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Seeing that the +hardened girl, with her dead eyelids, did not appear to feel herself at +his mercy, and also that Sir Purcell's forehead looked threatening, Mr. +Pericles stopped his sardonic noise. He went straight to the door, which +he opened with alacrity, and mimicking very wretchedly her words of +adieu, stood prepared to bow her out. She astonished him by passing +without another word. Before he could point a phrase bitter enough for +expression, Sir Purcell had likewise passed, and in going had given him a +quietly admonishing look. + +"Zose Poles are beggars!" Mr. Pericles roared after them over the stairs, +and slammed his door for emphasis. Almost immediately there was a knock +at it. Mr. Pericles stood bent and cat-like as Sir Purcell reappeared. +The latter, avoiding all preliminaries, demanded of the Greek that he +should promise not to use the names of his friends publicly in such a +manner again. + +"I require a promise for the future. An apology will be needless from +you." + +"I shall not give it," said Mr. Pericles, with a sharp lift of his upper +lip. + +"But you will give me the promise I have returned for." + +In answer Mr. Pericles announced that he had spoken what was simply true: +that the prosperity of the Poles was fictitious: that he, or any +unfavourable chance, could ruin them: and that their friends might do +better to protect their interests than by menacing one who had them in +his power. + +Sir Purcell merely reiterated his demand for the promise, which was +ultimately snarled to him; whereupon he retired, joy on his features. +For, Cornelia poor, she might be claimed by him fearlessly: that is to +say, without the fear of people whispering that the penniless baronet had +sued for gold, and without the fear of her father rejecting his suit. At +least he might, with this knowledge that he had gained, appoint to meet +her now! All the morning Sir Purcell had been combative, owing to that +subordinate or secondary post he occupied in a situation of some +excitement;--which combativeness is one method whereby men thus placed, +imagining that they are acting devotedly for their friends, contrive +still to assert themselves. He descended to the foot of the stairs, +where he had told Emilia to wait for him, full of kind feelings and ready +cheerful counsels; as thus: "Nothing that we possess belongs to us;--All +will come round rightly in the end; Be patient, look about for amusement, +and improve your mind." And more of this copper coinage of wisdom in the +way of proverbs. But Emilia was nowhere visible to receive the +administration of comfort. Outside the house the fog appeared to have +swallowed her. With some chagrin on her behalf (partly a sense of duty +unfulfilled) Sir Purcell made his way to the residence of the Marinis, to +report of her there, if she should not have arrived. The punishment he +inflicted on himself in keeping his hand an hour from that letter to be +written to Cornelia, was almost pleasing; and he was rewarded by it, for +the projected sentences grew mellow and rich, condensed and throbbed +eloquently. What wonder, that with such a mental occupation, he should +pass Emilia and not notice her? She let him go. + +But when he was out of sight, all seemed gone. The dismally-lighted city +wore a look of Judgement terrible to see. Her brain was slave to her +senses: she fancied she had dropped into an underground kingdom, among a +mysterious people. The anguish through which action had just hurried +her, now fell with a conscious weight upon her heart. She stood a +moment, seeing her desolation stretch outwardly into endless labyrinths; +and then it narrowed and took hold of her as a force within: changing +thus, almost with each breathing of her body. + +The fog had thickened. Up and down the groping city went muffled men, +few women. Emilia looked for one of her sex who might have a tender +face. Desire to be kissed and loved by a creature strange to her, and to +lay her head upon a woman's bosom, moved her to gaze around with a +longing once or twice; but no eyes met hers, and the fancy recurred +vividly that she was not in the world she had known. Otherwise, what had +robbed her of her voice? She played with her fancy for comfort, long +after any real vitality in it had oozed out. Her having strength to play +at fancies showed that a spark of hope was alive. In truth, firm of +flesh as she was, to believe that all worth had departed from her was +impossible, and when she reposed simply on her sensations, very little +trouble beset her: only when she looked abroad did the aspect of numerous +indifferent faces, and the harsh flowing of the world its own way, tell +her she had lost her power. Could it be lost? The prospect of her +desolation grew so wide to her that she shut her eyes, abandoning herself +to feeling; and this by degrees moved her to turn back and throw herself +at the feet of Mr. Pericles. For, if he said, "Wait, my child, and all +will come round well," she was prepared blindly to think so. The +projection of the words in her mind made her ready to weep: but as she +neared the house of his office the wish to hear him speak that, became +passionate; she counted all that depended on it, and discovered the size +of the fabric she had built on so thin a plank. After a while, her steps +were mechanically swift. Before she reached the chambers of Mr. Pericles +she had walked, she knew not why, once round the little quiet enclosed +city-garden, and a cold memory of those men who had looked at her face +gave her some wonder, to be quickly kindled into fuller comprehension. + +Beholding Emilia once more, Mr. Pericles enjoyed a revival of his taste +for vengeance; but, unhappily for her, he found it languid, and when he +had rubbed his hands, stared, and by sundry sharp utterances brought her +to his feet, his satisfaction was less poignant than he had expected. As +a consequence, instead of speaking outrageously, according to his habit, +in wrath, he was now frigidly considerate, informing Emilia that it would +be good for her if she were dead, seeing that she was of no use whatever; +but, as she was alive, she had better go to her father and mother, and +learn knitting, or some such industrial employment. "Unless zat man for +whom you play fool!--" Mr. Pericles shrugged the rest of his meaning. + +"But my voice may not be gone," urged Emilia. "I may sing to you to- +morrow--this evening. It must be the fog. Why do you think it lost? It +can't be--" + +"Cracked!" cried Mr. Pericles. + +"It is not! No; do not think it. I may stay here. Don't tell me to go +yet. The streets make me wish to die. And I feel I may, perhaps, sing +presently. Wait. Will you wait?" + +A hideous imitation of her lamentable tones burst from Mr. Pericles. +"Cracked!" he cried again. + +Emilia lifted her eyes, and looked at him steadily. She saw the idea +grow in the eyes fronting her that she had a pleasant face, and she at +once staked this little bit of newly-conceived worth on an immediate +chance. Remember; that she was as near despair as a creature constituted +so healthily could go. Speaking no longer in a girlish style, but with +the grave pleading manner of a woman, she begged Mr. Pericles to take her +to Italy, and have faith in the recovery of her voice. He, however, far +from being softened, as he grew aware of her sweetness of feature, waxed +violent and insulting. + +"Take me," she said. "My voice will reward you. I feel that you can +cure it." + +"For zat man! to go to him again!" Mr. Pericles sneered. + +"I never shall do that." There sprang a glitter as of steel in Emilia's +eyes. "I will make myself yours for life, if you like. Take my hand, +and let me swear. I do not break my word. I will swear, that if I +recover my voice to become what you expected,--I will marry you whenever +you ask me, and then--" + +More she was saying, but Mr. Pericles, sputtering a laugh of "Sanks!" +presented a postured supplication for silence. + +"I am not a man who marries." + +He plainly stated the relations that the woman whom he had distinguished +by the honours of selection must hold toward him. + +Emilia's cheeks did not redden; but, without any notion of shame at the +words she listened to, she felt herself falling lower and lower the more +her spirit clung to Mr. Pericles: yet he alone was her visible +personification of hope, and she could not turn from him. If he cast her +off, it seemed to her that her voice was condemned. She stood there +still, and the cold-eyed Greek formed his opinion. + +He was evidently undecided as regards his own course of proceeding, for +his chin was pressed by thumb and forefinger hard into his throat, while +his eyebrows were wrinkled up to their highest elevation. From this +attitude, expressive of the accurate balancing of the claims of an +internal debate, he emerged into the posture of a cock crowing, and +Emilia heard again his bitter mimicry of her miserable broken tones, +followed by Ha! dam! Basta! basta!" + +"Sit here," cried Mr. Pericles. He had thrown himself into a chair, and +pointed to his knee. + +Emilia remained where she was standing. + +He caught at her hand, but she plucked that from him. Mr. Pericles rose, +sounding a cynical "Hein!" + +"Don't touch me," said Emilia. + +Nothing exasperates certain natures so much as the effort of the visibly +weak to intimidate them. + +"I shall not touch you?" Mr. Pericles sneered. "Zen, why are you here?" + +"I came to my friend," was Emilia's reply. + +"Your friend! He is not ze friend of a couac-couac. Once, if you +please: but now" (Mr. Pericles shrugged), "now you are like ze rest of +women. You are game. Come to me." + +He caught once more at her hand, which she lifted; then at her elbow. + +"Will you touch me when I tell you not to?" + +There was the soft line of an involuntary frown over her white face, and +as he held her arm from the doubled elbow, with her clenched hand aloft, +she appeared ready to strike a tragic blow. + +Anger and every other sentiment vanished from Mr. Pericles in the +rapturous contemplation of her admirable artistic pose. + +"Mon Dieu! and wiz a voice!" he exclaimed, dashing his fist in a delirium +of forgetfulness against the one plastered lock of hair on his shining +head. "Little fool! little dam fool!--zat might have been"--(Mr. +Pericles figured in air with his fingers to signify the exaltation she +was to have attained)--"Mon Dieu! and look at you! Did I not warn you? +non a vero? Did I not say 'Ruin, ruin, if you go so? For a man!--a +voice! You will not come to me? Zen, hear! you shall go to old +Belloni. I do not want you, my pretty dear. Woman is a trouble, a drug. +You shall go to old Belloni; and, crack! if ze voice will come back to a +whip,--bravo, old Belloni!" + +Mr. Pericles turned to reach down his hat from a peg. At the same +instant Emilia quitted the room. + +Dusk was deepening the yellow atmosphere, and the crowd was now steadily +flowing in one direction. The bereaved creature went with the stream, +glad to be surrounded and unseen, till it struck her, at last, that she +was moving homeward. She stopped with a pang of grief, turned, and met +all those people to whom the fireside was a beacon. For some time she +bore against the pressure, but her loneliness overwhelmed her. None +seemed to go her way. For a refuge, she turned into one of the city side +streets, where she was quite alone. Unhappily, the street was of no +length, and she soon came to the end of it. There was the choice of +retracing her steps, or entering a strange street; and while she +hesitated a troop of sheep went by, that made a piteous noise. She +followed them, thinking curiously of the something broken that appeared +to be in their throats. By-and-by, the thought flashed in her that they +were going to be slaughtered. She held her step, looking at them, but +without any tender movement of the heart. They came to a butcher's yard, +and went in. + +When she had passed along a certain distance, a shiver seized her, and +her instinct pushed her toward the lighted shops, where there were +pictures. In one she saw the portrait of that Queen of Song whom she had +heard at Besworth. Two young men, glancing as they walked by arm in arm, +pronounced the name of the great enchantress, and hummed one of her +triumphant airs. The features expressed health, humour, power, every +fine animal faculty. Genius was on the forehead and the plastic mouth; +the forehead being well projected, fair, and very shapely, showing clear +balance, as well as capacity to grasp flame, and fling it. The line +reaching to a dimple from the upper lip was saved from scornfulness by +the lovely gleam, half-challenging, half-consoling, regal, roguish--what +you would--that sat between her dark eyelashes, like white sunlight on +the fringed smooth roll of water by a weir. Such a dimple, and such a +gleam of eyes, would have been keys to the face of a weakling, and it was +the more fascinating from the disregard of any minor charm notable upon +this grand visage, which could not suffer a betrayal. You saw, and there +was no effort to conceal, that the spirit animating it was intensely +human; but it was human of the highest chords of humanity, indifferent to +finesse and despising subtleties; gifted to speak, to inspire, and to +command all great emotions. In fact, it was the masque of a dramatic +artist in repose. Tempered by beauty, the robust frame showed that she +possessed a royal nature, and could, as a foremost qualification for Art, +feel harmoniously. She might have many of the littlenesses of which +women are accused; for Art she promised unspotted excellence; and, +adorable as she was by attraction of her sex, she was artist over all. + +Emilia found herself on one of the bridges, thinking of this aspect. +Beneath her was the stealing river, with its red intervals, and the fog +had got a wider circle. She could not disengage that face from her mind. +It seemed to say to her, boldly, "I live because success is mine;" and to +hint, as with a paler voice, "Death the fruit of failure." Could she, +Emilia, ever be looked on again by her friends? The dread of it gave her +shudders. Then, death was certainly easy! But death took no form in her +imagination, as it does to one seeking it. She desired to forget and to +hide her intolerable losses; to have the impostor she felt herself to be +buried. As she walked along she held out her hands, murmuring, +"Helpless! useless!" It came upon her as a surprise that one like +herself should be allowed to live. "I don't want to," she said; and the +neat moment, "I wonder what a drowned woman is like?" She hurried back +to the streets and the shops. The shops failed now to give her +distraction, for a stiff and dripping image floated across all the +windows, and she was glad to see the shutters being closed; though, when +the streets were dark, some friendliness seemed to have gone. When the +streets were quits dark, save for the row of lamps, she walked fast, +fearing she knew not what. + +A little Italian boy sat doubled over his organ on a doorstep, while a +yet smaller girl at his elbow plied him with questions in English. +Emilia stopped before them, and the girl complained to her that the +perverse little foreigner would not answer. Two or three words in his +native tongue soon brought his face to view. Emilia sat down between +them, and listened to the prattle of two languages. The girl said that +she never had supper, which was also the case with the boy; so Emilia +felt for her purse, and sent the girl with sixpence in search of a shop +that sold cafes. The girl came back with her apron full. As they were +all about to eat, a policeman commanded them to quit the spot, informing +them that he knew both them and their dodges. Emilia stood up, and was +taking her little people away, when the policeman, having suddenly +changed his accurate opinion of her, said, "You're giving 'em some +supper, miss? Oh, they must sit down to their suppers, you know!" and +walked away, not to be a witness of this infraction of the law. So, they +sat down and ate, and the boy and girl tried to say intelligible things +to one another, and laughed. Emilia could not help joining in their +laughter. The girl was very anxious to know whether the boy was ever +beaten, and hearing that he was, she appeared better satisfied, remarking +that she was also, but curious still as to the different forms of +chastisement they received. This being partially explained, she wished +to know whether he would be beaten that night, Emilia interpreting. A +grin, and a rapid whistle and 'cluck,' significant of the application of +whips, told the state of his expectations; at which the girl clapped her +hands, adding, lamentably, "So shall I, 'cause I am always." Emilia +gathered them under each shoulder, when, to her delight and half +perplexity, they closed their eyes, leaning against her. + +The policeman passed, and for an hour endured this spectacle. At last he +felt compelled to explain to Emilia what were the sentiments of +gentlefolks with regard to their doorsteps, apart from the law of the +matter. He put it to her human nature whether she would like her +doorsteps to be blocked, so that no one could enter, and anyone emerging +stood a chance of being precipitated, nose foremost, upon the pavement. +Then, again, as gentle-folks had good experience of, the young ones in +London were twice as cunning as the old. Emilia pleaded for her sleeping +pair, that they might not be disturbed. Her voice gave the keeper of the +peace notions of her being one of the eccentric young ladies who are +occasionally 'missing,' and have advertizing friends. He uttered a stern +ahem! preliminary to assent; but the noise wakened the children, who +stared, and readily obeyed his gesture, which said, "Be off!" while his +words were those of remonstrance. Emilia accompanied them a little way. +Both promised eagerly that they would be at the same place the night +following and departed--the boy with laughing nods and waving of hands, +which the girl imitated. Emilia's feeling of security went with them. +She at once feigned a destination in the distance, and set forward to +reach it, but the continued exposure of this delusion made it difficult +to renew. She fell to counting the hours that were to elapse before she +would meet those children, saying to herself, that whatever she did she +must keep her engagement to be at the appointed steps. This restriction +set her darkly fancying that she wished for her end. + +Remembering those men who had looked at her admiringly, "Am I worth +looking at?" she said; and it gave her some pleasure to think that she +had it still in her power to destroy a thing of value. She was savagely +ashamed of going to death empty-handed. By-and-by, great fatigue +stiffened her limbs, and she sat down from pure want of rest. The luxury +of rest and soothing languor kept hard thoughts away. She felt as if +floating, for a space. The fear of the streets left her. But when +necessity for rest had gone, she clung to the luxury still, and sitting +bent forward, with her hands about her knees, she began to brood over +tumbled images of a wrong done to her. She had two distinct visions of +herself, constantly alternating and acting like the temptation of two +devils. One represented her despicable in feature, and bade her die; the +other showed a fair face, feeling which to be her own, Emilia had fits of +intolerable rage. This vision prevailed; and this wicked side of her +humanity saved her. Active despair is a passion that must be superseded +by a passion. Passive despair comes later; it has nothing to do with +mental action, and is mainly a corruption or degradation of our blood. +The rage in Emilia was blind at first, but it rose like a hawk, and +singled its enemy. She fixed her mind to conceive the foolishness of +putting out a face that her rival might envy, and of destroying anything +that had value. The flattery of beauty came on her like a warm garment. +When she opened her eyes, seeing what she was and where, she almost +smiled at the silly picture that had given her comfort. Those men had +looked on her admiringly, it was true, but would Wilfrid have ceased to +love her if she had been beautiful? An extraordinary intuition of +Wilfrid's sentiment tormented her now. She saw herself in the light that +he would have seen her by, till she stood with the sensations of an +exposed criminal in the dark length of the street, and hurried down it, +back, as well as she could find her way, to the friendly policeman. + +Her question on reaching him, "Are you married?" was prodigiously +astonishing, and he administered the rebuff of an affirmative with +severity. "Then," said Emilia, "when you go home, let me go with you to +your wife. Perhaps she will consent to take care of me for this night." +The policeman coughed mildly and replied, "It's plain you know nothing +of women--begging your pardon, miss,--for I can see you're a lady." +Emilia repeated her petition, and the policeman explained the nature of +women. Not to be baffled, Emilia said, "I think your wife must be a good +woman." Hereat the policeman laughed, arming "that the best of them knew +what bad suspicions was." Ultimately, he consented to take her to his +wife, when he was relieved, after the term of so many minutes. Emilia +stood at a distance, speculating on the possible choice he would make of +a tune to accompany his monotonous walk to and fro, and on the certainty +of his wearing any tune to nothing. + +She was in a bed, sleeping heavily, a little before dawn. + +The day that followed was her day of misery. The blow that had stunned +her had become as a loud intrusive pulse in her head. By this new +daylight she fathomed the depth, and reckoned the value, of her loss. +And her senses had no pleasure in the light, though there was sunshine. +The woman who was her hostess was kind, but full of her first surprise at +the strange visit, and too openly ready for any information the young +lady might be willing to give with regard to her condition, prospects, +and wishes. Emilia gave none. She took the woman's hand, asking +permission to remain under her protection. The woman by-and-by named a +sum of money as a sum for weekly payment, and Emilia transferred all to +her that she had. The policeman and his wife thought her, though +reasonable, a trifle insane. She sat at a window for hours watching a +'last man' of the fly species walking up and plunging down a pane of +glass. On this transparent solitary field for the most objectless +enterprise ever undertaken, he buzzed angrily at times, as if he had +another meaning in him, which was being wilfully misinterpreted. Then he +mounted again at his leisure, to pitch backward as before. Emilia found +herself thinking with great seriousness that it was not wonderful for +boys to be always teasing and killing flies, whose thin necks and bobbing +heads themselves suggested the idea of decapitation. She said to her +hostess: "I don't like flies. They seem never to sing but when they are +bothered." The woman replied: "Ah, indeed?" very smoothly, and thought: +"If you was to bust out now, which of us two would be strongest?" Emilia +grew distantly aware that the policeman and his wife talked of her and +watched her with combined observation. + +When it was night she went to keep her appointment. The girl was there, +but the boy came late. He said he had earned only a few pence that day, +and would be beaten. He spoke in a whimpering tone which caused the girl +to desire a translation of his words. Emilia told her how things were +with him, and the girl expressed a wish that she had an organ, as in that +case she would be sure to earn more than sixpence a day; such being the +amount that procured her nightly a comfortable reception in the arms of +her parents. "Do you like music?" said Emilia. The girl replied that +she liked organs; but, as if to avoid committing an injustice, cited +parrots as foremost in her affections. Holding them both to her breast, +Emilia thought that she would rescue them from this beating by giving +them the money they had to offer for kindness: but the restlessness of +the children suddenly made her a third party to the thought of cakes. +She had no money. Her heart bled for the poor little hungry, +apprehensive creatures. For a moment she half fancied she had her voice, +and looked up at the windows of the pitiless houses with a bold look; but +there was a speedy mockery of her thought "You shall listen: you shall +open!" She coughed hoarsely, and then fell into fits of crying. Her +friend the policeman came by and took her arm with a force that he meant +to be persuasive; so lifting her and handing her some steps beyond the +limit of his beat, with stern directions for her to proceed home +immediately. She obeyed. Next day she asked her hostess to lend her +half-a-crown. The woman snapped shortly in answer: "No; the less you +have the better." Emilia was obliged to abandon her little people. + +She was to this extent the creature of mania: that she could not conceive +of a way being open by which she might return to her father and mother, +or any of her friends. It was to her not a matter for her will to decide +upon, but simply a black door shut that nothing could displace. When the +week, for which term of shelter she had paid, was ended, her hostess +spoke upon this point, saying, more to convince Emilia of the necessity +for seeking her friends than from any unkindness: "Me and my husband +can't go on keepin' you, you know, my dear, however well's our meaning." +Emilia drew the woman toward her with both her lands, softly shaking her +head. She left the house about noon. + +It was now her belief that she had probably no more than another day to +live, for she was destitute of money. The thought relieved her from that +dreadful fear of the street, and she walked at her own pace, even after +dark. The rumble and the rattle of wheels; the cries and grinding +noises; the hum of motion and talk; all under the lingering smoky red of +a London Winter sunset, were not discord to her animated blood. Her +unhunted spirit made a music of them. It was not like the music of other +days, nor was the exultation it created at all like happiness: but she at +least forgot herself. Voices came in her ear, and hung unheard until +long after the speaker had passed. Hunger did not assail her. She was +not beset by an animal weakness; and having in her mind no image of +death, and with her ties to life cut away;--thus devoid of apprehension +or regret, she was what her quick blood made her, for the time. She +recognized that, for one near extinction, it was useless to love or to +hate: so Wilfrid and Lady Charlotte were spared. Emilia thought of them +both with a sort of equanimity; not that any clear thought filled her +brain through that delirious night. The intoxicating music raged there +at one level depression, never rising any scale, never undulating ever so +little, scarcely changing its barbarous monotony of notes. She had no +power over it. Her critical judgement would at another moment have +shrieked at it. She was moved by it as by a mechanical force. + +The South-west wind blew, and the hours of the night were not evil to +outcasts. Emilia saw many lying about, getting rest where they might. +She hurried her eye pityingly over little children, but the devil that +had seized her sprang contempt for the others--older beggars, who +appeared to succumb to their fate when they should have lifted their +heads up bravely. On she passed from square to market, market to park; +and presently her mind shot an arrow of desire for morning, which was +nothing less than hunger beginning to stir. "When will the shops open?" +She tried to cheat herself by replying that she did not care when, but +pangs of torment became too rapid for the counterfeit. Her imagination +raised the roof from those great rich houses, and laid bare a brilliancy +of dish-covers; and if any sharp gust of air touched the nerve in her +nostril, it seemed instantaneously charged with the smell of old dinners. +"No," cried Emilia, "I dislike anything but plain food." She quickly +gave way, and admitted a craving for dainty morsels. "One lump of +sugar!" she subsequently sighed. But neither sugar nor meat approached +her. + +Her seat was under trees, between a man and a woman who slanted from her +with hidden chins. The chilly dry leaves began to waken, and the sky +showed its grey. Hunger had become as a leaden ball in Emilia's chest. +She could have eaten eagerly still, but she had no ravenous images of +food. Nevertheless, she determined to beg for bread at a baker's shop. +Coming into the empty streets again, the dread of exposing her solitary +wretchedness and the stains of night upon her, kept her back. When she +did venture near the baker's shop, her sensation of weariness, want of +washing, and general misery, made her feel a contrast to all other women +she saw, that robbed her of the necessary effrontery. She preferred to +hide her head. + +The morning hours went in this conflict. She was between-whiles hungry +and desperate, or stricken with shame. Fatigue, bringing the imperious +necessity for rest, intervened as a relief. Emilia moaned at the weary +length of the light, but when dusk fell and she beheld flame in the +lamps, it seemed to be too sudden and she was alarmed. Passive despair +had set in. She felt sick, though not weak, and the thought of asking +help had gone. + +A street urchin, of the true London species, in whom excess of woollen +comforter made up for any marked scantiness in the rest of his attire, +came trotting the pavement, pouring one of the favourite tunes of his +native metropolis through the tube of a penny-whistle, from which it did +not issue so disguised but that attentive ears might pronounce it the +royal march of the Cannibal Islands. A placarded post beside a lamp met +this musician's eye; and, still piping, he bent his knees and read the +notification. Emilia thought of the Hillford and Ipley clubmen, the big +drum, the speeches, the cheers, and all the wild strength that lay in her +that happy morning. She watched the boy piping as if he were reading +from a score, and her sense of humour was touched. "You foolish boy!" +she said to herself softly. But when, having evidently come to the last +printed line, the boy rose and pocketed his penny-whistle, Emilia was +nearly laughing. "That's because he cannot turn over the leaf," she +said, and stood by the post till long after the boy had disappeared. The +slight emotion of fun had restored to her some of her lost human +sensations, and she looked about for a place where to indulge them +undisturbed. One of the bridges was in sight She yearned for the +solitude of the wharf beside it, and hurried to the steps. To descend +she had to pass a street-organ and a small figure bent over it. "Sei +buon' Italiano?" she said. The answer was a surly "Si." Emilia cried +convulsively "Addio!" Her brain had become on a sudden vacant of a +thought, and all she knew was that she descended. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +"Sei buon' Italiana?" + +Across what chasm did the words come to her? + +It seemed but a minutes and again many hours back, that she had asked +that question of a little fellow, who, if he had looked up and nodded +would have given her great joy, but who kept his face dark from her and +with a sullen "Si" extinguished her last feeling of a desire for +companionship with life. + +"Si," she replied, quite as sullenly, and without looking up. + +But when her hand was taken and other words were uttered, she that had +crouched there so long between death and life immovable, loving neither, +rose possessed of a passion for the darkness and the void, and struggling +bitterly with the detaining hand, crying for instant death. No strength +was in her to support the fury. + +"Merthyr Powys is with you," said her friend, "and will never leave you." + +"Will never take me up there?" Emilia pointed to the noisy level above +them. + +"Listen, and I will tell you how I have found you," replied Merthyr. + +"Don't force me to go up." + +She spoke from the end of her breath. Merthyr feared that it was more +than misery, even madness, afflicting her. He sat on the wharf-bench +silent till she was reassured. But at his first words, the eager +question came: "You will not force me to go up there?" + +"No; we can stay and talk here," said Merthyr. "And this is how I have +found you. Do you suppose you have been hidden from us all this time? +Perhaps you fancy you do not belong to your friends? Well, I spoke to +all of your 'children,' as you used to call them. Do you remember? The +day before yesterday two had seen you. You said to one, 'From Savoy or +Piedmont?' He said, 'From Savoy;' and you shook your head: 'Not looking +on Italy!' you said. This night I roused one of them, and he stretched +his finger down the steps, saying that you had gone down there. 'Sei +buon' Italiano?" you said. "And that is how I have found you. Sei buon' +Italiana?" + +Emilia let her hand rest in Merthyr's, wondering to think that there +should be no absolute darkness for a creature to escape into while +living. A trembling came on her. "Let me look over at the water," she +said; and Merthyr, who trusted her even in that extremity, allowed her to +lean forward, and felt her grasp grow moist in his, till she turned back +with shudders, giving him both her hands. "A drowned woman looks so +dreadful!" Her speech was faint as she begged to be taken away from that +place. Merthyr put his hand to her arm-pit, sustaining her steps. As +they neared the level where men were, she looked behind her and realized +the black terrors she had just been blindly handling. Fright sped her +limbs for a second or two, and then her whole weight hung upon Merthyr. +He held her in both arms, thinking that she had swooned, but she +murmured: "Have you heard that my voice has gone?" + +"If you have suffered, I do not wonder," he said. + +"I am useless. My voice is dead." + +"Useless to your friends? Tush, my little Emilia! Sandra mia! Don't +you know that while you love your friends that's all they want of you?" + +"Oh!" she moaned; "the gas-lamp hurts me. What a noise there is!" + +"We shall soon get away from the noise." + +"No; I like it; but not the light. Oh, my feet!--why are you walking +still? What friends?" + +"For instance, myself." + +"You knew of my wandering about London! It makes me believe in heaven. +I can't bear to think of being unseen." + +"This morning," said Merthyr, "I saw the policeman in whose house you +have been staying." + +Emilia bowed her head to the mystery by which this friend was endowed to +be cognizant of her actions. "I feel that I have not seen the streets +for years. If it were not for you I should fall down.--Oh! do you +understand that my voice has quite gone?" + +Merthyr perceived her anxiety to be that she might not betaken on +doubtful terms. "Your hand hasn't," he said, pressing it, and so +gratified her with a concrete image of something that she could still +bestow upon a friend. To this she clung while the noisy wheels bore her +through London, till her weak body failed to keep courage in her breast, +and she wept and came closer to Merthyr. He who supposed that her recent +despair and present tears were for the loss of her lover, gave happily +more comfort than he took. "When old gentlemen choose to interest +themselves about very young ladies," he called upon his humorous +philosophy to observe internally, as men do to forestall the possible +cynic external;--and the rest of the sentence was acted under his eyes by +the figures of three persons. But, there she was, lying within his arm, +rescued, the creature whom he had found filling his heart, when lost, and +whom he thought one of the most hopeful of the women of earth! He +thanked God for bare facts. She lay against him with her eyelids softly +joined, and as he felt the breathing of her body, he marvelled to think +how matter-of-fact they had both been on the brink of a tragedy, and how +naturally she had, as it were, argued herself up to the gates of death. +For want of what? "My sister may supply it," thought Merthyr. + +"Oh! that river is like a great black snake with a sick eye, and will +come round me!" said Emilia, talking as from sleep; then started, with +fright in her face: "Oh! my hunger again!" + +"Hunger!" said he, horrified. + +"It comes worse than ever," she moaned. "I was half dead just now, and +didn't feel it. There's--there's no pain in death. But this--it's like +fire and frost! I feel being eaten up. Give me something." + +Merthyr set his teeth and enveloped her in a tight hug that relieved her +from the sharper pangs; and so held her, the tears bursting through his +shut eyelids, till at the first hotel they reached he managed to get food +for her. She gave a little gasping cry when he put bread through the +window of the cab. Bit by bit he handed her the morsels. It was +impossible to procure broth. When they drove on, she did not complain of +suffering, but her chest rose and fell many times heavily. She threw him +out in the reading of her character, after a space, by excusing herself +for having eaten with such eagerness; and it was long before he learnt +what Wilfrid's tyrannous sentiment had done to this simple nature. He +understood better the fear she expressed of meeting Georgiana. +Nevertheless, she exhibited none on entering the house, and returned +Georgiana's embrace with what strength was left to her. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +Up the centre aisle of Hillford Church, the Tinleys (late as usual) were +seen trooping for morning service in midwinter. There was a man in the +rear known to be a man by the sound of his boots and measure of his +stride, for the ladies of Brookfield, having rejected the absurd +pretensions of Albert Tinley, could not permit curiosity to encounter the +risk of meeting his gaze by turning their heads. So, with charitable +condescension they returned the slight church nod of prim Miss Tinley +passing, of the detestable Laura Tinley, of affected Rose Tinley (whose +complexion was that of a dust-bin), and of Madeline Tinley (too young for +a character beyond what the name bestowed), and then they arranged their +prayer-books, and apparently speculated as to the possible text that +morning to be given forth from the pulpit. But it seemed to them all +that an exceedingly bulky object had passed as guardian of the light- +footed damsels preceding him. Though none of the ladies had looked up as +he passed, they were conscious of a stature and a circumference which +they had deemed to be entirely beyond the reach of the Tinleys, and a +scornful notion of the Tinleys having hired a guardsman, made Arabella +smile at the stretch of her contempt, that could help her to conceive the +ironic possibility. Relieved on the suspicion that Albert was in +attendance of his sisters, they let their eyes fall calmly on the Tinley +pew. Could two men upon this earthly sphere possess such a bearskin? +There towered the shoulders of Mr. Pericles; his head looking diminished +by the hugeous collar. Arabella felt a seizure of her hand from Adela's +side. She placed her book open before her, and stared at the pulpit. +From neither of the three of Brookfield could Laura's observation extract +a sign of the utter astonishment she knew they must be experiencing; and +had it not been for the ingenuous broad whisper of Mrs. Chump, which +sounded toward the verge even of her conception of possibilities, the +Tinleys would not have been gratified by the first public display of the +prize they had wrested from the Poles. + +"Mr. Paricles--oh!" went Mrs. Chump, and a great many pews were set in +commotion. + +Forthwith she bent over Cornelia's lap, and Cornelia, surveying her +placidly, had to murmur, "By-and-by; by-and-by." + +"But, did ye see 'm, my dear? and a forr'ner in a Protestant Church! +And such a forr'ner as he is, to be sure! And, ye know, ye said he'd +naver come with you, and it's them creatures ye don't like. Corrnelia!" + +"The service commences," remarked that lady, standing up. + +Many eyes were on Mr. Pericles, who occasionally inspected the cornices +and corbels and stained glass to right and left, or detected a young lady +staring at him, or anticipated her going to stare, and put her to +confusion by a sharp turn of his head, and then a sniff and smoothing +down of his moustache. But he did not once look at the Brookfield pew. +By hazard his eye ranged over it, and after the first performance of this +trick he would have found the ladies a match for him, even if he had +sought to challenge their eyes. They were constrained to admit that +Laura Tinley managed him cleverly. She made him hold a book and appear +respectably devout. She got him down in good time when seats were taken, +and up again, without much transparent persuasion. The first notes of +the organ were seen to agitate the bearskin. Laura had difficulty to +induce the man to rise for the hymn, and when he had listened to the +intoning of a verse, Mr. Pericles suddenly bent, as if he had snapped in +two: nor could Laura persuade him to rejoin the present posture of the +congregation. Then only did Laura, to cover her failure, turn the +subdued light of a merry smile upon the Brookfield pew. + +The smile was noticed by Apprehension sitting in the corner of one eye, +and it was likewise known that Laura's chagrin at finding that she was +not being watched affected her visibly. At the termination of the +sermon, the ladies bowed their heads a short space, and placing Mrs. +Chump in front drove her out, so that her exclamations of wonderment, and +affectedly ostentatious gaspings of sympathy for Brookfield, were heard +by few. On they hurried, straight and fast to Brookfield. Mr. Pole was +talking to Tracy Runningbrook at the gate. The ladies cut short his +needless apology to the young man for not being found in church that day, +by asking questions of Tracy. The first related to their brother's +whereabouts; the second to Emilia's condition. Tracy had no time to +reply. Mrs. Chump had identified herself with Brookfield so warmly that +the defection of Mr. Pericles was a fine legitimate excitement to her. +"I hate 'm!" she cried. "I pos'tively hate the man! And he to go to +church! A pretty figure for an angel--he, now! But, my dears, we cann't +let annybody else have 'm. Shorrt of his bein' drowned or killed, we +must intrigue to keep the wretch to ourselves." + +"Oh, dear!" said Adela impatiently. + +"Well, and I didn't say to myself, ye little jealous thing!" retorted +Mrs. Chump. + +"Indeed, ma'am, you are welcome to him." + +"And indeed, miss, I don't want 'm. And, perhaps, ye were flirtin' all +the fun out of him on board the yacht, and got tired of 'm; and that's +why." + +Adela said: "Thank you," with exasperating sedateness, which provoked an +intemperate outburst from Mrs. Chump. "Sunday! Sunday!" cried Mr. Pole. + +"Ain't I the first to remember ut, Pole? And didn't I get up airly so as +to go to church and have my conscience qui't, and 'stead of that I come +out full of evil passions, all for the sake o' these ungrateful garls +that's always where ye cann't find 'em. Why, if they was to be married +at the altar, they'd stare and be 'ffendud if ye asked them if they was +thinking of their husbands, they would! 'Oh, dear, no! and ye're +mistaken, and we're thinkin' o' the coal-scuttle in the back parlour,'-- +or somethin' about souls, if not coals. There's their answer. What did +ye do with Mr. Paricles on board the yacht? Aha!" + +"What's this about Pericles?" said Mr. Pole. + +"Oh, nothing, Papa," returned Adela. + +"Nothing, do ye call ut!" said Mrs. Chump. "And, mayhap, good cause too. +Didn't ye tease 'm, now, on board the yacht? Now, did he go on board the +yacht at all?" + +"I should think you ought to know that as well as Adela," said Mr. Pole. + +Adela interposed, hurriedly: "All this, my dear Papa, is because Mr. +Pericles has thought proper to visit the Tinleys' pew. Who would +complain how or where he does it, so long as the duty is fulfilled?" + +Mr. Pole stared, muttering: "The Tinleys!" + +"She's botherin' of ye, Pole, the puss!" said Mrs. Chump, certain that +she had hit a weak point in that mention of the yacht. "Ask her what +sorrt of behaviour--" + +"And he didn't speak to any of you?" said Mr. Pole. + +"No, Papa." + +"He looked the other way?" + +"He did us that honour." + +"Ask her, Pole, how she behaved to 'm on board the yacht," cried Mrs. +Chump. "Oh! there was flirtin', fiirtin'! And go and see what the noble +poet says of tying up in sacks and plumpin' of poor bodies of women into +forty fathoms by them Turks and Greeks, all because of jeal'sy. So, they +make a woman in earnest there, the wretches, 'cause she cann't have onny +of her jokes. Didn't ye tease Mr. Paricles on board the yacht, Ad'la? +Now, was he there?" + +"Martha! you're a fool!" said Mr. Pole, looking the victim of one of his +fits of agitation. "Who knows whether he was there better than you? +You'll be forgetting soon that we've ever dined together. I hate to see +a woman so absurd! There--never mind! Go in: take off bonnet something +--anything! only I can't bear folly! Eh, Mr. Runningbrook?" + +"'Deed, Pole, and ye're mad." Mrs. Chump crossed her hands to reply with +full repose. "I'd like to know how I'm to know what I never said." + +The scene was growing critical. Adela consulted the eyes of her sisters, +which plainly said that this was her peculiar scrape. Adela ended it by +going up to Mrs. Chump, taking her by the shoulders, and putting a kiss +upon her forehead. "Now you will see better," she said. "Don't you know +Mr. Pericles was not with us? As surely as he was with the Tinleys this +morning!" + +"And a nice morning it is!" ejaculated Mr. Pole, trotting off hurriedly. + +"Does Pole think--" Mrs. Chump murmured, with reference to her voyaging +on the yacht. The kiss had bewildered her sequent sensations. + +"He does think, and will think, and must think," Adela prattled some +persuasive infantine nonsense: her soul all the while in revolt against +her sisters, who left her the work to do, and took the position of +spectators and critics, condemning an effort they had not courage to +attempt. + +"By the way, I have to congratulate a friend of mine," said Tracy, +selecting Adela for an ironical bow. + +"Then it is Captain Gambier," cried Mrs. Chump, as if a whole revelation +had burst on her. Adela blushed. "Oh! and what was that I heard?" +continued the aggravating woman. + +Adela flashed her eyes round on her sisters. Even then they left her +without aid, their feeling being that she had debased the house by her +familiarity with this woman before Tracy. + +"Stay! didn't ye both--" Mrs. Chump was saying. + +"Yes?"--Adela passed by her--"only in your ears alone, you know! "At +which hint Mrs. Chump gleefully turned and followed her. A rumour was +prevalent of some misadventure to Adela and the captain on board the +yacht. Arabella saw her depart, thinking, "How singular is her +propensity to imitate me!" for the affirmative uttered in the tone of +interrogation was quite Arabella's own; as also occasionally the +negative,--the negative, however, suiting the musical indifference of the +sound, and its implied calm breast. + +"As for Pericles," said Tracy, "you need not wonder that the fellow prays +in other pews than yours. By heaven! he may pray and pray: I'd send him +to Hades with an epigram in his heart!" + +From Tracy the ladies learnt that Wilfrid had inflicted public +chastisement upon Mr. Pericles for saying a false thing of Emilia. He +danced the prettiest pas seal that was ever footed by debutant on the hot +iron plates of Purgatory. They dared not ask what it was that Mr. +Pericles had said, but Tracy was so vehement on the subject of his having +met his deserts, that they partly guessed it to bear some relation to +their sex's defencelessness, and they approved their brother's work. + +Sir Twickenham and Captain Gambier dined at Brookfield that day. However +astonishing it might be to one who knew his character and triumphs, the +captain was a butterfly netted, and was on the highroad to an exhibition +of himself pinned, with his wings outspread. During the service of the +table Tracy relieved Adela from Mrs. Chump's inadvertencies and little +bits of feminine malice, but he could not help the captain, who blundered +like a schoolboy in her rough hands. It was noted that Sir Twickenham +reserved the tolerating smile he once had for her. Mr. Pole's nervous +fretfulness had increased. He complained in occasional underbreaths, +correcting himself immediately with a "No, no!" and blinking briskly. + +But after dinner came the time when the painfullest scene was daily +enacted. Mrs. Chump drank Port freely. To drink it fondly, it was +necessary that she should have another rosy wineglass to nod to, and Mr. +Pole, whose taste for wine had been weakened, took this post as his duty. +The watchful, pinched features of the poor pale little man bloomed +unnaturally, and his unintelligible eyes sparkled as he emptied his +glass. His daughters knew that he drank, not for his pleasure, but for +their benefit; that he might sustain Martha Chump in the delusion that he +was a fitting bridegroom, and with her money save them from ruin. Each +evening, with remorse that blotted all perception of the tragic +comicality of the show, they saw him, in his false strength and his +anxiety concerning his pulse's play, act this part. The recurring words, +"Now, Martha, here's the Port," sent a cold wave through their blood. +They knew what the doctor remarked on the effect of that Port. "Ill!" +Mrs. Chump would cry, when she saw him wink after sipping; "you, Pole! +what do they say of ye, ye deer!" and she returned the wink, the ladies +looking on. Not to drink a proper quantum of Port, when Port was on the +table, was, in Mrs. Chump's eyes, mean for a man. Even Chump, she would +say, was master of his bottle, and thought nothing of it. "Who does?" +cried her present suitor, and the Port ebbed, and his cheeks grew +crimson. + +This frightful rivalry with the ghost of Alderman Chump continued night +after night. The rapturous Martha was incapable of observing that if she +drank with a ghost in memory, in reality she drank with nothing better +than an animated puppet. The nights ended with Mr. Pole either sleeping +in his arm-chair (upon which occasions one daughter watched him and told +dreadful tales of his waking), or staggering to bed, debating on the +stairs between tea and brandy, complaining of a loss of sensation at his +knee-cap, or elbow, or else rubbing his head and laughing hysterically. +His bride was not at such moments observant. No wonder Wilfrid kept out +of the way, if he had not better occupation elsewhere. The ladies, in +their utter anguish, after inveighing against the baneful Port, had +begged their father to delay no more to marry the woman. "Why?" said Mr. +Pole, sharply; "what do you want me to marry her for?" They were obliged +to keep up the delusion, and said, "Because she seems suited to you as a +companion." That satisfied him. "Oh! we won't be in a hurry," he said, +and named a day within a month; and not liking their unready faces, +laughed, and dismissed the idea aloud, as if he had not earnestly been +entertaining it. + +The ladies of Brookfield held no more their happy, energetic midnight +consultations. They had begun to crave for sleep and a snatch of +forgetfulness, the scourge being daily on their flesh: and they had now +no plans to discuss; they had no distant horizon of low vague lights that +used ever to be beyond their morrow. They kissed at the bedroom door of +one, and separated. Silence was their only protection to the Nice +Feelings, now that Fine Shades had become impossible. Adela had almost +made herself distinct from her sisters since the yachting expedition. +She had grown severely careful of the keys of her writing-desk, and would +sometimes slip the bolt of her bedroom door, and answer "Eh?" dubiously +in tone, when her sisters had knocked twice, and had said "Open" once. +The house of Brookfield showed those divisional rents which an admonitory +quaking of the earth will create. Neither sister was satisfied with the +other. Cornelia's treatment of Sir Twickenham was almost openly +condemned, but at the same time it seemed to Arabella that the baronet +was receiving more than the necessary amount of consolation from the +bride of Captain Gambier, and that yacht habits and moralities had been +recently imported to Brookfield. Adela, for her part, looked sadly on +Arabella, and longed to tell her, as she told Cornelia, that if she +continued to play Freshfield Sumner purposely against Edward Buxley, she +might lose both. Cornelia quietly measured accusations and judged +impartially; her mind being too full to bring any personal observations +to bear. She said, perhaps, less than she would have said, had she not +known that hourly her own Nice Feelings had to put up a petition for Fine +Shades: had she not known, indeed, that her conduct would soon demand +from her sisters an absolutely merciful interpretation. For she was now +simply attracting Sir Twickenham to Brookfield as a necessary medicine to +her Papa. Since Mrs. Chump's return, however, Mr. Pole had spoken +cheerfully of himself, and, by innuendo emphasized, had imparted that his +mercantile prospects were brighter. In fact, Cornelia half thought that +he must have been pretending bankruptcy to gain his end in getting the +consent of his daughters to receive the woman. She, and Adela likewise, +began to suspect that the parental transparency was a little mysterious, +and that there is, after all, more than we see in something that we see +through. They were now in danger of supposing that because the old man +had possibly deceived them to some extent, he had deceived them +altogether. But was not the after-dinner scene too horribly true? Were +not his hands moist and cold while the forehead was crimson? And could a +human creature feel at his own pulse, and look into vacancy with that +intense apprehensive look, and be but an actor? They could not think so. +But his conditions being dependent upon them, the ladies felt in their +hearts a spring of absolute rebellion when the call for fresh sacrifices +came. Though they did not grasp the image, they had a feeling that he +was nourished bit by bit by everything they held dear; and though they +loved him, and were generous, they had begun to ask, "What next?" + +The ladies were at a dead-lock, and that the heart is the father of our +histories, I am led to think when I look abroad on families stagnant +because of so weak a motion of the heart. There are those who have none +at all; the mass of us are moved from the propulsion of the toes of the +Fates. But the ladies of Brookfield had hearts lively enough to get them +into scrapes. The getting out of them, or getting on at all, was left to +Providence. They were at a dead-lock, for Arabella, flattered as she was +by Freshfield Sumner's wooing, could not openly throw Edward over, whom +indeed she thought that she liked the better of the two, though his +letters had not so wide an intellectual range. Her father was irritably +anxious that she should close with Edward. Adela could not move: at +least, not openly. Cornelia might have taken an initiative; but +tenderness for her father's health had hitherto restrained her, and she +temporized with Sir Twickenham on the noblest of principles. She was, by +the devotion of her conduct, enabled to excuse herself so far that she +could even fish up an excuse in the shape of the effort she had made to +find him entertaining: as if the said effort should really be re-payment +enough to him for his assiduous and most futile suit. One deep grief sat +on Cornelia's mind. She had heard from Lady Gosstre that there was +something like madness in the Barrett family. She had consented to meet +Sir Purcell clandestinely (after debate on his claim to such a sacrifice +on her part), and if, on those occasions, her lover's tone was raised, it +gave her a tremour. And he had of late appeared to lose his noble calm; +he had spoken (it might almost be interpreted) as if he doubted her. +Once, when she had mentioned her care for her father, he had cried out +upon the name of father with violence, looking unlike himself. + +His condemnation of the world, too, was not so Christian as it had been; +it betrayed what the vulgar would call spite, and was not all compassed +in his peculiar smooth shrug--expressive of a sort of border-land between +contempt and charity: which had made him wear in her sight all the +superiority which the former implies, with a considerable share of the +benign complacency of the latter. This had gone. He had been sarcastic +even to her; saying once, and harshly: "Have you a will?" Personally she +liked the poor organist better than the poor baronet, though he had less +merit. It was unpleasant in her present mood to be told "that we have +come into this life to fashion for ourselves souls;" and that "whosoever +cannot decide is a soulless wretch fit but to pass into vapour." He +appeared to have ceased to make his generous allowances for difficult +situations. A senseless notion struck Cornelia, that with the baronetcy +he had perhaps inherited some of the madness of his father. + +The two were in a dramatic tangle of the Nice Feelings worth a glance as +we pass on. She wished to say to him, "You are unjust to my +perplexities;" and he to her, "You fail in your dilemma through +cowardice." Instead of uttering which, they chid themselves severally +for entertaining such coarse ideas of their idol. Doubtless they were +silent from consideration for one another: but I must add, out of extreme +tenderness for themselves likewise. There are people who can keep the +facts that front them absent from their contemplation by not framing them +in speech; and much benevolence of the passive order may be traced to a +disinclination to inflict pain upon oneself. "My duty to my father," +being cited by Cornelia, Sir Purcell had to contend with it. + +"True love excludes no natural duty," she said. + +And he: "Love discerns unerringly what is and what is not duty." + +"In the case of a father, can there be any doubt?" she asked, the answer +shining in her confident aspect. + +"There are many things that fathers may demand of us!" he interjected +bitterly. + +She had a fatal glimpse here of the false light in which his resentment +coloured the relations between fathers and children; and, deeming him +incapable of conducting this argument, she felt quite safe in her +opposition, up to a point where feeling stopped her. + +"Devotedness to a father I must conceive to be a child's first duty," she +said. + +Sir Purcell nodded: "Yes; a child's!" + +"Does not history give the higher praise to children who sacrifice +themselves for their parents?" asked Cornelia. + +And he replied: "So, you seek to be fortified in such matters by +history!" + +Courteous sneers silenced her. Feeling told her she was in the wrong; +but the beauty of her sentiment was not to be contested, and therefore +she thought that she might distrust feeling: and she went against it +somewhat; at first very tentatively, for it caused pain. She marked a +line where the light of duty should not encroach on the light of our +human desires. "But love for a parent is not merely duty," thought +Cornelia. "It is also love;--and is it not the least selfish love?" + +Step by step Sir Purcell watched the clouding of her mind with false +conceits, and knew it to be owing to the heart's want of vigour. Again +and again he was tempted to lay an irreverent hand on the veil his lady +walked in, and make her bare to herself. Partly in simple bitterness, he +refrained: but the chief reason was that he had no comfort in giving a +shock to his own state of deception. He would have had to open a dark +closet; to disentangle and bring to light what lay in an +undistinguishable heap; to disfigure her to herself, and share in her +changed eyesight; possibly to be, or seem, coarse: so he kept the door of +it locked, admitting sadly in his meditation that there was such a place, +and saying all the while: "If I were not poor!" He saw her running into +the shelter of egregious sophisms, till it became an effort to him to +preserve his reverence for her and the sex she represented. Finally he +imagined that he perceived an idea coming to growth in her, no other than +this: "That in duty to her father she might sacrifice herself, though +still loving him to whom she had given her heart; thus ennobling her love +for father and for lover." With a wicked ingenuity he tracked her +forming notions, encouraged them on, and provoked her enthusiasm by +putting an ironical question: "Whether the character of the soul was +subdued and shaped by the endurance and the destiny of the perishable?" + +"Oh! no, no!" she exclaimed. "It cannot be, or what comfort should we +have?" + +Few men knew better that when lovers' sentiments stray away from feeling, +they are to be suspected of a disloyalty. Yet he admired the tone she +took. He had got an 'ideal' of her which it was pleasanter to magnify +than to distort. An 'ideal' is so arbitrary, that if you only doubt of +its being perfection, it will vanish and never come again. Sir Purcell +refused to doubt. He blamed himself for having thought it possible to +doubt, and this, when all the time he knew. + +Through endless labyrinths of delusion these two unhappy creatures might +be traced, were it profitable. Down what a vale of little intricate +follies should we be going, lighted by one ghastly conclusion! At times, +struggling from the midst of her sophisms, Cornelia prayed her lover +would claim her openly, and so nerve her to a pitch of energy that would +clinch the ruinous debate. Forgetting that she was an 'ideal'--the +accredited mistress of pure wisdom and of the power of deciding rightly-- +she prayed to be dealt with as a thoughtless person, and one of the herd +of women. She felt that Sir Purcell threw too much on her. He expected +her to go calmly to her father, and to Sir Twickenham, and tell them +individually that her heart was engaged; then with a stately figure to +turn, quit the house, and lay her hand in his. He made no allowance for +the weakness of her sex, for the difficulties surrounding her, for the +consideration due to Sir Twickenham's pride, and to her father's ill- +health. She half-protested to herself that he expected from her the +mechanical correctness of a machine, and overlooked the fact that she was +human. It was a grave comment on her ambition to be an 'ideal.' + +So let us leave them, till we come upon the ashy fruit of which this +blooming sentimentalism is the seed. + +It was past midnight when Mrs. Chump rushed to Arabella's room, and her +knock was heard vociferous at the door. The ladies, who were at work +upon diaries and letters, allowed her to thump and wonder whether she had +come to the wrong door, for a certain period; after which, Arabella +placidly unbolted her chamber, and Adela presented herself in the passage +to know the meaning of the noise. + +"Oh! ye poor darlin's, I've heard ut all, I have." + +This commencement took the colour from their cheeks. Arabella invited +her inside, and sent Adela for Cornelia. + +"Oh, and ye poor deers!" cried Mrs. Chump to Arabella, who remarked: +"Pray wait till my sisters come;" causing the woman to stare and observe: +"If ye're not as cold as the bottom of a pot that naver felt fire." She +repeated this to Cornelia and Adela as an accusation, and then burst on +"My heart's just breakin' for ye, and ye shall naver want bread, eh! and +roast beef, and my last bottle of Port ye'll share, though ye've no ideea +what a lot o' thoughts o' poor Chump's under that cork, and it'll be a +waste on you. Oh! and that monster of a Mr. Paricles that's got ye in +his power and's goin' to be the rroon of ye--shame to 'm! Your father's +told me; and, oh! my darlin' garls, don't think ut my fault. For, Pole-- +Pole--" + +Mrs. Chump was choked by her grief. The ladies, unbending to some +curiosity, eliminated from her gasps and sobs that Mr. Pole had, in the +solitude of his library below, accused her of causing the defection of +Mr. Pericles, and traced his possible ruin to it, confessing, that in the +way of business, he was at Mr. Pericles' mercy. + +"And in such a passion with me!" Mrs. Chump wrung her hands. "What could +I do to Mr. Paricles? He isn't one o' the men that I can kiss; and Pole +shouldn't wish me. And Pole settin' down his rroon to me! What'll I do? +My dears! I do feel for ye, for I feel I'd feel myself such a beast, +without money, d'ye see? It's the most horrible thing in the world. +It's like no candle in the darrk. And I, ye know, I know I'd naver +forgive annybody that took my money; and what'll Pole think of me? For +oh! ye may call riches temptation, but poverty's punishment; and I heard +a young curate say that from the pulpit, and he was lean enough to know, +poor fella!" + +Both Cornelia and Arabella breathed more freely when they had heard Mrs. +Chump's tale to an end. They knew perfectly well that she was blameless +for the defection of Mr. Pericles, and understood from her exclamatory +narrative that their father had reason to feel some grave alarm at the +Greek's absence from their house, and had possibly reasons of his own for +accusing Mrs. Chump, as he had done. The ladies administered consolation +to her, telling her that for their part they would never blame her; even +consenting to be kissed by her, hugged by her, playfully patted, +complimented, and again wept over. They little knew what a fervour of +secret devotion they created in Mrs. Chump's bosom by this astounding +magnanimity displayed to her, who laboured under the charge of being the +source of their ruin; nor could they guess that the little hypocrisy they +were practising would lead to any singular and pregnant resolution in the +mind of the woman, fraught with explosion to their house, and that quick +movement which they awaited. + +Mrs. Chump, during the patient strain of a tender hug of Arabella, had +mutely resolved in a great heat of gratitude that she would go to Mr. +Pericles, and, since he was necessary to the well-being of Brookfield, +bring him back, if she had to bring him back in her arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +[Georgiana Ford to Wilfrid:] + +"I have omitted replying to your first letter, not because of the nature +of its contents: nor do I write now in answer to your second because of +the permission you give me to lay it before my brother. I cannot think +that concealment is good, save for very base persons; and since you take +the initiative in writing very openly, I will do so likewise. + +"It is true that Emilia is with me. Her voice is lost, and she has +fallen as low in spirit as one can fall and still give us hope of her +recovery. But that hope I have, and I am confident that you will not +destroy it. In the summer she goes with us to Italy. We have consulted +one doctor, who did not prescribe medicine for her. In the morning she +reads with my brother. She seems to forget whatever she reads: the +occupation is everything necessary just now. Our sharp Monmouth air +provokes her to walk briskly when she is out, and the exercise has once +or twice given colour to her cheeks. Yesterday being a day of clear +frost, we drove to a point from which we could mount the Buckstone, and +here, my brother says, the view appeared to give her something of her +lost animation. It was a look that I had never seen, and it soon went: +but in the evening she asked me whether I prayed before sleeping, and +when she retired to her bedroom, I remained there with her for a time. + +"You will pardon me for refusing to let her know that you have written to +your relative in the Austrian service to obtain a commission for you. +But, on the other hand, I have thought it right to tell her incidentally +that you will be married in the Summer of this year. I can only say that +she listened quite calmly. + +"I beg that you will not blame yourself so vehemently. By what you do, +her friends may learn to know that you regret the strange effect produced +by certain careless words, or conduct: but I cannot find that self- +accusation is ever good at all. In answer to your question, I may add +that she has repeated nothing of what she said when we were together in +Devon. + +"Our chief desire (for, as we love her, we may be directed by our +instinct), in the attempt to restore her, is to make her understand that +she is anything but worthless. She has recently followed my brother's +lead, and spoken of herself, but with a touch of scorn. This morning, +while the clear frosty sky continues, we were to have started for an old +castle lying toward Wales; and I think the idea of a castle must have +struck her imagination, and forced some internal contrast on her mind. I +am repeating my brother's suggestion--she seemed more than usually +impressed with an idea that she was of no value to anybody. She asked +why she should go anywhere, and dropped into a chair, begging to be +allowed to stay in a darkened room. My brother has some strange +intuition of her state of mind. She has lost any power she may have had +of grasping abstract ideas. In what I conceived to be play, he told her +that many would buy her even now. She appeared to be speculating on +this, and then wished to know how much those persons would consider her +to be worth, and who they were. Nor did it raise a smile on her face to +hear my brother mention Jews, and name an absolute sum of money; but, on +the contrary, after evidently thinking over it, she rose up, and said +that she was ready to go. I write fully to you, telling you these +things, that you may see she is at any rate eager not to despair, and is +learning, much as a child might learn it, that it need not be. + +"Believe me, that I will in every way help to dispossess your mind of the +remorse now weighing upon you, as far as it shall be within my power to +do so. + +"Mr. Runningbrook has been invited by my brother to come and be her +companion. They have a strong affection for one another. He is a true +poet, full of reverence for a true woman." + + +[Wilfrid to Georgiana Ford:] + +"I cannot thank you enough. When I think of her I am unmanned; and if I +let my thoughts fall back upon myself, I am such as you saw me that night +in Devon--helpless, and no very presentable figure. But you do not +picture her to me. I cannot imagine whether her face has changed; and, +pardon me, were I writing to you alone, I could have faith that the +delicate insight and angelic nature of a woman would not condemn my +desire to realize before my eyes the state she has fallen to. I see her +now under a black shroud. Have her features changed? I cannot remember +one--only at an interval her eyes. Does she look into the faces of +people as she used? Or does she stare carelessly away? Softly between +the eyes, is what I meant. I mean--but my reason for this particularity +is very simple. I would state it to you, and to no other. I cannot have +peace till she is restored; and my prayer is, that I may not haunt her to +defeat your labour. Does her face appear to show that I am quite absent +from her thoughts? Oh! you will understand me. You have seen me stand +and betray no suffering when a shot at my forehead would have been mercy. +To you I will dare to open my heart. I wish to be certain that I have +not injured her--that is all. Perhaps I am more guilty than you think: +more even than I can call to mind. If I may fudge by the punishment, my +guilt is immeasurable. Tell me--if you will but tell me that the +sacrifice of my life to her will restore her, it is hers. Write, and say +this, and I will come: Do not delay or spare me. Her dumb voice is like +a ghost in my ears. It cries to me that I have killed it. Be actuated +by no charitable considerations in refraining to write. Could a +miniature of her be sent? You will think the request strange; but I want +to be sure she is not haggard--not the hospital face I fancy now, which +accuses me of murder. Does she preserve the glorious freshness she used +to wear? She had a look--or did you see her before the change? I only +want to know that she is well." + + +[Tracy Runningbrook to Wilfrid:] + +"You had my promise that I would write and give your conscience a +nightcap. I have a splendid one for you. Put it on without any +hesitation. I find her quite comfortable. Powys reads Italian with her +in the morning. His sister (who might be a woman if she liked, but has +an insane preference for celestial neutrality) does the moral +inculcation. The effect is comical. I should like you to see Cold Steel +leading Tame Fire about, and imagining the taming to be her work! You +deserve well of your generation. You just did enough to set this darling +girl alight. Knights and squires numberless will thank you. The idea of +your reproaching yourself is monstrous. Why, there's no one thanks you +more than she does. You stole her voice, which some may think a pity, +but I don't, seeing that I would rather have her in a salon than before +the footlights. Imagine my glory in her!--she has become half cat! She +moves softly, as if she loved everything she touched; making you throb to +feel the little ball of her foot. Her eyes look steadily, like green +jewels before the veil of an Egyptian temple. Positively, her eyes have +grown green--or greenish! They were darkish hazel formerly, and talked +more of milkmaids and chattering pastorals than a discerning master would +have wished. Take credit for the change; and at least I don't blame you +for the tender hollows under the eyes, sloping outward, just hinted... +Love's mark on her, so that men's hearts may faint to know that love is +known to her, and burn to read her history. When she is about to speak, +the upper lids droop a very little; or else the under lids quiver upward- +-I know not which. Take further credit for her manner. She has now a +manner of her own. Some of her naturalness has gone, but she has skipped +clean over the 'young lady' stage; from raw girl she has really got as +much of the great manner as a woman can have who is not an ostensibly +retired dowager, or a matron on a pedestal shuffling the naked virtues +and the decorous vices together. She looks at you with an immense, +marvellous gravity, before she replies to you--enveloping you in a velvet +light. This, is fact, not fine stuff, my dear fellow. The light of her +eyes does absolutely cling about you. Adieu! You are a great master, +and know exactly when to make your bow and retire. A little more, and +you would have spoilt her. Now she is perfect." + + +[Wilfrid to Tracy Runningbrook:] + +"I have just come across a review of your last book, and send it, +thinking you may wish to see it. I have put a query to one of the +passages, which I think misquoted: and there will be no necessity to call +your attention to the critic's English. You can afford to laugh at it, +but I confess it puts your friends in a rage. Here are a set of fellows +who arm themselves with whips and stand in the public thoroughfare to +make any man of real genius run the gauntlet down their ranks till he +comes out flayed at the other extremity! What constitutes their right to +be there?--By the way, I met Sir Purcell Barrett (the fellow who was at +Hillford), and he would like to write an article on you that should act +as a sort of rejoinder. Yon won't mind, of course--it's bread to him, +poor devil! I doubt whether I shall see you when you comeback, so write +a jolly lot of letters. Colonel Pierson, of the Austrian army, my uncle +(did you meet him at Brookfield?), advises me to sell out immediately. +He is getting me an Imperial commission--cavalry. I shall give up the +English service. And if they want my medal, they can have it, and I'll +begin again. I'm sick of everything except a cigar and a good volume of +poems. Here's to light one, and now for the other! + + "'Large eyes lit up by some imperial sin,'" etc. + (Ten lines from Tracy's book are here copied neatly.) + + +[Tracy Runningbrook to Wilfrid:] + +"Why the deuce do you write me such infernal trash about the opinions of +a villanous dog who can't even en a decent sentence? I've been damning +you for a white-livered Austrian up and down the house. Let the fellow +bark till he froths at the mouth, and scatters the virus of the beast +among his filthy friends. I am mad-dog proof. The lines you quote were +written in an awful hurry, coming up in the train from Richford one +morning. You have hit upon my worst with commendable sagacity. If it +will put money in Barren's pocket, let him write. I should prefer to +have nothing said. The chances are all in favour of his writing like a +fool. If you're going to be an Austrian, we may have a chance of +shooting one another some day, so here's my hand before you go and sell +your soul; and anything I can do in the meantime--command me." + + +[Georgiana Ford to Wilfrid:] + +"I do not dare to charge you with a breach of your pledged word. Let me +tell you simply that Emilia has become aware of your project to enter the +Austrian service, and it has had the effect on her which I foresaw. She +could bear to hear of your marriage, but this is too much for her, and it +breaks my heart to see her. It is too cruel. She does not betray any +emotion, but I can see that every principle she had gained is gone, and +that her bosom holds the shadows of a real despair. I foresaw it, and +sought to guard her against it. That you, whom she had once called (to +me) her lover, should enlist himself as an enemy, of her country!--it +comes to her as a fact striking her brain dumb while she questions it, +and the poor body has nothing to do but to ache. Surely you could have +no object in doing this? I will not suspect it. Mr. Runningbrook is +acquainted with your plans, I believe; but he has no remembrance of +having mentioned this one to Emilia. He distinctly assures me that he +has not done so, and I trust him to speak truth. How can it have +happened? But here is the evil done. I see no remedy. I am not skilled +in sketching the portraits you desire of her, and yet, if you have ever +wished her to know this miserable thing, it would be as well that you +should see the different face that has come among us within twenty hours." + + +[Wilfrid to Georgiana Ford:] + +"I will confine my reply to a simple denial of having caused this fatal +intelligence to reach her ears; for the truth of which, I pledge my +honour as a gentleman. A second's thought would have told me--indeed I +at once acquiesced in your view--that she should not know it. How it has +happened it is vain to attempt to guess. Can you suppose that I desired +her to hate me? Yet this is what the knowledge of the step I am taking +will make her do! If I could see--if I might see her for five minutes, I +should be able to explain everything, and, I sincerely think (painful as +it would be to me), give her something like peace. It is too late even +to wish to justify myself; but her I can persuade that she-- +Do you not see that her mind is still unconvinced of my--I will call it +baseness! Is this the self-accusing you despise? A little of it must be +heard. If I may see her I will not fail to make her understand my +position. She shall see that it is I who am worthless--not she! You +know the circumstances under which I last beheld her--when I saw pang +upon pang smiting her breast from my silence! But now I may speak. Do +not be prepossessed against my proposal! It shall be only for five +minutes--no more. Not that it is my desire to come. In truth, it could +not be. I have felt that I alone can cure her--I who did the harm. Mark +me: she will fret secretly--, but dear and kindest lady, do not smile too +critically at the tone I adopt. I cannot tell how I am writing or what +saying. Believe me that I am deeply and constantly sensible of your +generosity. In case you hesitate, I beg you to consult Mr. Powys." + + +[Georgiana Ford to Wilfrid:] + +"I had no occasion to consult my brother to be certain that an interview +between yourself and Emilia should not take place. There can be no +object, even if the five minutes of the meeting gave her happiness, why +the wound of the long parting should be again opened. She is wretched +enough now, though her tenderness for us conceals it as far as possible. +When some heavenly light shall have penetrated her, she will have a +chance of peace. The evil is not of a nature to be driven out by your +hands. If you are not going into the Austrian service, she shall know as +much immediately. Otherwise, be as dead to her as you may, and your +noblest feelings cannot be shown under any form but that." + + +[Wilfrid to Tracy Runningbrook:] + +"Some fellows whom I know want you to write a prologue to a play they are +going to get up. It's about Shakespeare--at least, the proceeds go to +something of that sort. Do, like a good fellow, toss us off twenty +lines. Why don't you write? By the way, I hope there's no truth in a +report that has somehow reached me, that they have the news down in +Monmouth of my deserting to the black-yellow squadrons? Of course, such +a thing as that should have been kept from them. I hear, too, that your- +-I suppose I must call her now your--pupil is falling into bad health. +Think me as cold and 'British' as you like; but the thought of this does +really affect me painfully. Upon my honour, it does! 'And now he +yawns!' you're saying. You're wrong. We Army men feel just as you poets +do, and for a longer time, I think, though perhaps not so acutely. I +send you the 'Venus' cameo which you admired. Pray accept it from an old +friend. I mayn't see you again." + + +[Tracy Runningbrook to Wilfrid:] +(enclosing lines) + +"Here they are. It will require a man who knows something about metre to +speak them. Had Shakespeare's grandmother three Christian names? and did +she anticipate feminine posterity in her rank of life by saying +habitually, 'Drat it?' There is as yet no Society to pursue this +investigation, but it should be started. Enormous thanks for the Venus. +I wore it this morning at breakfast. Just as we were rising, I leaned +forward to her, and she jumped up with her eyes under my chin. 'Isn't +she a beauty?' I said. 'It was his,' she answered, changing eyes of +eagle for eyes of dove, and then put out the lights. I had half a mind +to offer it, on the spot. May I? That is to say, if the impulse seizes +me I take nobody's advice, and fair Venus certainly is not under my chin +at this moment. As to ill health, great mother Nature has given a house +of iron to this soul of fire. The windows may blaze, or the windows may +be extinguished, but the house stands firm. When you are lightning or +earthquake, you may have something to reproach yourself for; as it is, be +under no alarm. Do not put words in my mouth that I have not uttered. +'And now he yawns,' is what I shall say of you only when I am sure you +have just heard a good thing. You really are the best fellow of your set +that I have come across, and the only one pretending to brains. Your +modesty in estimating your value as a leader of Pandours will be pleasing +to them who like that modesty. Good-bye. This little Emilia is a marvel +of flying moods. Yesterday she went about as if she said, 'I've promised +Apollo not to speak till to-morrow.' To-day, she's in a feverish gabble +--or began the day with a burst of it; and now she's soft and sensible. +If you fancy a girl at her age being able to see, that it's a woman's +duty to herself and the world to be artistic--to perfect the thing of +beauty she is meant to be by nature!--and, seeing, too, that Love is an +instrument like any other thing, and that we must play on it with +considerate gentleness, and that tearing at it or dashing it to earth, +making it howl and quiver, is madness, and not love!--I assure you she +begins to see it! She does see it. She is going to wear a wreath of +black briony (preserved and set by Miss Ford, a person cunning in these +matters). She's going to the ball at Penarvon Castle, and will look-- +supply your favourite slang word. A little more experience, and she will +have malice. She wants nothing but that to make her consummate. Malice +is the barb of beauty. She's just at present a trifle blunt. She will +knock over, but not transfix. I am anxious to watch the effect she +produces at Penarvon. Poor little woman! I paid a compliment to her +eyes. 'I've got nothing else,' said she. Dine as well as you can while +you are in England. German cookery is an education for the sentiment of +hogs. The play of sour and sweet, and crowning of the whole with fat, +shows a people determined to go down in civilization, and try the +business backwards. Adieu, curst Croat! On the Wallachian border mayst +thou gather philosophy from meditation." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +Dexterously as Wilfrid has turned Tracy to his uses by means of the +foregoing correspondence, in doing so he had exposed himself to the +retributive poison administered by that cunning youth. And now the +Hippogriff seized him, and mounted with him into mid-air; not as when the +idle boy Ganymede was caught up to act as cup-bearer in celestial Courts, +but to plunge about on yielding vapours, with nothing near him save the +voice of his desire. + +The Philosopher here peremptorily demands the pulpit. We are subject, he +says, to fantastic moods, and shall dry ready-minted phrases picture them +forth? As, for example, can the words 'delirium,' or 'frenzy,' convey +an image of Wilfrid's state, when his heart began to covet Emilia again, +and his sentiment not only interposed no obstacle, but trumpeted her +charms and fawned for her, and he thought her lost, remembered that she +had been his own, and was ready to do any madness to obtain her? +'Madness' is the word that hits the mark, but it does not fully embrace +the meaning. To be in this state, says the Philosopher, is to be 'On The +Hippogriff;' and to this, as he explains, the persons who travel to Love +by the road of sentiment will come, if they have any stuff in them, and +if the one who kindles them is mighty. He distinguishes being on the +Hippogriff from being possessed by passion. Passion, he says, is noble +strength on fire, and points to Emilia as a representation of passion. +She asks for what she thinks she may have; she claims what she imagines +to be her own. She has no shame, and thus, believing in, she never +violates, nature, and offends no law, wild as she may seem. Passion does +not turn on her and rend her when it is thwarted. She was never carried +out of the limit of her own intelligent force, seeing that it directed +her always, with the simple mandate to seek that which belonged to her. +She was perfectly sane, and constantly just to herself, until the failure +of her voice, telling her that she was a beggar in the world, came as a +second blow, and partly scared her reason. Constantly just to herself, +mind! This is the quality of true passion. Those who make a noise, and +are not thus distinguishable, are on Hippogriff. + +--By which it is clear to me that my fantastic Philosopher means to +indicate the lover mounted in this wise, as a creature bestriding an +extraneous power. "The sentimentalist," he says, "goes on accumulating +images and hiving sensations, till such time as (if the stuff be in him) +they assume a form of vitality, and hurry him headlong. This is not +passion, though it amazes men, and does the madder thing." + +In fine, it is Hippogriff. And right loath am I to continue my +partnership with a fellow who will not see things on the surface, and is, +as a necessary consequence, blind to the fact that the public detest him. +I mean, this garrulous, super-subtle, so-called Philosopher, who first +set me upon the building of 'The Three Volumes,' it is true, but whose +stipulation that he should occupy so large a portion of them has made +them rock top-heavy, to the forfeit of their stability. He maintains +that a story should not always flow, or, at least, not to a given +measure. When we are knapsack on back, he says, we come to eminences +where a survey of our journey past and in advance is desireable, as is a +distinct pause in any business, here and there. He points proudly to the +fact that our people in this comedy move themselves,--are moved from +their own impulsion,--and that no arbitrary hand has posted them to bring +about any event and heap the catastrophe. In vain I tell him that he is +meantime making tatters of the puppets' golden robe illusion: that he is +sucking the blood of their warm humanity out of them. He promises that +when Emilia is in Italy he will retire altogether; for there is a field +of action, of battles and conspiracies, nerve and muscle, where life +fights for plain issues, and he can but sum results. Let us, he +entreats, be true to time and place. In our fat England, the gardener +Time is playing all sorts of delicate freaks in the lines and traceries +of the flower of life, and shall we not note them? If we are to +understand our species, and mark the progress of civilization at all, we +must. Thus the Philosopher. Our partner is our master, and I submit, +hopefully looking for release with my Emilia, in the day when Italy +reddens the sky with the banners of a land revived. + +I hear Wilfrid singing out that he is aloft, burning to rush ahead, while +his beast capers in one spot, abominably ludicrous. This trick of +Hippogriff is peculiar, viz., that when he loses all faith in himself, he +sinks--in other words, goes to excesses of absurd humility to regain it. +Passion has likewise its panting intervals, but does nothing so +preposterous. The wreath of black briony, spoken of by Tracy as the +crown of Emilia's forehead, had begun to glow with a furnace-colour in +Wilfrid's fancy. It worked a Satanic distraction in him. The girl sat +before him swathed in a darkness, with the edges of the briony leaves +shining deadly--radiant above--young Hecate! The next instant he was +bleeding with pity for her, aching with remorse, and again stung to +intense jealousy of all who might behold her (amid a reserve of angry +sensations at her present happiness). + +Why had she not made allowance for his miserable situation that night in +Devon? Why did she not comprehend his difficulties in relation to his +father's affairs? Why did she not know that he could not fail to love +her for ever? + +Interrogations such as these were so many switches of the whip in the +flanks of Hippogriff. + +Another peculiarity of the animal gifted with wings is, that around the +height he soars to he can see no barriers nor any of the fences raised by +men. And here again he differs from Passion, which may tug against +common sense but is never, in a great nature, divorced from it: In air on +Hippogriff, desires wax boundless, obstacles are hidden. It seemed +nothing to Wilfrid (after several tremendous descents of humility) that +he should hurry for Monmouth away, to gaze on Emilia under her fair, +infernal, bewitching wreath; nothing that he should put an arm round her; +nothing that he should forthwith carry her off, though he died for it. +Forming no design beyond that of setting his eyes on her, he turned the +head of Hippogriff due Westward. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +Penarvon castle lay over the borders of Monmouthshire. Thither, on a +night of frosty moonlight, troops of carriages were hurrying with the +usual freightage for a country ball:--the squire who will not make +himself happy by seeing that his duty to the softer side of his family +must be performed during the comfortable hours when bachelors snooze in +arm-chairs, and his nobler dame who, not caring for Port or tobacco, +cheerfully accepts the order of things as bequeathed to her: the +everlastingly half-satisfied young man, who looks forward to the hour +when his cigar-light will shine; and the damsel thrice demure as a cover +for her eagerness. Within a certain distance of one of the carriages, a +man rode on horseback. The court of the castle was reached, and he +turned aside, lingering to see whether he could get a view of the lighted +steps. To effect his object, he dismounted and led his horse through the +gates, turning from gravel to sward, to keep in the dusk. A very agile +middle-aged gentleman was the first to appear under the portico-lamps, +and he gave his hand to a girl of fifteen, and then to a most portly lady +in a scarlet mantle. The carriage-door slammed and drove off, while a +groan issued from the silent spectator. "Good heavens! have I followed +these horrible people for five-and-twenty miles!" Carriage after +carriage rattled up to the steps, was disburdened of still more 'horrible +people' to him, and went the way of the others. "I shan't see her, after +all," he cried hoarsely, and mounting, said to the beast that bore him, +"Now go sharp." + +Whether you recognize the rider of Hippogriff or not, this is he; and the +poor livery-stable screw stretched madly till wind failed, when he was +allowed to choose his pace. Wilfrid had come from London to have sight +of Emilia in the black-briony wreath: to see her, himself unseen, and go. +But he had not seen her; so he had the full excuse to continue the +adventure. He rode into a Welsh town, and engaged a fresh horse for the +night. + +"She won't sing, at all events," thought Wilfrid, to comfort himself, +before the memory that she could not, in any case, touched springs of +weakness and pitying tenderness. From an eminence to which he walked +outside the town, Penarvon was plainly visible with all its lighted +windows. + +"But I will pluck her from you!" he muttered, in a spasm of jealousy; the +image of himself as an outcast against the world that held her, striking +him with great force at that moment. + +"I must give up the Austrian commission, if she takes me." + +And be what? For he had sold out of the English service, and was to +receive the money in a couple of days. How long would the money support +him? It would not pay half his debts! What, then, did this pursuit of +Emilia mean? To blink this question, he had to give the spur to +Hippogriff. It meant (upon Hippogriff at a brisk gallop), that he +intended to live for her, die for her, if need be, and carve out of the +world all that she would require. Everything appears possible, on +Hippogriff, when he is going; but it is a bad business to put the spur on +so willing a beast. When he does not go of his own will;--when he sees +that there are obstructions, it is best to jump off his back. And we +should abandon him then, save that having once tasted what he can do for +us, we become enamoured of the habit of going keenly, and defying +obstacles. Thus do we begin to corrupt the uses of the gallant beast +(for he is a gallant beast, though not of the first order); we spoil his +instincts and train him to hurry us to perdition. + +"If my sisters could see me now!" thought Wilfrid, half-smitten with a +distant notion of a singularity in his position there, the mark for a +frosty breeze, while his eyes kept undeviating watch over Penarvon. + +After a time he went back to the inn, and got among coachmen and footmen, +all battling lustily against the frost with weapons scientifically +selected at the bar. They thronged the passages, and lunged hearty +punches at one another, drank and talked, and only noticed that a +gentleman was in their midst when he moved to get a light. One +complained that he had to drive into Monmouth that night, by a road that +sent him five miles out of his way, owing to a block--a great stone that +had fallen from the hill. "You can't ask 'em to get out and walk ten +steps," he said; "or there! I'd lead the horses and just tip up the off +wheels, and round the place in a twinkle, pop 'm in again, and nobody +hurt; but you can't ask ladies to risk catchin' colds for the sake of the +poor horses." + +Several coachmen spoke upon this, and the shame and marvel it was that +the stone had not been moved; and between them the name of Mr. Powys was +mentioned, with the remark that he would spare his beasts if he could. + +"What's that block you're speaking of, just out of Monmouth?" enquired +Wilfrid; and it being described to him, together with the exact bearings +of the road and situation of the mass of stone, he at once repeated a +part of what he had heard in the form of the emphatic interrogation, +"What! there?" and flatly told the coachman that the stone had been +moved. + +"It wasn't moved this morning, then, sir," said the latter. + +"No; but a great deal can be done in a couple of hours," said Wilfrid. + +"Did you see 'em at work, sir?" + +"No; but I came that way, and the road was clear." + +"The deuce it was!" ejaculated the coachman, willingly convinced. + +"And that's the way I shall return," added Wilfrid. + +He tossed some money on the bar to aid in warming the assemblage, and +received numerous salutes as he passed out. His heart was beating fast. +"I shall see her, in the teeth of my curst luck," he thought, picturing +to himself the blessed spot where the mass of stone would lie; and to +that point he galloped, concentrating all the light in his mind on this +maddest of chances, till it looked sound, and finally certain. + +"It's certain, if that's not a hired coachman," he calculated. "If he +is, he won't risk his fee. If he isn't, he'll feel on the safe side +anyhow. At any rate, it's my only chance." And away he flew between +glimmering slopes of frost to where a white curtain of mist hung across +the wooded hills of the Wye. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +Emilia was in skilful hands, and against anything less powerful than a +lover mounted upon Hippogriff, might have been shielded. What is poison +to most girls, Merthyr prescribed for her as medicine. He nourished her +fainting spirit upon vanity. In silent astonishment Georgiana heard him +address speeches to her such as dowagers who have seen their day can +alone of womankind complacently swallow. He encouraged Tracy +Runningbrook to praise the face of which she had hitherto thought shyly. +Jewels were placed at her disposal, and dresses laid out cunningly suited +to her complexion. She had a maid to wait on her, who gabbled at the +momentous hours of robing and unrobing: "Oh, miss! of all the dark young +ladies I ever see!"--Emilia was the most bewitching. By-and-by, Emilia +was led to think of herself; but with a struggle and under protest. How +could it be possible that she was so very nice to the eye, and Wilfrid +had abandoned her? The healthy spin of young new blood turned the wheels +of her brain, and then she thought: "Perhaps I am really growing +handsome?" The maid said artfully of her hair: "If gentlemen could only +see it down, miss! It's the longest, and thickest, and blackest, I ever +touched!" And so saying, slid her fingers softly through it after the +comb, and thrilled the owner of that hair till soft thoughts made her +bosom heave, and then self-love began to be sensibly awakened, followed +by self-pity, and some further form of what we understand as +consciousness. If partially a degradation of her nature, this saved her +mind from true despair when it began to stir after the vital shock that +had brought her to earth. "To what purpose should I be fair?" was a +question that did not yet come to her; but it was sweet to see Merthyr's +eyes gather pleasure from the light of her own. Sweet, though nothing +more than coldly sweet. She compared herself to her father's old broken +violin, that might be mended to please the sight; but would never give +the tones again. Sometimes, if hope tormented her, she would strangle it +by trying her voice: and such a little piece of self-inflicted anguish +speedily undid all Merthyr's work. He was patient as one who tends a +flower in the Spring. Georgiana marvelled that the most sensitive and +proud of men should be striving to uproot an image from the heart of a +simple girl, that he might place his own there. His methods almost led +her to think that his estimate of human nature was falling low. +Nevertheless, she was constrained to admit that there was no diminution +of his love for her, and it chastened her to think so. "Would it be the +same with me, if I--?" she half framed the sentence, blushing +remorsefully while she denied that anything could change her great love +for her brother. She had caught a glimpse of Wilfrid's suppleness and +selfishness. Contrasting him with Merthyr, she was singularly smitten +with shame, she knew not why. + +The anticipation of the ball at Penarvon Castle had kindled very little +curiosity in Emilia's bosom. She seemed to herself a machine; "one of +the rest;" and looked more to see that she was still coveted by Merthyr's +eyes than at the glitter of the humming saloons. A touch of her old +gladness made her smile when Captain Gambier unexpectedly appeared and +walked across the dancers to sit beside her. She asked him why he had +come from London: to which he replied, with a most expressive gaze under +her eyelids, that he had come for one object. "To see me?" thought +Emilia, wondering, and reddening as she ceased to wonder. She had +thought as a child, and the neat instant felt as a woman. He finished +Merthyr's work for him. Emilia now thought: "Then I must be worth +something." And with "I am," she ended her meditation, glowing. He +might have said that she had all beauty ever showered upon woman: she +would have been led to believe him at that moment of her revival. + +Now, Lady Charlotte had written to Georgiana, telling her that Captain +Gambier was soon to be expected in her neighbourhood, and adding that it +would be as well if she looked closely after her charge. When Georgiana +saw him go over to Emilia she did not remember this warning: but when she +perceived the sudden brilliancy and softness in Emilia's face after the +first words had fallen on her ears, she grew alarmed, knowing his +reputation, and executed some diversions, which separated them. The +captain made no effort to perplex her tactics, merely saying that he +should call in a day or two. Merthyr took to himself all the credit of +the visible bloom that had come upon Emilia, and pacing with her between +the dances, said: "Now you will come to Italy, I think." + +She paused before answering, "Now?" and feverishly continued: "Yes; at +once. I will go. I have almost felt my voice again to-night." + +"That's well. I shall write to Marini to-morrow. You will soon find +your voice if you will not fret for it. Touch Italy!" + +"Yes; but you must be near me," said Emilia. + +Georgiana heard this, and could not conceive other than that Emilia was +growing to be one of those cormorant creatures who feed alike on the +homage of noble and ignoble. She was critical, too, of that very assured +pose of Emilia's head and firm planting of her feet as the girl paraded +the room after the dances in which she could not join. Previous to this +evening, Georgiana had seen nothing of the sort in her; but, on the +contrary, a doubtful droop of the shoulders and an unwilling gaze, as of +a soul submerged in internal hesitations. "I earnestly trust that this +is a romantic folly of Merthyr's, and no more," thought Georgiana, who +would have had that view concerning his love for Italy likewise, if +recollection of her own share of adventure there had not softly +interposed. + +Tracy, Georgiana, Merthyr, and Emilia were in the carriage, well muffled +up, with one window open to the white mist. Emilia was eager to thank +her friend, if only for the physical relief from weariness and +sluggishness which she was experiencing. She knew certainly that the dim +light of a recovering confidence in herself was owing, all, to him, and +burned to thank him. Once on the way their hands touched, and he felt a +shy pressure from her fingers as they parted. Presently the carriage +stopped abruptly, and listening they heard the coachman indulge his +companion outside with the remark that they were a couple of fools, and +were now regularly 'dished.' + +"I don't see why that observation can't go on wheels," said Tracy. + +Merthyr put out his head, and saw the obstruction of the mass of stone +across the road. He alighted, and together with the footman, examined +the place to see what the chance was of their getting the carriage past. +After a space of waiting, Georgiana clutched the wraps about her throat +and head, and impetuously followed her brother, as her habit had always +been. Emilia sat upright, saying, "I must go too." Tracy moaned a +petition to her to rest and be comfortable while the Gods were +propitious. He checked her with his arm, and tried to pacify her by +giving a description of the scene. The coachman remained on his seat. +Merthyr, Georgiana, and the footman were on the other side of the rock, +measuring the place to see whether, by a partial ascent of the sloping +rubble down which it had bowled, the carriage might be got along. + +"Go; they have gone round; see whether we can give any help," said Emilia +to Tracy, who cried: "My goodness! what help can we give? This is an +express situation where the Fates always appear in person and move us on. +We're sure to be moved, if we show proper faith in them. This is my +attitude of invocation." He curled his legs up on the seat, resting his +head on an arm; but seeing Emilia preparing for a jump he started up, and +immediately preceded her. Emilia looked out after him. She perceived a +figure coming stealthily from the bank. It stopped, and again advanced, +and now ran swiftly down. She drew back her head as it approached the +open door of the carriage; but the next moment trembled forward, and was +caught with a cat-like clutch upon Wilfrid's breast. + +"Emilia! my own for ever! I swore to die this night it I did not see +you!" + +"You love me, Wilfrid? love me?" + +"Come with me now!" + +"Now?" + +"Away! with me! your lover!" + +"Then you love me! + +"I love you! Come!" + +"Now? I cannot move." + +"I am out in the night without you." + +"Oh, my lover! Oh, Wilfrid!" + +"Come to me!" + +"My feet are dead!" + +"It's too late!" + +A sturdy hulloa! sounding from the coachman made Merthyr's ears alive. +When he returned he found Emilia huddled up on the seat, alone, her face +in her hands, and the touch of her hands like fire. He had to entreat +her to descend, and in helping her to alight bore her whole weight, and +supported her in a sad wonder, while the horses were led across the +rubble, and the carriage was with difficulty, and some confusions, guided +to clear its wheels of the obstructing mass. Emilia persisted in saying +that nothing ailed her; and to the coachman, who could have told him +something, and was willing to have done so (notwithstanding a gold fee +for silence that stuck in his palm), Merthyr put no question. + +As they were taking their seats in the carriage again, Georgiana said, +"Where is your wreath, Sandra?" + +The black-briony wreath was no longer on her head. + +"Then, it wasn't a dream!" gasped Emilia, feeling at her temples. + +Georgiana at once fell into a scrutinizing coldness, and when Merthyr, +who fancied the wreath might have fallen as he was lifting Emilia from +the carriage, proposed to go and search the place for it, his sister laid +her fingers on his arm, remarking, "You will not find it, dear;" and +Emilia cried "Oh! no, no! it is not there;" and, with her hands pressed +hard against her bosom, sat fixed and silent. + +Out of this mood she issued with looks of such tenderness that one who +watched her, speculating on her character as Merthyr did, could see that +in some mysterious way she had been, during the few minutes that +separated them, illumined upon the matter nearest her heart. Was it her +own strength, inspired by some sublime force, that had sprung up suddenly +to eject a worthless love? So he hoped in despite of whispering reason, +till Georgiana spoke to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +When the force of Wilfrid's embrace had died out from her body, Emilia +conceived wilfully that she had seen an apparition, so strange, sudden, +and wild had been his coming and going: but her whole body was a song to +her. "He is not false: he is true." So dimly, however, was the 'he' now +fashioned in her brain, and so like a thing of the air had he descended +on her, that she almost conceived the abstract idea, 'Love is true,' and +possibly, though her senses did not touch on it to shape it, she had the +reflection in her: "After all, power is mine to bring him to my side." +Almost it seemed to her that she had brought him from the grave. She sat +hugging herself in the carriage, hating to hear words, and seeing a ball +of fire away in the white mist. Georgiana looked at her no more; and +when Tracy remarked that he had fancied having seen a fellow running up +the bank, she said quietly, "Did you?" + +"Robert must have seen him, too," added Merthyr, and so the interloper +was dismissed. + +On reaching home, no sooner were they in the hall than Emilia called for +her bedroom candle in a thin, querulous voice that made Tracy shout with +laughter and love of her quaintness. + +Emilia gave him her hand, and held up her mouth to kiss Georgiana, but no +cheek was bent forward for the salute. The girl passed from among them, +and then Merthyr said to his sister: "What is the matter?" + +"Surely, Merthyr, you should not be at a loss," she answered, in a +somewhat unusual tone, that was half irony. + +Merthyr studied her face. Alone with her, he said: "I could almost +suppose that she has seen this man." + +Georgiana smiled sadly. "I have not seen him, dear; and she has not told +me so." + +"You think it was so?" + +"I can imagine it just possible." + +"What! while we were out and had left her! He must be mad!" + +"Not necessarily mad, unless to be without principle is to be mad." + +"Mad, or graduating for a Spanish comedie d'intrigue," said Merthyr. +"What on earth can he mean by it? If he must see her, let him come here. +But to dog a carriage at midnight, and to prefer to act startling +surprises!--one can't help thinking that he delights in being a stage- +hero." + +Georgiana's: "If he looks on her as a stage-heroine?" was unheeded, and +he pursued: "She must leave England at once," and stated certain +arrangements that were immediately to be made. + +"You will not give up this task you have imposed on yourself?" she said. + +"To do what?" + +She could have answered: "To make this unsatisfactory creature love you;" +but her words were, "To civilize this little savage." + +Merthyr was bright in a moment: "I don't give up till I see failure." + +"Is it not possible, dear, to be dangerously blind?" urged Georgiana. + +"Keep to the particular case," he returned; "and don't tempt me into your +woman's snare of a generalization. It's possible, of course, to be one- +ideaed and obstinate. But I have not yet seen your savage guilty of a +deceit. Her heart has been stirred, and her heart, as you may judge, has +force enough to be constant, though none can deny that it has been +roughly proved." + +"For which you like her better?" said Georgiana, herself brightening. + +"For which I like her better," he replied, and smiled, perfectly armed. + +"Oh! is it because I am a woman that I do not understand this sort of +friendship?" cried Georgiana. "And from you, Merthyr, to a girl such as +she is! Me she satisfies less and less. You speak of force of heart, as +if it were manifested in an abandonment of personal will." + +"No, my darling, but in the strong conception of a passion." + +"Yes; if she had discriminated, and fixed upon a worthy object!" + +"That," rejoined Merthyr, "is akin to the doctrine of justification by +success." + +"You seek to foil me with sophisms," said Georgiana, warming. "A woman-- +even a girl--should remember what is due to herself. You are attracted +by a passionate nature--I mean, men are." + +"The general instance," assented Merthyr. + +"Then, do you never reflect," pursued Georgiana, "on the composition and +the elements of that sort of nature? I have tried to think the best of +it. It seems to me still no, not contemptible at all--but selfishness is +the groundwork of it; a brilliant selfishness, I admit. I see that it +shows its best feature, but is it the nobler for that? I think, and I +must think, that excellence is a point to be reached only by +unselfishness, and that usefulness is the test of excellence." + +"Before there has been any trial of her?" asked Merthyr. "Have you not +been a little too eager to put the test to her?" + +Georgiana reluctantly consented to have her argument attached to a single +person. "She is not a child, Merthyr." + +"Ay; but she should bethought one." + +"I confess I am utterly at sea," Georgiana sighed. "Will you at least +allow that sordid selfishness does less mischief than this 'passion' you +admire so much?" + +"I will allow that she may do herself more mischief than if she had the +opposite vice of avarice--anything you will, of that complexion." + +"And why should she be regarded as a child?" asked Georgiana piteously. + +"Because, if she has outnumbered the years of a child, she is no further +advanced than a child, owing to what she has to get rid of. She is +overburdened with sensations that set her head on fire. Her solid, firm, +and gentle heart keeps her balanced, so long as there is no one playing +on it. That a fool should be doing so, is scarcely her fault." + +Georgiana murmured to herself, "He is not a fool." She said, "I do see a +certain truth in what you say, dear Merthyr. But I have been +disappointed in her. I have taken her among my poor. She listens to +their tales, without sympathy. I took her into a sick-room. She stood +by a dying bed like a statue. Her remark when we came into the air was, +'Death seems easy, if it were not so stifling!' Herself always! herself +the centre of what she sees and feels! And again, she has no active +desire to do good to any mortal thing. A passive wish that everybody +should be happy, I know she has. Few have not. She would give money if +she had it. But this is among the mysteries of Providence to me, that +one no indifferent to others should be gifted with so inexplicable a +power of attraction." + +Merthyr put this case to her: "Suppose you saw any of the poor souls you +wait on lying sick with fever, would it be just to describe the character +of one so situated as fretful, ungrateful, of rambling tongue, poor in +health, and generally of loose condition of mind?" + +"There, again, is that foreign doctrine which exults in the meanest +triumphs by getting the thesis granted that we are animal--only animals!" +Georgiana burst out. You argue that at this season and at that season +she is helpless. If she is a human creature, must she not have a mind to +cover those conditions?" + +"And a mind," Merthyr took her up, "specially experienced, armed, and +alert to be a safeguard to her at the most critical period of her life! +Oh, yes! Whether she 'must' have it is one thing; but no one can content +the value of such a jewel to any young person." + +Georgiana stood silenced; and knew later that she had been silenced by a +fallacy. For, is youth the most critical period of life? Neither +brother nor sister, however, were talking absolutely for the argument. +Beneath this dialogue, the current in her mind pressed to elicit some +avowal of his personal feeling for the girl, toward whom Georgiana's +disposition was kindlier than her words might lead one to think. He, on +the other hand, talked with the distinct object of disguising his +feelings under a tone of moderate friendship for Emilia, that was capable +of excusing her. A sensitive man of thirty odd years does not loudly +proclaim his appreciation of a girl under twenty: moreover, Merthyr +wished to spare his sister. + +He thought of questioning Robert, the coachman, whether anyone had +visited the carriage during his five minutes' absence from it: but +Merthyr's peculiar Welsh delicacy kept him from doing that, hard as it +was to remain in doubt and endure the little poisoned shafts of a +suspicion. + +In the morning there was a letter from Marini on the breakfast-table. +Merthyr glanced down the contents. His countenance flashed with a +marvellous light. "Where is she?" he said, looking keenly for Emilia. + +Emilia came in from the garden. + +"Now, my Sandra!" cried Merthyr, waving the letter to her; "can you pack +up, to start in an hour? There's work coming on for us, and I shall be a +boy again, and not the drumstick I am in this country. I have a letter +from Marini. All Lombardy is prepared to rise, and this time the +business will be done. Marini is off for Genoa. Under the orange-trees, +my Sandra! and looking on the bay, singing of Italy free!" + +Emilia fell back a step, eyeing him with a grave expression of wonder, as +if she beheld another being from the one she had hitherto known. The +calm Englishman had given place to a volcanic spirit. + +"Isn't that the sketch we made?" he resumed. "The plot's perfect. I +detest conspiracies, but we must use what weapons we can, and be Old +Mole, if they trample us in the earth. Once up, we have Turin to back +us. This I know. We shall have nothing but the Tedeschi to manage: and +if they beat us in cavalry, it's certain that they can't rely on their +light horse. The Magyars would break in a charge. We know that they +will. As for the rest:-- + + 'Soldati settentrionali, + Come sarebbe Boemi a Croati,' + +we area match for them! Artillery we shall get. The Piedmontese are mad +for the signal. Come; sit and eat. The air seems dead down in this +quiet country; we're out of the stream. I must rush up to London to +breathe and then we won't lose a moment. We shall be in Italy in four +days. Four days, my Sandra! And Italy going to be free; Georgey, I'm +fasting. And you will see all your old friends. All? Good God! No!-- +not all! Their blood shall nerve us. The Austrian thinks he wastes us +by slaughter. With every dead man he doubles the life of the living! Am +I talking like a foreigner, Sandra mia? My child, you don't eat! And I, +who dreamed last night that I looked out over Novara from the height of +the Col di Colma, and saw the plain under a red shadow from a huge +eagle!" + +Merthyr laughed, swinging round his arm. Emilia continued staring at him +as at a man transformed, while Georgiana asked: "May Marini's letter be +seen?" Her visage had become firm and set in proportion as her brother's +excitement increased. + +"Eat, my Sandra! eat!" called Merthyr, who was himself eating with a +campaigning appetite. + +Georgiana laid down the letter folded under Merthyr's fingers, keeping +her hand on it till he grew alive to her meaning, that it should be put +away. + +"Marini is vague about artillery," she murmured. + +"Vague!" echoed Merthyr. "Say prudent. If he said we could lay hands on +fifty pieces, then distrust him!" + +"God grant that this be not another pit for further fruitless bloodshed!" +was the interjection standing in Georgiana's eyes, and then she dropped +them pensively, while Merthyr recounted the patient schemes that had led +to this hour, the unuttered anxieties and the bursting hopes. + +Still Emilia kept her distressfully unenthusiastic looks turned from one +to the other, though her Italy was the theme. She did not eat, but had +dropped one hand flat on her plate, looking almost idiotic. She heard of +Italy as of a distant place, known to her in ancient years. Merthyr's +transformation, too, helped some form of illusion in her brain that she +was cut off from any kindred feeling with other people. + +As soon as he had finished, Merthyr jumped up; and coming round to +Emilia, touched her shoulder affectionately, saying: "Now! There won't +be much packing to do. We shall be in London to-night in time for your +mother to pass the evening with you." + +Emilia rose straightway, and her eyes fell vacantly on Georgiana for +help, as far as they could express anything. + +Georgiana gave no response, save a look well nigh as vacant in the +interchange. + +"But you haven't eaten at all!" said Merthyr. + +Emilia shook her head. "No." + +"Eat, my Sandra! to please me! You will need all your strength if you +would be a match for Georgey anywhere where there's action." + +"Yes!" Emilia traversed his words with a sudden outcry. "Yes, I will go +to London. I am ready to go to London now." + +It was clear that a new light had fallen on her intelligence. + +Merthyr was satisfied to see her sit down to the table, and he at once +went out to issue directions for the first step in the new and momentous +expedition. + +Emilia put the bread to her mouth, and crumbled it on a dry lip: but it +was evident to Georgiana, hostile witness as she was, that Emilia's mind +was gradually warming to what Merthyr had said, and that a picture was +passing before the girl. She perceived also a thing that no misery of +her own had yet drawn from Emilia. It was a tear that fell heavily on +the back of her hand. Soon the tears came in quick succession, while the +girl tried to eat, and bit at salted morsels. It was a strange sight for +Georgiana, this statuesque weeping, that got human bit by bit, till the +bosom heaved long sobs: and yet no turn of the head for sympathy; nothing +but passionless shedding of big tear-drops! + +She went to the girl, and put her hand upon her; kissed her, and then +said: "We have no time to lose. My brother never delays when he has come +to a resolve." + +Emilia tried to articulate: "I am ready." + +"But you have not eaten!" + +Emilia made a mechanical effort to eat. + +"Remember," said Georgiana, "we have a long distance to go. You will +want your strength. You would not be a burden to him? Eat, while I get +your things ready." And Georgiana left her, secretly elated to feel that +in this expedition it was she, and she alone, who was Merthyr's mate. +What storm it was, and what conflict, agitated the girl and stupefied +her, she cared not to guess, now that she had the suitable designation, +'savage,' confirmed in all her acts, to apply to her. + +When Tracy Runningbrook came down at his ordinary hour of noon to +breakfast, he found a twisted note from Georgiana, telling him that +important matters had summoned Merthyr to London, and that they were all +to be seen at Lady Gosstre's town-house. + +"I believe, by Jove! Powys manoeuvres to get her away from me," he +shouted, and sat down to his breakfast and his book with a comforted +mind. It was not Georgiana to whom he alluded; but the appearance of +Captain Gambier, and the pronounced discomposure visible in the handsome +face of the captain on his hearing of the departure, led Tracy to think +that Georgiana's was properly deplored by another, though that other was +said to be engaged. 'On revient toujours,' he hummed. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII + +Three days passed as a running dream to Emilia. During that period she +might have been hurried off to Italy without uttering a remonstrance. +Merthyr's spirited talk of the country she called her own; of its heroic +youth banded to rise, and sworn to liberate it or die; of good historic +names borne by men, his comrades, in old campaigning adventures; and +stories and incidents of those past days--all given with his changed +face, and changed ringing voice, almost moved her to plunge forgetfully +into this new tumultuous stream while the picture of the beloved land, +lying shrouded beneath the perilous star it was about to follow grew in +her mind. + +"Shall I go with the Army?" she asked Georgiana. + +"No, my child; you will simply go to school," was the cold reply. + +"To school!" Emilia throbbed, "while they are fighting!" + +"To the Academy. My brother's first thought is to further your progress +in Art. When your artistic education is complete, you will choose your +own course." + +"He knows, he knows that I have no voice!" Emilia struck her lap with +twisted fingers. "My voice is thick in my throat. If I am not to march +with him, I can't go; I will not go. I want to see the fight. You have. +Why should I keep away? Could I run up notes, even if I had any voice, +while he is in the cannon-smoke?" + +"While he is in the cannon-smoke!" Georgiana revolved the line +thoughtfully. "You are aware that my brother looks forward to the +recovery of your voice," she said. + +"My voice is like a dead serpent in my throat," rejoined Emilia. "My +voice! I have forgotten music. I lived for that, once; now I live for +nothing, only to take my chance everywhere with my friend. I want to +smell powder. My father says it is like salt, the taste of blood, and is +like wine when you smell it. I have heard him shout for it. I will go +to Italy, if I may go where my friend Merthyr goes; but nothing can keep +me shut up now. My head's a wilderness when I'm in houses. I can +scarcely bear to hear this London noise, without going out and walking +till I drop." + +Coming to a knot in her meditation, Georgiana concluded that Emilia's +heart was warming to Merthyr. She was speedily doubtful again. + +These two delicate Welsh natures, as exacting as they were delicate, were +little pleased with Emilia's silence concerning her intercourse with +Wilfrid. Merthyr, who had expressed in her defence what could be said +for her, was unwittingly cherishing what could be thought in her +disfavour. Neither of them hit on the true cause, which lay in +Georgiana's coldness to her. One little pressure of her hand, carelessly +given, made Merthyr better aware of the nature he was dealing with. He +was telling her that a further delay might keep them in London for a +week; and that he had sent for her mother to come to her. + +"I must see my mother," she had said, excitedly. The extension of the +period named for quitting England made it more imminent m her imagination +than when it was a matter of hours. "I must see her." + +"I have sent for her," said Merthyr, and then pressed Emilia's hand. But +she who, without having brooded on complaints of its absence, thirsted +for demonstrative kindness, clung to the hand, drawing it, doubled, +against her chin. + +"That is not the reason," she said, raising her full eyes up at him over +the unrelinquished hand. "I love the poor Madre; let her come; but I +have no heart for her just now. I have seen Wilfrid." + +She took a tighter hold of his fingers, as fearing he might shrink from +her. Merthyr hated mysteries, so he said, "I supposed it must have been +so--that night of our return from Penarvon?" + +"Yes," she murmured, while she read his face for a shadow of a repulsion; +"and, my friend, I cannot go to Italy now!" + +Merthyr immediately drew a seat beside her. He perceived that there +would be no access to her reason, even as he was on the point of +addressing it. + +"Then all my care and trouble are to be thrown away?" he said, taking the +short road to her feelings. + +She put the hand that was disengaged softly on his shoulder. "No; not +thrown away. Let me be what Merthyr wishes me to be! That is my chief +prayer." + +"Why, then, will you not do what Merthyr wishes you to do?" + +Emilia's eyelids shut, while her face still fronted him. + +"Oh! I will speak all out to you," she cried. "Merthyr, my friend, he +came to kiss me once, before I have only just understood it! He is going +to Austria. He came to touch me for the last time before his hand is red +with my blood. Stop him from going! I am ready to follow you:--I can +hear of his marrying that woman:--Oh! I cannot live and think of him in +that Austrian white coat. Poor thing!--my dear! my dear!" And she +turned away her head. + +It is not unnatural that Merthyr hearing these soft epithets, should +disbelieve in the implied self-conquest of her preceding words. He had +no clue to make him guess that these were simply old exclamations of hers +brought to her lips by the sorrowful contrast in her mind. + +"It will be better that you should see him," he said, with less of his +natural sincerity; so soon are we corrupted by any suspicion that our +egoism prompts. + +"Here?" And she hung close to him, open-lipped, open-eyed, open-eared, +as if (Georgiana would think it, thought Merthyr) her savage senses had +laid the trap for this proposal, and now sprung up keen for their prey. +"Here, Merthyr? Yes! let me see him. You will! Let me see him, for he +cannot resist me. He tries. He thinks he does: but he cannot. I can +stretch out my finger--I can put it on the day when, if he has galloped +one way he will gallop another. Let him come." + +She held up both her hands in petition, half dropping her eyelids, with a +shadowy beauty. + +In Merthyr's present view, the idea of Wilfrid being in ranks opposed to +him was so little provocative of intense dissatisfaction, that it was out +of his power to believe that Emilia craved to see him simply to dissuade +the man from the obnoxious step. "Ah, well! See him; see him, if you +must," he said. "Arrange it with my sister." + +He quitted the room, shrinking from the sound of her thanks, and still +more from the consciousness of his torment. + +The business that detained him was to get money for Marini. Georgiana +placed her fortune at his disposal a second time. There was his own, +which he deemed it no excess of chivalry to fling into the gulf. The two +sat together, arranging what property should be sold, and how they would +share the sacrifice in common. Georgiana pressed him to dispose of a +little estate belonging to her, that money might immediately be raised. +They talked as they sat over the fire toward the dusk of the winter +evening. + +"You would not have refused me once, Merthyr!" + +"When you were a child, and I hardly better than a boy. Now it's +different. Let mine go first, Georgey. You may have a husband, who will +not look on these things as we do." + +"How can I love a husband!" was all she said; and Merthyr took her in his +arms. His gaiety had gone. + +"We can't go dancing into a pit of this sort," he sighed, partly to +baffle the scrutiny he apprehended in her silence. "The garrison at +Milan is doubled, and I hear they are marching troops through Tyrol. +Some alerte has been given, and probably some traitors exist. One +wouldn't like to be shot like a dog! You haven't forgotten poor Tarani? +I heard yesterday of the girl who calls herself his widow." + +"They were betrothed, and she is!" exclaimed Georgiana. + +"Well, there's a case of a man who had two loves--a woman and his +country; and both true to him!" + +"And is he so singular, Merthyr?" + +"No, my best! my sweetest! my heart's rest! no!" + +They exchanged tender smiles. + +"Tarani's bride--beloved! you can listen to such matters--she has +undertaken her task. Who imposed it? I confess I faint at the thought +of things so sad and shameful. But I dare not sit in judgement on a +people suffering as they are. Outrage upon outrage they have endured, +and that deadens--or rather makes their heroism unscrupulous. Tarani's +bride is one of the few fair girls of Italy. We have a lock of her hair. +She shore it close the morning her lover was shot, and wore the thin +white skull-cap you remember, until it was whispered to her that her +beauty must serve." + +"I have the lock now in my desk," said Georgiana, beginning to tremble. +"Do you wish to look at it?" + +"Yes; fetch it, my darling." + +He sat eyeing the firelight till she returned, and then taking the long +golden lock in his handy he squeezed it, full of bitter memories and +sorrowfulness. + +"Giulietta?" breathed his sister. + +"I would put my life on the truth of that woman's love. Well!" + +"Yes?" + +"She abandons herself to the commandant of the citadel." + +A low outcry burst from Georgiana. She fell at Merthyr's knees sobbing +violently. He let her sob. In the end she struggled to speak. + +"Oh! can it be permitted? Oh! can we not save her? Oh, poor soul! my +sister! Is she blind to her lover in heaven?" + +Georgiana's face was dyed with shame. + +"We must put these things by," said Merthyr. "Go to Emilia presently, +and tell her--settle with her as you think fitting, how she shall see +this Wilfrid Pole. I have promised her she shall have her wish." + +Coloured by the emotion she was burning from, these words smote Georgiana +with a mournful compassion for Merthyr. + +He had risen, and by that she knew that nothing could be said to alter +his will. + +A sentimental pair likewise, if you please; but these were +sentimentalists who served an active deity; and not that arbitrary +protection of a subtle selfishness which rules the fairer portion of our +fat England. + + + +CHAPTER XLIX + + +"My brother tells me it is your wish to see Mr. Wilfrid Pole." + +Emilia's "Yes" came faintly in answer to Georgiana's cold accents. + +"Have you considered what you are doing in expressing such a desire?" + +Another "Yes" was heard from under an uplifted head:--a culprit +affirmative, whereat the just take fire. + +"Be honest, Emilia. Seek counsel and guidance to-night, as you have done +before with me, and profited, I think. If I write to bid him come, what +will it mean?" + +"Nothing more," breathed Emilia. + +"To him--for in his way he seems to care for you fitfully--it will mean-- +stop! hear me. The words you speak will have no part of the meaning, +even if you restrain your tongue. To him it will imply that his power +over you is unaltered. I suppose that the task of making you perceive +the effect it really will have on you is hopeless." + +"I have seen him, and I know," said Emilia, in a corresponding tone. + +"You saw him that night of our return from Penarvon? Judge of him by +that. He would not spare you. To gratify I know not what wildness in +his nature, he did not hesitate to open your old wound. And to what +purpose? A freak of passion!" + +"He could not help it. I told him he would come, and he came." + +"This, possibly, you call love; do you not?" + +Emilia was about to utter a plain affirmative, but it was checked. The +novelty of the idea of its not being love arrested her imagination. + +"If he comes to you here," resumed Georgiana-- + +"He must come!" cried Emilia. + +"My brother has sanctioned it, so his coming or not will rest with him. +If he comes, let me know the good that you think will result from an +interview? Ah! you have not weighed that question. Do so;--or you give +no heed to it? In any ease, try to look into your own breast. You were +not born to live unworthily. You can be, or will be, if you follow your +better star, self-denying and noble. Do you not love your country? +Judge of this love by that. Your love, if you have this power over him, +is merely a madness to him; and his--what has it done for you? If he +comes, and this begins again, there will be a similar if not the same +destiny for you." + +Emilia panted in her reply. "No; it will not begin again." She threw +out both arms, shaking her head. "It cannot, I know. What am I now? It +is what I was that he loves. He will not know what I am till he sees me. +And I know that I have done things that he cannot forgive. You have +forgiven it, and Merthyr, because he is my friend; but I am sure Wilfrid +will not. He might pardon the poor 'me,' but not his Emilia! I shall +have to tell him what I did; so" (and she came closer to Georgiana) +"there is some pain for me in seeing him." + +Georgiana was not proof against this simplicity of speech, backed by a +little dying dimple, which seemed a continuation of the plain sadness of +Emilia's tone. + +She said, "My poor child!" almost fondly, and then Emilia looked in her +face, murmuring, "You sometimes doubt me." + +"Not your truth, but the accuracy of your perceptions and your knowledge +of your real designs. You are certainly deceiving yourself at this +instant. In the first place, the relation of that madness--no, poor +child, not wickedness--but if you tell it to him, it is a wilful and +unnecessary self-abasement. If he is to be your husband, unburden your +heart at once. Otherwise, why? why? You are but working up a scene, +provoking needless excesses: you are storing misery in retrospect, or +wretchedness to be endured. Had you the habit of prayer! By degrees it +will give you the thirst for purity, and that makes you a fountain of +prayer, in whom these blind deceits cannot hide." + +Georgiana paused emphatically; as when, by our unrolling out of our +ideas, we have more thoroughly convinced ourselves. + +"You pray to heaven," said Emilia, and then faltered, and blushed. "I +must be loved!" she cried. "Will you not put your arms round me?" + +Georgiana drew her to her bosom, bidding her continue. Emilia lay +whispering under her chin. "You pray, and you wish to be seen as you +are, do you not? You do. Well, if you knew what love is, you would see +it is the same. You wish him to see and know you: you wish to be sure +that he loves nothing but exactly you; it must be yourself. You are +jealous of his loving an idea of you that is not you. You think, 'He +will wake up and find his mistake;' or you think, 'That kiss was not +intended for me; not for me as I am.' Those are tortures!" + +Her discipline had transformed her, when she could utter such sentiments +as these! + +Feeling her shudder, and not knowing how imagination forestalls +experience in passionate blood, Georgiana said, "You speak like one who +has undergone them. But now at least you have thrown off the mask. You +love him still, this man! And with as little strength of will! Do you +not see impiety in the comparison you have made?" + +"Oh! what I see is, that I wish I could say to him, 'Look on me, for I +need not be ashamed--I am like Miss Ford!'" + +The young lady's cheeks took fire, and the clear path of speech becoming +confused in her head she said, "Miss Ford?" + +"Georgiana," said Emilia, and feeling that her friend's cold manner had +melted; "Georgey! my beloved! my darling in Italy, where will we go! I +envy no woman but you who have seen my dear ones fight. You and I, and +Merthyr! Nothing but Austrian shot shall part us." + +"And so we make up a pretty dream!" interjected Georgiana. "The Austrian +shot, I think, will be fired by one who is now in the Austrian service, +or who will soon be." + +"Wilfrid?" Emilia called out. "No; that is what I am going to stop. Why +did I not tell you so at first? But I never know what I say or do when I +am with you, and everything seems chance. I want to see him to prevent +him from doing that. I can." + +"Why should you?" asked Georgiana; and one to whom the faces of the two +had been displayed at that moment would have pronounced them a hostile +couple. + +"Why should I prevent him?" Emilia doled out the question slowly, and +gave herself no further thought of replying to it. + +Apparently Georgiana understood the significance of this odd silence: she +was perhaps touched by it. She said, "You feel that you have a power +over him. You wish to exercise it. Never mind wherefore. If you do--if +you try, and succeed--if, by the aid of this love presupposed to exist, +you win him to what you require of him--do you honestly think the love is +then immediately to be dropped?" + +Emilia meditated. She caught up her voice hastily. "I think so. Yes. +I hope so. I mean it to be." + +"With a noble lover, Emilia. Not with a selfish one. In showing him the +belief you have in your power over him, you betray that he has power over +you. And it is to no object. His family, his position, his prospects-- +all tell you that he cannot marry you if he would. And he is, besides, +engaged--" + +"Let her suffer!" Emilia's eyes flashed. + +"Ah!" and Georgiana thought, "Have I come upon your nature at last?" + +However it might be, Emilia was determined to show it. + +"She took my lover from me, and I say, let her suffer! I would not hurt +her myself--I would not lay my finger on her: but she has eyes like blue +stones, and such a mouth!--I think the Austrian executioner has one like +it. If she suffers, and goes all dark as I did, she will show a better +face. Let her keep my lover. He is not mine, but he was; and she took +him from me. That woman cannot feed on him as I did. I know she has no +hunger for love. He will look at those blue bits of ice, and think of +me. I told him so. Did I not tell him that in Devon? I saw her eyelids +move as fast as I spoke. I think I look on Winter when I see her lips. +Poor, wretched Wilfrid!" + +Emilia half-sobbed this exclamation out. "I don't wish to hurt either of +them," she added, with a smile of such abrupt opposition to her words +that Georgiana was in perplexity. A lady who has assumed the office of +lecturer, will, in such a frame of mind, lecture on, if merely to +vindicate to herself her own preconceptions. Georgiana laid her finger +severely upon Wilfrid's manifest faults; and, in fine, she spoke a great +deal of the common sense that the situation demanded. Nevertheless, +Emilia held to her scheme. But, in the meantime, Georgiana had seen more +clearly into the girl's heart; and she had been won, also, by a natural +gracefulness that she now perceived in her, and which led her to think, +"Is Merthyr again to show me that he never errs in his judgement?" An +unaccountable movement of tenderness to Emilia made her drop a few kisses +on her forehead. Emilia shut her eyes, waiting for more. Then she +looked up, and said, "Have you felt this love for me very long?" at which +the puny flame, scarce visible, sprang up, and warmed to a great heat. + +"My own Emilia! Sandra! listen to me: promise me not to seek this +interview." + +"Will you always love me as much?" Emilia bargained. + +"Yes, yes; I never vary. It is my love for you that begs you." + +Emilia fell into a chair and propped her head behind both hands, tapping +the floor briskly with her feet. Georgiana watched the conflict going +on. To decide it promptly, she said: "And not only shall I love you +thrice as well, but my brother Merthyr, whom you call your friend--he +will--he cannot love you better; but he will feel you to be worthy the +best love he can give. There is a heart, you simple girl! He loves you, +and has never shown any of the pain your conduct has given him. When I +say he loves you, I tell you his one weakness--the only one I have +discovered. And judge whether, he has shown want of self-control while +you were dying for another. Did he attempt to thwart you? No; to +strengthen you; and never once to turn your attention to himself. That +is love. Now, think of what anguish you have made him pass through: and +think whether you have ever witnessed an alteration of kindness in his +face toward you. Even now, when he had the hope that you were cured of +your foolish fruitless affection for a man who merely played with you, +and cannot give up the habit, even now he hides what he feels--" + +So far Emilia let her speak without interruption; but gradually awakening +to the meaning of the words:-- + +"For me?" she cried. + +"Yes; for you." + +"The same sort of love as Wilfrid feels?" + +"By no means the same sort; but the love of man for woman." + +"And he saw me when I was that wretched heap? And he knows everything! +and loves me. He has never kissed me." + +"Does that miserable test--?" Georgiana was asking. + +"Pardon, pardon," said Emilia penitently; "I know that is almost nothing, +now. I am not a child. I spoke from a sudden feeling. For if he loves +me, how--! Oh, Merthyr! what a little creature I seem. I cannot +understand it. I lose a brother. And he was such a certainty to me. +What did he love--what did he love, that night he found me on the pier? +I looked like a creature picked off a mud-bank. I felt like a worm, and +miserably abandoned, I was a shameful sight. Oh! how can I look on +Merthyr's face again?" + +In these interjections Georgiana did not observe the proper humility and +abject gratitude of a young person who had heard that she was selected by +a prince of the earth. A sort of 'Eastern handmaid' prostration, with +joined hands, and, above all things, a closed mouth, the lady desired. +She half regretted the revelation she had made; and to be sure at once +that she had reaped some practical good, she said: "I need scarce ask you +whether you have come to a right decision upon that other question." + +"To see Wilfrid?" said Emilia. She appeared to pause musingly, and then +turned to Georgiana, showing happy features; "Yes: I shall see him. I +must see him. Let him know he is to come immediately." + +"That is your decision." + +"Yes." + +"After what I have told you?" + +"Oh, yes; yes! Write the letter." + +Georgiana chid at an internal wrath that struggled to win her lips. +"Promise me simply that what I have told you of my brother, you will +consider yourself bound to keep secret. You will not speak of it to +others, nor to him." + +Emilia gave the promise, but with the thought; "To him?--will not he +speak of it?" + +"So, then, I am to write this letter?" said Georgiana. + +"Do, do; at once!" Emilia put on her sweetest look to plead for it. + +"Decidedly the wisest of men are fools in this matter," Georgiana's +reflection swam upon her anger. + +"And dearest! my Georgey!" Emilia insisted on being blunt to the outward +indications to which she was commonly so sensitive and reflective; "my +Georgey! let me be alone this evening in my bedroom. The little Madre +comes, and--and I haven't the habit of being respectful to her. And, I +must be alone! Do not send up for me, whoever wishes it." + +Georgiana could not stop her tongue: "Not if Mr. Wilfrid Pole--?" + +"Oh, he! I will see him," said Emilia; and Georgiana went from her +straightway. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Active despair is a passion that must be superseded +But love for a parent is not merely duty +Had Shakespeare's grandmother three Christian names? +Littlenesses of which women are accused +Love discerns unerringly what is and what is not duty +Our partner is our master +Passion, he says, is noble strength on fire +Silence was their only protection to the Nice Feelings +The dismally-lighted city wore a look of Judgement terrible to see +The sentimentalist goes on accumulating images +True love excludes no natural duty + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Sandra Belloni, v6 +by George Meredith + diff --git a/4418.zip b/4418.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..08a13b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/4418.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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