that. It is +no use pressing for confidence, is it? One can only wait." + +This picture, so simply and pathetically conveyed by Helena of herself +waiting, a little dim-eyed, for Jessie to admit her, was very +convincing, and Archie wondered at the contrast between the two sisters, +the one so childlike in her confidence that all the world was her +friend, the other holding herself rather detached, rather aloof, without +that welcoming charm of manner that surely was the expression of an +adorable mind. It was not wholly the light of his dawning love that +invested the sketch with such tender colouring, for there was a great +finish and consistency in Helena's presentation of herself which might +have deceived the most neutral and heart-whole of observers. + +Such was the first impression: then suddenly some instinct that lay +below the surface surged up in rebellion against it, and washed the +tender colouring out. It told him that the impression was a false one, +that Jessie, so far from being callous and self-centred, as was the +suggestion conveyed by Helena's words, was of faithful and golden heart. +And then, looking idly over the crowd that was growing thick on the +broad gravel walk, he suddenly caught sight of Jessie herself looking at +them. She was some little distance behind the rails that separated the +ride from the path, and she instantly looked away, spoke to a girl who +was with her, and strolled on. But Archie felt quite sure that she had +seen them. + +He turned to Helena. + +"Surely that is Jessie," he said to her, pointing with his whip. + +Helena had seen her also, and she smiled rather sadly, rather wistfully. + +"Yes," she said. "But she doesn't want us, Archie." + +And at that the instinct which had spoken to him so emphatically a +moment before sank out of hearing again, and the colour returned to +Helena's deft little sketch. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +It was four o'clock on an afternoon of mid-July, and the westering sun +had begun to blaze into the drawing-room windows of Colonel Vautier's +house in Oakland Crescent. It was pleasant enough there in the winter, +for the room, being small, was easily heated; but in the summer, with +even greater ease it grew oven-like, and Helena, sitting by the open +window for the sake of any air that might possibly wander into the dusty +crescent, was obliged to pull down the blinds. She had tried sitting in +her father's study, but that had an infection of stray cigar-smoke about +it which she did not want to catch, and the dining-room and her own +bedroom, since they faced the same way as the drawing-room, presented no +counter-attractions. So, reluctantly, she was compelled to sit here, +while Jessie, with a book in her hand, sat at the other end of the room. +Jessie had a slight attack of hay-fever, and from time to time indulged +in a fit of sneezing. It seemed to Helena that she was being very +inconsiderate: it was always possible to stifle a sneeze. But Jessie +never thought about other people. Helena, by way of waiting patiently at +Jessie's door (according to the tender image she had fashioned for +Archie's benefit) had just expressed this opinion slightly veiled, and +she was pleased to see that at this moment Jessie left the room. A sound +of sneezing from outside indicated that at last her sister had grasped +how exceedingly unpleasant her hay-fever was for other people. Then +there came the sound of ascending steps, and she guessed that Jessie had +gone to her bedroom. The floors were wretchedly thin and +ill-constructed; you could, from any room in the house, hear movements +from any other room, especially since Colonel Vautier and Jessie had +such solid, resounding steps when they went anywhere. + +Left to herself, Helena cleared her decks, and enumerated her cause of +complaint against Providence, who ought to have been so kind to an +innocent, loving little soul. In the first place, her father had +finished his irrigation business in Egypt unexpectedly soon, and instead +of arriving in London not before September, had come two months earlier +than the most pessimistic daughter could have expected. The news of his +approaching arrival had provoked a perfect conspiracy against Helena's +comfort and her plans, for every one, including Cousin Marion, who had +been so insistent on the girls' staying with her till he got home, had +taken it for granted that they would at once rejoin him. Surely it would +have been sufficient for Jessie to go (and she did Jessie the justice of +allowing that she was perfectly ready to do so), leaving Helena to help +Cousin Marion in the answering of her letters in the morning for some +half-hour, in the entertaining of her numerous guests, and in +accompanying her to any of those pleasant gaieties which swarmed about +that desirable house. But instead, Cousin Marion had been quite unaware, +to all appearance, of the hints Helena had subtly suggested, and Archie +had been equally uncomprehending. When she had said, "This house seems +so much more like my home than any other," he had certainly glowed with +pleasure, but had not thought it was meant to have any application with +regard to her going back to Oakland Crescent. No one had taken her +hints; it had occurred to nobody how suitable it was that Jessie should +go to look after her father, and Helena remain to look after her cousin. +But since her hints were not taken, Helena, like the excellent tactician +she was, had retreated in preference to standing her ground and +suffering defeat. She had to retreat, and she retreated with exactly the +proper mixture of regret at leaving Grosvenor Square and of joy at her +father's premature return. And when his taxi cab drew up palpitating at +the door, it was she who ran down the three concrete steps from the +front-door and across the awful little dusty yard called the front +garden, with its cinder path that circulated round one laurel-bush, and +flung herself into his arms, and helped the parlour-maid to carry in his +bag, while Jessie waited in the narrow entrance that reeked of the +ascending fumes of dinner, for the parlour-maid, as usual, had left open +the door at the head of the kitchen stairs. + +There was a grudge against Providence even deeper than this unnecessary +transplanting of herself to Oakland Crescent, when she might so +comfortably have flourished in Grosvenor Square, Archie had dined with +them two nights ago, before taking her on to a dance, and in the +interval that followed dinner, when her father and Archie remained +downstairs, she had a painful scene with Jessie. Jessie, according to +Helena's public version, had misunderstood her in the cruellest manner, +but she knew that her real complaint here was not that her sister had +cruelly misunderstood her, but had, in fact, cruelly understood her, +which was more intolerable than any misunderstanding could have been. +She could have borne a misunderstanding very patiently, but to be +understood was of the nature of an exposure, of a kind scarcely decent, +and impossible to forget. + +It had begun so stupidly, so innocuously. She had but left a few orchids +on her dressing-table, and Jessie, who naturally was not going to the +dance, but was remaining at home to keep her father company, most kindly +offered to get them for her. She came down again so ominously silent +that Helena had asked her what the trouble was, and it appeared that +Jessie had seen on the dressing-table the card of Lord Harlow with a +safety-pin attached to it. + +"Yes, darling, why not?" Helena had said. "He sent me those lovely +orchids--thank you so much for getting them. He is going to be there +to-night, and as he sent expressly for them from Harlow, naturally I +shall wear them. It would be rude not to, don't you think?" + +Jessie did not reply, and Helena repeated her question. For answer, +Jessie had said in that soft rich voice which was the only thing that +Helena envied her: + +"You revolt me." + +Helena became quite cool and collected. She might represent herself as +being tearful and pathetic at the thought of Jessie's unkindness, but +that attitude was useless with Jessie alone, and she never adopted it. + +"Oh! May I ask why I revolt you?" she asked. + +"Certainly, although you know already. Archie is in love with you." + +Helena adopted the phrases of affection. She did so simply to irritate +her sister. + +"Darling, how delicious you are!" she said. "But mayn't I wear a flower +from Tom, Dick, or Harry for that reason? I don't grant the reason for a +moment; but, even if I did, what then? Besides, Archie hasn't given me +any flowers, and one must have flowers at a dance." + +But Jessie refused to be irritated. Helena's speech seemed to have +exactly the opposite effect on her: she became gentle and apologetic. + +"I'm sorry I said that you revolted me," she said. "It was thoughtless +and stupid. But, O Helena, you are so thoughtless too. Do forgive me for +questioning you, but--but are you intending to marry Lord Harlow if he +asks you? If so, do make it clear to Archie, before things get worse, +that you have no thought of him. You like him, don't you? You might save +his suffering." + +This was the understanding, not the misunderstanding, that was so cruel. +But Helena was quite capable of being cruel too. She smelled her +orchids, and pinned them into her gown. Simultaneously she heard feet on +the stairs, and Archie's resonant laugh. She got up. + +"I might almost think you were jealous of Archie's affection for me, +darling," she said, in her most suave tones. + +Before the door opened she saw Jessie's face flame with colour, and +laughed to herself at the defencelessness of love. Next moment Archie +launched himself into the room. + +"Hullo! What fine orchids!" he said. "Who sent you them, Helena? I bet +you the Bradshaw did. What a thing it is to have opulent admirers! I +wish I had got some." + +But since that evening, now nearly a week ago, Jessie had not spoken to +Helena except when mere manners in the presence of other people required +it. That was a tiresome, uncomfortable situation. In a big house it +would not have mattered much, for they could easily have sat in +different rooms; but here it made an awkwardness in the narrow +existence. But Helena had the consolation of knowing that she had not +merely knocked at Jessie's door, but had battered it in. The secret +chamber stood open to her, and the shrine in it was revealed before +unpitying eyes. + +Here, then, were two grievances against the world, that might have taxed +the patience of Job, and certainly super-taxed the patience of Helena. +On the top of these, Ossa on Pelion, was perched an anxiety that had +begun seriously to trouble her, for already it was the middle of July +and Lord Harlow had as yet said nothing which suggested that he was +going to propose to her. She knew that she charmed and captivated him, +who had never looked seriously at a girl twice (nor at poor Daisy once); +but he was undeniably a long time making up his mind, and Helena, though +accustomed to repose the greatest confidence in herself, did not feel +sure that she would prove equal to defeating the long-standing habit of +celibacy. Even the continuous use of Archie in the capacity of a wedge +seemed to make no impression, and she was beginning to be desperately +afraid that the wedge would turn in her hand, and ask her to marry him +before Lord Harlow succumbed. This would be a very awkward situation; +most inauspicious developments might follow, for it would be tragic if +she accepted Archie, and Lord Harlow proposed immediately afterwards, +while, if she refused Archie, it would be a crown of tragedy if Lord +Harlow did not propose at all. She had determined, in fact, if Archie +proposed first, to ask him to wait for his answer. + +A little breeze was stirring now, and Helena pulled up the blind to let +it and the sun enter together, rather than endure this stifling +stagnancy any longer, and gazed with the profoundest disgust at the mean +outlook. The house stood in the centre of a small curve of three-storied +buildings; in front was its little square of cindery walk with the one +laurel in the middle, and a row of iron palings with a gate that would +not shut which separated it from the road. On the other side of that was +a small demilune of a garden, which gave the place the title of +Crescent, and beyond that a straight row of houses all exactly alike. A +milkman was going his rounds with alto cries, and slovenly cooks and +parlour-maids came out of area gates with milk-jugs in their hands. A +lean and mournful cat, with dirty, dishevelled fur, as unlike as +possible to the sleek, smart mouser she had seen at the station, sat on +a gate-post, blinking in the sun, and every now and then uttering a +faint protest against existence generally. Helena could have found it in +her heart to mew in answer. + +The hot afternoon wore itself away, and presently the parlour-maid came +in to lay a table for tea. This entailed a great many comings-in and a +great many goings-out, and she usually left the door open, so that there +oozed its way up the stairs a mixed smell of cigars and incipient +cooking. The cigar smell came from the little back room adjoining the +dining-room where Colonel Vautier, with tropical habits, spent the hour +after tiffin (it seemed that he could not say "lunch") in dozings and +smokings. Meantime the parlour-maid came in and out, now with a large +brass tea-tray, to place on the table, now with plates and cups and +saucers to put on it. She breathed strongly through her nose, and wore a +white apron with white braces over her sloping shoulders. + +From outside, during these trying moments, there came the sound of a +motor-horn, and immediately afterwards the soft crunch of gravel below a +motor's wheels. From where she sat, Helena could look out of the window, +and from her torpid discontent she leaped with a bound into a state of +alert expectancy. She hazarded, so to speak, all the small change she +had in her pocket. For a moment she put her slim fingers in front of her +eyes and thought intensely. Then she spoke to the parlour-maid. + +"Take a tray of tea to Colonel Vautier in his study," she said, "and say +that I have got a headache and told you to bring his tea to him there. +Tell Miss Jessie"--Helena paused a moment--"tell her that a friend of +mine has come to see me, and that I want to talk to him privately here. +That's all: now open the door, and say that I am in." + +Helena rushed to the looking-glass above the fire-place, and disarranged +her hair a little. She took a book at random out of the shelves, and sat +down with it. She heard a little stir in the hall below, and had a +moment of agony in thinking that her father's door had opened. Then the +stairs creaked under ascending footsteps, and her visitor was announced. + +"Who?" she said, as the parlour-maid spoke his name, and then he +entered. + +She rose from her chair, with a smile that was almost incredulous. + +"But how lovely of you!" she said. "I am delighted. What a business you +must have had to find your way to our dear little slum." + +Her hopes rose high: he looked like a man who had made up his mind. He +was clearly nervous, but it was the nervousness of a man who has +definitely sat down in the dentist's chair, and has resolved to get rid +of that aching. He sat down in the chair Helena indicated, and looked +round the room. It really was rather pretty. Helena had the knack of +projecting her graceful self into any room she much used. Archie had +sent a hamper of roses only this morning. + +"Slum?" he said. "I should like to live in this slum." + +Helena looked at him gravely. + +"Well, there is a spare room," she said, "which we can let you. You +won't mind a gurgling cistern next door, will you? But wasn't it lovely? +Daddy came home a whole month earlier than I had expected, so I flew +back here to be with him. Cousin Marion wanted me to stop with her, and +let Jessie come back. It was sweet of her to want me, but how could I +remain when Daddy was here? Tea?" + +She gave him his cup, and continued her careful prattle. + +"So of course I flew here," she said. "Sometimes I rather wish that a +fairy-prince would descend, and pick up the house, and put it somewhere +where there weren't quite so many barrel-organs; but one gets accustomed +to everything. I think Daddy and Jessie must be out. They planned going +out together, I know, and I haven't seen either of them since lunch. +They are such dears! They are so much to each other! Sometimes I should +get a little bit jealous of each of them, if I allowed myself to. Ah! do +have one of those little cakes. They are made in the house; you probably +smelled them as you came upstairs. How lucky I asked the cook to make +some to-day. Sometimes she is cross, and won't; but to-day she was kind. +Did she have a brain-wave, do you think, and know that you were coming?" + +He ate one of the little cakes which really came from the pastry-cook's +just round the corner, and while his mouth was full, Helena proceeded +with her talented conversation. She was working at full horse-power, she +wanted to dazzle without intermission. + +"I daresay all the people who were so friendly will find their way here +in time," she said, "but will you pity me, just in a superficial way, +sometimes during August? Darling daddy has so much to do at the Colonial +Office, or the Irrigation Office, or whatever it is, that he will have +to be here all August." + +"But he won't keep you in London?" asked he. + +Helena laughed. + +"Certainly he won't, for I shall keep myself," she said. "I shall try to +persuade Jessie to go down to Lacebury with Cousin Marion, and I think I +shall succeed. And where will you be? Up in Scotland, I suppose." + +He put down the end of the cigarette which Helena had given him. He was +less likely, if he was smoking, to smell the faint odour of cigar that +had mounted the stairs. But, as a matter of fact, he would not have +noticed the smell of burned feathers just then. + +He turned to her quickly. + +"I shall be--wherever you will permit me to be," he said. "But, wherever +that is, mayn't we be together? I want never to be away from you any +more. I want nothing else in the world but that." + +Helena raised dewy eyes to him. + +"Do you mean...?" she began. "Do you mean...?" + +"Yes. And I want your answer." + +"That is, 'yes,' too," she said. + +She had an almost irresistible desire to burst into peals of laughter, +but it was not so difficult to transform that into an aspect of radiant +happiness. He kissed her, and she could feel his hands laid on her +shoulders, trembling. And, out of sheer gratitude, she found herself +able to respond quite passably, for the innate respectability of passion +touched her. He had paid her the sincerest compliment that a man can pay +a girl, in expressing his desire to have her always with him, to be the +father of her children, to renounce such freedom as had been his, and to +take in exchange for it a devoted slavery. And, since it was exactly +that which she had set her purpose to accomplish, it was no wonder that +she was content. + +But, as soon as he had left her, without translating into the sphere of +practical arrangements the when and how of their mutual pledge, Helena, +after one tip-toe dance round the drawing-room, sat down again and was +instantly immersed in those considerations. He would have liked to dine +with them that night, but Archie was coming, and so, before he called +again next morning, it was necessary to indulge in careful thought so as +to produce a spontaneous suggestion next day. On her face she wore the +happiness of child-like smiles, and throughout her meditations that +never faded. Occasionally it was as if the sun was withdrawn behind some +fleece of a summer cloud, but, if there had been a machine for the +registration of her internal sunshine, there would scarcely have been a +break in the record of serene hours. + +Archie occupied her first; she was sorry for Archie, because the blow +that this would be to him glanced back on to her. She had long ago made +up her mind not to marry him if she could succeed in the quest now +accomplished, but she regretted that now she would never see his eyes +glow as he blurted out--she knew he would blurt it out, and probably +kiss her with that light, rough eagerness which was so characteristic of +him--the tale of his love. Not so many weeks ago, at Silorno, she had +determined to marry him, but that was before the wider horizon opened to +her. If he had proposed to her then she would certainly have accepted +him, but she felt, though so much finer a future had now dawned on her, +a sort of grudge against him for not having done so. That made the +thought of telling him not unpleasant to her; there was an excitement in +the thought of seeing his blank face--would it be blank? She thought +so--when he heard her news. Perhaps the sight of how much it hurt him +would hurt her also, but that pain would somehow enfold a rapture, for +it would be clear how much he wanted her. But why had he not kissed her, +when they sat on that last evening in the dark garden at Silorno? All +might have been different then. Never till this afternoon had a man +kissed her, and that kiss had struck her as being a little prim and +proper. Archie would not and could not have been prim, he would have +been quick and impulsive; there would have been something romantic about +it, for with him she could have supplied that gleam of romance herself. + +There had been fleecy clouds during this part of her meditation, and +they gathered again, ever so light, as she thought of Cousin Marion and +Jessie. Everybody was so clever nowadays, and she was afraid that Cousin +Marion had seen that Archie was in love with her, even as Jessie had +done. It would be tiresome if they behaved censoriously about it, and +replied frigidly to congratulations, and made cold faces at the wedding. +But she thought she could get round Cousin Marion, who, from experience, +she knew was very easily convinced, but Jessie was more clear-sighted... +And then, with a sense of refreshment, she remembered how Jessie had +betrayed herself not so many days ago. Thereat the sun came out quite +serenely again, and remained out when she thought of her father. He +loved shooting, and Helena determined that he should enjoy quantities of +shooting. He loved all sorts of the nice things that money made so +easily procurable, comfort and good cigars and riding and bathrooms +attached to bedrooms. Certainly there should be a delicious room for him +in all her houses; she would name it "daddy's room." The filial +sentimentality of this quite overcame her, and she murmured "darling +daddy," and felt just as if she had sacrificed herself for him and made +this marriage in order to secure him a comfortable old age. Bertie and +he would get on excellently together: they could talk about +tiger-shooting, and temples, and exotic affairs--for Bertie was a great +traveller, and, if he wanted to travel again, she had no intention of +being an apron-stringing wife. Marriage became a sacrilege rather than a +sacrament if it was an affair of watch-dogs on the leash, ready to +follow up trails. And again she softly applauded the nobility of her +sentiments. + +There was a faint stir and rattle of crockery in the room below, which +implied that the parlour-maid was removing her father's tea. Helena knew +all the noises of the house, down to the gurgling sound of +tooth-cleaning that came from her father's bedroom, which showed that he +was nearly dressed, and now, correctly interpreting the chink of plate +and tea-cup, she was certain of finding him in his study with his +after-tea cigar. Very likely Jessie had gone there too; for she often +took the evening paper in to her father and read him the news, and +Helena hoped that this was the case to-day. She could let Jessie know +the event of the afternoon with less embarrassment if there was somebody +else present. She could tell her father about it much more easily than +she could tell Jessie alone. She would sit close to him, and whisper and +hide her head... her sense of drama would make it all quite simple. + +She fastened one of the cream-coloured roses that Archie had brought her +into the front of her dress and went down to her father's room. It was a +stale little apartment, dry and brown and smoked like a kippered +herring, furnished chiefly with books and files and decorated with the +produce of oriental bazaars, spears and shells and things suggestive of +mummies. He was in a big basket chair close to the window, and in the +window-seat, as she had hoped, sat Jessie, with the evening paper. + +Helena had not forgotten that she had sent a message to him that she had +a headache, and to Jessie that a friend had come to see her with a wish +for a private conversation. She made these little plans quickly perhaps +but always coolly, and remembered them afterwards. Sometimes a little +delicate adjustment was necessary, but she seldom got caught out... + +"Darling daddy," she said, "may I pay you a little visit? Or are you and +Jessie engrossed in something I shan't understand?" + +"No, come in, dear," said he. "How's the headache?" + +She hovered for a moment like some bright bird, and then perched herself +on the arm of his chair, between him and her sister. + +"It's quite gone, ever so many thanks," she said. "I think I must have +had a little snooze just before tea, which took it away. And then, as I +told Jessie, somebody came here especially to have a little talk to me. +Daddy, how delicious your cigar smells!" + +"And who was you visitor?" he asked. + +"Lord Harlow," said she very softly, and paused. + +Jessie had put down her paper, and Helena could feel that she was +listening in tense expectation. She did not look round, but firmly laid +her hand on Jessie's clasping it. The other she tucked into her father's +arm, and leaned her head against his shoulder. + +"Daddy, I had a long talk to him," she said, "and he is coming here +again to-morrow morning. At least, he did the talking, and I only spoke +when he had said what he had come to say. Oh, my dear, I am so happy, so +awfully, awfully happy." + +Helena felt that she had done that quite beautifully. If she had thought +about it for ever so long, she could not have improved on it. A few +boisterous ejaculations from her father followed, and, finding that +Jessie had disengaged her hand, she completed the circle round her +father's arm. Then presently she rose, with smiling and suffused face, +just kissed him, and left the room. + +"Well, I'm sure that's the best bit of news I've heard for a long time," +he said. "Certainly he is a good deal older than she, but there's no +harm in that. I was twenty years older than your mother, Jessie. And +what do you think of it all?" + +"I think Helena will be very happy," said Jessie. + +"So do I, and I'm sure she deserves to be. If she's as kind and loving +to her husband as she has been to her father, we shan't hear any +complaints. Dear me! What a bit of news!" + +He was silent a moment. + +"How we old folk get out of touch with young people!" he said. "If I had +been told to guess who it was who would ask Helena to be his wife, I +should have said it was Archie. Didn't you think that Archie was very +fond of her?" + +Mixed with Jessie's misery for Archie's sake, and with her bitter +contempt for her sister, was a pity for Helena, as deep as the sea, that +she could be what she was. She could wear the roses Archie had sent her, +and not be burned alive by them... + +"I never though that Helena really cared for him," she said quietly. + +"No? Well, you were more clear-sighted than I. But I fancy Marion +thought so too. He's dining with us to-night, isn't he? Or will Helena +put him off? And are we to say anything to him about it?" + +"I expect Helena will tell us what she wishes," said Jessie. + +He laughed. + +"No doubt she will. She--what's the phrase?--she pulls the strings in +this piece, doesn't she? Bless me, it's after six o'clock. We might go +across the bridge and have a stoll in Battersea Park. I expect Helena +will like to be left alone. Yes; what is it?" + +The parlour-maid had come in, with the request that Colonel Vautier +would go to see Helena for a minute now, or some time before dinner. +Accordingly he went upstairs, in high good humour, stumbling on the +carpet-rods. + +"Oh, daddy, how sweet of you to come to me at once!" she said. "Archie's +dining here to-night, and I think I will tell him my news myself. He's +such a dear; it would hurt him to hear it from anybody else." + +Colonel Vautier felt that he had perhaps not been so wrong after all. + +"Yes, my dear, that is kind and thoughtful of you," he said. + +"So I'll tell him as soon as he gets here," said she. "Will you and +Jessie be very kind and let me have two minutes with him?" + +Helena's eyes wandered away a minute, and returned rather dewy to her +father's face. + +"Perhaps you would tell Jessie for me," she said. + +She opened her eyes very wide, in a sort of childlike bewilderment. + +"I wonder why Jessie is so cold to me," she said. "I must have vexed her +somehow without meaning it. I feel sad about it. She did not say one +word when I told you and her my news; she did not kiss me..." + +"Jessie is never very demonstrative," said her father, intending to +speak to Jessie about this. + +"No; perhaps that's all. Thank you ever so much, daddy." + +She watched them going out together, and thought what a pity it was that +some people were so frank as to say that others revolted them, even +though they apologized afterwards. It never paid to be coarse and rude +like that... + +Helena, according to her plan, was in the drawing-room among his roses +when Archie arrived. + +"It was delicious of you to send them," she said. "And I've +got--something for you." + +"Hurrah!" said Archie. "What is it?" + +She had put a half sovereign and a half-crown on the corner of the +mantel-piece, and handed it to him. + +"A tip?" he said. + +"No; a bet. I am poor but honest." + +He looked at the money. + +"Twelve and six?" he said. "When did you bet me twelve-and-six?" + +Helena came a step closer to him. Even in the middle of London there was +something of sea-wind and open spaces about Archie. + +"Oh, you stupid boy!" she said. "How many half-crowns is that?" + +Suddenly Archie remembered the wager he had made with her one morning in +the Park, that Lord Harlow would propose to her before the end of the +season. He pocketed the money with a shout of laughter. + +"Ha! I knew I should win," he said, "but it wasn't nice of me to laugh. +I take back the laugh. Poor old Bradshaw! Did he mind much?" + +Helena looked at him, still standing close to him, smiling and in +silence. She really found him most attractive at that moment, and she +wondered with how changed a face he would presently look at her. + +"Yes, he proposed to me this afternoon," she said, still smiling, and +still looking at him. + +"Well, poor old Bradshaw!" said Archie once more. But he did not say it +with quite the same confidence. + +She laid her hand, that soft hand with sheathed claws, on his arm. + +"Archie, aren't you going to wish me happiness?" she asked. + +The lines of his laughter still lingered on his handsome mouth, but now +they were merely stamped there and meant nothing. + +"Wish you happiness?" he rapped out in a hard snappish voice. + +"Yes; isn't it usual between friends?" + +"Do you mean you've accepted him?" he asked. + +"Yes, my dear. Haven't I told you?" + +"Is it a joke?" he asked. "Shall I laugh?" + +Helena moved a little away from him, and rang the bell. Archie looked so +strange. She had expected something far more moving and dramatic than +this wooden immobility. + +"Tell Colonel Vautier and Miss Jessie that Lord Davidstow has come," she +said to the parlour-maid. + +Archie said nothing till the door had closed again. He felt that he was +made of wood, that everything was made of wood, he and Helena and the +roses he had sent, and the Persian rug on which he stood. And when he +spoke, it was as if a machine in his mouth said the words which had +nothing whatever to do with him. + +"I congratulate you," he said. "I hope you will be very happy." + +Colonel Vautier entered; he had been to the cellar to get out a bottle +of champagne in which to drink the health of Helena and the man she had +chosen. + +"Good evening, my dear Archie," he said. "I know Helena has told you her +news." + +Archie shook hands, and then his eyes went back to Helena again. She had +never looked more entrancingly pretty, but she was made of wood. And +then Jessie came in; they were all there, and dinner was ready, and down +they went. In this wooden world, everything went on in precisely the +same way as it had done when people were made of flesh and blood. Some +cunning mechanical contrivance enabled them to talk and smile and eat: +food tasted the same and so did the champagne in which presently they +drank Helena's health. It was the same prickly, bubbly stuff, with a +little sting in it, that he so seldom drank. But it unfroze the surface +of the stricture that bound him, as when the first stir of a thawing +wind moistens the surface of ice. He began to feel again, to be +conscious that somewhere within him was a deep well of the waters of +pain. But anything was better than that cataleptic insensibility, which +was like being unconscious, and, all the time, knowing that he was +unconscious. + +They were not going out that night, and after dinner they sat down to a +rubber of bridge, in which as usual Helena took Archie as a partner, +because she always insisted that she could form some idea of the +principles on which he played, whereas the other two but wandered in a +starless and Cimmerian gloom when mated with him. But Helena claimed +that her spiritual affinity with Archie enabled her to perceive that, +when he declared hearts, he wished her to understand that he hadn't got +any, and that she would do well to declare something different. "Bridge, +properly understood," Archie had enunciated once, "is a form of poker: +you must bewilder and terrify your adversary. And then the fun begins, +and you get fined." What added to the hilarity was the concentrated +seriousness which Jessie and her partner brought to bear on the game, +and the miser's greed and avaricious eye with which Jessie was popularly +supposed to see her score mounting. All these jokes, these squibs of +light-hearted nonsense, were there to-night, but there was nothing +behind them. It was as if they were spoken from habit; a frigid +rehearsal of some pithless drama was going on; they were tinsel flowers +stuck into arid and seedless ground, and sprang no longer from the warm +earth. + +The sense of wooden unreality soon began to close in again on Archie, +with that utter absence of feeling which was so far more terrible than +any feeling could be, that soulless insensitiveness as of a live +consciousness that knew it was dead, and he rose from the table after +Helena had delivered him from the consequence of some outrageous +declaration, and went across to a side-table where were placed syphons +and spirits. But now, instead of pouring himself out a glass of +soda-water, he half filled his tumbler with whisky, and but added a +cream of bubble on the top of it. Immediately almost his sense of touch +with life returned; there stole back into himself and the figures of +Colonel Vautier and Jessie the perception of their several identities, +and into Helena the love with which he had endowed her. But that, and +all that it implied, was better than feeling nothing at all. He knew, +too, that when Jessie spoke to him, or looked at him, her voice and her +eyes held for him a supreme and infinite sympathy. He could not reach +it, but he knew it was there. Perhaps when he got used to those new +conditions of nightmare existence, he could make it accessible, get into +touch with it. At present he scarcely wanted it; he wanted nothing so +long as this perception of life still ran in his brain, except Helena. +He thought that she rather pitied him too, but it was not her pity he +wanted, for it was she who had brought her pity on himself. + +They played two or three rubbers; Jessie's miserly greed was assuaged by +precisely the sum that Archie had won from Helena, and Colonel Vautier, +after seeing him out, went back to his study to indulge himself in the +cigar which was not permitted in the drawing-room, and the two sisters +were left there. Helena's brain had long been busy, beneath the habitual +jests of their game, over her future relations with Jessie, and she had +come to the conclusion that the sooner they talked the matter out the +better. She found that it affected her comfort to be practically not on +speaking terms with her sister, and, since she had no shrinking from +what might be a painful interview for others, she had made up her mind +to ascertain exactly how Jessie meant to behave to her in the few weeks +for which they would be in close daily and hourly contact, for Lord +Harlow had expressed his mind very clearly about an early date for their +wedding, and Helena entirely agreed with him. + +Jessie, on her part, could scarcely manage to think about her sister at +all. With Archie in front of her all evening she had barely been +conscious of anything but his bitter and miserable disillusionment, his +awakening from the dream that had become so real to him. She was still +seated at the card-table, and with that need for trivial employment +which so often accompanies emotional crises, she was building a house +with the cards they had been using, devoting apparently her whole +faculties to its breathless construction. The strong, beautiful hands +which Archie had never noticed hovered over it, alighting with their +building materials, putting each card delicately and firmly in place, +and her grave face watched the ascending stories, as if Babylon the +Great was rising again for the marvel of mankind. Then Helena sat down +by her, and, leaning her arm on the table, caused a vibration that +demolished Babylon from garret to cellar. + +"Oh, Jessie, I'm so sorry," she said, and she was; the fall of an +ingenious card-house was the sort of thing that provoked her pity. + +Jessie swept the cards together and seemed about to get up. + +"It doesn't matter," she said. "It is bed-time, isn't it?" + +Helena put her head wistfully on one side. + +"Aren't you being horribly unkind to me?" she said. She did not suppose +it was much use playing on the pathetic stop, that made, as a general +rule, so insincere a bleating in her sister's ears, but it was worth +trying. + +"I don't think there is any use in talking, Helena," she said. "If I am +unkind, if I can't bear what you have done, it is because I simply can't +help it." + +Helena fingered the debris of the card-house with those more delicate +fingers that could caress and claw so exquisitely. Essentially, she +cared not one atom what Jessie thought of her, but she wanted not to be +uncomfortable for the next few weeks. + +"Ah, that is it?" she added. "You are satisfied to hate and detest me +because you can't help it. That seems to you a final and unanswerable +excuse. But nobody else may do anything because she can't help it." + +"But you could have helped what you have done," said Jessie. "You made +Archie think you cared for him. You let him fall in love with you on +that assumption." + +"He let himself fall in love with me," said Helena. "That was not my +fault. Besides..." + +She was silent a moment, weaving delicate spider-threads in her mind. +She really wanted to propitiate Jessie just now, otherwise she would +certainly have reminded her that she, anyhow, had allowed herself to +fall in love with Archie, though she would not say that that was +Archie's fault. It would have been amusing to suggest that, but it did +not seem to tend towards reconciliation. She bent her graceful head a +little lower over the fallen card-house. It had collapsed with tragic +suddenness, even as Archie had collapsed. + +"Besides," she went on, "it was open to Archie to propose to me. He did +not. We were several weeks together at Silorno. And then I came to +London and met Bertie. Was it my fault that I fell in love with him? I +think you are horribly unkind to me." + +Jessie came a step nearer. + +"Are you in love with him?" she asked. "If you tell me you are in love +with him..." + +"Do you think I should marry him if I was not?" asked Helena, looking +the picture of limpid, childlike innocence. + +Jessie made no reply. She could not say that she believed Helena was in +love with him, though she was assuredly going to marry him. She could +not tell a lie of that essential kind; merely the words would not come. + +"If I have wronged you in any way, Helena," she said at length, "I am +most sincerely sorry for it. I ask your forgiveness unconditionally." + +Helena rose, wreathed in tender smiles and liquid eyes. + +"Darling, you have my forgiveness with all my heart," she said. "And may +I ask you one thing? Will you try to feel a little more kindly towards +me? If you only knew how your unkindness hurts me." + +* * * * * + +But Jessie, lying awake that night, striving, with all the sincerity +that permeated her from skin to marrow, to make the effort that Helena +had asked of her, made no headway at all. She utterly distrusted and +disbelieved her. And somewhere, lying beneath the darkness of the +windless night, was Archie, for whose happiness she would have given her +heart's last blood. But all of it would not help him one atom while he, +in the perverse dispensations of destiny, wanted only what he could not +get, Helena's love. He could not get it because it did not exist. She +did not love; the faculty had been denied her. + +* * * * * + +Suddenly she felt frightened about Archie. He had sunk somewhere out of +reach this evening; a lid had shut down on him. Once or twice it had +seemed to lift for a moment, and she remembered what made it lift. + + + + +_BOOK III_ + + + +CHAPTER IX + +Late one afternoon about a week after, Archie was sitting with his old +nurse, Blessington, in the room that had once been his day-nursery. He +had left London the day after Helena had so honourably paid him the five +half-crowns he had won from her, and since then he had been living here +alone with his father. This evening, his mother and Jessie were coming +down from town, his mother to remain here till she went up to London +again for Helena's wedding which had been fixed for the end of the first +week in August, while Jessie was but coming for a long week-end. Helena +remained in town, where she was very busy shopping, and unpacking the +lovely presents which Lord Harlow sent or brought to her, morning, noon, +and night. They were really delightful presents, and the material of +them was large precious stones, exquisitely set. + +Archie had long made it a habit, when he was at home, to pay a visit to +his old nurse before he went to dress for dinner. She had become +housekeeper after the fledging of the family, and now, half-way through +the decade of her seventies, did little more, when Archie was away, than +sit white-haired and stately with her sewing or her knitting, and feel +that she was very busy. But when Archie came home she would burst into +violent activities, and constitute herself his nurse again, to whom he +was always "Master Archie," and quite a little boy still. It mattered +not one rap to her that he had his own valet, none other indeed than +William, who in days gone by had fished him out of the lake, and +received a gold watch and chain for the rescue, for Blessington was +always in and out of his room, taking coats and trousers away to have +buttons more securely adjusted, and loading her work-basket with piles +of his socks and underclothing in which her eyes, still needle-sharp for +all her seventy-five years, had detected holes that required darning. +This habit of hers sometimes drove William nearly mad, for Blessington +would take away all Archie's washing when it came back from the laundry, +in order to inspect it thoroughly, and when his distracted valet wanted +clean clothes, and applied to her for them, she would often entirely +forget that she had taken them, and firmly deny the appropriation. Then +William would craftily manage to get her to open her cupboard door, and +lo, there was all Archie's clean linen. And Blessington would exclaim, +"Eh, I must have taken it, and it went out of my head." Or she would +abstract his sponge from the bathroom in order to put a stitch into it, +and Archie, sitting in his bath, would find nothing to wash himself +with. But Blessington was a sacred and a beloved institution, and as +long as she was happy (which she most undoubtedly was when Archie was +there to look after and inconvenience) no one minded these +magpie-annexations of portable property. + +* * * * * + +Of all hours in the day Blessington loved best this evening visit of +Archie's, when he sat among the tokens of his childhood, the play-table +which now scarcely reached up to his knees, the little arm-chair, with +its bar of wood strung through the arms so as to imprison and guard the +sitter, the box of oak-bricks with which he used to build houses of +amazing architecture, the depleted regiments of lead-soldiers which +still stood on the mantel-shelf. Her great delight was to recall to him +the days of his childhood, his naughtiness, the scrapes he got into, the +whole patchwork of memories that retained still such lively and beloved +colouring. And for him, too, during this last week, there had been in +these talks a way of escape from this nightmare of his present +experience; it was he himself, after all, who had put the coals on his +mother's hearthrug, had fished for pike with William, had attended, in +rapturous trepidation, the advents of Abracadabra. These days seemed +much further off from him than they did from her, for a bitter +impassable water lay between them and him, while for her they had only +receded a little further into the placid and sunny distance of her days. +But, when he talked them over with her, he could recapture a dreamlike +illusion of getting back into a life of which the most alarming feature +was the presence of his father. Over everything else there hung +enchantment. + +He was sitting now in Blessington's rocking-chair, having tried without +success to squeeze himself into the imprisoning seat of his childhood, +and she was recalling the awful episode of the burnt rug. + +"Eh, whatever possessed you to go and do it," she said, "I can't +understand to this day, Master Archie. I'm speaking of when you set fire +to your mamma's rug." + +"Tell me about that," said Archie. + +"Well, it was on an afternoon when you had a cold, and your mamma had +allowed you to sit in her room while she went out driving. And what must +you do but empty all the fire from the hearth on to her rug. You nearly +got a whipping for that from your papa!" + +Archie remembered that moment quite well, and how he had stood in his +father's study, frightened but defiant, and refusing to say he was sorry +when he was not. Then his mother had come in and had pointed to a bottle +on the table, and told his father that he ought to learn his lesson +first before he gave Archie one... That had puzzled him at the time, +though it was clear enough now. His father still had that lesson to +learn, and Archie, during this last week, had begun to understand a +little why his father had not yet learned it, if learning it implied the +giving up of all that battles stood for. + +He recalled himself with a jerk: he wanted to get back into the +enchanted land which Blessington's reminiscences outlined for him. + +"Yes, that hearthrug," he said. "That was a bad business, wasn't it, +Blessington? What do you think put it into my head to empty the fire on +to it?" + +"Bless the boy, I don't know," said Blessington. "It was just mischief." + +"Yes, but what's mischief?" asked Archie. + +Blessington was a simple and direct theologian. + +"Well, I shouldn't wonder if it's doing what Sapum wants you to do," +said she, Sapum being her equivalent for the arch-enemy. + +"I shouldn't wonder either," said Archie. "But it's rather beastly of +Sapum to take possession of a very small boy with a bad cold in the +head." + +"Eh, he takes possession of us all, if we let him," observed +Blessington. "But that was the naughtiest thing you ever did, dear. I +wouldn't lay it up to you now." + +"Was I good as a rule?" asked he. + +"Yes, Master Archie, for a boy you were," said Blessington. "Boys are +more trouble than girls, as is natural and proper." + +"But doesn't Sapum enter into girls, too?" asked he, with another +thought in his mind. + +"Yes, to be sure, but not so violent-like. And when after that you were +took ill, and we all went out to--eh, what's the name of that place in +Switzerland--I must say you were wonderfully good. It was as if some +angel took possession of you, not one of Sapum's flibertigibbits. You +were no trouble at all; and see how quick you got well." + +Archie rocked himself backwards and forwards for a minute in silence. + +"I wish I could remember Martin," he said at length. "Tell me something +about Martin." + +"Eh, dear lamb!" said she. "Couldn't he be naughty too, when the fit +took him! But then he got ill, and many's the time when I've longed for +him to be naughty again, and he hadn't the spirit for it. He didn't want +to die, and right up to the end he thought he'd get better. You papa +never loved any one like he loved him, and nobody could help loving him. +He was like a April morning, dear--sunshine one minute and squalls the +next. And there was months, Master Archie, when we thought you would +follow him." + +Blessington grew a little tearful, with the sweet, easy tears of old-age +over this, and Archie changed the subject. + +"And Abracadabra, now?" he asked. "What evenings those birthdays +evenings were, weren't they? I wish Abracadabra came still, bringing all +we wanted. What would you choose, Blessington?" + +Blessington beamed again. + +"Eh, I know what I'd choose," she said. "I'd choose a nice young lady to +come here, and you and she take a fancy to each other, dear. That's what +I'd choose. Isn't there some nice young lady, Master Archie?" + +Archie stopped his rocking for a moment, and a bitter word was on the +end of his tongue. Then he smiled back at his nurse's radiant face. + +"I'm going to marry you, Blessington," he said, "when you're old enough. +Don't you go flirting with anybody else now." + +Blessington gave a little cackle of soft, toothless laughter. + +"Well, I never," she said. "Who ever heard such a thing?" + +"Well, you've heard of it now," said he. "Blessington, I believe there's +somebody else after you. I say, did you ever have any lovers once upon a +time?" + +Blessington looked solemn again. + +"Well, there was your papa's game-keeper once," she said, "who made a +silly of himself, as if I'd got nothing better to do than go and marry +him. I didn't suffer any of his nonsense... And there's the sound of the +motor. That'll be your mamma and Miss Jessie coming. There's a nice +young lady now!" + +"Do you like her better than Miss Helena?" asked Archie. + +Blessington nodded her head very emphatically. + +"Not that I say she isn't a nice young lady, too," she said +mysteriously. + +"What's the matter with her then?" asked Archie. + +Blessington looked the incarnation of discretion. + +"I say nothing," she said. "But there's some as are artful, and some as +are not. Now, my dear, you must go and see your mamma, or she'll be +wondering where you are." + +"I'm with my young woman," said Archie. + +"There! Get along with you," said Blessington. "Eh, Master Archie, I +love a talk over old times with you." + +* * * * * + +Archie went reluctantly away to greet his mother and Jessie, for these +talks with Blessington had become to him a sort of oasis in this weary +wilderness of scorching sand through which he had to travel all day and +for many hours of the night. She was the comforter of the troubles of +his earliest childhood; it was she who had always been by him if some +nightmare snatched him from sleep, or if the dark developed terrors, and +that habit of calling on her for aid, established among the mists of +dawning consciousness he found still alive as an instinct, when there +came on him now the maturer woes of love and manhood. Throughout his +school life and his three years at Cambridge, he had never quite let go +of Blessington's hand, which had been the first to direct and sustain +his tottering attempts at locomotion. Now, too, she was the only member +of his immediate circle who did not know of his trouble, and it was an +unutterable relief to feel that he was not being pitied and sympathized +with by somebody. For, though there is nothing in the world better than +sympathy and pity, no sufferer smarting from a recent wound wants to +live exclusively in such surroundings. Pity and sympathy, though they +heal, yet touch the wound, and he never got over the impression when he +was with his mother, for instance, that his wound was being dressed... +Jessie did not force that on him so much, yet with her he was always +being reminded of the fact that she was Helena's sister. But with +Blessington he could go back into the sunlight of the past: talk with +her, and another occupation, temporary, he told himself, to tide him +over those days, enabled him to get away to some extent, from himself. + +He met his mother in the hall, and instantly those anxious eyes of love, +which, for all his affection for her, he found irritating, were on him. +She was at his wound again, taking off the bandages, seeing how it was +getting on... + +"And how are you, darling?" she said, looking at him with the tenderness +that got on his nerves. + +Archie kissed her. + +"I am quite well, thanks," he said. "I have just been having a talk with +Blessington." + +"My dear, how she would like that!" said Lady Tintagel with eager +cordiality. "That was thoughtful of you." + +Archie jerked himself away from her: though his mother said nothing +direct, he felt that pity filled her mind. He was in its presence, and +longed to get away from it. All the time another distinct piece of his +mind wanted to hear about Helena. But he could not ask any question +about her. + +"How are you, Archie?" said Jessie quietly. + +Archie's exasperation suddenly flared up. + +"I have just told my mother I am very well," he said. "I am still very +well, thank you." + +Jessie laughed; she managed better than Lady Tintagel. + +"In that case, come and have a game of golf-croquet with me," she said. +"There's time before we need dress, isn't there? I do want some air so +badly after town." + +Archie glanced at the clock; he usually went to his father's study about +this time, when they celebrated the approaching advent of dinner with a +cocktail or two. That was the beginning of the tolerable part of the +day: there was plenty of wine at dinner, and afterwards a succession of +whiskies and sodas, and to be alive became quite a bearable condition +again. On that first evening when Helena had told him her news and paid +her half-crowns he had found that alcohol broke down his sense of being +stunned, of being made of wood. Now he drank for another reason: by +drink he got rid of the misery of normal consciousness and emerged into +some sort of life again. It stimulated his brain, he could by its means +escape for a little from that one perpetual thought of Helena that went +round in his head like a stick in a backwater, and get into the current +again. Sometimes he would go to his room, taking a whisky and soda with +him, and wrestle with the sea-sketches he had so enthusiastically worked +at at Silorno. By degrees the liquid in his glass ebbed, and his pile of +cigarette-ends mounted, and he would go back for fresh supplies. But, +while these hours lasted, he lived, and what to-morrow should bring he +did not in the least care. He could escape for a few hours now, and that +was sufficient. Also, when he went to bed, he could sleep heavily and +dreamlessly. + +There was still time for a game with Jessie, before going in to his +father; Jessie would take longer to dress for dinner than he, and there +would be a few minutes to spare after she went upstairs. But, even as +they were strolling across the lawn to get the croquet-balls from their +box, she a little ahead of him as he nursed a match for his cigarette, +he looked up, and there in front of him might have been Helena. The two +were of the same height and build, they moved like each other. It was +Jessie, of course, but just for a second, while his match burned up in +the hollow of his hand, it was not she at all... + +He threw the match away. + +"Get the balls out, will you?" he said. "I've left my cigarette-case in +my father's room." + +He ran back to the house, and went in through the garden door of his +father's study. Lord Tintagel was sitting in the big leather arm-chair, +with his feet up on another, and a glass beside him. + +"Just come for a cocktail, father," said Archie. "Hullo, they're not +here yet. It doesn't matter; I'll take a glass of whisky and soda." + +"By all means; take what you like," said the other drowsily. "You +mother's come, hasn't she?" + +"Yes, mother and Jessie," said Archie, pouring himself out some whisky. +The soda-water was nearly exhausted, but the dregs of it gurgled +pleasantly over the spirit. He drank it in a couple of gulps. + +"What are you going to do now?" asked his father. + +"Only have a game with Jessie." + +"All right. Call in here when it's time to go up and dress. There'll be +a cocktail for you then. Infernal lazy fellows the servants are not to +bring them in earlier. Chuck me over the evening paper, will you?" + +The evening remission from deadness and dulness and misery had begun for +Archie. He played his game with Jessie, drank his cocktail, and by the +end of dinner had risen to such naturalness of good spirits again, that +his mother commended herself for the wisdom of her plan that he should +leave London and seek a change of mind in a change of scene. He had done +some writing since he had been here; he seemed pleased with the way it +was going, and she talked hopefully to Jessie when they held a rather +protracted sitting in the drawing-room before the two men joined them. +Perhaps they had both overrated the strength of Archie's attachment: +certainly to-night he did not appear like a boy who had so lately +suffered an overwhelming disappointment in his affections. + +"And Blessington says he has been just as delightful and affectionate to +her as usual," said Lady Tintagel. "He goes and talks to her every +evening as he always did. I think you must have been wrong, dear Jessie, +when you thought he was so mortally hurt." + +Jessie did not reply at once: she felt sure that she, with the insight +of that love which is more comprehending than any mother's love, was +somehow right about that point. It was not the mere lapse of a week that +had restored Archie. Besides, Blessington did not know about his +troubles. She could easily conjecture what a relief he might find in +that. She knew that she would feel the same in his place; she could +understand how much easier it was to behave normally with those who did +not know than with those who did. Yet Archie's father knew, and all +through dinner she had seen how friendly and intimate the two had +become. Archie used to be constrained and awkward with his father, while +his father used to be rather contemptuous of him. But this evening there +had been none of that on either side, and now they lingered together a +long time over their talk and their cigarettes. It was as if some bond +of sympathy was springing up between them. But she shrank from admitting +the explanation to herself: it might be that a man, who had been so +bitterly disappointed about a girl, found something in another man that +suited his mood. Women would remind him of a woman... + +There was a shout of laughter in the hall outside, and Archie came in, +followed by his father. He did not communicate the grounds for his +merriment, but, looking a little flushed, very handsome, and very +content, sat down on the sofa by his mother. + +"Well, mother darling?" he said. + +Instantly her love yearned forth to him. + +"My dear, it is good to hear you laugh," she said. "What have you and +your father been talking about?" + +The sense of being watched, the love that irritated did not trouble +Archie now. The sunny hours would stretch unclouded until he fell into +bed. He laughed again, looking across to his father. + +"I say, father," he said, "shall I tell her, or would she think it not +quite...?" + +"Just as you like," said Lord Tintagel. + +The door into the garden, already ajar, swung gently open, admitting a +breath of cool night-air into the room. It stirred in Jessie's hair as +it passed her, and moved across to Archie, making the flowers in a vase +near him vibrate. And for just that moment some impulse from the +untainted tranquillity stirred in his soul, and his overheated, +stimulated brain drank it thirstily in. His own laughter, and the +subject of his laughter, the whole contents of the last hour or two, +seemed stale and stuffy. The air of them was thick with the fumes of +wine, with the fancies and images that it evoked, smoke-wreaths that +hung heavy in the atmosphere, swirling and turning like dancers and +melting into other shapes. But for that moment when the night-air came +in from the crystal-clear dusk outside, that liquid tabernacle of +sapphire in the holy night, where stars sang together and nightingales +burned, the hot fumes dispersed, and he drew in long, tranquillizing +breaths. This physical impression had, too, its psychical counterpart, +for even as the air that stirred in Jessie's hair brought a coolness and +a refreshment to him, so from the girl herself there seemed to stream +into it a current of something wholesome and human and unfevered, +unvexed by desire, and untouched by bitterness... + +"It's rather hot in here," he said. "Will you come for a stroll, +Jessie?" + +They went out together... The heavens were full of stars, and a slip of +a moon was near to its setting. Over the beds below the windows there +hovered the fainter fragrance of sleeping flowers that stood with +hanging heads and leaves that glimmered with the falling dew. Beyond lay +the dimmed mirror of the lake, and beside it rose the dark mass of the +wood in which the nightingales were singing. The scene seemed prepared +for some human love-duet, when lovers fancy that nature is arranging her +most sensuous effects for their benefit, though in reality she is but +pursuing the path ordained for her by the wheeling seasons, and +predicted by barometers and apparatus that is concerned only with heat +and movements of the moon. And, of lovers, there was one of each pair +absent, as the two walked quietly towards the wood of the nightingales; +for Jessie there was no eager mate, and for Archie none... Two hungry +souls, both longing, both unsatisfied, went forth on that twilit +pilgrimage. Spring still stirred in them, and there burned above them +the everlasting choir of the stars. But that helped in no way: had they +been lovers, an autumn squall or a winter snow-storm would have served +their purpose just as well. + +Archie chattered for a little while, comparing the moon to a clipped +finger-nail, the dimmed mirror of the lake to a frozen rink in +Switzerland, with all the hollowness of superficial talk, when the +tongue speaks from habit, which is as lightly rooted as the seed on +stony ground. Heart-whole, he had often chattered like that, and Jessie +had sunned herself and responded to those silly things; but now she +knew, as well as he, that the babble was no more than blown sea-foam. It +made her heart ache that he should talk it to her, for, though she made +no claim on his love, it was miserable that he could not recognize how +true a friend it was who was by his side in this song-haunted darkness. +She knew--none better--that he had no love to give her, but her love +that was so disciplined to go hungry without crying out, starved for a +word from him that should fly the flag of friendship, noblest of all +ensigns that are not of royal emblazonment. + +They had come to the edge of the lake, and a moor-hen steered its +water-logged flight across the surface. And then Archie's foolish +chatter died, and he was silent as he watched the rayed ripple of water. +The wash died away in the reeds, and chuckled on the bank, and at last +he spoke. + +"Why did Helena treat me like that?" he said. "It wasn't fair on me. Why +did she encourage me? She might so easily have shown me that she didn't +care. She knew: don't tell me she didn't know! Do answer me. Didn't she +know? All the time that we were in town together she knew. And she let +me go on. She was waiting to see if she could catch the Bradshaw. If she +couldn't, perhaps she would have taken me. Was it so? You ought to know: +you're her sister." + +His voice had risen from the first reproach of his speech to a fury of +indignation. + +"Did she love me or didn't she?" he cried. "Do tell me if you know." + +His passion had found combustible material in her: she flamed with it. + +"Helena doesn't love anybody," she said. "Oh, Archie, poor Helena!" + +"Poor Helena!" said he. "Why 'poor'? Surely it's far more comfortable to +love nobody. Oh, don't remind me of that stupid rot about it being +better to have loved and lost. Anyhow, a worse thing is to have loved +and not found. That's what has happened to me, and she made me think I +had found. She meant to make me think that. Damned well she succeeded, +too. And, if you're right about her not loving anybody, do you mean that +she doesn't love the Bradshaw?" + +Archie had closed a grip on her arm: now she shook his hand off, though +loving to have it there. + +"I can't answer you that," she said. "And I oughtn't to have said that +Helena loves nobody. I withdraw that entirely." + +"The saying of it, you mean," said he. "You don't withdraw your belief +in it." + +"I don't know the truth of it. What I said was only my opinion, and I +withdraw it. I oughtn't to have said it." + +"But you keep your opinion?" asked he. + +"You shouldn't ask me that. I have withdrawn what I said. Please accept +that." + +In this high noon of stars she could see his face very clearly. It was +not angry any longer: it was just empty, as if there was no one there +behind the eyes and the mouth. It was a face empty, swept, and +garnished, ready for any occupant who might take possession. The sweet, +clean water of his nature must have run out on to desert sands; the +cistern of the body into which it had so swiftly and boyishly bubbled +all these years was empty. Just for one second that impression lasted, +inscrutably frightening her, with some nightmare touch. + +"Archie," she cried, "are _you_ there? Is it you?" She heard a dreary +little laugh for answer. + +"Oh, I suppose so," he said. "I answer to my name, don't I?" + +She longed, with a force of passion quite new to her, to be able to +reach him in some way, to let her love be coined into the commoner metal +of friendship, if only that could get to him, and give him the sense +that he had something in his pocket worth having, even though it was not +gold. She would have gleefully melted all her love into a currency that +could have enriched him, for he did not want her love, and she had no +other use for it except to help him in some way. And, as if to answer +her yearning, he took her arm again, not angrily now, but with the quiet +pressure of a man with a sympathetic friend. + +"You're a good pal, Jessie," he said. "I'm awfully grateful to you. You +won't play me false with your friendship, will you?" + +"No, my dear," said she, stumbling a little on the words. "I'm--I'm not +like that. The more you count on me the better I shall be pleased. I'm +stupid at saying things, but, oh Archie, if a friend is any use to you, +you've got one. And let me say, just once, how sorry I am for all this +miserable business." + +"Thanks, Jessie," said he. + +They had turned back towards the house, and Jessie, unconscious of +anything else except Archie, saw that they were already half across the +lawn that lay dripping with dew. Her thin satin shoes were soaked, and +the hem of her dress trailed on the grass. But she regarded that no more +than she would have regarded it had she been walking in the dark with +her lover. + +Then Archie spoke again--there was no more emotion in his voice than if +he had been speaking through a telephone. + +"Do keep on trying to be friends with me, Jessie," he said. "I'm nothing +at all just now; I'm dead, but will you watch by the corpse? It likes to +know you are there. There's no complaint if you go away, but when +sometimes you have nothing to do, you might just sit with it." + +"Archie, dear, don't talk such nonsense," she said. + +"I daresay it is nonsense, but it seems to me sense. I don't feel as if +I was anybody... I can imagine what a house feels like that has been +happily lived in for years, when the family goes away, and leaves it +empty. There's a board up 'To let, unfurnished,' and the windows get +dirty, and the knocker and door-handle, which were so well rubbed and +polished, get dull. There used to be curtains in the windows, and in the +evening passers-by in the street could see chinks of light from within, +and perhaps hear sounds of laughter. But now there are no curtains, and +the pictures have gone from the walls, leaving oblong marks where they +used to hang. And the spirit of the house stares mournfully out, +thinking of the days when there was laughter and love within its walls. +Haven't you ever seen a house like that? They're common enough." + +She pressed the hand that lay loose in the crook of her elbow. + +"Oh, Archie, you give me such a heartache," she said. + +"Well, I won't again. But if you think me wanting in affection to +mother, or you, or anybody, just remember that I'm an empty house for +the present. I daresay somebody will take me again." + +Jessie felt that this was a truer Archie than he who had stopped so long +in the dining-room and come in afterwards with a shout of laughter over +something that he would not recount. But by now their stroll had taken +them close to the long grey front of the house, and for the present +Archie had no more to say, and was evidently meaning to go indoors +again. Upstairs all was dark, but below, the five windows of the +drawing-room, uncurtained and open, cast oblongs of light on to the +gravel, and next to them the two windows of Lord Tintagel's study were +lit. Even as they stepped from the grass on to the walk, and their +footsteps became audible again, his figure, silhouetted against the +light, appeared there, and the window-sash rattled as he opened it +wider. + +"Is that you, Archie?" he called. "Come in and see me before you go +upstairs." + +"All right, father," said he, "we're just coming in." + +Jessie heard a fresh vigour in his quickened voice, and in the light +from the windows she could see that his face was alert again. And it was +with a sense of certainty that she guessed what had given him this +sudden animation. Perhaps it was only the knowledge of his father's +habits that informed her, perhaps it was a brain-wave passing from him +to her that told her that inside his father's room were the things for +which he craved, the cool hiss of bubbling water on to the ice that swam +in the spirits... + +"You're not going to sit up long, are you?" she said. + +"Oh, I don't know. My father and I often have a talk in the evening. And +sometimes I do some writing before I go to bed. It's quite a good time +for writing when every one has gone to bed and the house is quiet." + +"You always used to say at Silorno that you wrote best in the morning." + +"Yes, but that was at Silorno, where I could lie on the beach, and go +for a swim at intervals. Lord! What jolly days they were! It's a pity +they are all dead." + +They went through the French window into the drawing-room, and found +that Lady Tintagel had already gone upstairs. Archie stood by Jessie, +shifting from one foot to the other, in evident impatience at her +lingering. + +"Well, you'll be wanting to go to bed," he said. "I daresay you'll go in +and have a talk with my mother. And, do you know, my father's waiting +for me; I think I'll join him. I shall soon come upstairs, I expect. I +feel rather like writing to-night." + +"I'm glad you're going on with that," she said. "That's something left, +isn't it? The house isn't quite empty, Archie." + +He laughed. + +"No, I can trace my name in the dust on the window-panes," he said. "But +I'll go to my father. Good-night, Jessie." + +* * * * * + +Lord Tintagel, rather unusually, was deep in the evening paper when +Archie entered. Archie noticed, with some surprise, that his glass still +stood untouched on the tray. + +"Rather nasty news," he said, not looking up. "Give me my drink, Archie, +there's a good fellow. Plenty of ice and not much soda." + +"And what's the news?" asked Archie. + +"Well, it looks as if there might really be trouble brewing. Servia has +appealed to Russia against the Austrian ultimatum. I wonder if Germany +can really be at the bottom of it all. And the city takes a gloomy view +of it. All Russian securities are heavily down." + +"Does that affect you?" asked Archie, bringing him his drink. + +"Yes, I've got a big account open in them. I wonder if I had better +sell. Of course there won't be war; we're always having these scares, +and they always come to nothing. But if dealers are anxious, prices may +fall a good bit yet, and I should find it difficult to pay my +differences." + +Archie poured himself out his first tumbler. He held it in his hand a +moment, not tasting it, now that he had got it. Delay, when the delay +was voluntary, would but add deliciousness to the moment when his mouth +and throat would feel that cold sting... + +"I don't understand," he said, watching the bubbles stream up from the +sides and bottom of his glass. + +His father threw down the paper. + +"It's as simple as heads and tails," he said. "I've bought a quantity of +Russian mining shares, without paying for them, in the hope that they +will go up. If they do, I shall sell at the higher price and pocket the +difference. But if they go down I shall have to pay the difference at +the next account. If the shares are each worth L8 now, and at the next +account are only standing at L6, I shall have to pay L2 on each share. +If I like, I can telegraph to my broker to sell now, while they're at +L8. I shall have a loss because I bought them at L9, but I shall no +longer be running any risks. But it's thirsty work talking. Just fill my +glass again." + +"But then, if the scare dies down again, I suppose your shares will go +up," said Archie. + +His father laughed. + +"Sound business head you've got, Archie," he said. "You've got the hang +of it; it's just heads and tails. Never you speculate: it's a rotten +business. I've got into the habit now, but I recommend you not to take +to it. It's easy enough to take to it, but it's the devil to break it. +Same with other things. Make a habit of virtue, and you'll never go to +the deuce." + +He watched Archie a moment, who with head thrown back, and young, strong +throat throbbing as he swallowed, was reaping the rewards of his delay +in drinking. And when, with brightened eyes, he put his glass down, he +stood there like some modern incarnation of Dionysus, his face pure +Greek from the low-growing brown curls to the straight nose and the +short round chin. With a cloak over his shoulders in exchange for his +dress-clothes, with sandals for his patent leather shoes, and a wine-cup +for his tall glass, he might have stepped straight from some +temple-frieze, and his father wondered how any girl in her senses could +have chosen the precise, pedantic man whom she was soon going to marry, +when Archie was but waiting, as she must have known, for his moment. He, +poor fellow, was often a very dreary and dispirited boy all day; but in +the evening he came to himself again, and was what he used to be. And +yet, though it seemed to Lord Tintagel a cruel thing to wish to deprive +him of the few hours of the joy of living that were his during the day, +he was smitten, with the easy and vague remorse of a man only +half-sober, to see the effect that alcohol had on Archie, who, all his +life till now, had scarcely tasted it. But he remembered when he himself +had been at that stage; he remembered also his father giving him just +such a warning as he now proposed to give Archie. He wished he had taken +notice of it, and he hoped that Archie would. + +That evening, thirty years ago, he recalled now with extreme +distinctness. The scene had taken place in this very room, and his +father, already half-tipsy, as his habit was, had warned him of the +dangers of drink, and he remembered how laughable and grotesque such a +warning had seemed coming from lips that had lost all precision of +utterance. But he told himself that he was not going to commit any such +absurdity: he was perfectly sober, indeed it seemed very likely that it +had never entered Archie's head to think of him as a drunkard. Sometimes +he stumbled a little going upstairs at night, sometimes he had an +impression that his pronunciation was not quite distinct; but he never +became incapable, as he could remember his father becoming, and being +carried off to bed by two perspiring footmen. + +He put down his second glass without tasting it. + +"There's something I want to speak to you about, Archie," he said, "and +you mustn't be vexed with me, because I'm only doing what I believe to +be my duty. You won't be vexed, will you?" + +Archie looked at him in surprise. + +"No, I don't suppose I shall, father," he said. "What is it?" + +His father got up and stood by his chair quite steadily, for he leaned +back against the high chimney-piece. + +"Well, I want to you be careful about that stuff," he said, pointing to +the bottle. "That's one of the habits I was speaking about, which they +say is so easy to keep clear of, but so hard to break. You drink rather +freely, you know, whereas a few months ago you never touched wine or +spirits. It's an awful snare--you may get badly entangled in it before +you know you are caught at all." + +Archie kept his lucid eyes fixed on his father's, and not a tremor of +his beautiful mouth betrayed his inward laughter, his derisive merriment +at this solemn adjuration delivered by a man who spoke very carefully +for fear of his words all running into each other like the impress of +ink on blotting-paper. It really was ludicrously funny, and the immortal +Mr. Stiggins came into his mind. + +"I hope you don't think a whisky and soda after dinner is dangerous, +father," he said. "You usually have one yourself, you know." + +He moved across to the table as he spoke, and handed his father the +drink he had mixed for him but a few moments before. Lord Tintagel, +quite missing the irony of the act, began sipping it as he talked. + +"No, of course not, my dear boy," he said. "I'm not a faddist who thinks +there's a microbe of delirium tremens in every glass of wine. +But--though you may never have heard it--your grandfather was a man who +habitually took too much, and it's strange how that sort of failing runs +in families." + +Archie's mouth broadened into a smile. + +"Skipping a generation now and then," he said gravely. + +His father turned sharply on him. + +"Eh? What?" he asked. + +He looked hard at Archie for a moment--as hard, that is, as his rather +wandering power of focus allowed him--and suddenly beheld himself with +Archie's eyes, even as, thirty years ago, he had beheld his father when +he spoke to him on precisely the same theme. He put down his glass, and +a wave of shame as he saw himself as Archie saw him, went over him. + +"I know: this doesn't come very well from me, Archie," he said. "It's +ridiculous, isn't it? But I meant well." + +He looked at the boy with a pathetic, deprecating glance. + +"If I make an effort, will you make one, too?" he asked. "I've gone far +along that road, and I should be sorry to see you following me. I should +indeed. Just now I know you're unhappy, and a bottle of wine makes +things more tolerable, doesn't it?" + +Archie, in his empty, exasperated heart felt a sort of pity for his +father, which was based on scorn. Something inside Lord Tintagel was +probably serious and sincere, and yet it was what he had drunk that +stimulated his scruples for Archie. He was in a mellow, kindly, +moralizing stage in his cups that Archie had often noticed before. +Certainly he himself did not want to become like that, but he felt that +he was not within measurable distance of the need of making any +resolution on the subject, so far was he from needing the exercise of +his will. Just at present, even as his father had said, he was unhappy, +and his unhappiness melted in the sunshine of drink. He did not care for +it in itself; he but took it, so he told himself, like medicine because +his mind was ailing. + +"Well, let us talk about it to-morrow," he said. "We'll make some rule, +shall we, father? And don't imagine for a moment that I am vexed with +you. But I shall go upstairs now, I think. I've got some writing I want +to do." + +He hesitated a moment. + +"I'll just take a night-cap with me," he said. "Good-night, father." + +"Good-night, my dear boy; God bless you! We'll have a talk to-morrow." + +Archie took the glass he had filled out into the hall, and waited there +a moment, and the pity faded from his mind, leaving only contempt. It +was just the maudlin mood that had prompted his father to be so +ridiculous, and talk about resolutions. Certainly resolutions would do +him no harm, and the keeping of them would undoubtedly do him good, for, +instead of the firm, masterful man whom Archie had known as the rather +prodigious denizen of that formidable room, there sat there now a weak, +entangled creature. Archie could hardly believe that, in years not so +long past, he had been afraid of his father: now his whole force, that +dominating, intangible quality, had vanished. Occasionally he still flew +into fits of anger that alarmed nobody, but that was all that was left +of his power. + +Archie sat for a few minutes on the hall-table, instead of going +upstairs, for he meant, with a certain object in view, to go back to his +father's room, on some trivial errand, and, as he waited, the big clock +ticked him back into boyhood. There was the fire-place by which +Abracadabra sat on the last of her appearances; there the screen behind +which, as he had subsequently ascertained, William had hidden with a +trumpet and the servants' dinner-bell, there the side-door into the +gardens through which, pleasingly excited, he had hurried with the box +for coffin of the dead bird which the cat had killed... A hundred +memories crowded about him, and not one, save where Blessington was +concerned, held any romance or tenderness for him. They were as +meaningless as pictures taken out from the empty house and leaning +against the railings in the street: in the house itself, his bitter, +lonely spirit, there was nothing left but the places where once they +hung. + +He went back to his father's room, crossing the hall with light foot, +and turning the handle of the door with swiftness and silence. There was +his father by the table, filling his glass again. It was just that which +Archie wished to verify. + +"I only came back for a book," he said. "Good-night again." + + + +CHAPTER X + +Archie went straight up to his room: his brimming glass was difficult to +carry quite steadily, and he reduced its contents half-way upstairs. +William had orders always to put whisky and soda in his room in case he +wanted to sit up and write; but sometimes William forgot, or, at any +rate, did not obey, and Archie wondered if the man did it on purpose, +with perhaps the same excellent intentions as those which flowered so +decorously in his father's mind. But to-night all was as it should be, +and, as it was very hot, Archie undressed and put on his pyjamas before +settling down to work. Writing, the absorbing joy of creation, the +delicate etching of sentences that bit into the plate, still possessed +him when he had taken the requisite evening dose. + +But to-night, though he had got his material ready, his hand could not +accomplish the fashioning of it, and he got up and walked with bare +feet, once or twice up and down the room, wondering why he could not +link up his thoughts to his power of expression. He was nearly at the +end of one of those sea-stories, which he had begun at Silorno, and he +knew exactly what he meant to say. The brain-centre that dictated was +charged, and sufficiently stimulated, and yet he could get nothing on to +paper that was worth putting there, though he was ready to write, and +wanted to write. + +He had not drunk too much and made himself fuddled; he had not drunk too +little, and left the bitter weeds of daily consciousness uncovered, like +rocks at low tide. + +He sat and thought, wrote and impatiently erased again, and at last put +down his pen. Perhaps even this, the only living interest that just now +existed for him, was being taken from him also, and was following down +the channel which had emptied itself into Helena. She had taken from him +everything else that meant life: it would be like her consistency to +take that also, and leave him nude and empty. It was not that she wanted +the gift which she--in his vague, excited thought--seemed to be robbing +him of; it was only that she and the memory of how she had treated him +was a vampire to his blood. She had sucked him empty, drained him dry of +happiness, of joy of life, of human interests. More than that, his love, +the best thing which he had to give her, and for which she had no use, +she now seemed to have treated with some devilish alchemy, so that it +turned bitter; hate, like some oozy scum, rose from the depths of it, +and covered its crystal with poisonous growth. + +This would never do; the rocks at low tide had become uncovered, and, +while he slipped and stumbled among them, bruising himself at every step +with the thought of Helena, he could never get that abstraction and +detachment which he knew were the necessary conditions of his writing. +And all power of achieving that seemed taken from him; he felt himself +an impotent atom, unable to order the workings of his own brain, +defenceless against any thoughts that might assault him. + +The house was perfectly quiet; the stillness of the midsummer night had +flowed into its open windows and drowned it deep in that profound +tranquillity that was yet tense with the energy of the spinning world +and the far-flung orbits of the myriad stars. The moon had long since +sunk, but the galaxy of uncounted worlds flared on their courses, driven +onwards by the inexhaustible eternity of creative forces that ran +through the stars, even as it ran through the humblest herb that put +forth its unnoticed blossom on the wayside. But Archie, in this bitter +stagnation that paralysed him, seemed to himself to have no part in +life: all that current of energy that bubbled through the world, with +its impulses of good and evil, love and hate, seemed to have been cut +off from him. He neither loved nor hated any more. There was the +nightmare of this death in life: at any price, and under whatever +inspiration, he longed to be in the current again. Tonight even drink +had failed him. + +He had walked across to the window, and came back to his chair at the +table where was spread the sheet of paper covered with the scrawlings +and erasures which were all the last two hours had to show. And at this +precise moment, as he looked at them in a dull despair, and idea flashed +across the blank field of his brain. Perhaps there might still be some +spark of life, of individuality latent without him, which he could reach +by that surrender of his conscious self which had been familiar to him +in his childhood. There, just in front of him, below his shaded lamp, +lay his cigarette-case, with one bright point of light on it, and, lying +back in his chair with half-closed eyes he gazed at this in order to +produce that hypnotic condition in which the subconscious self comes to +the surface. + +Almost at once the mysterious spell began to act. Across the field of +his vision there began to pass waves of light and shadow, moving upwards +with a regular motion, while through them like a buoy moored in a rough +sea there remained steadfast that bright speck on his cigarette-case, +now for a moment submerged in a wave of shadow, but appearing again. +Upwards and upwards moved the waves, and then it seemed that it was they +which were stationary, while he himself was sinking down through them, +as through crystal-clear waters, looking up at the sunny surface which +rose ever higher and more remote above him. As he sank into this dim, +delicious world, the sensation of being alive again and in touch with +living intelligences grew momently more vivid. It was the very seat and +hearth of life that in him before had been cold and numbed; now, though +surface perceptions were gradually withdrawn, his essential being +tingled with the rapture of returning vitality. + +Once or twice during this descent his ears, through which there poured +the roar of rushing waters, had been startled as by some surface +perception of the sound of loud rappings somewhere in the room; but they +had not disturbed his steadfast gaze at the point of light; and once +again he had heard a voice faintly familiar near him that said "I am +coming." But he was far too intent on his progress to let the +interruption break in upon it, and indeed those sounds seemed to be less +an interruption than a confirmation to his surface-senses of what was +happening to him... And then he knew, as he sank down to rest at last on +the bottom of that unsounded sea, who it was who was filling him with +the sense of life again, for, echoing not only in his ears, but +somewhere in his soul, he heard the same voice, which he now clearly +recognized, and which had spoken to him years ago at Grives, say, +"Archie, I am here." + +* * * * * + +Archie was conscious on two separate planes of consciousness. All round +him and high above him were the gleams and aqueous shadows of the +subconscious world, but here and there those seemed to be pierced, and +through them, as through rents of mist, he had glimpses of the material +plane. He could see, for instance, part of the sheet of paper in front +of him, and he could see the far corner of his table. And by it, very +faint and unfocusable, part of it in the mists of the subconscious +world, part in the harder outlines of reality, there was standing the +figure of a young man. How it was dressed he could not see, or did not +care to notice, but when for a moment the mist cleared off its face, he +recognized the strong likeness to himself, even as he had recognized the +likeness to himself in the photograph which he had found in the cache. +But here was no photograph: instead, mysteriously translated into +outlines and features visible to mortal eyes, was the semblance of +Martin himself. It wavered and flickered, like the blown flame of a +candle, but it was there, standing at the corner of his table. And, as +it spoke, he saw the mouth move and the throat throb. + +"I have managed to come back, Archie," he said, "because you were in +such trouble, and because you didn't understand the warning you had. Do +you understand now?" + +The whole explanation flashed on him. + +"The dream?" he said. "The white statue of Helena and the worms?" + +"Surely. It was odd you didn't understand. You only loved the white +statue. You loathed what came out of it, just as you loathe what has +come out of the white statue since." + +Archie leaned forward, peering into the mist that at this moment quite +enveloped the figure. + +"But I love her, too, Martin," he cried. "I long for her." + +Out of the mist came the unseen voice: + +"You long for what she looks like," it said. "You hate what she is." + +"That may be. But the whole thing makes me utterly miserable." + +Table and figure, the white paper and the tray with syphon and whisky +became suddenly visible. + +"You must learn not to be miserable," said that compassionate mouth. "Be +very patient, Archie. You think you are stumbling through absolute +darkness, but in reality, you are flooded with light. I can't see the +darkness which you feel is so impenetrable: I only see you walking +towards the ineffable radiance, always moving towards it. Occupy +yourself, and try to grow indifferent to that part of Helena which you +hate. Cling to love always. Just cling to love. Never hate; some time +you may get to love what you hated." + +The voice sank lower. + +"The power is failing," it said. "I am losing touch with you." + +"Oh, don't go," said Archie. "Martin, stop with me. Talk to me. I want +to say so much to you." + +He reached out his hand, and for a moment, out of the sunlit mists that +had gathered again he felt, perfectly clearly, the touch of fingers that +pressed his. But they died away into nothing as he clasped them, and the +voice faded to the faintest whisper. + +"I will come again, dear Archie," it said. "It is easiest at night." + +* * * * * + +The lines of shadow and light that undulated before his eyes grew +thinner and more transparent, and he could see the drawn-back +window-curtains and the black square of the night through them. The +bright point at which he had been looking withdrew on to the surface of +his cigarette-case, and slowly the whole room emerged into its normal +appearance. Archie became suddenly conscious of a profound physical +fatigue, and, leaving all thought and reflection till to-morrow, put out +his light and stepped into bed. But instead of the empty desolation that +had made a wilderness round him, waters of healing had broken out in his +soul, and the desert blossomed... + +Archie slept that night the clean out-door sleep which he had been used +to at Silorno, and woke next morning, not with the crapulous drowsiness +that now usually accompanied his wakings, but with the alert refreshment +that slumber in the open air gave him. He sprang into full possession of +his faculties and complete memory of what he had experienced the night +before. He was quite aware that any scientific interpreter (science +being best defined as the habit of denying what passes the limits of +materialistic explanation) would have said that, tired with the effort +to write, he had fallen asleep over his table and dreamed. But he knew +better than that: the experience with its audible and visible phenomena, +was not a dream, nor did it ever so faintly resemble one. A dream at +best was a fantastic unreality; what he had experienced at his +writing-table last night was based upon the firm foundations of reality +itself. It was no hash-up of his own conscious or subconscious +reflections, no extract distilled from his own mind. It came from +without and entered into him, and, unlike most of the communications +that purported to reach the minds of sensitives from the world that lay +beyond the perception of their normal senses, there was guidance and +help in it. Often, if not invariably, these messages from beyond were +trivial and nugatory; it was a just criticism to say that the senders of +them did not appear possessed of much worth the trouble of sending. But +Martin's visit had not been concerned with trifles like that: he had +sympathized, as a brother might, with Archie's trouble; he had +explained, so that Archie could not longer doubt, the manner of the +warning he had received before but not understood; he had spoken of +Archie as being wrapped, according to his own sensations, in +impenetrable darkness, though, to one who looked from beyond, he was +ever moving towards the ineffable radiance. It was the same discarnate +intelligence that, when he was a child, had conveyed to him the +knowledge of that cache under the pine-tree, which was unknown to any +living being (as men count living) and that could not have been conveyed +to him through any telepathic channel except one that had its source and +spring not in this world. And now, from the same source, had come this +message from one who saw through the gross darkness of Archie's +emptiness and bitter heart, and had promised to be with him again. +Archie had no doubt whatever, as he got up with an alertness that had +not been his for weeks, of the genuineness of the communication. It +linked on with Martin's previous visits, and the glimpses he had +received of the materialized form of his visitor confirmed exactly the +recognition, years before, of the photograph he had found in the cache +which Martin had told him of. And the Power in whose hands were all +things had compassionated his trouble and had allowed, in pity for his +need, the gateless barrier to be again unbarred, and a spirit, +individual and recognized, to pass to and fro between him and the realms +of the light invisible. + +It was just when his soul despaired that this happened; when he felt +himself denuded of all that he had loved, empty, and cast out from life +itself. Just in that hour had Martin been permitted to come back to +him... + +He found his mother and Jessie at breakfast when he went down; his +father, as usual, had not appeared, and again, as last night when he +came out of the dining-room after a prolonged sitting, he felt kindly +and affectionate. But this was not from the sottish satisfaction of +wine: the light came from that subtle window in his soul, from which +once more the shutters had been thrown back. The moment Jessie saw him +she felt the quality of that change; he was like the Archie of Silorno +again. + +"Good morning, mother darling," he said, kissing her. "Good morning, +Jessie. How bright and early we all are! And has everybody slept as +serenely as I?" + +"You didn't sleep very long, Archie, did you?" asked the girl, whose +room was next his. "I heard you hammering at something after I had gone +to bed, and I awoke once and heard you talking to somebody." + +Archie, at the side-table helping himself to sausage, paused a moment. +He made up his mind that for the present, anyhow, he preferred that +Jessie should not know about the return of Martin. Perhaps he would tell +her quietly when alone... + +"Hammering?" he said. "Yes, there was a despatch-case, and I couldn't +find the key. So I whacked it open. About talking--yes, I was writing +last night, and I believe I read it aloud to myself before I went to +bed. I never know what a thing is like unless I read it aloud." + +"Oh, do read it aloud to me," said the girl. + +"When it's in order: it wasn't quite in order when I read it over. But I +was sleepy and went to bed." + +Jessie said no more, but for some reason this account left her +unsatisfied. The hammering had not sounded quite like the forcing of the +lock of a despatch-case; it had been like sharp blows on wood, and for a +moment she had thought that Archie was tapping loudly on the door that +separated their rooms. It had stopped, and began again a little later. +As for the talking, it had sounded precisely like two voices; one +undeniably Archie's, the other low and indistinct. + +Archie changed the subject the moment he had given this explanation, and +made some very surprising observations. + +"Helena is married on the 10th of August, isn't she?" he asked. "I must +get her a wedding present. And I shall come to her wedding. That will +convey my good wishes in the usual manner, won't it? I want to assure +her of them." + +Both of the women looked at him in the intensest surprise. To Lady +Tintagel he had never mentioned Helena's name since the day she had +accepted Lord Harlow, while to Jessie, only last night, he had loaded +her with the bitterest reproaches, and had spoken of the abject despair +and emptiness which had come upon him in consequence of what she had +done. And he looked at each of them in turn with that vivid, brilliant +glance which had been so characteristic of him. + +"Yes, I make a public recantation," he said. "It suddenly dawned on me +last night that I have been behaving just about as stupidly as a man can +behave. I've said nothing to you, mother, but Jessie knows. I want her +to try to forget what, for instance, I said to her last night. I can do +better than that, and at any rate I propose to try. All the time that I +haven't been mad with resentment I've been dead. Well, I hereupon +announce the resurrection of Archibald. That's all I've got to say on +the subject." + +* * * * * + +At that moment, swift as an arrow's flight, and certain as an intuition, +there came to Jessie the odd idea that it was not Archie who was +speaking at all. It might be his lips and tongue that fashioned the +audible syllables, but it was not he in the sense that it had been he +down by the lake last night. Savage and bitter as he had been there, he +was authentic; now, all that he said, despite the absolute naturalness +of his manner, seemed to ring false. She could not account for this +impression in the least. It was not the suddenness of the change in his +attitude, though that surprised her: it was some remoter quality, which +her brain could not analyse. Something more intimate to herself than her +brain had perceived it, and mere thought, mere reason, were blind to it. + +Archie did not accompany his mother and Jessie to church that morning, +but waited for Lord Tintagel's appearance, and the discussion of the +good resolutions which were to be so beneficial to each of them. He sat +in his father's study, and, having to wait some time before he made a +shaky and disastrous entrance, thought over, in connection with the +events of last night, what he himself had said that morning at +breakfast. That surely was the gist of Martin's message to him: he must +try to grow indifferent to that part of Helena which he hated; he must +learn not to be miserable, to grasp the fact that the darkness in which +he seemed to walk appeared to Martin no darkness at all, but a flood of +light from the ineffable radiance. It was in the glow of that revelation +that he had spoken at breakfast, trusting in the truth of it, and yet, +as he sat now, waiting for his father, he knew he did not feel the truth +of it. But, in obedience to Martin, that was how he had to behave. He +must behave like that--this was what Martin meant--until he felt the +soul within him grow up, like some cellar-sown plant, into the light. +Hopefully and bravely had he announced his intention, but now, when in +cooler mood he scrutinized it, he began to feel how tremendous was the +task set him, how firmly rooted was that passionate resentment which +must be alchemized into love. It had been true--Martin saw that so +well--that it was the white statue, the fair form he had loved, and +loved still with no less ardour than before. That, it seemed, according +to his interpretation, Archie must keep: it was the other that must be +transformed. But it would have been an easier task, he thought, to let +his love slide into indifference, then raise his hate to the same level. +But that was not the King's road, the Royal Banners did not flame along +such mean-souled ways as these. He must cling to such love for Helena as +he had, and transform the hate. But, first and foremost, cling to the +love... + +It was thus that he stated to himself the message that Martin seemed to +have brought him last night, and, stated thus, it was a spiritual +aspiration of high endeavour, and it did not occur to him how, stated +ever so little differently, and yet following the lines of the +communication, it assumed a diabolical aspect. The love which he had for +Helena was a carnal love, that sprang from desire for her enchanting +prettiness; that love he was to cling to, not sacrifice an iota of it. +The hate that he felt for her, arising from her falseness, her +encouragement of him for just so long as she was uncertain whether she +could capture a man who was nothing to her, but whose position and +wealth she coveted, Archie was to transform into indifference; he was to +get over it. But, though it was hate, it had a spiritual quality, for it +was hatred of what was mean and base, whereas his love for her had no +spiritual quality: it was no more than lust, and to that under the name +of love he was to cling... Here, then, was another interpretation of the +words he had heard last night, and, according to it, it would have been +fitter to attribute the message to some intelligence far other than the +innocent soul of the brother who had so mysteriously communicated with +him in childlike ways. But that interpretation (and here was the +subtlety of it) never entered Archie's head at all. A message of +apparent consolation and hope had come to him when he was feeling the +full blast of his bitterness, the wind that blew from the empty desert +of his heart and his stagnant brain. He had called for help from the +everlasting and unseen Cosmos that encompasses the little blind +half-world of material existence, and from it, somewhere from it, a +light had shone into his dark soul, no mere flicker, or so it seemed +this morning, like that spurious sunshine which he and his father basked +in together, but rays from a more potent luminary. + +Till now Archie, with the ordinary impulse of a disappointed man, had +tried to banish from his mind (with certain exterior aids) the picture +of the face and the form that he loved. But now he not only need not, +but he must not, do that any longer: he had to cling to love. And while +he waited for his father he kept recalling certain poignant moments in +the growth of Helena's bewitchment of him. One was the night when they +sat together for the last time in the dark garden at Silorno, and he +wondered whether the suggestion of a cousinly kiss would disturb her. +What had kept him back was the knowledge that it would not be quite a +cousinly kiss on his part... Then there was the moment when he had +caught sight of her on the platform at Charing Cross: she had come to +meet his train on his arrival from abroad... Best of all, perhaps, for +there his passion had most been fed with the fuel of her touch, had been +the dance at his aunt's that same night, when the rhythm of the waltz +and the melodious command of the music had welded their two young bodies +into one. It was not "he and she" who had danced: it was just one +perfect and complete individual. Here, on this quiet Sunday morning, the +thought of that made him tingle and throb. It was that sort of memory +which Martin told him he must keep alive... It was his resentment, his +anger, that must die, not that. Helena had chosen somebody else, but he +must long for her still. + +Lord Tintagel appeared, unusually white and shaky, and, as lunch-time +was approaching, he rang for the apparatus of cocktails. + +"I sat up late last night, Archie," he said, "bothering myself over +those Russian shares. It's really of you and your mother I am thinking. +It won't be long before all the mines in Russia will matter nothing to +me, for a few feet of earth will be all I shall require. But, before I +went to bed, I came to the conclusion that I was wrong to worry. I think +the scare will soon pass, and the shares recover. Indeed, I think the +wisest thing would be not to sell, and cut my loss, but to buy more, at +the lower price. I shall telegraph to my broker to-morrow. But I got +into no end of a perplexity about it, and I feel all to bits this +morning." + +He mixed himself a cocktail with a shaking hand, and shuffled back to +his chair. + +"Help yourself, Archie," he said. "Let me see, we were going to have a +talk about something this morning. What was it? That worry about my +Russians has put everything out of my head." + +Once again, as last night, it struck Archie as immensely comical that +this white-faced, shaky man, who was his father, should be pulling +himself together with a strong cocktail in order to discuss the virtues +of temperance, and make the necessary resolutions whereby to acquire +them. He felt neither pity nor sympathy with him, nor yet disgust; it +was only the humour of the situation, the farcical absurdity of it, that +appealed to him. + +"We were going to make good resolutions not to drink quite so much," he +said. + +Lord Tintagel finished his cocktail and put the glass down. + +"To be sure; that was it," he said. "It's time we took ourselves in +hand. Your grandfather gave me a warning, and I wish to God I had taken +it. But we'll help each other--eh, Archie? That will make it easier for +both of us." + +"I don't care a toss whether I take alcohol or not," said Archie. "As +you remarked last night, father, I hardly touched it till a month ago." + +Lord Tintagel laughed. + +"But you've shown remarkable aptitude for it since," he said. "You found +no difficulty at all in getting the hang of the thing." + +Faintly, like a lost echo, there entered into Archie's mind the inherent +horror of such an interview between father and son. But it was drowned +by the inward laughter with which the scene inspired him, and his +spirit, whatever it was that watched the play, looked on as from some +curtained box, where, unseen, it could giggle at unseemliness, at some +uncensored farce. Last night the same thing had amused him, but then he +was in that contented oblivion of his troubles which alcohol lent him, +whereas now it was morning and the time when he was least likely to take +any but the most bitter and savage view of a situation. But all morning +he had been possessed by the sunny lightness of heart with which +Martin's communication of last night had inspired him. He must be +patient, disperse and blow away by the great winds of love the hatred +and intolerance that had been obscuring his soul. And surely it was not +only for Helena that he must feel that nobler impulse: all that touched +his daily life must be treated with the same manly tenderness. Nothing +must shock him, nothing must irritate him, for such emotions were narrow +and limited, incompatible with the oceanic quality of love. All this +seemed directly inspired by Martin, who had brought him the first ray of +true illumination. And yet, while he sunned himself in the light, there +was something that apparently belonged to his bitter, his disappointed +self that cried out for recognition, insisting that these dreams of love +and tolerance were of a fibre infinitely coarser than its own rebellious +attitude. It strove and cried, and the smooth edification of Martin's +voice silenced it again. + +The suggested compact between father and son soon framed itself into a +treaty. There was to be nothing faddish or unreasonable about it: wine +should circulate in its accustomed manner at dinner; but here, once and +for all, was the end of trays brought to Lord Tintagel's study. A glass +or two of claret should be allowed at lunch, but the cocktails and the +whiskies in the evening were to be closed from henceforth. And the +arrangement entered into appeared to be of a quality that sacrificed the +desire of each for the sake of the other, or so at least it passed in +their minds. Archie stifled the snigger of his inward laughter, and +thought how clear was his duty to save his father, even at this late +day, from falling wholly into the pit he had digged, while to his father +the compact represented itself as an effort to save Archie from the path +he had begun to tread. But, even as they agreed on their abstemious +proceedings, there occurred to the minds of both of them a vague, +luminous thought, like the flash of summer lightning far away which +might move nearer... + +Once again Archie was seized with the ironic mockery that all the time +had quaked like a quick-sand below his seriousness. + +"I haven't had my cocktail yet, father." he said. "I'll drink success to +our scheme. You've had yours, you know. Our plan dates from now, when +I've had mine. After that--no more." + +His father's eyes followed him as he mixed the gin and vermouth. + +"Well, upon my word, Archie," he said, "you ought to ask me to have a +drink with you." + +Archie somehow clung to the fact that his father had had a cocktail and +that he had not. + +"Have another by all means," he said, "and I'll have two. But do be +fair, father." + +And once again the horrible sordidness of these proceedings struck, as +it seemed, his worse self, that part of himself that had all those weeks +been uninspired by Martin. Martin was all love and tolerance: he gave no +directions on such infinitesimal subjects as cocktails or whiskies. He, +outside the material plane, was concerned only with the motive, the +spiritual aspiration, with love and all its ineffable indulgences. + +* * * * * + +Jessie was leaving for town early next morning, and once again, as +twenty-four hours ago, she and Archie strolled out after dinner into the +dusk. But to-night, his father and he had followed the two ladies almost +immediately into the drawing-room, and the two younger folk had left +their elders playing a game of piquet together. That was quite unlike +the usual procedure after dinner, for Lord Tintagel generally dozed for +a little in his chair, and then retired to his study. But to-night he +showed no inclination either to doze or to go away, and it was by his +suggestion that the card-table had been brought out. He seemed to Jessie +rather restless and irritable, and had said that it was impossible to +play cards with chattering going on. That had been the immediate cause +of her stroll with Archie. The remark had been addressed very pointedly +to Archie and also very rudely. But Archie, checking his hot word in +reply, almost without an effort, had apologized for the distraction, +quietly and sufficiently. + +"Awfully sorry, father," he had said. "I didn't mean to disturb you. +Come out for a stroll, Jessie." + +So there they were in the dusk again, and again Archie took Jessie's +arm. + +"Father's rather jumpy to-night," he said. "But I think he wanted to get +rid of us: he may wish to talk to my mother. So it was best to leave +them, wasn't it?" + +Jessie's heart swelled. She knew from last night all that Archie was +suffering, but the whole day he had been like this--gentle, considerate, +infinitely sensitive to others, incapable of taking offence. + +"Yes, much best," she said. "You know, Archie, you do behave nicely." + +He knew what she meant. He knew how easy it would have been to make some +provocative rejoinder to his father. But simply, he had not wanted to. +Martin, and Martin's counsel, was still like sunlight within him. + +"Oh, bosh," he said. "The gentle answer is so much easier than any +other. I should have had to pump up indignation. But he was rather rude, +wasn't he? Isn't it lucky that one doesn't feel like that?" + +Archie drew in a long breath of the vigorous night-air. To himself it +seemed that he drew in a long breath of the inspiration that had come to +him last night. + +"Jessie, I'm going to save father," he said. "We had an awfully nice +talk this morning, and it was so pathetic. He has been a heavy drinker +for years, you know. His father was so before him. So one mustn't think +it is his fault, any more than it was my fault that I had consumption +when I was little. It isn't a vice, it's a disease. Well, I've made a +compact with him. I found that he had got it into his head--God knows +how--that I--I know you'll laugh--was beginning to take to that beastly +muck too. So I saw my opportunity. He's fond of me, you know; he really +is, and it had seriously occurred to him that I was getting the habit. +So I took advantage of that. I said I wouldn't have any more whiskies +and cocktails if he wouldn't. We made a bargain about it. Without +swagger, it was rather a good piece of work, don't you think?" + +Jessie knew exactly what she honestly felt, and what she honestly felt +she could not possibly say. For though it was a good bargain on Archie's +part, the virtue of it would affect not only Lord Tintagel, but Archie +himself. But the knowledge of this added to the sincerity of her reply. + +"Oh, Archie," she said, "that was brilliant of you. Do you--do you think +your father will keep to it?" + +"He can't help it," said Archie triumphantly. "I'm going to be down +here, except when I go up to town for Helena's wedding, and I'm always +in and out of his room. I should know if he doesn't keep to it." + +He paused, thinking out further checks on his father. + +"There's William, too," he said. "William's devoted to me, simply, as +far as I can tell, because he saved my life when I was a tiny kid. If I +ask William to tell me whether my father gets drinks through him quietly +when I'm not there, I'm sure he will let me know. How would that be?" + +Jessie had an uncomfortable moment. The idea of getting a servant to +report to Archie on his father's proceedings was as repugnant to her as, +she thought, it must be to Archie. Possibly his main motive, that of +taking care of his father, was so dominant in him that he did not pause +to consider the legitimacy of any means. But, somehow, it was very +unlike Archie to have conceived so backstairs an idea. + +"Oh, I wouldn't quite do that," she said. "You wouldn't either, Archie." + +"I don't see why not. The cure is more important than the means." + +Jessie suddenly felt a sort of bewilderment. It could scarcely have been +Archie who said that, according to her knowledge of Archie. + +"But surely that's impossible," she said. "What would you feel if you +found your father had been setting William to spy and report on you?" + +Archie's voice suddenly rose. + +"Oh, what nonsense!" he said. "You speak as if I was going to break my +bargain with my father. I never heard such nonsense." + +Once again the sense of bewilderment came over Jessie. That wasn't like +Archie... + +"I don't imply anything of the kind," she said. "But I do feel that it's +impossible for you to get William to have an eye on your father, and +report to you. And I'm almost certain that you really agree with me." + +Archie considered this, and then laughed. + +"I suppose I do," he said. "But the ardour of the newly born missionary +was hot within me. Are missionaries born or made, by the way? Anyhow, +I'm a missionary now. Nobody could have guessed that I was going to be a +missionary." + +Their stroll to-night was only up and down the broad gravel walk in +front of the windows. It was very hot and all the drawing-room windows +were open, so also were those of Lord Tintagel's study and the windowed +door that led into the garden. As they passed this Archie saw a footman +bring in a tray on which were set the usual evening liquids, and he +guessed that his father had forgotten or had omitted to say that the +syphon and some ice was all that would be needed. He thought for a +moment, intently and swiftly. + +"Jessie, they've brought in that beastly whisky again," he said. "I must +tell them to take it away: my father mustn't see it. Just go down +opposite the drawing-room windows, will you, and make sure my father is +still playing cards, while I take the bottle away. Make me a sign." + +Archie waited outside till this was given, and then went into his +father's room. The man had gone away, and he took up the whisky-bottle +with the intention of putting it back in the dining-room. But, even as +his fingers closed on it, without warning, his desire for drink swooped +down on him like the coming of a summer storm. He half filled a glass +with the spirit, poured soda-water on the top and gulped it down. That +was what he wanted, and then, with a swift cunning, he rinsed out the +glass with soda-water, drank that also, and, filling it half up again +with water, put it on the table by the chair where he usually sat. Then +there was the bottle to dispose of, and he went out into the hall to +take it to the dining-room. But, even as he crossed the foot of the +stairs, another notion irresistibly possessed him, and up he went three +steps at a time, and concealed it behind some clothes in his chest of +drawers. He had discovered an excellent reason for doing that, for, if +he left it in the dining-room, his father might find it there. It was +much safer in his room. Then, tingling and content, and feeling that +Martin would approve (indeed it seemed that he had prompted) this +missionary enterprise, he rejoined Jessie again, his eyes sparkling, his +mouth gay and quivering. + +"I've done it," he said. "I thought at first of taking the bottle to the +dining-room, but my father might have found it there." + +"What did you do with it?" asked Jessie. + +Archie took no time to consider. + +"I rang the bell and told James to take it away again to the pantry," he +said. + +"That was clever of you, Archie." + +"I know that. They're still playing cards, aren't they? Let's have one +more turn, then. Jessie, I wish you weren't going away to-morrow." + +"I must. I promised my father to get back. And Helena wants me." + +"Oh well, that settles it," said Archie. "Helena must have all she +wants. That is part of Helena, isn't it?" + +For a moment Jessie thought that he was speaking with the bitterest +irony, but immediately afterwards she withdrew that, for it struck her +that Archie was, in some inexplicable way, perfectly sincere: there was +the unmistakable ring of truth in his voice; he meant what he said. And, +as if to endorse that, he went on: + +"We all do what Helena wants: you, I, the Bradshaw, all of us. She wants +to be loved, isn't that it? and to want to be loved is a royal command; +all proper people must obey. I have been a rebel you know, and,--oh +Jessie, how awfully ashamed I am! I let myself hate Helena; I encouraged +myself to hate her. But I've returned to my allegiance, thank God." + +She turned an enquiring face to him. + +"Archie, dear," she said, "I am so thankful that you are so changed. +You're utterly different from what you have been. Last night you were +bitter and terrible: you made my heart ache. But all to-day you've been +absolutely your old self again. And it's so immense and so sudden. Can't +you tell me at all what caused it? I should love to know, if you feel +like telling me." + +He took her arm again. + +"I'll tell you one thing," he said. "You did me a lot of good last night +when you made me realize your friendship. That helped; I do believe that +helped." + +Jessie could not quite accept this, though it warmed her heart that +Archie thought of that. + +"But you always knew my friendship," she said. + +"I know I did. But I appreciated it most when I felt absolutely empty. +There's something more than that, though..." + +He paused. + +"Ah, do tell me," said Jessie. + +He could not make up his mind on the instant, for he knew Jessie's +repugnance to the whole idea of those supernatural communications. But +he felt warm and alert and expansive; besides, her friendship, which he +truly valued, yearned for his confidence, which is the meat and drink of +friendship. Sometimes it was necessary to deceive your friends; it had +been necessary for him to deceive her about the disposal of the +whisky-bottle; but, though she might not approve, he could at least tell +her what had made sunshine all day for him, and what was making it now. + +"It's this," he said. "Martin came to me last night. I talked to him; I +saw him. It has put me right: he has made me see things quite +differently. He told me to be patient, to cling to love always, to let +my hate be turned into love. I can't express to you at all what a +difference that made to me. I felt he knew; he could see, as he said, +that the darkness in which I thought I walked was not darkness at all. I +know you have no sympathy with his coming to me: it seems to you either +nonsense or something very dangerous. But I know you have sympathy with +the result of it." + +Suddenly his explanation of the voices she had heard last night occurred +to him. + +"When you told me this morning that you had heard talking in my room," +he said, "I did not mean to tell you about Martin, and so I invented +something--oh yes, that I had been reading aloud what I had written, to +account for it. It wasn't true, but I had to tell some fib. And did you +really hear conversation going on? That's awfully interesting." + +"I thought I did," said she. "And there was knocking or hammering. Did +you invent something about that too?" + +"Oh yes," said Archie. "But I don't really know what the knocking was. +As I was going off into trance, I heard loud knocking of some sort, but +I didn't let it disturb the oncoming of the trance. It deepened, and +then Martin came, and I talked with him and saw him." + +"Oh Archie, how do you know it was he?" she cried, wildly enough, hardly +knowing what she meant, but speaking from the dictate of some nightmare +that screamed and struggled in her mind. + +"Why, of course it was he," said Archie. "I recognized him, +superficially, that is to say, from my knowledge of my own face, just as +I recognized the photograph in the cache at Grives from its likeness to +me. But I know it was he in some far more essential and inward manner. +It _was_ Martin." + +"Will he come again?" asked the girl. + +"I hope so, many times. Indeed, he promised to. I needed him, he got +permission to come to me in my need. Is he not ministering to it? +Haven't you seen the immense change in me?" + +Undeniably she had seen that, and for a moment a little pang of human +disappointment came over her. + +"I'm afraid, then, the knowledge of my friendship hasn't had much to do +with it," she said. + +"Jessie, don't think I undervalue that," said Archie, speaking quite +frankly and sincerely. "I thank you for it tremendously; I love to know +it is there. I may count on it always, mayn't I?" + +They still stood a moment under the star-swarming sky, sundered by the +night from all other presences. + +"I needn't assure you of that," she said. "And, Archie, I may be utterly +wrong in what I feel about Martin's communications to you. Who knows +what conditions exist for the souls of those we have loved, and whom we +neither of us believe have died with the decay of the perishable body? +But, my dear, do be careful. If in some miraculous way you have been +given access which is denied to almost all mankind, do use it only in +truth and love and reverence." + +"You're frightened about it," said Archie. + +"I know I am. If Martin can come to you, why should not other spirits? +Other spirits, intelligences terrible and devilish, might deceive you +into thinking that they were he. You remember at Silorno he said he +couldn't come again." + +"I know; but I wasn't in sore need then," said he. + +They had again come opposite Lord Tintagel's study, and, even as they +passed, Archie saw him with his finger on the bell. Instantly he guessed +that he was ringing to know why the whisky had not been brought. The +footman would come and say that he had brought it... + +Archie felt an exhilarated acuteness of brain: the situation had only to +be put before him for him to see the answer to it. In his presence, +remembering the contract of the morning, his father could not ask for +the whisky. + +"Come in and say good-night to my father, Jess," he said. + +They entered together and immediately afterwards the footman came in +from the hall-door. Lord Tintagel looked at him, then back at Archie, +who was watching. + +"It's nothing, James," he said. "I rang for something, but it doesn't +matter." + +The man left the room and immediately afterwards Jessie said good-night +and went also. Archie turned to his father with a broad, kindly smile. + +"Father, I believe I'm a great thought-reader," he said. "I believe I +can tell you what you rang for." + +His father's grim face relaxed. + +"You young devil," he said. + +Archie laughed. + +"I've guessed right, then," he said. "You surely don't want to drink +success to our contract again." + +"But I don't know why James didn't bring the whisky as usual," said he. +"I--I forgot to tell him not to." + +"But I didn't," said Archie. + +"I see. Well, a bargain's a bargain. Only now there doesn't seem to be +any particular reason for not going to bed." + +Archie yawned rather elaborately, and went to the table where, earlier +in the evening, he had put down his glass half filled with soda. He +drank it, sniffing to see if there was any taint of spirit about it. But +he had rinsed it thoroughly. + +"I came in during my stroll with Jessie and took some soda," he said. +"Not a bad drink, but I think it makes one sleepy. I shall go to bed, +too." + +* * * * * + +Jessie left early next morning, expecting to be gone before anybody else +made an appearance. But, just as she got into the motor, Archie, rosy +and suffused with sleep, like a child that has lain still and grown all +night, came flying downstairs in dressing-gown and pyjamas. + +"Had to come down and say good-bye, Jessie," he said. "Do come back; +come down for next Sunday, and we'll go up together for Helena's +wedding. Promise!" + +Jessie looked at that "morning face" which glowed with the exuberance of +boyish health and happiness. She herself had slept very badly, dozing +for a little and then being awakened by the sound of talking next door, +and of peremptory resounding tappings. And here was Archie, radiant and +fresh and revitalized, and her love glowed at the thought that he wanted +her, even though it was but friendship that he sought and friendship +that he had to offer. + +"Yes, Archie, I should love to come," she said. + +"That's ripping. I say, shall I drive with you to the station just as I +am? Why shouldn't I? Pyjamas and dressing-gown are perfectly decent if +William will fetch me my slippers, which I seem to have forgotten, +unless he lends me his boots." + +"Your bath's ready, my lord," said William with a broad grin. + +"Well, perhaps I'll have it then. Good-bye, Jess. Come early on +Saturday." + + + +CHAPTER XI + +Archie was lying on the turf in front of the enclosed bathing-place +where the stream debouched into the lake. There was a good stretch of +deep water free from weeds, and for the last half-hour he had been +swimming and diving in it. Now, with hair drying back into its crisp +curls under the hot sun, he lay on the short warm turf, with his chin +supported on his hands, in an ecstasy of animal content. At this edge of +the water the bank was made firm and solid with wooden boarding that +went down into deep water, but across the estuary of the stream, +broadening out into the lake, the shallow margin was fringed with +bulrushes and loosestrife. A strip of low-lying meadow land behind was +pink with campion and ragged-robin and starred with meadow-sweet, the +scent of which mingled with the undefinable cool smell of running water. +A bed of gravel made the bottom of the stream, and through the sunlit +water the pebbles gleamed like topazes through some liquid veil. + +Never before had Archie been so permeated with the sense of the amazing +loveliness of the world, and of the ineffable joy of living and of being +part of it. He had wrestled with the swiftness of the stream as it +narrowed, had clung to rocks and tree-roots below the surface, letting +the current comb over and around and almost through him, then, letting +go of his anchorage, had been floated down into the lake again with arms +and legs outspread, and now, lying close-pressed to the turf with wet +chest and dripping shoulders, he seemed to be part of the triumph of the +summer, and of the immortal youth of the world. Surely there was no +further heaven than this possible, namely, to be young and to desire and +to have desire gratified, and whet the appetite for more. There was no +clearer duty in the day than to be bathed in the bliss of life, to suck +out the last drop of sweetness from the world which had been created for +the joy of men and the glory of God. There was no such thing as evil; +evil was but the label attached by the sour-minded to the impulses and +acts for which they had not sufficient vitality... And it was Martin who +had taught him all this. + +Archie had come back home this morning after a day and a couple of +nights in town. He had bought Helena her wedding present, he had taken +his completed manuscript to his publishers, he had dined and danced and +supped, and filled the hours of day and night with the extravagant +excesses in which up till now he had never indulged. Some innate +fastidiousness or morality had led him to look on the looser pleasures +of youth with disdain or disgust; now he smiled indulgently at himself +for his narrow priggishness. How utterly wrong he had been to think that +such things stained or soiled a boy; they had but caused him to realize +himself and intensified existence for him. They were the exercise of the +faculties and possibilities with which God had endowed him, and which +were not meant to rust in disuse. It was right for him "richly to +enjoy," as Martin had said: it was a crime against love and life to +starve on a meatless diet... Above all, he had seen Helena again, had +confessed and recanted the bitterness he had felt towards her, and she +had forgiven him, and welcomed him back "with blessings on the falling +out, that all the more endears," as the prim little poem said. + +Archie laughed quietly to himself and said aloud: + + "When we fall out with those we love, + And kiss again with tears." + +"But there weren't many tears," he added. + +He understood Helena now. She wanted, so sensibly, to make herself quite +comfortable for this journey through life. If Marquises with millions +desired her to go shares with them, naturally she consented. But to do +that was not the least the same as taking vows and going into a nunnery. +It was the nunnery that she was coming out of. Of course, just for the +present Archie understood he would not see her, for she and the Bradshaw +were going a yachting tour in the Norwegian fjords. But they would be +back again before the end of September. So much and no more had her +voice told him, but her eyes said much more intimate things, though +naturally she did not express them, and when he asked if he might kiss +her (that cousinly kiss which she had wanted at Silorno) her lips agreed +with what her eyes said. She had never been so adorably pretty, and she +had never been so demurely clever. She had said nothing which a girl who +was to become another man's wife in a few days should not say, and yet +Archie felt that he understood perfectly all the things she did not say. +Most brilliant perhaps of all was her warning, "I shall tell the +Bradshaw that I allowed you to kiss me," she cried. "But I'm not +frightened: he is such a dear." + +Gone, then, were all Archie's troubles and bitternesses on this point. +He had love to cling to, and he scarcely felt jealous of the Bradshaw. +For, if things had been the other way about, and Helena had been engaged +to him, would she have allowed the Bradshaw to kiss her? He knew very +well that she would not. + +Archie turned over on to his back, and lay with arms and legs spread out +to the sun, warming himself as with the memory of that expedition to +London. But he had not in the least wished to postpone his return, since +the joy of life lay so largely in its contrasts, and after thirty-six +hours of that fiery furnace there had come a temporary satiety, and he +wanted to lie and sleep like a gorged tiger. Soon he would awake and be +hungry again, but it was part of the joy of life to be satisfied and +doze, and stretch out tranquil limbs. And, lying there, his ribs began +to twitch again into laughter as he thought of the contract he had made +with his father last Sunday. Archie had entered into it, with the view +of encouraging and helping his father to rid himself of the chain that +was riveted so closely round him, and he was delighted to do it, if his +father derived support for his abstinence in the thought that he was +helping Archie. But Archie need not abstain, so long as his father +thought he was doing so, and only just now he had filled with water and +sunk in the weeds several empty bottles that he had brought out in his +towels from his bedroom. He knew perfectly well that he was in no danger +of becoming a slave to the habit, it had served him as medicine to +mitigate his misery with regard to Helena, and, now that that was quite +removed, it helped him to get into communication with Martin. Of that he +felt convinced. Once or twice he had tried to do so without drinking, +and had failed; but alcohol seemed to drug the surface-consciousness and +clear the way of access, and it was for that he used it now. It was more +that it cleared the access than that it drugged him, for he found that +it produced not the least effect in the way of making his head hazy or +his movements wavering: it only seemed to sweep clean those mysterious +channels through which communication came. The power of communicating he +could not possibly give up: all happiness and joy of life sprang from +it; therefore he could not possibly give up that which facilitated it. +But he performed the purpose of the contract by keeping his indulgences +secret from his father, and once again Archie's ribs, with their +smoothly swelling muscles under his brown skin, throbbed with amusement +as he pictured his father's heroic struggle with himself. Occasionally +Archie had doubts whether that struggle was quite consistently +successful, for once or twice Lord Tintagel had shown signs of evening +content and serenity, followed by morning shakiness, which indicated +that he had made some temporary armistice. Archie thought that perhaps +he would lay some trap for his father, or make some quiet detective +investigations to satisfy himself on this point. But beyond doubt his +father was putting up quite a good fight on behalf of a non-existent +cause. His will was to abstain, and, if occasionally he failed, it was +unchristian to judge failure hardly. Besides, Archie only conjectured +that sometimes his father's resolution was unequal to the strain imposed +on it; he did not know. + +* * * * * + +All this week Archie's sense of comradeship and brotherliness with +Martin had marvellously increased. There was nothing priggish or +puritanical about Martin, nor anything namby-pamby that suggested wings +and halos and hymns. He was intensely human, and sympathized completely +with the fact of Archie's being a glorious young animal, bursting with +exuberant health. That seemed quite clear, for when this morning, +sometime about four o'clock, Archie had gently let himself into the +house in Grosvenor Square a little ashamed and weary, and went up to his +bedroom, he became instantly aware that Martin was waiting for him. +There was no need for him to light his electric lamps, for dawn was +already breaking, and, drawing his curtains apart, he threw off his +clothes, so as to let the delicious chill of morning refresh his skin, +and sat down for a moment in front of his dressing-table and looked +fixedly at a bright point of light on the bevel of his looking-glass. +Almost immediately the waves of light and shadow began to pass before +his eyes, and the room was full of vivid, peremptory tappings. Then he +was aware that there appeared in the reflected image of himself a +strange luminous focus over his left breast and a little wisp of mist, +like a puff of escaping steam, began to come from it. This grew and +collected in wavering masses of weaving lines, formless at first, but +then arranging themselves into definite shapes, and he saw, with a +thrill of excitement and wonder, that out of them there was being built +up the image of Martin, which had issued out of himself. Soon it was +complete, and Archie in the glass beheld Martin's face leaning lovingly +over his shoulder, and Martin's arm bare like his own, and, warm and +solid to the touch, was thrown round his neck. + +"Archie, I've been with you all night," he said. "I love to see you and +feel you realize yourself. Throw yourself into life: live to the +uttermost, and have no thought for the morrow. There is nothing in the +world but love and joy. Cling to them, press close to them, lose +yourself in them..." + +Martin's smile was compassionate no longer: it was a sunbeam of radiant +happiness, and that happiness, so it seemed to Archie, had its source in +sympathy with and love for him. + +"Don't ever think you are yielding to base impulses," he went on, +"provided only you are happy. Happiness is the seal and witness of what +is right for you: it is the mark of God's approval. Evil is always +painful and repugnant; that is the seal and witness of it. The fruit of +the spirit is love, joy, peace; and aren't you more at peace, more full +of joy now that you have resolved to put hate out of your heart? Isn't +it sweeter to kiss Helena than to curse her?" + +* * * * * + +Suddenly, like the stroke of a black wing, there passed through Archie +an impulse of sheer abhorrence. All that Martin said sounded divinely +comforting and uplifting, but did there not lurk in it the whole gospel +of Satanism? And, as that thought crossed his mind, he saw an expression +of the tenderest reproach dim for a moment the brightness of his +brother's eyes, and the mouth drooped. + +"But you are tired now," said he, "and your trust in me is a little +weakened. Sleep well: it is dawn already." + +The apparition faded, or rather it appeared to be withdrawn again into +himself, and, emerging from the light trance, Archie was conscious only +of an overpowering but delicious fatigue, the fatigue of utter +satisfaction. He had had a glorious thirty-six hours, and, as Martin +said, he was tired. And Martin approved. + +He slept the deep, recuperative sleep of youth for four or five hours, +and awoke hungry and eager, and clear-eyed. He left town immediately +after breakfast, motored himself down home with William holding on to +the side of the car as he slowed round corners and came straight out to +his beloved bathing-place. It was bliss to be alive. + +* * * * * + +He had not seen Jessie during his short raid on London, for really there +had not been a moment to spare; besides, Jessie was coming down next day +for the week-end. But she knew he had been in town, for Helena said she +had seen him, and, with her usual acuteness, had told her sister that +Archie was deliciously his old self again, and that they were the +greatest friends. That, to Jessie's very sensible judgment and to the +intuition her love gave her, was the most inexplicable of developments. +Only a week ago there was no reproach bitter enough for Archie's opinion +on Helena's conduct to him, no angry taunt of misery sufficient for her +vilification. And then, in a moment, the whole of that bitterness had +been dried up, the Marah had been sweetened. More than that, the normal +joy of life had returned in full flood to him, and the cause of all this +was, in his account, the fact that the spirit of Martin had shown him +the true light. That Archie possessed that mysterious, and, in her view, +dangerous gift of mediumistic perception she did not doubt, for there +was no questioning those weird manifestations of occult power which she +knew had occurred in his childhood, and she felt now that she ought only +to stand in an awed wonder and thankfulness that this supernormal +perception of his had, in a moment, worked in him what could be called +no less than a miracle. But, though she ought to feel that, she knew +that she felt nothing of the kind, and, as she travelled down next day +to Lacebury, she set herself to analyse the causes of her mistrust. + +They were simple enough. First of all, there was her rooted antipathy to +the whole notion of spirit-communication. Instinctively it shocked her +and seemed opposed to all religious faith. Beyond that, there were but a +couple of the most insignificant matters that appeared to her possibly +connected with her mistrust, the one that Archie had made a false, swift +invention to account for the noises she had heard coming from his room, +the other that he had proposed to get William to spy on his father with +a view to ascertaining whether he was keeping his part of their bargain. +She knew they were both tiny incidents, but the spirit that prompted +them was in both cases utterly unlike Archie. She could not imagine +Archie making such an invention or such a suggestion, from what she knew +of him, it was outside him to do so. And if it was the influence--to +call it no more than that--of Martin which prompted these things, if it +was the same direction as that which had taken away all his bitterness +towards Helena, what sort of influence was that? Finally, could it be +right that the boy whom Helena had so cruelly led on only to disappoint +should, on the eve of her marriage, suddenly become close friends with +her again? There certainly he obeyed the precept of that which had +spoken with him, and had promised to communicate again, and she could +not but think it a dangerous, if not a diabolical counsel. But she tried +to reserve her judgment; in a few minutes now she would see Archie +again, and could note what change for good or ill this week had brought. +Very likely she had been disquieting herself in vain, making wounds out +of pin-pricks and mountains out of mole-hills. + +Archie had come to meet her, and, as the train slowed down into the +station, she saw him out of the carriage window. But he did not see her, +for his eyes were intent on a very horrible sight. There were two tipsy +women violently quarrelling, and, just as the train got in, they flew at +each other, scratching and striking. The encounter lasted not more than +a few seconds, for a couple of porters ran in and separated them, but +Jessie had seen Archie's face alight with glee and amusement. As they +were separated he frowned and shrugged his shoulders, and seemed to +remonstrate with the man who had stopped their fighting. At that instant +he saw her get out of her compartment, and ran to meet her, his face +quite changed. But the moment before it had not been Archie's face at +all: it had been the face of some beautiful and devilish creature, alert +with evil excitement. + +"Hullo, Jessie, there you are," he said. "It's ripping to see you. Look +at those two viragos there; they flew at each other like wild beasts. It +was a horrible sight." + +He turned a sideways eye on her, cunning and watchful, which utterly +belied the frankness of his speech, and her heart sank, and a vague, +nameless terror seized her, as once again she found herself thinking +that this was not Archie, who so gaily took her bag for her, and ever +and again looked back to where a small crowd had collected round the two +women. They had a few minutes to wait, while her luggage was brought +out, and once more he sauntered back into the station, leaving her in +the car. From outside she could hear hoarse screams, and, long after her +trunk had been put into the car, she watched the door for Archie's exit. +First one and then the other of the women were brought out to be taken +to the police-station, and at last he emerged. + +"Sorry to keep you waiting, Jessie," he said. "But my mother wanted some +magazine from the bookstall. Now, if you aren't nervous, we'll make up +for lost time." + +The road lay straight and empty before them, opening out like torn linen +as they raced along it. Some way ahead there were a couple of cottages +by the road-side, and, as they came near them, there wandered out into +the road an old and lame collie. Instantly Archie's face changed into a +mask of impatient malignancy. + +"Archie, take care," said Jessie, "there's a dog on the road." + +"Well, that's the dog's look-out," said he. "What right has a mangy +brute like that to stop us?" + +He made no attempt whatever to slow down, but just at the last moment he +caused the car to swerve violently, and they missed the dog by a +hair's-breadth. And he turned on her a face from which all impatience +and anger had vanished, and from it looked out Archie's soul in agonized +struggle. + +"I couldn't, I couldn't!" he said. "I didn't touch it, Jessie: it's all +right." + +"I thought you must run over it," said she. "Why didn't you slow down, +Archie?" + +That glimpse of the agonized soul utterly vanished again. + +"People have got no business to keep a decrepit old beast like that," he +said. "I expect the kindest thing I could do would be to turn round and +put it out of its misery. Never mind. I'll do it some other day." + +Jessie clung to her glimpse of the other Archie. + +"No, you won't," she said. "You'll risk your life and mine, too, not to +hurt it." + +He laughed. + +"One can't tell what one will do," he said. "I hated and loathed that +dog, but I couldn't run over it, when it came to. Hope I didn't give you +an awful shaking, Jessie." + +After lunch Archie proposed a campaign against a certain great pike +which he had seen, and, while he went to his room to change his clothes, +Jessie paid a visit to Blessington. The old lady was delighted to see +her, and dusted a perfectly speckless chair for her. + +"And it's jolly for you, isn't it, Blessington, having Archie here so +long?" said Jessie. + +Blessington made no answer for a moment. + +"I make no complaints," she said, "and I daresay Master Archie is very +busy." + +"Why, what do you mean?" asked the girl. + +Blessington's wrinkled old face began to work, and she looked piteously +at Jessie. + +"It's a week since Master Archie set foot in my room," she said. "Why +does he never come to see me now, Miss Jessie? And when I meet him about +the house, he's never got a word to give me. Me, who has looked after +him and loved him since he was born." + +At this moment Archie's step was heard outside, and he came in. + +"Oh, Blessington, I wish you wouldn't go meddling with my things," he +said roughly. "William tells me you took some flannels of mine away to +mend or put a button on. Where are they?" + +Blessington got up without a word and went to her cupboard. + +"Here they are, my lord," she said. "I have mended them." + +"Well, please don't carry my clothes away again. Come on, Jessie. I'll +be ready in a moment." + +Blessington's hands came together with a trembling movement as Archie +twitched the flannel coat away from her. But he did not even look at +her, and went out of her room, banging the door. + +Blessington sat down again, and began to cry quietly. "There now, you +see, Miss Jessie," she said. "And that's my own Master Archie." + +For a minute or so Jessie sat with her, trying vainly to comfort her, +and shocked beyond expression at Archie's brutal callousness to his old +nurse. And then the door opened again, and Archie looked in. Once again +all his anger and impatience had died out of his face, his real soul +looked from his eyes as from a prison-house, and his voice shook as he +spoke. + +"Go away, please, Jessie, and leave me with Blessington for a minute," +he said. + +And then he came across the room to her, and knelt down by her, and took +her withered old hand in his, and stroked it and kissed it. So much +Jessie saw before she closed the door behind her. + +"Blessington, my old darling," said Archie, "I can't think why I have +been so beastly to you. It wasn't me, that's all I can tell you. I +always love you. Can you forgive me?" + +Blessington's loyal devotion rose triumphant. + +"Eh, I know how busy you've been, Master Archie," she said, "and I know +what a thoughtless body I am with your things. But I'd like you to be +angry with me fifty times, if you'll only come back to me at the end. +There pray-a-don't kiss my hand, dear. It isn't right for you to do +that." + +"Where's your darling face then?" said Archie. "If you don't give me a +kiss this minute, I shall know you've been flirting with father's keeper +again." + +Blessington gave a little squeal of laughter. + +"Eh, and him dead this twenty years," she said. "And you know, my dear, +that whatever you did, and asked me to give you a kiss afterwards, give +it you I would, because nothing you could do would stop my loving you." + +Blessington's love, Helena's love... which was real? Two things so +utterly different could not both be love. And for him, too, which love +was real, his love for Blessington, all ashed over save for the little +spark that somehow lived below the cold cinders, or his love for Helena +that blazed and scintillated? Suddenly the thought of that glowed within +him, and it seemed dreadful to kiss this withered cheek. And yet the dim +old eyes had never wavered in their loyalty and love for his worthless, +corrupted self. + +"And shall we have a talk this evening again before dinner?" he asked. + +"Eh, that would be nice if you're not too busy," said she. + +"All right, then. But I must run along now: Jessie's waiting." + +"That'll never do to keep her waiting," said Blessington. "And if you're +going on the lake, Master Archie, pray be careful and don't fall in." + +* * * * * + +Lady Tintagel with Jessie and Archie were going up to town on Monday to +attend Helena's wedding the day after, and all through the hours of that +week-end there was piling up ever higher and more menacingly the storm +that so soon was to burst upon Europe in tempest of shot and shell. +Before they left on Monday afternoon war was already declared between +Russia and Germany, between Germany and France, the territory of Belgium +was violated by the barbarian hordes who issued from the Central +Empires, and Belgium had appealed to England to uphold the treaty which +Germany had torn up to light the fires or war. But, as in so many +English homes in these days, the inevitable still seemed the incredible, +and, though from time to time they discussed the situation, life went on +its normal course. Indeed, there was nothing else to be done: whether +England was going to war or not, dinner-time came round as usual... + +Of them all, it was on Lord Tintagel that the suspense and anxiety beat +most strongly, and that because the panic on the Stock Exchanges of +Europe threatened him with losses that might bring him within reach of +ruin. But Lady Tintagel still clung to a baseless hope, less substantial +than a mirage in the desert, that diplomacy would still avert disaster, +Archie went about the customary diversions of life with more than usual +enjoyment and absorption, while for Jessie there loomed in the immediate +foreground a dread and a horror, which, though it concerned not warring +millions, but just one individual, engrossed her entire soul. + +It was as if she saw him whom she loved with all the strength of her +deep and loyal heart in danger of drowning, not in material waters that +could but kill the body and set free the soul, but in some awful +flooding evil which threatened to submerge and swallow the very source +and spiritual life of him. And, all the time, he swam and splashed about +in those waters, below which lay hell itself, with the same joyful +gaiety as he used to churn his way out to sea at Silorno. As by some +hideous irony, the love of deep waters far from shore that all his life +had possessed him, so that his physical self was at the zenith of its +capacity for enjoyment when the profound gulfs were below him, and the +land far off, so now evil, essential and primeval evil, had beckoned his +soul out over unplumbed depths that seemed to him bright with celestial +sunshine. Not yet was he doomed to sink there, though she guessed, as in +a nightmare, in what deadly peril he stood, for now and again some +inkling of that which menaced him reached his true self, and he turned +back with shuddering and contrition from some evil prompting. All the +time this betrayed itself to Jessie in things that might so reasonably +have been called mere trifles. An impatient, impetuous boy, as Archie +undoubtedly was, might so naturally have lost his temper with a decrepit +old dog which strayed on to the path of his flying car, and made him say +that it would be the kindest thing to run over it. That same boy might +so naturally have felt an unedifying curiosity in two drunken women +fighting together, or have reasonably been annoyed when, in a hurry to +change his clothes, he found that his old nurse had taken them away. +Indeed, it was the strength of his own reaction against such impulses +that showed how alien he knew them to be to his real self. But her own +feeling about them was the final test, for she knew it was based on the +infallible intuition of her love for him. It was impossible that that +should be mistaken, and it told her that it was not Archie at all who +had committed these acts, which might be trifling in themselves, but, +like wisps of cloud in the sky, showed which way the great winds were +blowing. And on the top of these was something which Jessie could not +conceive of as being a trifle, namely, Archie's complete reconciliation +with her sister. She could not believe that it was a noble impulse which +prompted that, and extinguished his bitter resentment against her as +easily as a candle is blown out. He was right to be bitter against her, +and the love, with which he seemed inspired again, was not love at all. +But he believed that this desire was love, and according to his account +it was the spirit of Martin which had taught him that and opened his +blinded eyes. It was Martin, then, who possessed him. And that, to +Jessie, was the most incredible of all. It was not, and it could not be, +Martin. + +She sat by her open window that Sunday night, wishing that she could +think that some madness had fallen upon her, which caused her to +conceive such inconceivable things. Archie's laugh still sounded in her +ears, gay and boyish, as she had heard it but two minutes before she +came up to bed. And she shuddered at the cause of it. Once again, she +and Archie had strolled out after dinner, and, on passing the windows of +his father's study, their steps noiseless on the grass, Archie had laid +his hand on her arm with a gesture to command silence, and had tiptoed +with her across the gravel to his father's windows. Lord Tintagel was +inside, and, even as they looked, he took a bottle out of which he had +been pouring something, and locked it up in a cupboard. + +Archie turned a face beaming with merriment on her. + +"Come in," he whispered, "to say good-night. Leave it all to me. It will +be huge fun." + +He waited a moment, and began talking loudly to her on some indifferent +subject for a few seconds. The he said: + +"Come and say good-night to my father, Jessie," and they entered +together. + +Lord Tintagel was seated in his chair by this time: there was just one +empty glass on the tray, with a syphon, and no sign of a second one. +Archie began walking up and down the room, his eyes looking swiftly and +stealthily in every direction. + +"Jessie and I have just come in to say good-night," he said. "We're all +going up to town to-morrow. Won't you really come, father?" + +"I've already said I won't," said Lord Tintagel sharply. + +Archie suddenly saw what he had been looking for. + +"Hullo, here's a funny thing," he said. "Here's a glass on the floor." + +He picked it up, smelled it, and burst into a peal of laughter. + +"Father, it's too bad of you!" he said. "There have I been keeping our +bargain, while you--" + +He broke off, laughing again. + +"No, I'll confess," he said, "because I'm so pleased at having found you +out. I've been having some quiet drinks up in my bedroom while you've +been doing the same down here. What did you do with your bottles? I put +mine in the lake. I say, that is funny, isn't it? But it's rather +unsociable. Let's follow Germany's example, and call our treaty waste +paper." + +And Archie had laughed over that miserable sordid exposure, just as +light-heartedly as he had laughed over the jolly innocent humours at +Silorno, and, sick at heart, Jessie had left the two together with the +bottle which there was no need to conceal any more. + +She sat long at her window in a miserable state of horror and fear and +agitation, now trying to persuade herself that she was taking these +things too heavily--Helena had always told her she took things +heavily--now letting her fears issue in terrible cohort and looking them +in the face. It was her powerlessness to help that most tortured her, +her fate of having to stand and watch while Archie pushed out ever +farther, with delight and joy, on to the perilous seas. But now there +was to her a reality about it all which she had never wholly felt +before. Often she had told herself that she was imagining perils, but +to-night, in the darkness and the quiet, she felt herself face to face +with the grim, deadly facts. Spiritual and ghostly enemies were about, +and next moment she had slid on to her knees. No words came: she tried +just to open her heart to that light that surely shone through the evil +that swarmed about her. Something, ever so faint, glimmered there, and +presently she rose again with her soul fixed on that little spark +shining within her. In any case, she must make every effort to help, +instead of succumbing to her sense of powerlessness. + +At that moment she heard light, swift footsteps on the stairs, and +instantly her mind was made up, and she came out into the broad passage +just as Archie was opposite her door. His face was eager and alert; +there was no trace of intoxication there. + +"Hullo, Jessie," he said, smiling. "Not gone to bed yet?" + +She had to be wise: mere helpless prayer would avail nothing if she did +not exert herself and make use of her wits and her love. + +"No: I didn't feel sleepy," she said. "You don't look sleepy either. Are +you going to bed?" + +"No, not yet," said Archie. + +Jessie came a step closer to him. + +"Oh, Archie, are you going to talk to Martin?" she asked. "Mayn't I +come? I should so love to, for I know all that Martin means to you. You +know I did hear him talking to you before. It would be lovely if I could +hear you talking together, so that I knew what he said." + +Archie looked at her. + +"Well, I don't know why not," he said. "But you must promise not to +interrupt. Perhaps you'll neither hear nor see anything. But I don't see +why you shouldn't try. It's just a seance. Come along, Jessie." + +He led the way into his bedroom, and shut the door. + +"I shall really rather like you to be here," he said. "I'm glad you +suggested it. For now and then I go into very deep trance, and then I +can't remember what exactly has happened. I only know that there has +been round me an atmosphere--to call it that--in which I glow and +expand. Sometimes I rather think I struggle and groan: you mustn't mind +that. It's only the protest of my material earthly self. Come on: let's +begin. I long for Martin to come." + +Jessie felt her dread and horror of the occult surge up in her, and it +required all her resolution to remain here. But the call of her love was +imperative: if she was to be permitted to help Archie at all, she must +learn what it was that possessed him, and find means to combat it. She +had to know first what it was, penetrate, so far as her love had power, +into the source of it, diagnose it, if she was to help in curing. + +"What are you going to do?" she said. + +"It's very simple; you'll soon see. Sit down, Jessie." + +He went to the window and drew aside the curtains. He put on the table +in front of where he was to sit the silver top of some toilet-bottle, +and then went to the door and turned out all the electric lights at the +switch-board. The moonlight outside, without shining directly into the +room, made the objects in it clearly though duskily visible, and Jessie, +where she sat with her back to the light, could see Archie's face and +outline, when her eyes got accustomed to the dimness, quite distinctly. +He sat close to her at the end of the writing-table, and just in front +of him glimmered the stopper from the toilet-bottle. + +"Now I'm going to look at that till I go off into trance," he said. +"Watch what happens very closely, for I may go into deep trance, and +promise me not to move till I come round again. I daresay you will +neither hear nor see anything, but I don't know." + +For some few minutes, as far as the girl could judge, they sat in +silence. Once or twice Archie shifted his position slightly, and she +heard his shirt-front creak a little as he breathed quietly and +normally. Outside a little wind stirred, and the tassel of the blind +tapped against the sill. + +Then there came a change: his breathing grew louder, as if he panted for +air, and now and again he moaned, and she saw his head drop forward. +This moaning sound was horrible to hear, and, but for her promise, and +the insistent urging of her love, she must have got up and roused him. +His breath whistled between his lips as he took it in, and his face +seemed to be shining with some dew of anguish, and his arms twisted and +writhed as if struggling against some overmastering force. Then suddenly +all sign of struggle ceased, he sat bent forward, but perfectly still, +and from the table in front of him came three loud, peremptory raps, as +of splitting wood. From the dusk of the room came others which she could +not localize. + +Archie raised his head, and, instead of leaning over the table, sank +back in his chair, his arms hanging limp by his side. He began to +whisper to himself, and soon Jessie caught the words. + +"Martin, are you here?" he kept repeating. "Martin, are you here? +Martin, Martin?" + +There was more light in the room now. It came from a pale greyish +efflorescence of illumination, globular in shape, that lay apparently +over his left breast. It made its immediate neighbourhood quite bright: +she could see the stud in his shirt with absolute distinctness. Out of +it there came a little wisp of mist that floated up like a stream of +smoke above his shoulders. In the air there, independently of this, +there was forming another mist-like substance, and the stream that came +away from Archie seemed to join this. It began to take shape: it spread +upwards and downwards into the semblance of a column, its edges losing +themselves in the dark. Lines began to be interwoven within it: it was +as if something was forming inside it, like a chicken in an egg. It lost +its vagueness of outline, plaiting and weaving itself together: there +appeared an arm bare to the shoulder; above that she could see a neck, +and slowly above the neck there grew a smiling, splendid face. There +seemed to be a grey robe cast about the body, from which the bare arm +protruded, but much of this was vague. + +Jessie felt as if some awful paralysis of terror lay over her spirit. +The whole room, cool and fresh with the night-air passing through the +open window, reeked, to her spiritual sense, with evil and unnameable +corruption. Over her conscious superficial self, the mechanism that +directed her limbs and worked in her brain, she had complete control: +for Archie's sake she was learning about this hellish visitor who came +to him. But within, her soul cried out in a horror of uttermost +darkness. Then her will took hold of that too: whatever God permitted +must be faced for the sake of love. + +Just then Archie spoke in an odd muffled voice. + +"I'm going very deep," he said. "But, Martin, you've made me so happy +all day. You've hardly left me at all. You're getting to be part of me, +aren't you? Let's talk about Helena. I say, she is a devil, isn't she?" + +Jessie had not known that anything could be so horrible as the smiling +face that the apparition bent on him. + +"But you've ceased hating her," it said. "You love her, don't you? +Always cling to love!" + +"I know, I adore her. I believe she loves me too." He laughed and licked +his lips and his voice sank, so that Jessie could catch no word of what +he said. But he spoke for a long time, laughing occasionally, and making +horrible little movements with his arms as if he clasped something. Now +and then he would perhaps ask a question, for in the same inaudible +manner the apparition answered him, laughing sometimes in response. Once +or twice in that devilish colloquy she caught a word or two of hideous +and carnal import, and her sickened love nearly withered within her. But +because love is immortal, and cannot perish though all the blasts of +hell rage against it, it still stood firm, though scorched and beaten +upon. If she let it die, she felt that she would be no better than that +visible incarnation of evil that smiled and bent over Archie. + +Presently that devilish whispering ceased, and she saw that the +apparition was beginning to lose its clearness of outline. Slowly it +began to disintegrate into the weavings of mist out of which it came, +and Archie said, "Good-bye, Martin, but not for long." Some of these +streamers seemed to disperse in the air, others, like an eddying +water-spout, seemed to draw back into that focus of light which lay over +Archie's breast. Then that too began to fade, and in the stillness and +quiet she again heard the creaking of his shirt as he lay back in his +chair with closed eyes. Then the struggles and moanings, the writhings +of his arms began again, and again subsided, and he lay quite still. +Outside the night-wind stirred and dropped. + +Then Archie spoke in a tired, husky voice. + +"Hullo, Jessie," he said, "it's all over. By Jove, it was ripping. But I +went awfully deep. I can remember nothing after Martin came. What did he +say?" + +Jessie got up. + +"I heard hardly anything," she said. "He spoke in whispers, and so did +you." + +"Did you see him?" asked Archie. + +"Yes, quite clearly. But I think I'll go to bed now. You look very +tired." + +He had got up and turned on the electric light, and stood by the door +rubbing his eyes. + +"Yes, I am tired," he said, "but I'm divinely happy. Tell me to-morrow +whatever you can remember. Good-night, Jess. You are a good sort." + +He detained her hand for a moment. + +"We're cousins, Jess," he said, "and you're an awfully good friend. +Won't you give me a kiss?" + +For one second she shrank from him in nameless horror. The next she put +it all from her, for her shrinking, no angel of the Lord, but a weak, +cowardly impulse, stood full in the path of love, and while it was there +she could not reach Archie. + +"Why, of course," she said, kissing him. "Good-night, Archie; sleep +well." + +She went to her room, and turned on all the lights. She felt as if she +had been assisting at some unclean orgy, she felt tainted and defiled by +the very presence of that white evil thing that had stood close to her, +and whispered and laughed with Archie. As yet she had but looked on it; +what lay in front of her was to grapple with it and tear it out of the +tabernacle which it had begun to inhabit. As far as she could understand +the situation, it was not wholly in possession as yet, for part of it, +when it materialized, seemed to form itself in the air, and part only to +ooze out of its victim. Through what adventures and combats her way +should take her she could form no conception, but what she had gained +to-night, which was worth a hundred times the sickness and horror of her +soul, was the certain knowledge that some spirit of discarnate evil was +making its home in her beloved. It had usurped the guise of Martin, it +masqueraded as Martin, Archie thought it was Martin. She remembered how, +just a week ago, he had told her that he was like an empty house, +denuded of the spirit that dwelt there, a living corpse by which he +asked her to sit sometimes. At the time that had seemed to her just the +figure by which he expressed the desolation of his heart; now it +revealed itself as a true and literal statement. And there had begun to +enter into him, as tenant of the uninhabited rooms, the horror that she +had seen. + +Jessie fell on her knees by her bedside, and opened her heart to the +Infinite Love. It was through Its aid alone that she would be able to +accomplish the rescue for which she was willing to give her life and +soul. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +Archie was walking back to the house in Grosvenor Square from Oakland +Crescent, on the afternoon of Helena's wedding. Owing to the acute +suspense of the European situation, the plans of the newly married +couple had been changed, and, instead of setting off at once in the +yacht for a month in the Norwegian fjords, they had gone to a house of +Lord Harlow's in Surrey to await developments in the crisis or some kind +of settlement. It was still uncertain whether England would be drawn +into the war, though opinion generally regarded that as inevitable, and +in this case no doubt Lord Harlow, an ex-Guardsman, would rejoin his +regiment. Archie's mother, after the departure of the bridal couple, had +also left town for Lacebury, taking with her Jessie and Colonel Vautier +for a few days' visit; but Archie had decided to stop another night in +London. + +There had been the usual crowds and chatterings and excitement, the +front pew kept for a princess, the signing of names in the vestry, the +red carpets and wedding-marches, and the whole ceremony had filled +Archie with the greatest amusement. But the subsequent proceedings had +not amused him so much, and Helena's departure, looking prettier than +ever, with her husband, had annoyed and exasperated him. He did not like +to think of them together, and, though only a couple of nights ago he +and Martin had found good cause for whispers and laughter over this, it +was not so diverting when it actually occurred as it had promised to be. +Part of that midnight seance which he could not at first remember had +found its way into his conscious mind, and he knew that had been talked +about, and had ascertained, with considerable relief, that Jessie had +not been able to hear it. But now there was a savage bitterness in his +mind about it; Helena seemed to have played him false again. She ought +to have refused to marry the Bradshaw at the last moment, and it was an +ineffectual balm to know she did not care for him. Perhaps, as Jessie +had once said (though withdrawing it afterwards), she cared for nobody, +but now Archie believed that she cared for him. It maddened him to think +that she was the Bradshaw's "ABC," and in those circumstances he had +judged it better to remain in town for the night, and distract his mind +and soothe his longings with the amusement and aids to forgetfulness +which London was so ready to offer to a young man who was looking for +adventures. + +But London proved disappointing: it did not seem to be thinking of its +amusements at all. Archie called to see a friend who last week had shown +himself an eager and admirable companion, but, found him to-day +disinclined for another night of similar diversion, for he could neither +think nor talk about anything else than the imminence of war. Archie +felt himself quite incapable of taking any active interest in that; it +weighted nothing in the balance compared with the stern duty of seeking +enjoyment and forgetting about Helena. What if England did go to war +with Germany? Certainly he hoped she would not; she had made no more +than a friendly understanding with her Allies--indeed they were not even +Allies, they were but well-disposed nations--but, even if she did, what +then? There was an English fleet, was there not, which cost an immense +amount of money to render invincible; but it was invincible. Why, then, +should he bother about it, since he was not a sailor? It was further +supposed that Germany had an invincible army; and there you were! And if +England had no army at all to speak of, it was quite clear she could no +more fight Germany on land than Germany could fight her by sea. So what +on earth prevented a little dinner at a restaurant and an hour at a +music-hall and a little supper somewhere and anything that turned up? +Something always turned up, and was usually amusing for an hour or two. +But his friend thought otherwise, and kept diving out into the street to +get some fresh edition of an evening paper hot from the press and +crammed with fresh inventions, and Archie left this insane patriot in +disgust at his excitement over so detached an affair as a European war. +He tried a second friend with no better success; there was a certain +excuse for him, as he was a subaltern in the Guards. But for the first +friend there was none, as he was only in an office in the city. + +There were still four or five hours to get through before it would be +reasonable to think about dinner, after which, even if he started alone, +the hours would take care of themselves very pleasantly; but he had to +fill the interval somehow. There were some proofs of his book waiting +for him at home, and, hoping to get interested in this first-born public +child of his brain, he sat down with a view to correcting them. But he +found himself reading the pages as if there was nothing intelligible +printed on them. True, if he forced himself to attend, he could see that +grammatical sentences succeeded each other; but they conveyed no further +impression. There was a lot about the sea, but why on earth had he taken +the trouble to write it? He could remember writing it; he could call up +an image of himself sitting in the garden at Silorno, eagerly writing, +conscientiously erasing, walking up and down in the attempt to frame a +phrase that should exactly reproduce some mood of his mind. But what had +inspired those strivings and despairs and exultations? + +Here was the record of them, and it seemed now to be about nothing. "The +rain in the night had washed the white soil into the rim of the sea, and +it was clouded like absinthe." He could well remember the search for, +and the finding of that particular simile. He and Harry had been into +Genoa a week before, and, out of curiosity, had ordered absinthe at a +cafe. The drink, _qua_ drink, was mildly unpleasant, resembling aniseed, +but it had been worth while having it, merely to have got that perfectly +fitting simile. The effect, too, had been rather remarkable; it produced +a sort of heady lightness and sense of well-being; colours seemed +strangely vivid and intensified, and... + +Archie got up from his meaningless proofs. It was absinthe that would +help him to fill up those dull hours till dinner-time, and he remembered +having seen in some little French restaurant in Soho the stuff he +wanted. Very likely you could get it anywhere, but he wanted it from +that particular place, for there had come in one evening, when he dined +there, a most melancholy-looking person who had ordered it and sat and +sipped. Somehow the man's face had made an impression on him, so unhappy +was it. He remembered also his face half an hour afterwards, when he +began his dinner, and no serener, more contented countenance could have +been imagined... So he must have his absinthe from that restaurant; +clearly they had a very good brand of it there. + +As he drove out alone that evening to dine, he heard the newsvenders +shouting out the English ultimatum to Germany, and saw the placards in +the streets. The shouting sounded wonderfully musical, and below the +roar of the street traffic was a muffled harmony as of pealing bells. +The drab colours of London were shot with prismatic hues; never had the +streets appeared so beautiful. There was even beauty in the fact of the +outbreak of war, for England was going to war for the sake of liberty, +which was a fine, a noble adventure. And how lovely the English girls +and boys were, who crowded the pavements! They were like beds of +exquisite flowers. For himself, he was going back to dine at the French +restaurant in Soho, for that would be in the nature of supporting our +new Allies. Afterwards there were the streets and the music-halls, and +all the mysteries of the short summer night. Then dawn would break, +rose-coloured dawn, with her finger on her lips, and sweet, silent +mouth, a little ashamed of her sister, night, but sympathetic at heart. +Dawn was always a little prudish, a little Quakerish. + +* * * * * + +The days of a divine August went by, and the line of German invasion +swept forward like a tide that knows no ebb over all Belgium and +North-East France. The British Expeditionary Force started, and was +swept back like the flotsam on the seashore. The call came for the +raising of an army, and east and west, north and south, the recruiting +offices were like choked waterways, and still the flood of men, in whose +hearts the fact of England had awoke, poured in. Hospitals were gorged +with the returning wounded; women by the hundred and by the thousand +volunteered as nurses, and went to hospitals to be trained. The whole of +comfortable England, intent hitherto on its sports, its leisure, its +general superiority to the rest of the world, suddenly became aware that +an immense and vital danger threatened it. A chorus of objurgation arose +from the brazen-throated press, each organ striving to shout the +loudest, at the unpreparedness of the country, and much valuable energy +was spent in headlines and recriminations. There was a shortage of guns, +a shortage of ammunition, a shortage of everything which constitutes the +sinews of war. The only thing of which there was not a shortage was of +those who threw aside all other considerations, such as income and +secure living and life itself, and gave themselves to assist, in what +manner they could, the cause for which England had gone to war. + +To Archie this all seemed a very hysterical and uncomfortable attack of +nerves. In several ways it affected him personally, for William, than +whom there was no more reliable servant, was among the first to leave +his well-paid situation and present himself at a recruiting office. +Archie hated that: there would be the nuisance of getting a new servant, +who did not know where precisely he ought to put Archie's tooth-powder, +and how to arrange his clothes. William had announced the fact too, in +the suddenest of manners; he brought it out as he brought in Archie's +morning tea. + +"And if you can spare me at once, my lord," he said, "I had better go on +Saturday." + +Archie felt peculiarly devilish that morning; it rained, and the +absinthe that should have arrived last night had not come. + +"I think it's very inconsiderate of you, William," he said. "But I +suppose you expect to get on well, and draw higher pay than you get +here. So I shall have to raise your wages. All right; I'll give you a +pound a month more, and don't let me hear any more about it." + +He knew perfectly well that this was not William's reason, but it amused +him to suggest it. He wanted to see how William would take it. The fact +that he knew that the man was devoted to him made the point. + +William busied himself with razors and tooth-brushes, replying nothing. + +"Can't you hear what I say?" asked Archie, pouring himself out his tea. + +William faced round. + +"Yes, Master Archie," he said. "I heard. But I knew you didn't mean +that. You know how I've served you and worked for you all these years. +You would scorn to think that of me, I should say." + +Archie had noticed the "Master Archie" instead of "my lord"; both +William and Blessington often forgot that he was "my lord," and it +always used to please him that to the sense of love he was still a young +boy. And, in spite of his irritation and peevish morning temper, it +touched some part of him that still loved below the corruption that was +spreading over him like some jungle-growing lichen. But he had to force +his way through that to reply. + +"You must do as you think right, William," he said. + +William had finished the arrangements of his dressing, and stood for a +moment by his bedside with Archie's evening clothes bundled on to his +arm. + +"Yes, Master Archie," he said. "And you'll be joining up too before +long, won't you? I should dearly love to be your soldier-servant, sir, +if you could manage it." + +All Archie's ill-humour returned at that unfortunate suggestion. + +"Perhaps you had better not be impertinent," he said. "That'll do." + +William's face fell. + +"I had no thought of impertinence, my lord," he said. "I only thought--" + +"I told you that would do," said Archie. + +* * * * * + +Three days afterwards William left. He came to say good-bye to Archie, +who did not look up from the paper he was reading. Archie was suffering +inconvenience from his departure, and this was the best way of making +William feel it. But when the door had shut again, and William was gone, +he felt a sudden horror of the thing that seemed to be himself, and he +ran out, and called William back. All these days he had not had a word +or kindly gesture for him... + +"Good-bye, William," he said. "I wish you all good luck. I've treated +you like a beast these last days, and I'm awfully sorry. You're the best +fellow a man could have, and you must try to forget the horrid way I've +behaved." + +William stood with his hand in Archie's for a moment. + +"You're always my Master Archie, sir," he said. + +* * * * * + +Well, there was an end of William: before he had got back to his paper +again Archie wondered what had possessed him to throw a kind word to a +dog like that, who had left him at three days' notice to join this +ridiculous military conspiracy. William did not care how much he +inconvenienced Archie, who had always treated him more like a +subordinate friend than a servant. He had helped William in a hundred +ways: had given him old clothes, had constantly asked after his mother, +had left his letters about for William to read if he chose. It seemed +rank treachery... + +Others were treacherous too; his mother, for instance, was immediately +going up to town, to take charge of the house in Grosvenor Square, which +was to be turned into a hospital for wounded officers. She was to become +a sort of housekeeper, so Archie figured it, and merely superintend +domestic arrangements. She would have nothing to do with the nursing and +the surgery, which had a certain fascination... He could picture a sort +of pleasure in seeing a man's leg cut off, or in standing by while +doctors pulled bandages off festering wounds. To feel well and strong +while others were suffering had an intelligible interest: to witness +decay and corruption and pain was a point that appealed to him now. But +Lady Tintagel was going to do nothing of the sort: she was just going to +be a housekeeper. It was very selfish of her; Archie would certainly +want, from time to time, to go up to town and spend a night or two +there, and now he would have to go to a hotel or a club, instead of +profiting by the spacious privacy of his father's house. Charity begins +at home; and his mother had started charity on most extraneous lines. +Jessie had followed this lead, "the lead of so-called trumps," as Archie +framed a private phrase. She would start by being not even a +housekeeper, but a sort of kitchen-maid at the same hospital. She had an +insane desire to work, to do something that cost her something, instead +of engaging a kitchen-maid, and paying her wages to go to some hospital +or other. There was a craze for "personal service," instead of getting +other people to do work for you, if you felt work had to be done. People +wanted to "do their bit," to employ an odious expression which was +beginning to obtain currency. The nation was going to be mobilized; hand +and heart had to serve some vague national idea. Occasionally, as on the +night when war was declared, Archie saw an aesthetic beauty in the +notion of upholding rights and liberties; but he had not then reckoned +with the fact that personal inconvenience might result from that +quixotic revolution. Quixotism was fine in theory, but it was a dream, +not to be encouraged in waking hours, when far more important and +realizable commodities, like whisky and absinthe, engaged the true +attention. + +But, whoever else was treacherous, his father at least was loyal, and +showed no sign of becoming a butler or a footman, to correspond with his +wife and Jessie. Occasionally some grave report concerning the German +advance through Belgium used to reach his brain, and he would walk up +and down his room in the evening with a martial tread, and a glance at a +sword that hung above his writing-table, and wish he was younger and +able to "have a go" at those invading locusts. But invariably this mood, +which was always short, was succeeded by another, not bellicose but +domestic. + +"This damned war is going to break up home-life in England," he would +say, "and I've no doubt that was what the Germans aimed at. And they're +succeeding too. Look at this house: there's you mother going to leave +us, and there's Helena's husband expecting every day to be sent to +France, and there's Jessie leaving her father to wash up dishes. What's +going to become of our English homes if that goes on?--for, mark you, +they are the root of our national life. It's digging up the trees' roots +to break up English homes. You and I, Archie, are the only ones who are +staunch to our homes. Pass me that bottle, will you?" + +"May I help myself on the way?" said Archie. + +"Yes, of course, my dear boy. I say, it was a funny state of things when +you and I used to have our evening drinks alone, instead of enjoying +them and chatting over them together. Your man, William, too, he's gone +and enlisted, hasn't he? The old bulwarks of England are going fast: the +homes are being broken up, and the very servants come and go as they +choose. An establishment was an establishment in the old days: it all +stood and fell together, if you see what I mean. But I wish I was young +enough to have a go at the Boches." + +"I'm thinking of going," Archie would say, merely in order to enjoy his +father's reply. + +"Well, in my opinion, you'll be doing a very wrong thing, then," said +Lord Tintagel. "I hope you won't seriously think of that. I tell you +your duty is here, with your poor old father. When I'm gone you may do +what you please, and I daresay you won't have very long to wait. But, +while I'm here, I hope you'll remember that they say in church 'Honour +thy father and thy mother.' You can't go behind the commandments, or the +psalms, whichever it is." + +But these sessions in Lord Tintagel's room of an evening, with the +liquid in the decanter sinking steadily like a well in time of drought, +were becoming rather tedious to Archie. Since his discovery of absinthe +they had even become rather gross, and he congratulated himself on +having seen the sordidness of mere swilling. That sort of thing was only +fit for coarse, rough tastes; it seemed to him to lack all delicacy and +aesthetic value, and he often left his father, who congratulated him on +his abstemiousness after no more than a friendly glass of good +fellowship, and went upstairs to his room to enjoy subtler and more +refined sensations. Indeed, his chief interest in that half-hour or so +in his father's room was derived from the sight of his father's heavy +potations, the struggle of his maundering thoughts to emerge into +language, much as a tilted half-moon struggles to pierce the flying +clouds on some tempestuous night. The sight of his father's +deterioration and gradual wreck somehow fascinated him; there was decay +and corruption there, and those no longer aroused in him that horror +with which in dream he had observed the emergence of the writhing worms +from the white statue of Helena. Such things were no longer disgusting +and repulsive: they claimed kinship with something in his soul that was +very potent. Once Martin had alluded to that vision as a warning, and he +had not taken that warning, in consequence of which he had passed an +utterly miserable month after Helena's rejection of him. Now values had +altogether changed: decay no longer revolted him. But, with a hypocrisy +that had become characteristic of him, he told himself that the sight of +his father's nightly intoxication was a lesson to himself. He must +observe that degrading spectacle, and learn from it what the result of +too much whisky was. And then he retired to his bedroom to think it over +as he sipped the clouded aroma of his absinthe. + +Jessie came down for another week-end before she took her kitchen-maid +situation, and brought the news that a fresh draft of Lord Harlow's +regiment was ordered to the front, and that he would leave for France +within the next day or two. + +Archie felt a wild desire to laugh, to skip, to show his intense +appreciation of these tidings. But he remembered that Jessie was not his +confidante to that extent, and checked his exuberant inclination. + +"Poor Helena!" he said, with an accent of great sincerity. "She must be +broken-hearted. Why, they've only been married a fortnight, if as much." + +It was excellently said, and Jessie felt she would have shown herself an +infidel, with regard to the general decency of the human race, if she +had not accepted those words with the sincerity with which they surely +must have been uttered. She resolutely put away from her all those +misgivings that had assailed her when first she knew of Archie's changed +attitude towards her sister. + +"You have been a brick about Helena," she said. "I want to tell you +that. Your forgiveness of the way she treated you seems to me beyond all +praise." + +"Oh, nonsense," said he lightly. "Besides, it was so dreadfully +uncomfortable being always angry and miserable. Martin showed me that. +But about Helena: how is she bearing it?" + +It was now Jessie's turn to be obliged to cloak her meaning. + +"Very calmly and bravely," she said. + +"She would," said Archie enthusiastically. "One always felt there was a +steel will behind all Helena's gentleness. What will she do, do you +think? Would she perhaps like to come down here? There isn't much to +offer her, but then London in August doesn't offer much either." + +Suddenly all Jessie's mistrust stirred and erected itself. She could not +believe that this scheme, which would throw Helena and Archie completely +together, could be made with the apparent innocence with which it was +put forward. How was it possible that Archie, who so few weeks ago was +in such depths of misery and bitterness, could honourably suggest so +dangerous a plan? It could not be Archie who suggested it: it came from +that smiling white presence which she had seen in his room not many +nights ago. And it was just that which she could not say to him. + +"It's nice of you to think of that," she said. + +"Not a bit: it would be nice for me, not nice of me. And besides," he +added, with an amazing cynicism, "it would be my way of 'doing my bit,' +which everybody is talking about, if I could make things cheerfuller for +pretty women like poor Helena, whose husband has gone out to fight." + +The moment he had said it he was sorry. But for the moment he had +forgotten he was speaking to Jessie: the sentence had come out of his +mouth as if he was but talking to himself. Also it introduced the +suggestion of his own forbearance to enlist. + +There was a rather awkward silence, and he felt irritated with Jessie +for not changing the subject which he had so incautiously brought +forward. But that was like her. She had no tact in such matters, +refusing to be insincere, when insincerity was so simple a matter. His +irritation grew on him, and at the same time he wanted to know what +Jessie thought of his remaining inertly here, while all his +contemporaries were enlisting. Why he wanted to know he did not define: +the motive perhaps belonged to the time when Jessie had been so good a +friend, and perhaps he knew that she was so still. + +"Or do you think that I ought to behave like William, and serve my +country?" he asked. + +Jessie sat with eyes downcast for a moment. Then she raised them and +looked him in the face, with all her affection and sincerity alight in +them. + +"Do you really want to know what I think, Archie?" she asked. + +"Certainly I do." + +"Well, I can't understand your not doing it," she said. "At the same +time, I think it is a matter about which you must decide for yourself." + +The sincerity of his manner equalled hers. He never spoke with more +apparent frankness. + +"Shall I tell you why I don't?" he said. "It's this. Do you remember one +night our finding that my father was breaking the contract he made with +me about drinking? Do you remember how sordid and horrible the discovery +was?" + +Jessie remembered quite well how Archie had laughed at it. + +"I remember the evening," she said. + +"Well, we've renewed our contract," said he, "and I'm the only person in +the world who can keep my father to it. If I left him he would drink +himself to death. Where, then, do you think my duty lies, Jessie? Isn't +it clearly for me to save my father? Can there be a more obvious duty +than that? Do you think I have a very delightful life down here, all +alone with him? Wouldn't it be vastly easier for me to join my friends +and go out alongside of them? I know my conduct lays me open to +misconception, but I must be thick-skinned over that. But I hope you +won't misjudge me. Besides, my father has said that he forbids me to go. +Of course I could leave him; he doesn't lock me up. But I can't see how +I should be right in leaving him. I'm the one anchor he has left." + +He paused a moment, thinking over, with that stupendous swiftness of +brain that was the result of Martin's inspiration, all he had said, and +remembered his light cynicism with regard to his "bit." + +"I know I rather shocked you just now," he said, "when I spoke of its +being 'my bit' to console pretty women whose husbands had gone out. But +sometimes one has to be flippant to conceal one's real thoughts on a +serious subject, for I did not foresee then that we should talk it out. +So there's the end of that jest." + +So that had been a jest, not to be taken seriously. But it was a grimmer +affair for Jessie not to be able to take seriously Archie's seriousness. +For a moment the frankness of his manner had convinced her, but very +soon her conviction collapsed like a house of cards as he went on +speaking. The horribleness of the discovery of his father's drinking, +for instance, when what she remembered was Archie's laughter! If he +could say that, what credence could possibly be placed in the picture he +had drawn of himself as his father's last hope? Or what in the image of +himself as one who must silently bear cruel misconception? She could +believe none of it... + +Yet it was not the Archie whom she loved with all the sweetness and +strength of her nature who spoke, but the Thing that was possessing him +and filling his soul from the reservoir of some immense abyss of pure +evil. She felt sure she did not misjudge him; true and infinitely tragic +was her comprehension. + +"It is entirely for you to decide, Archie," she said. "I think I fully +appreciate the worth of your reasons." + +Indeed, she knew not what else to say, though the bitter doubleness of +her words cut her to the heart. But, if she could help Archie at all, +she must at all costs retain such confidence as he gave her, must not +give him the chance of quarrelling with her. + +To her great relief, he seemed to accept the literal value of her words, +and took her arm. And this time she felt in her soul that there was +sincerity in his speech. + +"You are a good friend, Jessie," he said. "Don't give me up, will you?" + +"I couldn't," she said quietly. + +* * * * * + +They were strolling together by the edge of the lake in the hour of +sunset, and Jessie, though sick at heart and tortured by the weight of +her forebodings, and the tempest of fire and blood which had burst on +Europe, yet tried to open her heart to the sweet spell of the tranquil +evening. Somewhere behind the cloud of evil which had so suddenly taken +shape in that host of barbarians who already had overrun Belgium, and +which, no less, was invading the spirit of the boy she loved with the +uttermost fibre of her being, there shone the eternal serenity of +Omnipotent Mercy. But He dealt through human means; it was through those +who had left love and home and ease behind them to perish in France that +that torrent would be stayed, and through her, though in ways she could +not conjecture, would come the delivery of her beloved. And in the +rose-flecked sky, the leafy towers of the elms, the bosom of the lake, +that Power also dwelt, no less than in the hearts that yearned for its +presence and its manifestation. As in a glass darkly she beheld its +reflection, which nothing could ever shatter. Of that she must never +lose sight, nor cease to keep her inward eye fixed on the gleam, which +some day would signal to her. + +About a week later Archie was spending a delectable morning at the +bathing-place. Never had there been so superb an imitation of Italian +weather in England as this year, and day after day went by in unclouded +brightness and strong, fresh heat. In those delightful conditions it had +been perfectly easy for him to take his mind completely away from the +war, and the misconceptions which he was possibly suffering under. He +gave every morning but the briefest glance to the paper, for there was a +tiresome uniformity about the news, and a monotonous regularity about +the daily map, which marked the progress of the German line across +North-East France. He gave hardly more thought to Helena, who seemed to +think it more appropriate to stay in London with her father, just for +the present, but had written the most characteristic of letters, saying +how sweet Archie's sympathy was to her, and how acute her anxiety +concerning her husband. Certainly at the moment this was the right +attitude to take, and Archie really did not much care whether she was +here with him or not, for he had found his way into the Paradise that +forms the portico of the palace where the absinthe-drinker dwells, and +not yet had he penetrated into the halls of Hell that lie beyond. + +His pleasure in the fact of being alive, in the colours of morning and +evening, in the touch of cool waters, in the whispering of wind among +the firs, were quickened to an inconceivable degree; it was impossible +to want anything except the privilege of enjoying this amazing thrill of +existence. And with it there had returned to him the need of expressing +himself in writing; a new aspect of the world had been revealed to him, +and without struggle, but with an even-flowing pen he set himself to +record it, in veiled phrases and descriptions through which, as in +chinks of light seen at the edges of drawn blinds, there came hints and +suggestions of the fresh world that had dawned on him. Where before it +was the clear stainlessness of the sea, the purifying breath of great +winds that had been his theme, now instead the satyr crouched in the +bushes, the snake lay coiled in the heather. It was from the slime and +mud and from among blind crawling things that the water-lily sprang, and +where before the enchantment of life moved him, he felt now only the +call of putrefaction and decay. The lethal side of the created world had +become exquisite in his eyes, and the beauty of it was derived from its +everlasting corruption, not from the eternal upspringing of life. Lust, +not love, was the force that kept it young, and renewed it so that the +harvest of its decay should never ceased to be reaped. His mind had +become a mirror that distorted into grotesque and evil shapes every +image of beauty that was reflected in it, and rejoiced in them; it +seemed to him that all nature, as well as all human motive, was based +upon this exquisite secret that he had discovered. But it would never do +to state it with what he considered the bald realism of those ludicrous +sea-pieces he had written at Silorno; he must wrap his message up in a +sort of mystic subtlety so that only those who had implanted in them the +true instinct should be able to fill their souls with the perfume of his +flowers. Others might guess and wonder and be puzzled, and perhaps see +so far as to put down his book with disgust that was still half +incredulous; but only the initiated would be able to grasp wholly the +message that lurked in his hints and allusions. His style, underneath +this new inspiration, had developed into an instrument of marvellous +beauty, and often, when he had written a page or two, he would read it +out aloud to himself, in wonder at that exquisite diction, and all the +time he felt that he was reading aloud to Martin, and that Martin had +dictated to him. + +He was employed thus on this particular morning down at the +bathing-place. He had already had a long swim, and, without dressing, +lay down on the short turf and got out his writing-pad, when his new +servant, who had taken William's place, came down with a telegram for +him. He was a very good-looking boy, quick in movement and swift to +smile, and already Archie wondered how he could have regretted the +departure of plain middle-aged William. Only last evening Archie, idly +glancing through a field-glass, had seen the boy far off in the meadow +beyond the lake in company with an extremely pretty housemaid whom he +had often noticed about the passages. The two had sat there some time +talking, and then Archie saw the boy look quickly round, and kiss her. +He liked that immensely; that was the way youth should behave. He almost +hoped that it was Thomas who had taken from his table one of those new +ten-shilling notes that he had missed. He mustn't do it too often, for +that would be a bore; but Archie liked to think the boy had taken it, +and perhaps converted it into a decoration for the pretty housemaid. +Anyhow, Thomas, with his handsome face and his kissings in the meadow, +and his possible pilferings, was an attractive boy, and clearly +developing along the right lines. + +The boy hesitated a moment, seeing Archie dripping and naked. + +"I beg your pardon, my lord," he said, "but there came a telegram for +you, and I thought I had better bring it down." + +"Certainly, but why beg my pardon?" said Archie. "Don't be prudish. I +daresay you've got arms and legs as well as me, haven't you?" + +Thomas grinned with that odd shy look that Archie had noticed before. + +"Yes, my lord," he said. + +"Then what is there to be ashamed of?" + +Archie opened the telegram and read it, and suddenly bit his lip to +prevent his laughing. + +"Is there an answer, my lord?" asked the boy. "I brought a form down in +case." + +"Well done. Yes, there is an answer." + +Archie hesitated a moment before directing the form to Helena. Then he +wrote: + +"Deepest sympathy with the terrible news. Command me in all ways. Your +devoted Archie." + +"Send that at once, will you?" he said. + +When the boy had gone Archie read the telegram again, which was from +Jessie, and told him that Lord Harlow had been killed at the front. Then +he smothered his face in his bent elbow, and lay shaking with laughter. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +On a September morning, some fortnight later, Archie was waiting in the +drawing-room at Oakland Crescent for Helena's entry. He had seen her +twice since her husband's death, and it struck him now that she always +kept him waiting when she asked him to come and see her, and ascribed to +that the very probable motive that she expected thereby to increase his +eagerness for her coming. Certainly he wanted her to come, because he +was much interested and amused in the conventional little comedy she was +playing, and he looked forward to the third act, on which the curtain +would presently ring up. In the interval he sat very serenely smiling to +himself, and tickling the end of his nose with three white feathers that +he had received in the street to-day. That always diverted him +extremely; a rude young woman would come up (she was invariably square +and plain, and had a knobby face like a chest of drawers) and say, +"Aren't you ashimed not to be serving your country? You're a coward, you +are," and then she would give him a white feather. He had quite a +collection of them now; there were nine already which he carefully kept +in his stud-box, and these three all in one day were a splendid haul. + +He had, to occupy his mind very pleasantly, the remembrance of his +previous interviews with Helena, which formed the two existing acts of +the comedy. In the first she had come in, looking deliciously pretty in +her deep mourning, and, with her head a little on one side, had held out +both her hands to him. They had stood with hands clasped for quite a +long time, and then Archie kissed her because he was rather tired of +holding her hands, and because he enjoyed kissing anything so pretty. +That had caused a break, and they sat down side by side, and Helena made +some queer movements in her throat, which seemed to Archie to be +designed to convey the impression that she was repressing her emotion. +But they did not quite fulfil their design; they looked rather as if +they were due to the desire to pump up rather than keep down. Then +Helena gave a long sigh. + +"Oh, Archie," she said, "I am utterly broken-hearted. It was so sudden, +so terribly sudden. I shall never get over it. Think! We had been +married only a fortnight, and next day I got a letter from him, after I +knew he was dead. Such a sweet little letter, so cheerful and so +loving." + +Archie expected something of this sort: its conventionality, its utter +insincerity, amused him enormously. And, wanting more of it, he said +just the proper sort of thing to encourage her to give it him. + +"Oh, my dear," he said, "but how you will love and cherish that letter! +I don't suppose you were once out of his thoughts all the time he was in +France." + +She shook her head. + +"I am sure of it," she said. "Ah, what a privilege to have been loved as +I was loved by such a noble, manly heart. I must always think of that, +mustn't I?" + +Archie took her hand again. The touch of those soft, cool fingers gave +him pleasure; so, too, did the answering pressure of them. + +"Yes, indeed," he said. "And you must remember, too, that it's better to +have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." + +She repeated the quotation in a dreamy meditative voice. + +"Yes, that is so true: it does me good to think of that," she said. "And +I mustn't think of him as dead really. He is just as living as ever he +was. He was so fond of you too. We often spoke of you. And his quaint, +quiet humour!..." + +That was the general note of the first act: it had been short, for the +conversation suitable to it was necessarily limited. The second showed a +great advance in scope and variety of topics. Also the _tempo_ was quite +changed: instead of its being _largo_, it was at least _andante con +moto_. + +This time, after again keeping him waiting, she had entered with a +smile. + +"What a comfort you are, Archie!" she said. "I have been looking forward +to seeing you again. Somehow you understand me, which nobody else does. +I feel all the time that neither darling Jessie, whenever I see her, +which isn't often, for she is so busy, nor daddy quite understand me. I +mean to be brave, and not lose courage, not lose gaiety even, and I +think--I think that they both misjudge me. They expect me to be utterly +broken. So I was at first, as you know so well, but I tried to take to +heart what you said, and force myself not to despair. I feel I oughtn't +to do that: I must take the burden of life up again with a smile." + +Her hand lay open on her knee; as she said this, she turned it over +towards him, making an invitation that seemed unconscious. He slipped +his long brown fingers into that rosy palm. She was astonishingly like a +girl he met a night or two ago. + +"I must get over this awful feeling of loneliness," she said, "and you +are helping me so deliciously to do so. Daddy is busy all day; I +scarcely see him. Jessie is busy also. I think she enjoys washing up +knives and forks and plates for soldiers, though of course that doesn't +make it any less sweet of her to do it. But, anyhow, she hasn't got much +time for me. I wish--no, I suppose it's wrong to wish that." + +"Well, confess, then," said Archie, smiling at her. + +"Yes, dear father-confessor, though I ought to say boy-confessor, for +you look so young! Well, I'll confess to you. I--I'm sure you won't be +shocked with me. I wish Jessie cared for me a little more. She is my +sister, after all. But I daresay it's my fault. I haven't got the key to +her heart. And, with Jessie and daddy so full of other affairs, I do +feel lonely. But when you are here I don't. I don't know what I should +have done without you, Archie. I think I might have killed myself." + +This was glorious. Archie gave a splendid shudder. + +"Don't talk like that," he said, in a tone of affectionate command. "You +don't know how it hurts." + +"Ah, I'm sorry. It was selfish of me. Do you forgive me?" + +"You know I do," said he. + +She had brought into the room with her a long envelope, and rather +absently she took out from it an enclosure of papers. + +"I got this to-day from the lawyers," she said. "It's about my darling's +will, I think. I wonder if you would help me to understand it, I am so +stupid at figures." + +She slid a little closer to him, leaning her hand on his shoulder and +looking over him as he read. The document required, as a matter of fact, +very little exercise of intelligence. The house in Surrey where they had +spent the week of the honeymoon was hers; and so was a very decent +income of L15,000 a year, left to her without any condition whatever for +her life; it was hers absolutely. The disposition of the rest of his +fortune depended on whether she had a child. The details of that were +not given: his lawyer only informed her what was hers. + +She hid her face on the hand that rested on Archie's shoulder. + +"Oh, Archie, I can never go back to that house," she said, "at least not +for a long time. It would be tearing open the old wound again." + +"Yes, I understand that," said he, with another pressure of his fingers. +And, thinking of the L15,000 a year without conditions, he had a wild +temptation to console her further by quoting-- + + "Let us grieve not, only find + Strength in what remains behind." + +But he refrained: though, apparently, there was no limit to Helena's +insincerity, there might be some in her acceptance of the insincerity of +others. + +"Oh, you do understand me so well," she said. "And, Archie, I want to +ask a horribly selfish thing of you, but I can't help it. I am all alone +now, except for you. You won't go out to the war, will you? I don't +think I could bear it if you did." + +It was quite easy for him to promise that, but an allusion to the +misconception he might incur made his acquiescence sound difficult and +noble. + +Since then, up to the day when he was now expecting her entry for the +third act, he had thought over the whole situation with the imaginative +vision which absinthe inspired. He had not the slightest doubt in his +mind that Helena, according to her capacity for loving, was in love with +him, and that she thought he was still in love with her. But, when he +considered it all, he found he had no longer the slightest intention of +marrying her, even though she had L15,000 a year for life without +conditions attached. Plenty of money was no doubt a preventive of +discomfort in this life, and he felt it was fine of him not to be +attracted by so ignoble a bait. But no amount of money would really +compensate for the inseparable companionship of Helena, with her +foolishness, her apparent inability to understand that her +insincerities, so far from being convincing and beautiful, were no more +than the most puerile and transparent counterfeits. Certainly she +aroused the ardour of his senses, but how long would that last? And, +even while it lasted, how could it compare with his ardour for his +absinthe-coloured dreams, and the ecstasy of his communion with the +spirit that had made its home in him? She would interrupt all that; and, +as a companion, she could not compare with his father. She would always +be wanting to be caressed and made much of and admired and taken care +of. It would soon become most horribly tedious. + +There was a further reason against marrying her, which was as potent as +any. He would forfeit his revenge on her, if he did that. Once, dim ages +ago, it seemed, and on another plane of existence, he had loved her, and +she, knowing it, had fed his devotion with smiles and glances, and at +the end had chosen him whose body now decayed in some graveyard of North +France, already probably desecrated by the on-swarming Germans. Now it +was Archie's turn; already, he was sure, she expected to marry him, and +she would learn that he had not the least intention of doing so. That +delightful situation might easily be arrived at in the third act for +which he was waiting now. + +This time she came with flowers in her hand, and presently, as they sat +side by side on the sofa talking, she put one into his button-hole. +Instantly he interrupted himself in what he was saying and kissed it. + +She gave him that long glance which he had once thought meant so much. +It had not meant much then, from her point of view, but it meant a good +deal more now. But to Archie it had passed from being a gleam of wonder +to a farthing dip. + +"Oh, you foolish boy!" she said. + +He almost thought he heard Martin laugh. + +"I don't see anything foolish about it," he said. "At least, if it's +foolish, I've always been foolish." + +Her lips moved, though not to speak: they just gathered themselves +together, and a little tremor went down the arm that rested against his. +He was perfectly certain of both those signals, and next moment he had +folded her to him, and she lay less than unresisting in his arms. + +Then she gently thrust him from her. + +"Ah, how wrong of me," she said, "and yet perhaps it's not wrong. The +dear Bradshaw would always want me to be happy. Perhaps he even thought +of this when he left me so free. For this time, Archie, I shan't come to +you empty-handed. But, of course, we mustn't think of all that for many +months yet." + +Archie, flushed and merry-eyed, looked at her with boyish surprise. + +"Think of what?" he said. + +"Ah, you force me to say it, do you? Of our marriage." + +He was adorable in her eyes just then; she could hardly realize that so +few months ago she had definitely put him from her. His warm, smooth +face, his crisp, curling hair, the youthful roughness and ardour of his +embrace, inflamed and ravished her. + +He looked at her still inquiringly a moment, then threw back his head +and laughed. + +"Oh, you're delicious!" he said. "But marriage? What do you mean? A +cousinly kiss, a little sympathy, a few dear little surrenders of each +of us to the other: that's all I intended. Well, I must be off. +Good-bye!" + +Next moment, still choking with laughter, he was downstairs and out into +the street. He could not resist looking up at the window, and waving a +gay hand towards it. Something within him, that seemed the very essence +of his being, shouted and sang with glee. + +* * * * * + +The house in Grosvenor Square, where his mother had become housekeeper +and Jessie kitchen-maid, had at present in it only a few wounded +officers from France, and during these two or three days in town Archie +could still occupy his own bedroom, while his servant slept in the +dressing-room adjoining. He was out very late that night, for the +completeness of his revenge on Helena ran like a feeding fire through +his veins, and both nourished and burned him. + +Dawn had already broken when he let himself in, and went very quietly +upstairs, not intending to go to bed till he had had an interview with +Martin. All night he had felt as if Martin was bursting to come forth +again; he was already intensely present, even though Archie had not yet +sunk his conscious self and opened the door of mystic communication. +That controlling spirit foamed and simmered within him; he could all but +break open the door himself, and project himself without invitation. He +was still just confined, but only just; it seemed that at any minute he +might assert himself. But Archie, with the gourmand instinct that delays +an actual fulfilment, teasing itself, while it knows the fulfilment is +assured, lingered over his undressing, and planned to make himself cool +and comfortable in his pyjamas, before he abandoned the fortress of his +normal self. He brushed his teeth, he sponged face and neck with cold +water, he arranged his chair in the window, and put on the table by his +bed the moonstone stud on which he would focus his eyes, and stretched +himself long and luxuriously till he heard his shoulder joints crack. +Martin seemed in a great hurry to come to-night, but Martin must just +wait till he was ready. And then, all of a sudden, he heard a tremendous +noise of rapping. He knew that Martin had come, and an awful terror +seized his soul, for Martin had come without being called. + +At that precise moment his servant next door started up, wide awake, +with some loud sound in his ears that seemed to come from Archie's +bedroom. He tapped at his door, but, getting no answer, went in. He +found Archie lying on the floor, curled up together, like some twisted +root of a tree, foaming at the mouth. He ran downstairs to get help, and +brought up one of the nurses who was on duty. She instantly telephoned +for a doctor, and woke Lady Tintagel. + +* * * * * + +All that day Archie lay in this strange seizure, apparently quite +unconscious. Sometimes a paroxysm would take hold of him, and he lay +with staring eyes and teeth that ground against each other, and limbs +that curled into fantastic shapes. In the intervals he remained still, +stiff and rigid, his eyes for the most part shut, breathing quickly, as +if he had been running. Then once again the panic and the agony would +grip him, and with eyes wide with terror and foaming mouth he struggled +and fought against the Thing that mastered him. But each paroxysm left +him weaker, and it was clear that he would not be able to stand many +more of these attacks. Yet no one could wish them prolonged; it would +but be merciful if the end came soon, and spared him further suffering. + +Towards sunset that day Jessie was sitting by him, with orders to call +the nurse next door if he showed signs of the restlessness which +preceded the return of a seizure. She knew that, humanly speaking, he +was dying, but her faith never faltered that he might still be saved, +and that through her and her love salvation might come to him. Medical +science was of no avail; it could not combat the spiritual foe that had +taken him prisoner. That rescue had to be made through spiritual means, +and the two-edged sword by which alone his captor could be vanquished +was the bright-shining weapon of love and prayer. It was in her hand +now, as she watched and waited. + +He lay quite still, breathing quickly and with a shallow inspiration, +but there were no signs of the restlessness for which she had to look +out. But presently she observed that his eyes were no longer closed, but +were open and looking steadily at the brass knob at the foot of his bed +on which a sunbeam, entering through a chink at the side of the drawn +window-blind made a focus of light. And, all at once, she guessed that +he was looking at this with purpose, and her soul, sword in hand, +crouched ready to spring. Then from the bed came Archie's voice. + +"Martin," it said. + +There was a dead silence, and she saw forming in the air a little in +front of him a nucleus of mist. It gathered volume from a little jet as +of steam that appeared to come from Archie himself. Thicker and thicker +it grew; strange lines began to interlace themselves within it, and +these took form. The dimness of its outline grew firm and distinct, the +shape stood detached and clear, and, bending over Archie with a smile +triumphant and cruel, stood the semblance she had seen once before at +midnight in Archie's room. He was no longer looking at the knob at the +foot of his bed, but with eyes wide open and blank with some nameless +terror he gazed at the apparition. + +Jessie rose and stood opposite it on the other side of his bed. Her +two-edged sword was drawn now, and its bright blade gleamed in the +darkness of the evil that flooded the room. And then it seemed that that +incarnation of it that stood beside Archie's bed was aware, for it +turned and looked her full in the face, bringing to bear on her the +utmost of its hellish potency. + +For one moment against that awful assault her soul cried out in panic. +It had not dreamed that from all the crimes with which the world had +withered and bled there could be distilled a tincture so poisonous. And +then her love rallied her scattered courage, and she stood firm again. +Nothing in the world but love and prayer could prevail, but nothing, if +once she could fully realize that, could prevail against them. In her +hand, as in the hand of all who are foes to evil, was the irresistible +weapon, could she but use its power to the full... + +She stood, as she knew, in the face of the deadliest peril by which any +living thing, into which the breath of God has passed, can be +confronted. There is no soul so strong that evil can cease to be a +menace for it, and here, facing her, was the power that had already +perverted all that Archie held of goodness and humanity. There it stood, +one victim already its helpless prisoner, and it lusted for more. And +the wordless struggle, as old as evil itself, began. + +She would not give ground. Her soul laid itself open, and let the light +invisible shine on it. In this struggle there were no strivings or +wrestlings; she had but to stay quiet, and in just that achievement of +quietness the struggle lay. Once for a moment all Hell swirled and +exulted round her, for her love for Archie let itself contemplate the +human and material aspect of him; the next she put all that away from +her, and again stood with his soul, so to speak, in her uplifted hands, +offering it to God. In the very storm-centre of this evil which shrieked +and raged round her, there must be, and there was, a space where the +peace that passeth understanding dwelt in serene calm. The storm might +shift and envelope her again in its bellowings, but again and yet again +she had to regain the centre where no blast of it could penetrate. + +How long this lasted she could not tell. Her body was quite conscious of +its ordinary perceptions; the blind tapped on the window, and there came +from outside the stir of distant traffic. But she did not take her gaze +from those awful eyes that sometimes smiled, sometimes blazed with hate. +Steadily and firmly she looked at them and through them, for behind +them, as behind the cloud, was the sunlight of God. + +And then there came a change. It seemed that the power she fought was +weakening. Its eyes shifted; they no longer looked undeviatingly at her, +but glanced round for a moment, as if they looked for some way of +escape. They would come back to her again with fresh assault of smiles +or hate, but each time they seemed less potent. More than once they left +her face altogether for a while, and were directed on Archie, as if +seeking the refuge there that they knew; but, with a wordless command +that they were forced to obey, she summoned them back to her again, +making the spirit that directed them turn the strength of its fury on +her. She gave it no rest, fixing it on herself by the strength of love +and prayer. + +The eyes began to grow dim; the outline of the form began to waver. The +interlacing lines out of which it was woven began to unravel again, and +it grew shapeless. But it was not being absorbed into Archie; there were +no streams of mist between him and it, as when it had first taken +substance. Already through it she could see the wall behind it, and it +grew ever fainter and thinner... + +There was nothing left of it now, and for the first time since the +struggle began, she looked at Archie. He was lying quite still with eyes +closed again. And then she saw that by her side was standing another +presence. It was identical in form and shape with that which had +vanished, and it bent on Archie so amazing a look of love that her soul, +spent and sick with struggle, felt itself uplifted and refreshed again. +And for one moment it looked at her, and it was as if Archie himself was +looking at her. And then it was there no longer. She hardly knew whether +her physical eyes had seen it externally, or whether it had been some +spirit-vision conveyed to them from within. + +There came a sound from next door, and the nurse, who was there ready to +be summoned, entered. + +"Has he been quite quiet?" she asked, and, without waiting for an +answer, she went to the bed. She looked at Archie a moment, then felt +his elbows and knees, finding them pliant again instead of being stiff +and rigid, and listened to his quiet breathing. + +"But there has come an extraordinary change," she said. "The seizure has +passed, and yet he's alive." + +She beamed at Jessie. + +"Well, you are a good nurse," she said. "But I think I'll just fetch the +doctor." + +She went out of the room, and Archie, who had lain quite motionless with +closed eyes, suddenly stirred and looked at the girl. + +"Why, Jessie," he said. + +She came close to the bed. + +"Yes?" + +"What's happened?" said he. "I've had some awful nightmare. And then you +broke it up. Hasn't Martin been here too?" + +"Yes, Archie, I think so," she said. + +He lay in silence a moment. + +"Have you saved me again, Jessie?" he said. "You did once before at--at +Silorno, when the lightning struck the pine." + +She could find no answer for him; not a word could she speak. + +He held out his hand to her. + +"Jessie!..." he said. + + + + +NOTABLE NEW NOVELS + + +7s. net each + + +By Sir H. Rider Haggard + +Author of "Jess," etc. MOON OF ISRAEL. "The thrill which so many years +ago was felt by the readers of 'King Solomon's Mines' will certainly be +felt to-day by the readers of 'Moon of Israel.'"--_Ladies' Field_. + + +By C. E. Lawrence + +Author of "Pilgrimage," etc. SUCH STUFF AS DREAMS. 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