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diff --git a/old/b128w10.txt b/old/b128w10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c839ee2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/b128w10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18664 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook A Strange Story, by E. B. Lytton, Complete +#128 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: A Strange Story, Complete + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7701] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 22, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRANGE STORY, COMPLETE *** + + +This eBook was produced by Andrew Heath +and David Widger, widger@cecomet.net + + + + + +A STRANGE STORY + +by Edward Bulwer Lytton +(Lord Lytton) + + + +PREFACE. + +Of the many illustrious thinkers whom the schools of France have +contributed to the intellectual philosophy of our age, Victor Cousin, +the most accomplished, assigns to Maine de Biran the rank of the most +original. + +In the successive developments of his own mind, Maine de Biran may, +indeed, be said to represent the change that has been silently at work +throughout the general mind of Europe since the close of the last +century. He begins his career of philosopher with blind faith in +Condillac and Materialism. As an intellect severely conscientious in +the pursuit of truth expands amidst the perplexities it revolves, +phenomena which cannot be accounted for by Condillac's sensuous theories +open to his eye. To the first rudimentary life of man, the animal life, +"characterized by impressions, appetites, movements, organic in their +origin and ruled by the Law of Necessity," [1] he is compelled to add, +"the second, or human life, from which Free-will and Self-consciousness +emerge." He thus arrives at the union of mind and matter; but still a +something is wanted,--some key to the marvels which neither of these +conditions of vital being suffices to explain. And at last the +grand self-completing Thinker attains to the Third Life of Man in Man's +Soul. + + "There are not," says this philosopher, towards the close of his last + and loftiest work,--"there are not only two principles opposed to + each other in Man,--there are three. For there are in him three + lives and three orders of faculties. Though all should be in accord + and in harmony between the sensitive and the active faculties + which constitute Man, there would still be a nature superior, a + third life which would not be satisfied; which would make felt + (ferait sentir) the truth that there is another happiness, another + wisdom, another perfection, at once above the greatest human + happiness, above the highest wisdom, or intellectual and moral + perfection of which the human being is susceptible." [2] + +Now, as Philosophy and Romance both take their origin in the Principle of +Wonder, so in the "Strange Story" submitted to the Public it will be +seen that Romance, through the freest exercise of its wildest vagaries, +conducts its bewildered hero towards the same goal to which Philosophy +leads its luminous Student, through far grander portents of Nature, far +higher visions of Supernatural Power, than Fable can yield to Fancy. +That goal is defined in these noble words:-- + + "The relations (rapports) which exist between the elements and the + products of the three lives of Man are the subjects of meditation, + the fairest and finest, but also the most difficult. The Stoic + Philosophy shows us all which can be most elevated in active life; + but it makes abstraction of the animal nature, and absolutely fails + to recognize all which belongs to the life of the spirit. + Its practical morality is beyond the forces of humanity. Christianity + alone embraces the whole Man. It dissimulates none of the sides of + his nature, and avails itself of his miseries and his weakness in + order to conduct him to his end in showing him all the want that he + has of a succor more exalted." [3] + +In the passages thus quoted, I imply one of the objects for which +this tale has been written; and I cite them, with a wish to acknowledge +one of those priceless obligations which writings the lightest and most +fantastic often incur to reasoners the most serious and profound. + +But I here construct a romance which should have, as a romance, +some interest for the general reader. I do not elaborate a treatise +submitted to the logic of sages. And it is only when "in fairy fiction +drest" that Romance gives admission to "truths severe." + +I venture to assume that none will question my privilege to avail +myself of the marvellous agencies which have ever been at the legitimate +command of the fabulist. + +To the highest form of romantic narrative, the Epic, critics, indeed, +have declared that a supernatural machinery is indispensable. That the +Drama has availed itself of the same license as the Epic, it would be +unnecessary to say to the countrymen of Shakspeare, or to the generation +that is yet studying the enigmas of Goethe's "Faust." Prose Romance has +immemorially asserted, no less than the Epic or the Drama, its heritage +in the Realm of the Marvellous. The interest which attaches to the +supernatural is sought in the earliest Prose Romance which modern times +take from the ancient, and which, perhaps, had its origin in the lost +Novels of Miletus; [4] and the right to invoke such interest has, ever +since, been maintained by Romance through all varieties of form and +fancy,--from the majestic epopee of "Telemaque" to the graceful fantasies +of "Undine," or the mighty mockeries of "Gulliver's Travels" down to +such comparatively commonplace elements of wonder as yet preserve +from oblivion "The Castle of Otranto" and "The Old English Baron." + +Now, to my mind, the true reason why a supernatural agency is +indispensable to the conception of the Epic, is that the Epic is the +highest and the completest form in which Art can express either Man or +Nature, and that without some gleams of the supernatural, Man is not +man nor Nature, nature. + +It is said, by a writer to whom an eminent philosophical +critic justly applies the epithets of "pious and profound:" [5] + + "Is it unreasonable to confess that we believe in God, not by reason + of the Nature which conceals Him, but by reason of the Supernatural + in Man which alone reveals and proves Him to exist?... Man reveals + God: for Man, by his intelligence, rises above Nature; and in virtue + of this intelligence is conscious of himself as a power not only + independent of, but opposed to, Nature, and capable of resisting, + conquering, and controlling her."[6] + + +If the meaning involved in the argument, of which I have here made +but scanty extracts, be carefully studied, I think that we shall find +deeper reasons than the critics who dictated canons of taste to the last +century discovered,--why the supernatural is indispensable to the Epic, +and why it is allowable to all works of imagination, in which Art looks +on Nature with Man's inner sense of a something beyond and above her. + +But the Writer who, whether in verse or prose, would avail himself +of such sources of pity or terror as flow from the Marvellous, can +only attain his object in proportion as the wonders he narrates are of a +kind to excite the curiosity of the age he addresses. + +In the brains of our time, the faculty of Causation is very markedly +developed. People nowadays do not delight in the Marvellous according +to the old childlike spirit. They say in one breath, "Very extraordinary!" +and in the next breath ask, "How do you account for it?" If the Author of +this work has presumed to borrow from science some elements of interest for +Romance, he ventures to hope that no thoughtful reader--and certainly no +true son of science--will be disposed to reproach him. In fact, such +illustrations from the masters of Thought were essential to the +completion of the purpose which pervades the work. + +That purpose, I trust, will develop itself in proportion as the story +approaches the close; and whatever may appear violent or melodramatic in +the catastrophe, will, perhaps, be found, by a reader capable +of perceiving the various symbolical meanings conveyed in the story, +essential to the end in which those meanings converge, and towards +which the incidents that give them the character and interest of +of fiction, have been planned and directed from the commencement. + +Of course, according to the most obvious principles of art, the +narrator of a fiction must be as thoroughly in earnest as if he were +the narrator of facts. One could not tell the most extravagant +fairy-tale so as to rouse and sustain the attention of the most +infantine listener, if the tale were told as if the taleteller did not +believe in it. But when the reader lays down this "Strange Story," +perhaps he will detect, through all the haze of romance, the outlines of +these images suggested to his reason: Firstly, the image of sensuous, +soulless Nature, such as the Materialist had conceived it; secondly, the +image of Intellect, obstinately separating all its inquiries from +the belief in the spiritual essence and destiny of man, and incurring all +kinds of perplexity and resorting to all kinds of visionary speculation +before it settles at last into the simple faith which unites the +philosopher and the infant; and thirdly, the image of the erring but +pure-thoughted visionary, seeking over-much on this earth to separate +soul from mind, till innocence itself is led astray by a phantom, and +reason is lost in the space between earth and the stars. Whether in +these pictures there be any truth worth the implying, every reader +must judge for himself; and if he doubt or deny that there be any +such truth, still, in the process of thought which the doubt or +denial enforces, he may chance on a truth which it pleases himself +to discover. + + "Most of the Fables of AEsop,"--thus says Montaigne in his + charming essay "Of Books"[7]--"have several senses and meanings, of + which the Mythologists choose some one that tallies with the fable. + But for the most part 't is only what presents itself at the first + view, and is superficial; there being others more lively, essential, + and internal, into which they had not been able to penetrate; + and"--adds Montaigne--"the case is the very same with me." + +[1] OEuvres inedites de Maine de Biran, vol. i. See introduction. + +[2] OEuvres inedites de Maine de Biran, vol. iii. p. 546 (Anthropologie). + +[3] OEuvres inedites de Maine de Biran, vol. iii. p. 524. + +[4] "The Golden Ass" of Apuleius. + +[5] Sir William Hamilton: Lectures on Metaphysics, p. 40. + +[6] Jacobi: Von der Gottlichen Dingen; Werke, p. 424-426. + +[7] Translation, 1776, Yol. ii. p. 103. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +In the year 18-- I settled as a physician at one of the wealthiest +of our great English towns, which I will designate by the initial L----. +I was yet young, but I had acquired some reputation by a professional +work, which is, I believe, still amongst the received authorities on +the subject of which it treats. I had studied at Edinburgh and at +Paris, and had borne away from both those illustrious schools of medicine +whatever guarantees for future distinction the praise of professors +may concede to the ambition of students. On becoming a member of +the College of Physicians, I made a tour of the principal cities of +Europe, taking letters of introduction to eminent medical men, and +gathering from many theories and modes of treatment hints to enlarge +the foundations of unprejudiced and comprehensive' practice. I had +resolved to fix my ultimate residence in London. But before this +preparatory tour was completed, my resolve was changed by one of +those unexpected events which determine the fate man in vain would work +out for himself. In passing through the Tyro, on my way into the +north of Italy, I found in a small inn, remote from medical attendance, an +English traveller seized with acute inflammation of the lungs, and +in a state of imminent danger. I devoted myself to him night and +day; and, perhaps more through careful nursing than active remedies, I +had the happiness to effect his complete recovery. The traveller +proved to be Julius Faber, a physician of great distinction, contented +to reside, where he was born, in the provincial city of L----, but whose +reputation as a profound and original pathologist was widely spread, and +whose writings had formed no unimportant part of my special studies. It +was during a short holiday excursion, from which he was about to return +with renovated vigour, that he had been thus stricken down. The patient +so accidentally met with became the founder of my professional fortunes. +He conceived a warm attachment for me,--perhaps the more affectionate +because he was a childless bachelor, and the nephew who would succeed +to his wealth evinced no desire to succeed to the toils by which the +wealth had been acquired. Thus, having an heir for the one, he had +long looked about for an heir to the other, and now resolved on finding +that heir in me. So when we parted Dr. Faber made me promise to +correspond with him regularly, and it was not long before he disclosed +by letter the plans he had formed in my favour. He said that he was +growing old; his practice was beyond his strength; he needed a partner; +he was not disposed to put up to sale the health of patients whom he had +learned to regard as his children: money was no object to him, but it was +an object close at his heart that the humanity he had served, and the +reputation he had acquired, should suffer no loss in his choice of +a successor. In fine, he proposed that I should at once come to +L---- as his partner, with the view of succeeding to his entire +practice at the end of two years, when it was his intention to retire. + +The opening into fortune thus afforded to me was one that rarely +presents itself to a young man entering upon an overcrowded profession; +and to an aspirant less allured by the desire of fortune than the hope of +distinction, the fame of the physician who thus generously offered +to me the inestimable benefits of his long experience and his cordial +introduction was in itself an assurance that a metropolitan practice +is not essential to a national renown. + +I went, then, to L----, and before the two years of my partnership +had expired, my success justified my kind friend's selection, and far +more than realized my own expectations. I was fortunate in effecting +some notable cures in the earliest cases submitted to me, and it is +everything in the career of a physician when good luck wins betimes for +him that confidence which patients rarely accord except to lengthened +experience. To the rapid facility with which my way was made, some +circumstances apart from professional skill probably contributed. I was +saved from the suspicion of a medical adventurer by the accidents of +birth and fortune. I belonged to an ancient family (a branch of the +once powerful border-clan of the Fenwicks) that had for many generations +held a fair estate in the neighbourhood of Windermere. As an only +son I had succeeded to that estate on attaining my majority, and had +sold it to pay off the debts which had been made by my father, who had +the costly tastes of an antiquary and collector. The residue on the +sale insured me a modest independence apart from the profits of a +profession; and as I had not been legally bound to defray my father's +debts, so I obtained that character for disinterestedness and integrity +which always in England tends to propitiate the public to the successes +achieved by industry or talent. Perhaps, too, any professional ability +I might possess was the more readily conceded, because I had cultivated +with assiduity the sciences and the scholarship which are collaterally +connected with the study of medicine. Thus, in a word, I established a +social position which came in aid of my professional repute, and +silenced much of that envy which usually embitters and sometimes impedes +success. + +Dr. Faber retired at the end of the two years agreed upon. He went +abroad; and being, though advanced in years, of a frame still robust, and +habits of mind still inquiring and eager, he commenced a lengthened +course of foreign travel, during which our correspondence, at first +frequent, gradually languished, and finally died away. + +I succeeded at once to the larger part of the practice which the labours +of thirty years had secured to my predecessor. My chief rival was a Dr. +Lloyd, a benevolent, fervid man, not without genius, if genius be present +where judgment is absent; not without science, if that may be science which +fails in precision,--one of those clever desultory men who, in adopting +a profession, do not give up to it the whole force and heat of their +minds. Men of that kind habitually accept a mechanical +routine, because in the exercise of their ostensible calling their +imaginative faculties are drawn away to pursuits more alluring. +Therefore, in their proper vocation they are seldom bold or +inventive,--out of it they are sometimes both to excess. And when they do +take up a novelty in their own profession they cherish it with an obstinate +tenacity, and an extravagant passion, unknown to those quiet + philosophers who take up novelties every day, examine them with the +sobriety of practised eyes, to lay down altogether, modify in part, or +accept in whole, according as inductive experiment supports or destroys +conjecture. + +Dr. Lloyd had been esteemed a learned naturalist long before he was +admitted to be a tolerable physician. Amidst the privations of his youth +he had contrived to form, and with each succeeding year he had +perseveringly increased, a zoological collection of creatures, not +alive, but, happily for the be holder, stuffed or embalmed. From what I +have said, it will be truly inferred that Dr. Lloyd's early career as a +physician had not been brilliant; but of late years he had gradually +rather aged than worked himself into that professional authority and +station which time confers on a thoroughly respectable man whom no one +is disposed to envy, and all are disposed to like. + +Now in L---- there were two distinct social circles,--that of the +wealthy merchants and traders, and that of a few privileged families +inhabiting a part of the town aloof from the marts of commerce, and +called the Abbey Hill. These superb Areopagites exercised over the +wives and daughters of the inferior citizens to whom all of L----, +except the Abbey Hill, owed its prosperity, the same kind of mysterious +influence which the fine ladies of May Fair and Belgravia are reported +to hold over the female denizens of Bloomsbury and Marylebone. + +Abbey Hill was not opulent; but it was powerful by a concentration of +its resources in all matters of patronage. Abbey Hill had its own +milliner and its own draper, its own confectioner, butcher, baker, and +tea-dealer; and the patronage of Abbey Hill was like the patronage of +royalty,--less lucrative in itself than as a solemn certificate of +general merit. The shops on which Abbey Hill conferred its custom were +certainly not the cheapest, possibly not the best; but they were +undeniably the most imposing. The proprietors were decorously pompous, +the shopmen superciliously polite. They could not be more so if they had +belonged to the State, and been paid by a public which they benefited and +despised. The ladies of Low Town (as the city subjacent to the Hill had +been styled from a date remote in the feudal ages) entered those shops +with a certain awe, and left them with a certain pride. There they had +learned what the Hill approved; there they had bought what the Hill had +purchased. It is much in this life to be quite sure that we are in the +right, whatever that conviction may cost us. Abbey Hill had been in the +habit of appointing, amongst other objects of patronage, its own +physician. But that habit had fallen into disuse during the latter years +of my predecessor's practice. His superiority over all other medical men +in the town had become so incontestable, that, though he was emphatically +the doctor of Low Town, the head of its hospitals and infirmaries, and by +birth related to its principal traders, still as Abbey Hill was +occasionally subject to the physical infirmities of meaner mortals, so on +those occasions it deemed it best not to push the point of honour to the +wanton sacrifice of life. Since Low Town possessed one of the most +famous physicians in England, Abbey Hill magnanimously resolved not to +crush him by a rival. Abbey Hill let him feel its pulse. + +When my predecessor retired, I had presumptuously expected that the +Hill would have continued to suspend its normal right to a special +physician, and shown to me the same generous favour it had shown to him, +who had declared me worthy to succeed to his honours. I had the more +excuse for this presumption because the Hill had already allowed me to +visit a fair proportion of its invalids, had said some very gracious +things to me about the great respectability of the Fenwick family, and +sent me some invitations to dinner, and a great many invitations to tea. + +But my self-conceit received a notable check. Abbey Hill declared +that the time had come to reassert its dormant privilege; it must have a +doctor of its own choosing,--a doctor who might, indeed, be permitted to +visit Low Town from motives of humanity or gain, but who must +emphatically assert his special allegiance to Abbey Hill by fixing his +home on that venerable promontory. Miss Brabazon, a spinster of +uncertain age but undoubted pedigree, with small fortune but high nose, +which she would pleasantly observe was a proof of her descent from +Humphrey Duke of Gloucester (with whom, indeed, I have no doubt, in spite +of chronology, that she very often dined), was commissioned to inquire of +me diplomatically, and without committing Abbey Hill too much by the +overture, whether I would take a large and antiquated mansion, in which +abbots were said to have lived many centuries ago, and which was still +popularly styled Abbots' House, situated on the verge of the Hill, as in +that case the "Hill" would think of me. + +"It is a large house for a single man, I allow," said Miss Brabazon, +candidly; and then added, with a sidelong glance of alarming sweetness, +"but when Dr. Fenwick has taken his true position (so old a family!) +amongst us, he need not long remain single, unless he prefer it." + +I replied, with more asperity than the occasion called for, that I had +no thought of changing my residence at present, and if the Hill wanted me, +the Hill must send for me. + +Two days afterwards Dr. Lloyd took Abbots' House, and in less than a +week was proclaimed medical adviser to the Hill. The election had been +decided by the fiat of a great lady, who reigned supreme on the sacred +eminence, under the name and title of Mrs. Colonel Poyntz. + +"Dr. Fenwick," said this lady, "is a clever young man and a +gentleman, but he gives himself airs,--the Hill does not allow any airs +but its own. Besides, he is a new comer: resistance to new corners, and, +indeed, to all things new, except caps and novels, is one of the bonds that +keep old established societies together. Accordingly, it is by my advice +that Dr. Lloyd has taken Abbots' House; the rent would be too high for his +means if the Hill did not feel bound in honour to justify the trust he +has placed in its patronage. I told him that all my friends, when they +were in want of a doctor, would send for him; those who are my friends +will do so. What the Hill does, plenty of common people down there will +do also,--so that question is settled!" And it was settled. + +Dr. Lloyd, thus taken by the hand, soon extended the range of his +visits beyond the Hill, which was not precisely a mountain of gold to +doctors, and shared with myself, though in a comparatively small degree, +the much more lucrative practice of Low Town. + +I had no cause to grudge his success, nor did I. But to my theories +of medicine his diagnosis was shallow, and his prescriptions obsolete. +When we were summoned to a joint consultation, our views as to the proper +course of treatment seldom agreed. Doubtless he thought I ought to have +deferred to his seniority in years; but I held the doctrine which youth +deems a truth and age a paradox,--namely, that in science the young men +are the practical elders, inasmuch as they are schooled in the latest +experiences science has gathered up, while their seniors are cramped by +the dogmas they were schooled to believe when the world was some decades +the younger. + +Meanwhile my reputation continued rapidly to advance; it became more +than local; my advice was sought even by patients from the metropolis. +That ambition, which, conceived in early youth, had decided my career and +sweetened all its labours,--the ambition to take a rank and leave a name +as one of the great pathologists to whom humanity accords a grateful, if +calm, renown,--saw before it a level field and a certain goal. + +I know not whether a success far beyond that usually attained at the +age I had reached served to increase, but it seemed to myself to +justify, the main characteristic of my moral organization,--intellectual +pride. + +Though mild and gentle to the sufferers under my care, as a necessary +element of professional duty, I was intolerant of contradiction from +those who belonged to my calling, or even from those who, in general +opinion, opposed my favourite theories. I had espoused a school of +medical philosophy severely rigid in its inductive logic. My creed was +that of stern materialism. I had a contempt for the understanding of men +who accepted with credulity what they could not explain by reason. My +favourite phrase was "common-sense." At the same time I had no prejudice +against bold discovery, and discovery necessitates conjecture, but +I dismissed as idle all conjecture that could not be brought to a +practical test. + +As in medicine I had been the pupil of Broussais, so in +metaphysics I was the disciple of Condillac. I believed with that +philosopher that "all our knowledge we owe to Nature; that in the +beginning we can only instruct ourselves through her lessons; and that +the whole art of reasoning consists in continuing as she has compelled us +to commence." Keeping natural philosophy apart from the doctrines of +revelation, I never assailed the last; but I contended that by the first +no accurate reasoner could arrive at the existence of the soul as a third +principle of being equally distinct from mind and body. That by a +miracle man might live again, was a question of faith and not of +understanding. I left faith to religion, and banished it from +philosophy. How define with a precision to satisfy the logic of +philosophy what was to live again? The body? We know that the +body rests in its grave till by the process of decomposition its +elemental parts enter into other forms of matter. The mind? But the +mind was as clearly the result of the bodily organization as the music of +the harpsichord is the result of the instrumental mechanism. The mind +shared the decrepitude of the body in extreme old age, and in the +full vigour of youth a sudden injury to the brain might forever destroy +the intellect of a Plato or a Shakspeare. But the third principle,--the +soul,--the something lodged within the body, which yet was to survive it? +Where was that soul hidden out of the ken of the anatomist? When +philosophers attempted to define it, were they not compelled to confound +its nature and its actions with those of the mind? Could they reduce it +to the mere moral sense, varying according to education, circumstances, +and physical constitution? But even the moral sense in the most virtuous +of men may be swept away by a fever. Such at the time I now speak of +were the views I held,--views certainly not original nor pleasing; but I +cherished them with as fond a tenacity as if they had been consolatory +truths of which I was the first discoverer. I was intolerant to those who +maintained opposite doctrines,--despised them as irrational, or disliked +them as insincere. Certainly if I had fulfilled the career which my +ambition predicted,--become the founder of a new school in pathology, and +summed up my theories in academical lectures,--I should have added +another authority, however feeble, to the sects which circumscribe the +interest of man to the life that has its close in his grave. + +Possibly that which I have called my intellectual pride was more +nourished than I should have been willing to grant by the self-reliance +which an unusual degree of physical power is apt to bestow. Nature had +blessed me with the thews of an athlete. Among the hardy youths of the +Northern Athens I had been preeminently distinguished for feats of +activity and strength. My mental labours, and the anxiety which is +inseparable from the conscientious responsibilities of the medical +profession, kept my health below the par of keen enjoyment, but had in no +way diminished my rare muscular force. I walked through the crowd with +the firm step and lofty crest of the mailed knight of old, who felt +himself, in his casement of iron, a match against numbers. Thus the +sense of a robust individuality, strong alike in disciplined reason and +animal vigour, habituated to aid others, needing no aid for itself, +contributed to render me imperious in will and arrogant in opinion. Nor +were such defects injurious to me in my profession; on the contrary, +aided as they were by a calm manner, and a presence not without that kind +of dignity which is the livery of self-esteem, they served to impose +respect and to inspire trust. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +I had been about six years at L---- when I became suddenly involved +in a controversy with Dr. Lloyd. Just as this ill-fated man appeared at +the culminating point of his professional fortunes, he had the imprudence +to proclaim himself not only an enthusiastic advocate of mesmerism as +a curative process, but an ardent believer of the reality of somnambular +clairvoyance as an invaluable gift of certain privileged organizations. +To these doctrines I sternly opposed myself,--the more sternly, perhaps, +because on these doctrines Dr. Lloyd founded an argument for the +existence of soul, independent of mind, as of matter, and built thereon a +superstructure of physiological fantasies, which, could it be +substantiated, would replace every system of metaphysics on which +recognized philosophy condescends to dispute. + +About two years before he became a disciple rather of Puysegur than +Mesmer (for Mesmer hard little faith in that gift of clairvoyance of +which Puysegur was, I believe, at least in modern times, the first +audacious asserter), Dr. Lloyd had been afflicted with the loss of a wife +many years younger than himself, and to whom he had been tenderly +attached. And this bereavement, in directing the hopes that consoled him +to a world beyond the grave, had served perhaps to render him more +credulous of the phenomena in which he greeted additional proofs of +purely spiritual existence. Certainly, if, in controverting the +notions of another physiologist, I had restricted myself to that +fair antagonism which belongs to scientific disputants anxious only for +the truth, I should need no apology for sincere conviction and honest +argument; but when, with condescending good-nature, as if to a man +much younger than himself, who was ignorant of the phenomena which he +nevertheless denied, Dr. Lloyd invited me to attend his seances and +witness his cures, my amour propre became aroused and nettled, and it +seemed to me necessary to put down what I asserted to be too gross an +outrage on common-sense to justify the ceremony of examination. I wrote, +therefore, a small pamphlet on the subject, in which I exhausted all the +weapons that irony can lend to contempt. Dr. Lloyd replied; and as he was +no very skilful arguer, his reply injured him perhaps more than my +assault. Meanwhile, I had made some inquiries as to the moral character +of his favourite clairvoyants. I imagined that I had learned enough to +justify me in treating them as flagrant cheats, and himself as their +egregious dupe. + +Low Town soon ranged itself, with very few exceptions, on my side. +The Hill at first seemed disposed to rally round its insulted physician, +and to make the dispute a party question, in which the Hill would have +been signally worsted, when suddenly the same lady paramount, who had +secured to Dr. Lloyd the smile of the Eminence, spoke forth against him, +and the Eminence frowned. + +"Dr. Lloyd," said the Queen of the Hill, "is an amiable creature, +but on this subject decidedly cracked. Cracked poets may be all the +better for being cracked,--cracked doctors are dangerous. Besides, in +deserting that old-fashioned routine, his adherence to which made his +claim to the Hill's approbation, and unsettling the mind of the Hill with +wild revolutionary theories, Dr. Lloyd has betrayed the principles on +which the Hill itself rests its social foundations. Of those principles +Dr. Fenwick has made himself champion; and the Hill is bound to support +him. There, the question is settled!" + +And it was settled. + +From the moment Mrs. Colonel Poyntz thus issued the word of +command, Dr. Lloyd was demolished. His practice was gone, as well as his +repute. Mortification or anger brought on a stroke of paralysis which, +disabling my opponent, put an end to our controversy. An obscure +Dr. Jones, who had been the special pupil and protege of Dr. Lloyd, +offered himself as a candidate for the Hill's tongues and pulses. The +Hill gave him little encouragement. It once more suspended its electoral +privileges, and, without insisting on calling me up to it, the Hill +quietly called me in whenever its health needed other advice than that of +its visiting apothecary. Again it invited me, sometimes to dinner, +often to tea; and again Miss Brabazon assured me by a sidelong glance +that it was no fault of hers if I were still single. + +I had almost forgotten the dispute which had obtained for me so +conspicuous a triumph, when one winter's night I was roused from sleep by +a summons to attend Dr Lloyd, who, attacked by a second stroke a few +hours previously, had, on recovering sense, expressed a vehement desire +to consult the rival by whom he had suffered so severely. I dressed +myself in haste and hurried to his house. + +A February night, sharp and bitter; an iron-gray frost below, a +spectral melancholy moon above. I had to ascend the Abbey Hill by a +steep, blind lane between high walls. I passed through stately gates, +which stood wide open, into the garden ground that surrounded the old +Abbots' House. At the end of a short carriage-drive the dark and +gloomy building cleared itself from leafless skeleton trees,--the moon +resting keen and cold on its abrupt gables and lofty chimney-stacks. +An old woman-servant received me at the door, and, without saying a +word, led me through a long low hall, and up dreary oak stairs, to a +broad landing, at which she paused for a moment, listening. Round +and about hall, staircase, and landing were ranged the dead specimens +of the savage world which it had been the pride of the naturalist's +life to collect. Close where I stood yawned the open jaws of the fell +anaconda, its lower coils hidden, as they rested on the floor +below, by the winding of the massive stairs. Against the dull wainscot +walls were pendent cases stored with grotesque unfamiliar mummies, seen +imperfectly by the moon that shot through the window-panes, and the +candle in the old woman's hand. And as now she turned towards me, +nodding her signal to follow, and went on up the shadowy passage, +rows of gigantic birds--ibis and vulture, and huge sea glaucus--glared +at me in the false light of their hungry eyes. + +So I entered the sick-room, and the first glance told me that my +art was powerless there. + +The children of the stricken widower were grouped round his bed, the +eldest apparently about fifteen, the youngest four; one little girl--the +only female child--was clinging to her father's neck, her face pressed +to his bosom, and in that room her sobs alone were loud. + +As I passed the threshold, Dr. Lloyd lifted his face, which had been +bent over the weeping child, and gazed on me with an aspect of strange +glee, which I failed to interpret. Then as I stole towards him softly +and slowly, he pressed his lips on the long fair tresses that streamed +wild over his breast, motioned to a nurse who stood beside his pillow to +take the child away, and in a voice clearer than I could have expected in +one on whose brow lay the unmistakable hand of death, he bade the nurse +and the children quit the room. All went sorrowfully, but silently, save +the little girl, who, borne off in the nurse's arms, continued to sob as +if her heart were breaking. + +I was not prepared for a scene so affecting; it moved me to the +quick. My eyes wistfully followed the children so soon to be orphans, as +one after one went out into the dark chill shadow, and amidst the +bloodless forms of the dumb brute nature, ranged in grisly vista beyond +the death-room of man. And when the last infant shape had vanished, and +the door closed with a jarring click, my sight wandered loiteringly +around the chamber before I could bring myself to fix it on the broken +form, beside which I now stood in all that glorious vigour of frame which +had fostered the pride of my mind. In the moment consumed by my mournful +survey, the whole aspect of the place impressed itself ineffaceably on +lifelong remembrance. Through the high, deepsunken casement, across +which the thin, faded curtain was but half drawn, the moonlight rushed, +and then settled on the floor in one shroud of white glimmer, lost under +the gloom of the death-bed. The roof was low, and seemed lower still by +heavy intersecting beams, which I might have touched with my lifted hand. +And the tall guttering candle by the bedside, and the flicker from the +fire struggling out through the fuel but newly heaped on it, threw their +reflection on the ceiling just over my head in a reek of quivering +blackness, like an angry cloud. + +Suddenly I felt my arm grasped; with his left hand (the right side was +already lifeless) the dying man drew me towards him nearer and nearer, +till his lips almost touched my ear, and, in a voice now firm, now +splitting into gasp and hiss, thus he said, "I have summoned you to gaze +on your own work! You have stricken down my life at the moment when it +was most needed by my children, and most serviceable to mankind. Had I +lived a few years longer, my children would have entered on manhood, safe +from the temptations of want and undejected by the charity of strangers. +Thanks to you, they will be penniless orphans. Fellow-creatures +afflicted by maladies your pharmacopoeia had failed to reach came to me +for relief, and they found it. 'The effect of imagination,' you say. +What matters, if I directed the imagination to cure? Now you have mocked +the unhappy ones out of their last chance of life. They will suffer and +perish. Did you believe me in error? Still you knew that my object was +research into truth. You employed against your brother in art venomous +drugs and a poisoned probe. Look at me! Are you satisfied with your +work?" + +I sought to draw back and pluck my arm from the dying man's grasp. I +could not do so without using a force that would have been inhuman. His +lips drew nearer still to my ear. + +"Vain pretender, do not boast that you brought a genius for epigram to +the service of science. Science is lenient to all who offer experiment +as the test of conjecture. You are of the stuff of which inquisitors are +made. You cry that truth is profaned when your dogmas are questioned. +In your shallow presumption you have meted the dominions of nature, and +where your eye halts its vision, you say, 'There nature must close;' in +the bigotry which adds crime to presumption, you would stone the +discoverer who, in annexing new realms to her chart, unsettles your +arbitrary landmarks. Verily, retribution shall await you! In those +spaces which your sight has disdained to explore you shall yourself be a +lost and bewildered straggler. Hist! I see them already! The gibbering +phantoms are gathering round you!" + +The man's voice stopped abruptly; his eye fixed in a glazing stare; +his hand relaxed its hold; he fell back on his pillow. I stole from the +room; on the landing-place I met the nurse and the old woman-servant. +Happily the children were not there. But I heard the wail of the female +child from some room not far distant. + +I whispered hurriedly to the nurse, "All is over!" passed again under +the jaws of the vast anaconda, and on through the blind lane between the +dead walls, on through the ghastly streets, under the ghastly moon, went +back to my solitary home. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +It was some time before I could shake off the impression made on me by +the words and the look of that dying man. + +It was not that my conscience upbraided me. What had I done? +Denounced that which I held, in common with most men of sense in or out +of my profession, to be one of those illusions by which quackery draws +profit from the wonder of ignorance. Was I to blame if I refused to +treat with the grave respect due to asserted discovery in legitimate +science pretensions to powers akin to the fables of wizards? Was I to +descend from the Academe of decorous science to examine whether a +slumbering sibyl could read from a book placed at her back, or tell me at +L---- what at that moment was being done by my friend at the Antipodes? + +And what though Dr. Lloyd himself might be a worthy and honest man, +and a sincere believer in the extravagances for which he demanded an +equal credulity in others, do not honest men every day incur the penalty +of ridicule if, from a defect of good sense, they make themselves +ridiculous? Could I have foreseen that a satire so justly provoked would +inflict so deadly a wound? Was I inhumanly barbarous because the +antagonist destroyed was morbidly sensitive? My conscience, therefore, +made me no reproach, and the public was as little severe as my conscience. +The public had been with me in our contest; the public knew nothing of my +opponent's deathbed accusations; the public knew only that I had attended +him in his last moments; it saw me walk beside the bier that bore him to +his grave; it admired the respect to his memory which I evinced in the +simple tomb that I placed over his remains, inscribed with an epitaph that +did justice to his unquestionable benevolence and integrity; above all, it +praised the energy with which I set on foot a subscription for his orphan +children, and the generosity with which I headed that subscription by a +sum that was large in proportion to my means. + +To that sum I did not, indeed, limit my contribution. The sobs of the +poor female child rang still on my heart. As her grief had been keener +than that of her brothers, so she might be subjected to sharper trials +than they, when the time came for her to fight her own way through the +world; therefore I secured to her, but with such precautions that the +gift could not be traced to my hand, a sum to accumulate till she was +of marriageable age, and which then might suffice for a small wedding +portion; or if she remained single, for an income that would place her +beyond the temptation of want, or the bitterness of a servile dependence. + +That Dr. Lloyd should have died in poverty was a matter of +surprise at first, for his profits during the last few years had been +considerable, and his mode of life far from extravagant. But just before +the date of our controversy he had been induced to assist the brother of +his lost wife, who was a junior partner in a London bank, with the loan +of his accumulated savings. This man proved dishonest; he embezzled that +and other sums intrusted to him, and fled the country. The same sentiment +of conjugal affection which had cost Dr. Lloyd his fortune kept him +silent as to the cause of the loss. It was reserved for his executors to +discover the treachery of the brother-in-law whom he, poor man, would +have generously screened from additional disgrace. + +The Mayor of L----, a wealthy and public-spirited merchant, purchased the +museum, which Dr. Lloyd's passion for natural history had induced him to +form; and the sum thus obtained, together with that raised by subscription, +sufficed not only to discharge all debts due by the deceased, but to +insure to the orphans the benefits of an education that might fit at +least the boys to enter fairly armed into that game, more of skill than +of chance, in which Fortune is really so little blinded that we see, in +each turn of her wheel, wealth and its honours pass away from the lax +fingers of ignorance and sloth, to the resolute grasp of labour and +knowledge. + +Meanwhile a relation in a distant county undertook the charge of the +orphans; they disappeared from the scene, and the tides of life in a +commercial community soon flowed over the place which the dead man had +occupied in the thoughts of his bustling townsfolk. + +One person at L----, and only one, appeared to share and inherit the +rancour with which the poor physician had denounced me on his death-bed. +It was a gentleman named Vigors, distantly related to the deceased, and who +had been, in point of station, the most eminent of Dr. Lloyd's partisans +in the controversy with myself, a man of no great scholastic +acquirements, but of respectable abilities. He had that kind of power +which the world concedes to respectable abilities when accompanied +with a temper more than usually stern, and a moral character more than +usually austere. His ruling passion was to sit in judgment upon others; +and being a magistrate, he was the most active and the most rigid of all +the magistrates L---- had ever known. + +Mr. Vigors at first spoke of me with great bitterness, as having +ruined, and in fact killed, his friend, by the uncharitable and unfair +acerbity which he declared I had brought into what ought to have been an +unprejudiced examination of simple matter of fact. But finding no +sympathy in these charges, he had the discretion to cease from making them, +contenting himself with a solemn shake of his head if he heard my +name mentioned in terms of praise, and an oracular sentence or two, such +as "Time will show," "All's well that ends well," etc. Mr. Vigors, +however, mixed very little in the more convivial intercourse of the +townspeople. He called himself domestic; but, in truth, he was +ungenial,--a stiff man, starched with self-esteem. He thought that his +dignity of station was not sufficiently acknowledged by the merchants of +Low Town, and his superiority of intellect not sufficiently recognized by +the exclusives of the Hill. His visits were, therefore, chiefly confined +to the houses of neighbouring squires, to whom his reputation as a +magistrate, conjoined with his solemn exterior, made him one of +those oracles by which men consent to be awed on condition that the awe is +not often inflicted. And though he opened his house three times a week, +it was only to a select few, whom he first fed and then biologized. +Electro-biology was very naturally the special entertainment of a man whom +no intercourse ever pleased in which his will was not imposed upon others. +Therefore he only invited to his table persons whom he could stare into +the abnegation of their senses, willing to say that beef was lamb, or +brandy was coffee, according as he willed them to say. And, no doubt, the +persons asked would have said anything he willed, so long as they had, in +substance, as well as in idea, the beef and the brandy, the lamb and the +coffee. I did not, then, often meet Mr. Vigors at the houses in which I +occasionally spent my evenings. I heard of his enmity as a man safe in +his home hears the sough of a wind on a common without. If now and then +we chanced to pass in the streets, he looked up at me (he was a small man +walking on tiptoe) with a sullen scowl of dislike; and from the height of +my stature, I dropped upon the small man and sullen scowl the affable +smile of supreme indifference. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +I had now arrived at that age when an ambitious man, satisfied with +his progress in the world without, begins to feel in the cravings of +unsatisfied affection the void of a solitary hearth. I resolved to marry, +and looked out for a wife. I had never hitherto admitted into my life the +passion of love. In fact, I had regarded that passion, even in my earlier +youth, with a certain superb contempt,--as a malady engendered by an +effeminate idleness, and fostered by a sickly imagination. + +I wished to find in a wife a rational companion, an affectionate and +trustworthy friend. No views of matrimony could be less romantic, more +soberly sensible, than those which I conceived. Nor were my requirements +mercenary or presumptuous. I cared not for fortune; I asked nothing from +connections. My ambition was exclusively professional; it could be +served by no titled kindred, accelerated by no wealthy dower. I was no +slave to beauty. I did not seek in a wife the accomplishments of a +finishing-school teacher. + +Having decided that the time had come to select my helpmate, I imagined +that I should find no difficulty in a choice that my reason would approve. +But day upon day, week upon week, passed away, and though among the +families I visited there were many young ladies who possessed more than +the qualifications with which I conceived that I should be amply +contented, and by whom I might flatter myself that my proposals would not +be disdained, I saw not one to whose lifelong companionship I should not +infinitely have preferred the solitude I found so irksome. + +One evening, in returning home from visiting a poor female patient +whom I attended gratuitously, and whose case demanded more thought than +that of any other in my list,--for though it had been considered hopeless +in the hospital, and she had come home to die, I felt certain that I +could save her, and she seemed recovering under my care,--one evening--it +was the fifteenth of May--I found myself just before the gates of the +house that had been inhabited by Dr. Lloyd. Since his death the house +had been unoccupied; the rent asked for it by the proprietor was +considered high; and from the sacred Hill on which it was situated, +shyness or pride banished the wealthier traders. The garden gates stood +wide open, as they had stood on the winter night on which I had passed +through them to the chamber of death. The remembrance of that deathbed +came vividly before me, and the dying man's fantastic threat rang again in +my startled ears. An irresistible impulse, which I could not then account +for, and which I cannot account for now,--an impulse the reverse of that +which usually makes us turn away with quickened step from a spot that +recalls associations of pain,--urged me on through the open gates up the +neglected grass-grown road, urged me to look, under the weltering sun of +the joyous spring, at that house which I bad never seen but in the gloom +of a winter night, under the melancholy moon. As the building came in +sight, with dark-red bricks, partially overgrown with ivy, I perceived +that it was no longer unoccupied. I saw forms passing athwart the open +windows; a van laden with articles of furniture stood before the door; a +servant in livery was beside it giving directions to the men who were +unloading. Evidently some family was just entering into possession. I +felt somewhat ashamed of my trespass, and turned round quickly to retrace +my steps. I had retreated but a few yards, when I saw before me, at +the entrance gates, Mr. Vigors, walking beside a lady apparently of middle +age; while, just at hand, a path cut through the shrubs gave view of a +small wicketgate at the end of the grounds. I felt unwilling not only to +meet the lady, whom I guessed to be the new occupier, and to whom I should +have to make a somewhat awkward apology for intrusion, but still more to +encounter the scornful look of Mr. Vigors in what appeared to my pride a +false or undignified position. Involuntarily, therefore, I turned down +the path which would favour my escape unobserved. When about half way +between the house and the wicket-gate, the shrubs that had clothed the +path on either side suddenly opened to the left, bringing into view a +circle of sward, surrounded by irregular fragments of old brickwork +partially covered with ferns, creepers, or rockplants, weeds, or wild +flowers; and, in the centre of the circle, a fountain, or rather well, +over which was built a Gothic monastic dome, or canopy, resting on small +Norman columns, time-worn, dilapidated. A large willow overhung this +unmistakable relic of the ancient abbey. There was an air of antiquity, +romance, legend about this spot, so abruptly disclosed amidst the delicate +green of the young shrubberies. But it was not the ruined wall nor the +Gothic well that chained my footstep and charmed my eye. + +It was a solitary human form, seated amidst the mournful ruins. + +The form was so slight, the face so young, that at the first +glance I murmured to myself, "What a lovely child!" But as my eye +lingered it recognized in the upturned thoughtful brow, in the sweet, +serious aspect, in the rounded outlines of that slender shape, the +inexpressible dignity of virgin woman. + +A book was on her lap, at her feet a little basket, half-filled +with violets and blossoms culled from the rock-plants that nestled amidst +the ruins. Behind her, the willow, like an emerald waterfall, showered +down its arching abundant green, bough after bough, from the tree-top to +the sward, descending in wavy verdure, bright towards the summit, in the +smile of the setting sun, and darkening into shadow as it neared the +earth. + +She did not notice, she did not see me; her eyes were fixed upon the +horizon, where it sloped farthest into space, above the treetops and the +ruins,--fixed so intently that mechanically I turned my own gaze to follow +the flight of hers. It was as if she watched for some expected, familiar +sign to grow out from the depths of heaven; perhaps to greet, before +other eyes beheld it, the ray of the earliest star. + +The birds dropped from the boughs on the turf around her so fearlessly +that one alighted amidst the flowers in the little basket at her feet. +There is a famous German poem, which I had read in my youth, called the +Maiden from Abroad, variously supposed to be an allegory of Spring, or of +Poetry, according to the choice of commentators: it seemed to me as if the +poem had been made for her. Verily, indeed, in her, poet or painter might +have seen an image equally true to either of those adornments of the +earth; both outwardly a delight to sense, yet both wakening up thoughts +within us, not sad, but akin to sadness. + +I heard now a step behind me, and a voice which I recognized to be that +of Mr. Vigors. I broke from the charm by which I had been so lingeringly +spell-bound, hurried on confusedly, gained the wicket-gate, from which a +short flight of stairs descended into the common thoroughfare. And there +the every-day life lay again before me. On the opposite side, houses, +shops, church-spires; a few steps more, and the bustling streets! How +immeasurably far from, yet how familiarly near to, the world in which we +move and have being is that fairy-land of romance which opens out from the +hard earth before us, when Love steals at first to our side, fading back +into the hard earth again as Love smiles or sighs its farewell! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +And before that evening I had looked on Mr. Vigors with supreme +indifference! What importance he now assumed in my eyes! The lady with +whom I had seen him was doubtless the new tenant of that house in which +the young creature by whom my heart was so strangely moved evidently had +her home. Most probably the relation between the two ladies was that of +mother and daughter. Mr. Vigors, the friend of one, might himself be +related to both, might prejudice them against me, might--Here, starting +up, I snapped the thread of conjecture, for right before my eyes, on the +table beside which I had seated myself on entering my room, lay a card +of invitation:-- + + MRS. POYNTZ. + At Home, + Wednesday, May 15th. + Early. + + +Mrs. Poyntz,--Mrs. Colonel Poyntz, the Queen of the Hill? There, +at her house, I could not fail to learn all about the new comers, who +could never without her sanction have settled on her domain. + +I hastily changed my dress, and, with beating heart, wound my way up the +venerable eminence. + +I did not pass through the lane which led direct to Abbots' House +(for that old building stood solitary amidst its grounds a little apart +from the spacious platform on which the society of the Hill was +concentrated), but up the broad causeway, with vistaed gaslamps; the gayer +shops still-unclosed, the tide of busy life only slowly ebbing from the +still-animated street, on to a square, in which the four main +thoroughfares of the city converged, and which formed the boundary of Low +Town. A huge dark archway, popularly called Monk's Gate, at the angle of +this square, made the entrance to Abbey Hill. When the arch was passed, +one felt at once that one was in the town of a former day. The pavement +was narrow and rugged; the shops small, their upper stories projecting, +with here and there plastered fronts, quaintly arabesque. An ascent, +short, but steep and tortuous, conducted at once to the old Abbey Church, +nobly situated in a vast quadrangle, round which were the genteel and +gloomy dwellings of the Areopagites of the Hill. More genteel and less +gloomy than the rest--lights at the windows and flowers on the +balcony--stood forth, flanked by a garden wall at either side, the mansion +of Mrs. Colonel Poyntz. + +As I entered the drawing-room, I heard the voice of the hostess; it +was a voice clear, decided, metallic, bell-like, uttering these words: +"Taken Abbots' House? I will tell you." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Mrs. Poyntz was seated on the sofa; at her right sat fat Mrs. Bruce, +who was a Scotch lord's grand-daughter; at her left thin Miss Brabazon, +who was an Irish baronet's niece. Around her--a few seated, many +standing--had grouped all the guests, save two old gentlemen, who had +remained aloof with Colonel Poyntz near the whist-table, waiting for the +fourth old gentleman who was to make up the rubber, but who was at that +moment spell-bound in the magic circle which curiosity, that strongest of +social demons, had attracted round the hostess. + +"Taken Abbots' House? I will tell you.--Ah, Dr. Fenwick, charmed to +see you. You know Abbots' House is let at last? Well, Miss Brabazon, +dear, you ask who has taken it. I will inform you,--a particular friend +of mine." + +"Indeed! Dear me!" said Miss Brabazon, looking confused. "I hope I +did not say anything to--" + +"Wound my feelings. Not in the least. You said your uncle Sir +Phelim employed a coachmaker named Ashleigh, that Ashleigh was an uncommon +name, though Ashley was a common one; you intimated an appalling suspicion +that the Mrs. Ashleigh who had come to the Hill was the coach maker's +widow. I relieve your mind,--she is not; she is the widow of Gilbert +Ashleigh, of Kirby Hall." + +"Gilbert Ashleigh," said one of the guests, a bachelor, whose parents +had reared him for the Church, but who, like poor Goldsmith, did not think +himself good enough for it, a mistake of over-modesty, for he matured into +a very harmless creature. "Gilbert Ashleigh? I was at Oxford with +him,--a gentleman commoner of Christ Church. Good-looking man, very; +sapped--" + +"Sapped! what's that?--Oh, studied. That he did all his life. He +married young,--Anne Chaloner; she and I were girls together; married the +same year. They settled at Kirby Hall--nice place, but dull. Poyntz and +I spent a Christmas there. Ashleigh when he talked was charming, but he +talked very little. Anne, when she talked, was commonplace, and she +talked very much. Naturally, poor thing,---she was so happy. Poyntz and +I did not spend another Christmas there. Friendship is long, but life is +short. Gilbert Ashleigh's life was short indeed; he died in the seventh +year of his marriage, leaving only one child, a girl. Since then, though +I never spent another Christmas at Kirby Hall, I have frequently spent a +day there, doing my best to cheer up Anne. She was no longer talkative, +poor dear. Wrapped up in her child, who has now grown into a beautiful +girl of eighteen--such eyes, her father's--the real dark blue--rare; sweet +creature, but delicate; not, I hope, consumptive, but delicate; quiet, +wants life. My girl Jane adores her. Jane has life enough for two." + +"Is Miss Ashleigh the heiress to Kirby Hall?" asked Mrs. Bruce, who +had an unmarried son. + +"No. Kirby Hall passed to Ashleigh Sumner, the male heir, a cousin. +And the luckiest of cousins! Gilbert's sister, showy woman (indeed all +show), had contrived to marry her kinsman, Sir Walter Ashleigh Haughton, +the head of the Ashleigh family,--just the man made to be the reflector of +a showy woman! He died years ago, leaving an only son, Sir James, who was +killed last winter, by a fall from his horse. And here, again, Ashleigh +Summer proved to be the male heir-at-law. During the minority of this +fortunate youth, Mrs. Ashleigh had rented Kirby Hall of his guardian. He +is now just coming of age, and that is why she leaves. Lilian Ashleigh +will have, however, a very good fortune,--is what we genteel paupers call +an heiress. Is there anything more you want to know?" + +Said thin Miss Brabazon, who took advantage of her thinness to wedge +herself into every one's affairs, "A most interesting account. What a +nice place Abbots' House could be made with a little taste! So +aristocratic! Just what I should like if I could afford it! The +drawing-room should be done up in the Moorish style, with +geranium-coloured silk curtains, like dear Lady L----'s boudoir at +Twickenham. And Mrs. Ashleigh has taken the house on lease too, I +suppose!" Here Miss Brabazon fluttered her fan angrily, and then +exclaimed, "But what on earth brings Mrs. Ashleigh here?" + +Answered Mrs. Colonel Poyntz, with the military frankness by which she +kept her company in good humour, as well as awe,-- + +"Why do any of us come here? Can any one tell me?" + +There was a blank silence, which the hostess herself was the first to +break. + +"None of us present can say why we came here. I can tell you why +Mrs. Ashleigh came. Our neighbour, Mr. Vigors, is a distant connection of +the late Gilbert Ashleigh, one of the executors to his will, and the +guardian to the heir-at-law. About ten days ago Mr. Vigors called on me, +for the first time since I felt it my duty to express my disapprobation of +the strange vagaries so unhappily conceived by our poor dear friend Dr. +Lloyd. And when he had taken his chair, just where you now sit, +Dr. Fenwick, he said in a sepulchral voice, stretching out two fingers, +so,--as if I were one of the what-do-you-call-'ems who go to sleep when he +bids them, 'Marm, you know Mrs. Ashleigh? You correspond with her?' +'Yes, Mr. Vigors; is there any crime in that? You look as if there were.' +'No crime, marm,' said the man, quite seriously. 'Mrs. Ashleigh is a lady +of amiable temper, and you are a woman of masculine understanding.'" + +Here there was a general titter. Mrs. Colonel Poyntz hushed it +with a look of severe surprise. "What is there to laugh at? All women +would be men if they could. If my understanding is masculine, so much the +better for me. I thanked Mr. Vigors for his very handsome compliment, and +he then went on to say that though Mrs. Ashleigh would now have to leave +Kirby Hall in a very few weeks, she seemed quite unable to make up her +mind where to go; that it had occurred to him that, as Miss Ashleigh was +of an age to see a little of the world, she ought not to remain buried in +the country; while, being of quiet mind, she recoiled from the dissipation +of London. Between the seclusion of the one and the turmoil of the other, +the society of L---- was a happy medium. He should be glad of my opinion. +He had put off asking for it, because he owned his belief that I had +behaved unkindly to his lamented friend, Dr. Lloyd; but he now found +himself in rather an awkward position. His ward, young Sumner, had +prudently resolved on fixing his country residence at Kirby Hall, rather +than at Haughton Park, the much larger seat which had so suddenly passed +to his inheritance, and which he could not occupy without a vast +establishment, that to a single man, so young, would be but a cumbersome +and costly trouble. Mr. Vigors was pledged to his ward to obtain him +possession of Kirby Hall, the precise day agreed upon, but Mrs. Ashleigh +did not seem disposed to stir,--could not decide where else to go. Mr. +Vigors was loth to press hard on his old friend's widow and child. It was +a thousand pities Mrs Ashleigh could not make up her mind; she had had +ample time for preparation. A word from me at this moment would be an +effective kindness. Abbots' House was vacant, with a garden so extensive +that the ladies would not miss the country. Another party was after it, +but--'Say no more,' I cried; 'no party but my dear old friend Anne +Ashleigh shall have Abbots' House. So that question is settled.' I +dismissed Mr. Vigors, sent for my carriage, that is, for Mr. Barker's +yellow fly and his best horses,--and drove that very day to Kirby Hall, +which, though not in this county, is only twenty-five miles distant. I +slept there that night. By nine o'clock the next morning I had secured +Mrs. Ashleigh's consent, on the promise to save her all trouble; came +back, sent for the landlord, settled the rent, lease, agreement; engaged +Forbes' vans to remove the furniture from Kirby Hall; told Forbes to begin +with the beds. When her own bed came, which was last night, Anne Ashleigh +came too. I have seen her this morning. She likes the place, so does +Lilian. I asked them to meet you all here to-night; but Mrs. Ashleigh +was tired. The last of the furniture was to arrive today; and though dear +Mrs. Ashleigh is an undecided character, she is not inactive. But it is +not only the planning where to put tables and chairs that would have +tried her today: she has had Mr. Vigors on her hands all the afternoon, +and he has been--here's her little note--what are the words? No doubt +'most overpowering and oppressive;' no, 'most kind and attentive,'-- +different words, but, as applied to Mr. Vigors, they mean the same thing. + +"And now, next Monday---we must leave them in peace till then--you +will all call on the Ashleighs. The Hill knows what is due to itself; it +cannot delegate to Mr. Vigors, a respectable man indeed, but who does +not belong to its set, its own proper course of action towards those +who would shelter themselves on its bosom. The Hill cannot be kind and +attentive, overpowering or oppressive by proxy. To those newborn +into its family circle it cannot be an indifferent godmother; it has +towards them all the feelings of a mother,--or of a stepmother, as +the case may be. Where it says 'This can be no child of mine,' it is a +stepmother indeed; but in all those whom I have presented to its +arms, it has hitherto, I am proud to say, recognized desirable +acquaintances, and to them the Hill has been a mother. And now, +my dear Mr. Sloman, go to your rubber; Poyntz is impatient, though he +don't show it. Miss Brabazon, love, we all long to see you seated +at the piano,--you play so divinely! Something gay, if you please; +something gay, but not very noisy,--Mr. Leopold Symthe will turn the +leaves for you. Mrs. Bruce, your own favourite set at vingt-un, with +four new recruits. Dr. Fenwick, you are like me, don't play cards, and +don't care for music; sit here, and talk or not, as you please, while I +knit." + +The other guests thus disposed of, some at the card-tables, some round +the piano, I placed myself at Mrs. Poyntz's side, on a seat niched in the +recess of a window which an evening unusually warm for the month of May +permitted to be left open. I was next to one who had known Lilian as a +child, one from whom I had learned by what sweet name to call the image +which my thoughts had already shrined. How much that I still longed to +know she could tell me! But in what form of question could I lead to the +subject, yet not betray my absorbing interest in it? Longing to speak, I +felt as if stricken dumb; stealing an unquiet glance towards the face +beside me, and deeply impressed with that truth which the Hill had long +ago reverently acknowledged,--namely, that Mrs. Colonel Poyntz was a very +superior woman, a very powerful creature. + +And there she sat knitting, rapidly, firmly; a woman somewhat on +the other side of forty, complexion a bronze paleness, hair a bronze +brown, in strong ringlets cropped short behind,--handsome hair for a man; +lips that, when closed, showed inflexible decision, when speaking, became +supple and flexible with an easy humour and a vigilant finesse; eyes of a +red hazel, quick but steady,--observing, piercing, dauntless eyes; +altogether a fine countenance,--would have been a very fine countenance in +a man; profile sharp, straight, clear-cut, with an expression, when in +repose, like that of a sphinx; a frame robust, not corpulent; of middle +height, but with an air and carriage that made her appear tall; peculiarly +white firm hands, indicative of vigorous health, not a vein visible on the +surface. + +There she sat knitting, knitting, and I by her side, gazing now on +herself, now on her work, with a vague idea that the threads in the skein +of my own web of love or of life were passing quick through those +noiseless fingers. And, indeed, in every web of romance, the fondest, one +of the Parcae is sure to be some matter-of-fact She, Social Destiny, as +little akin to romance herself as was this worldly Queen of the Hill. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +I have given a sketch of the outward woman of Mrs. Colonel Poyntz. The +inner woman was a recondite mystery deep as that of the sphinx, whose +features her own resembled. But between the outward and the inward woman +there is ever a third woman,--the conventional woman,--such as the whole +human being appears to the world,--always mantled, sometimes masked. + +I am told that the fine people of London do not recognize the +title of "Mrs. Colonel." If that be true, the fine people of London must +be clearly in the wrong, for no people in the universe could be finer than +the fine people of Abbey Hill; and they considered their sovereign had +as good a right to the title of Mrs. Colonel as the Queen of England +has to that of "our Gracious Lady." But Mrs. Poyntz herself never +assumed the title of Mrs. Colonel; it never appeared on her cards,--any +more than the title of "Gracious Lady" appears on the cards which +convey the invitation that a Lord Steward or Lord Chamberlain is +commanded by her Majesty to issue. To titles, indeed, Mrs. Poyntz +evinced no superstitious reverence. Two peeresses, related to her, not +distantly, were in the habit of paying her a yearly visit which +lasted two or three days. The Hill considered these visits an honour to +its eminence. Mrs. Poyntz never seemed to esteem them an honour to +herself; never boasted of them; never sought to show off her grand +relations, nor put herself the least out of the way to receive +them. Her mode of life was free from ostentation. She had the advantage +of being a few hundreds a year richer than any other inhabitant of +the Hill; but she did not devote her superior resources to the +invidious exhibition of superior splendour. Like a wise sovereign, the +revenues of her exchequer were applied to the benefit of her subjects, and +not to the vanity of egotistical parade. As no one else on the Hill +kept a carriage, she declined to keep one. Her entertainments were +simple, but numerous. Twice a week she received the Hill, and was +genuinely at home to it. She contrived to make her parties proverbially +agreeable. The refreshments were of the same kind as those which the +poorest of her old maids of honour might proffer; but they were better of +their kind, the best of their kind,--the best tea, the best lemonade, the +best cakes. Her rooms had an air of comfort, which was peculiar to them. +They looked like rooms accustomed to receive, and receive in a friendly +way; well warmed, well lighted, card-tables and piano each in the place +that made cards and music inviting; on the walls a few old family +portraits, and three or four other pictures said to be valuable and +certainly pleasing,--two Watteaus, a Canaletti, a Weenix; plenty of +easy-chairs and settees covered with a cheerful chintz,--in the +arrangement of the furniture generally an indescribable careless elegance. +She herself was studiously plain in dress, more conspicuously free from +jewelry and trinkets than any married lady on the Hill. But I have heard +from those who were authorities on such a subject that she was never +seen in a dress of the last year's fashion. She adopted the mode as it +came out, just enough to show that she was aware it was out; but +with a sober reserve, as much as to say, "I adopt the fashion as far as +it suits myself; I do not permit the fashion to adopt me." In short, +Mrs. Colonel Poyntz was sometimes rough, sometimes coarse, always +masculine, and yet somehow or other masculine in a womanly way; +but she was never vulgar because never affected. It was impossible +not to allow that she was a thorough gentlewoman, and she could do things +that lower other gentlewomen, without any loss of dignity. Thus +she was an admirable mimic, certainly in itself the least ladylike +condescension of humour. But when she mimicked, it was with so +tranquil a gravity, or so royal a good humour, that one could only +say, "What talents for society dear Mrs. Colonel has!" As she was +a gentlewoman emphatically, so the other colonel, the he-colonel, +was emphatically a gentleman; rather shy, but not cold; hating trouble +of every kind, pleased to seem a cipher in his own house. If the +sole study of Mrs. Colonel had been to make her husband comfortable, +she could not have succeeded better than by bringing friends about him +and then taking them off his hands. Colonel Poyntz, the he-colonel, +had seen, in his youth, actual service; but had retired from his +profession many years ago, shortly after his marriage. He was a +younger brother of one of the principal squires in the country; +inherited the house he lived in, with some other valuable property +in and about L----, from an uncle; was considered a good landlord; and +popular in Low Town, though he never interfered in its affairs. He was +punctiliously neat in his dress; a thin youthful figure, crowned with a +thick youthful wig. He never seemed to read anything but the newspapers +and the "Meteorological Journal:" was supposed to be the most weatherwise +man in all L----. He had another intellectual predilection,--whist; +but in that he had less reputation for wisdom. Perhaps it requires a +rarer combination of mental faculties to win an odd trick than to +divine a fall in the glass. For the rest, the he-colonel, many +years older than his wife, despite the thin youthful figure, was an +admirable aid-de-camp to the general in command, Mrs. Colonel; and +she could not have found one more obedient, more devoted, or more +proud of a distinguished chief. + +In giving to Mrs. Colonel Poyntz the appellation of Queen of the +Hill, let there be no mistake. She was not a constitutional sovereign; +her monarchy was absolute. All her proclamations had the force of laws. + +Such ascendancy could not have been attained without considerable +talents for acquiring and keeping it. Amidst all her off-hand, brisk, +imperious frankness, she had the ineffable discrimination of tact. +Whether civil or rude, she was never civil or rude but what she carried +public opinion along with her. Her knowledge of general society must +have been limited, as must be that of all female sovereigns; but she +seemed gifted with an intuitive knowledge of human nature, which she +applied to her special ambition of ruling it. I have not a doubt that if +she had been suddenly transferred, a perfect stranger, to the world of +London, she would have soon forced her way to its selectest circles, +and, when once there, held her own against a duchess. + +I have said that she was not affected: this might be one cause of +her sway over a set in which nearly every other woman was trying rather to +seem, than to be, a somebody. + +Put if Mrs. Colonel Poyntz was not artificial, she was artful, or +perhaps I might more justly say artistic. In all she said and did there +were conduct, system, plan. She could be a most serviceable friend, a +most damaging enemy; yet I believe she seldom indulged in strong likings +or strong hatreds. All was policy,--a policy akin to that of a grand +party chief, determined to raise up those whom, for any reason of state, +it was prudent to favour, and to put down those whom, for any reason of +state, it was expedient to humble or to crush. + +Ever since the controversy with Dr. Lloyd, this lady had honoured me +with her benignest countenance; and nothing could be more adroit than the +manner in which, while imposing me on others as an oracular authority, she +sought to subject to her will the oracle itself. + +She was in the habit of addressing me in a sort of motherly way, +as if she had the deepest interest in my welfare, happiness, and +reputation. And thus, in every compliment, in every seeming mark of +respect, she maintained the superior dignity of one who takes from +responsible station the duty to encourage rising merit; so that, somehow +or other, despite all that pride which made me believe that I needed no +helping and to advance or to clear my way through the world, I could not +shake off from my mind the impression that I was mysteriously patronized +by Mrs. Colonel Poyntz. + +We might have sat together five minutes, side by side in silence as +complete as if in the cave of Trophonius--when without looking up from her +work, Mrs. Poyntz said abruptly,-- + +"I am thinking about you, Dr. Fenwick. And you--are thinking +about some other woman. Ungrateful man!" + +"Unjust accusation! My very silence should prove how intently my +thoughts were fixed on you, and on the weird web which springs under your +hand in meshes that bewilder the gaze and snare the attention." + +Mrs. Poyntz looked up at me for a moment--one rapid glance of the +bright red hazel eye--and said,-- + +"Was I really in your thoughts? Answer truly." + +"Truly, I answer, you were." + +"That is strange! Who can it be?" + +"Who can it be? What do you mean?" + +"If you were thinking of me, it was in connection with some other +person,--some other person of my own sex. It is certainly not poor dear +Miss Brabazon. Who else can it be?" + +Again the red eye shot over me, and I felt my cheek redden beneath it. + +"Hush!" she said, lowering her voice; "you are in love!" + +"In love!--I! Permit me to ask you why you think so?" + +"The signs are unmistakable; you are altered in your manner, even in +the expression of your face, since I last saw you; your manner is +generally quiet and observant,--it is now restless and distracted; your +expression of face is generally proud and serene,--it is now humbled and +troubled. You have something on your mind! It is not anxiety for your +reputation,--that is established; nor for your fortune,--that is made; it +is not anxiety for a patient or you would scarcely be here. But anxiety +it is,--an anxiety that is remote from your profession, that touches your +heart and is new to it!" + +I was startled, almost awed; but I tried to cover my confusion with a +forced laugh. + +"Profound observer! Subtle analyst! You have convinced me that I must +be in love, though I did not suspect it before. But when I strive to +conjecture the object, I am as much perplexed as yourself; and with you, I +ask, who can it be?" + +"Whoever it be," said Mrs. Poyntz, who had paused, while I spoke, from +her knitting, and now resumed it very slowly and very carefully, as if her +mind and her knitting worked in unison together,--"whoever it be, love in +you would be serious; and, with or without love, marriage is a serious +thing to us all. It is not every pretty girl that would suit Allen +Fenwick." + +"Alas! is there any pretty girl whom Allen Fenwick would suit?" + +"Tut! You should be above the fretful vanity that lays traps for a +compliment. Yes; the time has come in your life and your career when you +would do well to marry. I give my consent to that," she added with a +smile as if in jest, and a slight nod as if in earnest. The knitting here +went on more decidedly, more quickly. "But I do not yet see the person. +No! 'T is a pity, Allen Fenwick" (whenever Mrs. Poyntz called me by my +Christian name, she always assumed her majestic motherly manner),--"a +pity that, with your birth, energies, perseverance, talents, and, let me +add, your advantages of manner and person,--a pity that you did not choose +a career that might achieve higher fortunes and louder fame than the most +brilliant success can give to a provincial physician. But in that very +choice you interest me. My choice has been much thesame,--a small circle, +but the first in it. Yet, had I been a man, or had my dear Colonel been a +man whom it was in the power of a woman's art to raise one step higher in +that metaphorical ladder which is not the ladder of the angels, why, +then--what then? No matter! I am contented. I transfer my ambition to +Jane. Do you not think her handsome?" + +"There can be no doubt of that," said I, carelessly and naturally. + +"I have settled Jane's lot in my own mind," resumed Mrs. Poyntz, +striking firm into another row of knitting. "She will marry a country +gentleman of large estate. He will go into parliament. She will study +his advancement as I study Poyntz's comfort. If he be clever, she will +help to make him a minister; if he be not clever, his wealth will make +her a personage, and lift him into a personage's husband. And, now that +you see I have no matrimonial designs on you, Allen Fenwick, think if it +will be worth while to confide in me. Possibly I may be useful--" + +"I know not how to thank you; but, as yet, I have nothing to confide." + +While thus saying, I turned my eyes towards the open window beside +which I sat. It was a beautiful soft night, the May moon in all her +splendour. The town stretched, far and wide, below with all its +numberless lights,--below, but somewhat distant; an intervening space was +covered, here, by the broad quadrangle (in the midst of which stood, +massive and lonely, the grand old church), and, there, by the gardens and +scattered cottages or mansions that clothed the sides of the hill. + +"Is not that house," I said, after a short pause, "yonder with the +three gables, the one in which--in which poor Dr. Lloyd lived--Abbots' +House?" + +I spoke abruptly, as if to intimate my desire to change the +subject of conversation. My hostess stopped her knitting, half rose, +looked forth. + +"Yes. But what a lovely night! How is it that the moon blends +into harmony things of which the sun only marks the contrast? That +stately old church tower, gray with its thousand years, those vulgar +tile-roofs and chimney-pots raw in the freshness of yesterday,--now, +under the moonlight, all melt into one indivisible charm!" + +As my hostess thus spoke, she had left her seat, taking her work +with her, and passed from the window into the balcony. It was not often +that Mrs. Poyntz condescended to admit what is called "sentiment" into the +range of her sharp, practical, worldly talk; but she did so at +times,--always, when she did, giving me the notion of an intellect much +too comprehensive not to allow that sentiment has a place in this life, +but keeping it in its proper place, by that mixture of affability and +indifference with which some high-born beauty allows the genius, but +checks the presumption, of a charming and penniless poet. For a few +minutes her eyes roved over the scene in evident enjoyment; then, as they +slowly settled upon the three gables of Abbots' House, her face regained +that something of hardness which belonged to its decided character; her +fingers again mechanically resumed her knitting, and she said, in her +clear, unsoftened, metallic chime of voice, "Can you guess why I took so +much trouble to oblige Mr. Vigors and locate Mrs. Ashleigh yonder?" + +"You favoured us with a full explanation of your reasons." + +"Some of my reasons; not the main one. People who undertake the task +of governing others, as I do, be their rule a kingdom or a hamlet, must +adopt a principle of government and adhere to it. The principle that +suits best with the Hill is Respect for the Proprieties. We have not much +money; entre nous, we have no great rank. Our policy is, then, to set up +the Proprieties as an influence which money must court and rank is afraid +of. I had learned just before Mr. Vigors called on me that Lady Sarah +Bellasis entertained the idea of hiring Abbots' House. London has set its +face against her; a provincial town would be more charitable. An earl's +daughter, with a good income and an awfully bad name, of the best manners +and of the worst morals, would have made sad havoc among the Proprieties. +How many of our primmest old maids would have deserted tea and Mrs. Poyntz +for champagne and her ladyship! The Hill was never in so imminenta +danger. Rather than Lady Sarah Bellasis should have had that house, I +would have taken it myself, and stocked it with owls. + +"Mrs. Ashleigh turned up just in the critical moment. Lady Sarah is +foiled, the Proprieties safe, and so that question is settled." + +"And it will be pleasant to have your early friend so near you." + +Mrs. Poyntz lifted her eyes full upon me. + +"Do you know Mrs. Ashleigh?" + +"Not in the least." + +"She has many virtues and few ideas. She is commonplace weak, as I am +commonplace strong. But commonplace weak can be very lovable. Her +husband, a man of genius and learning, gave her his whole heart,--a heart +worth having; but he was not ambitious, and he despised the world." + +"I think you said your daughter was very much attached to Miss +Ashleigh? Does her character resemble her mother's?" + +I was afraid while I spoke that I should again meet Mrs. Poyntz's +searching gaze, but she did not this time look up from her work. + +"No; Lilian is anything but commonplace." + +"You described her as having delicate health; you implied a hope +that she was not consumptive. I trust that there is no serious reason for +apprehending a constitutional tendency which at her age would require the +most careful watching!" + +"I trust not. If she were to die--Dr. Fenwick, what is the matter?" + +So terrible had been the picture which this woman's words had brought +before me, that I started as if my own life had received a shock. + +"I beg pardon," I said falteringly, pressing my hand to my heart; "a +sudden spasm here,--it is over now. You were saying that--that--" + +"I was about to say-" and here Mrs. Poyntz laid her hand lightly +on mine,--"I was about to say that if Lilian Ashleigh were to die, I +should mourn for her less than I might for one who valued the things of +the earth more. But I believe there is no cause for the alarm my words so +inconsiderately excited in you. Her mother is watchful and devoted; and +if the least thing ailed Lilian, she would call in medical advice. Mr. +Vigors would, I know, recommend Dr. Jones." + +Closing our conference with those stinging words, Mrs. Poyntz here +turned back into the drawing-room. + +I remained some minutes on the balcony, disconcerted, enraged. With +what consummate art had this practised diplomatist wound herself into my +secret! That she had read my heart better than myself was evident from +that Parthian shaft, barbed with Dr. Jones, which she had shot over her +shoulder in retreat. That from the first moment in which she had decoyed +me to her side, she had detected "the something" on my mind, was perhaps +but the ordinary quickness of female penetration. But it was with no +ordinary craft that the whole conversation afterwards had been so shaped +as to learn the something, and lead me to reveal the some one to whom the +something was linked. For what purpose? What was it to her? What motive +could she have beyond the mere gratification of curiosity? Perhaps, at +first, she thought I had been caught by her daughter's showy beauty, and +hence the half-friendly, half-cynical frankness with which she had avowed +her ambitious projects for that young lady's matrimonial advancement. +Satisfied by my manner that I cherished no presumptuous hopes in that +quarter, her scrutiny was doubtless continued from that pleasure in the +exercise of a wily intellect which impels schemers and politicians to an +activity for which, without that pleasure itself, there would seem no +adequate inducement. And besides, the ruling passion of this petty +sovereign was power; and if knowledge be power, there is no better +instrument of power over a contumacious subject than that hold on his +heart which is gained in the knowledge of its secret. + +But "secret"! Had it really come to this? Was it possible that the +mere sight of a human face, never beheld before, could disturb the whole +tenor of my life,--a stranger of whose mind and character I knew nothing, +whose very voice I had never heard? It was only by the intolerable pang +of anguish that had rent my heart in the words, carelessly, abruptly +spoken, "if she were to die," that I had felt how the world would be +changed to me, if indeed that face were seen in it no more! Yes, secret +it was no longer to myself, I loved! And like all on whom love descends, +sometimes softly, slowly, with the gradual wing of the cushat settling +down into its nest, sometimes with the swoop of the eagle on his +unsuspecting quarry, I believed that none ever before loved as I loved; +that such love was an abnormal wonder, made solely for me, and I for it. +Then my mind insensibly hushed its angrier and more turbulent thoughts, as +my gaze rested upon the roof-tops of Lilian's home, and the shimmering +silver of the moonlit willow, under which I had seen her gazing into the +roseate heavens. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +When I returned to the drawing-room, the party was evidently about to +break up. Those who had grouped round the piano were now assembled round +the refreshment-table. The cardplayers had risen, and were settling or +discussing gains and losses. While I was searching for my hat, which I +had somewhere mislaid, a poor gentleman, tormented by tic-doloureux, crept +timidly up to me,--the proudest and the poorest of all the hidalgos +settled on the Hill. He could not afford a fee for a physician's advice; +but pain had humbled his pride, and I saw at a glance that he was +considering how to take a surreptitious advantage of social intercourse, +and obtain the advice without paying the fee. The old man discovered the +hat before I did, stooped, took it up, extended it to me with the profound +bow of the old school, while the other hand, clenched and quivering, was +pressed into the hollow of his cheek, and his eyes met mine with wistful +mute entreaty. The instinct of my profession seized me at once. I could +never behold suffering without forgetting all else in the desire to +relieve it. + +"You are in pain," said I, softly. "Sit down and describe the +symptoms. Here, it is true, I am no professional doctor, but I am a +friend who is fond of doctoring, and knows something about it." + +So we sat down a little apart from the other guests, and after a +few questions and answers, I was pleased to find that his "tic" did not +belong to the less curable kind of that agonizing neuralgia. I was +especially successful in my treatment of similar sufferings, for which I +had discovered an anodyne that was almost specific. I wrote on a leaf of +my pocketbook a prescription which I felt sure would be efficacious, and +as I tore it out and placed it in his hand, I chanced to look up, and saw +the hazel eyes of my hostess fixed upon me with a kinder and softer +expression than they often condescended to admit into their cold and +penetrating lustre. At that moment, however, her attention was drawn from +me to a servant, who entered with a note, and I heard him say, though in +an undertone, "From Mrs. Ashleigh." + +She opened the note, read it hastily, ordered the servant to wait +without the door, retired to her writing-table, which stood near the place +at which I still lingered, rested her face on her hand, and seemed musing. +Her meditation was very soon over. She turned her head, and to my +surprise, beckoned to me. I approached. + +"Sit here," she whispered: "turn your back towards those people, who are no +doubt watching us. Read this." + +She placed in my hand the note she had just received. It contained but +a few words, to this effect:-- + + DEAR MARGARET,--I am so distressed. Since I wrote to you a few + hours ago, Lilian is taken suddenly ill, and I fear seriously. What + medical man should I send for? Let my servant have his name and + address. + + A. A. + +I sprang from my seat. + +"Stay," said Mrs. Poyntz. "Would you much care if I sent the servant to +Dr. Jones?" + +"Ah, madam, you are cruel! What have I done that you should become my +enemy?" + +"Enemy! No. You have just befriended one of my friends. In this world +of fools intellect should ally itself with intellect. No; I am not your +enemy! But you have not yet asked me to be your friend." + +Here she put into my hands a note she had written while thus speaking. +"Receive your credentials. If there be any cause for alarm, or if I can +be of use, send for me." Resuming the work she had suspended, but with +lingering, uncertain fingers, she added, "So far, then, this is settled. +Nay, no thanks; it is but little that is settled as yet." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +In a very few minutes I was once more in the grounds of that old gable +house; the servant, who went before me, entered them by the stairs and +the wicket-gate of the private entrance; that way was the shortest. So +again I passed by the circling glade and the monastic well,--sward, trees, +and ruins all suffused in the limpid moonlight. + +And now I was in the house; the servant took up-stairs the note +with which I was charged, and a minute or two afterwards returned and +conducted me to the corridor above, in which Mrs. Ashleigh received me. I +was the first to speak. + +"Your daughter--is--is--not seriously ill, I hope. What is it?" + +"Hush!" she said, under her breath. "Will you step this way for +a moment?" She passed through a doorway to the right. I followed her, +and as she placed on the table the light she had been holding, I looked +round with a chill at the heart,--it was the room in which Dr. Lloyd had +died. Impossible to mistake. The furniture indeed was changed, there was +no bed in the chamber; but the shape of the room, the position of the high +casement, which was now wide open, and through which the moonlight +streamed more softly than on that drear winter night, the great square +beams intersecting the low ceiling,--all were impressed vividly on my +memory. The chair to which Mrs. Ashleigh beckoned me was placed just on +the spot where I had stood by the bedhead of the dying man. + +I shrank back,--I could not have seated myself there. So I remained +leaning against the chimney-piece, while Mrs. Ashleigh told her story. + +She said that on their arrival the day before, Lilian had been in more +than usually good health and spirits, delighted with the old house, the +grounds, and especially the nook by the Monk's Well, at which Mrs. +Ashleigh had left her that evening in order to make some purchases in the +town, in company with Mr. Vigors. When Mrs. Ashleigh returned, she and +Mr. Vigors had sought Lilian in that nook, and Mrs. Ashleigh then +detected, with a mother's eye, some change in Lilian which alarmed her. +She seemed listless and dejected, and was very pale; but she denied that +she felt unwell. On regaining the house she had sat down in the room in +which we then were,--"which," said Mrs. Ashleigh, "as it is not required +for a sleeping-room, my daughter, who is fond of reading, wished to fit up +as her own morning-room, or study. I left her here and went into the +drawing-room below with Mr. Vigors. When he quitted me, which he did very +soon, I remained for nearly an hour giving directions about the placing of +furniture, which had just arrived, from our late residence. I then went +up-stairs to join my daughter, and to my terror found her apparently +lifeless in her chair. She had fainted away." + +I interrupted Mrs. Ashleigh here. "Has Miss Ashleigh been subject +to fainting fits?" + +"No, never. When she recovered she seemed bewildered, disinclined +to speak. I got her to bed, and as she then fell quietly to sleep, my +mind was relieved. I thought it only a passing effect of excitement, in a +change of abode; or caused by something like malaria in the atmosphere of +that part of the grounds in which I had found her seated." + +"Very likely. The hour of sunset at this time of year is trying to +delicate constitutions. Go on." + +"About three quarters of an hour ago she woke up with a loud cry, and +has been ever since in a state of great agitation, weeping violently, and +answering none of my questions. Yet she does not seem light-headed, +but rather what we call hysterical." + +"You will permit me now to see her. Take comfort; in all you tell me I +see nothing to warrant serious alarm." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +To the true physician there is an inexpressible sanctity in the sick +chamber. At its threshold the more human passions quit their hold on his +heart. Love there would be profanation; even the grief permitted to +others he must put aside. He must enter that room--a calm intelligence. +He is disabled for his mission if he suffer aught to obscure the keen +quiet glance of his science. Age or youth, beauty or deformity, innocence +or guilt, merge their distinctions in one common attribute,-human +suffering appealing to human skill. + +Woe to the households in which the trusted Healer feels not on his +conscience the solemn obligations of his glorious art! Reverently as in a +temple, I stood in the virgin's chamber. When her mother placed her hand +in mine, and I felt the throb of its pulse, I was aware of no quicker beat +of my own heart. I looked with a steady eye on the face more beautiful +from the flush that deepened the delicate hues of the young cheek, and the +lustre that brightened the dark blue of the wandering eyes. She did not +at first heed me, did not seem aware of my presence; but kept murmuring to +herself words which I could not distinguish. + +At length, when I spoke to her, in that low, soothing tone which we +learn at the sick-bed, the expression of her face altered suddenly; she +passed the hand I did not hold over her forehead, turned round, looked at +me full and long, with unmistakable surprise, yet not as if the surprise +displeased her,--less the surprise which recoils from the sight of a +stranger than that which seems doubtfully to recognize an unexpected +friend. Yet on the surprise there seemed to creep something of +apprehension, of fear; her hand trembled, her voice quivered, as she +said,-- + +"Can it be, can it be? Am I awake? Mother, who is this?" + +"Only a kind visitor, Dr. Fenwick, sent by Mrs. Poyntz, for I was uneasy +about you, darling. How are you now?" + +"Better. Strangely better." + +She removed her hand gently from mine, and with an involuntary modest +shrinking turned towards Mrs. Ashleigh, drawing her mother towards +herself, so that she became at once hidden from me. + +Satisfied that there was here no delirium, nor even more than the +slight and temporary fever which often accompanies a sudden nervous attack +in constitutions peculiarly sensitive, I retired noiselessly from the +room, and went, not into that which had been occupied by the ill-fated +Naturalist, but down-stairs into the drawing-room, to write my +prescription. I had already sent the servant off with it to the chemist's +before Mrs. Ashleigh joined me. + +"She seems recovering surprisingly; her forehead is cooler; she is +perfectly self-possessed, only she cannot account for her own +seizure,--cannot account either for the fainting or the agitation with +which she awoke from sleep." + +"I think I can account for both. The first room in which she +entered--that in which she fainted--had its window open; the sides of the +window are overgrown with rank creeping plants in full blossom. Miss +Ashleigh had already predisposed herself to injurious effects from the +effluvia by fatigue, excitement, imprudence in sitting out at the fall of +a heavy dew. The sleep after the fainting fit was the more disturbed, +because Nature, always alert and active in subjects so young, was making +its own effort to right itself from an injury. Nature has nearly +succeeded. What I have prescribed will a little aid and accelerate that +which Nature has yet to do, and in a day or two I do not doubt that your +daughter will be perfectly restored. Only let me recommend care to avoid +exposure to the open air during the close of the day. Let her avoid also +the room in which she was first seized, for it is a strange phenomenon in +nervous temperaments that a nervous attack may, without visible cause, be +repeated in the same place where it was first experienced. You had better +shut up the chamber for at least some weeks, burn fires in it, repaint and +paper it, sprinkle chloroform. You are not, perhaps, aware that Dr. Lloyd +died in that room after a prolonged illness. Suffer me to wait till your +servant returns with the medicine, and let me employ the interval in +asking you a few questions. Miss Ashleigh, you say, never had a fainting +fit before. I should presume that she is not what we call strong. But +has she ever had any illness that alarmed you?" + +"Never." + +"No great liability to cold and cough, to attacks of the chest or lungs?" + +"Certainly not. Still I have feared that she may have a tendency to +consumption. Do you think so? Your questions alarm me!" + +"I do not think so; but before I pronounce a positive opinion, one +question more. You say you have feared a tendency to consumption. Is +that disease in her family? She certainly did not inherit it from you. +But on her father's side?" + +"Her father," said Mrs. Ashleigh, with tears in her eyes, "died young, +but of brain fever, which the medical men said was brought on by over +study." + +"Enough, my dear madam. What you say confirms my belief that your +daughter's constitution is the very opposite to that in which the seeds of +consumption lurk. It is rather that far nobler constitution, which the +keenness of the nervous susceptibility renders delicate but elastic,--as +quick to recover as it is to suffer." + +"Thank you, thank you, Dr. Fenwick, for what you say. You take a load +from my heart; for Mr. Vigors, I know, thinks Lilian consumptive, and Mrs. +Poyntz has rather frightened me at times by hints to the same effect. But +when you speak of nervous susceptibility, I do not quite understand you. +My daughter is not what is commonly called nervous. Her temper is +singularly even." + +"But if not excitable, should you also say that she is not +impressionable? The things which do not disturb her temper may, perhaps, +deject her spirits. Do I make myself understood?" + +"Yes, I think I understand your distinction; but I am not quite sure if +it applies. To most things that affect the spirits she is not more +sensitive than other girls, perhaps less so; but she is certainly +very impressionable in some things." + +"In what?" + +"She is more moved than any one I ever knew by objects in external +nature, rural scenery, rural sounds, by music, by the books that she +reads,--even books that are not works of imagination. Perhaps in all this +she takes after her poor father, but in a more marked degree,--at least, I +observe it more in her; for he was very silent and reserved. And perhaps +also her peculiarities have been fostered by the seclusion in which she +has been brought up. It was with a view to make her a little more like +girls of her own age that our friend, Mrs. Poyntz, induced me to come +here. Lilian was reconciled to this change; but she shrank from the +thoughts of London, which I should have preferred. Her poor father could +not endure London." + +"Miss Ashleigh is fond of reading?" + +"Yes, she is fond of reading, but more fond of musing. She will sit by +herself for hours without book or work, and seem as abstracted as if in a +dream. She was so even in her earliest childhood. Then she would tell me +what she had been conjuring up to herself. She would say that she had +seen--positively seen--beautiful lands far away from earth; flowers and +trees not like ours. As she grew older this visionary talk displeased me, +and I scolded her, and said that if others heard her, they would think +that she was not only silly but very untruthful. So of late years she +never ventures to tell me what, in such dreamy moments, she suffers +herself to imagine; but the habit of musing continues still. Do you not +agree with Mrs. Poyntz that the best cure would be a little cheerful +society amongst other young people?" + +"Certainly," said I, honestly, though with a jealous pang. "But here +comes the medicine. Will you take it up to her, and then sit with her +half an hour or so? By that time I expect she will be asleep. I will +wait here till you return. Oh, I can amuse myself with the newspapers and +books on your table. Stay! one caution: be sure there are no flowers in +Miss Ashleigh's sleeping-room. I think I saw a treacherous rose-tree in a +stand by the window. If so, banish it." + +Left alone, I examined the room in which, oh, thought of joy! I had +surely now won the claim to become a privileged guest. I touched the +books Lilian must have touched; in the articles of furniture, as yet so +hastily disposed that the settled look of home was not about them, I +still knew that I was gazing on things which her mind must associate with +the history of her young life. That luteharp must be surely hers, and the +scarf, with a girl's favourite colours,--pure white and pale blue,--and +the bird-cage, and the childish ivory work-case, with implements too +pretty for use,--all spoke of her. + +It was a blissful, intoxicating revery, which Mrs. Ashleigh's entrance +disturbed. + +Lilian was sleeping calmly. I had no excuse to linger there any longer. + +"I leave you, I trust, with your mind quite at ease," said I. "You will +allow me to call to-morrow, in the afternoon?" + +"Oh, yes, gratefully." + +Mrs. Ashleigh held out her hand as I made towards the door. + +Is there a physician who has not felt at times how that ceremonious fee +throws him back from the garden-land of humanity into the market-place of +money,--seems to put him out of the pale of equal friendship, and say, +"True, you have given health and life. Adieu! there, you are paid for +it!" With a poor person there would have been no dilemma, but Mrs. +Ashleigh was affluent: to depart from custom here was almost impertinence. +But had the penalty of my refusal been the doom of never again beholding +Lilian, I could not have taken her mother's gold. So I did not appear to +notice the hand held out to me, and passed by with a quickened step. + +"But, Dr. Fenwick, stop!" + +"No, ma'am, no! Miss Ashleigh would have recovered as soon without me. +Whenever my aid is really wanted, then--but Heaven grant that time may +never come! We will talk again about her to-morrow." + +I was gone,--now in the garden ground, odorous with blossoms; now in +the lane, inclosed by the narrow walls; now in the deserted streets, over +which the moon shone full as in that winter night when I hurried from the +chamber of death. But the streets were not ghastly now, and the moon was +no longer Hecate, that dreary goddess of awe and spectres, but the sweet, +simple Lady of the Stars, on whose gentle face lovers have gazed ever +since (if that guess of astronomers be true) she was parted from earth to +rule the tides of its deeps from afar, even as love, from love divided, +rules the heart that yearns towards it with mysterious law. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +With what increased benignity I listened to the patients who visited me +the next morning! The whole human race seemed to be worthier of love, and +I longed to diffuse amongst all some rays of the glorious hope that had +dawned upon my heart. My first call, when I went forth, was on the poor +young woman from whom I had been returning the day before, when an +impulse, which seemed like a fate, had lured me into the grounds where I +had first seen Lilian. I felt grateful to this poor patient; without her +Lilian herself might be yet unknown to rue. + +The girl's brother, a young man employed in the police, and whose pay +supported a widowed mother and the suffering sister, received me at the +threshold of the cottage. + +"Oh, sir, she is so much better to-day; almost free from pain. Will +she live now; can she live?" + +"If my treatment has really done the good you say; if she be really +better under it, I think her recovery may be pronounced. But I must first +see her." + +The girl was indeed wonderfully better. I felt that my skill was +achieving a signal triumph; but that day even my intellectual pride was +forgotten in the luxurious unfolding of that sense of heart which had so +newly waked into blossom. + +As I recrossed the threshold, I smiled on the brother, who was still +lingering there,-- + +"Your sister is saved, Wady. She needs now chiefly wine, and good +though light nourishment; these you will find at my house; call there for +them every day." + +"God bless you, sir! If ever I can serve you--" His tongue faltered, +he could say no more. + +Serve me, Allen Fenwick--that poor policeman! Me, whom a king could not +serve! What did I ask from earth but Fame and Lilian's heart? Thrones +and bread man wins from the aid of others; fame and woman's heart he can +only gain through himself. + +So I strode gayly up the hill, through the iron gates, into the fairy +ground, and stood before Lilian's home. + +The man-servant, on opening the door, seemed somewhat confused, and +said hastily before I spoke,-- + +"Not at home, sir; a note for you." + +I turned the note mechanically in my hand; I felt stunned. + +"Not at home! Miss Ashleigh cannot be out. How is she?" + +"Better, sir, thank you." + +I still could not open the note; my eyes turned wistfully towards the +windows of the house, and there--at the drawing-room window--I encountered +the scowl of Mr. Vigors. I coloured with resentment, divined that I was +dismissed, and walked away with a proud crest and a firm step. + +When I was out of the gates, in the blind lane, I opened the note. It +began formally. "Mrs. Ashleigh presents her compliments," and went on to +thank me, civilly enough, for my attendance the night before, would not +give me the trouble to repeat my visit, and inclosed a fee, double the +amount of the fee prescribed by custom. I flung the money, as an asp that +had stung me, over the high wall, and tore the note into shreds. Having +thus idly vented my rage, a dull gnawing sorrow came heavily down upon all +other emotions, stifling and replacing them. At the mouth of the lane I +halted. I shrank from the thought of the crowded streets beyond; I shrank +yet more from the routine of duties, which stretched before me in the +desert into which daily life was so suddenly smitten. I sat down by the +roadside, shading my dejected face with a nervous hand. I looked up as +the sound of steps reached my ear, and saw Dr. Jones coming briskly along +the lane, evidently from Abbots' House. He must have been there at the +very time I had called. I was not only dismissed but supplanted. I rose +before he reached the spot on which I had seated myself, and went my way +into the town, went through my allotted round of professional visits; but +my attentions were not so tenderly devoted, my kill so genially quickened +by the glow of benevolence, as my poorer patients had found them in the +morning. I have said how the physician should enter the sick-room. "A +Calm Intelligence!" But if you strike a blow on the heart, the intellect +suffers. Little worth, I suspect, was my "calm intelligence" that day. +Bichat, in his famous book upon Life and Death, divides life into two +classes,--animal and organic. Man's intellect, with the brain for its +centre, belongs to life animal; his passions to life organic, centred in +the heart, in the viscera. Alas! if the noblest passions through which +alone we lift ourselves into the moral realm of the sublime and beautiful +really have their centre in the life which the very vegetable, that lives +organically, shares with us! And, alas! if it be that life which we +share with the vegetable, that can cloud, obstruct, suspend, annul that +life centred in the brain, which we share with every being howsoever +angelic, in every star howsoever remote, on whom the Creator bestows the +faculty of thought! + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +But suddenly I remembered Mrs. Poyntz. I ought to call on her. So I +closed my round of visits at her door. The day was then far advanced, and +the servant politely informed me that Mrs. Poyntz was at dinner. I could +only leave my card, with a message that I would pay my respects to her the +next day. That evening I received from her this note:-- + + Dear Dr. Fenwick,--I regret much that I cannot have the pleasure of + seeing you to-morrow. Poyntz and I are going to visit his brother, at + the other end of the county, and we start early. We shall be away some + days. Sorry to hear from Mrs. Ashleigh that she has been persuaded by + Mr. Vigors to consult Dr. Jones about Lilian. Vigors and Jones both + frighten the poor mother, and insist upon consumptive tendencies. + Unluckily, you seem to have said there was little the matter. Some + doctors train their practice as some preachers fill their churches,--by + adroit use of the appeals to terror. You do not want patients, Dr. + Jones does. And, after all, better perhaps as it is. + Yours, etc. + M. Poyntz. + +To my more selfish grief, anxiety for Lilian was now added. I had seen +many more patients die from being mistreated for consumption than from +consumption itself. And Dr. Jones was a mercenary, cunning, needy man, +with much crafty knowledge of human foibles, but very little skill in the +treatment of human maladies. My fears were soon confirmed. A few days +after I heard from Miss Brabazon that Miss Ashleigh was seriously ill, +kept her room. Mrs. Ashleigh made this excuse for not immediately +returning the visits which the Hill had showered upon her. Miss Brabazon +had seen Dr. Jones, who had shaken his head, said it was a serious case; +but that time and care (his time and his care!) might effect wonders. + +How stealthily at the dead of the night I would climb the Hill and look +towards the windows of the old sombre house,--one window, in which a light +burned dim and mournful, the light of a sick-room,--of hers! + +At length Mrs. Poyntz came back, and I entered her house, having fully +resolved beforehand on the line of policy to be adopted towards the +potentate whom I hoped to secure as an ally. It was clear that neither +disguise nor half-confidence would baffle the penetration of so keen an +intellect, nor propitiate the good will of so imperious and resolute a +temper. Perfect frankness here was the wisest prudence; and after all, it +was most agreeable to my own nature, and most worthy of my own honour. + +Luckily, I found Mrs. Poyntz alone, and taking in both mine the hand +she somewhat coldly extended to me, I said, with the earnestness of +suppressed emotion,-- + +"You observed when I last saw you, that I had not yet asked you to be +my friend. I ask it now. Listen to me with all the indulgence you can +vouchsafe, and let me at least profit by your counsel if you refuse to +give me your aid." + +Rapidly, briefly, I went on to say how I had first seen Lilian, and +how sudden, how strange to myself, had been the impression which that +first sight of her had produced. + +"You remarked the change that had come over me," said I; "you +divined the cause before I divined it myself,--divined it as I sat there +beside you, thinking that through you I might see, in the freedom of +social intercourse, the face that was then haunting me. You know what has +since passed. Miss Ashleigh is ill; her case is, I am convinced, wholly +misunderstood. All other feelings are merged in one sense of anxiety,--of +alarm. But it has become due to me, due to all, to incur the risk of your +ridicule even more than of your reproof, by stating to you thus candidly, +plainly, bluntly, the sentiment which renders alarm so poignant, and +which, if scarcely admissible to the romance of some wild dreamy boy, may +seem an unpardonable folly in a man of my years and my sober calling,--due +to me, to you, to Mrs. Ashleigh, because still the dearest thing in life +to me is honour. And if you, who know Mrs. Ashleigh so intimately, who +must be more or less aware of her plans or wishes for her daughter's +future,--if you believe that those plans or wishes lead to a lot far more +ambitious than an alliance with me could offer to Miss Ashleigh, then aid +Mr. Vigors in excluding me from the house; aid me in suppressing a +presumptuous, visionary passion. I cannot enter that house without love +and hope at my heart; and the threshold of that house I must not cross if +such love and such hope would be a sin and a treachery in the eyes of its +owner. I might restore Miss Ashleigh to health; her gratitude might--I +cannot continue. This danger must not be to me nor to her, if her mother +has views far above such a son-in-law. And I am the more bound to +consider all this while it is yet time, because I heard you state that +Miss Ashleigh had a fortune, was what would be here termed an heiress. +And the full consciousness that whatever fame one in my profession may +live to acquire, does not open those vistas of social power and grandeur +which are opened by professions to my eyes less noble in themselves,--that +full consciousness, I say, was forced upon me by certain words of your +own. For the rest, you know my descent is sufficiently recognized as that +amidst well-born gentry to have rendered me no mesalliance to families the +most proud of their ancestry, if I had kept my hereditary estate and +avoided the career that makes me useful to man. But I acknowledge that on +entering a profession such as mine--entering any profession except that of +arms or the senate--all leave their pedigree at its door, an erased or +dead letter. All must come as equals, high-born or low-born, into that +arena in which men ask aid from a man as he makes himself; to them his +dead forefathers are idle dust. Therefore, to the advantage of birth I +cease to have a claim. I am but a provincial physician, whose station +would be the same had he been a cobbler's son. But gold retains its grand +privilege in all ranks. He who has gold is removed from the suspicion +that attaches to the greedy fortune-hunter. My private fortune, swelled +by my savings, is sufficient to secure to any one I married a larger +settlement than many a wealthy squire can make. I need no fortune with a +wife; if she have one, it would be settled on herself. Pardon these +vulgar details. Now, have I made myself understood?" + +"Fully," answered the Queen of the Hill, who had listened to me +quietly, watchfully, and without one interruption, "fully; and you have +done well to confide in me with so generous an unreserve. But before I +say further, let me ask, what would be your advice for Lilian, supposing +that you ought not to attend her? You have no trust in Dr. Jones; neither +have I. And Annie Ashleigh's note received to-day, begging me to call, +justifies your alarm. Still you think there is no tendency to +consumption?" + +"Of that I am certain so far as my slight glimpse of a case that +to me, however, seems a simple and not uncommon one, will permit. But in +the alternative you put--that my own skill, whatever its worth, is +forbidden--my earnest advice is that Mrs. Ashleigh should take her +daughter at once to London, and consult there those great authorities to +whom I cannot compare my own opinion or experience; and by their counsel +abide." + +Mrs. Poyntz shaded her eyes with her hand for a few moments, and seemed +in deliberation with herself. Then she said, with her peculiar smile, +half grave, half ironical,-- + +"In matters more ordinary you would have won me to your side long ago. +That Mr. Vigors should have presumed to cancel my recommendation to a +settler on the Hill was an act of rebellion, and involved the honour of my +prerogative; but I suppressed my indignation at an affront so unusual, +partly out of pique against yourself, but much more, I think, out of +regard for you." + +"I understand. You detected the secret of my heart; you knew that Mrs. +Ashleigh would not wish to see her daughter the wife of a provincial +physician." + +"Am I sure, or are you sure, that the daughter herself would accept +that fate; or if she accepted it, would not repent?" + +"Do you not think me the vainest of men when I say this,--that I cannot +believe I should be so enthralled by a feeling at war with my reason, +unfavoured by anything I can detect in my habits of mind, or even by the +dreams of a youth which exalted science and excluded love, unless I was +intimately convinced that Miss Ashleigh's heart was free, that I could +win, and that I could keep it! Ask me why I am convinced of this, and I +can tell you no more why I think that she could love me than I can tell +you why I love her!" + +"I am of the world, worldly; but I am a woman, womanly,--though I may +not care to be thought it. And, therefore, though what you say is, +regarded in a worldly point of view, sheer nonsense, regarded in a womanly +point of view, it is logically sound. But still you cannot know Lilian as +I do. Your nature and hers are in strong contrast. I do not think she +is a safe wife for you. The purest, the most innocent creature +imaginable, certainly that, but always in the seventh heaven; and you in +the seventh heaven just at this moment, but with an irresistible +gravitation to the solid earth, which will have its way again when the +honeymoon is over--I do not believe you two would harmonize by +intercourse. I do not believe Lilian would sympathize with you, and I am +sure you could not sympathize with her throughout the long dull course of +this workday life. And, therefore, for your sake, as well as hers, I was +not displeased to find that Dr. Jones had replaced you; and now, in return +for your frankness, I say frankly, do not go again to that house. Conquer +this sentiment, fancy, passion, whatever it be. And I will advise Mrs. +Ashleigh to take Lilian to town. Shall it be so settled?" + +I could not speak. I buried my face in my hands-misery, misery, +desolation! + +I know not how long I remained thus silent, perhaps many minutes. At +length I felt a cold, firm, but not ungentle hand placed upon mine; and a +clear, full, but not discouraging voice said to me,-- + +"Leave me to think well over this conversation, and to ponder well the +value of all you have shown that you so deeply feel. The interests of +life do not fill both scales of the balance. The heart, which does not +always go in the same scale with the interests, still has its weight in +the scale opposed to them. I have heard a few wise men say, as many a +silly woman says, 'Better be unhappy with one we love, than be happy with +one we love not.' Do you say that too?" + +"With every thought of my brain, every beat of my pulse, I say it." + +"After that answer, all my questionings cease. You shall hear from me +to-morrow. By that time, I shall have seen Annie and Lilian. I shall +have weighed both scales of the balance,--and the heart here, Allen +Fenwick, seems very heavy. Go, now. I hear feet on the stairs, Poyntz +bringing up some friendly gossiper; gossipers are spies." + +I passed my hand over my eyes, tearless, but how tears would have +relieved the anguish that burdened them! and, without a word, went down +the stairs, meeting at the landing-place Colonel Poyntz and the old man +whose pain my prescription had cured. The old man was whistling a merry +tune, perhaps first learned on the playground. He broke from it to thank, +almost to embrace me, as I slid by him. I seized his jocund blessing as a +good omen, and carried it with me as I passed into the broad sunlight. +Solitary--solitary! Should I be so evermore? + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +The next day I had just dismissed the last of my visiting patients, and +was about to enter my carriage and commence my round, when I received +a twisted note containing but these words:-- + + Call on me to-day, as soon as you can. + + M. Poyntz. + +A few minutes afterwards I was in Mrs. Poyntz's drawing-room. + +"Well, Allen Fenwick" said she, "I do not serve friends by halves. No +thanks! I but adhere to a principle I have laid down for myself. I spent +last evening with the Ashleighs. Lilian is certainly much altered,-- +very weak, I fear very ill, and I believe very unskilfuly treated by Dr. +Jones. I felt that it was my duty to insist on a change of physician; but +there was something else to consider before deciding who that physician +should be. I was bound, as your confidante, to consult your own scruples +of honour. Of course I could not say point-blank to Mrs. Ashleigh, 'Dr. +Fenwick admires your daughter, would you object to him as a son-in-law?' +Of course I could not touch at all on the secret with which you intrusted +me; but I have not the less arrived at a conclusion, in agreement with my +previous belief, that not being a woman of the world, Annie Ashleigh has +none of the ambition which women of the world would conceive for a +daughter who has a good fortune and considerable beauty; that her +predominant anxiety is forher child's happiness, and her predominant +fear is that her child will die. She would never oppose any attachment +which Lilian might form; and if that attachment were for one who had +preserved her daughter's life, I believe her own heart would gratefully +go with her daughter's. So far, then, as honour is concerned, all +scruples vanish." + +I sprang from my seat, radiant with joy. Mrs. Poyntz dryly +continued: "You value yourself on your common-sense, and to that I address +a few words of counsel which may not be welcome to your romance. I said +that I did not think you and Lilian would suit each other in the long run; +reflection confirms me in that supposition. Do not look at me so +incredulously and so sadly. Listen, and take heed. Ask yourself what, as +a man whose days are devoted to a laborious profession, whose ambition is +entwined with its success, whose mind must be absorbed in its +pursuits,--ask yourself what kind of a wife you would have sought to win; +had not this sudden fancy for a charming face rushed over your better +reason, and obliterated all previous plans and resolutions. Surely some +one with whom your heart would have been quite at rest; by whom your +thoughts would have been undistracted from the channels into which your +calling should concentrate their flow; in short, a serene companion in the +quiet holiday of a trustful home! Is it not so?" + +"You interpret my own thoughts when they have turned towards marriage. +But what is there in Lilian Ashleigh that should mar the picture you have +drawn?" + +"What is there in Lilian Ashleigh which in the least accords with the +picture? In the first place, the wife of a young physician should not be +his perpetual patient. The more he loves her, and the more worthy she may +be of love, the more her case will haunt him wherever he goes. When he +returns home, it is not to a holiday; the patient he most cares for, the +anxiety that most gnaws him, awaits him there." + +"But, good heavens! why should Lilian Ashleigh be a perpetual patient? +The sanitary resources of youth are incalculable. And--" + +"Let me stop you; I cannot argue against a physician in love! I will +give up that point in dispute, remaining convinced that there is something +in Lilian's constitution which will perplex, torment, and baffle you. It +was so with her father, whom she resembles in face and in character. He +showed no symptoms of any grave malady. His outward form was, like +Lilian's, a model of symmetry, except in this, that, like hers, it was too +exquisitely delicate; but when seemingly in the midst of perfect health, +at any slight jar on the nerves he would become alarmingly ill. I was +sure that he would die young, and he did so." + +"Ay, but Mrs. Ashleigh said that his death was from brain-fever, brought +on by over-study. Rarely, indeed, do women so fatigue the brain. No +female patient, in the range of my practice, ever died of purely mental +exertion." + +"Of purely mental exertion, no; but of heart emotion, many female +patients, perhaps? Oh, you own that! I know nothing about nerves; but I +suppose that, whether they act on the brain or the heart, the result to +life is much the same if the nerves be too finely strung for life's daily +wear and tear. And this is what I mean, when I say you and Lilian will +not suit. As yet, she is a mere child; her nature undeveloped, and her +affections therefore untried. You might suppose that you had won her +heart; she might believe that she gave it to you, and both be deceived. +If fairies nowadays condescended to exchange their offspring with those +of mortals, and if the popular tradition did not represent a fairy +changeling as an ugly peevish creature, with none of the grace of its +parents, I should be half inclined to suspect that Lilian was one of the +elfin people. She never seems at home on earth; and I do not think she +will ever be contented with a prosaic earthly lot. Now I have told you +why I do not think she will suit you. I must leave it to yourself to +conjecture how far you would suit her. I say this in due season, while +you may set a guard upon your impulse; while you may yet watch, and weigh, +and meditate; and from this moment on that subject I say no more. I lend +advice, but I never throw it away." + +She came here to a dead pause, and began putting on her bonnet and +scarf, which lay on the table beside her. I was a little chilled by her +words, and yet more by the blunt, shrewd, hard look and manner which aided +the effect of their delivery; but the chill melted away in the sudden glow +of my heart when she again turned towards me and said,-- + +"Of course you guess, from these preliminary cautions, that you are +going into danger? Mrs. Ashleigh wishes to consult you about Lilian, and +I propose to take you to her house." + +"Oh, my friend, my dear friend, how can I ever repay you?" I caught her +hand, the white firm hand, and lifted it to my lips. + +She drew it somewhat hastily away, and laying it gently on my shoulder, +said, in a soft voice, "Poor Allen, how little the world knows either of +us! But how little perhaps we know ourselves! Come, your carriage is +here? That is right; we must put down Dr. Jones publicly and in all our +state." + +In the carriage Mrs. Poyntz told me the purport of that conversation +with Mrs. Ashleigh to which I owed my re-introduction to Abbots' House. +It seems that Mr. Vigors had called early the morning after my first +visit! had evinced much discomposure on hearing that I had been summoned! +dwelt much on my injurious treatment of Dr. Lloyd, whom, as distantly +related to himself, and he (Mr. Vigors) being distantly connected with the +late Gilbert Ashleigh, he endeavoured to fasten upon his listener as one +of her husband's family, whose quarrel she was bound in honour to take up. +He spoke of me as an infidel "tainted with French doctrines," and as a +practitioner rash and presumptuous; proving his own freedom from +presumption and rashness by flatly deciding that my opinion must be +wrong. Previously to Mrs. Ashleigh's migration to L----, Mr. Vigors had +interested her in the pretended phenomena of mesmerism. He had consulted +a clairvoyante, much esteemed by poor Dr. Lloyd, as to Lilian's health, +and the clairvoyante had declared her to be constitutionally predisposed +to consumption. Mr. Vigors persuaded Mrs. Ashleigh to come at once with +him and see this clairvoyante herself, armed with a lock of Lilian's hair +and a glove she had worn, as the media of mesmerical rapport. + +The clairvoyante, one of those I had publicly denounced as an impostor, +naturally enough denounced me in return. On being asked solemnly by Mr. +Vigors "to look at Dr. Fenwick and see if his influence would be +beneficial to the subject," the sibyl had become violently agitated, and +said that, "when she looked at us together, we were enveloped in a black +cloud; that this portended affliction and sinister consequences; that our +rapport was antagonistic." Mr. Vigors then told her to dismiss my image, +and conjure up that of Dr. Jones. Therewith the somnambule became more +tranquil, and said: "Dr. Jones would do well if he would be guided by +higher lights than his own skill, and consult herself daily as to the +proper remedies. The best remedy of all would be mesmerism. But since +Dr. Lloyd's death, she did not know of a mesmerist, sufficiently gifted, +in affinity with the patient." In fine, she impressed and awed Mrs. +Ashleigh, who returned in haste, summoned Dr. Jones, and dismissed +myself. + +"I could not have conceived Mrs. Ashleigh to be so utterly wanting in +common-sense," said I. "She talked rationally enough when I saw her." + +"She has common-sense in general, and plenty of the sense most common," +answered Mrs. Poyntz; "but she is easily led and easily frightened +wherever her affections are concerned, and therefore, just as easily as +she had been persuaded by Mr. Vigors and terrified by the somnambule, I +persuaded her against the one, and terrified her against the other. I had +positive experience on my side, since it was clear that Lilian had been +getting rapidly worse under Dr. Jones's care. The main obstacles I had to +encounter in inducing Mrs. Ashleigh to consult you again were, first, her +reluctance to disoblige Mr. Vigors, as a friend and connection of Lilian's +father; and, secondly, her sentiment of shame in re-inviting your opinion +after having treated you with so little respect. Both these difficulties +I took on myself. I bring you to her house, and, on leaving you, I shall +go on to Mr. Vigors, and tell him what is done is my doing, and not to be +undone by him; so that matter is settled. Indeed, if you were out of the +question, I should not suffer Mr. Vigors to re-introduce all these +mummeries of clairvoyance and mesmerism into the precincts of the Hill. I +did not demolish a man I really liked in Dr. Lloyd, to set up a Dr. Jones, +whom I despise, in his stead. Clairvoyance on Abbey Hill, indeed! I saw +enough of it before." + +"True; your strong intellect detected at once the absurdity of the whole +pretence,--the falsity of mesmerism, the impossibility of clairvoyance." + +"No, my strong intellect did nothing of the kind. I do not know whether +mesmerism be false or clairvoyance impossible; and I don't wish to know. +All I do know is, that I saw the Hill in great danger,--young ladies +allowing themselves to be put to sleep by gentlemen, and pretending they +had no will of their own against such fascination! Improper and shocking! +And Miss Brabazon beginning to prophesy, and Mrs. Leopold Smythe +questioning her maid (whom Dr. Lloyd declared to be highly gifted) as to +all the secrets of her friends. When I saw this, I said, 'The Hill is +becoming demoralized; the Hill is making itself ridiculous; the Hill must +be saved!' I remonstrated with Dr. Lloyd as a friend; he remained +obdurate. I annihilated him as an enemy, not to me but to the State. I +slew my best lover for the good of Rome. Now you know why I took your +part,--not because I have any opinion, one way or the other, as to the +truth or falsehood of what Dr. Lloyd asserted; but I have a strong opinion +that, whether they be true or false, his notions were those which are not +to be allowed on the Hill. And so, Allen Fenwick, that matter was +settled." + +Perhaps at another time I might have felt some little humiliation to learn +that I had been honoured with the influence of this great potentate not as +a champion of truth, but as an instrument of policy; and I might have +owned to some twinge of conscience in having assisted to sacrifice a +fellow-seeker after science--misled, no doubt, but preferring his +independent belief to his worldly interest--and sacrifice him to +those deities with whom science is ever at war,--the Prejudices of a +Clique sanctified into the Proprieties of the World. But at that moment +the words I heard made no perceptible impression on my mind. The gables +of Abbots' House were visible above the evergreens and lilacs; another +moment, and the carriage stopped at the door. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Mrs. Ashleigh received us in the dining-room. Her manner to me, at first, +was a little confused and shy. But my companion soon communicated +something of her own happy ease to her gentler friend. After a short +conversation we all three went to Lilian, who was in a little room on the +ground-floor, fitted up as her study. I was glad to perceive that my +interdict of the deathchamber had been respected. + +She reclined on a sofa near the window, which was, however, jealously +closed; the light of the bright May-day obscured by blinds and curtains; a +large fire on the hearth; the air of the room that of a hot-house,--the +ignorant, senseless, exploded system of nursing into consumption those who +are confined on suspicion of it! She did not heed us as we entered +noiselessly; her eyes were drooped languidly on the floor, and with +difficulty I suppressed the exclamation that rose to my lips on seeing +her. She seemed within the last few days so changed, and on the aspect of +the countenance there was so profound a melancholy! But as she slowly +turned at the sound of our footsteps, and her eyes met mine, a quick blush +came into the wan cheek, and she half rose, but sank back as if the effort +exhausted her. There was a struggle for breath, and a low hollow cough. +Was it possible that I had been mistaken, and that in that cough was heard +the warning knell of the most insidious enemy to youthful life? + +I sat down by her side; I lured her on to talk of indifferent +subjects,--the weather, the gardens, the bird in the cage, which was +placed on the table near her. Her voice, at first low and feeble, became +gradually stronger, and her face lighted up with a child's innocent, +playful smile. No, I had not been mistaken! That was no lymphatic, +nerveless temperament, on which consumption fastens as its lawful prey; +here there was no hectic pulse, no hurried waste of the vital flame. +Quietly and gently I made my observations, addressed my questions, +applied my stethoscope; and when I turned my face towards her mother's +anxious, eager eyes, that face told my opinion; for her mother sprang +forward, clasped my hand, and said, through her struggling tears,-- + +"You smile! You see nothing to fear?" + +"Fear! No, indeed! You will soon be again yourself, Miss Ashleigh, will +you not?" + +"Yes," she said, with her sweet laugh, "I shall be well now very soon. +But may I not have the window open; may I not go into the garden? I so +long for fresh air." + +"No, no, darling," exclaimed Mrs. Ashleigh, "not while the east winds +last. Dr. Jones said on no account. On no account, Dr. Fenwick, eh?" + +"Will you take my arm, Miss Ashleigh, for a few turns up and down the +room?" said I. "We will then see how far we may rebel against Dr. Jones." + +She rose with some little effort, but there was no cough. At first her +step was languid; it became lighter and more elastic after a few moments. + +"Let her come out," said I to Mrs. Ashleigh. "The wind is not in the +east, and, while we are out, pray bid your servant lower to the last bar +in the grate that fire,--only fit for Christmas." + +"But--" + +"Ah, no buts! He is a poor doctor who is not a stern despot." + +So the straw hat and mantle were sent for. Lilian was wrapped with +unnecessary care, and we all went forth into the garden. Involuntarily we +took the way to the Monk's Well, and at every step Lilian seemed to revive +under the bracing air and temperate sun. We paused by the well. + +"You do not feel fatigued, Miss Ashleigh?" + +"No." + +"But your face seems changed. It is grown sadder." + +"Not sadder." + +"Sadder than when I first saw it,--saw it when you were seated here!" I +said this in a whisper. I felt her hand tremble as it lay on my arm. + +"You saw me seated here!" + +"Yes. I will tell you how some day." + +Lilian lifted her eyes to mine, and there was in them that same surprise +which I had noticed on my first visit,--a surprise that perplexed me, +blended with no displeasure, but yet with a something of vague alarm. + +We soon returned to the house. + +Mrs. Ashleigh made me a sign to follow her into the drawing-room, leaving +Mrs. Poyntz with Lilian. + +"Well?" said she, tremblingly. + +"Permit me to see Dr. Jones's prescriptions. Thank you. Ay, I thought +so. My dear madam, the mistake here has been in depressing nature instead +of strengthening; in narcotics instead of stimulants. The main stimulants +which leave no reaction are air and light. Promise me that I may have my +own way for a week,--that all I recommend will be implicitly heeded?" + +"I promise. But that cough,--you noticed it?" + +"Yes. The nervous system is terribly lowered, and nervous exhaustion is a +strange impostor; it imitates all manner of complaints with which it has +no connection. The cough will soon disappear! But pardon my question. +Mrs. Poyntz tells me that you consulted a clairvoyants about your +daughter. Does Miss Ashleigh know that you did so?" + +"No; I did not tell her." + +"I am glad of that. And pray, for Heaven's sake, guard her against all +that may set her thinking on such subjects. Above all, guard her against +concentring attention on any malady that your fears erroneously ascribe to +her. It is amongst the phenomena of our organization that you cannot +closely rivet your consciousness on any part of the frame, however +healthy, but it will soon begin to exhibit morbid sensibility. Try to fix +all your attention on your little finger for half an hour, and before the +half hour is over the little finger will be uneasy, probably even +painful. How serious, then, is the danger to a young girl, at the age in +which imagination is most active, most intense, if you force upon her a +belief that she is in danger of a mortal disease! It is a peculiarity of +youth to brood over the thought of early death much more resignedly, much +more complacently, than we do in maturer years. Impress on a young +imaginative girl, as free from pulmonary tendencies as you and I are, the +conviction that she must fade away into the grave, and though she may not +actually die of consumption, you instil slow poison into her system. Hope +is the natural aliment of youth. You impoverish nourishment where you +discourage hope. As soon as this temporary illness is over, reject for +your daughter the melancholy care which seems to her own mind to mark her +out from others of her age. Rear her for the air, which is the kindest +life-giver; to sleep with open windows: to be out at sunrise. Nature +will do more for her than all our drugs can do. You have been hitherto +fearing Nature; now trust to her." + +Here Mrs. Poyntz joined us, and having, while I had been speaking, written +my prescription and some general injunctions, I closed my advice with an +appeal to that powerful protectress. + +"This, my dear madam, is a case in which I need your aid, and I ask it. +Miss Ashleigh should not be left with no other companion than her mother. +A change of faces is often as salutary as a change of air. If you could +devote an hour or two this very evening to sit with Miss Ashleigh, to talk +to her with your usual cheerfulness, and--" + +"Annie," interrupted Mrs. Poyntz, "I will come and drink tea with you at +half-past seven, and bring my knitting; and perhaps, if you ask him, Dr. +Fenwick will come too! He can be tolerably entertaining when he likes it." + +"It is too great a tax on his kindness, I fear," said Mrs. Ashleigh. +"But," she added cordially, "I should be grateful indeed if he would spare +us an hour of his time." + +I murmured an assent which I endeavoured to make not too joyous. + +"So that matter is settled," said Mrs. Poyntz; "and now I shall go to Mr. +Vigors and prevent his further interference." + +"Oh, but, Margaret, pray don't offend him,--a connection of my poor dear +Gilbert's. And so tetchy! I am sure I do not know how you'll manage +to--" + +"To get rid of him? Never fear. As I manage everything and everybody," +said Mrs. Poyntz, bluntly. So she kissed her friend on the forehead, gave +me a gracious nod, and, declining the offer of my carriage, walked with +her usual brisk, decided tread down the short path towards the town. + +Mrs. Ashleigh timidly approached me, and again the furtive hand bashfully +insinuated the hateful fee. + +"Stay," said I; "this is a case which needs the most constant watching. I +wish to call so often that I should seem the most greedy of doctors if my +visits were to be computed at guineas. Let me be at ease to effect my +cure; my pride of science is involved in it. And when amongst all the +young ladies of the Hill you can point to none with a fresher bloom, or a +fairer promise of healthful life, than the patient you intrust to my care, +why, then the fee and the dismissal. Nay, nay; I must refer you to our +friend Mrs. Poyntz. It was so settled with her before she brought me here +to displace Dr. Jones." Therewith I escaped. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +In less than a week Lilian was convalescent; in less than a fortnight she +regained her usual health,--nay, Mrs. Ashleigh declared that she had never +known her daughter appear so cheerful and look so well. I had established +a familiar intimacy at Abbots' House; most of my evenings were spent +there. As horse exercise formed an important part of my advice, Mrs. +Ashleigh had purchased a pretty and quiet horse for her daughter; and, +except the weather was very unfavourable, Lilian now rode daily with +Colonel Poyntz, who was a notable equestrian, and often accompanied by +Miss Jane Poyntz, and other young ladies of the Hill. I was generally +relieved from my duties in time to join her as she returned homewards. +Thus we made innocent appointments, openly, frankly, in her mother's +presence, she telling me beforehand in what direction excursions had been +planned with Colonel Poyntz, and I promising to fall in with the party--if +my avocations would permit. At my suggestion, Mrs. Ashleigh now opened +her house almost every evening to some of the neighbouring families; +Lilian was thus habituated to the intercourse of young persons of her own +age. Music and dancing and childlike games made the old house gay. And +the Hill gratefully acknowledged to Mrs. Poyntz, "that the Ashleighs were +indeed a great acquisition." + +But my happiness was not uncheckered. In thus unselfishly surrounding +Lilian with others, I felt the anguish of that jealousy which is +inseparable from those earlier stages of love, when the lover as yet has +won no right to that self-confidence which can only spring from the +assurance that he is loved. + +In these social reunions I remained aloof from Lilian. I saw her courted +by the gay young admirers whom her beauty and her fortune drew around +her,--her soft face brightening in the exercise of the dance, which the +gravity of my profession rather than my years forbade to join; and her +laugh, so musically subdued, ravishing my ear and fretting my heart as if +the laugh were a mockery on my sombre self and my presumptuous dreams. +But no, suddenly, shyly, her eyes would steal away from those about her, +steal to the corner in which I sat, as if they missed me, and, meeting my +own gaze, their light softened before they turned away; and the colour on +her cheek would deepen, and to her lip there came a smile different from +the smile that it shed on others. And then--and then--all jealousy, all +sadness vanished, and I felt the glory which blends with the growing +belief that we are loved. + +In that diviner epoch of man's mysterious passion, when ideas of +perfection and purity, vague and fugitive before, start forth and +concentre themselves round one virgin shape,--that rises out from the sea +of creation, welcomed by the Hours and adorned by the Graces,--how the +thought that this archetype of sweetness and beauty singles himself from +the millions, singles himself for her choice, ennobles and lifts up his +being! Though after-experience may rebuke the mortal's illusion, that +mistook for a daughter of Heaven a creature of clay like himself, yet for +a while the illusion has grandeur. Though it comes from the senses which +shall later oppress and profane it, the senses at first shrink into shade, +awed and hushed by the presence that charms them. All that is brightest +and best in the man has soared up like long-dormant instincts of Heaven, +to greet and to hallow what to him seems life's fairest dream of the +heavenly! Take the wings from the image of Love, and the god disappears +from the form! + +Thus, if at moments jealous doubt made my torture, so the moment's relief +from it sufficed for my rapture. But I had a cause for disquiet less +acute but less varying than jealousy. + +Despite Lilian's recovery from the special illness which had more +immediately absorbed my care, I remained perplexed as to its cause and +true nature. To her mother I gave it the convenient epithet of "nervous;" +but the epithet did not explain to myself all the symptoms I classified by +it. There was still, at times, when no cause was apparent or +conjecturable, a sudden change in the expression of her countenance, in +the beat of her pulse; the eye would become fixed, the bloom would vanish, +the pulse would sink feebler and feebler till it could be scarcely felt; +yet there was no indication of heart disease, of which such sudden +lowering of life is in itself sometimes a warning indication. The change +would pass away after a few minutes, during which she seemed unconscious, +or, at least, never spoke--never appeared to heed what was said to her. +But in the expression of her countenance there was no character of +suffering or distress; on the contrary, a wondrous serenity, that made her +beauty more beauteous, her very youthfulness younger; and when this +spurious or partial kind of syncope passed, she recovered at once without +effort, without acknowledging that she had felt faint or unwell, but +rather with a sense of recruited vitality, as the weary obtain from a +sleep. For the rest her spirits were more generally light and joyous than +I should have premised from her mother's previous description. She would +enter mirthfully into the mirth of young companions round her: she had +evidently quick perception of the sunny sides of life; an infantine +gratitude for kindness; an infantine joy in the trifles that amuse only +those who delight in tastes pure and simple. But when talk rose into +graver and more contemplative topics, her attention became earnest and +absorbed; and sometimes a rich eloquence, such as I have never before nor +since heard from lips so young, would startle me first into a wondering +silence, and soon into a disapproving alarm: for the thoughts she then +uttered seemed to me too fantastic, too visionary, too much akin to the +vagaries of a wild though beautiful imagination. And then I would seek to +check, to sober, to distract fancies with which my reason had no sympathy, +and the indulgence of which I regarded as injurious to the normal +functions of the brain. + +When thus, sometimes with a chilling sentence, sometimes with a +half-sarcastic laugh, I would repress outpourings frank and musical as the +songs of a forest-bird, she would look at me with a kind of plaintive +sorrow,--often sigh and shiver as she turned away. Only in those modes +did she show displeasure; otherwise ever sweet and docile, and ever, if, +seeing that I had pained her, I asked forgiveness, humbling herself rather +to ask mine, and brightening our reconciliation with her angel smile. As +yet I had not dared to speak of love; as yet I gazed on her as the captive +gazes on the flowers and the stars through the gratings of his cell, +murmuring to himself, "When shall the doors unclose?" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +It was with a wrath suppressed in the presence of the fair ambassadress, +that Mr. Vigors had received from Mrs. Poyntz the intelligence that I had +replaced Dr. Jones at Abbots' House not less abruptly than Dr. Jones had +previously supplanted me. As Mrs. Poyntz took upon herself the whole +responsibility of this change, Mr. Vigors did not venture to condemn it to +her face; for the Administrator of Laws was at heart no little in awe of +the Autocrat of Proprieties; as Authority, howsoever established, is in +awe of Opinion, howsoever capricious. + +To the mild Mrs. Ashleigh the magistrate's anger was more decidedly +manifested. He ceased his visits; and in answer to a long and deprecatory +letter with which she endeavoured to soften his resentment and win him +back to the house, he replied by an elaborate combination of homily and +satire. He began by excusing himself from accepting her invitations, on +the ground that his time was valuable, his habits domestic; and though +ever willing to sacrifice both time and habits where he could do good, he +owed it to himself and to mankind to sacrifice neither where his advice +was rejected and his opinion contemned. He glanced briefly, but not +hastily, at the respect with which her late husband had deferred to his +judgment, and the benefits which that deference had enabled him to bestow. +He contrasted the husband's deference with the widow's contumely, and +hinted at the evils which the contumely would not permit him to prevent. +He could not presume to say what women of the world might think due to +deceased husbands, but even women of the world generally allowed the +claims of living children, and did not act with levity where their +interests were concerned, still less where their lives were at stake. As +to Dr. Jones, he, Mr. Vigors, had the fullest confidence in his skill. +Mrs. Ashleigh must judge for herself whether Mrs. Poyntz was as good an +authority upon medical science as he had no doubt she was upon shawls and +ribbons. Dr. Jones was a man of caution and modesty; he did not indulge +in the hollow boasts by which charlatans decoy their dupes; but Dr. Jones +had privately assured him that though the case was one that admitted of no +rash experiments, he had no fear of the result if his own prudent system +were persevered in. What might be the consequences of any other system, +Dr. Jones would not say, because he was too high-minded to express his +distrust of the rival who had made use of underhand arts to supplant him. +But Mr. Vigors was convinced, from other sources of information (meaning, +I presume, the oracular prescience of his clairvoyants), that the time +would come when the poor young lady would herself insist on discarding Dr. +Fenwick, and when "that person" would appear in a very different light to +many who now so fondly admired and so reverentially trusted him. When +that time arrived, he, Mr. Vigors, might again be of use; but, meanwhile, +though he declined to renew his intimacy at Abbots' House, or to pay +unavailing visits of mere ceremony, his interest in the daughter of his +old friend remained undiminished, nay, was rather increased by compassion; +that he should silently keep his eye upon her; and whenever anything to +her advantage suggested itself to him, he should not be deterred by the +slight with which Mrs. Ashleigh had treated his judgment from calling on +her, and placing before her conscience as a mother his ideas for her +child's benefit, leaving to herself then, as now, the entire +responsibility of rejecting the advice which he might say, without vanity, +was deemed of some value by those who could distinguish between sterling +qualities and specious pretences. + +Mrs. Ashleigh's was that thoroughly womanly nature which instinctively +leans upon others. She was diffident, trustful, meek, affectionate. Not +quite justly had Mrs. Poyntz described her as "commonplace weak," for +though she might be called weak, it was not because she was commonplace; +she had a goodness of heart, a sweetness of disposition, to which that +disparaging definition could not apply. She could only be called +commonplace inasmuch as in the ordinary daily affairs of life she had a +great deal of ordinary daily commonplace good-sense. Give her a routine +to follow, and no routine could be better adhered to. In the allotted +sphere of a woman's duties she never seemed in fault. No household, not +even Mrs. Poyntz's, was more happily managed. The old Abbots' House had +merged its original antique gloom in the softer character of pleasing +repose. All her servants adored Mrs. Ashleigh; all found it a pleasure to +please her; her establishment had the harmony of clockwork; comfort +diffused itself round her like quiet sunshine round a sheltered spot. To +gaze on her pleasing countenance, to listen to the simple talk that lapsed +from her guileless lips, in even, slow, and lulling murmur, was in itself +a respite from "eating cares." She was to the mind what the colour of +green is to the eye. She had, therefore, excellent sense in all that +relates to every-day life. There, she needed not to consult another; +there, the wisest might have consulted her with profit. But the moment +anything, however trivial in itself, jarred on the routine to which her +mind had grown wedded, the moment an incident hurried her out of the +beaten track of woman's daily life, then her confidence forsook her; then +she needed a confidant, an adviser; and by that confidant or adviser she +could be credulously lured or submissively controlled. Therefore, when +she lost, in Mr. Vigors, the guide she had been accustomed to consult +whenever she needed guidance, she turned; helplessly and piteously, first +to Mrs. Poyntz, and then yet more imploringly to me, because a woman of +that character is never quite satisfied without the advice of a man; and +where an intimacy more familiar than that of his formal visits is once +established with a physician, confidence in him grows fearless and rapid, +as the natural result of sympathy concentrated on an object of anxiety in +common between himself and the home which opens its sacred recess to his +observant but tender eye. Thus Mrs. Ashleigh had shown me Mr. Vigors's +letter, and, forgetting that I might not be as amiable as herself, +besought me to counsel her how to conciliate and soften her lost +husband's friend and connection. That character clothed him with dignity +and awe in her soft forgiving eyes. So, smothering my own resentment, +less perhaps at the tone of offensive insinuation against myself than at +the arrogance with which this prejudiced intermeddler implied to a mother +the necessity of his guardian watch over a child under her own care, I +sketched a reply which seemed to me both dignified and placatory, +abstaining from all discussion, and conveying the assurance that Mrs. +Ashleigh would be at all times glad to hear, and disposed to respect, +whatever suggestion so esteemed a friend of her husband would kindly +submit to her for the welfare of her daughter. + +There all communication had stopped for about a month since the date of my +reintroduction to Abbots' House. One afternoon I unexpectedly met Mr. +Vigors at the entrance of the blind lane, I on my way to Abbots' House, +and my first glance at his face told me that he was coming from it, for +the expression of that face was more than usually sinister; the sullen +scowl was lit into significant menace by a sneer of unmistakable triumph. +I felt at once that he had succeeded in some machination against me, and +with ominous misgivings quickened my steps. + +I found Mrs. Ashleigh seated alone in front of the house, under a large +cedar-tree that formed a natural arbour in the centre of the sunny lawn. +She was perceptibly embarrassed as I took my seat beside her. + +"I hope," said I, forcing a smile, "that Mr. Vigors has not been telling +you that I shall kill my patient, or that she looks much worse than she +did under Dr. Jones's care?" + +"No," she said. "He owned cheerfully that Lilian had grown quite strong, +and said, without any displeasure, that he had heard how gay she had been, +riding out and even dancing,--which is very kind in him, for he +disapproves of dancing, on principle." + +"But still I can see he has said something to vex or annoy you; and, to +judge by his countenance when I met him in the lane, I should conjecture +that that something was intended to lower the confidence you so kindly +repose in me." + +"I assure you not; he did not mention your name, either to me or to +Lilian. I never knew him more friendly; quite like old times. He is a +good man at heart, very, and was much attached to my poor husband." + +"Did Mr. Ashleigh profess a very high opinion of Mr. Vigors?" + +"Well, I don't quite know that, because my dear Gilbert never spoke to me +much about him. Gilbert was naturally very silent. But he shrank from +all trouble--all worldly affairs--and Mr. Vigors managed his estate, and +inspected his steward's books, and protected him through a long lawsuit +which he had inherited from his father. It killed his father. I don't +know what we should have done without Mr. Vigors, and I am so glad he has +forgiven me." + +"Hem! Where is Miss Ashleigh? Indoors?" + +"No; somewhere in the grounds. But, my dear Dr. Fenwick, do not leave me +yet; you are so very, very kind, and somehow I have grown to look upon you +quite as an old friend. Something has happened which has put me out, +quite put me out." + +She said this wearily and feebly, closing her eyes as if she were indeed +put out in the sense of extinguished. + +"The feeling of friendship you express," said I, with earnestness, "is +reciprocal. On my side it is accompanied by a peculiar gratitude. I am a +lonely man, by a lonely fireside, no parents, no near kindred, and in this +town, since Dr. Faber left it, without cordial intimacy till I knew you. +In admitting me so familiarly to your hearth, you have given me what I +have never known before since I came to man's estate,--a glimpse of the +happy domestic life; the charm and relief to eye, heart, and spirit which +is never known but in households cheered by the face of woman. Thus my +sentiment for you and yours is indeed that of an old friend; and in any +private confidence you show me, I feel as if I were no longer a lonely +man, without kindred, without home." + +Mrs. Ashleigh seemed much moved by these words, which my heart had forced +from my lips; and, after replying to me with simple unaffected warmth of +kindness, she rose, took my arm, and continued thus as we walked slowly to +and fro the lawn: "You know, perhaps, that my poor husband left a sister, +now a widow like myself, Lady Haughton." + +"I remember that Mrs. Poyntz said you had such a sister-in-law, but I +never heard you mention Lady Haughton till now. Well!" + +"Well, Mr. Vigors has brought me a letter from her, and it is that which +has put me out. I dare say you have not heard me speak before of Lady +Haughton, for I am ashamed to say I had almost forgotten her existence. +She is many years older than my husband was; of a very different +character. Only came once to see him after our marriage. Hurt me by +ridiculing him as a bookworm; offended him by looking a little down on me, +as a nobody without spirit and fashion, which was quite true. And, except +by a cold and unfeeling letter of formal condolence after I lost my dear +Gilbert, I have never heard from her since I have been a widow, till +to-day. But, after all, she is my poor husband's sister, and his eldest +sister, and Lilian's aunt; and, as Mr. Vigors says, 'Duty is duty.'" + +Had Mrs. Ashleigh said "Duty is torture," she could not have uttered the +maxim with more mournful and despondent resignation. + +"And what does this lady require of you, which Mr. Vigors deems it your +duty to comply with?" + +"Dear me! What penetration! You have guessed the exact truth. But I +think you will agree with Mr. Vigors. Certainly I have no option; yes, I +must do it." + +"My penetration is in fault now. Do what? Pray explain." + +"Poor Lady Haughton, six months ago, lost her only son, Sir James. Mr. +Vigors says he was a very fine young man, of whom any mother would have +been proud. I had heard he was wild; Mr. Vigors says, however, that he +was just going to reform, and marry a young lady whom his mother chose for +him, when, unluckily, he would ride a steeplechase, not being quite sober +at the time, and broke his neck. Lady Haughton has been, of course, in +great grief. She has retired to Brighton; and she wrote to me from +thence, and Mr. Vigors brought the letter. He will go back to her +to-day." + +"Will go back to Lady Haughton? What! Has he been to her? Is he, then, +as intimate with Lady Haughton as he was with her brother?" + +"No; but there has been a long and constant correspondence. She had a +settlement on the Kirby Estate,--a sum which was not paid off during +Gilbert's life; and a very small part of the property went to Sir James, +which part Mr. Ashleigh Sumner, the heir-at-law to the rest of the estate, +wished Mr. Vigors, as his guardian, to buy during his minority, and as it +was mixed up with Lady Haughton's settlement her consent was necessary as +well as Sir James's. So there was much negotiation, and, since then, +Ashleigh Sumner has come into the Haughton property, on poor Sir James's +decease; so that complicated all affairs between Mr. Vigors and Lady +Haughton, and he has just been to Brighton to see her. And poor Lady +Haughton, in short, wants me and Lilian to go and visit her. I don't like +it at all. But you said the other day you thought sea air might be good +for Lilian during the heat of the summer, and she seems well enough +now for the change. What do you think?" + +"She is well enough, certainly. But Brighton is not the place I would +recommend for the summer; it wants shade, and is much hotter than L----" + +"Yes; but unluckily Lady Haughton foresaw that objection, and she has a +jointure-house some miles from Brighton, and near the sea. She says the +grounds are well wooded, and the place is proverbially cool and healthy, +not far from St. Leonard's Forest. And, in short, I have written to say +we will come. So we must, unless, indeed, you positively forbid it." + +"When do you think of going?" + +"Next Monday. Mr. Vigors would make me fix the day. If you knew how I +dislike moving when I am once settled; and I do so dread Lady Haughton, +she is so fine, and so satirical! But Mr. Vigors says she is very much +altered, poor thing! I should like to show you her letter, but I bad just +sent it to Margaret--Mrs. Poyntz--a minute or two before you came. She +knows something of Lady Haughton. Margaret knows everybody. And we shall +have to go in mourning for poor Sir James, I suppose; and Margaret will +choose it, for I am sure I can't guess to what extent we should be +supposed to mourn. I ought to have gone in mourning before--poor +Gilbert's nephew--but I am so stupid, and I had never seen him. And--But +oh, this is kind! Margaret herself,--my dear Margaret!" + +We had just turned away from the house, in our up-and-down walk; and Mrs. +Poyntz stood immediately fronting us. "So, Anne, you have actually +accepted this invitation--and for Monday next?" + +"Yes. Did I do wrong?" + +"What does Dr. Fenwick say? Can Lilian go with safety?" + +I could not honestly say she might not go with safety, but my heart sank +like lead as I answered,-- + +"Miss Ashleigh does not now need merely medical care; but more than half +her cure has depended on keeping her spirits free from depression. She +may miss the cheerful companionship of your daughter, and other young +ladies of her own age. A very melancholy house, saddened by a recent +bereavement, without other guests; a hostess to whom she is a stranger, +and whom Mrs. Ashleigh herself appears to deem formidable,--certainly +these do not make that change of scene which a physician would recommend. +When I spoke of sea air being good for Miss Ashleigh, I thought of our own +northern coasts at a later time of the year, when I could escape myself +for a few weeks and attend her. The journey to a northern watering-place +would be also shorter and less fatiguing; the air there more +invigorating." + +"No doubt that would be better," said Mrs. Poyntz, dryly; "but so far as +your objections to visiting Lady Haughton have been stated, they are +groundless. Her house will not be melancholy; she will have other guests, +and Lilian will find companions, young like herself,--young ladies--and +young gentlemen too!" + +There was something ominous, something compassionate, in the look which +Mrs. Poyntz cast upon me, in concluding her speech, which in itself was +calculated to rouse the fears of a lover. Lilian away from me, in the +house of a worldly-fine lady--such as I judged Lady Haughton to +be--surrounded by young gentlemen, as well as young ladies, by admirers, +no doubt, of a higher rank and more brilliant fashion than she had yet +known! I closed my eyes, and with strong effort suppressed a groan. + +"My dear Annie, let me satisfy myself that Dr. Fenwick really does consent +to this journey. He will say to me what he may not to you. Pardon me, +then, if I take him aside for a few minutes. Let me find you here again +under this cedar-tree." + +Placing her arm in mine, and without waiting for Mrs. Ashleigh's answer, +Mrs. Poyntz drew me into the more sequestered walk that belted the lawn; +and when we were out of Mrs. Ashleigh's sight and hearing, said,-- + +"From what you have now seen of Lilian Ashleigh, do you still desire to +gain her as your wife?" + +"Still? Ob, with an intensity proportioned to the fear with which I now +dread that she is about to pass away from my eyes--from my life!" + +"Does your judgment confirm the choice of your heart? Reflect before you +answer." + +"Such selfish judgment as I had before I knew her would not confirm but +oppose it. The nobler judgment that now expands all my reasonings, +approves and seconds my heart. No, no; do not smile so sarcastically. +This is not the voice of a blind and egotistical passion. Let me explain +myself if I can. I concede to you that Lilian's character is undeveloped; +I concede to you, that amidst the childlike freshness and innocence of her +nature, there is at times a strangeness, a mystery, which I have not yet +traced to its cause. But I am certain that the intellect is organically +as sound as the heart, and that intellect and heart will ultimately--if +under happy auspices--blend in that felicitous union which constitutes the +perfection of woman. But it is because she does, and may for years, may +perhaps always, need a more devoted, thoughtful care than natures less +tremulously sensitive, that my judgment sanctions my choice; for whatever +is best for her is best for me. And who would watch over her as I +should?" + +"You have never yet spoken to Lilian as lovers speak?" + +"Oh, no, indeed." + +"And, nevertheless, you believe that your affection would not be +unreturned?" + +"I thought so once; I doubt now,--yet, in doubting, hope. But why do you +alarm me with these questions? You, too, forebode that in this visit I +may lose her forever?" + +"If you fear that, tell her so, and perhaps her answer may dispel your +fear." + +"What! now, already, when she has scarcely known me a month. Might I not +risk all if too premature?" + +"There is no almanac for love. With many women love is born the moment +they know they are beloved. All wisdom tells us that a moment once gone +is irrevocable. Were I in your place, I should feel that I approached a +moment that I must not lose. I have said enough; now I shall rejoin Mrs. +Ashleigh." + +"Stay--tell me first what Lady Haughton's letter really contains to prompt +the advice with which you so transport, and yet so daunt, me when you +proffer it." + +"Not now; later, perhaps,--not now. If you wish to see Lilian alone, she +is by the Old Monk's Well; I saw her seated there as I passed that way to +the house." + +"One word more,--only one. Answer this question frankly, for it is one of +honour. Do you still believe that my suit to her daughter would not be +disapproved of by Mrs. Ashleigh?" + +"At this moment I am sure it would not; a week hence I might not give you +the same answer." + +So she passed on with her quick but measured tread, back through the shady +walk, on to the open lawn, till the last glimpse of her pale gray robe +disappeared under the boughs of the cedar-tree. Then, with a start, I +broke the irresolute, tremulous suspense in which I had vainly endeavoured +to analyze my own mind, solve my own doubts, concentrate my own will, and +went the opposite way, skirting the circle of that haunted ground,--as +now, on one side its lofty terrace, the houses of the neighbouring city +came full and close into view, divided from my fairy-land of life but by +the trodden murmurous thoroughfare winding low beneath the ivied parapets; +and as now, again, the world of men abruptly vanished behind the screening +foliage of luxuriant June. + +At last the enchanted glade opened out from the verdure, its borders +fragrant with syringa and rose and woodbine; and there, by the gray +memorial of the gone Gothic age, my eyes seemed to close their unquiet +wanderings, resting spell-bound on that image which had become to me the +incarnation of earth's bloom and youth. + +She stood amidst the Past, backed by the fragments of walls which man had +raised to seclude him from human passion, locking, under those lids so +downcast, the secret of the only knowledge I asked from the boundless +Future. + +Ah! what mockery there is in that grand word, the world's fierce +war-cry,--Freedom! Who has not known one period of life, and that so +solemn that its shadows may rest over all life hereafter, when one human +creature has over him a sovereignty more supreme and absolute than Orient +servitude adores in the symbols of diadem and sceptre? What crest so +haughty that has not bowed before a hand which could exalt or humble! +What heart so dauntless that has not trembled to call forth the voice at +whose sound open the gates of rapture or despair! That life alone is free +which rules, and suffices for itself. That life we forfeit when we love! + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +How did I utter it? By what words did my heart make itself known? I +remember not. All was as a dream that falls upon a restless, feverish +night, and fades away as the eyes unclose on the peace of a cloudless +heaven, on the bliss of a golden sun. A new morrow seemed indeed upon the +earth when I woke from a life-long yesterday,--her dear hand in mine, her +sweet face bowed upon my breast. + +And then there was that melodious silence in which there is no sound +audible from without; yet within us there is heard a lulling celestial +music, as if our whole being, grown harmonious with the universe, joined +from its happy deeps in the hymn that unites the stars. + +In that silence our two hearts seemed to make each other understood, to be +drawing nearer and nearer, blending by mysterious concord into the +completeness of a solemn union, never henceforth to be rent +asunder. + +At length I said softly: "And it was here on this spot that I first saw +you,--here that I for the first time knew what power to change our world +and to rule our future goes forth from the charm of a human face!" + +Then Lilian asked me timidly, and without lifting her eyes, how I had so +seen her, reminding me that I promised to tell her, and had never yet done +so. + +And then I told her of the strange impulse that bad led me into the +grounds, and by what chance my steps had been diverted down the path that +wound to the glade; how suddenly her form had shone upon my eyes, +gathering round itself the rose hues of the setting sun, and how wistfully +those eyes had followed her own silent gaze into the distant heaven. + +As I spoke, her hand pressed mine eagerly, convulsively, and, raising her +face from my breast, she looked at me with an intent, anxious earnestness. +That look!--twice before it had thrilled and perplexed me. + +"What is there in that look, oh, my Lilian, which tells me that there is +something that startles you,--something you wish to confide, and yet +shrink from explaining? See how, already, I study the fair book from +which the seal has been lifted! but as yet you must aid me to construe its +language." + +"If I shrink from explaining, it is only because I fear that I cannot +explain so as to be understood or believed. But you have a right to know +the secrets of a life which you would link to your own. Turn your face +aside from me; a reproving look, an incredulous smile, chill--oh, you +cannot guess how they chill me, when I would approach that which to me is +so serious and so solemnly strange." + +I turned my face away, and her voice grew firmer as, after a brief pause, +she resumed,-- + +"As far back as I can remember in my infancy, there have been moments when +there seems to fall a soft hazy veil between my sight and the things +around it, thickening and deepening till it has the likeness of one of +those white fleecy clouds which gather on the verge of the horizon when +the air is yet still, but the winds are about to rise; and then this +vapour or veil will suddenly open, as clouds open, and let in the blue +sky." + +"Go on," I said gently, for here she came to a stop. She continued, +speaking somewhat more hurriedly,-- + +"Then, in that opening, strange appearances present them selves to me, as +in a vision. In my childhood these were chiefly landscapes of wonderful +beauty. I could but faintly describe them then; I could not attempt to +describe them now, for they are almost gone from my memory. My dear +mother chid me for telling her what I saw, so I did not impress it on my +mind by repeating it. As I grew up, this kind of vision--if I may so call +it--became much less frequent, or much less distinct; I still saw the soft +veil fall, the pale cloud form and open, but often what may then have +appeared was entirely forgotten when I recovered myself, waking as from a +sleep. Sometimes, however, the recollection would be vivid and complete; +sometimes I saw the face of my lost father; sometimes I heard his very +voice, as I had seen and heard him in my early childhood, when he would +let me rest for hours beside him as he mused or studied, happy to be so +quietly near him, for I loved him, oh, so dearly! and I remember him so +distinctly, though I was only in my sixth year when he died. Much more +recently--indeed, within the last few months--the images of things to come +are reflected on the space that I gaze into as clearly as in a glass. +Thus, for weeks before I came hither, or knew that such a place existed, I +saw distinctly the old House, yon trees, this sward, this moss-grown +Gothic fount; and, with the sight, an impression was conveyed to me that +in the scene before me my old childlike life would pass into some solemn +change. So that when I came here, and recognized the picture in my +vision, I took an affection for the spot,--an affection not without awe, a +powerful, perplexing interest, as one who feels under the influence of a +fate of which a prophetic glimpse has been vouchsafed. And in that +evening, when you first saw me, seated here--" + +"Yes, Lilian, on that evening--" + +"I saw you also, but in my vision--yonder, far in the deeps of +space,--and--and my heart was stirred as it had never been before; and +near where your image grew out from the cloud I saw my father's face, and +I heard his voice, not in my ear, but as in my heart, whispering--" + +"Yes, Lilian--whispering--what?" + +"These words,--only these,--'Ye will need one another.' But then, +suddenly, between my upward eyes and the two forms they had beheld, there +rose from the earth, obscuring the skies, a vague, dusky vapour, undulous, +and coiling like a vast serpent,--nothing, indeed, of its shape and +figure definite, but of its face one abrupt glare; a flash from two dread +luminous eyes, and a young head, like the Medusa's, changing, more rapidly +than I could have drawn breath, into a grinning skull. Then my terror +made me bow my head, and when I raised it again, all that I had seen was +vanished. But the terror still remained, even when I felt my mother's arm +round me and heard her voice. And then, when I entered the house, and sat +down again alone, the recollection of what I had seen--those eyes, that +face, that skull--grew on me stronger and stronger till I fainted, and +remember no more, until my eyes, opening, saw you by my side, and in my +wonder there was not terror. No, a sense of joy, protection, hope, yet +still shadowed by a kind of fear or awe, in recognizing the countenance +which had gleamed on me from the skies before the dark vapour had risen, +and while my father's voice had murmured, 'Ye will need one another.' And +now--and now--will you love me less that you know a secret in my being +which I have told to no other,--cannot construe to myself? Only--only, +at least, do not mock me; do not disbelieve me! Nay, turn from me no +longer now: now I ask to meet your eyes. Now, before our hands can join +again, tell me that you do not despise me as untruthful, do not pity me as +insane." + +"Hush, hush!" I said, drawing her to my breast. "Of all you tell me we +will talk hereafter. The scales of our science have no weights fine +enough for the gossamer threads of a maiden's pure fancies. Enough for +me--for us both--if out from all such illusions start one truth, told to +you, lovely child, from the heavens; told to me, ruder man, on the earth; +repeated by each pulse of this heart that woos you to hear and to +trust,--now and henceforth through life unto death, 'Each has need of the +other,'--I of you, I of you! my Lilian! my Lilian!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +In spite of the previous assurance of Mrs. Poyntz, it was not without an +uneasy apprehension that I approached the cedar-tree, under which Mrs. +Ashleigh still sat, her friend beside her. I looked on the fair creature +whose arm was linked in mine. So young, so singularly lovely, and with +all the gifts of birth and fortune which bend avarice and ambition the +more submissively to youth and beauty, I felt as if I had wronged what a +parent might justly deem her natural lot. + +"Oh, if your mother should disapprove!" said I, falteringly. Lilian +leaned on my arm less lightly. "If I had thought so," she said with her +soft blush, "should I be thus by your side?" + +So we passed under the boughs of the dark tree, and Lilian left me and +kissed Mrs. Ashleigh's cheek; then, seating herself on the turf, laid her +head on her mother's lap. I looked on the Queen of the Hill, whose keen +eye shot over me. I thought there was a momentary expression of pain or +displeasure on her countenance; but it passed. Still there seemed to me +something of irony, as well as of triumph or congratulation, in the +half-smile with which she quitted her seat, and in the tone with which she +whispered, as she glided by me to the open sward, "So, then, it is +settled." + +She walked lightly and quickly down the lawn. When she was out of sight I +breathed more freely. I took the seat which she had left, by Mrs. +Ashleigh's side, and said, "A little while ago I spoke of myself as a man +without kindred, without home, and now I come to you and ask for both." + +Mrs. Ashleigh looked at me benignly, then raised her daughter's face from +her lap, and whispered, "Lilian;" and Lilian's lips moved, but I did not +hear her answer. Her mother did. She took Lilian's hand, simply placed +it in mine, and said, "As she chooses, I choose; whom she loves, I love." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +From that evening till the day Mrs. Ashleigh and Lilian went on the +dreaded visit, I was always at their house, when my avocations allowed me +to steal to it; and during those few days, the happiest I had ever known, +it seemed to me that years could not have more deepened my intimacy with +Lilian's exquisite nature, made me more reverential of its purity, or more +enamoured of its sweetness. I could detect in her but one fault, and I +rebuked myself for believing that it was a fault. We see many who neglect +the minor duties of life, who lack watchful forethought and considerate +care for others, and we recognize the cause of this failing in levity or +egotism. Certainly, neither of those tendencies of character could be +ascribed to Lilian. Yet still in daily trifles there was something of +that neglect, some lack of that care and forethought. She loved her +mother with fondness and devotion, yet it never occurred to her to aid in +those petty household cares in which her mother centred so much of +habitual interest. She was full of tenderness and pity to all want and +suffering, yet many a young lady on the Hill was more actively +beneficent,--visiting the poor in their sickness, or instructing their +children in the Infant Schools. I was persuaded that her love for me was +deep and truthful; it was clearly void of all ambition; doubtless she +would have borne, unflinching and contented, whatever the world considers +to be a sacrifice and privation,--yet I should never have expected her to +take her share in the troubles of ordinary life. I could never have +applied to her the homely but significant name of helpmate. I reproach +myself while I write for noticing such defect--if defect it were--in what +may be called the practical routine of our positive, trivial, human +existence. No doubt it was this that had caused Mrs. Poyntz's harsh +judgment against the wisdom of my choice. But such chiller shade upon +Lilian's charming nature was reflected from no inert, unamiable self-love. +It was but the consequence of that self-absorption which the habit of +revery had fostered. I cautiously abstained from all allusion to those +visionary deceptions, which she had confided to me as the truthful +impressions of spirit, if not of sense. To me any approach to what I +termed "superstition" was displeasing; any indulgence of fantasies not +within the measured and beaten track of healthful imagination more than +displeased me in her,--it alarmed. I would not by a word encourage her in +persuasions which I felt it would be at present premature to reason +against, and cruel indeed to ridicule. I was convinced that of +themselves these mists round her native intelligence, engendered by a +solitary and musing childhood, would subside in the fuller daylight of +wedded life. She seemed pained when she saw how resolutely I shunned a +subject dear to her thoughts. She made one or two timid attempts to renew +it, but my grave looks sufficed to check her. Once or twice indeed, on +such occasions, she would turn away and leave me, but she soon came back; +that gentle heart could not bear one unkindlier shade between itself and +what it loved. It was agreed that our engagement should be, for the +present, confided only to Mrs. Poyntz. When Mrs. Ashleigh and Lilian +returned, which would be in a few weeks at furthest, it should be +proclaimed; and our marriage could take place in the autumn, when I should +be most free for a brief holiday from professional toils. + +So we parted-as lovers part. I felt none of those jealous fears which, +before we were affianced, had made me tremble at the thought of +separation, and had conjured up irresistible rivals. But it was with a +settled, heavy gloom that I saw her depart. From earth was gone a glory; +from life a blessing. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +During the busy years of my professional career, I had snatched leisure +for some professional treatises, which had made more or less sensation, +and one of them, entitled "The Vital Principle; its Waste and Supply," had +gained a wide circulation among the general public. This last treatise +contained the results of certain experiments, then new in chemistry, which +were adduced in support of a theory I entertained as to the +re-invigoration of the human system by principles similar to those which +Liebig has applied to the replenishment of an exhausted soil,--namely, the +giving back to the frame those essentials to its nutrition, which it has +lost by the action or accident of time; or supplying that special pabulum +or energy in which the individual organism is constitutionally deficient; +and neutralizing or counterbalancing that in which it super-abounds,--a +theory upon which some eminent physicians have more recently improved with +signal success. But on these essays, slight and suggestive, rather than +dogmatic, I set no value. I had been for the last two years engaged on a +work of much wider range, endeared to me by a far bolder ambition,--a work +upon which I fondly hoped to found an enduring reputation as a severe and +original physiologist. It was an Inquiry into Organic Life, similar in +comprehensiveness of survey to that by which the illustrious Muller, of +Berlin, has enriched the science of our age; however inferior, alas! to +that august combination of thought and learning in the judgment which +checks presumption, and the genius which adorns speculation. But at that +day I was carried away by the ardour of composition, and I admired my +performance because I loved my labour. This work had been entirely laid +aside for the last agitated month; now that Lilian was gone, I resumed it +earnestly, as the sole occupation that had power and charm enough to rouse +me from the aching sense of void and loss. + +The very night of the day she went, I reopened my manuscript. I had left +off at the commencement of a chapter Upon Knowledge as derived from our +Senses. As my convictions on this head were founded on the well-known +arguments of Locke and Condillac against innate ideas, and on the +reasonings by which Hume has resolved the combination of sensations into a +general idea to an impulse arising merely out of habit, so I set myself to +oppose, as a dangerous concession to the sentimentalities or mysticism of +a pseudo-philosophy, the doctrine favoured by most of our recent +physiologists, and of which some of the most eminent of German +metaphysicians have accepted the substance, though refining into a +subtlety its positive form,--I mean the doctrine which Muller himself has +expressed in these words:-- + + "That innate ideas may exist cannot in the slightest degree be denied: + it is, indeed, a fact. All the ideas of animals, which are induced by + instinct, are innate and immediate: something presented to the mind, a + desire to attain which is at the same time given. The new-born lamb + and foal have such innate ideas, which lead them to follow their + mother and suck the teats. Is it not in some measure the same with + the intellectual ideas of man?"[1] + +To this question I answered with an indignant "No!" A "Yes" would have +shaken my creed of materialism to the dust. I wrote on rapidly, warmly. +I defined the properties and meted the limits of natural laws, which I +would not admit that a Deity himself could alter. I clamped and soldered +dogma to dogma in the links of my tinkered logic, till out from my page, +to my own complacent eye, grew Intellectual Man, as the pure formation of +his material senses; mind, or what is called soul, born from and nurtured +by them alone; through them to act, and to perish with the machine they +moved. Strange, that at the very time my love for Lilian might have +taught me that there are mysteries in the core of the feelings which my +analysis of ideas could not solve, I should so stubbornly have opposed as +unreal all that could be referred to the spiritual! Strange, that at the +very time when the thought that I might lose from this life the being I +had known scarce a month had just before so appalled me, I should thus +complacently sit down to prove that, according to the laws of the nature +which my passion obeyed, I must lose for eternity the blessing I now hoped +I had won to my life! But how distinctly dissimilar is man in his conduct +from man in his systems! See the poet reclined under forest boughs, +conning odes to his mistress; follow him out into the world; no mistress +ever lived for him there![2] See the hard man of science, so austere in +his passionless problems; follow him now where the brain rests from its +toil, where the heart finds its Sabbath--what child is so tender, so +yielding, and soft? + +But I had proved to my own satisfaction that poet and sage are dust, and +no more, when the pulse ceases to beat. And on that consolatory +conclusion my pen stopped. + +Suddenly, beside me I distinctly heard a sigh,--a compassionate, mournful +sigh. The sound was unmistakable. I started from my seat, looked round, +amazed to discover no one,--no living thing! The windows were closed, the +night was still. That sigh was not the wail of the wind. But there, in +the darker angle of the room, what was that? A silvery whiteness, vaguely +shaped as a human form, receding, fading, gone! Why, I know not--for no +face was visible, no form, if form it were, more distinct than the +colourless outline,--why, I know not, but I cried aloud, "Lilian! +Lilian!" My voice came strangely back to my own ear; I paused, then +smiled and blushed at my folly. "So I, too, have learned what is +superstition," I muttered to myself. "And here is an anecdote at my own +expense (as Muller frankly tells us anecdotes of the illusions which +would haunt his eyes, shut or open),--an anecdote I may quote when I come +to my chapter on the Cheats of the Senses and Spectral Phantasms." I +went on with my book, and wrote till the lights waned in the gray of the +dawn. And I said then, in the triumph of my pride, as I laid myself down +to rest, "I have written that which allots with precision man's place in +the region of nature; written that which will found a school, form +disciples; and race after race of those who cultivate truth through pure +reason shall accept my bases if they enlarge my building." And again I +heard the sigh, but this time it caused no surprise. "Certainly," I +murmured, "a very strange thing is the nervous system!" So I turned on +my pillow, and, wearied out, fell asleep. + +[1] Muller's "Elements of Physiology," vol. ii. p. 134. Translated by Dr. +Baley. + +[2] Cowley, who wrote so elaborate a series of amatory poems, is said +"never to have been in love but once, and then he never had resolution to +tell his passion."--Johnson's "Lives of the Poets:" COWLEY. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +The next day, the last of the visiting patients to whom my forenoons were +devoted had just quitted me, when I was summoned in haste to attend the +steward of a Sir Philip Derval not residing at his family seat, which was +about five miles from L----. It was rarely indeed that persons so far +from the town, when of no higher rank than this applicant, asked my +services. + +But it was my principle to go wherever I was summoned; my profession was +not gain, it was healing, to which gain was the incident, not the +essential. This case the messenger reported as urgent. I went on +horseback, and rode fast; but swiftly as I cantered through the village +that skirted the approach to Sir Philip Derval's park, the evident care +bestowed on the accommodation of the cottagers forcibly struck me. I felt +that I was on the lands of a rich, intelligent, and beneficent proprietor. +Entering the park, and passing before the manor-house, the contrast +between the neglect and the decay of the absentee's stately Hall and the +smiling homes of his villagers was disconsolately mournful. + +An imposing pile, built apparently by Vanbrugh, with decorated pilasters, +pompous portico, and grand perron (or double flight of stairs to the +entrance), enriched with urns and statues, but discoloured, mildewed, +chipped, half-hidden with unpruned creepers and ivy. Most of the windows +were closed with shutters, decaying for want of paint; in some of the +casements the panes were broken; the peacock perched on the shattered +balustrade, that fenced a garden overgrown with weeds. The sun glared +hotly on the place, and made its ruinous condition still more painfully +apparent. I was glad when a winding in the park-road shut the house from +my sight. Suddenly I emerged through a copse of ancient yew-trees, and +before me there gleamed, in abrupt whiteness, a building evidently +designed for the family mausoleum, classical in its outline, with the +blind iron door niched into stone walls of massive thickness, and +surrounded by a funereal garden of roses and evergreens, fenced with an +iron rail, party-gilt. + +The suddenness with which this House of the Dead came upon me heightened +almost into pain, if not into awe, the dismal impression which the aspect +of the deserted home in its neighbourhood had made. I spurred my horse, +and soon arrived at the door of my patient, who lived in a fair brick +house at the other extremity of the park. + +I found my patient, a man somewhat advanced in years, but of a robust +conformation, in bed: he had been seized with a fit, which was supposed to +be apoplectic, a few hours before; but was already sensible, and out of +immediate danger. After I had prescribed a few simple remedies, I took +aside the patient's wife, and went with her to the parlour below stairs, +to make some inquiry about her husband's ordinary regimen and habits of +life. These seemed sufficiently regular; I could discover no apparent +cause for the attack, which presented symptoms not familiar to my +experience. "Has your husband ever had such fits before?" + +"Never!" + +"Had he experienced any sudden emotion? Had he heard any unexpected news; +or had anything happened to put him out?" + +The woman looked much disturbed at these inquiries. I pressed them more +urgently. At last she burst into tears, and clasping my hand, said, "Oh, +doctor, I ought to tell you--I sent for you on purpose--yet I fear you +will not believe me: my good man has seen a ghost!" + +"A ghost!" said I, repressing a smile. "Well, tell me all, that I may +prevent the ghost coming again." + +The woman's story was prolix. Its substance was this Her husband, +habitually an early riser, had left his bed that morning still earlier +than usual, to give directions about some cattle that were to be sent for +sale to a neighbouring fair. An hour afterwards he had been found by a +shepherd, near the mausoleum, apparently lifeless. On being removed to +his own house, he had recovered speech, and bidding all except his wife +leave the room, he then told her that on walking across the park towards +the cattle-sheds, he had seen what appeared to him at first a pale light +by the iron door of the mausoleum. On approaching nearer, this light +changed into the distinct and visible form of his master, Sir Philip +Derval, who was then abroad,--supposed to be in the East, where he had +resided for many years. The impression on the steward's mind was so +strong, that he called out, "Oh, Sir Philip!" when looking still more +intently, he perceived that the face was that of a corpse. As he +continued to gaze, the apparition seemed gradually to recede, as if +vanishing into the sepulchre itself. He knew no more; he became +unconscious. It was the excess of the poor woman's alarm, on hearing +this strange tale, that made her resolve to send for me instead of the +parish apothecary. She fancied so astounding a cause for her husband's +seizure could only be properly dealt with by some medical man reputed to +have more than ordinary learning; and the steward himself objected to the +apothecary in the immediate neighbourhood, as more likely to annoy him by +gossip than a physician from a comparative distance. + +I took care not to lose the confidence of the good wife by parading too +quickly my disbelief in the phantom her husband declared that he ad seen; +but as the story itself seemed at once to decide the nature of the fit to +be epileptic, I began to tell her of similar delusions which, in my +experience, had occurred to those subjected to epilepsy, and finally +soothed her into the conviction that the apparition was clearly reducible +to natural causes. Afterwards, I led her on to talk about Sir Philip +Derval, less from any curiosity I felt about the absent proprietor than +from a desire to re-familiarize her own mind to his image as a living man. +The steward had been in the service of Sir Philip's father, and had known +Sir Philip himself from a child. He was warmly attached to his master, +whom the old woman described as a man of rare benevolence and great +eccentricity, which last she imputed to his studious habits. He had +succeeded to the title and estates as a minor. For the first few years +after attaining his majority, be had mixed much in the world. When at +Derval Court his house had been filled with gay companions, and was the +scene of lavish hospitality; but the estate was not in proportion to the +grandeur of the mansion, still less to the expenditure of the owner. He +had become greatly embarrassed; and some love disappointment (so it was +rumoured) occurring simultaneously with his pecuniary difficulties, he had +suddenly changed his way of life, shut himself up from his old friends, +lived in seclusion, taking to books and scientific pursuits, and as the +old woman said vaguely and expressively, "to odd ways." He had +gradually by an economy that, towards himself, was penurious, but which +did not preclude much judicious generosity to others, cleared off his +debts; and, once more rich, he had suddenly quitted the country, and +taken to a life of travel. He was now about forty-eight years old, and +had been eighteen years abroad. He wrote frequently to his steward, +giving him minute and thoughtful instructions in regard to the employment, +comforts, and homes of the peasantry, but peremptorily ordering him to +spend no money on the grounds and mansion, stating as a reason why the +latter might be allowed to fall into decay, his intention to pull it down +whenever he returned to England. + +I stayed some time longer than my engagements well warranted at my +patient's house, not leaving till the sufferer, after a quiet sleep, had +removed from his bed to his armchair, taken food, and seemed perfectly +recovered from his attack. + +Riding homeward, I mused on the difference that education makes, even +pathologically, between man and man. Here was a brawny inhabitant of +rural fields, leading the healthiest of lives, not conscious of the +faculty we call imagination, stricken down almost to Death's door by his +fright at an optical illusion, explicable, if examined, by the same simple +causes which had impressed me the night before with a moment's belief in a +sound and a spectre,--me who, thanks to sublime education, went so quietly +to sleep a few minutes after, convinced hat no phantom, the ghostliest +that ear ever heard or eye ever saw, can be anything else but a nervous +phenomenon. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +That evening I went to Mrs. Poyntz's; it was one of her ordinary +"reception nights," and I felt that she would naturally expect my +attendance as "a proper attention." + +I joined a group engaged in general conversation, of which Mrs. Poyntz +herself made the centre, knitting as usual,--rapidly while she talked, +slowly when she listened. + +Without mentioning the visit I had paid that morning, I turned the +conversation on the different country places in the neighbourhood, and +then incidentally asked, "What sort of a man is Sir Philip Derval? Is it +not strange that he should suffer so fine a place to fall into decay?" +The answers I received added little to the information I had already +obtained. Mrs. Poyntz knew nothing of Sir Philip Derval, except as a man +of large estates, whose rental had been greatly increased by a rise in the +value of property he possessed in the town of L----, and which lay +contiguous to that of her husband. Two or three of the older inhabitants +of the Hill had remembered Sir Philip in his early days, when he was gay, +high-spirited, hospitable, lavish. One observed that the only person in +L---- whom he had admitted to his subsequent seclusion was Dr. Lloyd, who +was then without practice, and whom he had employed as an assistant in +certain chemical experiments. + +Here a gentleman struck into the conversation. He was a stranger to me +and to L----, a visitor to one of the dwellers on the Hill, who had asked +leave to present him to its queen as a great traveller and an accomplished +antiquary. + + Said this gentleman: "Sir Philip Derval? I know him. I met him in the +East. He was then still, I believe, very fond of chemical science; a +clever, odd, philanthropical man; had studied medicine, or at least +practised it; was said to have made many marvellous cures. I became +acquainted with him in Aleppo. He had come to that town, not much +frequented by English travellers, in order to inquire into the murder of +two men, of whom one was his friend and the other his countryman." + +"This is interesting," said Mrs. Poyntz, dryly. "We who live on this +innocent Hill all love stories of crime; murder is the pleasantest subject +you could have hit on. Pray give us the details." + +"So encouraged," said the traveller, good-humouredly, "I will not hesitate +to communicate the little I know. In Aleppo there had lived for some +years a man who was held by the natives in great reverence. He had the +reputation of extraordinary wisdom, but was difficult of access; the +lively imagination of the Orientals invested his character with the +fascinations of fable,--in short, Haroun of Aleppo was popularly +considered a magician. Wild stories were told of his powers, of his +preternatural age, of his hoarded treasures. Apart from such disputable +titles to homage, there seemed no question, from all I heard, that his +learning was considerable, his charities extensive, his manner of life +irreproachably ascetic. He appears to have resembled those Arabian sages +of the Gothic age to whom modern science is largely indebted,--a mystic +enthusiast, but an earnest scholar. A wealthy and singular Englishman, +long resident in another part of the East, afflicted by some languishing +disease, took a journey to Aleppo to consult this sage, who, among his +other acquirements, was held to have discovered rare secrets in +medicine,--his countrymen said in 'charms.' One morning, not long after +the Englishman's arrival, Haroun was found dead in his bed, apparently +strangled, and the Englishman, who lodged in another part of the town, had +disappeared; but some of his clothes, and a crutch on which he habitually +supported himself, were found a few miles distant from Aleppo, near the +roadside. There appeared no doubt that he, too, had been murdered, but +his corpse could not be discovered. Sir Philip Derval had been a loving +disciple of this Sage of Aleppo, to whom he assured me he owed not only +that knowledge of medicine which, by report, Sir Philip possessed, but the +insight into various truths of nature, on the promulgation of which, it +was evident, Sir Philip cherished the ambition to found a philosophical +celebrity for himself." + +"Of what description were those truths of nature?" I asked, somewhat +sarcastically. + +"Sir, I am unable to tell you, for Sir Philip did not inform me, nor did I +much care to ask; for what may be revered as truths in Asia are usually +despised as dreams in Europe. To return to my story: Sir Philip had been +in Aleppo a little time before the murder; had left the Englishman under +the care of Haroun. He returned to Aleppo on hearing the tragic events I +have related, and was busy in collecting such evidence as could be +gleaned, and instituting inquiries after our missing countryman at the +time I myself chanced to arrive in the city. I assisted in his +researches, but without avail. The assassins remained undiscovered. I do +not myself doubt that they were mere vulgar robbers. Sir Philip had a +darker suspicion of which he made no secret to me; but as I confess that I +thought the suspicion groundless, you will pardon me if I do not repeat +it. Whether since I left the East the Englishman's remains have been +discovered, I know not. Very probably; for I understand that his heirs +have got hold of what fortune he left,--less than was generally supposed. +But it was reported that he had buried great treasures, a rumour, however +absurd, not altogether inconsistent with his character." + +"What was his character?" asked Mrs. Poyntz. + +"One of evil and sinister repute. He was regarded with terror by the +attendants who had accompanied him to Aleppo. But he had lived in a very +remote part of the East, little known to Europeans, and, from all I could +learn, had there established an extraordinary power, strengthened by +superstitious awe. He was said to have studied deeply that knowledge +which the philosophers of old called 'occult,' not, like the Sage of +Aleppo, for benevolent, but for malignant ends. He was accused of +conferring with evil spirits, and filling his barbaric court (for he lived +in a kind of savage royalty) with charmers and sorcerers. I suspect, +after all, that he was only, like myself, an ardent antiquary, and +cunningly made use of the fear he inspired in order to secure his +authority, and prosecute in safety researches into ancient sepulchres or +temples. His great passion was, indeed, in excavating such remains, in +his neighbourhood; with what result I know not, never having penetrated +so far into regions infested by robbers and pestiferous with malaria. He +wore the Eastern dress, and always carried jewels about him. I came to +the conclusion that for the sake of these jewels he was murdered, perhaps +by some of his own servants (and, indeed, two at least of his suite were +missing), who then at once buried his body, and kept their own secret. He +was old, very infirm; could never have got far from the town without +assistance." + +"You have not yet told us his name," said Mrs. Poyntz. + +"His name was Grayle." + +"Grayle!" exclaimed Mrs. Poyntz, dropping her work. "Louis Grayle?" + +"Yes; Louis Grayle. You could not have known him?" + +"Known him! No; but I have often heard my father speak of him. Such, +then, was the tragic end of that strong dark creature, for whom, as a +young girl in the nursery, I used to feel a kind of fearful admiring +interest?" + +"It is your turn to narrate now," said the traveller. + +And we all drew closer round our hostess, who remained silent some +moments, her brow thoughtful, her work suspended. + +"Well," said she at last, looking round us with a lofty air, which seemed +half defying, "force and courage are always fascinating, even when they +are quite in the wrong. I go with the world, because the world goes with +me; if it did not--" Here she stopped for a moment, clenched the firm +white hand, and then scornfully waved it, left the sentence unfinished, +and broke into another. + +"Going with the world, of course we must march over those who stand +against it. But when one man stands single-handed against our march, we +do not despise him; it is enough to crush. I am very glad I did not see +Louis Grayle when I was a girl of sixteen." Again she paused a moment, +and resumed: "Louis Grayle was the only son of a usurer, infamous for the +rapacity with which he had acquired enormous wealth. Old Grayle desired +to rear his heir as a gentleman; sent him to Eton. Boys are always +aristocratic; his birth was soon thrown in his teeth; he was fierce; he +struck boys bigger than himself,--fought till he was half killed. My +father was at school with him; described him as a tiger-whelp. One day +he--still a fag--struck a sixth-form boy. Sixth-form boys do not fight +fags; they punish them. Louis Grayle was ordered to hold out his hand to +the cane; he received the blow, drew forth his schoolboy knife, and +stabbed the punisher. After that, he left Eton. I don't think he was +publicly expelled--too mere a child for that honour--but he was taken or +sent away; educated with great care under the first masters at home. When +he was of age to enter the University, old Grayle was dead. Louis was +sent by his guardians to Cambridge, with acquirements far exceeding the +average of young men, and with unlimited command of money. My father was +at the same college, and described him again,--haughty, quarrelsome, +reckless, handsome, aspiring, brave. Does that kind of creature interest +you, my dears?" (appealing to the ladies). + +"La!" said Miss Brabazon; "a horrid usurer's son!" + +"Ay, true; the vulgar proverb says it is good to be born with a silver +spoon in one's mouth: so it is when one has one's own family crest on it; +ut when it is a spoon on which people recognize their family crest, and +cry out, 'Stolen from our plate chest,' it is a heritage that outlaws a +babe in his cradle. However, young men at college who want money are less +scrupulous about descent than boys at Eton are. Louis Grayle found, while +at college, plenty of wellborn acquaintances willing to recover from him +some of the plunder his father had extorted from theirs. He was too wild +to distinguish himself by academical honours, but my father said that the +tutors of the college declared there were not six undergraduates in the +University who knew as much hard and dry science as wild Louis Grayle. He +went into the world, no doubt, hoping to shine; but his father's name was +too notorious to admit the son into good society. The Polite World, it +is true, does not examine a scutcheon with the nice eye of a herald, nor +look upon riches with the stately contempt of a stoic; still the Polite +World has its family pride and its moral sentiment. It does not like to +be cheated,--I mean, in money matters; and when the son of a man who has +emptied its purse and foreclosed on its acres rides by its club-windows, +hand on haunch, and head in the air, no lion has a scowl more awful, no +hyena a laugh more dread, than that same easy, good-tempered, tolerant, +polite, well-bred World which is so pleasant an acquaintance, so languid +a friend, and--so remorseless an--enemy. In short, Louis Grayle claimed +the right to be courted,--he was shunned; to be admired,--he was loathed. +Even his old college acquaintances were shamed out of knowing him. +Perhaps he could have lived through all this had he sought to glide +quietly into position; but he wanted the tact of the well-bred, and +strove to storm his way, not to steal it. Reduced for companions to +needy parasites, he braved and he shocked all decorous opinion by that +ostentation of excess, which made Richelieus and Lauzuns the rage. But +then Richelieus and Lauzuns were dukes! He now very naturally took the +Polite World into hate,--gave it scorn for scorn. He would ally himself +with Democracy; his wealth could not get him into a club, but it would buy +him into parliament; he could not be a Lauzun, nor, perhaps, a Mirabeau, +but he might be a Danton. He had plenty of knowledge and audacity, and +with knowledge and audacity a good hater is sure to be eloquent. +Possibly, then, this poor Louis Grayle might have made a great figure, +left his mark on his age and his name in history; but in contesting the +borough, which he was sure to carry, he had to face an opponent in a real +fine gentleman whom his father had ruined, cool and highbred, with a +tongue like a rapier, a sneer like an adder. A quarrel of course; Louis +Grayle sent a challenge. The fine gentleman, known to be no coward (fine +gentlemen never are), was at first disposed to refuse with contempt. But +Grayle had made himself the idol of the mob; and at a word from Grayle, +the fine gentleman might have been ducked at a pump, or tossed in a +blanket,--that would have made him ridiculous; to be shot at is a trifle, +to be laughed at is serious. He therefore condescended to accept the +challenge, and my father was his second. + +"It was settled, of course, according to English custom, that both +combatants should fire at the same time, and by signal. The antagonist +fired at the right moment; his ball grazed Louis Grayle's temple. Louis +Grayle had not fired. He now seemed to the seconds to take slow and +deliberate aim. They called out to him not to fire; they were rushing to +prevent him, when the trigger was pulled, and his opponent fell dead on +the field. The fight was, therefore, considered unfair; Louis Grayle was +tried for his life: he did not stand the trial in person.[1] He escaped +to the Continent; hurried on to some distant uncivilized lands; could not +be traced; reappeared in England no more. The lawyer who conducted his +defence pleaded skilfully. He argued that the delay in firing was not +intentional, therefore not criminal,--the effect of the stun which the +wound in the temple had occasioned. The judge was a gentleman, and summed +up the evidence so as to direct the jury to a verdict against the low +wretch who had murdered a gentleman; but the jurors were not gentlemen, +and Grayle's advocate had of course excited their sympathy for a son of +the people, whom a gentleman had wantonly insulted. The verdict was +manslaughter; but the sentence emphatically marked the aggravated nature +of the homicide,--three years' imprisonment. Grayle eluded the prison, +but he was a man disgraced and an exile,--his ambition blasted, his career +an outlaw's, and his age not yet twenty-three. My father said that he was +supposed to have changed his name; none knew what had become of him. And +so this creature, brilliant and daring, whom if born under better auspices +we might now be all fawning on, cringing to,--after living to old age, no +one knows how,--dies murdered at Aleppo, no one, you say, knows by whom." + +"I saw some account of his death in the papers about three years ago," +said one of the party; "but the name was misspelled, and I had no idea +that it was the same man who had fought the duel which Mrs. Colonel Poyntz +has so graphically described. I have a very vague recollection of the +trial; it took place when I was a boy, more than forty years since. The +affair made a stir at the time, but was soon forgotten." + +"Soon forgotten," said Mrs. Poyntz; "ay, what is not? Leave your place in +the world for ten minutes, and when you come back somebody else has taken +it; but when you leave the world for good, who remembers that you had ever +a place even in the parish register?" + +"Nevertheless," said I, "a great poet has said, finely and truly, + + "'The sun of Homer shines upon us still.'" + +"But it does not shine upon Homer; and learned folks tell me that we know +no more who and what Homer was, if there was ever a single Homer at all, +or rather, a whole herd of Homers, than we know about the man in the +moon,--if there be one man there, or millions of men. Now, my dear Miss +Brabazon, it will be very kind in you to divert our thoughts into channels +less gloomy. Some pretty French air--Dr. Fenwick, I have something to +say to you." She drew me towards the window. "So Annie Ashleigh writes +me word that I am not to mention your engagement. Do you think it quite +prudent to keep it a secret?" + +"I do not see how prudence is concerned in keeping it secret one way or +the other,--it is a mere matter of feeling. Most people wish to abridge, +as far as they can, the time in which their private arrangements are the +topic of public gossip." + +"Public gossip is sometimes the best security for the due completion of +private arrangements. As long as a girl is not known to be engaged, her +betrothed must be prepared for rivals. Announce the engagement, and +rivals are warned off." + +"I fear no rivals." + +"Do you not? Bold man! I suppose you will write to Lilian?" + +"Certainly." + +"Do so, and constantly. By-the-way, Mrs. Ashleigh, before she went, asked +me to send her back Lady Haughton's letter of invitation. What for,--to +show to you?" + +"Very likely. Have you the letter still? May I see it?" + +"Not just at present. When Lilian or Mrs. Ashleigh writes to you, come +and tell me how they like their visit, and what other guests form the +party." + +Therewith she turned away and conversed apart with the traveller. + +Her words disquieted me, and I felt that they were meant to do so, +wherefore I could not guess. But there is no language on earth which has +more words with a double meaning than that spoken by the Clever Woman, who +is never so guarded as when she appears to be frank. + +As I walked home thoughtfully, I was accosted by a young man, the son of +one of the wealthiest merchants in the town. I had attended him with +success some months before, in a rheumatic fever: he and his family were +much attached to me. + +"Ah, my dear Fenwick, I am so glad to see you; I owe you an obligation of +which you are not aware,--an exceedingly pleasant travelling-companion. I +came with him to-day from London, where I have been sight-seeing and +holidaymaking for the last fortnight." + +"I suppose you mean that you kindly bring me a patient?" + +"No, only an admirer. I was staying at Fenton's Hotel. It so happened +one day that I had left in the coffee-room your last work on the Vital +Principle, which, by the by, the bookseller assures me is selling +immensely among readers as non-professional as myself. Coming into the +coffee-room again, I found a gentleman reading the book. I claimed it +politely; he as politely tendered his excuse for taking it. We made +acquaintance on the spot. The next day we were intimate. He expressed +great interest and curiosity about your theory and your experiments. I +told him I knew you. You may guess if I described you as less clever in +your practice than you are in your writings; and, in short, he came with +me to L----, partly to see our flourishing town, principally on my promise +to introduce him to you. My mother, you know, has what she calls a +dejeuner tomorrow,--dejeuner and dance. You will be there?" + +"Thank you for reminding me of her invitation. I will avail myself of it +if I can. Your new friend will be present? Who and what is he,--a +medical student?" + +"No, a mere gentleman at ease, but seems to have a good deal of general +information. Very young, apparently very rich, wonderfully good-looking. +I am sure you will like him; everybody must." + +"It is quite enough to prepare me to like him that he is a friend of +yours." And so we shook hands and parted. + +[1] Mrs. Poyntz here makes a mistake in law which, though very evident, +her listeners do not seem to have noticed. Her mistake will be referred +to later. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +It was late in the afternoon of the following day before I was able to +join the party assembled at the merchant's house; it was a villa about two +miles out of the town, pleasantly situated amidst flower-gardens +celebrated in the neighbourhood for their beauty. The breakfast had been +long over; the company was scattered over the lawn,--some formed into a +dance on the smooth lawn; some seated under shady awnings; others gliding +amidst parterres, in which all the glow of colour took a glory yet more +vivid under the flush of a brilliant sunshine; and the ripple of a soft +western breeze. Music, loud and lively, mingled with the laughter of +happy children, who formed much the larger number of the party. + +Standing at the entrance of an arched trellis, that led from the hardier +flowers of the lawn to a rare collection of tropical plants under a lofty +glass dome (connecting, as it were, the familiar vegetation of the North +with that of the remotest East), was a form that instantaneously caught +and fixed my gaze. The entrance of the arcade was covered with parasite +creepers, in prodigal luxuriance, of variegated gorgeous tints,--scarlet, +golden, purple; and the form, an idealized picture of man's youth fresh +from the hand of Nature, stood literally in a frame of blooms. + +Never have I seen human face so radiant as that young man's. There was in +the aspect an indescribable something that literally dazzled. As one +continued to gaze, it was with surprise; one was forced to acknowledge +that in the features themselves there was no faultless regularity; nor was +the young man's stature imposing, about the middle height. But the effect +of the whole was not less transcendent. Large eyes, unspeakably lustrous; +a most harmonious colouring; an expression of contagious animation and +joyousness; and the form itself so critically fine, that the welded +strength of its sinews was best shown in the lightness and grace of its +movements. + +He was resting one hand carelessly on the golden locks of a child that had +nestled itself against his knees, looking up to his face in that silent +loving wonder with which children regard something too strangely beautiful +for noisy admiration; he himself was conversing with the host, an old +gray-haired, gouty man, propped on his crutched stick, and listening with +a look of mournful envy. To the wealth of the old man all the flowers in +that garden owed their renewed delight in the summer air and sun. Oh, +that his wealth could renew to himself one hour of the youth whose +incarnation stood beside him, Lord, indeed, of Creation; its splendour +woven into his crown of beauty, its enjoyments subject to his sceptre of +hope and gladness. + +I was startled by the hearty voice of the merchant's son. "Ah, my dear +Fenwick, I was afraid you would not come,--you are late. There is the new +friend of whom I spoke to you last night; let me now make you acquainted +with him." He drew my arm in his, and led me up to the young man, where +he stood under the arching flowers, and whom he then introduced to me by +the name of Margrave. + +Nothing could be more frankly cordial than Mr. Margrave's manner. In a +few minutes I found myself conversing with him familiarly, as if we had +been reared in the same home, and sported together in the same playground. +His vein of talk was peculiar, off-hand, careless, shifting from topic to +topic with a bright rapidity. + +He said that he liked the place; proposed to stay in it some weeks; asked +my address, which I gave to him; promised to call soon at an early hour, +while my time was yet free from professional visits. I endeavoured, when +I went away, to analyze to myself the fascination which this young +stranger so notably exercised over all who approached him; and it seemed +to me, ever seeking to find material causes for all moral effects, that it +rose from the contagious vitality of that rarest of all rare gifts in +highly-civilized circles,--perfect health; that health which is in itself +the most exquisite luxury; which, finding happiness in the mere sense of +existence, diffuses round it, like an atmosphere, the harmless hilarity of +its bright animal being. Health, to the utmost perfection, is seldom +known after childhood; health to the utmost cannot be enjoyed by those who +overwork the brain, or admit the sure wear and tear of the passions. The +creature I had just seen gave me the notion of youth in the golden age of +the poets,--the youth of the careless Arcadian, before nymph or +shepherdess had vexed his heart with a sigh. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +The house I occupied at L---- was a quaint, old-fashioned building, a +corner-house. One side, in which was the front entrance, looked upon a +street which, as there were no shops in it, and it was no direct +thoroughfare to the busy centres of the town, was always quiet, and at +some hours of the day almost deserted. The other side of the house +fronted a lane; opposite to it was the long and high wall of the garden to +a Young Ladies' Boarding-school. My stables adjoined the house, abutting +on a row of smaller buildings, with little gardens before them, chiefly +occupied by mercantile clerks and retired tradesmen. By the lane there +was a short and ready access both to the high turnpike-road, and to some +pleasant walks through green meadows and along the banks of a river. + +This house I had inhabited since my arrival at L----, and it had to me so +many attractions, in a situation sufficiently central to be convenient for +patients, and yet free from noise, and favourable to ready outlet into the +country for such foot or horse exercise as my professional avocations +would allow me to carve for myself out of what the Latin poet calls the +"solid day," that I had refused to change it for one better suited to my +increased income; but it was not a house which Mrs. Ashleigh would have +liked for Lilian. The main objection to it in the eyes of the "genteel" +was, that it had formerly belonged to a member of the healing profession +who united the shop of an apothecary to the diploma of a surgeon; but that +shop had given the house a special attraction to me; for it had been built +out on the side of the house which fronted the lane, occupying the greater +portion of a small gravel court, fenced from the road by a low iron +palisade, and separated from the body of the house itself by a short and +narrow corridor that communicated with the entrance-hall. This shop I +turned into a rude study for scientific experiments, in which I generally +spent some early hours of the morning, before my visiting patients began +to arrive. I enjoyed the stillness of its separation from the rest of +the house; I enjoyed the glimpse of the great chestnut-trees, which +overtopped the wall of the school-garden; I enjoyed the ease with which, +by opening the glazed sash-door, I could get out, if disposed for a short +walk, into the pleasant fields; and so completely had I made this +sanctuary my own, that not only my man-servant knew that I was never to be +disturbed when in it, except by the summons of a patient, but even the +housemaid was forbidden to enter it with broom or duster, except upon +special invitation. The last thing at night, before retiring to rest, it +was the man-servant's business to see that the sash-window was closed, +and the gate to the iron palisade locked; but during the daytime I so +often went out of the house by that private way that the gate was then +very seldom locked, nor the sash-door bolted from within. In the town of +L---- there was little apprehension of house-robberies,--especially in the +daylight,--and certainly in this room, cut off from the main building, +there was nothing to attract a vulgar cupidity. A few of the apothecary's +shelves and cases still remained on the walls, with, here and there, a +bottle of some chemical preparation for experiment; two or three +worm-eaten, wooden chairs; two or three shabby old tables; an old +walnut-tree bureau without a lock, into which odds and ends were +confusedly thrust, and sundry ugly-looking inventions of mechanical +science, were, assuredly, not the articles which a timid proprietor would +guard with jealous care from the chances of robbery. It will be seen +later why I have been thus prolix in description. The morning after I had +met the young stranger by whom I had been so favourably impressed, I was +up as usual, a little before the sun, and long before any of my servants +were astir. I went first into the room I have mentioned, and which I +shall henceforth designate as my study, opened the window, unlocked the +gate, and sauntered for some minutes up and down the silent lace skirting +the opposite wall, and overhung by the chestnut-trees rich in the +garniture of a glorious summer; then, refreshed for work, I re-entered my +study, and was soon absorbed in the examination of that now well-known +machine, which was then, to me at least, a novelty,--invented, if I +remember right, by Dubois-Reymond, so distinguished by his researches into +the mysteries of organic electricity. It is a wooden cylinder fixed +against the edge of a table; on the table two vessels filled with salt and +water are so placed that, as you close your hands on the cylinder, the +forefinger of each hand can drop into the water; each of the vessels has a +metallic plate, and communicates by wires with a galvanometer with its +needle. Now the theory is, that if you clutch the cylinder firmly with +the right hand, leaving the left perfectly passive, the needle in the +galvanometer will move from west to south; if, in like manner, you exert +the left arm, leaving the right arm passive, the needle will deflect from +west to north. Hence, it is argued that the electric current is induced +through the agency of the nervous system, and that, as human Will produces +the muscular contraction requisite, so is it human Will that causes the +deflection of the needle. I imagine that if this theory were +substantiated by experiment, the discovery might lead to some sublime and +unconjectured secrets of science. For human Will, thus actively effective +on the electric current, and all matter, animate or inanimate, having more +or less of electricity, a vast field became opened to conjecture. By what +series of patient experimental deduction might not science arrive at the +solution of problems which the Newtonian law of gravitation does not +suffice to solve; and--But here I halt. At the date which my story has +reached, my mind never lost itself long in the Cloudland of Guess. + +I was dissatisfied with my experiment. The needle stirred, indeed, but +erratically, and not in directions which, according to the theory, should +correspond to my movement. I was about to dismiss the trial with some +uncharitable contempt of the foreign philosopher's dogmas, when I heard a +loud ring at my street-door. While I paused to conjecture whether my +servant was yet up to attend to the door, and which of my patients was the +most likely to summon me at so unseasonable an hour, a shadow darkened my +window. I looked up, and to my astonishment beheld the brilliant face of +Mr. Margrave. The sash to the door was already partially opened; he +raised it higher, and walked into the room. "Was it you who rang at the +street-door, and at this hour?" said I. + +"Yes; and observing, after I had rung, that all the shutters were still +closed, I felt ashamed of my own rash action, and made off rather than +brave the reproachful face of some injured housemaid, robbed of her +morning dreams. I turned down that pretty lane,--lured by the green of +the chestnut-trees,--caught sight of you through the window, took courage, +and here I am! You forgive me?" While thus speaking, he continued to +move along the littered floor of the dingy room, with the undulating +restlessness of some wild animal in the confines of its den, and he now +went on, in short fragmentary sentences, very slightly linked together, +but smoothed, as it were, into harmony by a voice musical and fresh as a +sky lark's warble. "Morning dreams, indeed! dreams that waste the life +of such a morning. Rosy magnificence of a summer dawn! Do you not pity +the fool who prefers to lie a bed, and to dream rather than to live? +What! and you, strong man, with those noble limbs, in this den! Do you +not long for a rush through the green of the fields, a bath in the blue of +the river?" + +Here he came to a pause, standing, still in the gray light of the growing +day, with eyes whose joyous lustre forestalled the sun's, and lips which +seemed to laugh even in repose. + +But presently those eyes, as quick as they were bright, glanced over the +walls, the floor, the shelves, the phials, the mechanical inventions, and +then rested full on my cylinder fixed to the table. He approached, +examined it curiously, asked what it was. I explained. To gratify him I +sat down and renewed my experiment, with equally ill success. The needle, +which should have moved from west to south, describing an angle of from +thirty degrees to forty or even fifty degrees, only made a few troubled, +undecided oscillations. + +"Tut," cried the young man, "I see what it is; you have a wound in your +right hand." + +That was true; I had burned my band a few days before in a chemical +experiment, and the sore had not healed. + +"Well," said I, "and what does that matter?" + +"Everything; the least scratch in the skin of the hand produces chemical +actions on the electric current, independently of your will. Let me try." + +He took my place, and in a moment the needle in the galvanometer responded +to his grasp on the cylinder, exactly as the inventive philosopher had +stated to be the due result of the experiment. + +I was startled. + +"But how came you, Mr. Margrave, to be so well acquainted with a +scientific process little known, and but recently discovered?" + +"I well acquainted! not so. But I am fond of all experiments that relate +to animal life. Electricity, especially, is full of interest." + +On that I drew him out (as I thought), and he talked volubly. I was +amazed to find this young man, in whose brain I had conceived thought kept +one careless holiday, was evidently familiar with the physical sciences, +and especially with chemistry, which was my own study by predilection. +But never had I met with a student in whom a knowledge so extensive was +mixed up with notions so obsolete or so crotchety. In one sentence he +showed that he had mastered some late discovery by Faraday or Liebig; in +the next sentence he was talking the wild fallacies of Cardan or Van +Helmont. I burst out laughing at some paradox about sympathetic powders, +which he enounced as if it were a recognized truth. + +"Pray tell me," said I, "who was your master in physics; for a cleverer +pupil never had a more crack-brained teacher." + +"No," he answered, with his merry laugh, "it is not the teacher's fault. +I am a mere parrot; just cry out a few scraps of learning picked up here +and there. But, however, I am fond of all researches into Nature; all +guesses at her riddles. To tell you the truth, one reason why I have +taken to you so heartily is not only that your published work caught my +fancy in the dip which I took into its contents (pardon me if I say dip, I +never do more than dip into any book), but also because young ---- tells +me that which all whom I have met in this town confirm; namely, that you +are one of those few practical chemists who are at once exceedingly +cautious and exceedingly bold,--willing to try every new experiment, but +submitting experiment to rigid tests. Well, I have an experiment running +wild in this giddy head of mine, and I want you, some day when at leisure, +to catch it, fix it as you have fixed that cylinder, make something of it. +I am sure you can." + +"What is it?" + +"Something akin to the theories in your work. You would replenish or +preserve to each special constitution the special substance that may fail +to the equilibrium of its health. But you own that in a large +proportion of cases the best cure of disease is less to deal with the +disease itself than to support and stimulate the whole system, so as to +enable Nature to cure the disease and restore the impaired equilibrium by +her own agencies. Thus, if you find that in certain cases of nervous +debility a substance like nitric acid is efficacious, it is because the +nitric acid has a virtue in locking up, as it were, the nervous +energy,--that is, preventing all undue waste. Again, in some cases of +what is commonly called feverish cold, stimulants like ammonia assist +Nature itself to get rid of the disorder that oppresses its normal action; +and, on the same principle, I apprehend, it is contended that a large +average of human lives is saved in those hospitals which have adopted the +supporting system of ample nourishment and alcoholic stimulants." + +"Your medical learning surprises me," said I, smiling; "and without +pausing to notice where it deals somewhat superficially with disputable +points in general, and my own theory in particular, I ask you for the +deduction you draw from your premises." + +"It is simply this: that to all animate bodies, however various, there +must be one principle in common,--the vital principle itself. What if +there be one certain means of recruiting that principle; and what if that +secret can be discovered?" + +"Pshaw! The old illusion of the mediaeval empirics." + +"Not so. But the mediaeval empirics were great discoverers. You sneer at +Van Helmont, who sought, in water, the principle of all things; but Van +Helmont discovered in his search those invisible bodies called gases. Now +the principle of life must be certainly ascribed to a gas.[1] And what +ever is a gas chemistry should not despair of producing! But I can argue +no longer now,--never can argue long at a stretch; we are wasting the +morning; and, joy! the sun is up! See! Out! come out! out! and greet +the great Lifegiver face to face." + +I could not resist the young man's invitation. In a few minutes we were +in the quiet lane under the glinting chestnut-trees. Margrave was +chanting, low, a wild tune,--words in a strange language. + +"What words are those,--no European language, I think; for I know a little +of most of the languages which are spoken in our quarter of the globe, at +least by its more civilized races." + +"Civilized race! What is civilization? Those words were uttered by men +who founded empires when Europe itself was not civilized! Hush, is it not +a grand old air?" and lifting his eyes towards the sun, he gave vent to a +voice clear and deep as a mighty bell! The air was grand; the words had a +sonorous swell that suited it, and they seemed to me jubilant and yet +solemn. He stopped abruptly as a path from the lane had led us into the +fields, already half-bathed in sunlight, dews glittering on the hedgerows. + +"Your song," said I, "would go well with the clash of cymbals or the peal +of the organ. I am no judge of melody, but this strikes me as that of a +religious hymn." + +"I compliment you on the guess. It is a Persian fire-worshipper's hymn to +the sun. The dialect is very different from modern Persian. Cyrus the +Great might have chanted it on his march upon Babylon." + +"And where did you learn it?" + +"In Persia itself." + +"You have travelled much, learned much,--and are so young and so fresh. +Is it an impertinent question if I ask whether your parents are yet +living, or are you wholly lord of yourself?" + +"Thank you for the question,--pray make my answer known in the town. +Parents I have not,--never had." + +"Never had parents!" + +"Well, I ought rather to say that no parents ever owned me. I am a +natural son, a vagabond, a nobody. When I came of age I received an +anonymous letter, informing me that a sum--I need not say what, but more +than enough for all I need--was lodged at an English banker's in my name; +that my mother had died in my infancy; that my father was also dead--but +recently; that as I was a child of love, and he was unwilling that the +secret of my birth should ever be traced, he had provided for me, not by +will, but in his life, by a sum consigned to the trust of the friend who +now wrote to me; I need give myself no trouble to learn more. Faith, I +never did! I am young, healthy, rich,--yes, rich! Now you know all, and +you had better tell it, that I may win no man's courtesy and no maiden's +love upon false pretences. I have not even a right, you see, to the name +I bear. Hist! let me catch that squirrel." + +With what a panther-like bound he sprang! The squirrel eluded his grasp, +and was up the oak-tree; in a moment he was up the oak-tree too. In +amazement I saw him rising from bough to bough; saw his bright eyes and +glittering teeth through the green leaves. Presently I heard the sharp +piteous cry of the squirrel, echoed by the youth's merry laugh; and down, +through that maze of green, Hargrave came, dropping on the grass and +bounding up, as Mercury might have bounded with his wings at his heels. + +"I have caught him. What pretty brown eyes!" + +Suddenly the gay expression of his face changed to that of a savage; the +squirrel had wrenched itself half-loose, and bitten him. The poor brute! +In an instant its neck was wrung, its body dashed on the ground; and that +fair young creature, every feature quivering with rage, was stamping his +foot on his victim again and again! It was horrible. I caught him by the +arm indignantly. He turned round on me like a wild beast disturbed from +its prey,--his teeth set, his hand lifted, his eyes like balls of fire. + +"Shame!" said I, calmly; "shame on you!" + +He continued to gaze on me a moment or so, his eye glaring, his breath +panting; and then, as if mastering himself with an involuntary effort, his +arm dropped to his side, and he said quite humbly, "I beg your pardon; +indeed I do. I was beside myself for a moment; I cannot bear pain; "and +he looked in deep compassion for himself at his wounded hand. "Venomous +brute!" And he stamped again on the body of the squirrel, already crushed +out of shape. + +I moved away in disgust, and walked on. + +But presently I felt my arm softly drawn aside, and a voice, dulcet as the +coo of a dove, stole its way into my ears. There was no resisting the +charm with which this extraordinary mortal could fascinate even the hard +and the cold; nor them, perhaps, the least. For as you see in extreme old +age, when the heart seems to have shrunk into itself, and to leave but +meagre and nipped affections for the nearest relations if grown up, the +indurated egotism softens at once towards a playful child; or as you see +in middle life, some misanthrope, whose nature has been soured by wrong +and sorrow, shrink from his own species, yet make friends with inferior +races, and respond to the caress of a dog,--so, for the worldling or the +cynic, there was an attraction in the freshness of this joyous favourite +of Nature,--an attraction like that of a beautiful child, spoilt and +wayward, or of a graceful animal, half docile, half fierce. + +"But," said I, with a smile, as I felt all displeasure gone, "such +indulgence of passion for such a trifle is surely unworthy a student of +philosophy!" + +"Trifle," he said dolorously. "But I tell you it is pain; pain is no +trifle. I suffer. Look!" + +I looked at the hand, which I took in mine. The bite no doubt had been +sharp; but the hand that lay in my own was that which the Greek sculptor +gives to a gladiator; not large (the extremities are never large in +persons whose strength comes from the just proportion of all the members, +rather than the factitious and partial force which continued muscular +exertion will give to one part of the frame, to the comparative weakening +of the rest), but with the firm-knit joints, the solid fingers, the +finished nails, the massive palm, the supple polished skin, in which we +recognize what Nature designs the human hand to be,--the skilled, swift, +mighty doer of all those marvels which win Nature herself from the +wilderness. + +"It is strange," said I, thoughtfully; "but your susceptibility to +suffering confirms my opinion, which is different from the popular +belief,--namely, that pain is most acutely felt by those in whom the +animal organization being perfect, and the sense of vitality exquisitely +keen, every injury or lesion finds the whole system rise, as it were, to +repel the mischief and communicate the consciousness of it to all those +nerves which are the sentinels to the garrison of life. Yet my theory is +scarcely borne out by general fact. The Indian savages must have a health +as perfect as yours; a nervous system as fine,--witness their marvellous +accuracy of ear, of eye, of scent, probably also of touch; yet they are +indifferent to physical pain; or must I mortify your pride by saying that +they have some moral quality defective in you which enables them to rise +superior to it?" + +"The Indian savages," said Margrave, sullenly, "have not a health as +perfect as mine, and in what you call vitality--the blissful consciousness +of life--they are as sticks and stones compared to me." + +"How do you know?" + +"Because I have lived with them. It is a fallacy to suppose that the +savage has a health superior to that of the civilized man,--if the +civilized man be but temperate; and even if not, he has the stamina that +can resist for years the effect of excesses which would destroy the savage +in a month. As to the savage's fine perceptions of sense, such do not +come from exquisite equilibrium of system, but are hereditary attributes +transmitted from race to race, and strengthened by training from infancy. +But is a pointer stronger and healthier than a mastiff, because the +pointer through long descent and early teaching creeps stealthily to his +game and stands to it motionless? I will talk of this later; now I +suffer! Pain, pain! Has life any ill but pain?" + +It so happened that I had about me some roots of the white lily, which I +meant, before returning home, to leave with a patient suffering from one +of those acute local inflammations, in which that simple remedy often +affords great relief. I cut up one of these roots, and bound the cooling +leaves to the wounded hand with my handkerchief. + +"There," said I. "Fortunately if you feel pain more sensibly than others, +you will recover from it more quickly." And in a few minutes my +companion felt perfectly relieved, and poured out his gratitude with an +extravagance of expression and a beaming delight of countenance which +positively touched me. + +"I almost feel," said I, "as I do when I have stilled an infant's wailing, +and restored it smiling to its mother's breast." + +"You have done so. I am an infant, and Nature is my mother. Oh, to be +restored to the full joy of life, the scent of wild flowers, the song of +birds, and this air--summer air--summer air!" + +I know not why it was, but at that moment, looking at him and hearing him, +I rejoiced that Lilian was not at L----. "But I came out to bathe. Can +we not bathe in that stream?" + +"No. You would derange the bandage round your hand; and for all bodily +ills, from the least to the gravest, there is nothing like leaving Nature +at rest the moment we have hit on the means which assist her own efforts +at cure." + +"I obey, then; but I so love the water." + +"You swim, of course?" + +"Ask the fish if it swim. Ask the fish if it can escape me! I delight to +dive down--down; to plunge after the startled trout, as an otter does; and +then to get amongst those cool, fragrant reeds and bulrushes, or that +forest of emerald weed which one sometimes finds waving under clear +rivers. Man! man! could you live but an hour of my life you would know +how horrible a thing it is to die!" + +"Yet the dying do not think so; they pass away calm and smiling, as you +will one day." + +"I--I! die one day--die!" and he sank on the grass, and buried his face +amongst the herbage, sobbing aloud. + +Before I could get through half a dozen words I meant to soothe, he had +once more bounded up, dashed the tears from his eyes, and was again +singing some wild, barbaric chant. Abstracting itself from the appeal to +its outward sense by melodies of which the language was unknown, my mind +soon grew absorbed in meditative conjectures on the singular nature, so +wayward, so impulsive, which had forced intimacy on a man grave and +practical as myself. + +I was puzzled how to reconcile so passionate a childishness, so +undisciplined a want of self-control, with an experience of mankind so +extended by travel, with an education desultory and irregular indeed, but +which must, at some time or other, have been familiarized to severe +reasonings and laborious studies. In Margrave there seemed to be wanting +that mysterious something which is needed to keep our faculties, however +severally brilliant, harmoniously linked together,--as the string by +which a child mechanically binds the wildflowers it gathers, shaping them +at choice into the garland or the chain. + +[1] "According to the views we have mentioned, we must ascribe life to a +gas, that is, to an aeriform body."--Liebig: "Organic Chemistry," +Mayfair's translation, p.363.--It is perhaps not less superfluous to add +that Liebig does not support the views "according to which life must be +ascribed to a gas," than it would be to state, had Dugald Stewart been +quoted as writing, "According to the views we have mentioned the mind is +but a bundle of impressions," that Dugald Stewart was not supporting, but +opposing, the views of David Hume. The quotation is merely meant to show, +in the shortest possible compass, that there are views entertained by +speculative reasoners of our day which, according to Liebig, would lead to +the inference at which Margrave so boldly arrives. Margrave is, however, +no doubt, led to his belief by his reminiscences of Van Helmont, to whose +discovery of gas he is referring. Van Helmont plainly affirms "that the +arterial spirit of our life is of the nature of a gas;" and in the same +chapter (on the fiction of elementary complexions and mixtures) says, +"Seeing that the spirit of our life, since it is a gas, is most mightily +and swiftly affected by any other gas," etc. He repeats the same dogma in +his treatise on "Long Life," and indeed very generally throughout his +writings, observing, in his chapter on the Vital Air, that the spirit of +life is a salt, sharp vapour, made of the arterial blood, etc. Liebig, +therefore, in confuting some modern notions as to the nature of contagion +by miasma, is leading their reasonings back to that assumption in the +Brawn of physiological science by which the discoverer of gas exalted into +the principle of life the substance to which he first gave the name, now +so familiarly known. It is nevertheless just to Van Helmont to add that +his conception of the vital principle was very far from being as purely +materialistic as it would seem to those unacquainted with his writings; +for he carefully distinguishes that principle of life which he ascribes to +a gas, and by which he means the sensuous animal life, from the +intellectual immortal principle of soul. Van Helmont, indeed, was a +sincere believer of Divine Revelation. "The Lord Jesus is the way, the +truth, and the life," says with earnest humility this daring genius, in +that noble chapter "On the completing of the mind by the 'prayer of +silence,' and the loving offering tip of the heart, soul, and strength to +the obedience of the Divine will," from which some of the most eloquent of +recent philosophers, arguing against materialism, have borrowed largely in +support and in ornament of their lofty cause. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +My intercourse with Margrave grew habitual and familiar. He came to my +house every morning before sunrise; in the evenings we were again brought +together: sometimes in the houses to which we were both invited, sometimes +at his hotel, sometimes in my own home. + +Nothing more perplexed me than his aspect of extreme youthfulness, +contrasted with the extent of the travels, which, if he were to be +believed, had left little of the known world unexplored. One day I asked +him bluntly how old he was. + +"How old do I look? How old should you suppose me to be?" + +"I should have guessed you to be about twenty, till you spoke of having +come of age some years ago." + +"Is it a sign of longevity when a man looks much younger than he is?" + +"Conjoined with other signs, certainly!" + +"Have I the other signs?" + +"Yes, a magnificent, perhaps a matchless, constitutional organization. +But you have evaded my question as to your age; was it an impertinence to +put it?" + +"No. I came of age--let me see--three years ago." + +"So long since? Is it possible? I wish I had your secret!" + +"Secret! What secret?" + +"The secret of preserving so much of boyish freshness in the wear and tear +of man-like passions and man-like thoughts." + +"You are still young yourself,--under forty?" + +"Oh, yes! some years under forty." + +"And Nature gave you a grander frame and a finer symmetry of feature than +she bestowed on me." + +"Pooh! pooh! You have the beauty that must charm the eyes of woman, and +that beauty in its sunny forenoon of youth. Happy man! if you love and +wish to be sure that you are loved again." + +"What you call love--the unhealthy sentiment, the feverish folly--left +behind me, I think forever, when--" + +"Ay, indeed,--when?" + +"I came of age!" + +"Hoary cynic! and you despise love! So did I once. Your time may come." + +"I think not. Does any animal, except man, love its fellow she-animal as +man loves woman?" + +"As man loves woman? No, I suppose not." + +"And why should the subject animals be wiser than their king? But to +return: you would like to have my youth and my careless enjoyment of +youth?" + +"Can you ask,--who would not?" Margrave looked at me for a moment with +unusual seriousness, and then, in the abrupt changes common to his +capricious temperament, began to sing softly one of his barbaric +chants,--a chant different from any I had heard him sing before, made, +either by the modulation of his voice or the nature of the tune, so sweet +that, little as music generally affected me, this thrilled to my very +heart's core. I drew closer and closer to him, and murmured when he +paused,-- + +"Is not that a love-song?" + +"No;" said he, "it is the song by which the serpent-charmer charms the +serpent." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +Increased intimacy with my new acquaintance did not diminish the charm of +his society, though it brought to light some startling defects, both in +his mental and moral organization. I have before said that his knowledge, +though it had swept over a wide circuit and dipped into curious, +unfrequented recesses, was desultory and erratic. It certainly was not +that knowledge, sustained and aspiring, which the poet assures us is "the +wing on which we mount to heaven." So, in his faculties themselves there +were singular inequalities, or contradictions. His power of memory in +some things seemed prodigious, but when examined it was seldom accurate; +it could apprehend, but did not hold together with a binding grasp what +metaphysicians call "complex ideas." He thus seemed unable to put it to +any steadfast purpose in the sciences of which it retained, vaguely and +loosely, many recondite principles. For the sublime and beautiful in +literature lie had no taste whatever. A passionate lover of nature, his +imagination had no response to the arts by which nature is expressed or +idealized; wholly unaffected by poetry or painting. Of the fine arts, +music alone attracted and pleased him. His conversation was often +eminently suggestive, touching on much, whether in books or mankind, that +set one thinking; but I never remember him to have uttered any of those +lofty or tender sentiments which form the connecting links between youth +and genius; for if poets sing to the young, and the young hail their own +interpreters in poets, it is because the tendency of both is to idealize +the realities of life,--finding everywhere in the real a something that is +noble or fair, and making the fair yet fairer, and the noble nobler still. + +In Margrave's character there seemed no special vices, no special virtues; +but a wonderful vivacity, joyousness, animal good-humour. He was +singularly temperate, having a dislike to wine, perhaps from that purity +of taste which belongs to health absolutely perfect. No healthful child +likes alcohol; no animal, except man, prefers wine to water. + +But his main moral defect seemed to me in a want of sympathy, even where +he professed attachment. He who could feel so acutely for himself, be +unmanned by the bite of a squirrel, and sob at the thought that he should +one day die, was as callous to the sufferings of another as a deer who +deserts and butts from him a wounded comrade. + +I give an instance of this hardness of heart where I should have least +expected to find it in him. + +He had met and joined me as I was walking to visit a patient on the +outskirts of the town, when we fell in with a group of children, just let +loose for an hour or two from their day-school. Some of these children +joyously recognized him as having played with them at their homes; they +ran up to him, and he seemed as glad as themselves at the meeting. + +He suffered them to drag him along with them, and became as merry and +sportive as the youngest of the troop. + +"Well," said I, laughing, "if you are going to play at leap-frog, pray +don't let it be on the high road, or you will be run over by carts and +draymen; see that meadow just in front to the left,--off with you there!" + +"With all my heart," cried Margrave, "while you pay your visit. Come +along, boys." + +A little urchin, not above six years old, but who was lame, began to cry; +he could not run,--he should be left behind. + +Margrave stooped. "Climb on my shoulder, little one, and I'll be your +horse." + +The child dried its tears, and delightedly obeyed. "Certainly," said I to +myself, "Margrave, after all, must have a nature as gentle as it is +simple. What other young man, so courted by all the allurements that +steal innocence from pleasure, would stop in the thoroughfares to play +with children?" + +The thought had scarcely passed through my mind when I heard a scream of +agony. Margrave had leaped the railing that divided the meadow from the +road, and, in so doing, the poor child, perched on his shoulder, had, +perhaps from surprise or fright, loosened its hold and fallen heavily; its +cries were piteous. Margrave clapped his hands to his ears, uttered an +exclamation of anger, and not even stopping to lift up the boy, or examine +what the hurt was, called to the other children to come on, and was soon +rolling with them on the grass, and pelting them with daisies. When I +came up, only one child remained by the sufferer,-his little brother, a +year older than himself. The child had fallen on his arm, which was not +broken, but violently contused. The pain must have been intense. I +carried the child to his home, and had to remain there some time. I did +not see Margrave till the next morning. When he then called, I felt so +indignant that I could scarcely speak to him. When at last I rebuked +him for his inhumanity, he seemed surprised; with difficulty remembered +the circumstance, and then merely said, as if it were the most natural +confession in the world, + +"Oh, nothing so discordant as a child's wail. I hate discords. I am +pleased with the company of children; but they must be children who laugh +and play. Well, why do you look at me so sternly? What have I said to +shock you?" + +"Shock me! you shock manhood itself! Go; I cannot talk to you now. I am +busy." + +But he did not go; and his voice was so sweet, and his ways so winning, +that disgust insensibly melted into that sort of forgiveness one accords +(let me repeat the illustration) to the deer that forsakes its comrade. +The poor thing knows no better. And what a graceful beautiful thing this +was! + +The fascination--I can give it no other name--which Margrave exercised, +was not confined to me; it was universal,--old, young, high, low, man, +woman, child, all felt it. Never in Low Town had stranger, even the most +distinguished by fame, met with a reception so cordial, so flattering. +His frank confession that he was a natural son, far from being to his +injury, served to interest people more in him, and to prevent all those +inquiries in regard to his connections and antecedents which would +otherwise have been afloat. To be sure, he was evidently rich,--at least +he had plenty of money. He lived in the best rooms in the principal +hotel; was very hospitable; entertained the families with whom he had +grown intimate; made them bring their children,--music and dancing after +dinner. Among the houses in which he had established familiar +acquaintance was that of the mayor of the town, who had bought Dr. Lloyd's +collection of subjects in natural history. To that collection the mayor +had added largely by a very recent purchase. He had arranged these +various specimens, which his last acquisitions had enriched by the +interesting carcasses of an elephant and a hippopotamus, in a large wooden +building contiguous to his dwelling, which had been constructed by a +former proprietor (a retired fox-hunter) as a riding-house; and being a +man who much affected the diffusion of knowledge, he proposed to open this +museum to the admiration of the general public, and, at his death, to +bequeath it to the Athenaeum or Literary Institute of his native town. +Margrave, seconded by the influence of the mayor's daughters, had scarcely +been three days at L---- before he had persuaded this excellent and +public-spirited functionary to inaugurate the opening of his museum by the +popular ceremony of a ball. A temporary corridor should unite the +drawing-rooms, which were on the ground floor, with the building that +contained the collection; and thus the fete would be elevated above the +frivolous character of a fashionable amusement, and consecrated to the +solemnization of an intellectual institute. Dazzled by the brilliancy of +this idea, the mayor announced his intention to give a ball that should +include the surrounding neighbourhood, and be worthy, in all expensive +respects, of the dignity of himself and the occasion. A night had been +fixed for the ball,--a night that became memorable indeed to me! The +entertainment was anticipated with a lively interest, in which even the +Hill condescended to share. The Hill did not much patronize mayors in +general; but when a Mayor gave a ball for a purpose so patriotic, and on a +scale so splendid, the Hill liberally acknowledged that Commerce was, on +the whole, a thing which the Eminence might, now and then, condescend to +acknowledge without absolutely derogating from the rank which Providence +had assigned to it amongst the High Places of earth. Accordingly, the +Hill was permitted by its Queen to honour the first magistrate of Low Town +by a promise to attend his ball. Now, as this festivity had originated in +the suggestion of Margrave, so, by a natural association of ideas, every +one, in talking of the ball, talked also of Margrave. + +The Hill had at first affected to ignore a stranger whose debut had been +made in the mercantile circle of Low Town. But the Queen of the Hill now +said, sententiously, "This new man in a few days has become a Celebrity. +It is the policy of the Hill to adopt Celebrities, if the Celebrities pay +respect to the Proprieties. Dr. Fenwick is requested to procure Mr. +Margrave the advantage of being known to the Hill." + +I found it somewhat difficult to persuade Margrave to accept the Hill's +condescending overture. He seemed to have a dislike to all societies +pretending to aristocratic distinction,--a dislike expressed with a +fierceness so unwonted, that it made one suppose he had, at some time or +other, been subjected to mortification by the supercilious airs that blow +upon heights so elevated. However, he yielded to my instances, and +accompanied me one evening to Mrs. Poyntz's house. The Hill was encamped +there for the occasion. Mrs. Poyntz was exceedingly civil to him, and +after a few commonplace speeches, hearing that he was fond of music, +consigned him to the caressing care of Miss Brabazon, who was at the head +of the musical department in the Queen of the Hill's administration. + +Mrs. Poyntz retired to her favourite seat near the window, inviting me to +sit beside her; and while she knitted in silence, in silence my eye +glanced towards Margrave, in the midst of the group assembled round the +piano. + +Whether he was in more than usually high spirits, or whether he was +actuated by a malign and impish desire to upset the established laws of +decorum by which the gayeties of the Hill were habitually subdued into a +serene and somewhat pensive pleasantness, I know not; but it was not many +minutes before the orderly aspect of the place was grotesquely changed. + +Miss Brabazon having come to the close of a complicated and dreary sonata, +I heard Margrave abruptly ask her if she could play the Tarantella, that +famous Neapolitan air which is founded on the legendary belief that the +bite of the tarantula excites an irresistible desire to dance. On that +highbred spinster's confession that she was ignorant of the air, and had +not even heard of the legend, Margrave said, "Let me play it to you, with +variations of my own." Miss Brabazon graciously yielded her place at the +instrument. Margrave seated himself,--there was great curiosity to hear +his performance. Margrave's fingers rushed over the keys, and there was a +general start, the prelude was so unlike any known combination of +harmonious sounds. Then he began a chant--song I can scarcely call +it--words certainly not in Italian, perhaps in some uncivilized tongue, +perhaps in impromptu gibberish. And the torture of the instrument now +commenced in good earnest: it shrieked, it groaned, wilder and noisier. +Beethoven's Storm, roused by the fell touch of a German pianist, were mild +in comparison; and the mighty voice, dominating the anguish of the +cracking keys, had the full diapason of a chorus. Certainly I am no judge +of music, but to my ear the discord was terrific,--to the ears of better +informed amateurs it seemed ravishing. All were spellbound; even Mrs. +Poyntz paused from her knitting, as the Fates paused from their web at the +lyre of Orpheus. To this breathless delight, however, soon succeeded a +general desire for movement. To my amazement, I beheld these formal +matrons and sober fathers of families forming themselves into a dance, +turbulent as a children's ball at Christmas; and when, suddenly desisting +from his music, Margrave started up, caught the skeleton hand of lean +Miss Brabazon, and whirled her into the centre of the dance, I could have +fancied myself at a witch's sabbat. My eye turned in scandalized alarm +towards Mrs. Poyntz. That great creature seemed as much astounded as +myself. Her eyes were fixed on the scene in a stare of positive stupor. +For the first time, no doubt, in her life, she was overcome, deposed, +dethroned. The awe of her presence was literally whirled away. The dance +ceased as suddenly as it had begun. Darting from the galvanized mummy +whom he had selected as his partner, Margrave shot to Mrs. Poyntz's side, +and said, "Ten thousand pardons for quitting you so soon, but the clock +warns me that I have an engagement elsewhere." In another moment he was +gone. + +The dance halted, people seemed slowly returning to their senses, +looking at each other bashfully and ashamed. + +"I could not help it, dear," sighed Miss Brabazon at last, sinking into a +chair, and casting her deprecating, fainting eyes upon the hostess. + +"It is witchcraft," said fat Mrs. Bruce, wiping her forehead. + +"Witchcraft!" echoed Mrs. Poyntz; "it does indeed look like it. An +amazing and portentous exhibition of animal spirits, and not to be endured +by the Proprieties. Where on earth can that young savage have come from?" + +"From savage lands," said I,--"so he says." + +"Do not bring him here again," said Mrs. Poyntz. "He would soon turn the +Hill topsy-turvy. But how charming! I should like to see more of him," +she added, in an under voice, "if he would call on me some morning, and +not in the presence of those for whose Proprieties I am responsible. Jane +must be out in her ride with the colonel." + +Margrave never again attended the patrician festivities of the Hill. +Invitations were poured upon him, especially by Miss Brabazon and the +other old maids, but in vain. + +"Those people," said he, "are too tamed and civilized for me; and so few +young persons among them. Even that girl Jane is only young on the +surface; inside, as old as the World or her mother. I like youth, real +youth,--I am young, I am young!" + +And, indeed, I observed he would attach himself to some young person, +often to some child, as if with cordial and special favour, yet for not +more than an hour or so, never distinguishing them by the same preference +when he next met them. I made that remark to him, in rebuke of his +fickleness, one evening when he had found me at work on my Ambitious Book, +reducing to rule and measure the Laws of Nature. + +"It is not fickleness," said he,--"it is necessity." + +"Necessity! Explain yourself." + +"I seek to find what I have not found," said he; it is my necessity to +seek it, and among the young; and disappointed in one, I turn to the +other. Necessity again. But find it at last I must." + +"I suppose you mean what the young usually seek in the young; and if, as +you said the other day, you have left love behind you, you now wander back +to re-find it." + +"Tush! If I may judge by the talk of young fools, love may be found +every day by him who looks out for it. What I seek is among the rarest of +all discoveries. You might aid me to find it, and in so doing aid +yourself to a knowledge far beyond all that your formal experiments can +bestow." + +"Prove your words, and command my services," said I, smiling somewhat +disdainfully. + +"You told me that you had examined into the alleged phenomena of animal +magnetism, and proved some persons who pretend to the gift which the +Scotch call second sight to be bungling impostors. You were right. I +have seen the clairvoyants who drive their trade in this town; a common +gipsy could beat them in their own calling. But your experience must +have shown you that there are certain temperaments in which the gift of +the Pythoness is stored, unknown to the possessor, undetected by the +common observer; but the signs of which should be as apparent to the +modern physiologist, as they were to the ancient priest." + +"I at least, as a physiologist, am ignorant of the signs: what are they?" + +"I should despair of making you comprehend them by mere verbal +description. I could guide your observation to distinguish them +unerringly were living subjects before us. But not one in a million has +the gift to an extent available for the purposes to which the wise would +apply it. Many have imperfect glimpses; few, few indeed, the unveiled, +lucent sight. They who have but the imperfect glimpses mislead and dupe +the minds that consult them, because, being sometimes marvellously right, +they excite a credulous belief in their general accuracy; and as they are +but translators of dreams in their own brain, their assurances are no more +to be trusted than are the dreams of commonplace sleepers. But where the +gift exists to perfection, he who knows how to direct and to profit by it +should be able to discover all that he desires to know for the guidance +and preservation of his own life. He will be forewarned of every danger, +forearmed in the means by which danger is avoided. For the eye of the +true Pythoness matter has no obstruction, space no confines, time no +measurement." + +"My dear Margrave, you may well say that creatures so gifted are rare; +and, for my part, I would as soon search for a unicorn, as, to use your +affected expression, for a Pythoness." + +"Nevertheless, whenever there come across the course of your practice some +young creature to whom all the evil of the world is as yet unknown, to +whom the ordinary cares and duties of the world are strange and unwelcome; +who from the earliest dawn of reason has loved to sit apart and to muse; +before whose eyes visions pass unsolicited; who converses with those who +are not dwellers on the earth, and beholds in the space landscapes which +the earth does not reflect--" + +"Margrave, Margrave! of whom do you speak?" + +"Whose frame, though exquisitely sensitive, has still a health and a +soundness in which you recognize no disease; whose mind has a truthfulness +that you know cannot deceive you, and a simple intelligence too clear to +deceive itself; who is moved to a mysterious degree by all the varying +aspects of external nature,--innocently joyous, or unaccountably +sad,--when, I say, such a being comes across your experience, inform me; +and the chances are that the true Pythoness is found." + +I had listened with vague terror, and with more than one exclamation of +amazement, to descriptions which brought Lilian Ashleigh before me; and I +now sat mute, bewildered, breathless, gazing upon Margrave, and rejoicing +that, at least, Lilian he had never seen. + +He returned my own gaze steadily, searchingly, and then, breaking +into a slight laugh, resumed:-- + +"You call my word 'Pythoness' affected. I know of no better. My +recollections of classic anecdote and history are confused and dim; but +somewhere I have read or heard that the priests of Delphi were accustomed +to travel chiefly into Thrace or Thessaly, in search of the virgins who +might fitly administer their oracles, and that the oracles gradually +ceased in repute as the priests became unable to discover the +organization requisite in the priestesses, and supplied by craft and +imposture, or by such imperfect fragmentary developments as belong now to +professional clairvoyants, the gifts which Nature failed to afford. +Indeed, the demand was one that mast have rapidly exhausted so limited a +supply. The constant strain upon faculties so wearying to the vital +functions in their relentless exercise, under the artful stimulants by +which the priests heightened their power, was mortal, and no Pythoness +ever retained her life more than three years from the time that her gift +was elaborately trained and developed." + +"Pooh! I know of no classical authority for the details you so +confidently cite. Perhaps some such legends may be found in the +Alexandrian Platonists, but those mystics are no authority on such a +subject. "After all;" I added, recovering from my first surprise, or awe, +"the Delphic oracles were proverbially ambiguous, and their responses +might be read either way,--a proof that the priests dictated the verses, +though their arts on the unhappy priestess might throw her into real +convulsions, and the real convulsions, not the false gift, might shorten +her life. Enough of such idle subjects! Yet no! one question more. If +you found your Pythoness, what then?" + +"What then? Why, through her aid I might discover the process of an +experiment which your practical science would assist me to complete." + +"Tell me of what kind is your experiment; and precisely because such +little science as I possess is exclusively practical, I may assist you +without the help of the Pythoness." + +Margrave was silent for some minutes, passing his hand several times +across his forehead, which was a frequent gesture of his, and then rising, +he answered, in listless accents,-- + +"I cannot say more now, my brain is fatigued; and you are not yet in the +right mood to hear me. By the way, how close and reserved you are with +me!" + +"How so?" + +"You never told me that you were engaged to be married. You leave me, who +thought to have won your friendship, to hear what concerns you so +intimately from a comparative stranger." + +"Who told you?" + +"That woman with eyes that pry and lips that scheme, to whose house you +took me." + +"Mrs. Poyntz! is it possible? When?" + +"This afternoon. I met her in the street; she stopped me, and, after some +unmeaning talk, asked if I had seen you lately; if I did not find you very +absent and distracted: no wonder;--you were in love. The young lady was +away on a visit, and wooed by a dangerous rival." + +"Wooed by a dangerous rival!" + +"Very rich, good-looking, young. Do you fear him? You turn pale." + +"I do not fear, except so far as he who loves truly, loves humbly, and +fears not that another may be preferred, but that another may be worthier +of preference than himself. But that Mrs. Poyntz should tell you all this +does amaze me. Did she mention the name of the young lady?" + +"Yes; Lilian Ashleigh. Henceforth be more frank with me. Who knows? I +may help you. Adieu!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +When Margrave had gone, I glanced at the clock,--not yet nine. I resolved +to go at once to Mrs. Poyntz. It was not an evening on which she +received, but doubtless she would see me. She owed me an explanation. +How thus carelessly divulge a secret she had been enjoined to keep; and +this rival, of whom I was ignorant? It was no longer a matter of wonder +that Hargrave should have described Lilian's peculiar idiosyncrasies in +his sketch of his fabulous Pythoness. Doubtless Mrs. Poyntz had, with +unpardonable levity of indiscretion, revealed all of which she disapproved +in my choice. But for what object? Was this her boasted friendship for +me? Was it consistent with the regard she professed for Mrs. Ashleigh and +Lilian? Occupied by these perplexed and indignant thoughts, I arrived at +Mrs. Poyntz's house, and was admitted to her presence. She was +fortunately alone; her daughter and the colonel had gone to some party on +the Hill. I would not take the hand she held out to me on entrance; +seated myself in stern displeasure, and proceeded at once to inquire if +she had really betrayed to Mr. Margrave the secret of my engagement to +Lilian. + +"Yes, Allen Fenwick; I have this day told, not only Mr. Margrave, but +every person I met who is likely to tell it to some one else, the secret +of your engagement to Lilian Ashleigh. I never promised to conceal it; on +the contrary, I wrote word to Anne Ashleigh that I would therein act as my +own judgment counselled me. I think my words to you were that 'public +gossip was sometimes the best security for the completion of private +engagements.'" + +"Do you mean that Mrs. or Miss Ashleigh recoils from the engagement with +me, and that I should meanly compel them both to fulfil it by calling in +the public to censure them--if--if--Oh, madam, this is worldly artifice +indeed!" + +"Be good enough to listen to me quietly. I have never yet showed you the +letter to Mrs. Ashleigh, written by Lady Haughton, and delivered by Mr. +Vigors. That letter I will now show to you; but before doing so I must +enter into a preliminary explanation. Lady Haughton is one of those women +who love power, and cannot obtain it except through wealth and +station,--by her own intellect never obtain it. When her husband died she +was reduced from an income of twelve thousand a year to a jointure of +twelve hundred, but with the exclusive guardianship of a young son, a +minor, and adequate allowances for the charge; she continued, therefore, +to preside as mistress over the establishments in town and country; still +had the administration of her son's wealth and rank. She stinted his +education, in order to maintain her ascendancy over him. He became a +brainless prodigal, spendthrift alike of health and fortune. Alarmed, she +saw that, probably, he would die young and a beggar; his only hope of +reform was in marriage. She reluctantly resolved to marry him to a +penniless, well-born, soft-minded young lady whom she knew she could +control; just before this marriage was to take place he was killed by a +fall from his horse. The Haughton estate passed to his cousin, the +luckiest young man alive,--the same Ashleigh Sumner who had already +succeeded, in default of male issue, to poor Gilbert Ashleigh's landed +possessions. Over this young man Lady Haughton could expect no influence. +She would be a stranger in his house. But she had a niece! Mr. Vigors +assured her the niece was beautiful. And if the niece could become Mrs. +Ashleigh Sumner, then Lady Haughton would be a less unimportant Nobody in +the world, because she would still have her nearest relation in a Somebody +at Haughton Park. Mr. Vigors has his own pompous reasons for approving an +alliance which he might help to accomplish. The first step towards that +alliance was obviously to bring into reciprocal attraction the natural +charms of the young lady and the acquired merits of the young gentleman. +Mr. Vigors could easily induce his ward to pay a visit to Lady Haughton, +and Lady Haughton had only to extend her invitations to her niece; hence +the letter to Mrs. Ashleigh, of which Mr. Vigors was the bearer, and hence +my advice to you, of which you can now understand the motive. Since you +thought Lilian Ashleigh the only woman you could love, and since I thought +there were other women in the world who might do as well for Ashleigh +Sumner, it seemed to me fair for all parties that Lilian should not go to +Lady Haughton's in ignorance of the sentiments with which she had inspired +you. A girl can seldom be sure that she loves until she is sure that she +is loved. And now," added Mrs. Poyntz, rising and walking across the room +to her bureau,--"now I will show you Lady Haughton's invitation to Mrs. +Ashleigh. Here it is!" + +I ran my eye over the letter, which she thrust into my hand, resuming her +knitting-work while I read. + +The letter was short, couched in conventional terms of hollow affection. +The writer blamed herself for having so long neglected her brother's widow +and child; her heart had been wrapped up too much in the son she had lost; +that loss had made her turn to the ties of blood still left to her; she +had heard much of Lilian from their common friend, Mr. Vigors; she longed +to embrace so charming a niece. Then followed the invitation and the +postscript. The postscript ran thus, so far as I can remember:-- + + "Whatever my own grief at my irreparable bereavement, I am no egotist; + I keep my sorrow to myself. You will find some pleasant guests at my + house, among others our joint connection, young Ashleigh Sumner." + +"Woman's postscripts are proverbial for their significance," said +Mrs. Poyntz, when I had concluded the letter and laid it on the table; +"and if I did not at once show you this hypocritical effusion, it was +simply because at the name Ashleigh Sumner its object became transparent, +not perhaps to poor Anne Ashleigh nor to innocent Lilian, but to my +knowledge of the parties concerned, as it ought to be to that shrewd +intelligence which you derive partly from nature, partly from the insight +into life which a true physician cannot fail to acquire. And if I know +anything of you, you would have romantically said, had you seen the letter +at first, and understood its covert intention, 'Let me not shackle the +choice of the woman I love, and to whom an alliance so coveted in the eyes +of the world might, if she were left free, be proffered.'" + +"I should not have gathered from the postscript all that you see in it; +but had its purport been so suggested to me, you are right, I should have +so said. Well, and as Mr. Margrave tells me that you informed him that I +have a rival, I am now to conclude that the rival is Mr. Ashleigh Sumner?" + +"Has not Mrs. Ashleigh or Lilian mentioned him in writing to you?" + +"Yes, both; Lilian very slightly, Mrs. Ashleigh with some praise, as a +young man of high character, and very courteous to her." + +"Yet, though I asked you to come and tell me who were the guests at Lady +Haughton's, you never did so." + +"Pardon me; but of the guests I thought nothing, and letters addressed to +my heart seemed to me too sacred to talk about. And Ashleigh Sumner then +courts Lilian! How do you know?" + +"I know everything that concerns me; and here, the explanation is simple. +My aunt, Lady Delafield, is staying with Lady Haughton. Lady Delafield is +one of the women of fashion who shine by their own light; Lady Haughton +shines by borrowed light, and borrows every ray she can find." + +"And Lady Delafield writes you word--" + +"That Ashleigh Sumner is caught by Lilian's beauty." + +"And Lilian herself--" + +"Women like Lady Delafield do not readily believe that any girl could +refuse Ashleigh Sumner; considered in himself, he is steady and good- +looking; considered as owner of Kirby Hall and Haughton Park, he has, +in the eyes of any sensible mother, the virtues of Cato and the beauty +of Antinous." + +I pressed my hand to my heart; close to my heart lay a letter from Lilian, +and there was no word in that letter which showed that her heart was gone +from mine. I shook my head gently, and smiled in confiding triumph. + +Mrs. Poyntz surveyed me with a bent brow and a compressed lip. + +"I understand your smile," she said ironically. "Very likely Lilian may +be quite untouched by this young man's admiration, but Anne Ashleigh may +be dazzled by so brilliant a prospect for her daughter; and, in short, I +thought it desirable to let your engagement be publicly known throughout +the town to-day. That information will travel; it will reach Ashleigh +Sumner through Mr. Vigors, or others in this neighbourhood, with whom I +know that he corresponds. It will bring affairs to a crisis, and before +it may be too late. I think it well that Ashleigh Sumner should leave +that house; if he leave it for good, so much the better. And, perhaps, +the sooner Lilian returns to L---- the lighter your own heart will be." + +"And for these reasons you have published the secret of--" + +"Your engagement? Yes. Prepare to be congratulated wherever you go. And +now if you hear either from mother or daughter that Ashleigh Sumner has +proposed, and been, let us say, refused, I do not doubt that, in the pride +of your heart, you will come and tell me." + +"Rely upon it, I will; but before I take leave, allow me to ask why you +described to a young man like Mr. Margrave--, whose wild and strange +humours you have witnessed and not approved--any of those traits of +character in Miss Ashleigh which distinguish her from other girls of her +age?" + +"I? You mistake. I said nothing to him of her character. I mentioned +her name, and said she was beautiful, that was all." + +"Nay, you said that she was fond of musing, of solitude; that in her +fancies she believed in the reality of visions which might flit before her +eyes as they flit before the eyes of all imaginative dreamers." + +"Not a word did I say to Mr. Margrave of such peculiarities in Lilian; not +a word more than what I have told you, on my honour!" + +Still incredulous, but disguising my incredulity with that convenient +smile by which we accomplish so much of the polite dissimulation +indispensable to the decencies of civilized life, I took my departure, +returned home, and wrote to Lilian. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +The conversation with Mrs. Poyntz left my mind restless and disquieted. I +had no doubt, indeed, of Lilian's truth; but could I be sure that the +attentions of a young man, with advantages of fortune so brilliant, would +not force on her thoughts the contrast of the humbler lot and the duller +walk of life in which she had accepted as companion a man removed from her +romantic youth less by disparity of years than by gravity of pursuits? +And would my suit now be as welcomed as it had been by a mother even so +unworldly as Mrs. Ashleigh? Why, too, should both mother and daughter +have left me so unprepared to hear that I had a rival; why not have +implied some consoling assurance that such rivalry need not cause me +alarm? Lilian's letters, it is true, touched but little on any of the +persons round her; they were filled with the outpourings of an ingenuous +heart, coloured by the glow of a golden fancy. They were written as if in +the wide world we two stood apart alone, consecrated from the crowd by the +love that, in linking us together, had hallowed each to the other. Mrs. +Ashleigh's letters were more general and diffusive,--detailed the habits +of the household, sketched the guests, intimated her continued fear of +Lady Haughton, but had said nothing more of Mr. Ashleigh Sumner than I had +repeated to Mrs. Poyntz. However, in my letter to Lilian I related the +intelligence that had reached me, and impatiently I awaited her reply. + +Three days after the interview with Mrs. Poyntz, and two days before the +long-anticipated event of the mayor's ball, I was summoned to attend a +nobleman who had lately been added to my list of patients, and whose +residence was about twelve miles from L----. The nearest way was through +Sir Philip Derval's park. I went on horseback, and proposed to stop on +the way to inquire after the steward, whom I had seen but once since his +fit, and that was two days after it, when he called himself at my house to +thank me for my attendance, and to declare that he was quite recovered. + +As I rode somewhat fast through the park, I came, however, upon the +steward, just in front of the house. I reined in my horse and accosted +him. He looked very cheerful. + +"Sir," said he, in a whisper, "I have heard from Sir Philip; his letter is +dated since--since-my good woman told you what I saw,--well, since then. +So that it must have been all a delusion of mine, as you told her. And +yet, well--well--we will not talk of it, doctor; but I hope you have kept +the secret. Sir Philip would not like to hear of it, if he comes back." + +"Your secret is quite safe with me. But is Sir Philip likely to come +back?" + +"I hope so, doctor. His letter is dated Paris, and that's nearer home +than he has been for many years; and--but bless me! some one is coming +out of the house,--a young gentleman! Who can it be?" + +I looked, and to my surprise I saw Margrave descending the stately stairs +that led from the front door. The steward turned towards him, and I +mechanically followed, for I was curious to know what had brought Margrave +to the house of the long-absent traveller. + +It was easily explained. Mr. Margrave had heard at L---- much of the +pictures and internal decorations of the mansion. He had, by dint of +coaxing (he said, with his enchanting laugh), persuaded the old +housekeeper to show him the rooms. + +"It is against Sir Philip's positive orders to show the house to any +stranger, sir; and the housekeeper has done very wrong," said the steward. + +"Pray don't scold her. I dare say Sir Philip would not have refused me a +permission he might not give to every idle sightseer. Fellow-travellers +have a freemasonry with each other; and I have been much in the same far +countries as himself. I heard of him there, and could tell you more about +him, I dare say, than you know yourself." + +"You, sir! pray do then." + +"The next time I come," said Margrave, gayly; and, with a nod to me, he +glided off through the trees of the neighbouring grove, along the winding +footpath that led to the lodge. + +"A very cool gentleman," muttered the steward; "but what pleasant ways he +has! You seem to know him, sir. Who is he, may I ask?" + +"Mr. Margrave,--a visitor at L----, and he has been a great traveller, as +he says; perhaps he met Sir Philip abroad." + +"I must go and hear what he said to Mrs. Gates; excuse me, sir, but I am +so anxious about Sir Philip." + +"If it be not too great a favour, may I be allowed the same privilege +granted to Mr. Margrave? To judge by the outside of the house, the inside +must be worth seeing; still, if it be against Sir Philip's positive +orders--" + +"His orders were, not to let the Court become a show-house,--to admit none +without my consent; but I should be ungrateful indeed, doctor, if I +refused that consent to you." + +I tied my horse to the rusty gate of the terrace-walk, and followed the +steward up the broad stairs of the terrace. The great doors were +unlocked. We entered a lofty hall with a domed ceiling; at the back of +the hall the grand staircase ascended by a double flight. The design was +undoubtedly Vanbrugh's,--an architect who, beyond all others, sought the +effect of grandeur less in space than in proportion; but Vanbrugh's +designs need the relief of costume and movement, and the forms of a more +pompous generation, in the bravery of velvets and laces, glancing amid +those gilded columns, or descending with stately tread those broad +palatial stairs. His halls and chambers are so made for festival and +throng, that they become like deserted theatres, inexpressibly desolate, +as we miss the glitter of the lamps and the movement of the actors. + +The housekeeper had now appeared,--a quiet, timid old woman. She excused +herself for admitting Margrave--not very intelligibly. It was plain to +see that she had, in truth, been unable to resist what the steward termed +his "pleasant ways." + +As if to escape from a scolding, she talked volubly all the time, bustling +nervously through the rooms, along which I followed her guidance with a +hushed footstep. The principal apartments were on the ground-floor, or +rather, a floor raised some ten or fifteen feet above the ground; they had +not been modernized since the date in which they were built. Hangings of +faded silk; tables of rare marble, and mouldered gilding; comfortless +chairs at drill against the walls; pictures, of which connoisseurs alone +could estimate the value, darkened by dust or blistered by sun and damp, +made a general character of discomfort. On not one room, on not one +nook, still lingered some old smile of home. + +Meanwhile, I gathered from the housekeeper's rambling answers to questions +put to her by the steward, as I moved on, glancing at the pictures, that +Margrave's visit that day was not his first. He had been to the house +twice before,--his ostensible excuse that he was an amateur in pictures +(though, as I had before observed, for that department of art he had no +taste); but each time he had talked much of Sir Philip. He said that +though not personally known to him, he had resided in the same towns +abroad, and had friends equally intimate with Sir Philip; but when the +steward inquired if the visitor had given any information as to the +absentee, it became very clear that Margrave had been rather asking +questions than volunteering intelligence. + +We had now come to the end of the state apartments, the last of which was +a library. "And," said the old woman, "I don't wonder the gentleman knew +Sir Philip, for he seemed a scholar, and looked very hard over the books, +especially those old ones by the fireplace, which Sir Philip, Heaven bless +him, was always poring into." + +Mechanically I turned to the shelves by the fireplace, and examined the +volumes ranged in that department. I found they contained the works of +those writers whom we may class together under the title of +mystics,--Iamblichus and Plotinus; Swedenborg and Behmen; Sandivogius, Van +Helmont, Paracelsus, Cardan. Works, too, were there, by writers less +renowned, on astrology, geomancy, chiromancy, etc. I began to understand +among what class of authors Margrave had picked up the strange notions +with which he was apt to interpolate the doctrines of practical philosophy. + +"I suppose this library was Sir Philip's usual sitting-room?" said I. + +"No, sir; he seldom sat here. This was his study; "and the old woman +opened a small door, masked by false book backs. I followed her into a +room of moderate size, and evidently of much earlier date than the rest of +the house. "It is the only room left of an older mansion," said the +steward in answer to my remark. "I have heard it was spared on account of +the chimneypiece. But there is a Latin inscription which will tell you +all about it. I don't know Latin myself." + +The chimneypiece reached to the ceiling. The frieze of the lower part +rested on rude stone caryatides; the upper part was formed of oak panels +very curiously carved in the geometrical designs favoured by the taste +prevalent in the reigns of Elizabeth and James, but different from any I +had ever seen in the drawings of old houses,--and I was not quite +unlearned in such matters, for my poor father was a passionate antiquary +in all that relates to mediaeval art. The design in the oak panels was +composed of triangles interlaced with varied ingenuity, and enclosed in +circular bands inscribed with the signs of the Zodiac. + +On the stone frieze supported by the caryatides, immediately under the +woodwork, was inserted a metal plate, on which was written, in Latin, a +few lines to the effect that "in this room, Simon Forman, the seeker of +hidden truth, taking refuge from unjust persecution, made those +discoveries in nature which he committed, for the benefit of a wiser age, +to the charge of his protector and patron, the worshipful Sir Miles +Derval, knight." + +Forman! The name was not quite unfamiliar to me; but it was not without +an effort that my memory enabled me to assign it to one of the most +notorious of those astrologers or soothsayers whom the superstition of an +earlier age alternately persecuted and honoured. + +The general character of the room was more cheerful than the statelier +chambers I had hitherto passed through, for it had still the look of +habitation,--the armchair by the fireplace; the kneehole writing-table +beside it; the sofa near the recess of a large bay-window, with book-prop +and candlestick screwed to its back; maps, coiled in their cylinders, +ranged under the cornice; low strong safes, skirting two sides of the +room, and apparently intended to hold papers and title-deeds, seals +carefully affixed to their jealous locks. Placed on the top of these +old-fashioned receptacles were articles familiar to modern use,--a +fowling-piece here, fishing-rods there, two or three simple flower-vases, +a pile of music books, a box of crayons. All in this room seemed to +speak of residence and ownership,--of the idiosyncrasies of a lone single +man, it is true, but of a man of one's own time,--a country gentleman of +plain habits but not uncultivated tastes. + +I moved to the window; it opened by a sash upon a large balcony, from +which a wooden stair wound to a little garden, not visible in front of the +house, surrounded by a thick grove of evergreens, through which one broad +vista was cut, and that vista was closed by a view of the mausoleum. + +I stepped out into the garden,--a patch of sward with a fountain in the +centre, and parterres, now more filled with weeds than flowers. At the +left corner was a tall wooden summer-house or pavilion,--its door wide +open. "Oh, that's where Sir Philip used to study many a long summer's +night," said the steward. + +"What! in that damp pavilion?" + +"It was a pretty place enough then, sir; but it is very old,--they say as +old as the room you have just left." + +"Indeed, I must look at it, then." + +The walls of this summer-house had once been painted in the arabesques of +the Renaissance period; but the figures were now scarcely traceable. The +woodwork had started in some places, and the sunbeams stole through the +chinks and played on the floor, which was formed from old tiles quaintly +tessellated and in triangular patterns; similar to those I had observed in +the chimneypiece. The room in the pavilion was large, furnished with old +worm-eaten tables and settles. "It was not only here that Sir Philip +studied, but sometimes in the room above," said the steward. + +"How do you get to the room above? Oh, I see; a stair case in the angle." +I ascended the stairs with some caution, for they were crooked and +decayed; and, on entering the room above, comprehended at once why Sir +Philip had favoured it. + +The cornice of the ceiling rested on pilasters, within which the +compartments were formed into open unglazed arches, surrounded by a +railed balcony. Through these arches, on three sides of the room, the eye +commanded a magnificent extent of prospect. On the fourth side the view +was bounded by the mausoleum. In this room was a large telescope; and on +stepping into the balcony, I saw that a winding stair mounted thence to a +platform on the top of the pavilion,--perhaps once used as an observatory +by Forman himself. + +"The gentleman who was here to-day was very much pleased with this +look-out, sir," said the housekeeper. "Who would not be? I suppose Sir +Philip has a taste for astronomy." + +"I dare say, sir," said the steward, looking grave; "he likes most +out-of-the-way things." + +The position of the sun now warned me that my time pressed, and that I +should have to ride fast to reach my new patient at the hour appointed. I +therefore hastened back to my horse, and spurred on, wondering whether, in +the chain of association which so subtly links our pursuits in manhood to +our impressions in childhood, it was the Latin inscription on the +chimneypiece that had originally biassed Sir Philip Derval's literary +taste towards the mystic jargon of the books at which I had contemptuously +glanced. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +I did not see Margrave the following day, but the next morning, a little +after sunrise, he walked into my study, according to his ordinary habit. + +"So you know something about Sir Philip Derval?" said I. "What sort of a +man is he?" + +"Hateful!" cried Margrave; and then checking himself, burst out into his +merry laugh. "Just like my exaggerations! I am not acquainted with +anything to his prejudice. I came across his track once or twice in the +East. Travellers are always apt to be jealous of each other." + +"You are a strange compound of cynicism and credulity; but I should have +fancied that you and Sir Philip would have been congenial spirits, when I +found, among his favourite books, Van Helmont and Paracelsus. Perhaps +you, too, study Swedenborg, or, worse still, Ptolemy and Lilly?" + +"Astrologers? No! They deal with the future! I live for the day; only I +wish the day never had a morrow!" + +"Have you not, then that vague desire for the something beyond,--that not +unhappy, but grand discontent with the limits of the immediate Present, +from which man takes his passion for improvement and progress, and from +which some sentimental philosophers have deduced an argument in favour of +his destined immortality?" + +"Eh!" said Margrave, with as vacant a stare as that of a peasant whom one +has addressed in Hebrew. "What farrago of words is this? I do not +comprehend you." + +"With your natural abilities," I asked with interest, "do you never feel a +desire for fame?" + +"Fame? Certainly not. I cannot even understand it!" + +"Well, then, would you have no pleasure in the thought that you had +rendered a service to humanity?" + +Margrave looked bewildered; after a moment's pause, he took from the table +a piece of bread that chanced to be there, opened the window, and threw +the crumbs into the lane. The sparrows gathered round the crumbs. + +"Now," said Margrave, "the sparrows come to that dull pavement for the +bread that recruits their lives in this world; do you believe that one +sparrow would be silly enough to fly to a house-top for the sake of some +benefit to other sparrows, or to be chirruped about after he was dead? I +care for science as the sparrow cares for bread,--it may help me to +something good for my own life; and as for fame and humanity, I care for +them as the sparrow cares for the general interest and posthumous +approbation of sparrows!" + +"Margrave, there is one thing in you that perplexes me more than all +else--human puzzle as you are--in your many eccentricities and +self-contradictions." + +"What is that one thing in me most perplexing?" + +"This: that in your enjoyment of Nature you have all the freshness of a +child, but when you speak of Man and his objects in the world, you talk in +the vein of some worn-out and hoary cynic. At such times, were I to close +my eyes, I should say to myself, 'What weary old man is thus venting his +spleen against the ambition which has failed, and the love which has +forsaken him?' Outwardly the very personation of youth, and revelling like +a butterfly in the warmth of the sun and the tints of the herbage, why +have you none of the golden passions of the young,--their bright dreams of +some impossible love, their sublime enthusiasm for some unattainable +glory? The sentiment you have just clothed in the illustration by which +you place yourself on a level with the sparrows is too mean and too gloomy +to be genuine at your age. Misanthropy is among the dismal fallacies of +gray beards. No man, till man's energies leave him, can divorce himself +from the bonds of our social kind." + +"Our kind! Your kind, possibly; but I--" He swept his hand over his +brow, and resumed, in strange, absent, and wistful accents: "I wonder what +it is that is wanting here, and of which at moments I have a dim +reminiscence." Again he paused, and gazing on me, said with more +appearance of friendly interest than I had ever before remarked in his +countenance, "You are not looking well. Despite your great physical +strength, you suffer like your own sickly patients." + +"True! I suffer at this moment, but not from bodily pain." + +"You have some cause of mental disquietude?" + +"Who in this world has not?" + +"I never have." + +"Because you own you have never loved. Certainly, you never seem to care +for any one but yourself; and in yourself you find an unbroken sunny +holiday,--high spirits, youth, health, beauty, wealth. Happy boy!" + +At that moment my heart was heavy within me. + +Margrave resumed,-- + +"Among the secrets which your knowledge places at the command of your art, +what would you give for one which would enable you to defy and to deride a +rival where you place your affections, which could lock to yourself, and +imperiously control, the will of the being whom you desire to fascinate, +by an influence paramount, transcendent?" + +"Love has that secret," said I,--"and love alone." + +"A power stronger than love can suspend, can change love itself. But if +love be the object or dream of your life, love is the rosy associate of +youth and beauty. Beauty soon fades, youth soon departs. What if in +nature there were means by which beauty and youth can be fixed into +blooming duration,--means that could arrest the course, nay, repair the +effects, of time on the elements that make up the human frame?" + +"Silly boy! Have the Rosicrucians bequeathed to you a prescription for +the elixir of life?" + +"If I had the prescription I should not ask your aid to discover its +ingredients." + +"And is it in the hope of that notable discovery you have studied +chemistry, electricity, and magnetism? Again I say, Silly boy!" + +Margrave did not heed my reply. His face was overcast, gloomy, troubled. + +"That the vital principle is a gas," said he, abruptly, "I am fully +convinced. Can that gas be the one which combines caloric with oxygen?" + +"Phosoxygen? Sir Humphrey Davy demonstrates that gas not to be, as +Lavoisier supposed, caloric, but light, combined with oxygen; and he +suggests, not indeed that it is the vital principle itself, but the +pabulum of life to organic beings." [1] + +"Does he?" said Margrave, his, face clearing up. "Possibly, possibly, +then, here we approach the great secret of secrets. Look you, Allen +Fenwick: I promise to secure to you unfailing security from all the +jealous fears that now torture your heart; if you care for that fame which +to me is not worth the scent of a flower, the balm of a breeze, I will +impart to you a knowledge which, in the hands of ambition, would dwarf +into commonplace the boasted wonders of recognized science. I will do +all this, if, in return, but for one month you will give yourself up to my +guidance in whatever experiments I ask, no matter how wild they may seem +to you." + +"My dear Margrave, I reject your bribes as I would reject the moon and the +stars which a child might offer to me in exchange for a toy; but I may +give the child its toy for nothing, and I may test your experiments for +nothing some day when I have leisure." + +I did not hear Margrave's answer, for at that moment my servant entered +with letters. Lilian's hand! Tremblingly, breathlessly, I broke the +seal. Such a loving, bright, happy letter; so sweet in its gentle chiding +of my wrongful fears! It was implied rather than said that Ashleigh +Sumner had proposed and been refused. He had now left the house. Lilian +and her mother were coming back; in a few days we should meet. In this +letter were inclosed a few lines from Mrs. Ashleigh. She was more +explicit about my rival than Lilian had been. If no allusion to his +attentions had been made to me before, it was from a delicate +consideration for myself. Mrs. Ashleigh said that "the young man had +heard from L---- of our engagement, and--disbelieved it;" but, as Mrs. +Poyntz had so shrewdly predicted, hurried at once to the avowal of his own +attachment, and the offer of his own hand. On Lilian's refusal his pride +had been deeply mortified. He had gone away manifestly in more anger than +sorrow. + + "Lady Delafield, dear Margaret Poyntz's aunt, had been most kind in + trying to soothe Lady Haughton's disappointment, which was rudely + expressed,--so rudely," added Mrs. Ashleigh, "that it gives us an + excuse to leave sooner than had been proposed,--which I am very glad + of. Lady Delafield feels much for Mr. Sumner; has invited him to + visit her at a place she has near Worthing. She leaves to-morrow in + order to receive him; promises to reconcile him to our rejection, + which, as he was my poor Gilbert's heir, and was very friendly at + first, would be a great relief to my mind. Lilian is well, and so + happy at the thoughts of coining back." + +When I lifted my eyes from these letters I was as a new man, and the earth +seemed a new earth. I felt as if I had realized Margrave's idle +dreams,--as if youth could never fade, love could never grow cold. + +"You care for no secrets of mine at this moment," said Margrave, abruptly. + +"Secrets!" I murmured; "none now are worth knowing. I am loved! I am +loved!" + +"I bide my time," said Margrave; and as my eyes met his, I saw there a +look I had never seen in those eyes before, sinister, wrathful, menacing. +He turned away, went out through the sash-door of the study; and as he +passed towards the fields under the luxuriant chestnut-trees, I heard his +musical, barbaric chant,--the song by which the serpent-charmer charms the +serpent,--sweet, so sweet, the very birds on the boughs hushed their carol +as if to listen. + +[1] See Sir Humphrey Davy on Heat, Light, and the Combinations of Light + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +I called that day on Mrs. Poyntz, and communicated to her the purport of +the glad news I had received. + +She was still at work on the everlasting knitting, her firm fingers +linking mesh into mesh as she listened; and when I had done, she laid her +skein deliberately down, and said, in her favourite characteristic +formula,-- + +"So at last?--that is settled!" + +She rose and paced the room as men are apt to do in reflection, women +rarely need such movement to aid their thoughts; her eyes were fixed on +the floor, and one hand was lightly pressed on the palm of the other,--the +gesture of a musing reasoner who is approaching the close of a difficult +calculation. + +At length she paused, fronting me, and said dryly,-- + +"Accept my congratulations. Life smiles on you now; guard that smile, and +when we meet next, may we be even firmer friends than we are now!" + +"When we meet next,--that will be to-night--you surely go to the mayor's +great ball? All the Hill descends to Low Town to-night." + +"No; we are obliged to leave L---- this afternoon; in less than two hours +we shall be gone,--a family engagement. We may be weeks away; you will +excuse me, then, if I take leave of you so unceremoniously. Stay, a +motherly word of caution. That friend of yours, Mr. Margrave! Moderate +your intimacy with him; and especially after you are married. There is in +that stranger, of whom so little is known, a something which I cannot +comprehend,--a something that captivates and yet revolts. I find him +disturbing my thoughts, perplexing my conjectures, haunting my +fancies,--I, plain woman of the world! Lilian is imaginative; beware of +her imagination, even when sure of her heart. Beware of Margrave. The +sooner he quits L---- the better, believe me, for your peace of mind. +Adieu! I must prepare for our journey." + +"That woman," muttered I, on quitting her house, "seems to have some +strange spite against my poor Lilian, ever seeking to rouse my own +distrust of that exquisite nature which has just given me such proof of +its truth. And yet--and yet--is that woman so wrong here? True! +Margrave with his wild notions, his strange beauty!--true--true--he might +dangerously encourage that turn for the mystic and visionary which +distresses me in Lilian. Lilian should not know him. How induce him to +leave L----? Ah, those experiments on which he asks my assistance! I +might commence them when he comes again, and then invent some excuse +tosend him for completer tests to the famous chemists of Paris or Berlin." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +It is the night of the mayor's ball! The guests are assembling fast; +county families twelve miles round have been invited, as well as the +principal families of the town. All, before proceeding to the room set +apart for the dance, moved in procession through the museum,--homage to +science before pleasure! + +The building was brilliantly lighted, and the effect was striking, perhaps +because singular and grotesque. There, amidst stands of flowers and +evergreens, lit up with coloured lamps, were grouped the dead +representatives of races all inferior--some deadly--to man. The fancy of +the ladies had been permitted to decorate and arrange these types of the +animal world. The tiger glared with glass eyes from amidst artificial +reeds and herbage, as from his native jungle; the grisly white bear peered +from a mimic iceberg. There, in front, stood the sage elephant, facing a +hideous hippopotamus; whilst an anaconda twined its long spire round the +stem of some tropical tree in zinc. In glass cases, brought into full +light by festooned lamps, were dread specimens of the reptile +race,--scorpion and vampire, and cobra capella, with insects of gorgeous +hues, not a few of them with venomed stings. + +But the chief boast of the collection was in the varieties of the Genus +Simia,--baboons and apes, chimpanzees, with their human visage, mockeries +of man, from the dwarf monkeys perched on boughs lopped from the mayor's +shrubberies, to the formidable ourangoutang, leaning on his huge club. + +Every one expressed to the mayor admiration, to each other antipathy, for +this unwonted and somewhat ghastly, though instructive, addition to the +revels of a ballroom. + +Margrave, of course, was there, and seemingly quite at home, gliding from +group to group of gayly-dressed ladies, and brilliant with a childish +eagerness to play off the showman. Many of these grim fellow-creatures he +declared he had seen, played, or fought with. He had something true or +false to say about each. In his high spirits he contrived to make the +tiger move, and imitated the hiss of the terribly anaconda. All that he +did had its grace, its charm; and the buzz of admiration and the +flattering glances of ladies' eyes followed him wherever he moved. + +However, there was a general feeling of relief when the mayor led the way +from the museum into the ballroom. In provincial parties guests arrive +pretty much within the same hour, and so few who had once paid their +respects to the apes and serpents, the hippopotamus and the tiger, were +disposed to repeat the visit, that long before eleven o'clock the museum +was as free from the intrusion of human life as the wilderness in which +its dead occupants had been born. + +I had gone my round through the rooms, and, little disposed to be social, +had crept into the retreat of a window-niche, pleased to think myself +screened by its draperies,--not that I was melancholy, far from it; for +the letter I had received that morning from Lilian had raised my whole +being into a sovereignty of happiness high beyond the reach of the young +pleasure-hunters, whose voices and laughter blended with that vulgar +music. + +To read her letter again I had stolen to my nook, and now, sure that none +saw me kiss it, I replaced it in my bosom. I looked through the parted +curtain; the room was comparatively empty; but there, through the open +folding-doors, I saw the gay crowd gathered round the dancers, and there +again, at right angles, a vista along the corridor afforded a glimpse of +the great elephant in the deserted museum. + +Presently I heard, close beside me, my host's voice. + +"Here's a cool corner, a pleasant sofa, you can have it all to yourself. +What an honour to receive you under my roof, and on this interesting +occasion! Yes, as you say, there are great changes in L---- since you +left us. Society has much improved. I must look about and find some +persons to introduce to you. Clever! oh, I know your tastes. We have a +wonderful man,--a new doctor. Carries all before him; very high +character, too; good old family, greatly looked up to, even apart from his +profession. Dogmatic a little,--a Sir Oracle,--'Lets no dog bark;' you +remember the quotation,--Shakspeare. Where on earth is he? My dear Sir +Philip, I am sure you would enjoy his conversation." + +Sir Philip! Could it be Sir Philip Derval to whom the mayor was giving a +flattering yet scarcely propitiatory description of myself? Curiosity +combined with a sense of propriety in not keeping myself an unsuspected +listener; I emerged from the curtain, but silently, and reached the centre +of the room before the mayor perceived me. He then came up to me eagerly, +linked his arm in mine, and leading me to a gentleman seated on a sofa, +close by the window I had quitted, said,-- + +"Doctor, I must present you to Sir Philip Derval, just returned to +England, and not six hours in L----. If you would like to see the museum +again, Sir Philip, the doctor, I am sure, will accompany you." + +"No, I thank you; it is painful to me at present to see, even under your +roof, the collection which my poor dear friend, Dr. Lloyd, was so proudly +beginning to form when I left these parts." + +"Ay, Sir Philip, Dr. Lloyd was a worthy man in his way, but sadly duped in +his latter years; took to mesmerism, only think! But our young doctor +here showed him up, I can tell you." + +Sir Philip, who had acknowledged my first introduction to his acquaintance +by the quiet courtesy with which a well-bred man goes through a ceremony +that custom enables him to endure with equal ease and indifference, now +evinced by a slight change of manner how little the mayor's reference to +my dispute with Dr. Lloyd advanced me in his good opinion. He turned away +with a bow more formal than his first one, and said calmly, + +"I regret to hear that a man so simple-minded and so sensitive as Dr. +Lloyd should have provoked an encounter in which I can well conceive him +to have been worsted. With your leave, Mr. Mayor, I will look into your +ballroom. I may perhaps find there some old acquantances." + +He walked towards the dancers, and the mayor, linking his arm in mine, +followed close behind, saying in his loud hearty tones,-- + +"Come along, you too, Dr. Fenwick, my girls are there; you have not spoken +to them yet." + +Sir Philip, who was then half way across the room, turned round abruptly, +and, looking me full in the face, said,-- + +"Fenwick, is your name Fenwick,--Allen Fenwick?" + +"That is my name, Sir Philip." + +"Then permit me to shake you by the hand; you are no stranger, and no mere +acquaintance to me. Mr. Mayor, we will look into your ballroom later; do +not let us keep you now from your other guests." + +The mayor, not in the least offended by being thus summarily dismissed, +smiled, walked on, and was soon lost amongst the crowd. + +Sir Philip, still retaining my hand, reseated himself on the sofa, and I +took my place by his side. The room was still deserted; now and then a +straggler from the ballroom looked in for a moment, and then sauntered +back to the central place of attraction. + +"I ain trying to guess," said I, "how my name should be known to you. +Possibly you may, in some visit to the Lakes, have known my father?" + +"No; I know none of your name but yourself,--if, indeed, as I doubt not, +you are the Allen Fenwick to whom I owe no small obligation. You were a +medical student at Edinburgh in the year ----?" + +"Yes." + +"So! At that time there was also at Edinburgh a young man, named Richard +Strahan. He lodged in a fourth flat in the Old Town." + +"I remember him very well." + +"And you remember, also, that a fire broke out at night in the house in +which he lodged; that when it was discovered there seemed no hope of +saving him. The flames wrapped the lower part of the house; the staircase +had given way. A boy, scarcely so old as himself, was the only human +being in the crowd who dared to scale the ladder that even then scarcely +reached the windows from which the smoke rolled in volumes; that boy +penetrated into the room, found the inmate almost insensible, rallied, +supported, dragged him to the window, got him on the ladder,--saved his +life then: and his life later, by nursing with a woman's tenderness, +through the fever caused by terror and excitement, the fellow-creature he +had rescued by a man's daring. The name of that gallant student was Allen +Fenwick, and Richard Strahan is my nearest living relation. Are we +friends now?" + +I answered confusedly. I had almost forgotten the circumstances referred +to. Richard Strahan had not been one of my more intimate companions, and +I bad never seen nor heard of him since leaving college. I inquired what +had become of him. + +"He is at the Scotch Bar," said Sir Philip, "and of course without +practice. I understand that he has fair average abilities, but no +application. If I am rightly informed, he is, however, a thoroughly +honourable, upright man, and of an affectionate and grateful disposition." + +"I can answer for all you have said in his praise. He had the qualities +you name too deeply rooted in youth to have lost them now." + +Sir Philip remained for some moments in a musing silence; and I took +advantage of that silence to examine him with more minute attention than I +had done before, much as the first sight of him had struck me. + +He was somewhat below the common height,--so delicately formed that one +might call him rather fragile than slight. But in his carriage and air +there was remarkable dignity. His countenance was at direct variance with +his figure; for as delicacy was the attribute of the last, so power was +unmistakably the characteristic of the first. He looked fully the age his +steward had ascribed to him,--about forty-eight; at a superficial glance, +more, for his hair was prematurely white,--not gray, but white as snow. +But his eyebrows were still jet black, and his eyes, equally dark, were +serenely bright. His forehead was magnificent,--lofty and spacious, and +with only one slight wrinkle between the brows. His complexion was +sunburnt, showing no sign of weak health. The outline of his lips was +that which I have often remarked in men accustomed to great dangers, and +contracting in such dangers the habit of self-reliance,--firm and quiet, +compressed without an effort. And the power of this very noble +countenance was not intimidating, not aggressive; it was mild, it was +benignant. A man oppressed by some formidable tyranny, and despairing to +find a protector, would, on seeing that face, have said, "Here is one who +can protect me, and who will!" + +Sir Philip was the first to break the silence. + +"I have so many relations scattered over England, that fortunately not one +of them can venture to calculate on my property if I die childless, and +therefore not one of them can feel himself injured when, a few weeks +hence, he shall read in the newspapers that Philip Derval is married. But +for Richard Strahan at least, though I never saw him, I must do something +before the newspapers make that announcement. His sister was very dear to +me." + +"Your neighbours, Sir Philip, will rejoice at your marriage, since, I +presume, it may induce you to settle amongst them at Derval Court." + +"At Derval Court! No! I shall not settle there." Again he paused a +moment or so, and then went on: "I have long lived a wandering life, and +in it learned much that the wisdom of cities cannot teach. I return to my +native land with a profound conviction that the happiest life is the life +most in common with all. I have gone out of my way to do what I deemed +good, and to avert or mitigate what appeared to me evil. I pause now and +ask myself, whether the most virtuous existence be not that in which +virtue flows spontaneously from the springs of quiet everyday action; when +a man does good without restlessly seeking it, does good unconsciously, +simply because he is good and he lives. Better, perhaps, for me, if I had +thought so long ago! And now I come back to England with the intention of +marrying, late in life though it be, and with such hopes of happiness as +any matter-of-fact man may form. But my hope will not be at Derval +Court. I shall reside either in London or its immediate neighbourhood, +and seek to gather round me minds by which I can correct, if I cannot +confide to them, the knowledge I myself have acquired." + +"Nay, if, as I have accidentally heard, you are fond of scientific +pursuits, I cannot wonder, that after so long an absence from England, you +should feel interest in learning what new discoveries have been made, what +new ideas are unfolding the germs of discoveries yet to be. But, pardon +me, if in answer to your concluding remark, I venture to say that no man +can hope to correct any error in his own knowledge, unless he has the +courage to confide the error to those who can correct. La Place has +said, 'Tout se tient dans le chaine immense des verites;' and the mistake +we make in some science we have specially cultivated is often only to be +seen by the light of a separate science as specially cultivated by +another. Thus, in the investigation of truth, frank exposition to +congenial minds is essential to the earnest seeker." + +"I am pleased with what you say," said Sir Philip, "and I shall be still +more pleased to find in you the very confidant I require. But what was +your controversy with my old friend, Dr. Lloyd? Do I understand our host +rightly, that it related to what in Europe has of late days obtained the +name of mesmerism?" + +I had conceived a strong desire to conciliate the good opinion of a man +who had treated me with so singular and so familiar a kindness, and it was +sincerely that I expressed my regret at the acerbity with which I had +assailed Dr. Lloyd; but of his theories and pretensions I could not +disguise my contempt. I enlarged on the extravagant fallacies involved in +a fabulous "clairvoyance," which always failed when put to plain test by +sober-minded examiners. I did not deny the effects of imagination on +certain nervous constitutions. "Mesmerism could cure nobody; credulity +could cure many. There was the well-known story of the old woman tried as +a witch; she cured agues by a charm. She owned the impeachment, and was +ready to endure gibbet or stake for the truth of her talisman,--more than +a mesmerist would for the truth of his passes! And the charm was a scroll +of gibberish sewn in an old bag and given to the woman in a freak by the +judge himself when a young scamp on the circuit. But the charm cured? +Certainly; just as mesmerism cures. Fools believed in it. Faith, that +moves mountains, may well cure agues." + +Thus I ran on, supporting my views with anecdote and facts, to which Sir +Philip listened with placid gravity. + +When I had come to an end he said: "Of mesmerism, as practised in Europe, +I know nothing except by report. I can well understand that medical men +may hesitate to admit it amongst the legitimate resources of orthodox +pathology; because, as I gather from what you and others say of its +practice, it must, at the best, be far too uncertain in its application to +satisfy the requirements of science. Yet an examination of its +pretensions may enable you to perceive the truth that lies hid in the +powers ascribed to witchcraft; benevolence is but a weak agency compared +to malignity; magnetism perverted to evil may solve half the riddles of +sorcery. On this, however, I say no more at present. But as to that +which you appear to reject as the most preposterous and incredible +pretension of the mesmerists, and which you designate by the word +'clairvoyance,' it is clear to me that you have never yourself witnessed +even those very imperfect exhibitions which you decide at once to be +imposture. I say imperfect, because it is only a limited number of +persons whom the eye or the passes of the mesmerist can effect; and by +such means, unaided by other means, it is rarely indeed that the magnetic +sleep advances beyond the first vague shadowy twilight-dawn of that +condition to which only in its fuller developments I would apply the name +of 'trance.' But still trance is as essential a condition of being as +sleep or as waking, having privileges peculiar to itself. By means within +the range of the science that explores its nature and its laws, trance, +unlike the clairvoyance you describe, is producible in every human being, +however unimpressible to mere mesmerism." + +"Producible in every human being! Pardon me if I say that I will give any +enchanter his own terms who will produce that effect upon me." + +"Will you? You consent to have the experiment tried on yourself?" + +"Consent most readily." + +"I will remember that promise. But to return to the subject. By the word +'trance' I do not mean exclusively the spiritual trance of the +Alexandrian Platonists. There is one kind of trance,--that to which all +human beings are susceptible,--in which the soul has no share: for of this +kind of trance, and it was of this I spoke, some of the inferior animals +are susceptible; and, therefore, trance is no more a proof of soul than is +the clairvoyance of the mesmerists, or the dream of our ordinary sleep, +which last has been called a proof of soul, though any man who has kept a +dog must have observed that dogs dream as vividly as we do. But in this +trance there is an extraordinary cerebral activity, a projectile force +given to the mind, distinct from the soul, by which it sends forth its own +emanations to a distance in spite of material obstacles, just as a flower, +in an altered condition of atmosphere, sends forth the particles of its +aroma. This should not surprise you. Your thought travels over land and +sea in your waking state; thought, too, can travel in trance, and in +trance may acquire an intensified force. There is, however, another kind +of trance which is truly called spiritual, a trance much more rare, and +in which the soul entirely supersedes the mere action of the mind." + +"Stay!" said I; "you speak of the soul as something distinct from the +mind. What the soul may be, I cannot pretend to conjecture; but I cannot +separate it from the intelligence!" + +"Can you not? A blow on the brain can destroy the intelligence! Do you +think it can destroy the soul? + + 'From Marlbro's eyes the tears of dotage flow, + And Swift expires, a driveller and a show.' + +"Towards the close of his life even Kant's giant intellect left him. Do +you suppose that in these various archetypes of intellectual man the soul +was worn out by the years that loosened the strings, or made tuneless the +keys, of the perishing instrument on which the mind must rely for all +notes of its music? If you cannot distinguish the operations of the mind +from the essence of the soul, I know not by what rational inductions you +arrive at the conclusion that the soul is imperishable." + +I remained silent. Sir Philip fixed on me his dark eyes quietly and +searchingly, and, after a short pause, said,-- + +"Almost every known body in nature is susceptible of three several states +of existence,--the solid, the liquid, the aeriform. These conditions +depend on the quantity of heat they contain. The same object at one +moment may be liquid; at the next moment solid; at the next aeriform. The +water that flows before your gaze may stop consolidated into ice, or +ascend into air as a vapour. Thus is man susceptible of three states of +existence,--the animal, the mental, the spiritual; and according as he is +brought into relation or affinity with that occult agency of the whole +natural world, which we familiarly call heat, and which no science has yet +explained, which no scale can weigh, and no eye discern, one or the other +of these three states of being prevails, or is subjected." + +I still continued silent, for I was unwilling discourteously to say to a +stranger so much older than myself, that he seemed to me to reverse all +the maxims of the philosophy to which he made pretence, in founding +speculations audacious and abstruse upon unanalogous comparisons that +would have been fantastic even in a poet. And Sir Philip, after another +pause, resumed with a half smile,-- + +"After what I have said, it will perhaps not very much surprise +you when I add that but for my belief in the powers I ascribe to trance, +we should not be known to each other at this moment." + +"How? Pray explain!" + +"Certain circumstances, which I trust to relate to you in detail +hereafter, have imposed on me the duty to discover, and to bring human +laws to bear upon, a creature armed with terrible powers of evil. This +monster, for without metaphor, monster it is, not man like ourselves, has, +by arts superior to those of ordinary fugitives, however dexterous in +concealment, hitherto for years eluded my research. Through the trance +of an Arab child, who, in her waking state, never heard of his existence, +I have learned that this being is in England, is in L----. I am here to +encounter him. I expect to do so this very night, and under this very +roof." + +"Sir Philip!" + +"And if you wonder, as you well may, why I have been talking to you with +this startling unreserve, know that the same Arab child, on whom I thus +implicitly rely, informs me that your life is mixed up with that of the +being I seek to unmask and disarm,--to be destroyed by his arts or his +agents, or to combine in the causes by which the destroyer himself shall +be brought to destruction." + +"My life!--your Arab child named me, Allen Fenwick?" + +"My Arab child told me that the person in whom I should thus naturally seek +an ally was he who had saved the life of the man whom I then meant for my +heir, if I died unmarried and childless. She told me that I should not be +many hours in this town, which she described minutely, before you would be +made known to me. She described this house, with yonder lights, and yon +dancers. In her trance she saw us sitting together, as we now sit. I +accepted the invitation of our host, when he suddenly accosted me on +entering the town, confident that I should meet you here, without even +asking whether a person of your name were a resident in the place; and now +you know why I have so freely unbosomed myself of much that might well +make you, a physician, doubt the soundness of my understanding. The same +infant, whose vision has been realized up to this moment, has warned me +also that I am here at great peril. What that peril may be I have +declined to learn, as I have ever declined to ask from the future what +affects only my own life on this earth. That life I regard with supreme +indifference, conscious that I have only to discharge, while it lasts, the +duties for which it is bestowed on me, to the best of my imperfect power; +and aware that minds the strongest and souls the purest may fall into the +sloth habitual to predestinarians, if they suffer the action due to the +present hour to be awed and paralyzed by some grim shadow on the future! +It is only where, irrespectively of aught that can menace myself, a light +not struck out of my own reason can guide me to disarm evil or minister to +good, that I feel privileged to avail myself of those mirrors on which +things, near and far, reflect themselves calm and distinct as the banks +and the mountain peak are reflected in the glass of a lake. Here, then, +under this roof, and by your side, I shall behold him who--Lo! the moment +has come,--I behold him now!" + +As he spoke these last words, Sir Philip had risen, and, startled by his +action and voice, I involuntarily rose too. Resting one hand on my +shoulder, he pointed with the other towards the threshold of the ballroom. +There, the prominent figure of a gay group--the sole male amidst a +fluttering circle of silks and lawn, of flowery wreaths, of female +loveliness and female frippery--stood the radiant image of Margrave. His +eyes were not turned towards us. He was looking down, and his light laugh +came soft, yet ringing, through the general murmur. + +I turned my astonished gaze back to Sir Philip; yes, unmistakably it was +on Margrave that his look was fixed. Impossible to associate crime with +the image of that fair youth! Eccentric notions, fantastic speculations, +vivacious egotism, defective benevolence,--yes. But crime! No! +impossible! + +"Impossible," I said aloud. As I spoke, the group had moved on. Margrave +was no longer in sight. At the same moment some other guests came from +the ballroom, and seated themselves near us. + +Sir Philip looked round, and, observing the deserted museum at the end of +the corridor, drew me into it. + +When we were alone, he said in a voice quick and low, but decided,-- + +"It is of importance that I should convince you at once of the nature of +that prodigy which is more hostile to mankind than the wolf is to the +sheepfold. No words of mine could at present suffice to clear your sight +from the deception which cheats it. I must enable you to judge for +yourself. It must be now and here. He will learn this night, if he has +not learned already, that I am in the town. Dim and confused though his +memories of myself may be, they are memories still; and he well knows +what cause he has to dread me. I must put another in possession of his +secret. Another, and at once! For all his arts will be brought to bear +against me, and I cannot foretell their issue. Go, then; enter that giddy +crowd, select that seeming young man, bring him hither. Take care only +not to mention my name; and when here, turn the key in the door, so as to +prevent interruption,--five minutes will suffice." + +"Am I sure that I guess whom you mean? The young light-hearted man, known +in this place under the name of Margrave? The young man with the radiant +eyes, and the curls of a Grecian statue?" + +"The same; him whom I pointed out. Quick, bring him hither." + +My curiosity was too much roused to disobey. Had I conceived that +Margrave, in the heat of youth, had committed some offence which placed +him in danger of the law and in the power of Sir Philip Derval, I +possessed enough of the old borderer's black-mail loyalty to have given +the man whose hand I had familiarly clasped a hint and a help to escape. +But all Sir Philip's talk had been so out of the reach of common-sense, +that I rather expected to see him confounded by some egregious illusion +than Margrave exposed to any well-grounded accusation. All, then, that I +felt as I walked into the ballroom and approached Margrave was that +curiosity which, I think, any one of my readers will acknowledge that, in +my position, he himself would have felt. + +Margrave was standing near the dancers, not joining them, but talking with +a young couple in the ring. I drew him aside. + +"Come with me for a few minutes into the museum; I wish to talk to you." + +"What about,--an experiment?" + +"Yes, an experiment." + +"Then I am at your service." + +In a minute more, he had followed me into the desolate dead museum. I +looked round, but did not see Sir Philip. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +MARGRAVE threw himself on a seat just under the great anaconda; I closed +and locked the door. When I had done so, my eye fell on the young man's +face, and I was surprised to see that it had lost its colour; that it +showed great anxiety, great distress; that his hands were visibly +trembling. + +"What is this?" he said in feeble tones, and raising himself half from his +seat as if with great effort. "Help me up! come away! Something in this +room is hostile to me, hostile, overpowering! What can it be?" + +"Truth and my presence," answered a stern, low voice; and Sir Philip +Derval, whose slight form the huge bulk of the dead elephant had before +obscured from my view, came suddenly out from the shadow into the full +rays of the lamps which lit up, as if for Man's revel, that mocking +catacomb for the playmates of Nature which he enslaves for his service or +slays for his sport. As Sir Philip spoke and advanced, Margrave sank back +into his seat, shrinking, collapsing, nerveless; terror the most abject +expressed in his staring eyes and parted lips. On the other hand, the +simple dignity of Sir Philip Derval's bearing, and the mild power of his +countenance, were alike inconceivably heightened. A change had come over +the whole man, the more impressive because wholly undefinable. + +Halting opposite Margrave he uttered some words in a language unknown to +me, and stretched one hand over the young man's head. Margrave at once +became stiff and rigid, as if turned to stone. Sir Philip said to me,-- + +"Place one of those lamps on the floor,--there, by his feet." + +I took down one of the coloured lamps from the mimic tree round which the +huge anaconda coiled its spires, and placed it as I was told. + +"Take the seat opposite to him, and watch." + +I obeyed. + +Meanwhile, Sir Philip had drawn from his breast-pocket a small steel +casket, and I observed, as he opened it, that the interior was subdivided +into several compartments, each with its separate lid; from one of these +he took and sprinkled over the flame of the lamp a few grains of a powder, +colourless and sparkling as diamond dust. In a second or so, a delicate +perfume, wholly unfamiliar to my sense, rose from the lamp. + +"You would test the condition of trance; test it, and in the spirit." + +And, as he spoke, his hand rested lightly on my head. Hitherto, amidst a +surprise not unmixed with awe, I had preserved a certain defiance, a +certain distrust. I had been, as it were, on my guard. + +But as those words were spoken, as that hand rested on my head, as that +perfume arose from the lamp, all power of will deserted me. My first +sensation was that of passive subjugation; but soon I was aware of a +strange intoxicating effect from the odour of the lamp, round which there +now played a dazzling vapour. The room swam before me. Like a man +oppressed by a nightmare, I tried to move, to cry out, feeling that to do +so would suffice to burst the thrall that bound me: in vain. + +A time that seemed to me inexorably long, but which, as I found +afterwards, could only have occupied a few seconds, elapsed in this +preliminary state, which, however powerless, was not without a vague +luxurious sense of delight. And then suddenly came pain,--pain, that in +rapid gradations passed into a rending agony. Every bone, sinew, nerve, +fibre of the body, seemed as if wrenched open, and as if some hitherto +unconjectured Presence in the vital organization were forcing itself to +light with all the pangs of travail. The veins seemed swollen to +bursting, the heart labouring to maintain its action by fierce spasms. I +feel in this description how language fails me. Enough that the anguish I +then endured surpassed all that I have ever experienced of physical pain. +This dreadful interval subsided as suddenly as it had commenced. I felt +as if a something undefinable by any name had rushed from me, and in that +rush that a struggle was over. I was sensible of the passive bliss which +attends the release from torture, and then there grew on me a wonderful +calm, and, in that calm, a consciousness of some lofty intelligence +immeasurably beyond that which human memory gathers from earthly +knowledge. I saw before me the still rigid form of Margrave, and my sight +seemed, with ease, to penetrate through its covering of flesh, and to +survey the mechanism of the whole interior being. + +"View that tenement of clay which now seems so fair, as it was when I last +beheld it, three years ago, in the house of Haroun of Aleppo!" + +I looked, and gradually, and as shade after shade falls on the mountain +side, while the clouds gather, and the sun vanishes at last, so the form +and face on which I looked changed from exuberant youth into infirm old +age,--the discoloured wrinkled skin, the bleared dim eye, the flaccid +muscles, the brittle sapless bones. Nor was the change that of age alone; +the expression of the countenance had passed into gloomy discontent, and +in every furrow a passion or a vice had sown the seeds of grief. + +And the brain now opened on my sight, with all its labyrinth of cells. I +seemed to have the clew to every winding in the maze. + +I saw therein a moral world, charred and ruined, as, in some fable I have +read, the world of the moon is described to be; yet withal it was a brain +of magnificent formation. The powers abused to evil had been originally +of rare order,--imagination, and scope, the energies that dare, the +faculties that discover. But the moral part of the brain had failed to +dominate the mental,--defective veneration of what is good or great; +cynical disdain of what is right and just; in fine, a great intellect +first misguided, then perverted, and now falling with the decay of the +body into ghastly but imposing ruins,--such was the world of that brain +as it had been three years ago. And still continuing to gaze thereon, I +observed three separate emanations of light,--the one of a pale red hue, +the second of a pale azure, the third a silvery spark. + +The red light, which grew paler and paler as I looked, undulated from the +brain along the arteries, the veins, the nerves. And I murmured to +myself, "Is this the principle of animal life?" + +The azure light equally permeated the frame, crossing and uniting with the +red, but in a separate and distinct ray, exactly as, in the outer world, a +ray of light crosses or unites with a ray of heat, though in itself a +separate individual agency. And again I murmured to myself, "Is this the +principle of intellectual being, directing or influencing that of animal +life; with it, yet not of it?" + +But the silvery spark! What was that? Its centre seemed the brain; but I +could fix it to no single organ. Nay, wherever I looked through the +system, it reflected itself as a star reflects itself upon water. And I +observed that while the red light was growing feebler and feebler, and the +azure light was confused, irregular,--now obstructed, now hurrying, now +almost lost,--the silvery spark was unaltered, un disturbed. So +independent was it of all which agitated and vexed the frame, that I +became strangely aware that if the heart stopped in its action, and the +red light died out; if the brain were paralyzed, that energetic mind +smitten into idiotcy, and the azure light wandering objectless as a meteor +wanders over the morass,--still that silver spark would shine the same, +indestructible by aught that shattered its tabernacle. And I murmured to +myself, "Can that starry spark speak the presence of the soul? Does the +silver light shine within creatures to which no life immortal has been +promised by Divine Revelation?" + +Involuntarily I turned my sight towards the dead forms in the motley +collection, and lo, in my trance or my vision, life returned to them +all!--to the elephant and the serpent; to the tiger, the vulture, the +beetle, the moth; to the fish and the polypus, and to yon mockery of man +in the giant ape. + +I seemed to see each as it lived in its native realm of earth, or of air, +or of water; and the red light played more or less warm through the +structure of each, and the azure light, though duller of hue, seemed to +shoot through the red, and communicate to the creatures an intelligence +far inferior indeed to that of man, but sufficing to conduct the current +of their will, and influence the cunning of their instincts. But in none, +from the elephant to the moth, from the bird in which brain was the +largest to the hybrid in which life seemed to live as in plants,--in none +was visible the starry silver spark. I turned my eyes from the creatures +around, back again to the form cowering under the huge anaconda, and in +terror at the animation which the carcasses took in the awful illusions of +that marvellous trance; for the tiger moved as if scenting blood, and to +the eyes of the serpent the dread fascination seemed slowly returning. + +Again I gazed on the starry spark in the form of the man. And I murmured +to myself, "But if this be the soul, why is it so undisturbed and +undarkened by the sins which have left such trace and such ravage in the +world of the brain?" And gazing yet more intently on the spark, I became +vaguely aware that it was not the soul, but the halo around the soul, as +the star we see in heaven is not the star itself, but its circle of rays; +and if the light itself was undisturbed and undarkened, it was because no +sins done in the body could annihilate its essence, nor affect the +eternity of its duration. The light was clear within the ruins of its +lodgment, because it might pass away, but could not be extinguished. + +But the soul itself in the heart of the light reflected back on my own +soul within me its ineffable trouble, humiliation, and sorrow; for those +ghastly wrecks of power placed at its sovereign command it was +responsible, and, appalled by its own sublime fate of duration, was about +to carry into eternity the account of its mission in time. Yet it seemed +that while the soul was still there, though so forlorn and so guilty, even +the wrecks around it were majestic. And the soul, whatever sentence it +might merit, was not among the hopelessly lost; for in its remorse and its +shame, it might still have retained what could serve for redemption. And +I saw that the mind was storming the soul, in some terrible rebellious +war,--all of thought, of passion, of desire, through which the azure light +poured its restless flow, were surging up round the starry spark, as in +siege. And I could not comprehend the war, nor guess what it was that the +mind demanded the soul to yield. Only the distinction between the two was +made intelligible by their antagonism. And I saw that the soul, sorely +tempted, looked afar for escape from the subjects it had ever so ill +controlled, and who sought to reduce to their vassal the power which had +lost authority as their king. I could feel its terror in the sympathy of +my own terror, the keenness of my own supplicating pity. I knew that it +was imploring release from the perils it confessed its want of strength +to encounter. And suddenly the starry spark rose from the ruins and the +tumult around it,--rose into space and vanished; and where my soul had +recognized the presence of soul, there was a void. But the red light +burned still, becoming more and more vivid; and as it thus repaired and +recruited its lustre, the whole animal form, which had been so decrepit, +grew restored from decay, grew into vigour and youth: and I saw Alargrave +as I had seen him in the waking world, the radiant image of animal life in +the beauty of its fairest bloom. + +And over this rich vitality and this symmetric mechanism now reigned only, +with the animal life, the mind. The starry light fled and the soul +vanished, still was left visible the mind,--mind, by which sensations +convey and cumulate ideas, and muscles obey volition; mind, as in those +animals that have more than the elementary, instincts; mind, as it might +be in men, were men not immortal. As my eyes, in the Vision, followed the +azure light, undulating as before, through the cells of the brain, and +crossing the red amidst the labyrinth of the nerves, I perceived that the +essence of that azure light had undergone a change: it had lost that +faculty of continuous and concentred power by which man improves on the +works of the past, and weaves schemes to be developed in the future of +remote generations; it had lost all sympathy in the past, because it had +lost all conception of a future beyond the grave; it had lost conscience, +it had lost remorse; the being it informed was no longer accountable +through eternity for the employment of time. The azure light was even +more vivid in certain organs useful to the conservation of existence, as +in those organs I had observed it more vivid among some of the inferior +animals than it is in man,--secretiveness, destructiveness, and the ready +perception of things immediate to the wants of the day; and the azure +light was brilliant in cerebral cells, where before it had been dark, such +as those which harbour mirthfulness and hope, for there the light was +recruited by the exuberant health of the joyous animal-being. But it was +lead-like, or dim, in the great social organs, through which man +subordinates his own interest to that of his species, and utterly lost in +those through which man is reminded of his duties to the throne of his +Maker. + +In that marvellous penetration with which the Vision endowed me, I +perceived that in this mind, though in energy far superior to many; though +retaining, from memories of the former existence, the relics of a culture +wide and in some things profound; though sharpened and quickened into +formidable, if desultory, force whenever it schemed or aimed at the animal +self-conservation which now made its master--impulse or instinct; and +though among the reminiscences of its state before its change were arts +which I could not comprehend, but which I felt were dark and terrible, +lending to a will never checked by remorse arms that no healthful +philosophy has placed in the arsenal of disciplined genius; though the +mind in itself had an ally in a body as perfect in strength and elasticity +as man can take from the favour of nature,--still, I say, I felt that the +mind wanted the something without which men never could found cities, +frame laws, bind together, beautify, exalt the elements of this world, by +creeds that habitually subject them to a reference to another. The ant +and the bee and the beaver congregate and construct; but they do not +improve. Man improves because the future impels onward that which is not +found in the ant, the bee, and the beaver,--that which was gone from the +being before me. + +I shrank appalled into myself, covered my face with my hands, and groaned +aloud: "Have I ever then doubted that soul is distinct from mind?" + +A hand here again touched my forehead, the light in the lamp was +extinguished, I became insensible; and when I recovered I found myself +back in the room in which I had first conversed with Sir Philip Derval, +and seated, as before, on the sofa, by his side. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +My recollections of all which I have just attempted to describe were +distinct and vivid; except with respect to time, it seemed to me as if +many hours must have elapsed since I had entered the museum with +Margrave; but the clock on the mantelpiece met my eyes as I turned them +wistfully round the room; and I was indeed amazed to perceive that five +minutes had sufficed for all which it has taken me so long to narrate, and +which in their transit had hurried me through ideas and emotions so remote +from anterior experience. + +To my astonishment now succeeded shame and indignation,--shame that I, who +had scoffed at the possibility of the comparatively credible influences of +mesmeric action, should have been so helpless a puppet under the hand of +the slight fellow-man beside me, and so morbidly impressed by +phantasmagorieal illusions; indignation that, by some fumes which had +special potency over the brain, I had thus been, as it were, conjured out +of my senses; and looking full into the calm face at my side, I said, with +a smile to which I sought to convey disdain,-- + +"I congratulate you, Sir Philip Derval, on having learned in your travels +in the East so expert a familiarity with the tricks of its jugglers." + +"The East has a proverb," answered Sir Philip, quietly, "that the juggler +may learn much from the dervish, but the dervish can learn nothing from +the juggler. You will pardon me, however, for the effect produced on you +for a few minutes, whatever the cause of it may be, since it may serve to +guard your whole life from calamities, to which it might otherwise have +been exposed. And however you may consider that which you have just +experienced to be a mere optical illusion, or the figment of a brain +super-excited by the fumes of a vapour, look within yourself, and tell me +if you do not feel an inward and unanswerable conviction that there is +more reason to shun and to fear the creature you left asleep under the +dead jaws of the giant serpent, than there would be in the serpent itself, +could hunger again move its coils, and venom again arm its fangs." + +I was silent, for I could not deny that that conviction had come to me. + +"Henceforth, when you recover from the confusion or anger which now +disturbs your impressions, you will be prepared to listen to my +explanations and my recital in a spirit far different from that with which +you would have received them before you were subjected to the experiment, +which, allow me to remind you, you invited and defied. You will now, I +trust, be fitted to become my confidant and my assistant; you will advise +with me how, for the sake of humanity, we should act together against the +incarnate lie, the anomalous prodigy which glides through the crowd in the +image of joyous beauty. For the present I quit you. I have an +engagement, on worldly affairs, in the town this night. I am staying at +L----, which I shall leave for Derval Court tomorrow evening. Come to me +there the day after to-morrow, at any hour that may suit you the best. +Adieu!" + +Here Sir Philip Derval rose and left the room. I made no effort to +detain him. My mind was too occupied in striving to recompose itself and +account for the phenomena that had scared it, and for the strength of the +impressions it still retained. + +I sought to find natural and accountable causes for effects so abnormal. + +Lord Bacon suggests that the ointments with which witches anointed +themselves might have had the effect of stopping the pores and congesting +the rain, and thus impressing the sleep of the unhappy dupes of their own +imagination with dreams so vivid that, on waking, they were firmly +convinced that they had been borne through the air to the Sabbat. + +I remember also having heard a distinguished French traveller--whose +veracity was unquestionable--say, that he had witnessed extraordinary +effects produced on the sensorium by certain fumigations used by an +African pretender to magic. A person, of however healthy a brain; +subjected to the influence of these fumigations, was induced to believe +that he saw the most frightful apparitions. + +However extraordinary such effects, they were not incredible,--not at +variance with our notions of the known laws of nature. And to the vapour +or the odours which a powder applied to a lamp had called forth, I was, +therefore, prepared to ascribe properties similar to those which Bacon's +conjecture ascribed to the witches' ointment, and the French traveller to +the fumigations of the African conjuror. + +But, as I came to that conclusion, I was seized with an intense curiosity +to examine for myself those chemical agencies with which Sir Philip Derval +appeared so familiar; to test the contents in that mysterious casket of +steel. I also felt a curiosity no less eager, but more, in spite of +myself, intermingled with fear, to learn all that Sir Philip had to +communicate of the past history of Margrave. I could but suppose that the +young man must indeed be a terrible criminal, for a person of years so +grave, and station so high, to intimate accusations so vaguely dark, and +to use means so extraordinary, in order to enlist my imagination rather +than my reason against a youth in whom there appeared none of the signs +which suspicion interprets into guilt. + +While thus musing, I lifted my eyes and saw Margrave himself there at +the threshold of the ballroom,--there, where Sir Philip had first pointed +him out as the criminal he had come to L---- to seek and disarm; and +now, as then, Margrave was the radiant centre of a joyous group. Not the +young boy-god Iacchus, amidst his nymphs, could, in Grecian frieze or +picture, have seemed more the type of the sportive, hilarious vitality of +sensuous nature. He must have passed unobserved by me, in my +preoccupation of thought, from the museum and across the room in which I +sat; and now there was as little trace in that animated countenance of the +terror it had exhibited at Sir Philip's approach, as of the change it had +undergone in my trance or my fantasy. + +But he caught sight of me, left his young companions, came gayly to my +side. + +"Did you not ask me to go with you into that museum about half an hour +ago, or did I dream that I went with you?" + +"Yes; you went with me into that museum." + +"Then pray what dull theme did you select to set me asleep there?" + +I looked hard at him, and made no reply. Somewhat to my relief, I now +heard my host's voice,-- + +"Why, Fenwick, what has become of Sir Philip Derval?" + +"He has left; he had business." And, as I spoke, again I looked hard on +Margrave. + +His countenance now showed a change; not surprise, not dismay, but rather +a play of the lip, a flash of the eye, that indicated complacency,--even +triumph. + +"So! Sir Philip Derval! He is in L----; he has been here to-night? So! +as I expected." + +"Did you expect it?" said our host. "No one else did. Who could have +told you?" + +"The movements of men so distinguished need never take us by surprise. I +knew he was in Paris the other day. It is natural eno' that he should +come here. I was prepared for his coming." + +Margrave here turned away towards the window, which he threw open and +looked out. + +"There is a storm in the air," said he, as he continued to gaze into the +night. + +Was it possible that Margrave was so wholly unconscious of what had passed +in the museum as to include in oblivion even the remembrance of Sir Philip +Derval's presence before he had been rendered insensible, or laid asleep? +Was it now only for the first time that he learned of Sir Philip's arrival +in L----, and visit to that house? Was there any intimation of menace in +his words and his aspect? + +I felt that the trouble of my thoughts communicated itself to my +countenance and manner; and, longing for solitude and fresh air, I quitted +the house. When I found myself in the street I turned round and saw +Margrave still standing at the open window, but he did not appear to +notice me; his eyes seemed fixed abstractedly on space. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +I walked on slowly and with the downcast brow of a man absorbed in +meditation. I had gained the broad place in which the main streets of the +town converged, when I was overtaken by a violent storm of rain. I +sought shelter under the dark archway of that entrance to the district of +Abbey Hill which was still called Monk's Gate. The shadow within the arch +was so deep that I was not aware that I had a companion till I beard my +own name, close at my side. I recognized the voice before I could +distinguish the form of Sir Philip Derval. + +"The storm will soon be over," said he, quietly. "I saw it coming on in +time. I fear you neglected the first warning of those sable clouds, and +must be already drenched." + +I made no reply, but moved involuntarily away towards the mouth of the +arch. + +"I see that you cherish a grudge against me!" resumed Sir Philip. "Are +you, then, by nature vindictive?" + +Somewhat softened by the friendly tone of this reproach, I answered, half +in jest, half in earnest,-- + +"You must own, Sir Philip, that I have some little reason for the +uncharitable anger your question imputes to me. But I can forgive you, on +one condition." + +"What is that?" + +"The possession for half an hour of that mysterious steel casket which you +carry about with you, and full permission to analyze and test its +contents." + +"Your analysis of the contents," returned Sir Philip, dryly, "would leave +you as ignorant as before of the uses to which they can be applied; but I +will own to you frankly, that it is my intention to select some confidant +among men of science, to whom I may safely communicate the wonderful +properties which certain essences in that casket possess. I invite your +acquaintance, nay, your friendship, in the hope that I may find such a +confidant in you. But the casket contains other combinations, which, if +wasted, could not be resupplied,--at least by any process which the great +Master from whom I received them placed within reach of my knowledge. In +this they resemble the diamond; when the chemist has found that the +diamond affords no other substance by its combustion than pure +carbonic-acid gas, and that the only chemical difference between the +costliest diamond and a lump of pure charcoal is a proportion of hydrogen +less than 1/100000 part of the weight of the substance, can the chemist +make you a diamond? + +"These, then, the more potent, but also the more perilous of the casket's +contents, shall be explored by no science, submitted to no test. They are +the keys to masked doors in the ramparts of Nature, which no mortal can +pass through without rousing dread sentries never seen upon this side her +wall. The powers they confer are secrets locked in my breast, to be lost +in my grave; as the casket which lies on my breast shall not be +transferred to the hands of another, till all the rest of my earthly +possessions pass away with my last breath in life and my first in +eternity." + +"Sir Philip Derval," said I, struggling against the appeals to fancy or to +awe, made in words so strange, uttered in a tone of earnest conviction, +and heard amidst the glare of the lightning, the howl of the winds, and +the roll of the thunder,--"Sir Philip Derval, you accost me in a language +which, but for my experience of the powers at your command, I should hear +with the contempt that is due to the vaunts of a mountebank, or the pity +we give to the morbid beliefs of his dupe. As it is, I decline the +confidence with which you would favour me, subject to the conditions which +it seems you would impose. My profession abandons to quacks all drugs +which may not be analyzed, all secrets which may not be fearlessly told. +I cannot visit you at Derval Court. I cannot trust myself, voluntarily, +again in the power of a man, who has arts of which I may not examine the +nature, by which he can impose on my imagination and steal away my +reason." + +"Reflect well before you decide," said Sir Philip, with a solemnity that +was stern. "If you refuse to be warned and to be armed by me, your reason +and your imagination will alike be subjected to influences which I can +only explain by telling you that there is truth in those immemorial +legends which depose to the existence of magic." + +"Magic!" + +"There is magic of two kinds,--the dark and evil, appertaining to +witchcraft or necromancy; the pure and beneficent, which is but +philosophy, applied to certain mysteries in Nature remote from the beaten +tracks of science, but which deepened the wisdom of ancient sages, and can +yet unriddle the myths of departed races." + +"Sir Philip," I said, with impatient and angry interruption, "if you think +that a jargon of this kind be worthy a man of your acquirements and +station, it is at least a waste of time to address it to me. I am led to +conclude that you desire to make use of me for some purpose which I have a +right to suppose honest and blameless, because all you know of me is, that +I rendered to your relation services which can not lower my character in +your eyes. If your object be, as you have intimated, to aid you in +exposing and disabling man whose antecedents have been those of guilt, and +who threatens with danger the society which receives him, you must give me +proofs that are not reducible to magic; and you must prepossess me against +the person you accuse, not by powders and fumes that disorder the brain, +but by substantial statements, such as justify one man in condemning +another. And, since you have thought fit to convince me that there are +chemical means at your disposal, by which the imagination can be so +affected as to accept, temporarily, illusions for realities, so I again +demand, and now still more decidedly than before, that while you address +yourself to my reason, whether to explain your object or to vindicate your +charges against a man whom I have admitted to my acquaintance, you will +divest yourself of all means and agencies to warp my judgment so illicit +and fraudulent as those which you own yourself to possess. Let the +casket, with all its contents, be transferred to my hands, and pledge me +your word that, in giving that casket, you reserve to yourself no other +means by which chemistry can be abused to those influences over physical +organization, which ignorance or imposture may ascribe to--magic." + +"I accept no conditions for my confidence, though I think the better ofyou +for attempting to make them. If I live, you will seek me yourself, and +implore my aid. Meanwhile, listen to me, and--" + +"No; I prefer the rain and the thunder to the whispers that steal to my +ear in the dark from one of whom I have reason to beware." + +So saying, I stepped forth, and at that moment the lightning flashed +through the arch, and brought into full view the face of the man beside +me. Seen by that glare, it was pale as the face of a corpse, but its +expression was compassionate and serene. + +I hesitated, for the expression of that hueless countenance touched me; it +was not the face which inspires distrust or fear. + +"Come," said I, gently; "grant my demand. The casket--" + +"It is no scruple of distrust that now makes that demand; it is a +curiosity which in itself is a fearful tempter. Did you now possess what +at this moment you desire, how bitterly you would repent!" + +"Do you still refuse my demand?" + +"I refuse." + +"If then you really need me, it is you who will repent." + +I passed from the arch into the open space. The rain had passed, the +thunder was more distant. I looked back when I had gained the opposite +side of the way, at the angle of a street which led to my own house. As I +did so, again the skies lightened, but the flash was comparatively slight +and evanescent; it did not penetrate the gloom of the arch; it did not +bring the form of Sir Philip into view; but, just under the base of the +outer buttress to the gateway, I descried the outline of a dark figure, +cowering down, huddled up for shelter, the outline so indistinct, and so +soon lost to sight as the flash faded, that I could not distinguish if it +were man or brute. If it were some chance passer-by, who had sought +refuge from the rain, and overheard any part of our strange talk, "the +listener," thought I with a half-smile, "must have been mightily +perplexed." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +On reaching my own home, I found my servant sitting up for me with the +information that my attendance was immediately required. The little boy +whom Margrave's carelessness had so injured, and for whose injury he had +shown so little feeling, had been weakened by the confinement which the +nature of the injury required, and for the last few days had been +generally ailing. The father had come to my house a few minutes before I +reached it, in great distress of mind, saying that his child had been +seized with fever, and had become delirious. Hearing that I was at the +mayor's house, he had hurried thither in search of me. + +I felt as if it were almost a relief to the troubled and haunting thoughts +which tormented me, to be summoned to the exercise of a familiar +knowledge. I hastened to the bedside of the little sufferer, and soon +forgot all else in the anxious struggle for a human life. The struggle +promised to be successful; the worst symptoms began to yield to remedies +prompt and energetic, if simple. I remained at the house, rather to +comfort and support the parents, than because my continued attendance was +absolutely needed, till the night was well-nigh gone; and all cause of +immediate danger having subsided, I then found myself once more in the +streets. An atmosphere palely clear in the gray of dawn had succeeded to +the thunder-clouds of the stormy night; the streetlamps, here and there, +burned wan and still. I was walking slowly and wearily, so tired out that +I was scarcely conscious of my own thoughts, when, in a narrow lane, my +feet stopped almost mechanically before a human form stretched at full +length in the centre of the road right in my path. The form was dark in +the shadow thrown from the neighbouring houses. "Some poor drunkard," +thought I, and the humanity inseparable from my calling not allowing me to +leave a fellow-creature thus exposed to the risk of being run over by the +first drowsy wagoner who might pass along the thoroughfare, I stooped to +rouse and to lift the form. What was my horror when my eyes met the rigid +stare of a dead man's. I started, looked again; it was the face of Sir +Philip Derval! He was lying on his back, the countenance upturned, a dark +stream oozing from the breast,--murdered by two ghastly wounds, murdered +not long since, the blood was still warm. Stunned and terror-stricken, I +stood bending over the body. Suddenly I was touched on the shoulder. + +"Hollo! what is this?" said a gruff voice. + +"Murder!" I answered in hollow accents, which sounded strangely to my own +ear. + +"Murder! so it seems." And the policeman who had thus accosted me lifted +the body. + +"A gentleman by his dress. How did this happen? How did you come here?" +and the policeman glanced suspiciously at me. + +At this moment, however, there came up another policeman, in whom I +recognized the young man whose sister I had attended and cured. + +"Dr. Fenwick," said the last, lifting his hat respectfully, and at the +sound of my name his fellow-policeman changed his manner and muttered an +apology. + +I now collected myself sufficiently to state the name and rank of the +murdered man. The policemen bore the body to their station, to which I +accompanied them. I then returned to my own house, and had scarcely sunk +on my bed when sleep came over me. But what a sleep! Never till then had +I known how awfully distinct dreams can be. The phantasmagoria of the +naturalist's collection revived. Life again awoke in the serpent and the +tiger, the scorpion moved, and the vulture flapped its wings. And there +was Margrave, and there Sir Philip; but their position of power was +reversed, and Margrave's foot was on the breast of the dead man. Still I +slept on till I was roused by the summons to attend on Mr. Vigors, the +magistrate to whom the police had reported the murder. + +I dressed hastily and went forth. As I passed through the street, I found +that the dismal news had already spread. I was accosted on my way to the +magistrate by a hundred eager, tremulous, inquiring tongues. + +The scanty evidence I could impart was soon given. + +My introduction to Sir Philip at the mayor's house, our accidental meeting +under the arch, my discovery of the corpse some hours afterwards on my +return from my patient, my professional belief that the deed must have +been done a very short time, perhaps but a few minutes, before I chanced +upon its victim. But, in that case, how account for the long interval +that had elapsed between the time in which I had left Sir Philip under the +arch and the time in which the murder must have been committed? Sir +Philip could not have been wandering through the streets all those hours. +This doubt, how ever, was easily and speedily cleared up. A Mr. Jeeves, +who was one of the principal solicitors in the town, stated that he had +acted as Sir Philip's legal agent and adviser ever since Sir Philip came +of age, and was charged with the exclusive management of some valuable +house-property which the deceased had possessed in L----; that when Sir +Philip had arrived in the town late in the afternoon of the previous day, +he had sent for Mr. Jeeves; informed him that he, Sir Philip, was engaged +to be married; that he wished to have full and minute information as to +the details of his house property (which had greatly increased in value +since his absence from England), in connection with the settlements his +marriage would render necessary; and that this information was also +required by him in respect to a codicil he desired to add to his will. + +He had, accordingly, requested Mr. Jeeves to have all the books and +statements concerning the property ready for his inspection that night, +when he would call, after leaving the ball which he had promised the +mayor, whom he had accidentally met on entering the town, to attend. Sir +Philip had also asked Mr. Jeeves to detain one of his clerks in his +office, in order to serve, conjointly with Mr. Jeeves, as a witness to the +codicil he desired to add to his will. Sir Philip had accordingly come to +Mr. Jeeves's house a little before midnight; had gone carefully through +all the statements prepared for him, and had executed the fresh codicil to +his testament, which testament he had in their previous interview given to +Mr. Jeeves's care, sealed up. Mr. Jeeves stated that Sir Philip, though +a man of remarkable talents and great acquirements, was extremely +eccentric, and of a very peremptory temper, and that the importance +attached to a promptitude for which there seemed no pressing occasion did +not surprise him in Sir Philip as it might have done in an ordinary +client. Sir Philip said, indeed, that he should devote the next morning +to the draft for his wedding settlements, according to the information of +his property which he had acquired; and after a visit of very brief +duration to Derval Court, should quit the neighbourhood and return to +Paris, where his intended bride then was, and in which city it had been +settled that the marriage ceremony should take place. + +Mr. Jeeves had, however, observed to him, that if he were so soon to be +married, it was better to postpone any revision of testamentary bequests, +since after marriage he would have to make a new will altogether. + +And Sir Philip had simply answered,-- + +"Life is uncertain; who can be sure of the morrow?" + +Sir Philip's visit to Mr. Jeeves's house had lasted some hours, for the +conversation between them had branched off from actual business to various +topics. Mr. Jeeves had not noticed the hour when Sir Philip went; he +could only say that as he attended him to the street-door, he observed, +rather to his own surprise, that it was close upon daybreak. + +Sir Philip's body had been found not many yards distant from the hotel at +which he had put up, and to which, therefore, he was evidently returning +when he left Mr. Jeeves,--an old-fashioned hotel, which had been the +principal one at L---- when Sir Philip left England, though now +outrivalled by the new and more central establishment in which Margrave +was domiciled. + +The primary and natural supposition was that Sir Philip had been murdered +for the sake of plunder; and this supposition was borne out by the fact to +which his valet deposed, namely,-- + +That Sir Philip had about his person, on going to the mayor's house, a +purse containing notes and sovereigns; and this purse was now missing. + +The valet, who, though an Albanian, spoke English fluently, said that the +purse had a gold clasp, on which Sir Philip's crest and initials were +engraved. Sir Philip's watch was, however, not taken. + +And now, it was not without a quick beat of the heart that I heard the +valet declare that a steel casket, to which Sir Philip attached +extraordinary value, and always carried about with him, was also missing. + +The Albanian described this casket as of ancient Byzantine workmanship, +opening with a peculiar spring, only known to Sir Philip, in whose +possession it had been, so far as the servant knew, about three years: +when, after a visit to Aleppo, in which the servant had not accompanied +him, he had first observed it in his master's hands. He was asked if +this casket contained articles to account for the value Sir Philip set on +it,--such as jewels, bank-notes, letters of credit, etc. The man replied +that it might possibly do so; he had never been allowed the opportunity +of examining its contents; but that he was certain the casket held +medicines, for he had seen Sir Philip take from it some small phials, by +which he had performed great cures in the East, and especially during a +pestilence which had visited Damascus, just after Sir Philip had arrived +at that city on quitting Aleppo. Almost every European traveller is +supposed to be a physician; and Sir Philip was a man of great benevolence, +and the servant firmly believed him also to be of great medical skill. +After this statement, it was very naturally and generally conjectured that +Sir Philip was an amateur disciple of homoeopathy, and that the casket +contained the phials or globules in use among homoeopathists. + +Whether or not Mr. Vigors enjoyed a vindictive triumph in making me feel +the weight of his authority, or whether his temper was ruffled in the +excitement of so grave a case, I cannot say, but his manner was stern and +his tone discourteous in the questions which he addressed to me. Nor did +the questions themselves seem very pertinent to the object of +investigation. + +"Pray, Dr. Fenwick," said he, knitting his brows, and fixing his eyes on +me rudely, "did Sir Philip Derval in his conversation with you mention +the steel casket which it seems he carried about with him?" + +I felt my countenance change slightly as I answered, "Yes." + +"Did he tell you what it contained?" + +"He said it contained secrets." + +"Secrets of what nature,--medicinal or chemical? Secrets which a +physician might be curious to learn and covetous to possess?" + +This question seemed to me so offensively significant that it roused my +indignation, and I answered haughtily, that "a physician of any degree of +merited reputation did not much believe in, and still less covet, those +secrets in his art which were the boast of quacks and pretenders." + +"My question need not offend you, Dr. Fenwick. I put it in another shape: +Did Sir Philip Derval so boast of the secrets contained in his casket that +a quack or pretender might deem such secrets of use to him?" + +"Possibly he might, if he believed in such a boast." + +"Humph!--he might if he so believed. I have no more questions to put to +you at present, Dr. Fenwick." + +Little of any importance in connection with the deceased or his murder +transpired in the course of that day's examination and inquiries. + +The next day, a gentleman distantly related to the young lady to whom Sir +Philip was engaged, and who had been for some time in correspondence with +the deceased, arrived at L----. He had been sent for at the suggestion of +the Albanian servant, who said that Sir Philip had stayed a day at this +gentleman's house in London, on his way to L----, from Dover. + +The new comer, whose name was Danvers, gave a more touching pathos to the +horror which the murder had excited. It seemed that the motives which had +swayed Sir Philip in the choice of his betrothed were singularly pure and +noble. The young lady's father--an intimate college friend--had been +visited by a sudden reverse of fortune, which had brought on a fever that +proved mortal. He had died some years ago, leaving his only child +penniless, and had bequeathed her to the care and guardianship of Sir +Philip. + +The orphan received her education at a convent near Paris; and when Sir +Philip, a few weeks since, arrived in that city from the East, he offered +her his hand and fortune. + +"I know," said Mr. Danvers, "from the conversation I held with him when he +came to me in London, that he was induced to this offer by the +conscientious desire to discharge the trust consigned to him by his old +friend. Sir Philip was still of an age that could not permit him to take +under his own roof a female ward of eighteen, without injury to her good +name. He could only get over that difficulty by making the ward his wife. +'She will be safer and happier with the man she will love and honour for +her father's sake,' said the chivalrous gentleman, 'than she will be under +any other roof I could find for her.'" + +And now there arrived another stranger to L----, sent for by Mr. Jeeves, +the lawyer,--a stranger to L----, but not to me; my old Edinburgh +acquaintance, Richard Strahan. + +The will in Mr. Jeeves's keeping, with its recent codicil, was opened and +read. The will itself bore date about six years anterior to the +testator's tragic death: it was very short, and, with the exception of a +few legacies, of which the most important was L10,000 to his ward, the +whole of his property was left to Richard Strahan, on the condition that +he took the name and arms of Derval within a year from the date of Sir +Philip's decease. The codicil, added to the will the night before his +death, increased the legacy to the young lady from L10,000 to L30,000, and +bequeathed an annuity of L100 a year to his Albanian servant. +Accompanying the will, and within the same envelope, was a sealed letter, +addressed to Richard Strahan, and dated at Paris two weeks be fore Sir +Philip's decease. Strahan brought that letter to me. It ran thus:-- + + "Richard Strahan, I advise you to pull down the house called Derval + Court, and to build another on a better site, the plans of which, to + be modified according to your own taste and requirements, will be + found among my papers. This is a recommendation, not a command. But + I strictly enjoin you entirely to demolish the more ancient part, + which was chiefly occupied by myself, and to destroy by fire, without + perusal, all the books and manuscripts found in the safes in my study. + I have appointed you my sole executor, as well as my heir, because I + have no personal friends in whom I can confide as I trust I may do in + the man I have never seen, simply because he will bear my name and + represent my lineage. There will be found in my writing-desk, which + always accompanies me in my travels, an autobiographical work, a + record of my own life, comprising discoveries, or hints at discovery, + in science, through means little cultivated in our age. You will not + be surprised that before selecting you as my heir and executor, from a + crowd of relations not more distant, I should have made inquiries in + order to justify my selection. The result of those inquiries informs + me that you have not yourself the peculiar knowledge nor the habits of + mind that could enable you to judge of matters which demand the + attainments and the practice of science; but that you are of an + honest, affectionate nature, and will regard as sacred the last + injunctions of a benefactor. I enjoin you, then, to submit the + aforesaid manuscript memoir to some man on whose character for + humanity and honour you can place confidential reliance, and who is + accustomed to the study of the positive sciences, more especially + chemistry, in connection with electricity and magnetism. My desire is + that he shall edit and arrange this memoir for publication; and that, + wherever he feels a conscientious doubt whether any discovery, or hint + of discovery, therein contained would not prove more dangerous than + useful to mankind, he shall consult with any other three men of + science whose names are a guarantee for probity and knowledge, and + according to the best of his judgment, after such consultation, + suppress or publish the passage of which he has so doubted. I own the + ambition which first directed me towards studies of a very unusual + character, and which has encouraged me in their pursuit through many + years of voluntary exile, in lands where they could be best + facilitated or aided,--the ambition of leaving behind me the renown of + a bold discoverer in those recesses of nature which philosophy has + hitherto abandoned to superstition. But I feel, at the moment in + which I trace these lines, a fear lest, in the absorbing interest of + researches which tend to increase to a marvellous degree the power of + man over all matter, animate or inanimate, I may have blunted my own + moral perceptions; and that there may be much in the knowledge which I + sought and acquired from the pure desire of investigating hidden + truths, that could be more abused to purposes of tremendous evil than + be likely to conduce to benignant good. And of this a mind + disciplined to severe reasoning, and uninfluenced by the enthusiasm + which has probably obscured my own judgment, should be the + unprejudiced arbiter. Much as I have coveted and still do covet + that fame which makes the memory of one man the common inheritance of + all, I would infinitely rather that my name should pass away with my + breath, than that I should transmit to my fellowmen any portion of + a knowledge which the good might forbear to exercise and the bad might + unscrupulously pervert. I bear about with me, wherever I wander, a + certain steel casket. I received this casket, with its contents, from + a man whose memory I hold in profound veneration. Should I live to + find a person whom, after minute and intimate trial of his character, + I should deem worthy of such confidence, it is my intention to + communicate to him the secret how to prepare and how to use such of + the powders and essences stored within that casket as I myself have + ventured to employ. Others I have never tested, nor do I know how + they could be resupplied if lost or wasted. But as the contents of + this casket, in the hands of any one not duly instructed as to the + mode of applying them, would either be useless, or conduce, through + inadvertent and ignorant misapplication, to the most dangerous + consequences; so, if I die without having found, and in writing named, + such a confidant as I have described above, I command you immediately + to empty all the powders and essences found therein into any running + stream of water, which will at once harmlessly dissolve them. On + no account must they be cast into fire! + + "This letter, Richard Strahan, will only come under your eyes in case + the plans and the hopes which I have formed for my earthly future + should be frustrated by the death on which I do not calculate, but + against the chances of which this will and this letter provide. I am + about to revisit England, in defiance of a warning that I shall be + there subjected to some peril which I refused to have defined, because + I am unwilling that any mean apprehension of personal danger should + enfeeble my nerves in the discharge of a stern and solemn duty. If I + overcome that peril, you will not be my heir; my testament will be + remodelled; this letter will be recalled and destroyed. I shall form + ties which promise me the happiness I have never hitherto found, + though it is common to all men,--the affections of home, the caresses + of children, among whom I may find one to whom hereafter I may + bequeath, in my knowledge, a far nobler heritage than my lands. In + that case, however, my first care would be to assure your own + fortunes. And the sum which this codicil assures to my betrothed + would be transferred to yourself on my wedding-day. Do you know why, + never having seen you, I thus select you for preference to all my + other kindred; why my heart, in writing thus, warms to your image? + Richard Strahan, your only sister, many years older than yourself--you + were then a child--was the object of my first love. We were to have + been wedded, for her parents deceived me into the belief that she + returned my affection. With a rare and nobler candour, she herself + informed me that her heart was given to another, who possessed not my + worldly gifts of wealth and station. In resigning my claims to her + hand, I succeeded in propitiating her parents to her own choice. I + obtained for her husband the living which he held, and I settled on + your sister the dower which, at her death, passed to you as the + brother to whom she had shown a mother's love, and the interest of + which has secured you a modest independence. + + "If these lines ever reach you, recognize my title to reverential + obedience to commands which may seem to you wild, perhaps irrational; + and repay, as if a debt due froth your own lost sister, the affection + I have borne to you for her sake." + +While I read this long and strange letter, Strahan sat by my side, +covering his face with his hands, and weeping with honest tears for the +man whose death had made him powerful and rich. + +"You will undertake the trust ordained to me in this letter," said he, +struggling to compose himself. "You will read and edit this memoir; you +are the very man he himself would have selected. Of your honour and +humanity there can be no doubt, and you have studied with success the +sciences which he specifies as requisite for the discharge of the task he +commands." + +At this request, though I could not be wholly unprepared for it, my first +impulse was that of a vague terror. It seemed to me as if I were becoming +more and more entangled in a mysterious and fatal web. But this impulse +soon faded in the eager yearnings of an ardent and irresistible curiosity. + +I promised to read the manuscript, and in order that I might fully imbue +my mind with the object and wish of the deceased, I asked leave to make a +copy of the letter I had just read. To this Strahan readily assented, and +that copy I have transcribed in the preceding pages. + +I asked Strahan if he had yet found the manuscript. He said, "No, he had +not yet had the heart to inspect the papers left by the deceased. He +would now do so. He should go in a day or two to Derval Court, and reside +there till the murderer was discovered, as doubtless he soon must be +through the vigilance of the police. Not till that discovery was made +should Sir Philip's remains, though already placed in their coffin, be +consigned to the family vault." + +Strahan seemed to have some superstitious notion that the murderer might +be more secure from justice if his victim were thrust unavenged into the +tomb. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +The belief prevalent in the town ascribed the murder of Sir Philip to the +violence of some vulgar robber, probably not an inhabitant of L----. Mr. +Vigors did not favour that belief. He intimated an opinion, which seemed +extravagant and groundless, that Sir Philip had been murdered, for the +sake not of the missing purse, but of the missing casket. It was +currently believed that the solemn magistrate had consulted one of his +pretended clairvoyants, and that this impostor had gulled him with +assurances, to which he attached a credit that perverted into egregiously +absurd directions his characteristic activity and zeal. + +Be that as it may, the coroner's inquest closed without casting any light +on so mysterious a tragedy. + +What were my own conjectures I scarcely dared to admit,--I certainly could +not venture to utter them; but my suspicions centred upon Margrave. That +for some reason or other he had cause to dread Sir Philip's presence in +L---- was clear, even to my reason. And how could my reason reject all +the influences which had been brought to bear on my imagination, whether +by the scene in the museum or my conversation with the deceased? But it +was impossible to act on such suspicions,--impossible even to confide +them. Could I have told to any man the effect produced on me in the +museum, he would have considered me a liar or a madman. And in Sir +Philip's accusations against Margrave, there was nothing +tangible,--nothing that could bear repetition. Those accusations, if +analyzed, vanished into air. What did they imply?--that Margrave was a +magician, a monstrous prodigy, a creature exceptional to the ordinary +conditions of humanity. Would the most reckless of mortals have ventured +to bring against the worst of characters such a charge, on the authority +of a deceased witness, and to found on evidence so fantastic the awful +accusation of murder? But of all men, certainly I--a sober, practical +physician--was the last whom the public could excuse for such incredible +implications; and certainly, of all men, the last against whom any +suspicion of heinous crime would be readily entertained was that joyous +youth in whose sunny aspect life and conscience alike seemed to keep +careless holiday. But I could not overcome, nor did I attempt to reason +against, the horror akin to detestation, that had succeeded to the +fascinating attraction by which Margrave had before conciliated a liking +founded rather on admiration than esteem. + +In order to avoid his visits I kept away from the study in which I had +habitually spent my mornings, and to which he had been accustomed to so +ready an access; and if he called at the front door, I directed my servant +to tell him that I was either from home or engaged. He did attempt for +the first few days to visit me as before, but when my intention to shun +him became thus manifest, desisted naturally enough, as any other man so +pointedly repelled would have done. + +I abstained from all those houses in which I was likely to meet him, and +went my professional round of visits in a close carriage, so that I might +not be accosted by him in his walks. + +One morning, a very few days after Strahan had shown me Sir Philip +Derval's letter, I received a note from my old college acquaintance, +stating that he was going to Derval Court that afternoon; that he should +take with him the memoir which he had found, and begging me to visit him +at his new home the next day, and commence my inspection of the +manuscript. I consented eagerly. + +That morning, on going my round, my carriage passed by another drawn up to +the pavement, and I recognized the figure of Margrave standing beside the +vehicle, and talking to some one seated within it. I looked back, as my +own carriage whirled rapidly by, and saw with uneasiness and alarm that it +was Richard Strahan to whom Margrave was thus familiarly addressing +himself. How had the two made acquaintance? + +Was it not an outrage on Sir Philip Derval's memory, that the heir he had +selected should be thus apparently intimate with the man whom he had so +sternly denounced? I became still more impatient to read the memoir: in +all probability it would give such explanations with respect to Margrave's +antecedents, as, if not sufficing to criminate him of legal offences, +would at least effectually terminate any acquaintance between Sir Philip's +successor and himself. + +All my thoughts were, however, diverted to channels of far deeper interest +even than those in which my mind had of late been so tumultuously whirled +along, when, on returning home, I found a note from Mrs. Ashleigh. She +and Lilian had just come back to L----, sooner than she had led me to +anticipate. Lilian had not seemed quite well the last day or two, and had +been anxious to return. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +Let me recall it--softly,--softly! Let me recall that evening spent with +her!--that evening, the last before darkness rose between us like a solid +wall. + +It was evening, at the close of summer. The sun had set, the twilight was +lingering still. We were in the old monastic garden,--garden so quiet, +so cool, so fragrant. She was seated on a bench under the one great +cedar-tree that rose sombre in the midst of the grassy lawn with its +little paradise of flowers. I had thrown myself on the sward at her feet; +her hand so confidingly lay in the clasp of mine. I see her still,--how +young, how fair, how innocent! + +Strange, strange! So inexpressibly English; so thoroughly the creature of +our sober, homely life! The pretty delicate white robe that I touch so +timorously, and the ribbon-knots of blue that so well become the soft +colour of the fair cheek, the wavy silk of the brown hair! She is +murmuring low her answer to my trembling question. + +"As well as when last we parted? Do you love me as well still?" + +"There is no 'still' written here," said she, softly pressing her +hand to her heart. "Yesterday is as to-morrow in the Forever." + +"Ah, Lilian! if I could reply to you in words as akin to poetry as your +own!" + +"Fie! you who affect not to care for poetry!" + +"That was before you went away; before I missed you from my eyes, from my +life; before I was quite conscious how precious you were to me, more +precious than common words can tell! Yes, there is one period in love +when all men are poets, however the penury of their language may belie the +luxuriance of their fancies. What would become of me if you ceased to +love me?" + +"Or of me, if you could cease to love?" + +"And somehow it seems to me this evening as if my heart drew nearer to +you,--nearer as if for shelter." + +"It is sympathy," said she, with tremulous eagerness,--"that sort of +mysterious sympathy which I have often heard you deny or deride; for I, +too, feel drawn nearer to you, as if there were a storm at hand. I was +oppressed by an indescribable terror in returning home, and the moment I +saw you there came a sense of protection." + +Her head sank on my shoulder: we were silent some moments; then we both +rose by the same involuntary impulse, and round her slight form I twined +my strong arm of man. And now we are winding slow under the lilacs and +acacias that belt the lawn. Lilian has not yet heard of the murder, which +forms the one topic of the town, for all tales of violence and blood +affected her as they affect a fearful child. Mrs. Ashleigh, therefore, +had judiciously concealed from her the letters and the journals by which +the dismal news had been carried to herself. I need scarcely say that the +grim subject was not broached by me. In fact, my own mind escaped from +the events which had of late so perplexed and tormented it; the +tranquillity of the scene, the bliss of Lilian's presence, had begun to +chase away even that melancholy foreboding which had overshadowed me in +the first moments of our reunion. So we came gradually to converse of the +future,--of the day, not far distant, when we two should be as one. We +planned our bridal excursion. We would visit the scenes endeared to her +by song, to me by childhood,--the banks and waves of my native +Windermere,--our one brief holiday before life returned to labour, and +hearts now so disquieted by hope and joy settled down to the calm serenity +of home. + +As we thus talked, the moon, nearly rounded to her full, rose amidst skies +without a cloud. We paused to gaze on her solemn haunting beauty, as +where are the lovers who have not paused to gaze? We were then on the +terrace walk, which commanded a view of the town below. Before us was a +parapet wall, low on the garden side, but inaccessible on the outer side, +forming part of a straggling irregular street that made one of the +boundaries dividing Abbey Hill from Low Town. The lamps of the +thoroughfares, in many a line and row beneath us, stretched far away, +obscured, here and there, by intervening roofs and tall church towers. +The hum of the city came to our ears, low and mellowed into a lulling +sound. It was not displeasing to be reminded that there was a world +without, as close and closer we drew each to each,--worlds to one another! +Suddenly there carolled forth the song of a human voice,--a wild, +irregular, half-savage melody, foreign, uncomprehended words,--air and +words not new to me. I recognized the voice and chant of Margrave. I +started, and uttered an angry exclamation. + +"Hush!" whispered Lilian, and I felt her frame shiver within my encircling +arm. "Hush! listen! Yes; I have heard that voice before--last night--" + +"Last night! you were not here; you were more than a hundred miles away." + +"I heard it in a dream! Hush, hush!" + +The song rose louder; impossible to describe its effect, in the midst of +the tranquil night, chiming over the serried rooftops, and under the +solitary moon. It was not like the artful song of man, for it was +defective in the methodical harmony of tune; it was not like the song of +the wild-bird, for it had no monotony in its sweetness: it was wandering +and various as the sounds from an AEolian harp. But it affected the +senses to a powerful degree, as in remote lands and in vast solitudes I +have since found the note of the mocking-bird, suddenly heard, affects the +listener half with delight, half with awe, as if some demon creature of +the desert were mimicking man for its own merriment. The chant now had +changed into an air of defying glee, of menacing exultation; it might have +been the triumphant war-song of some antique barbarian race. The note was +sinister; a shadow passed through me, and Lilian had closed her eyes, and +was sighing heavily; then with a rapid change, sweet as the coo with which +an Arab mother lulls her babe to sleep, the melody died away. "There, +there, look," murmured Lilian, moving from me, "the same I saw last night +in sleep; the same I saw in the space above, on the evening I first knew +you!" + +Her eyes were fixed, her hand raised; my look followed hers, and rested on +the face and form of Margrave. The moon shone full upon him, so full as +if concentrating all its light upon his image. The place on which he +stood (a balcony to the upper story of a house about fifty yards distant) +was considerably above the level of the terrace from which we gazed on +him. His arms were folded on his breast, and he appeared to be looking +straight towards us. Even at that distance, the lustrous youth of his +countenance appeared to me terribly distinct, and the light of his +wondrous eye seemed to rest upon us in one lengthened, steady ray through +the limpid moonshine. Involuntarily I seized Lilian's hand, and drew her +away almost by force, for she was unwilling to move, and as I led her +back, she turned her head to look round; I, too, turned in jealous rage! +I breathed more freely. Margrave had disappeared! + +"How came he there? It is not his hotel. Whose house is it?" I said +aloud, though speaking to myself. + +Lilian remained silent, her eyes fixed upon the ground as if in deep +revery. I took her band; it did not return my pressure. I felt cut to +the heart when she drew coldly from me that hand, till then so frankly +cordial. I stopped short: "Lilian, what is this? you are chilled towards +me. Can the mere sound of that man's voice, the mere glimpse of that +man's face, have--" I paused; I did not dare to complete my question. + +Lilian lifted her eyes to mine, and I saw at once in those eyes a change. +Their look was cold; not haughty, but abstracted. "I do not understand +you," she said, in a weary, listless accent. "It is growing late; I must +go in." + +So we walked on moodily, no longer arm in arm, nor hand in hand. Then it +occurred to me that, the next day, Lilian would be in that narrow world of +society; that there she could scarcely fail to hear of Margrave, to meet, +to know him. Jealousy seized me with all its imaginary terrors, and +amidst that jealousy, a nobler, purer apprehension for herself. Had I +been Lilian's brother instead of her betrothed, I should not have trembled +less to foresee the shadow of Margrave's mysterious influence passing over +a mind so predisposed to the charm which Mystery itself has for those +whose thoughts fuse their outlines in fancies, whose world melts away into +Dreamland. Therefore I spoke. + +"Lilian, at the risk of offending you-alas! I have never done so before +this night--I must address to you a prayer which I implore you not to +regard as the dictate of a suspicion unworthy you and myself. The person +whom you have just heard and seen is, at present, much courted in the +circles of this town. I entreat you not to permit any one to introduce +him to you. I entreat you not to know him. I cannot tell you all my +reasons for this petition; enough that I pledge you my honour that those +reasons are grave. Trust, then, in my truth, as I trust in yours. Be +assured that I stretch not the rights which your heart has bestowed upon +mine in the promise I ask, as I shall be freed from all fear by a promise +which I know will be sacred when once it is given." + +"What promise?" asked Lilian, absently, as if she had not heard my words. + +"What promise? Why, to refuse all acquaintance with that man; his name is +Margrave. Promise me, dearest, promise me." + +"Why is your voice so changed?" said Lilian. "Its tone jars on my ear," +she added, with a peevishness so unlike her, that it startled me more than +it offended; and without a word further, she quickened her pace, and +entered the house. + +For the rest of the evening we were both taciturn and distant towards each +other. In vain Mrs. Ashleigh kindly sought to break down our mutual +reserve. I felt that I had the right to be resentful, and I clung to that +right the more because Lilian made no attempt at reconciliation. This, +too, was wholly unlike herself, for her temper was ordinarily +sweet,--sweet to the extreme of meekness; saddened if the slightest +misunderstanding between us had ever vexed me, and yearning to ask +forgiveness if a look or a word had pained me. I was in hopes that, +before I went away, peace between us would be restored. But long ere her +usual hour for retiring to rest, she rose abruptly, and, complaining of +fatigue and headache, wished me "good-night," and avoided the hand I +sorrowfully held out to her as I opened the door. + +"You must have been very unkind to poor Lilian," said Mrs. Ashleigh, +between jest and earnest, "for I never saw her so cross to you before. +And the first day of her return, too!" + +"The fault is not mine," said I, somewhat sullenly; "I did but ask Lilian, +and that as a humble prayer, not to make the acquaintance of a stranger in +this town against whom I have reasons for distrust and aversion. I know +not why that prayer should displease her." + +"Nor I. Who is the stranger?" + +"A person who calls himself Margrave. Let me at least entreat you to +avoid him!" + +"Oh, I have no desire to make acquaintance with strangers. But, now +Lilian is gone, do tell me all about this dreadful murder. The servants +are full of it, and I cannot keep it long concealed from Lilian. I was in +hopes that you would have broken it to her." + +I rose impatiently; I could not bear to talk thus of an event the tragedy +of which was associated in my mind with circumstances so mysterious. I +became agitated and even angry when Mrs. Ashleigh persisted in rambling +woman-like inquiries,--"Who was suspected of the deed? Who did I think +had committed it? What sort of a man was Sir Philip? What was that +strange story about a casket?" Breaking from such interrogations, to +which I could give but abrupt and evasive answers, I seized my hat and +took my departure. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +Letter from Allen Fenwick to Lilian Ashleigh. + + "I have promised to go to Derval Court to-day, and shall not return + till to-morrow. I cannot bear the thought that so many hours should + pass away with one feeling less kind than usual resting like a cloud + upon you and me. Lilian, if I offended you, forgive me! Send me one + line to say so!--one line which I can place next to my heart and + cover with grateful kisses till we meet again!" + +Reply. + + "I scarcely know what you mean, nor do I quite understand my own state + of mind at this moment. It cannot be that I love you less--and + yet--but I will not write more now. I feel glad that we shall not + meet for the next day or so, and then I hope to be quite recovered. I + am not well at this moment. Do not ask me to forgive you; but if it + is I who am in fault, forgive me, oh, forgive me, Allen!" + +And with this unsatisfactory note, not worn next to my heart, not covered +with kisses, but thrust crumpled into my desk like a creditor's unwelcome +bill, I flung myself on my horse and rode to Derval Court. I am naturally +proud; my pride came now to my aid. I felt bitterly indignant against +Lilian, so indignant that I resolved on my return to say to her, "If in +those words, 'And yet,' you implied a doubt whether you loved me less, I +cancel your vows, I give you back your freedom." And I could have passed +from her threshold with a firm foot, though with the certainty that I +should never smile again. + +Does her note seem to you who may read these pages to justify such +resentment? Perhaps not. But there is an atmosphere in the letters of +the one we love which we alone--we who love--can feel, and in the +atmosphere of that letter I felt the chill of the coming winter. + +I reached the park lodge of Derval Court late in the day. I had occasion +to visit some patients whose houses lay scattered many miles apart, and +for that reason, as well as from the desire for some quick bodily exercise +which is so natural an effect of irritable perturbation of mind, I had +made the journey on horseback instead of using a carriage that I could not +have got through the lanes and field-paths by which alone the work set to +myself could be accomplished in time. + +Just as I entered the park, an uneasy thought seized hold of me with the +strength which is ascribed to presentiments. I had passed through my +study (which has been so elaborately described) to my stables, as I +generally did when I wanted my saddle-horse, and, in so doing, had +doubtless left open the gate to the iron palisade, and probably the window +of the study itself. I had been in this careless habit for several years, +without ever once having cause for self-reproach. As I before said, there +was nothing in my study to tempt a thief; the study was shut out from the +body of the house, and the servant sure at nightfall both to close the +window and lock the gate; yet now, for the first time, I felt an impulse, +urgent, keen, and disquieting, to ride back to the town, and see those +precautions taken. I could not guess why, but something whispered to me +that my neglect had exposed me to some great danger. I even checked my +horse and looked at my watch; too late!--already just on the stroke of +Strahan's dinner-hour as fixed in his note; my horse, too, was fatigued +and spent: besides, what folly! what bearded man can believe in the +warnings of a "presentiment"? I pushed on, and soon halted before the +old-fashioned flight of stairs that led up to the Hall. Here I was +accosted by the old steward; he had just descended the stairs, and as I +dismounted he thrust his arm into mine unceremoniously, and drew me a +little aside. + +"Doctor, I was right; it was his ghost that I saw by the iron door of the +mausoleum. I saw it again at the same place last night, but I had no fit +then. Justice on his murderer! Blood for blood!" + +"Ay!" said I, sternly; for if I suspected Margrave before, I felt +convinced now that the inexpiable deed was his. Wherefore convinced? +Simply because I now hated him more, and hate is so easily convinced! +"Lilian! Lilian!" I murmured to myself that name; the flame of my hate +was fed by my jealousy. "Ay!" said I, sternly, "murder will out." + +"What are the police about?" said the old man, querulously; "days pass on +days, and no nearer the truth. But what does the new owner care? He has +the rents and acres; what does he care for the dead? I will never serve +another master. I have just told Mr. Strahan so. How do I know whether +he did not do the deed? Who else had an interest in it?" + +"Hush, hush!" I cried; "you do not know how wildly you are talking." + +The old man stared at me, shook his head, released my arm, and strode +away. + +A labouring man came out of the garden, and having unbuckled the +saddle-bags, which contained the few things required for so short a visit, +I consigned my horse to his care, and ascended the perron. The old +housekeeper met me in the hall, and conducted me up the great staircase, +showed me into a bedroom prepared for me, and told me that Mr. Strahan was +already waiting dinner for me. I should find him in the study. I +hastened to join him. He began apologizing, very unnecessarily, for the +state of his establishment. He had as yet engaged no new servants. The +housekeeper with the help of a housemaid did all the work. + +Richard Strahan at college had been as little distinguishable from other +young men as a youth neither rich nor poor, neither clever nor stupid, +neither handsome nor ugly, neither audacious sinner nor formal saint, +possibly could be. + +Yet, to those who understood him well, he was not without some of those +moral qualities by which a youth of mediocre intellect often matures into +a superior man. + +He was, as Sir Philip had been rightly informed, thoroughly honest and +upright. But with a strong sense of duty, there was also a certain latent +hardness. He was not indulgent. He had outward frankness with +acquaintances, but was easily roused to suspicion. He had much of the +thriftiness and self-denial of the North countryman, and I have no doubt +that he had lived with calm content and systematic economy on an income +which made him, as a bachelor, independent of his nominal profession, but +would not have sufficed, in itself, for the fitting maintenance of a wife +and family. He was, therefore, still single. + +It seems to me even during the few minutes in which we conversed before +dinner was announced, that his character showed a new phase with his new +fortunes. He talked in a grandiose style of the duties of station and the +woes of wealth. He seemed to be very much afraid of spending, and still +more appalled at the idea of being cheated. His temper, too, was ruffled; +the steward had given him notice to quit. Mr. Jeeves, who had spent the +morning with him, had said the steward would be a great loss, and a +steward at once sharp and honest was not to be easily found. + +What trifles can embitter the possession of great goods! Strahan had +taken a fancy to the old house; it was conformable to his notions, both +of comfort and pomp, and Sir Philip had expressed a desire that the old +house should be pulled down. Strahan had inspected the plans for the new +mansion to which Sir Philip had referred, and the plans did not please +him; on the contrary, they terrified. + +"Jeeves says that I could not build such a house under L70,000 or L80,000, +and then it will require twice the establishment which will suffice for +this. I shall be ruined," cried the man who had just come into possession +of at least ten thousand a year. + +"Sir Philip did not enjoin you to pull down the old house; he only advised +you to do so. Perhaps he thought the site less healthy than that which he +proposes for a new building, or was aware of some other drawback to the +house, which you may discover later. Wait a little and see before +deciding." + +"But, at all events, I suppose I must pull down this curious old +room,--the nicest part of the old house!" + +Strahan, as he spoke, looked wistfully round at the quaint oak +chimneypiece; the carved ceiling; the well-built solid walls, with the +large mullion casement, opening so pleasantly on the sequestered gardens. +He had ensconced himself in Sir Philip's study, the chamber in which the +once famous mystic, Forman, had found a refuge. + +"So cozey a room for a single man!" sighed Strahan. "Near the stables and +dog-kennels, too! But I suppose I must pull it down. I am not bound to +do so legally; it is no condition of the will. But in honour and +gratitude I ought not to disobey poor Sir Philip's positive injunction." + +"Of that," said I, gravely, "there cannot be a doubt." Here our +conversation was interrupted by Mrs. Gates, who informed us that dinner +was served in the library. Wine of great age was brought from the long +neglected cellars; Strahan filled and re-filled his glass, and, warmed +into hilarity, began to talk of bringing old college friends around him in +the winter season, and making the roof-tree ring with laughter and song +once more. + +Time wore away, and night had long set in, when Strahan at last rose from +the table, his speech thick and his tongue unsteady. We returned to the +study, and I reminded my host of the special object of my visit to +him,--namely, the inspection of Sir Philip's manuscript. + +"It is tough reading," said Strahan; "better put it off till tomorrow. +You will stay here two or three days." + +"No; I must return to L---- to-morrow. I cannot absent myself from +my patients. And it is the more desirable that no time should be lost +before examining the contents of the manuscript, because probably they +may give some clew to the detection of the murderer." + +"Why do you think that?" cried Strahan, startled from the drowsiness that +was creeping over him. + +"Because the manuscript may show that Sir Philip had some enemy, and who +but an enemy could have had a motive for such a crime? Come, bring forth +the book. You of all men are bound to be alert in every research that may +guide the retribution of justice to the assassin of your benefactor." + +"Yes, yes. I will offer a reward of L5,000 for the discovery. Allen, +that wretched old steward had the insolence to tell me that I was the only +man in the world who could have an interest in the death of his master; +and he looked at me as if he thought that I had committed the crime. You +are right; it becomes me, of all men, to be alert. The assassin must be +found. He must hang." + +While thus speaking, Strahan had risen, unlocked a desk, which stood on +one of the safes, and drawn forth a thick volume, the contents of which +were protected by a clasp and lock. Strahan proceeded to open this lock +by one of a bunch of keys, which he said had been found on Sir Philip's +person. + +"There, Allen, this is the memoir. I need not tell you what store I place +on it,--not, between you and me, that I expect it will warrant poor Sir +Philip's high opinion of his own scientific discoveries; that part of his +letter seems to me very queer, and very flighty. But he evidently set his +heart on the publication of his work, in part if not in whole; and, +naturally, I must desire to comply with a wish so distinctly intimated by +one to whom I owe so much. I be, you, therefore, not to be too +fastidious. Some valuable hints in medicine, I have reason to believe, +the manuscript will contain, and those may help you in your profession, +Allen." + +"You have reason to believe! Why?" + +"Oh, a charming young fellow, who, with most of the other gentry resident +at L----, called on me at my hotel, told me that he. had travelled in the +East, and had there heard much of Sir Philip's knowledge of chemistry, and +the cures it had enabled him to perform." + +"You speak of Mr. Margrave. He called on you?" + +"Yes." + +"You did not, I trust, mention to him the existence of Sir Philip's +manuscript." + +"Indeed I did; and I said you had promised to examine it. He seemed +delighted at that, and spoke most highly of your peculiar fitness for the +task." + +"Give me the manuscript," said I, abruptly, "and after I have looked at it +to-night, I may have something to say to you tomorrow in reference to Mr. +Margrave." + +"There is the book," said Strahan; "I have just glanced at it, and find +much of it written in Latin; and I am ashamed to say that I have so +neglected the little Latin I learned in our college days that I could not +construe what I looked at." + +I sat down and placed the book before me; Strahan fell into a doze, from +which he was wakened by the housekeeper, who brought in the tea-things. + +"Well," said Strahan, languidly, "do you find much in the book that +explains the many puzzling riddles in poor Sir Philip's eccentric life and +pursuits?" + +"Yes," said I. "Do not interrupt me." + +Strahan again began to doze, and the housekeeper asked if we should want +anything more that night, and if I thought I could find my way to my +bedroom. + +I dismissed her impatiently, and continued to read. Strahan woke up again +as the clock struck eleven, and finding me still absorbed in the +manuscript, and disinclined to converse, lighted his candle, and telling +me to replace the manuscript in the desk when I had done with it, and be +sure to lock the desk and take charge of the key, which he took off the +bunch and gave me, went upstairs, yawning. + +I was alone in the wizard Forman's chamber, and bending over a stranger +record than had ever excited my infant wonder, or, in later years, +provoked my sceptic smile. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +The Manuscript was written in a small and peculiar handwriting, which, +though evidently by the same person whose letter to Strahan I had read, +was, whether from haste or some imperfection in the ink, much more hard to +decipher. Those parts of the Memoir which related to experiments, or +alleged secrets in Nature, that the writer intimated a desire to submit +exclusively to scholars or men of science, were in Latin,--and Latin +which, though grammatically correct, was frequently obscure. But all +that detained the eye and attention on the page necessarily served to +impress the contents more deeply on remembrance. + +The narrative commenced with the writer's sketch of his childhood. Both +his parents had died before he attained his seventh year. The orphan bad +been sent by his guardians to a private school, and his holidays had been +passed at Derval Court. Here his earliest reminiscences were those of the +quaint old room, in which I now sat, and of his childish wonder at the +inscription on the chimneypiece--who and what was the Simon Forman who had +there found a refuge from persecution? Of what nature were the studies he +had cultivated, and the discoveries he boasted to have made? + +When he was about sixteen, Philip Derval had begun to read the many mystic +books which the library contained; but without other result on his mind +than the sentiment of disappointment and disgust. The impressions +produced on the credulous imagination of childhood vanished. He went to +the University; was sent abroad to travel: and on his return took that +place in the circles of London which is so readily conceded to a young +idler of birth and fortune. He passed quickly over that period of his +life, as one of extravagance and dissipation, from which he was first +drawn by the attachment for his cousin to which his letter to Strahan +referred. Disappointed in the hopes which that affection had conceived, +and his fortune impaired, partly by some years of reckless profusion, and +partly by the pecuniary sacrifices at which he had effected his cousin's +marriage with another, he retired to Derval Court, to live there in +solitude and seclusion. On searching for some old title-deeds required +for a mortgage, he chanced upon a collection of manuscripts much +discoloured, and, in part, eaten away by moth or damp. These, on +examination, proved to be the writings of Forman. Some of them were +astrological observations and predictions; some were upon the nature of +the Cabbala; some upon the invocation of spirits and the magic of the dark +ages. All had a certain interest, for they were interspersed with +personal remarks, anecdotes of eminent actors in a very stirring time, and +were composed as Colloquies, in imitation of Erasmus,--the second person +in the dialogue being Sir Miles Derval, the patron and pupil; the first +person being Forman, the philosopher and expounder. + +But along with these shadowy lucubrations were treatises of a more +uncommon and a more startling character,--discussions on various occult +laws of nature, and detailed accounts of analytical experiments. These +opened a new, and what seemed to Sir Philip a practical, field of +inquiry,--a true border-land between natural science and imaginative +speculation. Sir Philip had cultivated philosophical science at the +University; he resumed the study, and tested himself the truth of various +experiments suggested by Forman. Some, to his surprise, proved +successful, some wholly failed. These lucubrations first tempted the +writer of the memoir towards the studies in which the remainder of his +life had been consumed. But he spoke of the lucubrations themselves as +valuable only where suggestive of some truths which Forman had +accidentally approached, without being aware of their true nature and +importance. They were debased by absurd puerilities, and vitiated by the +vain and presumptuous ignorance which characterized the astrology of the +middle ages. For these reasons the writer intimated his intention (if he +lived to return to England) to destroy Forman's manuscripts, together with +sundry other books, and a few commentaries of his own upon studies which +had for a while misled him,--all now deposited in the safes of the room in +which I sat. + +After some years passed in the retirement of Derval Court, Sir Philip was +seized with the desire to travel, and the taste he had imbibed for occult +studies led him towards those Eastern lands in which they took their +origin, and still retain their professors. + +Several pages of the manuscript were now occupied with minute statements +of the writer's earlier disappointment in the objects of his singular +research. The so-called magicians, accessible to the curiosity of +European travellers, were either but ingenious jugglers, or produced +effects that perplexed him by practices they had mechanically learned, but +of the rationale of which they were as ignorant as himself. It was not +till he had resided some considerable time in the East, and acquired a +familiar knowledge of its current languages and the social habits of its +various populations, that he became acquainted with men in whom he +recognized earnest cultivators of the lore which tradition ascribes to the +colleges and priesthoods of the ancient world,--men generally living +remote from others, and seldom to be bribed by money to exhibit their +marvels or divulge their secrets. In his intercourse with these sages, +Sir Philip arrived at the conviction that there does exist an art of +magic, distinct from the guile of the conjuror, and applying to certain +latent powers and affinities in nature,--a philosophy akin to that which +we receive in our acknowledged schools, inasmuch as it is equally based on +experiment, and produces from definite causes definite results. In +support of this startling proposition, Sir Philip now devoted more than +half his volume to the details of various experiments, to the process and +result of which he pledged his guarantee as the actual operator. As most +of these alleged experiments appeared to me wholly incredible, and as all +of them were unfamiliar to my practical experience, and could only be +verified or falsified by tests that would require no inconsiderable amount +of time and care, I passed with little heed over the pages in which they +were set forth. I was impatient to arrive at that part of the manuscript +which might throw light on the mystery in which my interest was the +keenest. What were the links which connected the existence of Margrave +with the history of Sir Philip Derval? Thus hurrying on, page after page, +I suddenly, towards the end of the volume, came upon a name that arrested +all my attention,--Haroun of Aleppo. He who has read the words addressed +to mee in my trance may well conceive the thrill that shot through my +heart when I came upon that name, and will readily understand how much +more vividly my memory retains that part of the manuscript to which I now +proceed, than all which had gone before. + + "It was," wrote Sir Philip, "in an obscure suburb of Aleppo that I at + length met with the wonderful man from whom I have acquired a + knowledge immeasurably more profound and occult than that which may be + tested in the experiments to which I have devoted so large a share of + this memoir. Haroun of Aleppo had, indeed, mastered every secret in + nature which the nobler, or theurgic, magic seeks to fathom. + + "He had discovered the great Principle of Animal Life, which had + hitherto baffled the subtlest anatomist. Provided only that the great + organs were not irreparably destroyed, there was no disease that he + could not cure; no decrepitude to which be could not restore vigour: + yet his science was based on the same theory as that espoused by the + best professional practitioner of medicine, namely, that the true art + of healing is to assist nature to throw off the disease; to summon, as + it were, the whole system to eject the enemy that has fastened on a + part. And thus his processes, though occasionally varying in the + means employed, all combined in this,--namely, the re-invigourating + and recruiting of the principle of life." + +No one knew the birth or origin of Haroun; no one knew his age. In +outward appearance he was in the strength and prime of mature manhood; +but, according to testimonies in which the writer of the memoir expressed +a belief that, I need scarcely say, appeared to me egregiously credulous, +Haroun's existence under the same name, and known by the same repute, +could be traced back to more than a hundred years. He told Sir Philip +that he had thrice renewed his own life, and had resolved to do so no +more; he had grown weary of living on. With all his gifts, Haroun owned +himself to be consumed by a profound melancholy. He complained that there +was nothing new to him under the sun; he said that, while he had at his +command unlimited wealth, wealth had ceased to bestow enjoyment, and he +preferred living as simply as a peasant; he had tired out all the +affections and all the passions of the human heart; he was in the universe +as in a solitude. In a word, Haroun would often repeat, with mournful +solemnity: "'The soul is not meant to inhabit this earth and in fleshy +tabernacle for more than the period usually assigned to mortals; and when +by art in repairing the walls of the body we so retain it, the soul +repines, becomes inert or dejected. He only," said Haroun, "would feel +continued joy in continued existence who could preserve in perfection the +sensual part of man, with such mind or reason as may be independent of the +spiritual essence, but whom soul itself has quitted!--man, in short, as +the grandest of the animals, but without the sublime discontent of earth, +which is the peculiar attribute of soul." + +One evening Sir Philip was surprised to find at Haroun's house another +European. He paused in his narrative to describe this man. He said that +for three or four years previously he had heard frequent mention, amongst +the cultivators of magic, of an orientalized Englishman engaged in +researches similar to his own, and to whom was ascribed a terrible +knowledge in those branches of the art which, even in the East, are +condemned as instrumental to evil. Sir Philip here distinguished at +length, as he had so briefly distinguished in his conversation with me, +between the two kinds of magic,--that which he alleged to be as pure from +sin as any other species of experimental knowledge, and that by which the +agencies of witchcraft are invoked for the purposes of guilt. + +The Englishman, to whom the culture of this latter and darker kind of +magic was ascribed, Sir Philip Derval had never hitherto come across. He +now met him at the house of Haroun; decrepit, emaciated, bowed down with +infirmities, and racked with pain. Though little more than sixty, his +aspect was that of extreme old age; but still on his face there were seen +the ruins of a once singular beauty, and still, in his mind, there was a +force that contrasted the decay of the body. Sir Philip had never met +with an intellect more powerful and more corrupt. The son of a notorious +usurer, heir to immense wealth, and endowed with the talents which justify +ambition, he had entered upon life burdened with the odium of his father's +name. A duel, to which he had been provoked by an ungenerous taunt on his +origin, but in which a temperament fiercely vindictive had led him to +violate the usages prescribed by the social laws that regulate such +encounters, had subjected him to a trial in which he escaped conviction +either by a flaw in the technicalities of legal procedure, or by the +compassion of the jury;[1] but the moral presumptions against him were +sufficiently strong to set an indelible brand on his honour, and an +insurmountable barrier to the hopes which his early ambition had +conceived. After this trial he had quitted his country, to return to it +no more. Thenceforth, much of his life had been passed out of sight or +conjecture of civilized men in remote regions and amongst barbarous +tribes. At intervals, however, he had reappeared in European capitals; +shunned by and shunning his equals, surrounded by parasites, amongst whom +were always to be found men of considerable learning, whom avarice or +poverty subjected to the influences of his wealth. For the last nine or +ten years he had settled in Persia, purchased extensive lands, maintained +the retinue, and exercised more than the power of an Oriental prince. +Such was the man who, prematurely worn out, and assured by physicians that +he had not six weeks of life, had come to Aleppo with the gaudy escort of +an Eastern satrap, had caused himself to be borne in his litter to the +mud-hut of Haroun the Sage, and now called on the magician, in whose art +was his last hope, to reprieve him from the--grave. + +He turned round to Sir Philip, when the latter entered the room, and +exclaimed in English, "I am here because you are. Your intimacy with this +man was known to me. I took your character as the guarantee of his own. +Tell me that I am no credulous dupe. Tell him that I, Louis Grayle, am no +needy petitioner. Tell me of his wisdom; assure him of my wealth." + +Sir Philip looked inquiringly at Haroun, who remained seated on his carpet +in profound silence. + +"What is it you ask of Haroun?" + +"To live on--to live on! For every year of life he can give me, I will +load these floors with gold." + +"Gold will not tempt Haroun." + +"What will?" + +"Ask him yourself; you speak his language." + +"I have asked him; he vouchsafes me no answer." + +Haroun here suddenly roused himself as from a revery. He drew from under +his robe a small phial, from which he let fall a single drop into a cup of +water, and said, "Drink this; send to me tomorrow for such medicaments as +I may prescribe. Return hither yourself in three days; not before!" + +When Grayle was gone, Sir Philip, moved to pity, asked Haroun if, indeed, +it were within the compass of his art to preserve life in a frame that +appeared so thoroughly exhausted. Haroun answered, "A fever may so waste +the lamp of life that one ruder gust of air could extinguish the flame, +yet the sick man recovers. This sick man's existence has been one long +fever; this sick man can recover." + +"You will aid him to do so?" + +"Three days hence I will tell you." + +On the third day Grayle revisited Haroun, and, at Haroun's request, Sir +Philip came also. Grayle declared that he had already derived unspeakable +relief from the remedies administered; he was lavish in expressions of +gratitude; pressed large gifts on Haroun, and seemed pained when they were +refused. This time Haroun conversed freely, drawing forth Grayle's own +irregular, perverted, stormy, but powerful intellect. + +I can best convey the general nature of Grayle's share in the dialogue +between himself, Haroun, and Derval--recorded in the narrative in words +which I cannot trust my memory to repeat in detail--by stating the effect +it produced on my own mind. It seemed, while I read, as if there passed +before me some convulsion of Nature,--a storm, an earthquake,--outcries +of rage, of scorn, of despair, a despot's vehemence of will, a rebel's +scoff at authority; yet, ever and anon, some swell of lofty thought, some +burst of passionate genius,--abrupt variations from the vaunt of superb +defiance to the wail of intense remorse. + +The whole had in it, I know not what of uncouth but colossal,--like the +chant, in the old lyrical tragedy, of one of those mythical giants, who, +proud of descent from Night and Chaos, had held sway over the elements, +while still crude and conflicting, to be crushed under the rocks, upheaved +in their struggle, as Order and Harmony subjected a brightening Creation +to the milder influences throned in Olympus. But it was not till the +later passages of the dialogue in which my interest was now absorbed, that +the language ascribed to this sinister personage lost a gloomy pathos not +the less impressive for the awe with which it was mingled. For, till +then, it seemed to me as if in that tempestuous nature there were still +broken glimpses of starry light; that a character originally lofty, if +irregular and fierce, had been embittered by early and continuous war with +the social world, and had, in that war, become maimed and distorted; that, +under happier circumstances, its fiery strength might have been +disciplined to good; that even now, where remorse was so evidently +poignant, evil could not be irredeemably confirmed. + +At length all the dreary compassion previously inspired vanished in one +unqualified abhorrence. + +The subjects discussed changed from those which, relating to the common +world of men, were within the scope of my reason. Haroun led his wild +guest to boast of his own proficiency in magic, and, despite my +incredulity, I could not overcome the shudder with which fictions, however +extravagant, that deal with that dark Unknown abandoned to the chimeras of +poets, will, at night and in solitude, send through the veins of men the +least accessible to imaginary terrors. + +Grayle spoke of the power he had exercised through the agency of evil +spirits,--a power to fascinate and to destroy. He spoke of the aid +revealed to him, now too late, which such direful allies could afford, not +only to a private revenge, but to a kingly ambition. Had he acquired the +knowledge he declared himself to possess before the feebleness of the +decaying body made it valueless, how he could have triumphed over that +world which had expelled his youth from its pale! He spoke of means by +which his influence could work undetected on the minds of others, control +agencies that could never betray, and baffle the justice that could never +discover. He spoke vaguely of a power by which a spectral reflection of +the material body could be cast, like a shadow, to a distance; glide +through the walls of a prison, elude the sentinels of a camp,--a power +that he asserted to be when enforced by concentrated will, and acting on +the mind, where in each individual temptation found mind the +weakest--almost infallible in its effect to seduce or to appall. And he +closed these and similar boasts of demoniacal arts, which I remember too +obscurely to repeat, with a tumultuous imprecation on their nothingness to +avail against the gripe of death. All this lore he would communicate to +Haroun, in return for what? A boon shared by the meanest peasant,--life, +common life; to breathe yet a while the air, feel yet a while the sun. + +Then Haroun replied. He said, with a quiet disdain, that the dark art to +which Grayle made such boastful pretence was the meanest of all abuses of +knowledge, rightly abandoned, in all ages, to the vilest natures. And +then, suddenly changing his tone, he spoke, so far as I can remember the +words assigned to him in the manuscript, to this effect,-- + +"Fallen and unhappy wretch, and you ask me for prolonged life!--a +prolonged curse to the world and to yourself. Shall I employ spells to +lengthen the term of the Pestilence, or profane the secrets of Nature to +restore vigour and youth to the failing energies of Crime?" + +Grayle, as if stunned by the rebuke, fell on his knees with despairing +entreaties that strangely contrasted his previous arrogance. "And it +was," he said, "because his life had been evil that he dreaded death. If +life could be renewed he would repent, he would change; he retracted his +vaunts, he would forsake the arts he had boasted, he would re-enter the +world as its benefactor." + +"So ever the wicked man lies to himself when appalled by the shadow of +death," answered Haroun. "But know, by the remorse which preys on thy +soul, that it is not thy soul that addresses this prayer to me. Couldst +thou hear, through the storms of the Mind, the Soul's melancholy whisper, +it would dissuade thee from a wish to live on. While I speak, I behold +it, that Soul,--sad for the stains on its essence, awed by the account it +must render, but dreading, as the direst calamity, a renewal of years +below, darker stains and yet heavier accounts! Whatever the sentence it +may now undergo, it has a hope for mercy in the remorse which the mind +vainly struggles to quell. But darker its doom if longer retained to +earth, yoked to the mind that corrupts it, and enslaved to the senses +which thou bidst me restore to their tyrannous forces." + +And Grayle bowed his head and covered his face with his hands in silence +and in trembling. + +Then Sir Philip, seized with compassion, pleaded for him. "At least, +could not the soul have longer time on earth for repentance?" And while +Sir Philip was so pleading, Grayle fell prostrate in a swoon like that of +death. When he recovered, his head was leaning on Haroun's knee, and his +opening eyes fixed on the glittering phial which Haroun held, and from +which his lips had been moistened. + +"Wondrous!" he murmured: "how I feel life flowing back to me. And that, +then, is the elixir! it is no fable!" + +His hands stretched greedily as to seize the phial, and he cried +imploringly, "More, more!" Haroun replaced the vessel in the folds of his +robe, and answered,-- + +"I will not renew thy youth, but I will release thee from bodily +suffering: I will leave the mind and the soul free from the pangs of the +flesh, to reconcile, if yet possible, their long war. My skill may afford +thee months yet for repentance; Seek, in that interval, to atone for the +evil of sixty years; apply thy wealth where it may most compensate for +injury done, most relieve the indigent, and most aid the virtuous. Listen +to thy remorse; humble thyself in prayer." + +Grayle departed, sighing heavily and muttering to himself. The next day +Haroun summoned Sir Philip Derval, and said to him,-- + +"Depart to Damascus. In that city the Pestilence has appeared. Go +thither thou, to heal and to save. In this casket are stored the surest +antidotes to the poison of the plague. Of that essence, undiluted and +pure, which tempts to the undue prolongation of soul in the prison of +flesh, this casket contains not a drop. I curse not my friend with so +mournful a boon. Thou hast learned enough of my art to know by what +simples the health of the temperate is easily restored to its balance, and +their path to the grave smoothed from pain. Not more should Man covet +from Nature for the solace and weal of the body. Nobler gifts far than +aught for the body this casket contains. Herein are the essences which +quicken the life of those duplicate senses that lie dormant and coiled in +their chrysalis web, awaiting the wings of a future development,--the +senses by which we can see, though not with the eye, and hear, but not by +the ear. Herein are the links between Man's mind and Nature's; herein are +secrets more precious even than these,--those extracts of light which +enable the Soul to distinguish itself from the Mind, and discriminate the +spiritual life, not more from life carnal than life intellectual. Where +thou seest some noble intellect, studious of Nature, intent upon Truth, +yet ignoring the fact that all animal life has a mind and Man alone on the +earth ever asked, and has asked, from the hour his step trod the earth, +and his eye sought the Heaven, 'Have I not a soul; can it perish?'--there, +such aids to the soul, in the innermost vision vouchsafed to the mind, +thou mayst lawfully use. But the treasures contained in this casket are +like all which a mortal can win from the mines he explores,--good or ill +in their uses as they pass to the hands of the good or the evil. Thou +wilt never confide them but to those who will not abuse! and even then, +thou art an adept too versed in the mysteries of Nature not to +discriminate between the powers that may serve the good to good ends, and +the powers that may tempt the good--where less wise than experience has +made thee and me--to the ends that are evil; and not even to thy friend +the most virtuous--if less proof against passion than thou and I have +become--wilt thou confide such contents of the casket as may work on the +fancy, to deafen the conscience and imperil the soul." + +Sir Philip took the casket, and with it directions for use, which he did +not detail. He then spoke to Haroun about Louis Grayle, who had inspired +him with a mingled sentiment of admiration and abhorrence, of pity and +terror. And Haroun answered thus, repeating the words ascribed to him, so +far as I can trust, in regard to them--as to all else in this marvellous +narrative--to a memory habitually tenacious even in ordinary matters, and +strained to the utmost extent of its power, by the strangeness of the +ideas presented to it, and the intensity of my personal interest in +whatever admitted a ray into that cloud which, gathering fast over my +reason, now threatened storm to my affections,-- + +"When the mortal deliberately allies himself to the spirits of evil, he +surrenders the citadel of his being to the guard of its enemies; and those +who look from without can only dimly guess what passes within the +precincts abandoned to Powers whose very nature we shrink to contemplate, +lest our mere gaze should invite them. This man, whom thou pitiest, is +not yet everlastingly consigned to the fiends, because his soul still +struggles against them. His life has been one long war between his +intellect, which is mighty, and his spirit, which is feeble. The +intellect, armed and winged by the passions, has besieged and oppressed +the soul; but the soul has never ceased to repine and to repent. And at +moments it has gained its inherent ascendancy, persuaded revenge to drop +the prey it had seized, turned the mind astray from hatred and wrath into +unwonted paths of charity and love. In the long desert of guilt, there +have been green spots and fountains of good. The fiends have occupied the +intellect which invoked them, but they have never yet thoroughly mastered +the soul which their presence appalls. In the struggle that now passes +within that breast, amidst the flickers of waning mortality, only Allah, +whose eye never slumbers, can aid." + +Haroun then continued, in words yet more strange and yet more +deeply graved in my memory,-- + +"There have been men (thou mayst have known such), who, after an illness +in which life itself seemed suspended, have arisen, as out of a sleep, +with characters wholly changed. Before, perhaps, gentle and good and +truthful, they now become bitter, malignant, and false. To the persons +and the things they had before loved, they evince repugnance and loathing. +Sometimes this change is so marked and irrational that their kindred +ascribe it to madness,--not the madness which affects them in the +ordinary business of life, but that which turns into harshness and +discord the moral harmony that results from natures whole and complete. +But there are dervishes who hold that in that illness, which had for its +time the likeness of death, the soul itself has passed away, and an evil +genius has fixed itself into the body and the brain, thus left void of +their former tenant, and animates them in the unaccountable change from +the past to the present existence. Such mysteries have formed no part of +my study, and I tell you the conjecture received in the East without +hazarding a comment whether of incredulity or belief. But if, in this war +between the mind which the fiends have seized, and the soul which implores +refuge of Allah; if, while the mind of yon traveller now covets life +lengthened on earth for the enjoyments it had perverted its faculties to +seek and to find in sin, and covets so eagerly that it would shrink from +no crime and revolt from no fiend that could promise the gift, the soul +shudderingly implores to be saved from new guilt, and would rather abide +by the judgment of Allah on the sins that have darkened it than pass +forever irredeemably away to the demons,--if this be so, what if the +soul's petition be heard; what if it rise from the ruins around it; what +if the ruins be left to the witchcraft that seeks to rebuild them? There, +if demons might enter, that which they sought as their prize has escaped +them; that which they find would mock them by its own incompleteness even +in evil. In vain might animal life the most perfect be given to the +machine of the flesh; in vain might the mind, freed from the check of the +soul, be left to roam at will through a brain stored with memories of +knowledge and skilled in the command of its faculties; in vain, in +addition to all that body and brain bestow on the normal condition of man, +might unhallowed reminiscences gather all the arts and the charms of the +sorcery by which the fiends tempted the soul, before it fled, through the +passions of flesh and the cravings of mind: the Thing, thus devoid of a +soul, would be an instrument of evil, doubtless,--but an instrument that +of itself could not design, invent, and complete. The demons themselves +could have no permanent hold on the perishable materials. They might +enter it for some gloomy end which Allah permits in his inscrutable +wisdom; but they could leave it no trace when they pass from it, because +there is no conscience where soul is wanting. The human animal without +soul, but otherwise made felicitously perfect in its mere vital +organization, might ravage and destroy, as the tiger and the serpent may +destroy and ravage, and, the moment after, would sport in the sunlight +harmless and rejoicing, because, like the serpent and the tiger, it is +incapable of remorse." + +"Why startle my wonder," said Derval, "with so fantastic an image?" + +"Because, possibly, the image may come into palpable form! I know, while +I speak to thee, that this miserable man is calling to his aid the evil +sorcery over which he boasts his control. To gain the end he desires, he +must pass through a crime. Sorcery whispers to him how to pass through +it, secure from the detection of man. The soul resists, but in resisting, +is weak against the tyranny of the mind to which it has submitted so long. +Question me no more. But if I vanish from thine eyes, if thou hear that +the death which, to my sorrow and in my foolishness I have failed to +recognize as the merciful minister of Heaven, has removed me at last from +the earth, believe that the pale Visitant was welcome, and that I humbly +accept as a blessed release the lot of our common humanity." + +Sir Philip went to Damascus. There he found the pestilence raging, there +he devoted himself to the cure of the afflicted; in no single instance, so +at least he declared, did the antidotes stored in the casket fail in their +effect. The pestilence had passed, his medicaments were exhausted, when +the news reached him that Haroun was no more. The Sage had been found, +one morning, lifeless in his solitary home, and, according to popular +rumour, marks on his throat betrayed the murderous hand of the strangler. +Simultaneously, Louis Grayle had disappeared from the city, and was +supposed to have shared the fate of Haroun, and been secretly buried by +the assassins who had deprived him of life. Sir Philip hastened to +Aleppo. There he ascertained that on the night in which Haroun died, +Grayle did not disappear alone; with him were also missing two of his +numerous suite,--the one, an Arab woman, named Ayesha, who had for some +years been his constant companion, his pupil and associate in the mystic +practices to which his intellect had been debased, and who was said to +have acquired a singular influence over him, partly by her beauty and +partly by the tenderness with which she had nursed him through his long +decline; the other, an Indian, specially assigned to her service, of whom +all the wild retainers of Grayle spoke with detestation and terror. He +was believed by them to belong to that murderous sect of fanatics whose +existence as a community has only recently been made known to Europe, and +who strangle their unsuspecting victim in the firm belief that they +thereby propitiate the favour of the goddess they serve. The current +opinion at Aleppo was, that if those two persons had conspired to murder +Haroun, perhaps for the sake of the treasures he was said to possess, it +was still more certain that they had made away with their own English +lord, whether for the sake of the jewels he wore about him, or for the +sake of treasures less doubtful than those imputed to Haroun, and of which +the hiding-place would be to them much better known. + + "I did not share that opinion," wrote the narrator, "for I assured + myself that Ayesha sincerely loved her awful master; and that love + need excite no wonder, for Louis Grayle was one whom if a woman, and + especially a woman of the East, had once loved, before old age and + infirmity fell on him, she would love and cherish still more devotedly + when it became her task to protect the being who, in his day of power + and command, had exalted his slave into the rank of his pupil and + companion. And the Indian whom Grayle had assigned to her service was + allowed to have that brute kind of fidelity which, though it recoils + from no crime for a master, refuses all crime against him. + + "I came to the conclusion that Haroun had been murdered by order + of Louis Grayle,--for the sake of the elixir of life,--murdered by + Juma the Strangler; and that Grayle himself had been aided in his + flight from Aleppo, and tended, through the effects of the + life-giving drug thus murderously obtained, by the womanly love of the + Arab woman Ayesha. These convictions (since I could not, without + being ridiculed as the wildest of dupes, even hint at the vital + elixir) I failed to impress on the Eastern officials, or even on a + countryman of my own whom I chanced to find at Aleppo. They only + arrived at what seemed the common-sense verdict,--namely, that Haroun + might have been strangled, or might have died in a fit (the body, + little examined, was buried long before I came to Aleppo); and that + Louis Grayle was murdered by his own treacherous dependents. But all + trace of the fugitives was lost. + + "And now," wrote Sir Philip, "I will state by what means I discovered + that Louis Grayle still lived,--changed from age into youth; a new + form, a new being; realizing, I verily believe, the image which + Haroun's words had raised up, in what then seemed to me the + metaphysics of fantasy,---criminal, without consciousness of crime; + the dreadest of the mere animal race; an incarnation of the blind + powers of Nature,--beautiful and joyous, wanton and terrible and + destroying! Such as ancient myths have personified in the idols of + Oriental creeds; such as Nature, of herself, might form man in her + moments of favour, if man were wholly the animal, and spirit were no + longer the essential distinction between himself and the races to + which by superior formation and subtler perceptions he would still be + the king. + + "But this being is yet more dire and portentous than the mere animal + man, for in him are not only the fragmentary memories of a pristine + intelligence which no mind, unaided by the presence of soul, could + have originally compassed, but amidst that intelligence are the + secrets of the magic which is learned through the agencies of spirits + the most hostile to our race. And who shall say whether the fiends do + not enter at their will this void and deserted temple whence the soul + has departed, and use as their tools, passive and unconscious, all the + faculties which, skilful in sorcery, still place a mind at the + control of their malice? + + "It, was in the interest excited in me by the strange and terrible fate + that befell an Armenian family with which I was slightly acquainted, + that I first traced--in the creature I am now about to describe, and + whose course I devote myself to watch, and trust to bring to a + close--the murderer of Haroun for the sake of the elixir of youth. + + "In this Armenian family there were three daughters; one of them--" + +I had just read thus far when a dim shadow fell over the page, and a cold +air seemed to breathe on me,--cold, so cold, that my blood halted in my +veins as if suddenly frozen! Involuntarily I started, and looked up, sure +that some ghastly presence was in the room. And then, on the opposite +side of the wall, I beheld an unsubstantial likeness of a human form. +Shadow I call it, but the word is not strictly correct, for it was +luminous, though with a pale shine. In some exhibition in London there is +shown a curious instance of optical illusion; at the end of a corridor you +see, apparently in strong light, a human skull. You are convinced it is +there as you approach; it is, however, only a reflection from a skull at a +distance. The image before me was less vivid, less seemingly prominent +than is the illusion I speak of. I was not deceived. I felt it was a +spectrum, a phantasm; but I felt no less surely that it was a reflection +from an animate form,--the form and face of Margrave; it was there, +distinct, unmistakable. Conceiving that he himself must be behind me, I +sought to rise, to turn round, to examine. I could not move: limb and +muscle were overmastered by some incomprehensible spell. Gradually my +senses forsook me; I became unconscious as well as motionless. When I +recovered, I heard the clock strike three. I must have been nearly two +hours insensible! The candles before me were burning low. My eyes rested +on the table; the dead man's manuscript was gone! + +[1] The reader will here observe a discrepancy between Mrs. Poyntz's +account and Sir Philip Derval's narrative. According to the former, Louis +Grayle was tried in his absence from England, and sentenced to three +years' imprisonment, which his flight enabled him to evade. According to +the latter, Louis Grayle stood his trial, and obtained an acquittal. Sir +Philip's account must, at least, be nearer the truth than the lady's, +because Louis Grayle could not, according to English law, have been tried +on a capital charge without being present in court. Mrs. Poyntz tells her +story as a woman generally does tell a story,--sure to make a mistake when +she touches on a question of law; and--unconsciously perhaps to +herself--the woman of the World warps the facts in her narrative so as to +save the personal dignity of the hero, who has captivated her interest, +not from the moral odium of a great crime, but the debasing position of a +prisoner at the bar. Allen Fenwick, no doubt, purposely omits to notice +the discrepancy between these two statements, or to animadvert on the +mistake which, in the eyes of a lawyer, would discredit Mrs. Poyntz's. It +is consistent with some of the objects for which Allen Fenwick makes +public his Strange Story, to invite the reader to draw his own inferences +from the contradictions by which, even in the most commonplace matters +(and how much more in any tale of wonder!), a fact stated by one person is +made to differ from the same fact stated by another. The rapidity with +which a truth becomes transformed into fable, when it is once sent on its +travels from lip to lip, is illustrated by an amusement at this moment in +fashion. The amusement is this: In a party of eight or ten persons, let +one whisper to another an account of some supposed transaction, or a piece +of invented gossip relating to absent persons, dead or alive; let the +person, who thus first hears the story, proceed to whisper it, as exactly +as he can remember what he has just heard, to the next; the next does the +same to his neighbour, and so on, till the tale has run the round of the +party. Each narrator, as soon as he has whispered his version of the +tale, writes down what he has whispered. And though, in this game, no one +has had any interest to misrepresent, but, on the contrary, each for his +own credit's sake strives to repeat what he has heard as faithfully as he +can, it will be almost invariably found that the story told by the first +person has received the most material alterations before it has reached +the eighth or the tenth. Sometimes the most important feature of the +whole narrative is altogether omitted; sometimes a feature altogether new +and preposterously absurd has been added. At the close of the experiment +one is tempted to exclaim, "How, after this, can any of those portions of +history which the chronicler took from hearsay be believed?" But, above +all, does not every anecdote of scandal which has passed, not through ten +lips, but perhaps through ten thousand, before it has reached us, become +quite as perplexing to him who would get at the truth, as the marvels he +recounts are to the bewildered reason of Fenwick the Sceptic? + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +The dead man's manuscript was gone. But how? A phantom might delude my +eye, a human will, though exerted at a distance, might, if the tales of +mesmerism be true, deprive me of movement and of consciousness; but +neither phantom nor mesmeric will could surely remove from the table +before me the material substance of the book that had vanished! Was I to +seek explanation in the arts of sorcery ascribed to Louis Grayle in the +narrative? I would not pursue that conjecture. Against it my reason rose +up half alarmed, half disdainful. Some one must have entered the room, +some one have removed the manuscript. I looked round. The windows were +closed, the curtains partly drawn over the shutters, as they were before +my consciousness had left me: all seemed undisturbed. Snatching up one of +the candles, fast dying out, I went into the adjoining library, the +desolate state-rooins, into the entrance-hall, and examined the outer +door. barred and locked! The robber had left no vestige of his stealthy +presence. + +I resolved to go at once to Strahan's room and tell him of the loss +sustained. A deposit had been confided to me, and I felt as if there +were a slur on my honour every moment in which I kept its abstraction +concealed from him to whom I was responsible for the trust. I hastily +ascended the great staircase, grim with faded portraits, and found myself +in a long corridor opening on my own bedroom; no doubt also on Strahan's. +Which was his? I knew not. I opened rapidly door after door, peered into +empty chambers, went blundering on, when to the right, down a narrow +passage. I recognized the signs of my host's whereabouts,--signs +familiarly commonplace and vulgar; signs by which the inmate of any +chamber in lodging-house or inn makes himself known,--a chair before a +doorway, clothes negligently thrown on it, beside it a pair of shoes. And +so ludicrous did such testimony of common every-day life, of the habits +which Strahan would necessarily have contracted in his desultory +unluxurious bachelor's existence,--so ludicrous, I say, did these homely +details seem to me, so grotesquely at variance with the wonders of which I +had been reading, with the wonders yet more incredible of which I myself +had been witness and victim, that as I turned down the passage, I heard my +own unconscious half-hysterical laugh; and, startled by the sound of that +laugh as if it came from some one else, I paused, my hand on the door, and +asked myself: "Do I dream? Am I awake? And if awake what am I to say to +the common place mortal I am about to rouse? Speak to him of a phantom! +Speak to him of some weird spell over this strong frame! Speak to him of +a mystic trance in which has been stolen what he confided to me, without +my knowledge! What will he say? What should I have said a few days ago +to any man who told such a tale to me?" I did not wait to resolve these +questions. I entered the room. There was Strahan sound asleep on his +bed. I shook him roughly. He started up, rubbed his eyes. "You, +Allen,--you! What the deuce?--what 's the matter?" + +"Strahan, I have been robbed!--robbed of the manuscript you lent me. I +could not rest till I had told you." + +"Robbed, robbed! Are you serious?" + +By this time Strahan had thrown off the bed-clothes, and sat upright, +staring at me. + +And then those questions which my mind had suggested while I was standing +at his door repeated themselves with double force. Tell this man, this +unimaginative, hard-headed, raw-boned, sandy-haired North +countryman,--tell this man a story which the most credulous school-girl +would have rejected as a fable! Impossible! + +"I fell asleep," said I, colouring and stammering, for the slightest +deviation from truth was painful to me, "and-and--when I awoke--the +manuscript was gone. Some one must have entered and committed the +theft--" + +"Some one entered the house at this hour of the night and then only stolen +a manuscript which could be of no value to him! Absurd! If thieves have +come in it must be for other objects,--for plate, for money. I will +dress; we will see!" + +Strahan hurried on his clothes, muttering to himself and avoiding my eye. +He was embarrassed. He did not like to say to an old friend what was on +his mind; but I saw at once that he suspected I had resolved to deprive +him of the manuscript, and had invented a wild tale in order to conceal my +own dishonesty. + +Nevertheless, he proceeded to search the house. I followed him in +silence, oppressed with my own thoughts, and longing for solitude in my +own chamber. We found no one, no trace of any one, nothing to excite +suspicion. There were but two female servants sleeping in the house,--the +old housekeeper, and a country girl who assisted her. It was not possible +to suspect either of these persons; but in the course of our search we +opened the doors of their rooms. We saw that they were both in bed, both +seemingly asleep: it seemed idle to wake and question them. When the +formality of our futile investigation was concluded, Strahan stopped at +the door of my bedroom, and for the first time fixing his eyes on me +steadily, said,-- + +"Allen Fenwick, I would have given half the fortune I have come into +rather than this had happened. The manuscript, as you know, was +bequeathed to me as a sacred trust by a benefactor whose slightest wish it +is my duty to observe religiously. If it contained aught valuable to a +man of your knowledge and profession, why, you were free to use its +contents. Let me hope, Allen, that the book will reappear to-morrow." + +He said no more, drew himself away from the hand I involuntarily extended, +and walked quickly back towards his own room. + +Alone once more, I sank on a seat, buried my face in my hands, and strove +in vain to collect into some definite shape my own tumultuous and +disordered thoughts. Could I attach serious credit to the marvellous +narrative I had read? Were there, indeed, such powers given to man, such +influences latent in the calm routine of Nature? I could not believe it; +I must have some morbid affection of the brain; I must be under an +hallucination. Hallucination? The phantom, yes; the trance, yes. But +still, how came the book gone? That, at least, was not hallucination. + +I left my room the next morning with a vague hope that I should find the +manuscript somewhere in the study; that, in my own trance, I might have +secreted it, as sleep-walkers are said to secrete things, without +remembrance of their acts in their waking state. + +I searched minutely in every conceivable place. Strahan found me still +employed in that hopeless task. He had breakfasted in his own room, and +it was past eleven o'clock when he joined me. His manner was now hard, +cold, and distant, and his suspicion so bluntly shown that my distress +gave way to resentment. + +"Is it possible," I cried indignantly, "that you, who have known me so +well, can suspect me of an act so base, and so gratuitously base? +Purloin, conceal a book confided to me, with full power to copy from it +whatever I might desire, use its contents in any way that might seem to me +serviceable to science, or useful to me in my own calling!" + +"I have not accused you," answered Strahan, sullenly. "But what are we to +say to Mr. Jeeves; to all others who know that this manuscript existed? +Will they believe what you tell me?" + +"Mr. Jeeves," I said, "cannot suspect a fellow-townsman, whose character +is as high as mine, of untruth and theft. And to whom else have you +communicated the facts connected with a memoir and a request of so +extraordinary a nature?" + +"To young Margrave; I told you so!" + +"True, true. We need not go farther to find the thief. Margrave has been +in this house more than once. He knows the position of the rooms. You +have named the robber!" + +"Tut! what on earth could a gay young fellow like Margrave want with a +work of such dry and recondite nature as I presume my poor kinsman's +memoir must be?" + +I was about to answer, when the door was abruptly opened, and the +servant-girl entered, followed by two men, in whom I recognized the +superintendent of the L---- police and the same subordinate who had found +me by Sir Philip's corpse. + +The superintendent came up to me with a grave face, and whispered in my +ear. I did not at first comprehend him. "Come with you," I said, "and to +Mr. Vigors, the magistrate? I thought my deposition was closed." + +The superintendent shook his head. "I have the authority here, Dr. +Fenwick." + +"Well, I will come, of course. Has anything new transpired?" + +The superintendent turned to the servant-girl, who was standing with +gaping mouth and staring eyes. + +"Show us Dr. Fenwick's room. You had better put up, sir, whatever things +you have brought here. I will go upstairs with you," he whispered again. +"Come, Dr. Fenwick, I am in the discharge of my duty." + +Something in the man's manner was so sinister and menacing that I felt at +once that some new and strange calamity had befallen me. I turned towards +Strahan. He was at the threshold, speaking in a low voice to the +subordinate policeman, and there was an expression of amazement and horror +in his countenance. As I came towards him he darted away without a word. + +I went up the stairs, entered my bedroom, the superintendent close behind +me. As I took up mechanically the few things I had brought with me, the +police-officer drew them from me with an abruptness that appeared +insolent, and deliberately searched the pockets of the coat which I had +worn the evening before, then opened the drawers in the room, and even +pried into the bed. + +"What do you mean?" I asked haughtily. + +"Excuse me, sir. Duty. You are-" + +"Well, I am what?" + +"My prisoner; here is the warrant." + +"Warrant! on what charge?" + +"The murder of Sir Philip Derval." + +"I--I! Murder!" I could say no more. + +I must hurry over this awful passage in my marvellous record. It +is torture to dwell on the details; and indeed I have so sought to chase +them from my recollection, that they only come back to me in hideous +fragments, like the incoherent remains of a horrible dream. + +All that I need state is as follows: Early on the very morning on which I +had been arrested, a man, a stranger in the town, had privately sought Mr. +Vigors, and deposed that on the night of the murder, he had been taking +refuge from a sudden storm under shelter of the eaves and buttresses of a +wall adjoining an old archway; that he had heard men talking within the +archway; had heard one say to the other, "You still bear me a grudge." +The other had replied, "I can forgive you on one condition." That he then +lost much of the conversation that ensued, which was in a lower voice; +but he gathered enough to know that the condition demanded by the one was +the possession of a casket which the other carried about with him; that +there seemed an altercation on this matter between the two men, which, to +judge by the tones of voice, was angry on the part of the man demanding +the casket; that, finally, this man said in a loud key, "Do you still +refuse?" and on receiving the answer, which the witness did not overhear, +exclaimed threateningly, "It is you who will repent," and then stepped +forth from the arch into the street. The rain had then ceased, but by a +broad flash of lightning the witness saw distinctly the figure of the +person thus quitting the shelter of the arch,--a man of tall stature, +powerful frame, erect carriage. A little time afterwards, witness saw a +slighter and older man come forth from the arch, whom he could only +examine by the flickering ray of the gas-lamp near the wall, the +lightning having ceased, but whom he fully believed to be the person he +afterwards discovered to be Sir Philip Derval. + +He said that he himself had only arrived at the town a few hours before; a +stranger to L----, and indeed to England, having come from the United +States of America, where he had passed his life from childhood. He had +journeyed on foot to L----, in the hope of finding there some distant +relatives. He had put up at a small inn, after which he had strolled +through the town, when the storm had driven him to seek shelter. He had +then failed to find his way back to the inn, and after wandering about in +vain, and seeing no one at that late hour of night of whom he could ask +the way, lie had crept under a portico and slept for two or three hours. +Waking towards the dawn, he had then got up, and again sought to find his +way to the inn, when he saw, in a narrow street before him, two men, one +of whom he recognized as the taller of the two to whose conversation he +had listened under the arch; the other he did not recognize at the moment. +The taller man seemed angry and agitated, and he heard him say, "The +casket; I will have it." There then seemed to be a struggle between these +two persons, when the taller one struck down the shorter, knelt on his +breast, and he caught distinctly the gleam of some steel instrument. That +he was so frightened that he could not stir from the place, and that +though he cried out, he believed his voice was not heard. He then saw the +taller man rise, the other resting on the pavement motionless; and a +minute or so afterwards beheld policemen coming to the place, on which he, +the witness, walked away. He did not know that a murder had been +committed; it might be only an assault; it was no business of his, he was +a stranger. He thought it best not to interfere, the police having +cognizance of the affair. He found out his inn; for the next few days he +was absent from L---- in search of his relations, who had left the town, +many years ago, to fix their residence in one of the neighbouring +villages. + +He was, however, disappointed; none of these relations now survived. He +had now returned to L----, heard of the murder, was in doubt what to do, +might get himself into trouble if, a mere stranger, he gave an +unsupported testimony. But, on the day before the evidence was +volunteered, as he was lounging in the streets, he had seen a gentleman +pass by on horseback, in whom he immediately recognized the man who, in +his belief, was the murderer of Sir Philip Derval. He inquired of a +bystander the name of the gentleman; the answer was "Dr. Fenwick." That, +the rest of the day, he felt much disturbed in his mind, not liking to +volunteer such a charge against a man of apparent respectability and +station; but that his conscience would not let him sleep that night, and +he had resolved at morning to go to the magistrate and make a clean breast +of it. + +The story was in itself so improbable that any other magistrate but Mr. +Vigors would perhaps have dismissed it in contempt. But Mr. Vigors, +already so bitterly prejudiced against me, and not sorry, perhaps, to +subject me to the humiliation of so horrible a charge, immediately issued +his warrant to search my house. I was absent at Derval Court; the house +was searched. In the bureau in my favourite study, which was left +unlocked, the steel casket was discovered, and a large case-knife, on the +blade of which the stains of blood were still perceptible. On this +discovery I was apprehended; and on these evidences, and on the deposition +of this vagrant stranger, I was not, indeed, committed to take my trial +for murder, but placed in confinement, all bail for my appearance refused, +and the examination adjourned to give time for further evidence and +inquiries. I had requested the professional aid of Mr. Jeeves. To my +surprise and dismay, Mr. Jeeves begged me to excuse him. He said he was +pre-engaged by Mr. Strahan to detect and prosecute the murderer of Sir P. +Derval, and could not assist one accused of the murder. I gathered from +the little he said that Strahan had already been to him that morning and +told him of the missing manuscript, that Strahan had ceased to be my +friend. I engaged another solicitor, a young man of ability, and who +professed personal esteem for me. Mr. Stanton (such was the lawyer's +name) believed in my innocence; but he warned me that appearances were +grave, he implored me to be perfectly frank with him. Had I held +conversation with Sir Philip under the archway as reported by the witness? +Had I used such or similar words? Had the deceased said, "I had a grudge +against him"? Had I demanded the casket? Had I threatened Sir Philip +that he would repent? And of what,--his refusal? + +I felt myself grow pale, as I answered, "Yes; I thought such or similar +expressions had occurred in my conversation with the deceased." + +"What was the reason of the grudge? What was the nature of this casket, +that I should so desire its possession?" + +There, I became terribly embarrassed. What could I say to a keen, +sensible, worldly man of law,--tell him of the powder and the fumes, of +the scene in the museum, of Sir Philip's tale, of the implied identity of +the youthful Margrave with the aged Grayle, of the elixir of life, and of +magic arts? I--I tell such a romance! I,--the noted adversary of all +pretended mysticism; I,--I a sceptical practitioner of medicine! Had that +manuscript of Sir Philip's been available,--a substantial record of +marvellous events by a man of repute for intellect and learning,--I might +perhaps have ventured to startle the solicitor of I--with my revelations. +But the sole proof that all which the solicitor urged me to confide was +not a monstrous fiction or an insane delusion had disappeared; and its +disappearance was a part of the terrible mystery that enveloped the whole. +I answered therefore, as composedly as I could, that "I could have no +serious grudge against Sir Philip, whom I had never seen before that +evening; that the words which applied to my supposed grudge were lightly +said by Sir Philip, in reference to a physiological dispute on matters +connected with mesmerical phenomena; that the deceased had declared his +casket, which he had shown me at the mayor's house, contained drugs of +great potency in medicine; that I had asked permission to test those drugs +myself; and that when I said he would repent of his refusal, I merely +meant that he would repent of his reliance on drugs not warranted by the +experiments of professional science." + +My replies seemed to satisfy the lawyer so far, but "how could I aceount +for the casket and the knife being found in my room?" + +"In no way but this; the window of my study is a door-window opening on +the lane, from which any one might enter the room. I was in the habit, +not only of going out myself that way, but of admitting through that door +any more familiar private acquaintance." + +"Whom, for instance?" + +I hesitated a moment, and then said, with a significance I could not +forbear, "Mr. Margrave! He would know the locale perfectly; he would +know that the door was rarely bolted from within during the daytime: he +could enter at all hours; he could place, or instruct any one to deposit, +the knife and casket in my bureau, which he knew I never kept locked; it +contained no secrets, no private correspondence,--chiefly surgical +implements, or such things as I might want for professional experiments." + +"Mr. Margrave! But you cannot suspect him--a lively, charming young man, +against whose character not a whisper was ever heard--of connivance with +such a charge against you,--a connivance that would implicate him in the +murder itself; for if you are accused wrongfully, he who accuses you is +either the criminal or the criminal's accomplice, his instigator or his +tool." + +"Mr. Stanton," I said firmly, after a moment's pause, "I do suspect Mr. +Margrave of a hand in this crime. Sir Philip, on seeing him at the +mayor's house, expressed a strong abhorrence of him, more than hinted at +crimes he had committed, appointed me to come to Derval Court the day +after that on which the murder was committed. Sir Philip had known +something of this Margrave in the East; Margrave might dread exposure, +revelations--of what I know not; but, strange as it may seem to you, it is +my conviction that this young man, apparently so gay and so thoughtless, +is the real criminal, and in some way which I cannot conjecture has +employed this lying vagabond in the fabrication of a charge against +myself. Reflect: of Mr. Margrave's antecedents we know nothing; of them +nothing was known even by the young gentleman who first introduced him to +the society of this town. If you would serve and save me, it is to that +quarter that you will direct your vigilant and unrelaxing researches." + +I had scarcely so said when I repented my candour, for I observed in the +face of Mr. Stanton a sudden revulsion of feeling, an utter incredulity of +the accusation I had thus hazarded, and for the first time a doubt of my +own innocence. The fascination exercised by Margrave was universal; nor +was it to be wondered at: for besides the charm of his joyous presence, he +seemed so singularly free from even the errors common enough with the +young,--so gay and boon a companion, yet a shunner of wine; so dazzling in +aspect, so more than beautiful, so courted, so idolized by women, yet no +tale of seduction, of profligacy, attached to his name! As to his +antecedents, he had so frankly owned himself a natural son, a nobody, a +traveller, an idler; his expenses, though lavish, were so unostentatious, +so regularly defrayed; he was so wholly the reverse of the character +assigned to criminals, that it seemed as absurd to bring a charge of +homicide against a butterfly or a goldfinch as against this seemingly +innocent and delightful favourite of humanity and nature. + +However, Mr. Stanton said little or nothing, and shortly afterwards left +me, with a dry expression of hope that my innocence would be cleared in +spite of evidence that, he was bound to say, was of the most serious +character. + +I was exhausted. I fell into a profound sleep early that night; it might +be a little after twelve when I woke, and woke as fully, as completely, as +much restored to life and consciousness, as it was then my habit to be at +the break of day. And so waking, I saw, on the wall opposite my bed, the +same luminous phantom I had seen in the wizard's study at Derval Court. I +have read in Scandinavian legends of an apparition called the Scin-Laeca, +or shining corpse. It is supposed in the northern superstition, sometimes +to haunt sepulchres, sometimes to foretell doom. It is the spectre of a +human body seen in a phosphoric light; and so exactly did this phantom +correspond to the description of such an apparition in Scandinavian fable +that I knew not how to give it a better name than that of Scin-Laeca,--the +shining corpse. + +There it was before me, corpse-like, yet not dead; there, as in the +haunted study of the wizard Forman!--the form and the face of Margrave. +Constitutionally, my nerves are strong, and my temper hardy, and now I was +resolved to battle against any impression which my senses might receive +from my own deluding fancies. Things that witnessed for the first time +daunt us witnessed for the second time lose their terror. I rose from my +bed with a bold aspect, I approached the phantom with a firm step; but +when within two paces of it, and my hand outstretched to touch it, my arm +became fixed in air, my feet locked to the ground. I did not experience +fear; I felt that my heart beat regularly, but an invincible something +opposed itself to me. I stood as if turned to stone. And then from the +lips of this phantom there came a voice, but a voice which seemed borne +from a great distance,--very low, muffled, and yet distinct; I could not +even be sure that my ear heard it, or whether the sound was not conveyed +to me by an inner sense. + +"I, and I alone, can save and deliver you," said the voice. "I will do +so; and the conditions I ask, in return, are simple and easy." + +"Fiend or spectre, or mere delusion of my own brain," cried I, "there can +be no compact between thee and me. I despise thy malice, I reject thy +services; I accept no conditions to escape from the one or to obtain the +other." + +"You may give a different answer when I ask again." + +The Scin-Laeca slowly waned, and, fading first into a paler shadow, then +vanished. I rejoiced at the reply I had given. Two days elapsed before +Mr. Stanton again came to me; in the interval the Scin-Laeca did not +reappear. I had mustered all my courage, all my common-sense, noted down +all the weak points of the false evidence against me, and felt calm and +supported by the strength of my innocence. + +The first few words of the solicitor dashed all my courage to the ground; +for I was anxious to hear news of Lilian, anxious to have some message +from her that might cheer and strengthen me, and my first question was +this,-- + +"Mr. Stanton, you are aware that I am engaged in marriage to Miss +Ashleigh. Your family are not unacquainted with her. What says, what +thinks she of this monstrous charge against her betrothed?" + +"I was for two hours at Mrs. Ashleigh's house last evening," replied the +lawyer; "she was naturally anxious to see me as employed in your defence. +Who do you think was there? Who, eager to defend you, to express his +persuasion of your innocence, to declare his conviction that the real +criminal would be soon discovered,--who but that same Mr. Margrave; whom, +pardon me my frankness, you so rashly and groundlessly suspected." + +"Heavens! Do you say that he is received in that house; that he--he is +familiarly admitted to her presence?" + +"My good sir, why these unjust prepossessions against a true friend? It +was as your friend that, as soon as the charge against you amazed and +shocked the town of L----, Mr. Margrave called on Mrs. Ashleigh, presented +to her by Miss Brabazon, and was so cheering and hopeful that--" + +"Enough!" I exclaimed,--"enough!" + +I paced the room in a state of excitement and rage, which the lawyer in +vain endeavoured to calm, until at length I halted abruptly: "Well, and +you saw Miss Ashleigh? What message does she send to me--her betrothed?" + +Mr. Stanton looked confused. "Message! Consider, sir, Miss Ashleigh's +situation--the delicacy--and--and--" + +"I understand, no message, no word, from a young lady so respectable to a +man accused of murder." + +Mr. Stanton was silent for some moments, and then said quietly, "Let us +change this subject; let us think of what more immediately presses. I see +you have been making some notes: may I look at them?" + +I composed myself and sat down. "This accuser! Have inquiries really +been made as to himself, and his statement of his own proceedings? He +comes, he says, from America: in what ship? At what port did he land? Is +there any evidence to corroborate his story of the relations he tried to +discover; of the inn at which he first put up, and to which he could not +find his way?" + +"Your suggestions are sensible, Dr. Fenwick. I have forestalled them. It +is true that the man lodged at a small inn,--the Rising Sun; true that +lie made inquiries about some relations of the name of Walls, who formerly +resided at L----, and afterwards removed to a village ten miles +distant,--two brothers, tradesmen of small means but respectable +character. He at first refused to say at what seaport he landed, in what +ship he sailed. I suspect that he has now told a falsehood as to these +matters. I sent my clerk to Southampton, for it is there he said that he +was put on shore; we shall see: the man himself is detained in close +custody. I hear that his manner is strange and excitable; but that he +preserves silence as much as possible. It is generally believed that he +is a bad character, perhaps a returned convict, and that this is the true +reason why he so long delayed giving evidence, and has been since so +reluctant to account for himself. But even if his testimony should be +impugned, should break down, still we should have to account for the fact +that the casket and the case-knife were found in your bureau; for, +granting that a person could, in your absence, have entered your study and +placed the articles in your bureau, it is clear that such a person must +have been well acquainted with your house, and this stranger to L---- +could not have possessed that knowledge." + +"Of course not. Mr. Margrave did possess it!" + +"Mr. Margrave again! oh, sir!" + +I arose and moved away with an impatient gesture. I could not trust +myself to speak. That night I did not sleep; I watched impatiently, +gazing on the opposite wall for the gleam of the Scin-Laeca. But the +night passed away, and the spectre did not appear. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +The lawyer came the next day, and with something like a smile on his lips. +He brought me a few lines in pencil from Mrs. Ashleigh; they were kindly +expressed, bade me be of good cheer; "she never for a moment believed in +my guilt; Lilian bore up wonderfully under so terrible a trial; it was an +unspeakable comfort to both to receive the visits of a friend so attached +to me, and so confident of a triumphant refutation of the hideous calumny +under which I now suffered as Mr. Margrave!" + +The lawyer had seen Margrave again,--seen him in that house. Margrave +seemed almost domiciled there! + +I remained sullen and taciturn during this visit. I longed again for the +night. Night came. I heard the distant clock strike twelve, when again +the icy wind passed through my hair, and against the wall stood the +luminous Shadow. + +"Have you considered?" whispered the voice, still as from afar. "I repeat +it,--I alone can save you." + +"Is it among the conditions which you ask, in return, that I shall resign +to you the woman I love?" + +"No." + +"Is it one of the conditions that I should commit some crime,--a crime +perhaps heinous as that of which I am accused?" + +"No." + +"With such reservations, I accept the conditions you may name, provided I, +in my turn, may demand one condition from yourself." + +"Name it." + +"I ask you to quit this town. I ask you, meanwhile, to cease your visits +to the house that holds the woman betrothed to me." + +"I will cease those visits. And before many days are over, I will quit +this town." + +"Now, then, say what you ask from me. I am prepared to concede it. And +not from fear for myself, but because I fear for the pure and innocent +being who is under the spell of your deadly fascination. This is your +power over me. You command me through my love for another. Speak." + +"My conditions are simple. You will pledge yourself to desist from all +charges of insinuation against myself, of what nature soever. You will +not, when you meet me in the flesh, refer to what you have known of my +likeness in the Shadow. You will be invited to the house at which I may +be also a guest; you will come; you will meet and converse with me as +guest speaks with guest in the house of a host." + +"Is that all?" + +"It is all." + +"Then I pledge you my faith; keep your own." + +"Fear not; sleep secure in the certainty that you will soon be released +from these walls." + +The Shadow waned and faded. Darkness settled back, and a sleep, profound +and calm, fell over me. + +The next day Mr. Stanton again visited me. He had received that morning a +note from Mr. Margrave, stating that he had left L---- to pursue, in +person, an investigation which he had already commenced through another, +affecting the man who had given evidence against me, and that, if his +hope should prove well founded, he trusted to establish my innocence, and +convict the real murderer of Sir Philip Derval. In the research he thus +volunteered, he had asked for, and obtained, the assistance of the +policeman Waby, who, grateful to me for saving the life of his sister, had +expressed a strong desire to be employed in my service. + +Meanwhile, my most cruel assailant was my old college friend, Richard +Strahan. For Jeeves had spread abroad Strahan's charge of purloining the +memoir which had been entrusted to me; and that accusation had done me +great injury in public opinion, because it seemed to give probability to +the only motive which ingenuity could ascribe to the foul deed imputed to +me. That motive had been first suggested by Mr. Vigors. Cases are on +record of men whose life had been previously blameless, who have committed +a crime which seemed to belie their nature, in the monomania of some +intense desire. In Spain, a scholar reputed of austere morals murdered +and robbed a traveller for money in order to purchase books,--books +written, too, by Fathers of his Church! He was intent on solving some +problem of theological casuistry. In France, an antiquary, esteemed not +more for his learning than for amiable and gentle qualities, murdered his +most intimate friend for the possession of a medal, without which his own +collection was incomplete. These, and similar anecdotes, tending to prove +how fatally any vehement desire, morbidly cherished, may suspend the +normal operations of reason and conscience, were whispered about by Dr. +Lloyd's vindictive partisan; and the inference drawn from them and applied +to the assumptions against myself was the more credulously received, +because of that over-refining speculation on motive and act which the +shallow accept, in their eagerness to show how readily they understand the +profound. + +I was known to be fond of scientific, especially of chemical experiments; +to be eager in testing the truth of any novel invention. Strahan, +catching hold of the magistrate's fantastic hypothesis, went about +repeating anecdotes of the absorbing passion for analysis and discovery +which had characterized me in youth as a medical student, and to which, +indeed, I owed the precocious reputation I had obtained. + +Sir Philip Derval, according not only to report, but to the direct +testimony of his servant, had acquired in the course of his travels many +secrets in natural science, especially as connected with the healing +art,--his servant had deposed to the remarkable cures he had effected by +the medicinals stored in the stolen casket. Doubtless Sir Philip, in +boasting of these medicinals in the course of our conversation, had +excited my curiosity, inflamed my imagination; and thus when I afterwards +suddenly met him in a lone spot, a passionate impulse had acted on a brain +heated into madness by curiosity and covetous desire. + +All these suppositions, reduced into system, were corroborated by +Strahan's charge that I had made away with the manuscript supposed to +contain the explanations of the medical agencies employed by Sir Philip, +and had sought to shelter my theft by a tale so improbable, that a man of +my reputed talent could not have hazarded it if in his sound senses. I +saw the web that had thus been spread around me by hostile prepossessions +and ignorant gossip: how could the arts of Margrave scatter that web to +the winds? I knew not, but I felt confidence in his promise and his +power. Still, so great had been my alarm for Lilian, that the hope of +clearing my own innocence was almost lost in my joy that Margrave, at +least, was no longer in her presence, and that I had received his pledge +to quit the town in which she lived. + +Thus, hours rolled on hours, till, I think, on the third day from that +night in which I had last beheld the mysterious Shadow, my door was +hastily thrown open, a confused crowd presented itself at the +threshold,--the governor of the prison, the police superintendent, Mr. +Stanton, and other familiar faces shut out from me since my imprisonment. +I knew at the first glance that I was no longer an outlaw beyond the pale +of human friendship. And proudly, sternly, as I had supported myself +hitherto in solitude and suspense, when I felt warm hands clasping mine, +heard joyous voices proffering congratulations, saw in the eyes of all +that my innocence had been cleared, the revulsion of emotion was too +strong for me,--the room reeled on my sight, I fainted. I pass, as +quickly as I can, over the explanations that crowded on me when I +recovered, and that were publicly given in evidence in court next morning. +I had owed all to Margrave. It seems that he had construed to my favour +the very supposition which had been bruited abroad to my prejudice. +"For," said he, "it is conjectured that Fenwick committed the crime of +which he is accused in the impulse of a disordered reason. That +conjecture is based upon the probability that a madman alone could have +committed a crime without adequate motive. But it seems quite clear that +the accused is not mad; and I see cause to suspect that the accuser is." +Grounding this assumption on the current reports of the witness's manner +and bearing since he had been placed under official surveillance, Margrave +had commissioned the policeman Waby to make inquiries in the village to +which the accuser asserted he had gone in quest of his relations, and Waby +had there found persons who remembered to have heard that the two brothers +named Walls lived less by the gains of the petty shop which they kept than +by the proceeds of some property consigned to them as the nearest of kin +to a lunatic who had once been tried for his life. Margrave had then +examined the advertisements in the daily newspapers. One of them, warning +the public against a dangerous maniac, who had effected his escape from an +asylum in the west of England, caught his attention. To that asylum he +had repaired. + +There he learned that the patient advertised was one whose propensity was +homicide, consigned for life to the asylum on account of a murder, for +which he had been tried. The description of this person exactly tallied +with that of the pretended American. The medical superintendent of the +asylum, hearing all particulars from Margrave, expressed a strong +persuasion that the witness was his missing patient, and had himself +committed the crime of which he had accused another. If so, the +superintendent undertook to coax from him the full confession of all the +circumstances. Like many other madmen, and not least those whose +propensity is to crime, the fugitive maniac was exceedingly cunning, +treacherous, secret, and habituated to trick and stratagem,--more subtle +than even the astute in possession of all their faculties, whether to +achieve his purpose or to conceal it, and fabricate appearances against +another. But while, in ordinary conversation, he seemed rational enough +to those who were not accustomed to study him, he had one hallucination +which, when humoured, led him always, not only to betray himself, but to +glory in any crime proposed or committed. He was under the belief that he +had made a bargain with Satan, who, in return for implicit obedience, +would bear him harmless through all the consequences of such submission, +and finally raise him to great power and authority. It is no unfrequent +illusion of homicidal maniacs to suppose they are under the influence of +the Evil One, or possessed by a Demon. Murderers have assigned as the +only reason they themselves could give for their crime, that "the Devil +got into them," and urged the deed. But the insane have, perhaps, no +attribute more in common than that of superweening self-esteem. The +maniac who has been removed from a garret sticks straws in his hair and +calls them a crown. So much does inordinate arrogance characterize mental +aberration, that, in the course of my own practice, I have detected, in +that infirmity, the certain symptom of insanity, long before the brain had +made its disease manifest even to the most familiar kindred. + +Morbid self-esteem accordingly pervaded the dreadful illusion by which the +man I now speak of was possessed. He was proud to be the protected agent +of the Fallen Angel. And if that self-esteem were artfully appealed to, +he would exult superbly in the evil he held himself ordered to perform, as +if a special prerogative, an official rank and privilege; then, he would +be led on to boast gleefully of thoughts which the most cynical of +criminals in whom intelligence was not ruined would shrink from owning; +then, he would reveal himself in all his deformity with as complacent and +frank a self-glorying as some vain good man displays in parading his +amiable sentiments and his beneficent deeds. + +"If," said the superintendent, "this be the patient who has escaped from +me, and if his propensity to homicide has been, in some way, directed +towards the person who has been murdered, I shall not be with him a +quarter of an hour before he will inform me how it happened, and detail +the arts he employed in shifting his crime upon another; all will be told +as minutely as a child tells the tale of some school-boy exploit, in +which he counts on your sympathy, and feels sure of your applause." + +Margrave brought this gentleman back to L----, took him to the mayor, who +was one of my warmest supporters: the mayor had sufficient influence to +dictate and arrange the rest. The superintendent was introduced to the +room in which the pretended American was lodged. At his own desire a +select number of witnesses were admitted with him. Margrave excused +himself; he said candidly that he was too intimate a friend of mine to be +an impartial listener to aught that concerned me so nearly. + +The superintendent proved right in his suspicions, and verified his +promises. My false accuser was his missing patient; the man recognized +Dr. ---- with no apparent terror, rather with an air of condescension, and +in a very few minutes was led to tell his own tale, with a gloating +complacency both at the agency by which he deemed himself exalted, and at +the dexterous cunning with which he had acquitted himself of the task, +that increased the horror of his narrative. + +He spoke of the mode of his escape, which was extremely ingenious, but of +which the details, long in themselves, did not interest me, and I +understood them too imperfectly to repeat. He had encountered a +sea-faring traveller on the road, whom he had knocked down with a stone, +and robbed of his glazed hat and pea-jacket, as well as of a small sum in +coin, which last enabled him to pay his fare in a railway that conveyed +him eighty miles away from the asylum. Some trifling remnant of this +money still in his pocket, he then travelled on foot along the high-road +till he came to a town about twenty miles distant from L----; there he had +stayed a day or two, and there he said "that the Devil had told him to buy +a case-knife, which he did." "He knew by that order that the Devil meant +him to do something great." "His Master," as he called the fiend, then +directed him the road he should take. He came to L----, put up, as he had +correctly stated before, at a small inn, wandered at night about the town, +was surprised by the sudden storm, took shelter under the convent arch, +overheard somewhat more of my conversation with Sir Philip than he had +previously deposed,--heard enough to excite his curiosity as to the +casket: "While he listened his Master told him he must get possession of +that casket." Sir Philip had quitted the archway almost immediately after +I had done so, and he would then have attacked him if he had not caught +sight of a policeman going his rounds. He had followed Sir Philip to a +house (Mr. Jeeves's). "His Master told him to wait and watch." He did +so. When Sir Philip came forth, towards the dawn, he followed him, saw +him enter a narrow street, came up to him, seized him by the arm, demanded +all he had about him. Sir Philip tried to shake him off,--struck at him. +What follows I spare the reader. The deed was done. He robbed the dead +man both of the casket and the purse that he found in the pockets; had +scarcely done so when he heard footsteps. He had just time to get behind +the portico of a detached house at angles with the street when I came up. +He witnessed, from his hiding-place, the brief conference between myself +and the policemen, and when they moved on, bearing the body, stole +unobserved away. He was going back towards the inn, when it occurred to +him that it would be safer if the casket and purse were not about his +person; that he asked his Master to direct him how to dispose of them: +that his Master guided him to an open yard (a stone-mason's) at a very +little distance from the inn; that in this yard there stood an old +wych-elm tree, from the gnarled roots of which the earth was worn away, +leaving chinks and hollows, in one of which he placed the casket and +purse, taking from the latter only two sovereigns and some silver, and +then heaping loose mould over the hiding-place. That he then repaired to +his inn, and left it late in the morning, on the pretence of seeking for +his relations,--persons, indeed, who really had been related to him, but +of whose death years ago he was aware. He returned to L---- a few days +afterwards, and in the dead of the night went to take up the casket and +the money. He found the purse with its contents undisturbed; but the lid +of the casket was unclosed. From the hasty glance he had taken of it +before burying it, it had seemed to him firmly locked,--he was alarmed +lest some one had been to the spot. But his Master whispered to him not +to mind, told him that he might now take the casket, and would be guided +what to do with it; that he did so, and, opening the lid, found the casket +empty-; that he took the rest of the money out of the purse, but that he +did not take the purse itself, for it had a crest and initials on it, +which might lead to the discovery of what had been done; that he therefore +left it in the hollow amongst the roots, heaping the mould over it as +before; that in the course of the day he heard the people at the inn talk +of the murder, and that his own first impulse was to get out of the town +immediately, but that his Master "made him too wise for that," and bade +him stay; that passing through the streets, he saw me come out of the +sash-window door, go to a stable-yard on the other side of the house, +mount on horseback and ride away; that he observed the sash-door was left +partially open; that he walked by it and saw the room empty; there was +only a dead wall opposite; the place was solitary, unobserved; that his +Master directed him to lift up the sash gently, enter the room, and +deposit the knife and the casket in a large walnut-tree bureau which +stood unlocked near the window. All that followed--his visit to Mr. +Vigors, his accusation against myself, his whole tale--was, he said, +dictated by his Master, who was highly pleased with him, and promised to +bring him safely through. And here he turned round with a hideous smile, +as if for approbation of his notable cleverness and respect for his high +employ. + +Mr. Jeeves had the curiosity to request the keeper to inquire how, in what +form, or in what manner, the Fiend appeared to the narrator, or conveyed +his infernal dictates. The man at first refused to say; but it was +gradually drawn from him that the Demon had no certain and invariable +form: sometimes it appeared to him in the form of a rat; sometimes even +of a leaf, or a fragment of wood, or a rusty nail; but that his Master's +voice always came to him distinctly, whatever shape he appeared in; only, +he said, with an air of great importance, his Master, this time, had +graciously condescended, ever since he left the asylum, to communicate +with him in a much more pleasing and imposing aspect than he had ever done +before,--in the form of a beautiful youth, or, rather, like a bright +rose-coloured shadow, in which the features of a young man were visible, +and that he had heard the voice more distinctly than usual, though in a +milder tone, and seeming to come to him from a great distance. + +After these revelations the man became suddenly disturbed. He shook from +limb to limb, he seemed convulsed with terror; he cried out that he had +betrayed the secret of his Master, who had warned him not to describe his +appearance and mode of communication, or he would surrender his servant to +the tormentors. Then the maniac's terror gave way to fury; his more +direful propensity made itself declared; he sprang into the midst of his +frightened listeners, seized Mr. Vigors by the throat, and would have +strangled him but for the prompt rush of the superintendent and his +satellites. Foaming at the mouth, and horribly raving, he was then +manacled, a strait-waistcoat thrust upon him, and the group so left him +in charge of his captors. Inquiries were immediately directed towards +such circumstantial evidence as might corroborate the details he had so +minutely set forth. The purse, recognized as Sir Philip's, by the valet +of the deceased, was found buried under the wych-elm. A policeman +despatched, express, to the town in which the maniac declared the knife to +have been purchased, brought back word that a cutler in the place +remembered perfectly to have sold such a knife to a seafaring man, and +identified the instrument when it was shown to him. From the chink of a +door ajar, in the wall opposite my sash-window, a maid-servant, watching +for her sweetheart (a journeyman carpenter, who habitually passed that way +on going home to dine), had, though unobserved by the murderer, seen him +come out of my window at a time that corresponded with the dates of his +own story, though she had thought nothing of it at the moment. He might +be a patient, or have called on business; she did not know that I was from +home. The only point of importance not cleared up was that which related +to the opening of the casket,--the disappearance of the contents; the lock +had been unquestionably forced. No one, however, could suppose that some +third person had discovered the hiding-place and forced open the casket to +abstract its contents and then rebury it. The only probable supposition +was that the man himself had forced it open, and, deeming the contents of +no value, had thrown them away before he had hidden the casket and purse, +and, in the chaos of his reason, had forgotten that he had so done. Who +could expect that every link in a madman's tale would be found integral +and perfect? In short, little importance was attached to this solitary +doubt. Crowds accompanied me to my door, when I was set free, in open +court, stainless; it was a triumphal procession. The popularity I had +previously enjoyed, superseded for a moment by so horrible a charge, came +back to me tenfold as with the reaction of generous repentance for a +momentary doubt. One man shared the public favour,--the young man whose +acuteness had delivered me from the peril, and cleared the truth from so +awful a mystery; but Margrave had escaped from congratulation and +compliment; he had gone on a visit to Strahan, at Derval Court. + +Alone, at last, in the welcome sanctuary of my own home, what were my +thoughts? Prominent amongst them all was that assertion of the madman, +which had made me shudder when repeated to me: he had been guided to the +murder and to all the subsequent proceedings by the luminous shadow of the +beautiful youth,--the Scin-Laeca to which I had pledged myself. If Sir +Philip Derval could be believed, Margrave was possessed of powers, derived +from fragmentary recollections of a knowledge acquired in a former state +of being, which would render his remorseless intelligence infinitely dire +and frustrate the endeavours of a reason, unassisted by similar powers, to +thwart his designs or bring the law against his crimes. Had he then the +arts that could thus influence the minds of others to serve his fell +purposes, and achieve securely his own evil ends through agencies that +could not be traced home to himself? + +But for what conceivable purpose had I been subjected as a victim to +influences as much beyond my control as the Fate or Demoniac Necessity of +a Greek Myth? In the legends of the classic world some august sufferer +is oppressed by powers more than mortal, but with an ethical if gloomy +vindication of his chastisement,--he pays the penalty of crime committed +by his ancestors or himself, or he has braved, by arrogating equality with +the gods, the mysterious calamity which the gods alone can inflict. But +I, no descendant of Pelops, no OEdipus boastful of a wisdom which could +interpret the enigmas of the Sphynx, while ignorant even of his own +birth--what had I done to be singled out from the herd of men for trials +and visitations from the Shadowland of ghosts and sorcerers? It would be +ludicrously absurd to suppose that Dr. Lloyd's dying imprecation could +have had a prophetic effect upon my destiny; to believe that the pretences +of mesmerizers were specially favoured by Providence, and that to question +their assumptions was an offence of profanation to be punished by exposure +to preternatural agencies. There was not even that congruity between +cause and effect which fable seeks in excuse for its inventions. Of all +men living, I, unimaginative disciple of austere science, should be the +last to become the sport of that witchcraft which even imagination +reluctantly allows to the machinery of poets, and science casts aside into +the mouldy lumber-room of obsolete superstition. + +Rousing my mind from enigmas impossible to solve, it was with intense +and yet most melancholy satisfaction that I turned to the image of Lilian, +rejoicing, though with a thrill of awe, that the promise so mysteriously +conveyed to my senses had, hereto, been already fulfilled,--Margrave had +left the town; Lilian was no longer subjected to his evil fascination. +But an instinct told me that that fascination had already produced an +effect adverse to all hope of happiness for me. Lilian's love for myself +was gone. Impossible otherwise that she--in whose nature I had always +admired that generous devotion which is more or less inseparable from the +romance of youth--should have never conveyed to me one word of consolation +in the hour of my agony and trial; that she, who, till the last evening we +had met, had ever been so docile, in the sweetness of a nature femininely +subinissive to my slightest wish, should have disregarded my solemn +injunction, and admitted Margrave to acquaintance, nay, to familiar +intimacy,--at the very time, too, when to disobey my injunctions was to +embitter my ordeal, and add her own contempt to the degradation imposed +upon my honour! No, her heart must be wholly gone from me; her very +nature wholly warped. A union between us had become impossible. My love +for her remained unshattered; the more tender, perhaps, for a sentiment of +compassion. But my pride was shocked, my heart was wounded. My love was +not mean and servile. Enough for me to think that she would be at least +saved from Margrave. Her life associated with his!--contemplation +horrible and ghastly!--from that fate she was saved. Later, she would +recover the effect of an influence happily so brief. She might form some +new attachment, some new tie; but love once withdrawn is never to be +restored--and her love was withdrawn from me. I had but to release her, +with my own lips, from our engagement,--she would welcome that release. +Mournful but firm in these thoughts and these resolutions, I sought Mrs. +Ashleigh's house. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +It was twilight when I entered, unannounced (as had been my wont in our +familiar intercourse), the quiet sitting-room in which I expected to find +mother and child. But Lilian was there alone, seated by the open window, +her hands crossed and drooping on her knee, her eye fixed upon the +darkening summer skies, in which the evening star had just stolen forth, +bright and steadfast, near the pale sickle of a half-moon that was dimly +visible, but gave as yet no light. + +Let any lover imagine the reception he would expect to meet from his +betrothed coming into her presence after he had passed triumphant through +a terrible peril to life and fame--and conceive what ice froze my blood, +what anguish weighed down my heart, when Lilian, turning towards me, rose +not, spoke not, gazed at me heedlessly as if at some indifferent +stranger--and--and--But no matter. I cannot bear to recall it even now, +at the distance of years! I sat down beside her, and took her hand, +without pressing it; it rested languidly, passively in mine, one moment; I +dropped it then, with a bitter sigh. + +"Lilian," I said quietly, "you love me no longer. Is it not so?" + +She raised her eyes to mine, looked at me wistfully, and pressed her hand +on her forehead; then said, in a strange voice, "Did I ever love you? +What do you mean?" + +"Lilian, Lilian, rouse yourself; are you not, while you speak, under some +spell, some influence which you cannot describe nor account for?" + +She paused a moment before she answered, calmly, "No! Again I ask what do +you mean?" + +"What do I mean? Do you forget that we are betrothed? Do you forget how +often, and how recently, our vows of affection and constancy have been +exchanged?" + +"No, I do not forget; but I must have deceived you and myself--" + +"It is true, then, that you love me no more?" + +"I suppose so." + +"But, oh, Lilian, is it that your heart is only closed to me; or is +it--oh, answer truthfully--is it given to another,--to him--to +him--against whom I warned you, whom I implored you not to receive? Tell +me, at least, that your love is not gone to Margrave--" + +"To him! love to him! Oh, no--no--" + +"What, then, is your feeling towards him?" + +Lilian's face grew visibly paler, even in that dim light. "I know not," +she said, almost in a whisper; "but it is partly awe--partly--" + +"What?" + +"Abhorrence!" she said almost fiercely, and rose to her feet, with a wild +defying start. + +"If that be so," I said gently, "you would not grieve were you never again +to see him--" + +"But I shall see him again," she murmured in a tone of weary sadness, and +sank back once more into her chair. + +"I think not," said I, "and I hope not. And now hear me and heed me, +Lilian. It is enough for me, no matter what your feelings towards +another, to learn from yourself that the affection you once professed for +me is gone. I release you from your troth. If folks ask why we two +henceforth separate the lives we had agreed to join, you may say, if you +please, that you could not give your hand to a man who had known the taint +of a felon's prison, even on a false charge. If that seems to you an +ungenerous reason, we will leave it to your mother to find a better. +Farewell! For your own sake I can yet feel happiness,--happiness to hear +that you do not love the man against whom I warn you still more solemnly +than before! Will you not give me your hand in parting--and have I not +spoken your own wish?" + +She turned away her face, and resigned her hand to me in silence. +Silently I held it in mine, and my emotions nearly stifled me. One +symptom of regret, of reluctance, on her part, and I should have fallen at +her feet, and cried, "Do not let us break a tie which our vows should have +made indisoluble; heed not my offers, wrung from a tortured heart! You +cannot have ceased to love me!" But no such symptom of relenting showed +itself in her, and with a groan I left the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +I was just outside the garden door, when I felt an arm thrown round me, my +cheek kissed and wetted with tears. Could it be Lilian? Alas, no! It +was her mother's voice, that, between laughing and crying, exclaimed +hysterically: "This is joy, to see you again, and on these thresholds. I +have just come from your house; I went there on purpose to congratulate +you, and to talk to you about Lilian. But you have seen her?" + +"Yes; I have but this moment left her. Come this way." I drew Mrs. +Ashleigh back into the garden, along the old winding walk, which the +shrubs concealed from view of the house. We sat down on a rustic seat +where I had often sat with Lilian, midway between the house and the Monks' +Well. I told the mother what had passed between me and her daughter; I +made no complaint of Lilian's coldness and change; I did not hint at its +cause. "Girls of her age will change," said I, "and all that now remains +is for us two to agree on such a tale to our curious neighbours as may +rest the whole blame on me. Man's name is of robust fibre; it could not +push its way to a place in the world, if it could not bear, without +sinking, the load idle tongues may lay on it. Not so Woman's Name: what +is but gossip against Man, is scandal against Woman." + +"Do not be rash, my dear Allen," said Mrs. Ashleigh, in great distress. +"I feel for you, I understand you; in your case I might act as you do. I +cannot blame you. Lilian is changed,--changed unaccountably. Yet sure I +am that the change is only on the surface, that her heart is really yours, +as entirely and as faithfully as ever it was; and that later, when she +recovers from the strange, dreamy kind of torpor which appears to have +come over all her faculties and all her affections, she would awake with a +despair which you cannot conjecture to the knowledge that you had +renounced her." + +"I have not renounced her," said I, impatiently; "I did but restore her +freedom of choice. But pass by this now, and explain to me more fully +the change in your daughter, which I gather from your words is not +confined to me." + +"I wished to speak of it before you saw her, and for that reason came to +your house. It was on the morning in which we left her aunt's to return +hither that I first noticed some thing peculiar in her look and manner. +She seemed absorbed and absent, so much so that I asked her several times +to tell me what made her so grave; but I could only get from her that she +had had a confused dream which she could not recall distinctly enough to +relate, but that she was sure it boded evil. During the journey she +became gradually more herself, and began to look forward with delight to +the idea of seeing you again. Well, you came that evening. What passed +between you and her you know best. You complained that she slighted your +request to shun all acquaintance with Mr. Margrave. I was surprised that, +whether your wish were reasonable or not, she could have hesitated to +comply with it. I spoke to her about it after you had gone, and she wept +bitterly at thinking she had displeased you." + +"She wept! You amaze me. Yet the next day what a note she returned to +mine!" + +"The next day the change in her became very visible to me. She told me, +in an excited manner, that she was convinced she ought not to marry you. +Then came, the following day, the news of your committal. I heard of it, +but dared not break it to her. I went to our friend the mayor, to consult +with him what to say, what to do; and to learn more distinctly than I had +done from terrified, incoherent servants, the rights of so dreadful a +story. When I returned, I found, to my amazement, a young stranger in the +drawing-room; it was Mr. Margrave,--Miss Brabazon had brought him at his +request. Lilian was in the room, too, and my astonishment was increased, +when she said to me with a singular smile, vague but tranquil: 'I know all +about Allen Fenwick; Mr. Margrave has told me all. He is a friend of +Allen's. He says there is no cause for fear.' Mr. Margrave then +apologized to me for his intrusion in a caressing, kindly manner, as if +one of the family. He said he was so intimate with you that he felt that +he could best break to Miss Ashleigh information she might receive +elsewhere, for that he was the only man in the town who treated the charge +with ridicule. You know the wonderful charm of this young man's manner. +I cannot explain to you how it was, but in a few moments I was as much at +home with him as if he had been your brother. To be brief, having once +come, he came constantly. He had moved, two days before you went to +Derval Court, from his hotel to apartments in Mr. ----'s house, just +opposite. We could see him on his balcony from our terrace; he would +smile to us and come across. I did wrong in slighting your injunction, +and suffering Lilian to do so. I could not help it, he was such a +comfort to me,--to her, too--in her tribulation. He alone had no doleful +words, wore no long face; he alone was invariably cheerful. 'Everything,' +he said, 'would come right in a day or two.'" + +"And Lilian could not but admire this young man, he is so beautiful." + +"Beautiful? Well, perhaps. But if you have a jealous feeling, you were +never more mistaken. Lilian, I am convinced, does more than dislike him; +he has inspired her with repugnance, with terror. And much as I own I +like him, in his wild, joyous, careless, harmless way, do not think I +flatter you if I say that Mr. Margrave is not the man to make any girl +untrue to you,--untrue to a lover with infinitely less advantages than you +may pretend to. He would be a universal favourite, I grant; but there is +something in him, or a something wanting in him, which makes liking and +admiration stop short of love. I know not why; perhaps, because, with all +his good humour, he is so absorbed in himself, so intensely egotistical, +so light; were he less clever, I should say so frivolous. He could not +make love, he could not say in the serious tone of a man in earnest, 'I +love you.' He owned as much to me, and owned, too, that he knew not even +what love was. As to myself, Mr. Margrave appears rich; no whisper +against his character or his honour ever reached me. Yet were you out of +the question, and were there no stain on his birth, nay, were he as high +in rank and wealth as he is favoured by Nature in personal advantages, I +confess I could never consent to trust him with my daughter's fate. A +voice at my heart would cry, 'No!' It may be an unreasonable prejudice, +but I could not bear to see him touch Lilian's hand!" + +"Did she never, then--never suffer him even to take her hand?" + +"Never. Do not think so meanly of her as to suppose that she could be +caught by a fair face, a graceful manner. Reflect: just before she had +refused, for your sake, Ashleigh Sumner, whom Lady Haughton said 'no girl +in her senses could refuse;' and this change in Lilian really began before +we returned to L----,--before she had even seen Mr. Margrave. I am +convinced it is something in the reach of your skill as physician,--it is +on the nerves, the system. I will give you a proof of what I say, only +do not betray me to her. It was during your imprisonment, the night +before your release, that I was awakened by her coming to my bedside. She +was sobbing as if her heart would break. 'O mother, mother!' she cried, +'pity me, help me! I am so wretched.' 'What is the matter, darling?' 'I +have been so cruel to Allen, and I know I shall be so again. I cannot +help it. Do not question me; only if we are separated, if he cast me off, +or I reject him, tell him some day perhaps when I am in my grave--not to +believe appearances; and that I, in my heart of hearts, never ceased to +love him!'" + +"She said that! You are not deceiving me?" + +"Oh, no! how can you think so?" + +"There is hope still," I murmured; and I bowed my head upon my hands, hot +tears forcing their way through the clasped fingers. + +"One word more," said I; "you tell me that Lilian has a repugnance to this +Margrave, and yet that she found comfort in his visits,--a comfort that +could not be wholly ascribed to cheering words he might say about myself, +since it is all but certain that I was not, at that time, uppermost in her +mind. Can you explain this apparent contradiction?" + +"I cannot, otherwise than by a conjecture which you would ridicule." + +"I can ridicule nothing now. What is your conjecture?" + +"I know how much you disbelieve in the stories one hears of animal +magnetism and electro-biology, otherwise--" + +"You think that Margrave exercises some power of that kind over Lilian? +Has he spoken of such a power?" + +"Not exactly; but he said that he was sure Lilian possessed a faculty that +he called by some hard name, not clairvoyance, but a faculty, which he +said, when I asked him to explain, was akin to prevision,--to second +sight. Then he talked of the Priestesses who had administered the ancient +oracles. Lilian, he said, reminded him of them, with her deep eyes and +mysterious smile." + +"And Lilian heard him? What said she?" + +"Nothing; she seemed in fear while she listened." + +"He did not offer to try any of those arts practised by professional +mesmerists and other charlatans?" + +"I thought he was about to do so, but I forestalled him, saying I never +would consent to any experiment of that kind, either on myself or my +daughter." + +"And he replied--" + +"With his gay laugh, 'that I was very foolish; that a person possessed of +such a faculty as he attributed to Lilian would, if the faculty were +developed, be an invaluable adviser.' He would have said more, but I +begged him to desist. Still I fancy at times--do not be angry--that he +does somehow or other bewitch her, unconsciously to herself; for she +always knows when he is coming. Indeed, I am not sure that he does not +bewitch myself, for I by no means justify my conduct in admitting him to +an intimacy so familiar, and in spite of your wish; I have reproached +myself, resolved to shut my door on him, or to show by my manner that his +visits were unwelcome; yet when Lilian has said, in the drowsy lethargic +tone which has come into her voice (her voice naturally earnest and +impressive, though always low), 'Mother, he will be here in two minutes; I +wish to leave the room and cannot,' I, too, have felt as if something +constrained me against my will; as if, in short, I were under that +influence which Mr. Vigors--whom I will never forgive for his conduct to +you--would ascribe to mesmerism. But will you not come in and see Lilian +again?" + +"No, not to-night; but watch and heed her, and if you see aught to make +you honestly believe that she regrets the rupture of the old tic from +which I have released her--why, you know, Mrs. Ashleigh, that--that--" +My voice failed; I wrung the good woman's hand, and went my way. + +I had always till then considered Mrs. Ashleigh--if not as Mrs. Poyntz +described her--"commonplace weak"--still of an intelligence somewhat below +mediocrity. I now regarded her with respect as well as grateful +tenderness; her plain sense had divined what all my boasted knowledge had +failed to detect in my earlier intimacy with Margrave,--namely, that in +him there was a something present, or a something wanting, which forbade +love and excited fear. Young, beautiful, wealthy, seemingly blameless in +life as he was, she would not have given her daughter's hand to him! + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +The next day my house was filled with visitors. I had no notion that I +had so many friends. Mr. Vigors wrote me a generous and handsome letter, +owning his prejudices against me on account of his sympathy with poor Dr. +Lloyd, and begging my pardon for what he now felt to have been harshness, +if not distorted justice. But what most moved me was the entrance of +Strahan, who rushed up to me with the heartiness of old college days. +"Oh, my dear Allen, can you ever forgive me; that I should have +disbelieved your word,--should have suspected you of abstracting my poor +cousin's memoir?" + +"Is it found, then?" + +"Oh, yes; you must thank Margrave. He, clever fellow, you know, came to +me on a visit yesterday. He put me at once on the right scent. Only +guess; but you never can! It was that wretched old housekeeper who +purloined the manuscript. You remember she came into the room while you +were looking at the memoir. She heard us talk about it; her curiosity was +roused; she longed to know the history of her old master, under his own +hand; she could not sleep; she heard me go up to bed; she thought you +might leave the book on the table when you, too, went to rest. She stole +downstairs, peeped through the keyhole of the library, saw you asleep, +the book lying before you, entered, took away the book softly, meant to +glance at its contents and to return it. You were sleeping so soundly +she thought you would not wake for an hour; she carried it into the +library, leaving the door open, and there began to pore over it. She +stumbled first on one of the passages in Latin; she hoped to find some +part in plain English, turned over the leaves, putting her candle close to +them, for the old woman's eyes were dim, when she heard you make some +sound in your sleep. Alarmed, she looked round; you were moving uneasily +in your seat, and muttering to yourself. From watching you she was soon +diverted by the consequences of her own confounded curiosity and folly. +In moving, she had unconsciously brought the poor manuscript close to the +candle; the leaves caught the flame; her own cap and hand burning first +made her aware of the mischief done. She threw down the book; her sleeve +was in flames; she had first to tear off the sleeve, which was, luckily +for her, not sewn to her dress. By the time she recovered presence of +mind to attend to the book, half its leaves were reduced to tinder. She +did not dare then to replace what was left of the manuscript on your +table; returned with it to her room, hid it, and resolved to keep her own +secret. I should never have guessed it; I had never even spoken to her of +the occurrence; but when I talked over the disappearance of the book to +Margrave last night, and expressed my disbelief of your story, he said, in +his merry way: 'But do you think that Fenwick is the only person curious +about your cousin's odd ways and strange history? Why, every servant in +the household would have been equally curious. You have examined your +servants, of course?' 'No, I never thought of it.' 'Examine them now, +then. Examine especially that old housekeeper. I observe a great change +in her manner since I came here, weeks ago, to look over the house. She +has something on her mind,--I see it in her eyes.' Then it occurred to me, +too, that the woman's manner had altered, and that she seemed always in a +tremble and a fidget. I went at once to her room, and charged her with +stealing the book. She fell on her knees, and told the whole story as I +have told it to you, and as I shall take care to tell it to all to whom I +have so foolishly blabbed my yet more foolish suspicions of yourself. But +can you forgive me, old friend?" + +"Heartily, heartily! And the book is burned?" + +"See;" and he produced a mutilated manuscript. Strange, the part +burned--reduced, indeed, to tinder--was the concluding part that related +to Haroun,--to Grayle: no vestige of that part was left; the earlier +portions were scorched and mutilated, though in some places still +decipherable; but as my eye hastily ran over those places, I saw only +mangled sentences of the experimental problems which the writer had so +minutely elaborated. + +"Will you keep the manuscript as it is, and as long as you like?" said +Strahan. + +"No, no; I will have nothing more to do with it. Consult some other man +of science. And so this is the old woman's whole story? No +accomplice,--none? No one else shared her curiosity and her task?" + +"No. Oddly enough, though, she made much the same excuse for her pitiful +folly that the madman made for his terrible crime; she said, 'the Devil +put it into her head.' Of course he did, as he puts everything wrong into +any one's head. That does not mend the matter." + +"How! did she, too, say she saw a Shadow and heard a voice?" + +"No; not such a liar as that, and not mad enough for such a lie. But she +said that when she was in bed, thinking over the book, something +irresistible urged her to get up and go down into the study; swore she +felt something lead her by the hand; swore, too, that when she first +discovered the manuscript was not in English, something whispered in her +ear to turn over the leaves and approach them to the candle. But I had no +patience to listen to all this rubbish. I sent her out of the house, bag +and baggage. But, alas! is this to be the end of all my wise cousin's +grand discoveries?" + +True, of labours that aspired to bring into the chart of science new +worlds, of which even the traditionary rumour was but a voice from the +land of fable--nought left but broken vestiges of a daring footstep! The +hope of a name imperishable amidst the loftiest hierarchy of Nature's +secret temple, with all the pomp of recorded experiment, that applied to +the mysteries of Egypt and Chaldwa the inductions of Bacon, the tests of +Liebig--was there nothing left of this but what, here and there, some +puzzled student might extract, garbled, mutilated, perhaps unintelligible, +from shreds of sentences, wrecks of problems! O mind of man, can the +works, on which thou wouldst found immortality below, be annulled into +smoke and tinder by an inch of candle in the hand of an old woman! + +When Strahan left me, I went out, but not yet to visit patients. I stole +through by-paths into the fields; I needed solitude to bring my thoughts +into shape and order. What was delusion, and what not? Was I right or +the Public? Was Margrave really the most innocent and serviceable of +human beings, kindly affectionate, employing a wonderful acuteness for +benignant ends? Was I, in truth, indebted to him for the greatest boon +one man can bestow on another,--for life rescued, for fair name +justified? Or had he, by some demoniac sorcery, guided the hand of the +murderer against the life of the person who alone could imperil his own? +Had he, by the same dark spells, urged the woman to the act that had +destroyed the only record of his monstrous being,--the only evidence that +I was not the sport of an illusion in the horror with which he inspired +me? + +But if the latter supposition could be admissible, did he use his agents +only to betray them afterwards to exposure, and that, without any possible +clew to his own detection as the instigator? Then, there came over me +confused recollections of tales of mediaeval witchcraft, which I had read +in boyhood. Were there not on judicial record attestation and evidence, +solemn and circumstantial, of powers analogous to those now exercised by +Margrave,--of sorcerers instigating to sin through influences ascribed to +Demons; making their apparitions glide through guarded walls, their voices +heard from afar in the solitude of dungeons or monastic cells; subjugating +victims to their will, by means which no vigilance could have detected, if +the victims themselves had not confessed the witchcraft that had ensnared, +courting a sure and infamous death in that confession, preferring such +death to a life so haunted? Were stories so gravely set forth in the pomp +of judicial evidence, and in the history of times comparatively recent, +indeed to be massed, pell-mell together, as a moles indigesta of senseless +superstition,--all the witnesses to be deemed liars; all the victims and +tools of the sorcerers, lunatics; all the examiners or judges, with their +solemn gradations--lay and clerical--from Commissions of Inquiry to Courts +of Appeal,--to be despised for credulity, loathed for cruelty; or, amidst +records so numerous, so imposingly attested, were there the fragments of a +terrible truth? And had our ancestors been so unwise in those laws we now +deem so savage, by which the world was rid of scourges more awful and more +potent than the felon with his candid dagger? Fell instigators of the +evil in men's secret hearts, shaping into action the vague, half-formed +desire, and guiding with agencies impalpable, unseen, their spell-bound +instruments of calamity and death. + +Such were the gloomy questions that I--by repute, the sternest advocate of +common-sense against fantastic errors; by profession, the searcher into +flesh and blood, and tissue and nerve and sinew, for the causes of all +that disease the mechanism of the universal human frame; I, self-boasting +physician, sceptic, philosopher, materialist--revolved, not amidst gloomy +pines, under grim winter skies, but as I paced slow through laughing +meadows, and by the banks of merry streams, in the ripeness of the golden +August: the hum of insects in the fragrant grass, the flutter of birds +amid the delicate green of boughs checkered by playful sunbeams and gentle +shadows, and ever in sight of the resorts of busy workday man,--walls, +roof-tops, church-spires rising high; there, white and modern, the +handwriting of our race, in this practical nineteenth century, on its +square plain masonry and Doric shafts, the Town-Hall, central in the +animated marketplace. And I--I--prying into long-neglected corners and +dust-holes of memory for what my reason had flung there as worthless +rubbish; reviving the jargon of French law, in the proces verbal, against +a Gille de Retz, or an Urbain Grandier, and sifting the equity of +sentences on witchcraft! + +Bursting the links of this ghastly soliloquy with a laugh at my own folly, +I struck into a narrow path that led back towards the city, by a quiet and +rural suburb; the path wound on through a wide and solitary churchyard, at +the base of the Abbey-hill. Many of the former dwellers on that eminence +now slept in the lowly burial-ground at its foot; and the place, +mournfully decorated with the tombs which still jealously mark +distinctions of rank amidst the levelling democracy of the grave, was kept +trim with the care which comes half from piety, and half from pride. + +I seated myself on a bench, placed between the clipped yew-trees that +bordered the path from the entrance to the church porch, deeming vaguely +that my own perplexing thoughts might imbibe a quiet from the quiet of the +place. + +"And oh," I murmured to myself, "oh that I had one bosom friend to whom I +might freely confide all these torturing riddles which I cannot +solve,--one who could read my heart, light up its darkness, exorcise its +spectres; one in whose wisdom I could welcome a guide through the Nature +which now suddenly changes her aspect, opening out from the walls with +which I had fenced and enclosed her as mine own formal garden;--all her +pathways, therein, trimmed to my footstep; all her blooms grouped and +harmonized to my own taste in colour; all her groves, all her caverns, but +the soothing retreats of a Muse or a Science; opening out--opening out, +desert on desert, into clewless and measureless space! Gone is the +garden! Were its confines too narrow for Nature? Be it so! The Desert +replaces the garden, but where ends the Desert? Reft from my senses are +the laws which gave order and place to their old questionless realm. I +stand lost and appalled amidst Chaos. Did my Mind misconstrue the laws it +deemed fixed and immutable? Be it so! But still Nature cannot be +lawless; Creation is not a Chaos. If my senses deceive me in some things, +they are still unerring in others; if thus, in some things, fallacious, +still, in other things, truthful. Are there within me senses finer than +those I have cultured, or without me vistas of knowledge which instincts, +apart from my senses, divine? So long as I deal with the Finite alone, my +senses suffice me; but when the Infinite is obtruded upon me there, are my +senses faithless deserters? If so, is there aught else in my royal +resources of Man--whose ambition it is, from the first dawn of his glory +as Thinker, to invade and to subjugate Nature,--is there aught else to +supply the place of those traitors, the senses, who report to my Reason, +their judge and their sovereign, as truths seen and heard tales which my +Reason forfeits her sceptre if she does not disdain as lies? Oh, for a +friend! oh, for a guide!" + +And as I so murmured, my eye fell upon the form of a kneeling child,--at +the farther end of the burial-ground, beside a grave with its new +headstone gleaming white amidst the older moss-grown tombs, a female +child, her head bowed, her hands clasped. I could see but the outline of +her small form in its sable dress,--an infant beside the dead. My eye and +my thoughts were turned from that silent figure, too absorbed in my own +restless tumult of doubt and dread, for sympathy with the grief or the +consolation of a kneeling child. And yet I should have remembered that +tomb! Again I murmured with a fierce impatience, "Oh, for a friend! oh, +for a guide!" + +I heard steps on the walk under the yews; and an old man came in sight, +slightly bent, with long gray hair, but still with enough of vigour for +years to come, in his tread, firm, though slow, in the unshrunken muscle +of his limbs and the steady light of his clear blue eye. I started. Was +it possible? That countenance, marked, indeed, with the lines of +laborious thought, but sweet in the mildness of humanity, and serene in +the peace of conscience! I could not be mistaken. Julius Faber was +before me,--the profound pathologist, to whom my own proud self-esteem +acknowledged inferiority, without humiliation; the generous benefactor to +whom I owed my own smooth entrance into the arduous road of fame and +fortune. I had longed for a friend, a guide; what I sought stood suddenly +at my side. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +Explanation on Faber's part was short and simple. The nephew whom he +designed as the heir to his wealth had largely outstripped the liberal +allowance made to him, had incurred heavy debts; and in order to extricate +himself from the debts, had plunged into ruinous speculations. Faber had +come back to England to save his heir from prison or outlawry, at the +expense of more than three-fourths of the destined inheritance. To add to +all, the young man had married a young lady without fortune; the uncle +only heard of this marriage on arriving in England. The spendthrift was +hiding from his creditors in the house of his father-in-law, in one of the +western counties. Faber there sought him; and on becoming acquainted +with his wife, grew reconciled to the marriage, and formed hopes of his +nephew's future redemption. He spoke, indeed, of the young wife with +great affection. She was good and sensible; willing and anxious to +encounter any privation by which her husband might reprieve the effects +of his folly. "So," said Faber, "on consultation with this excellent +creature--for my poor nephew is so broken down by repentance, that others +must think for him how to exalt repentance into reform--my plans were +determined. I shall remove my prodigal from all scenes of temptation. He +has youth, strength, plenty of energy, hitherto misdirected. I shall take +him from the Old World into the New. I have decided on Australia. The +fortune still left to me, small here, will be ample capital there. It is +not enough to maintain us separately, so we must all live together. +Besides, I feel that, though I have neither the strength or the experience +which could best serve a young settler on a strange soil, still, under my +eye, my poor boy will be at once more prudent and more persevering. We +sail next week." + +Faber spoke so cheerfully that I knew not how to express compassion; yet, +at his age, after a career of such prolonged and distinguished labour, to +resign the ease and comforts of the civilized state for the hardships and +rudeness of an infant colony, seemed to me a dreary prospect; and, as +delicately, as tenderly as I could to one whom I loved and honoured as a +father, I placed at his disposal the fortune which, in great part, I owed +to him,--pressing him at least to take from it enough to secure to +himself, in his own country, a home suited to his years and worthy of his +station. He rejected all my offers, however earnestly urged on him, with +his usual modest and gentle dignity; and assuring me that he looked +forward with great interest to a residence in lands new to his experience, +and affording ample scope for the hardy enjoyments which had always most +allured his tastes, he hastened to change the subject. + +"And who, think you, is the admirable helpmate my scape-grace has had the +saving good luck to find? A daughter of the worthy man who undertook the +care of poor Dr. Lloyd's orphans,--the orphans who owed so much to your +generous exertions to secure a provision for them; and that child, now +just risen from her father's grave, is my pet companion, my darling ewe +lamb,--Dr. Lloyd's daughter Amy." + +Here the child joined us, quickening her pace as she recognized the old +man, and nestling to his side as she glanced wistfully towards myself. A +winning, candid, lovable child's face, somewhat melancholy, somewhat more +thoughtful than is common to the face of childhood, but calm, intelligent, +and ineffably mild. Presently she stole from the old man, and put her +hand in mine. + +"Are you not the kind gentleman who came to see him that night when he +passed away from us, and who, they all say at home, was so good to my +brothers and me? Yes, I recollect you now." And she put her pure face to +mine, wooing me to kiss it. + +I kind! I good! I--I! Alas! she little knew, little guessed, the +wrathful imprecation her father had bequeathed to me that fatal night! + +I did not dare to kiss Dr. Lloyd's orphan daughter, but my tears fell over +her hand. She took them as signs of pity, and, in her infant +thankfulness, silently kissed me. + +"Oh, my friend!" I murmured to Faber, "I have much that I yearn to say to +you--alone--alone! Come to my house with me, be at least my guest as long +as you stay in this town." + +"Willingly," said Faber, looking at me more intently than he had done +before, and with the true eye of the practised Healer, at once soft and +penetrating. + +He rose, took my arm, and whispering a word in the ear of the little girl, +she went on before us, turning her head, as she gained the gate, for +another look at her father's grave. As we walked to my house, Julius +Faber spoke to me much of this child. Her brothers were all at school; +she was greatly attached to his nephew's wife; she had become yet more +attached to Faber himself, though on so short an acquaintance; it bad been +settled that she was to accompany the emigrants to Australia. + +"There," said he, "the sum, that some munificent, but unknown friend of +her father has settled on her, will provide her no mean dower for a +colonist's wife, when the time comes for her to bring a blessing to some +other hearth than ours." He went on to say that she had wished to +accompany him to L----, in order to visit her father's grave before +crossing the wide seas; "and she has taken such fond care of me all the +way, that you might fancy I were the child of the two. I come back to +this town, partly to dispose of a few poor houses in it which still belong +to me, principally to bid you farewell before quitting the Old World, no +doubt forever. So, on arriving to-day, I left Amy by herself in the +churchyard while I went to your house, but you were from home. And now I +must congratulate you on the reputation you have so rapidly acquired, +which has even surpassed my predictions." + +"You are aware," said I, falteringly, "of the extraordinary charge from +which that part of my reputation dearest to all men has just emerged!" + +He had but seen a short account in a weekly journal, written after my +release. He asked details, which I postponed. + +Reaching my home, I hastened to provide for the comfort of my two +unexpected guests; strove to rally myself, to be cheerful. Not till +night, when Julius Faber and I were alone together, did I touch on what +was weighing at my heart. Then, drawing to his side, I told him all,--all +of which the substance is herein written, from the deathscene in Dr. +Lloyd's chamber to the hour in which I had seen Dr. Lloyd's child at her +father's grave. Some of the incidents and conversations which had most +impressed me I had already committed to writing, in the fear that, +otherwise, my fancy might forge for its own thraldom the links of +reminiscence which my memory might let fall from its chain. Faber +listened with a silence only interrupted by short pertinent questions; +and when I had done, he remained thoughtful for some moments; then the +great physician replied thus:-- + +"I take for granted your conviction of the reality of all you tell me, +even of the Luminous Shadow, of the bodiless Voice; but, before admitting +the reality itself, we must abide by the old maxim, not to accept as cause +to effect those agencies which belong to the Marvellous, when causes less +improbable for the effect can be rationally conjectured. In this case are +there not such causes? Certainly there are--" + +"There are?" + +"Listen; you are one of those men who attempt to stifle their own +imagination. But in all completed intellect, imagination exists, and will +force its way; deny it healthful vents, and it may stray into morbid +channels. The death-room of Dr. Lloyd deeply impressed your heart, far +more than your pride would own. This is clear from the pains you took to +exonerate your conscience, in your generosity to the orphans. As the +heart was moved, so was the imagination stirred; and, unaware to yourself, +prepared for much that subsequently appealed to it. Your sudden love, +conceived in the very grounds of the house so associated with +recollections in themselves strange and romantic; the peculiar temperament +and nature of the girl to whom your love was attracted; her own visionary +beliefs, and the keen anxiety which infused into your love a deeper poetry +of sentiment,--all insensibly tended to induce the imagination to dwell on +the Wonderful; and, in overstriving to reconcile each rarer phenomenon to +the most positive laws of Nature, your very intellect could discover no +solution but in the Preternatural. + +"You visit a man who tells you he has seen Sir Philip Derval's ghost; on +that very evening, you hear a strange story, in which Sir Philip's name is +mixed up with a tale of murder, implicating two mysterious pretenders to +magic,--Louis Grayle and the Sage of Aleppo. The tale so interests your +fancy that even the glaring impossibility of a not unimportant part of it +escapes your notice,--namely, the account of a criminal trial in which +the circumstantial evidence was more easily attainable than in all the +rest of the narrative, but which could not legally have taken place as +told. Thus it is whenever the mind begins, unconsciously, to admit the +shadow of the Supernatural; the Obvious is lost to the eye that plunges +its gaze into the Obscure. Almost immediately afterwards you become +acquainted with a young stranger, whose traits of character interest and +perplex, attract yet revolt you. All this time you are engaged in a +physiological work which severely tasks the brain, and in which you +examine the intricate question of soul distinct from mind. + +"And, here, I can conceive a cause deep-hid amongst what metaphysicians +would call latent associations, for a train of thought which disposed you +to accept the fantastic impressions afterwards made on you by the scene in +the Museum and the visionary talk of Sir Philip Derval. Doubtless, when +at college you first studied metaphysical speculation you would have +glanced over Beattie's 'Essay on Truth' as one of the works written in +opposition to your favourite, David Hume." + +"Yes, I read the book, but I have long since forgotten its arguments." + +"Well in that essay, Beattie[1] cites the extraordinary instance of Simon +Browne, a learned and pious clergyman, who seriously disbelieved the +existence of his own soul; and imagined that, by interposition of Divine +power, his soul was annulled, and nothing left but a principle of animal +life, which he held in common with the brutes! When, years ago, a +thoughtful imaginative student, you came on that story, probably enough +you would have paused, revolved in your own mind and fancy what kind of a +creature a man might be, if, retaining human life and merely human +understanding, he was deprived of the powers and properties which +reasoners have ascribed to the existence of soul. Something in this young +man, unconsciously to yourself, revives that forgotten train of meditative +ideas. His dread of death as the final cessation of being, his brute-like +want of sympathy with his kind, his incapacity to comprehend the motives +which carry man on to scheme and to build for a future that extends beyond +his grave,--all start up before you at the very moment your reason is +overtasked, your imagination fevered, in seeking the solution of problems +which, to a philosophy based upon your system, must always remain +insoluble. The young man's conversation not only thus excites your +fancies,--it disturbs your affections. He speaks not only of drugs that +renew youth, but of charms that secure love. You tremble for your Lilian +while you hear him! And the brain thus tasked, the imagination thus +inflamed, the heart thus agitated, you are presented to Sir Philip Derval, +whose ghost your patient had supposed he saw weeks ago. + +"This person, a seeker after an occult philosophy, which had possibly +acquainted him with some secrets in nature beyond the pale of our +conventional experience, though, when analyzed, they might prove to be +quite reconcilable with sober science, startles you with an undefined +mysterious charge against the young man who had previously seemed to you +different from ordinary mortals. In a room stored with the dead things of +the brute soulless world, your brain becomes intoxicated with the fumes of +some vapour which produces effects not uncommon in the superstitious +practices of the East; your brain, thus excited, brings distinctly before +you the vague impressions it had before received. Margrave becomes +identified with the Louis Grayle of whom you had previously heard an +obscure and, legendary tale, and all the anomalies in his character are +explained by his being that which you had contended, in your physiological +work, it was quite possible for man to be,--namely, mind and body without +soul! You were startled by the monster which man would be were your own +theory possible; and in order to reconcile the contradictions in this very +monster, you account for knowledge, and for powers that mind without soul +could not have attained, by ascribing to this prodigy broken memories of a +former existence, demon attributes from former proficiency in evil magic. +My friend, there is nothing here which your own study of morbid +idiosyncracies should not suffice to solve." + +"So, then," said I, "you would reduce all that have affected my senses as +realities into the deceit of illusions? But," I added, in a whisper, +terrified by my own question, "do not physiologists agree in this: namely, +that though illusory phantasms may haunt the sane as well as the insane, +the sane know that they are only illusions, and the insane do not." + +"Such a distinction," answered Faber, "is far too arbitrary and rigid for +more than a very general and qualified acceptance. Muller, indeed, who is +perhaps the highest authority on such a subject, says, with prudent +reserve, 'When a person who is not insane sees spectres and believes, them +to be real, his intellect must be imperfectly exercised.'[2] He would, +indeed, be a bold physician who maintained that every man who believed he +had really seen a ghost was of unsound mind. In Dr. Abercrombie's +interesting account of spectral illusions, he tells us of a servant-girl +who believed she saw, at the foot of her bed, the apparition of Curran, in +a sailor's jacket and an immense pair of whiskers.[3] No doubt the +spectre was an illusion, and Dr. Abercrombie very ingeniously suggests the +association of ideas by which the apparition was conjured up with the +grotesque adjuncts of the jacket and the whiskers; but the servant-girl, +in believing the reality of the apparition, was certainly not insane. +When I read in the American public journals[4] of 'spirit manifestations,' +in which large numbers of persons, of at least the average degree of +education, declare that they have actually witnessed various phantasms, +much more extraordinary than all which you have confided to me, and +arrive, at once, at the conclusion that they are thus put into direct +communication with departed souls, I must assume that they are under an +illusion; but I should be utterly unwarranted in supposing that, because +they credited that illusion, they were insane. I should only say with +Muller, that in their reasoning on the phenomena presented to them, 'their +intellect was imperfectly exercised.' And an impression made on the +senses, being in itself sufficiently rare to excite our wonder, may be +strengthened till it takes the form of a positive fact, by various +coincidences which are accepted as corroborative testimony, yet which are, +nevertheless, nothing more than coincidences found in every day matters +of business, but only emphatically noticed when we can exclaim, 'How +astonishing!' In your case such coincidences have been, indeed, very +signal, and might well aggravate the perplexities into which your reason +was thrown. Sir Philip Derval's murder, the missing casket, the exciting +nature of the manuscript, in which a superstitious interest is already +enlisted by your expectation to find in it the key to the narrator's +boasted powers, and his reasons for the astounding denunciation of the man +whom you suspect to be his murderer,--in all this there is much to +confirm, nay, to cause, an illusion; and for that very reason, when +examined by strict laws of evidence, in all this there is but additional +proof that the illusion was--only illusion. Your affections contribute +to strengthen your fancy in its war on your reason. The girl you so +passionately love develops, to your disquietude and terror, the visionary +temperament which, at her age, is ever liable to fantastic caprices. She +hears Margrave's song, which you say has a wildness of charm that affects +and thrills even you. Who does not know the power of music? and of all +music, there is none so potential as that of the human voice. Thus, in +some languages, charm and song are identical expressions; and even when a +critic, in our own sober newspapers, extols a Malibran or a Grisi, you +may be sure that he will call her 'enchantress.' Well, this lady, your +betrothed, in whom the nervous system is extremely impressionable, hears a +voice which, even to your ear, is strangely melodious, and sees a form and +face which, even to your eye, are endowed with a singular character of +beauty. Her fancy is impressed by what she thus hears and sees; and +impressed the more because, by a coincidence not very uncommon, a face +like that which she beholds has before been presented to her in a dream +or a revery. In the nobleness of genuine, confiding, reverential love, +rather than impute to your beloved a levity of sentiment that would seem +to you a treason, you accept the chimera of 'magical fascination.' In +this frame of mind you sit down to read the memoir of a mystical +enthusiast. Do you begin now to account for the Luminous Shadow? A +dream! And a dream no less because your eyes were open and you believed +yourself awake. The diseased imagination resembles those mirrors which, +being themselves distorted, represent distorted pictures as correct. + +"And even this Memoir of Sir Philip Derval's--can you be quite sure that +you actually read the part which relates to Haroun and Louis Grayle? +You say that, while perusing the manuscript, you saw the Luminous +Shadow, and became insensible. The old woman says you were fast asleep. +May you not really have fallen into a slumber, and in that slumber +have dreamed the parts of the tale that relate to Grayle,--dreamed that +you beheld the Shadow? Do you remember what is said so well by Dr. +Abercrombie, to authorize the explanation I suggest to you: 'A +person under the influence of some strong mental impression falls asleep +for a few seconds, perhaps without being sensible of it: some scene or +person appears in a dream, and he starts up under the conviction +that it was a spectral appearance.'" [5] + +"But," said I, "the apparition was seen by me again, and when, certainly, +I was not sleeping." + +"True; and who should know better than a physician so well read as +yourself that a spectral illusion once beheld is always apt to return +again in the same form? Thus, Goethe was long haunted by one image,--the +phantom of a flower unfolding itself, and developing new flowers.[6] +Thus, one of our most distinguished philosophers tells us of a lady known +to himself, who would see her husband, hear him move and speak, when he +was not even in the house.[7] But instances of the facility with which +phantasms, once admitted, repeat themselves to the senses, are numberless. +Many are recorded by Hibbert and Abercrombie, and every physician in +extensive practice can add largely, from his own experience, to the list. +Intense self-concentration is, in itself, a mighty magician. The +magicians of the East inculcate the necessity of fast, solitude, and +meditation for the due development of their imaginary powers. And I have +no doubt with effect; because fast, solitude, and meditation--in other +words, thought or fancy intensely concentred--will both raise apparitions +and produce the invoker's belief in them. Spinello, striving to conceive +the image of Lucifer for his picture of the Fallen Angels, was at last +actually haunted by the Shadow of the Fiend. Newton himself has been +subjected to a phantom, though to him, Son of Light, the spectre presented +was that of the sun! You remember the account that Newton gives to Locke +of this visionary appearance. He says that 'though he had looked at the +sun with his right eye only, and not with the left, yet his fancy began +to make an impression upon his left eye as well as his right; for if he +shut his right and looked upon the clouds, or a book, or any bright object +with his left eye, he could see the sun almost as plain as with the right, +if he did but intend his fancy a little while on it;' nay, 'for some +months after, as often as he began to meditate on the phenomena, the +spectrum of the sun began to return, even though he lay in bed at +midnight, with his curtains drawn!' Seeing, then, how any vivid +impression once made will recur, what wonder that you should behold in +your prison the Shining Shadow that had first startled you in a wizard's +chamber when poring over the records of a murdered visionary? The more +minutely you analyze your own hallucinations--pardon me the word--the more +they assume the usual characteristics of a dream; contradictory, +illogical, even in the marvels they represent. Can any two persons be +more totally unlike each other, not merely as to form and years, but as to +all the elements of character, than the Grayle of whom you read, or +believe you read, and the Margrave in whom you evidently think that Grayle +is existent still? The one represented, you say, as gloomy, saturnine, +with vehement passions, but with an original grandeur of thought and will, +consumed by an internal remorse; the other you paint to me as a joyous and +wayward darling of Nature, acute yet frivolous, free from even the +ordinary passions of youth, taking delight in innocent amusements, +incapable of continuous study, without a single pang of repentance for the +crimes you so fancifully impute to him. And now, when your suspicions, so +romantically conceived, are dispelled by positive facts, now, when it is +clear that Margrave neither murdered Sir Philip Derval nor abstracted the +memoir, you still, unconsciously to yourself, draw on your imagination in +order to excuse the suspicion your pride of intellect declines to banish, +and suppose that this youthful sorcerer tempted the madman to the murder, +the woman to the theft--" + +"But you forget the madman said 'that he was led on by the Luminous Shadow +of a beautiful youth,' that the woman said also that she was impelled by +some mysterious agency." + +"I do not forget those coincidences; but how your learning would dismiss +them as nugatory were your imagination not disposed to exaggerate them! +When you read the authentic histories of any popular illusion, such as the +spurious inspirations of the Jansenist Convulsionaries, the apparitions +that invaded convents, as deposed in the trial of Urbain Grandier, the +confessions of witches and wizards in places the most remote from each +other, or, at this day, the tales of 'spirit-manifestation' recorded in +half the towns and villages of America,--do not all the superstitious +impressions of a particular time have a common family likeness? What one +sees, another sees, though there has been no communication between the +two. I cannot tell you why these phantasms thus partake of the nature of +an atmospheric epidemic; the fact remains incontestable. And strange as +may be the coincidence between your impressions of a mystic agency and +those of some other brains not cognizant of the chimeras of your own, +still, is it not simpler philosophy to say, 'They are coincidences of the +same nature which made witches in the same epoch all tell much the same +story of the broomsticks they rode and the sabbats at which they danced to +the fiend's piping,' and there leave the matter, as in science we must +leave many of the most elementary and familiar phenomena inexplicable as +to their causes,--is not this, I say, more philosophical than to insist +upon an explanation which accepts the supernatural rather than leave the +extraordinary unaccounted for?" + +"As you speak," said I, resting my downcast face upon my hand, "I should +speak to any patient who had confided to me the tale I have told to you." + +"And yet the explanation does not wholly satisfy you? Very likely: to +some phenomena there is, as yet, no explanation. Perhaps Newton himself +could not explain quite to his own satisfaction why he was haunted at +midnight by the spectrum of a sun; though I have no doubt that some later +philosopher whose ingenuity has been stimulated by Newton's account, has, +by this time, suggested a rational solution of that enigma.[8] To return +to your own case. I have offered such interpretations of the mysteries +that confound you as appear to me authorized by physiological science. +Should you adduce other facts which physiological science wants the data +to resolve into phenomena always natural, however rare, still hold fast to +that simple saying of Goethe: 'Mysteries are not necessarily miracles.' +And if all which physiological science comprehends in its experience +wholly fails us, I may then hazard certain conjectures in which, by +acknowledging ignorance, one is compelled to recognize the Marvellous (for +as where knowledge enters, the Marvellous recedes, so where knowledge +falters, the Marvellous advances); yet still, even in those conjectures, I +will distinguish the Marvellous from the Supernatural. But, for the +present, I advise you to accept the guess that may best quiet the fevered +imagination which any bolder guess would only more excite." + +"You are right," said I, rising proudly to the full height of my stature, +my head erect and my heart defying. "And so let this subject be renewed +no more between us. I will brood over it no more myself. I regain the +unclouded realm of my human intelligence; and, in that intelligence, I +mock the sorcerer and disdain the spectre." + +[1] Beattie's "Essay on Truth," part i. c. ii. 3. The story of +Simon Browne is to be found in "The Adventurer." + +[2] Miller's Physiology of the Senses, p. 394. + +[3] Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers, p. 281. (15th edition.) + +[4] At the date of Faber's conversation with Allen Fenwick, the +(so-called) spirit manifestations had not spread from America over Europe. +But if they had, Faber's views would, no doubt, have remained the same. + +[5] Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers, p. 278. (15th edition.) + +This author, not more to be admired for his intelligence than his candour, +and who is entitled to praise for a higher degree of original thought +than that to which he modestly pretends, relates a curious anecdote +illustrating "the analogy between dreaming and spectral illusion, which he +received from the gentleman to which it occurred,--an eminent medical +friend:" "Having sat up late one evening, under considerable anxiety for +one of his children, who was ill, he fell asleep in his chair, and had a +frightful dream, in which the prominent figure was an immense baboon. He +awoke with the fright, got up instantly, and walked to a table which was +in the middle of the room. He was then quite awake, and quite conscious +of the articles around him; but close by the wall in the end of the +apartment he distinctly saw the baboon making the same grimaces which he +had seen in his dreams; and this spectre continued visible for about half +a minute." Now, a man who saw only a baboon would be quite ready to admit +that it was but an optical illusion; but if, instead of a baboon, he had +seen an intimate friend, and that friend, by some coincidence of time, had +died about that date, he would be a very strong-minded man if he admitted +for the mystery of seeing his friend the same natural solution which he +would readily admit for seeing a baboon. + +[6] See Muller's observations on this phenomenon, "Physiology of the +Senses," Baley's translation, p. 1395. + +[7] Sir David Brewster's Letters on Natural Magic, p. 39. + +[8] Newton's explanation is as follows: "This story I tell you to +let you understand, that in the observation related by Mr. Boyle, the +man's fancy probably concurred with the impression made by the sun's +light to produce that phantasm of the sun which he constantly saw in +bright objects, and so your question about the cause of this phantasm +involves another about the power of the fancy, which I must confess is +too hard a knot for me to untie. To place this effect in a constant +motion is hard, because the sun ought then to appear perpetually. It +seems rather to consist in a disposition of the sensorium to move the +imagination strongly, and to be easily moved both by the imagination and +by the light as often as bright objects are looked upon."--Letter from Sir +I. Newton to Locke, Lord Kinq's Life of Locke, vol. i. pp. 405-408. + +Dr. Roget (Animal and Vegetable Physiology considered with reference to +Natural Theology, "Bridgewater Treatise," pp. 524, 525) thus refers to +this phenomenon, which he states "all of us may experience ":-- + +"When the impressions are very vivid" (Dr. Roget is speaking of visual +impressions), "another phenomenon often takes place,--namely, their +_subsequent recurrence after a certain interval, during which they are not +felt, and quite independently of any renewed application of the cause +which had originally excited them."_ (I mark by italics the words which +more precisely coincide with Julius Faber's explanations.) "If, for +example, we look steadfastly at the sun for a second or two, and then +immediately close our eyes, the image, or spectrum, of the sun remains for +a long time present to the mind, as if the light were still acting on the +retina. It then gradually fades and disappears; but if we continue to +keep the eyes shut, the same impression will, after a certain time, recur, +and again vanish: and this phenomenon will be repeated at intervals, the +sensation becoming fainter at each renewal. It is probable that these +reappearances of the image, after the light which produced the original +impression has been withdrawn, are occasioned by spontaneous affections of +the retina itself which are conveyed to the sensorium. In other cases, +where the impressions are less strong, the physical changes producing +these changes are perhaps confined to the sensorium." + +It may be said that there is this difference between the spectrum of the +sun and such a phantom as that which perplexed Allen Fenwick,--namely, +that the sun has been actually beheld before its visionary appearance can +be reproduced, and that Allen Fenwick only imagines he has seen the +apparition which repeats itself to his fancy. "But there are grounds for +the suspicion" (says Dr. Hibbert, "Philosophy of Apparitions," p. 250), +"that when ideas of vision are vivified to the height of sensation, a +corresponding affection of the optic nerve accompanies the illusion." +Muller ("Physiology of the Senses," p. 1392, Baley's translation) states +the same opinion still more strongly; and Sir David Brewster, quoted by +Dr. Hibbert (p. 251) says: "In examining these mental impressions, I +have found that they follow the motions of the eyeball exactly like the +spectral impressions of luminous objects, and that they resemble them also +in their apparent immobility when the eye is displaced by an external +force. If this result (which I state with much diffidence, from having +only my own experience in its favour) shall be found generally true by +others, it will follow that the objects of mental contemplation may be +seen as distinctly as external objects, and will occupy the same local +position in the axis of vision, as if they had been formed by the agency +of light." Hence the impression of an image once conveyed to the senses, +no matter how, whether by actual or illusory vision, is liable to renewal, +"independently of any renewed application of the cause which had +originally excited it," and the image can be seen in that renewal "as +distinctly as external objects," for indeed "the revival of the fantastic +figure really does affect those points of the retina which had been +previously impressed." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +Julius Faber and Amy Lloyd stayed in my house three day, I and in their +presence I felt a healthful sense of security and peace. Amy wished to +visit her father's house, and I asked Faber, in taking her there, to seize +the occasion to see Lilian, that he might communicate to me his impression +of a case so peculiar. I prepared Mrs. Ashleigh for this visit by a +previous note. When the old man and the child came back, both brought me +comfort. Amy was charmed with Lilian, who had received her with the +sweetness natural to her real character, and I loved to hear Lilian's +praise from those innocent lips. + +Faber's report was still more calculated to console me. + +"I have seen, I have conversed with her long and familiarly. You were +quite right,--there is no tendency to consumption in that exquisite, if +delicate, organization; nor do I see cause for the fear to which your +statement had pre-inclined me. That head is too nobly formed for any +constitutional cerebral infirmity. In its organization, ideality, wonder, +veneration, are large, it is true, but they are balanced by other organs, +now perhaps almost dormant, but which will come into play as life passes +from romance into duty. Something at this moment evidently oppresses her +mind. In conversing with her, I observe abstraction, listlessness; but I +am so convinced of her truthfulness, that if she has once told you she +returned your affection, and pledged to you her faith, I should, in your +place, rest perfectly satisfied that whatever be the cloud that now rests +on her imagination, and for the time obscures the idea of yourself, it +will pass away." + +Faber was a believer in the main divisions of phrenology, though he did +not accept all the dogmas of Gall and Spurzheim; while, to my mind, the +refutation of phrenology in its fundamental propositions had been +triumphantly established by the lucid arguments of Sir W. Hamilton.[1] +But when Faber rested on phrenological observations assurances in honour +of Lilian, I forgot Sir W. Hamilton, and believed in phrenology. As iron +girders and pillars expand and contract with the mere variations of +temperature, so will the strongest conviction on which the human intellect +rests its judgment vary with the changes of the human heart; and the +building is only safe where these variations are foreseen and allowed for +by a wisdom intent on self-knowledge.[2] + +There was much in the affection that had sprung up between Julius Faber +and Amy Lloyd which touched my heart and softened all its emotions. This +man, unblessed, like myself, by conjugal and parental ties, had, in his +solitary age, turned for solace to the love of a child, as I, in the pride +of manhood, had turned to the love of woman. But his love was without +fear, without jealousy, without trouble. My sunshine came to me in a +fitful ray, through clouds that had gathered over my noon; his sunshine +covered all his landscape, hallowed and hallowing by the calm of declining +day. + +And Amy was no common child. She had no exuberant imagination; she was +haunted by no whispers from Afar; she was a creature fitted for the +earth,--to accept its duties and to gladden its cares. Her tender +observation, fine and tranquil, was alive to all the important household +trifles by which, at the earliest age, man's allotted soother asserts her +privilege to tend and to comfort. It was pleasant to see her moving so +noiselessly through the rooms I had devoted to her venerable protector, +knowing all his simple wants, and providing for them as if by the +mechanism of a heart exquisitely moulded to the loving uses of life. +Sometimes when I saw her setting his chair by the window (knowing, as I +did, how much he habitually loved to be near the light) and smoothing his +papers (in which he was apt to be unmethodical), placing the mark in his +book when he ceased to read, divining, almost without his glance, some +wish passing through his mind, and then seating herself at his feet, often +with her work--which was always destined for him or for one of her absent +brothers,--now and then with the one small book that she had carried with +her, a selection of Bible stories compiled for children,--sometimes when I +saw her thus, how I wished that Lilian, too, could have seen her, and have +compared her own ideal fantasies with those young developments of the +natural heavenly Woman! + +But was there nothing in that sight from which I, proud of my arid reason +even in its perplexities, might have taken lessons for myself? + +On the second evening of Faber's visit I brought to him the draft of deeds +for the sale of his property. He had never been a man of business out of +his profession; he was impatient to sell his property, and disposed to +accept an offer at half its value. I insisted on taking on myself the +task of negotiator; perhaps, too, in this office I was egotistically +anxious to prove to the great physician that which he believed to be my +"hallucination" had in no way obscured my common-sense in the daily +affairs of life. So I concluded, and in a few hours, terms for his +property that were only just, but were infinitely more advantageous than +had appeared to himself to be possible. But as I approached him with the +papers, he put his finger to his lips. Amy was standing by him with her +little book in her hand, and his own Bible lay open on the table. He was +reading to her from the Sacred Volume itself, and impressing on her the +force and beauty of one of the Parables, the adaptation of which had +perplexed her; when he had done, she kissed him, bade him goodnight, and +went away to rest. Then said Faber thoughtfully, and as if to himself +more than me,-- + +"What a lovely bridge between old age and childhood is religion! How +intuitively the child begins with prayer and worship on entering life, and +how intuitively on quitting life the old man turns back to prayer and +worship, putting himself again side by side with the infant!" + +I made no answer, but, after a pause, spoke of fines and freeholds, +title-deeds and money; and when the business on hand was concluded, asked +my learned guest if, before he departed, he would deign to look over the +pages of my ambitious Physiological Work. There were parts of it on which +I much desired his opinion, touching on subjects in which his special +studies made him an authority as high as our land possessed. + +He made me bring him the manuscript, and devoted much of that night and +the next day to its perusal. + +When he gave it me back, which was not till the morning of his departure, +he commenced with eulogies on the scope of its design, and the manner of +its execution, which flattered my vanity so much that I could not help +exclaiming, "Then, at least, there is no trace of 'hallucination' here!" + +"Alas, my poor Allen! here, perhaps, hallucination, or self-deception, is +more apparent than in all the strange tales you confided to me. For here +is the hallucination of the man seated on the shores of Nature, and who +would say to its measureless sea, 'So far shalt thou go and no farther;' +here is the hallucination of the creature, who, not content with exploring +the laws of the Creator, ends with submitting to his interpretation of +some three or four laws, in the midst of a code of which all the rest are +in a language unknown to him, the powers and free-will of the Lawgiver +Himself; here is the hallucination by which Nature is left Godless, +because Man is left soulless. What would matter all our speculations on a +Deity who would cease to exist for us when we are in the grave? Why mete +out, like Archytas, the earth and the sea, and number the sands on the +shore that divides them, if the end of this wisdom be a handful of dust +sprinkled over a skull! + + "'Nec quidquam tibi prodest + Aerias tentasse dornos, animoque rotundum + Percurrisse polum naorituro.' + +"Your book is a proof of the soul that you fail to discover. Without a +soul, no man would work for a Future that begins for his fame when the +breath is gone from his body. Do you remember how you saw that little +child praying at the grave of her father? Shall I tell you that in her +simple orisons she prayed for the benefactor,--who had cared for the +orphan; who had reared over dust that tomb which, in a Christian +burial-ground, is a mute but perceptible memorial of Christian hopes; that +the child prayed, haughty man, for you? And you sat by, knowing nought of +this; sat by, amongst the graves, troubled and tortured with ghastly +doubts, vain of a reason that was sceptical of eternity, and yet shaken +like a reed by a moment's marvel. Shall I tell the child to pray for you +no more; that you disbelieve in a soul? If you do so, what is the +efficacy of prayer? Speak, shall I tell her this? Shall the infant pray +for you never more?" + +I was silent; I was thrilled. + +"Has it never occurred to you, who, in denying all innate perceptions as +well as ideas, have passed on to deductions from which poor Locke, humble +Christian that he was, would have shrunk in dismay,--has it never +occurred to you as a wonderful fact, that the easiest thing in the world +to teach a child is that which seems to metaphysical schoolmen the +abstrusest of all problems? Read all those philosophers wrangling about a +First Cause, deciding on what are miracles, and then again deciding that +such miracles cannot be; and when one has answered another, and left in +the crucible of wisdom a caput mortuum of ignorance, then turn your eyes, +and look at the infant praying to the invisible God at his mother's knees. +This idea, so miraculously abstract, of a Power the infant has never seen, +that cannot be symbolled forth and explained to him by the most erudite +sage,--a Power, nevertheless, that watches over him, that hears him, that +sees him, that will carry him across the grave, that will enable him to +live on forever,--this double mystery of a Divinity and of a Soul, the +infant learns with the most facile readiness, at the first glimpse of his +reasoning faculty. Before you can teach him a rule in addition, before +you can venture to drill him into his horn-book, he leaps, with one +intuitive spring of all his ideas, to the comprehension of the truths +which are only incomprehensible to blundering sages! And you, as you +stand before me, dare not say, 'Let the child pray for me no more!' But +will the Creator accept the child's prayer for the man who refuses prayer +for himself? Take my advice, pray! And in this counsel I do not overstep +my province. I speak not as a preacher, but as a physician. For health +is a word that comprehends our whole organization, and a just equilibrium +of all faculties and functions is the condition of health. As in your +Lilian the equilibrium is deranged by the over-indulgence of a spiritual +mysticism which withdraws from the nutriment of duty the essential pabulum +of sober sense, so in you the resolute negation of disciplined spiritual +communion between Thought and Divinity robs imagination of its noblest +and safest vent. Thus, from opposite extremes, you and your Lilian meet +in the same region of mist and cloud, losing sight of each other and of +the true ends of life, as her eyes only gaze on the stars and yours only +bend to the earth. Were I advising her, I should say: 'Your Creator has +placed the scene of your trial below, and not in the stars.' Advising +you, I say: 'But in the trial below, man should recognize education for +heaven.' In a word, I would draw somewhat more downward her fancy, raise +somewhat more upward your reason. Take my advice then,--Pray. Your +mental system needs the support of prayer in order to preserve its +balance. In the embarrassment and confusion of your senses, clearness of +perception will come with habitual and tranquil confidence in Him who +alike rules the universe and reads the heart. I only say here what has +been said much better before by a reasoner in whom all Students of Nature +recognize a guide. I see on your table the very volume of Bacon which +contains the passage I commend to your reflection. Here it is. Listen: +'Take an example of a dog, and mark what a generosity and courage he will +put on when he finds himself maintained by a man who, to him, is instead +of a God, or melior natura, which courage is manifestly such as that +creature, without that confidence of a better nature than his own, could +never attain. So man, when he resteth and assureth himself upon Divine +protection and favour, gathereth a force and faith which human nature +could not obtain.'[3] You are silent, but your gesture tells me your +doubt,--a doubt which your heart, so femininely tender, will not speak +aloud lest you should rob the old man of a hope with which your strength +of manhood dispenses,--you doubt the efficacy of prayer! Pause and +reflect, bold but candid inquirer into the laws of that guide you call +Nature. If there were no efficacy in prayer; if prayer were as mere an +illusion of superstitious fantasy as aught against which your reason now +struggles, do you think that Nature herself would have made it amongst the +most common and facile of all her dictates? Do you believe that if there +really did not exist that tie between Man and his Maker--that link +between life here and life hereafter which is found in what we call Soul +alone--that wherever you look through the universe, you would behold a +child at Prayer? Nature inculcates nothing that is superfluous. Nature +does not impel the leviathan or the lion, the eagle or the moth, to pray; +she impels only man. Why? Because man only has soul, and Soul seeks to +commune with the Everlasting, as a fountain struggles up to its source. +Burn your book. It would found you a reputation for learning and +intellect and courage, I allow; but learning and intellect and courage +wasted against a truth, like spray against a rock! A truth valuable to +the world, the world will never part with. You will not injure the truth, +but you will mislead and may destroy many, whose best security is in the +truth which you so eruditely insinuate to be a fable. Soul and Hereafter +are the heritage of all men; the humblest, journeyman in those streets, +the pettiest trader behind those counters, have in those beliefs their +prerogatives of royalty. You would dethrone and embrute the lords of the +earth by your theories. For my part, having given the greater part of my +life to the study and analysis of facts, I would rather be the author of +the tritest homily, or the baldest poem, that inculcated that imperishable +essence of the soul to which I have neither scalpel nor probe, than be the +founder of the subtlest school, or the framer of the loftiest verse, that +robbed my fellow-men of their faith in a spirit that eludes the +dissecting-knife,--in a being that escapes the grave-digger. Burn your +book! Accept This Book instead; Read and Pray." + +He placed his Bible in my hand, embraced me, and, an hour afterwards, the +old man and the child left my hearth solitary once more. + +[1] The summary of this distinguished lecturer's objections to phrenology +is to be found in the Appendix to vol i. of "Lectures on Metaphysics," p. +404, et seq. Edition 1859. + +[2] The change of length of iron girders caused by variation of +temperature has not unfrequently brought down the whole edifice into which +they were admitted. Good engineers and architects allow for such changes +produced by temperature. In the tubular bridge across the Menai Straits, +a self-acting record of the daily amount of its contraction and expansion +is ingeniously Contrived. + +[3] Bacon's "Essay on Atheism." This quotation is made with admirable +felicity and force by Dr. Whewell, page 378 of Bridgewater Treatise on +Astronomy and General Physics considered with reference to Natural +Theology. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +That night, as I sat in my study, very thoughtful and very mournful, I +resolved all that Julius Faber had said; and the impression his words had +produced became gradually weaker and weaker, as my reason, naturally +combative, rose up with all the replies which my philosophy suggested. +No; if my imagination had really seduced and betrayed me into monstrous +credulities, it was clear that the best remedy to such morbid tendencies +towards the Superstitious was in the severe exercise of the faculties most +opposed to Superstition,--in the culture of pure reasoning, in the science +of absolute fact. Accordingly, I placed before me the very book which +Julius Faber had advised me to burn; I forced all my powers of +mind to go again over the passages which contained the doctrines that his +admonition had censured; and before daybreak, I had stated the substance +of his argument, and the logical reply to it, in an elaborate addition to +my chapter on "Sentimental Philosophers." While thus rejecting the +purport of his parting counsels, I embodied in another portion of my work +his views on my own "illusions;" and as here my commonsense was in concord +with his, I disposed of all my own previous doubts in an addition to my +favourite chapter "On the Cheats of the Imagination." And when the pen +dropped from my hand, and the day-star gleamed through the window, my +heart escaped from the labour of my mind, and flew back to the image of +Lilian. The pride of the philosopher died out of me, the sorrow of the +man reigned supreme, and I shrank from the coming of the sun, despondent. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +Not till the law had completed its proceedings, and satisfied the public +mind as to the murder of Sir Philip Derval, were the remains of the +deceased consigned to the family mausoleum. The funeral was, as may be +supposed, strictly private, and when it was over, the excitement caused by +an event so tragical and singular subsided. New topics engaged the public +talk, and--in my presence, at least--the delicate consideration due to one +whose name had been so painfully mixed up in the dismal story forbore a +topic which I could not be expected to hear without distressful emotion. +Mrs. Ashleigh I saw frequently at my own house; she honestly confessed +that Lilian had not shown that grief at the cancelling of our engagement +which would alone justify Mrs. Ashleigh in asking me again to see her +daughter, and retract my conclusions against our union. She said that +Lilian was quiet, not uncheerful, never spoke of me nor of Margrave, but +seemed absent and pre-occupied as before, taking pleasure in nothing that +had been wont to please her; not in music, nor books, nor that tranquil +pastime which women call work, and in which they find excuse to meditate, +in idleness, their own fancies. She rarely stirred out, even in the +garden; when she did, her eyes seemed to avoid the house in which Margrave +had lodged, and her steps the old favourite haunt by the Monks' Well. She +would remain silent for long hours together, but the silence did not +appear melancholy. For the rest, her health was more than usually good. +Still Mrs. Ashleigh persisted in her belief that, sooner or later, Lilian +would return to her former self, her former sentiments for me; and she +entreated me not, as yet, to let the world know that our engagement was +broken off. "For if," she said, with good sense, "if it should prove not +to be broken off, only suspended, and afterwards happily renewed, there +will be two stories to tell when no story be needed. Besides, I should +dread the effect on Lilian, if offensive gossips babbled to her on a +matter that would excite so much curiosity as the rupture of a union in +which our neighbours have taken so general an interest." + +I had no reason to refuse acquiescence in Mrs. Ashleigh's request, but I +did not share in her hopes; I felt that the fair prospects of my life +were blasted; I could never love another, never wed another; I resigned +myself to a solitary hearth, rejoiced, at least, that Margrave had not +revisited at Mrs. Ashleigh's,--had not, indeed, reappeared in the town. +He was still staying with Strahan, who told me that his guest had +ensconced himself in Forman's old study, and amused himself with +reading--though not for long at a time--the curious old books and +manuscripts found in the library, or climbing trees like a schoolboy, and +familiarizing himself with the deer and the cattle, which would group +round him quite tame, and feed from his hand. Was this the description of +a criminal? But if Sir Philip's assertion were really true; if the +criminal were man without soul; if without soul, man would have no +conscience, never be troubled by repentance, and the vague dread of a +future world,--why, then, should not the criminal be gay despite his +crimes, as the white bear gambols as friskly after his meal on human +flesh? These questions would haunt me, despite my determination to accept +as the right solution of all marvels the construction put on my narrative +by Julius Faber. + +Days passed; I saw and heard nothing of Margrave. I began half to hope +that, in the desultory and rapid changes of mood and mind which +characterized his restless nature, he had forgotten my existence. + +One morning I went out early on my rounds, when I met Straban +unexpectedly. + +"I was in search of you," he said, "for more than one person has told me +that you are looking ill and jaded. So you are! And the town now is hot +and unhealthy. You must come to Derval Court for a week or so. You can +ride into town every day to see your patients. Don't refuse. Margrave, +who is still with me, sends all kind messages, and bade me say that he +entreats you to come to the house at which he also is a guest!" + +I started. What had the Scin-Laeca required of me, and obtained to that +condition my promise?" If you are asked to the house at which I also am a +guest, you will come; you will meet and converse with me as guest speaks +to guest in the house of a host!" Was this one of the coincidences which +my reason was bound to accept as coincidences, and nothing more? Tut, +tut! Was I returning again to my "hallucinations"? Granting that Faber +and common-sense were in the right, what was this Margrave? A man to +whose friendship, acuteness, and energy I was under the deepest +obligations,--to whom I was indebted for active services that had saved my +life from a serious danger, acquitted my honour of a horrible suspicion. +"I thank you," I said to Strahan, "I will come; not, indeed, for a week, +but, at all events, for a day or two." + +"That's right; I will call for you in the carriage at six o'clock. You +will have done your day's work by then?" + +"Yes; I will so arrange." + +On our way to Derval Court that evening, Strahan talked much about +Margrave, of whom, nevertheless, he seemed to be growing weary. + +"His high spirits are too much for one," said he; "and then so +restless,--so incapable of sustained quiet conversation. And, clever +though he is, he can't help me in the least about the new house I shall +build. He has no notion of construction. I don't think he could build a +barn." + +"I thought you did not like to demolish the old house, and would content +yourself with pulling down the more ancient part of it?" + +"True. At first it seemed a pity to destroy so handsome a mansion; but +you see, since poor Sir Philip's manuscript, on which he set such store, +has been too mutilated, I fear, to allow me to effect his wish with regard +to it, I think I ought at least scrupulously to obey his other whims. +And, besides, I don't know, there are odd noises about the old house. I +don't believe in haunted houses; still there is something dreary in +strange sounds at the dead of night, even if made by rats, or winds +through decaying rafters. You, I remember at college, had a taste for +architecture, and can draw plans. I wish to follow out Sir Philip's +design, but on a smaller scale, and with more attention to comfort." + +Thus he continued to run on, satisfied to find me a silent and attentive +listener. We arrived at the mansion an hour before sunset, the westering +light shining full against the many windows cased in mouldering pilasters, +and making the general dilapidation of the old place yet more mournfully +evident. + +It was but a few minutes to the dinner-hour. I went up at once to the +room appropriated to me,--not the one I had before occupied. Strahan had +already got together a new establishment. I was glad to find in the +servant who attended me an old acquaintance. He had been in my own employ +when I first settled at L----, and left me to get married. He and his +wife were now both in Strahan's service. He spoke warmly of his new +master and his contentment with his situation, while he unpacked my +carpet-bag and assisted me to change my dress. But the chief object of +his talk and his praise was Mr. Margrave. + +"Such a bright young gentleman, like the first fine day in May!" + +When I entered the drawing-room, Margrave and Strahan were both there. +The former was blithe and genial, as usual, in his welcome. At dinner, +and during the whole evening till we retired severally to our own rooms, +he was the principal talker,--recounting incidents of travel, always very +loosely strung together, jesting, good-humouredly enough, at Strahan's +sudden hobby for building, then putting questions to me about mutual +acquaintances, but never waiting for an answer; and every now and then, as +if at random, startling us with some brilliant aphorism, or some +suggestion drawn from abstract science or unfamiliar erudition. The whole +effect was sparkling, but I could well understand that, if long continued, +it would become oppressive. The soul has need of pauses of +repose,--intervals of escape, not only from the flesh, but even from the +mind. A man of the loftiest intellect will experience times when mere +intellect not only fatigues him, but amidst its most original conceptions, +amidst its proudest triumphs, has a something trite and commonplace +compared with one of those vague intimations of a spiritual destiny which +are not within the ordinary domain of reason; and, gazing abstractedly +into space, will leave suspended some problem of severest thought, or +uncompleted some golden palace of imperial poetry, to indulge in hazy +reveries, that do not differ from those of an innocent, quiet child! The +soul has a long road to travel--from time through eternity. It demands +its halting hours of contemplation. Contemplation is serene. But with +such wants of an immortal immaterial spirit, Margrave had no fellowship, +no sympathy; and for myself, I need scarcely add that the lines I have +just traced I should not have written at the date at which my narrative +has now arrived. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +I had no case that necessitated my return to L---- the following day. The +earlier hours of the forenoon I devoted to Strahan and his building plans. +Margrave flitted in and out of the room fitfully as an April sunbeam, +sometimes flinging himself on a sofa, and reading for a few minutes one of +the volumes of the ancient mystics, in which Sir Philip's library was so +rich. I remember it was a volume of Proclus. He read that crabbed and +difficult Greek with a fluency that surprised me. "I picked up the +ancient Greek," said he, "years ago, in learning the modern." But the +book soon tired him; then he would come and disturb us, archly enjoying +Strahan's peevishness at interruption; then he would throw open the window +and leap down, chanting one of his wild savage airs; and in another moment +he was half hid under the drooping boughs of a broad lime-tree, amidst the +antlers of deer that gathered fondly round him. In the afternoon my host +was called away to attend some visitors of importance, and I found myself +on the sward before the house, right in view of the mausoleum and alone +with Margrave. + +I turned my eyes from that dumb House of Death wherein rested the corpse +of the last lord of the soil, so strangely murdered, with a strong desire +to speak out to Margrave the doubts respecting himself that tortured me. +But--setting aside the promise to the contrary, which I had given, or +dreamed I had given, to the Luminous Shadow--to fulfil that desire would +have been impossible,--impossible to any one gazing on that radiant +youthful face! I think I see him now as I saw him then: a white doe, that +even my presence could not scare away from him, clung lovingly to his +side, looking up at him with her soft eyes. He stood there like the +incarnate principle of mythological sensuous life. I have before applied +to him that illustration; let the repetition be pardoned. Impossible, I +repeat it, to say to that creature, face to face, "Art thou the master of +demoniac arts, and the instigator of secret murder?" As if from +redundant happiness within himself, he was humming, or rather cooing, a +strain of music, so sweet, so wildly sweet, and so unlike the music one +hears from tutored lips in crowded rooms! I passed my hand over my +forehead in bewilderment and awe. + +"Are there," I said unconsciously,--"are there, indeed, such prodigies in +Nature?" + +"Nature!" he cried, catching up the word; "talk to me of Nature! Talk of +her, the wondrous blissful mother! Mother I may well call her. I am her +spoiled child, her darling! But oh, to die, ever to die, ever to lose +sight of Nature!--to rot senseless, whether under these turfs or within +those dead walls--" + +I could not resist the answer,-- + +"Like yon murdered man! murdered, and by whom?" + +"By whom? I thought that was clearly proved." + +"The hand was proved; what influence moved the hand?" + +"Tush! the poor wretch spoke of a Demon. Who can tell? Nature herself is +a grand destroyer. See that pretty bird, in its beak a writhing worm! +All Nature's children live to take life; none, indeed, so lavishly as man. +What hecatombs slaughtered, not to satisfy the irresistible sting of +hunger, but for the wanton ostentation of a feast, which he may scarcely +taste, or for the mere sport that he finds in destroying! We speak with +dread of the beasts of prey: what beast of prey is so dire a ravager as +man,--so cruel and so treacherous? Look at yon flock of sheep, bred and +fattened for the shambles; and this hind that I caress,--if I were the +park-keeper, and her time for my bullet had come, would you think her life +was the safer because, in my own idle whim, I had tamed her to trust to +the hand raised to slay her?" + +"It is true," said I,--"a grim truth. Nature, on the surface so loving +and so gentle, is full of terror in her deeps when our thought descends +into their abyss!" + +Strahan now joined us with a party of country visitors. "Margrave is the +man to show you the beauties of this park," said he. "Margrave knows +every bosk and dingle, twisted old thorn-tree, or opening glade, in its +intricate, undulating ground." + +Margrave seemed delighted at this proposition; and as he led us through +the park, though the way was long, though the sun was fierce, no one +seemed fatigued. For the pleasure he felt in pointing out detached +beauties which escaped an ordinary eye was contagious. He did not talk as +talks the poet or the painter; but at some lovely effect of light amongst +the tremulous leaves, some sudden glimpse of a sportive rivulet below, he +would halt, point it out to us in silence, and with a kind of childlike +ecstasy in his own bright face, that seemed to reflect the life and the +bliss of the blithe summer day itself. + +Thus seen, all my doubts in his dark secret nature faded away,--all my +horror, all my hate; it was impossible to resist the charm that breathed +round him, not to feel a tender, affectionate yearning towards him as to +some fair happy child. Well might he call himself the Darling of Nature. +Was he not the mysterious likeness of that awful Mother, beautiful as +Apollo in one aspect, direful as Typhon in another? + + + + +CHAPTER L. + +"What a strange-looking cane you have, sir!" said a little girl, who was +one of the party, and who had entwined her arm round Margrave's. "Let me +look at it." + +"Yes," said Strahan," that cane, or rather walking-staff, is worth looking +at. Margrave bought it in Egypt, and declares that it is very ancient." + +This staff seemed constructed from a reed: looked at, it seemed light, in +the hand it felt heavy; it was of a pale, faded yellow, wrought with black +rings at equal distances, and graven with half obliterated characters that +seemed hieroglyphic. I remembered to have seen Margrave with it before, +but I had never noticed it with any attention until now, when it was +passed from hand to hand. At the head of the cane there was a large +unpolished stone of a dark blue. + +"Is this a pebble or a jewel?" asked one of the party. + +"I cannot tell you its name or nature," said Margrave; "but it is said to +cure the bite of serpents[1], and has other supposed virtues,--a talisman, +in short." + +He here placed the staff in my hands, and bade me look at it with care. +Then he changed the conversation and renewed the way, leaving the staff +with me, till suddenly I forced it back on him. I could not have +explained why, but its touch, as it warmed in my clasp, seemed to send +through my whole frame a singular thrill, and a sensation as if I no +longer felt my own weight,--as if I walked on air. + +Our rambles came to a close; the visitors went away; I re-entered the +house through the sash-window of Forman's study. Margrave threw his hat +and staff on the table, and amused himself with examining minutely the +tracery on the mantelpiece. Strahan and myself left him thus occupied, +and, going into the adjoining library, resumed our task of examining the +plans for the new house. I continued to draw outlines and sketches of +various alterations, tending to simplify and contract Sir Philip's general +design. Margrave soon joined us, and this time took his seat patiently +beside our table, watching me use ruler and compass with unwonted +attention. + +"I wish I could draw," he said; "but I can do nothing useful." + +"Rich men like you," said Strahan, peevishly, "can engage others, and are +better employed in rewarding good artists than in making bad drawings +themselves." + +"Yes, I can employ others; and--Fenwick, when you have finished with +Strahan I will ask permission to employ you, though without reward; the +task I would impose will not take you a minute." + +He then threw himself back in his chair, and seemed to fall into a doze. + +The dressing-bell rang; Strahan put away the plans,--indeed, they were now +pretty well finished and decided on. Margrave woke up as our host left +the room to dress, and drawing me towards another table in the room, +placed before me one of his favourite mystic books, and, pointing to an +old woodcut, said, + +"I will ask you to copy this for me; it pretends to be a facsimile of +Solomon's famous seal. I have a whimsical desire to have a copy of it. +You observe two triangles interlaced and inserted in a circle?--the +pentacle, in short. Yes, just so. You need not add the astrological +characters: they are the senseless superfluous accessories of the dreamer +who wrote the book. But the pentacle itself has an intelligible meaning; +it belongs to the only universal language, the language of symbol, in +which all races that think--around, and above, and below us--can establish +communion of thought. If in the external universe any one constructive +principle can be detected, it is the geometrical; and in every part of the +world in which magic pretends to a written character, I find that its +hieroglyphics are geometrical figures. Is it not laughable that the most +positive of all the sciences should thus lend its angles and circles to +the use of--what shall I call it?--the ignorance?--ay, that is the +word--the ignorance of dealers in magic?" + +He took up the paper, on which I had hastily described the triangles and +the circle, and left the room, chanting the serpent-charmer's song. + +[1] The following description of a stone at Corfu, celebrated as an +antidote to the venom of the serpent's bite, was given to me by an eminent +scholar and legal functionary in that island:-- + +DESCRIPTION of THE BLUESTONE.--This stone is of an oval shape 1 2/10 in. +long, 7/10 broad, 3/10 thick, and, having been broken formerly, is now set +in gold. + +When a person is bitten by a poisonous snake, the bite must be opened by a +cut of a lancet or razor longways, and the stone applied within +twenty-four hours. The stone then attaches itself firmly on the wound, +and when it has done its office falls off; the cure is then complete. The +stone must then be thrown into milk, whereupon it vomits the poison it has +absorbed, which remains green on the top of the milk, and the stone is +then again fit for use. + +This stone has been from time immemorial in the family of Ventura, of +Corfu, a house of Italian origin, and is notorious, so that peasants +immediately apply for its aid. Its virtue has not been impaired by the +fracture. Its nature or composition is unknown. + +In a case where two were stung at the same time by serpents, the stone was +applied to one, who recovered; but the other, for whom it could not be +used, died. + +It never failed but once, and then it was applied after the twenty-four +hours. + +Its colour is so dark as not to be distinguished from black. + + P. M. COLQUHOUN. + +Corfu, 7th Nov., 1860. + +Sir Emerson Tennent, in his popular and excellent work on Ceylon, gives an +account of "snake stones" apparently similar to the one at Corfu, except +that they are "intensely black and highly polished," and which are +applied, in much the same manner, to the wounds inflicted by the +cobra-capella. + + +QUERY.-Might it not be worth while to ascertain the chemical properties of +these stones, and, if they be efficacious in the extraction of venom +conveyed by a bite, might they not be as successful if applied to the bite +of a mad dog as to that of a cobra-capella? + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + +When we separated for the night, which we did at eleven o'clock, Margrave +said,-- + +"Good-night and good-by. I must leave you to-morrow, Strahan, and before +your usual hour for rising. I took the liberty of requesting one of your +men to order me a chaise from L----. Pardon my seeming abruptness, but I +always avoid long leave-takings, and I had fixed the date of my departure +almost as soon as I accepted your invitation." + +"I have no right to complain. The place must be dull indeed to a gay +young fellow like you. It is dull even to me. I am meditating flight +already. Are you going back to L----?" + +"Not even for such things as I left at my lodgings. When I settle +somewhere and can give an address, I shall direct them to be sent to me. +There are, I hear, beautiful patches of scenery towards the north, only +known to pedestrian tourists. I am a good walker; and you know, Fenwick, +that I am also a child of Nature. Adieu to you both; and many thanks to +you, Strahan, for your hospitality." + +He left the room. + +"I am not sorry he is going," said Strahan, after a pause, and with a +quick breath as if of relief. "Do you not feel that he exhausts one? An +excess of oxygen, as you would say in a lecture." + +I was alone in my own chamber; I felt indisposed for bed and for sleep; +the curious conversation I had held with Margrave weighed on me. In that +conversation, we had indirectly touched upon the prodigies which I had not +brought myself to speak of with frank courage, and certainly nothing in +Margrave's manner had betrayed consciousness of my suspicions; on the +contrary, the open frankness with which he evinced his predilection for +mystic speculation, or uttered his more unamiable sentiments, rather +tended to disarm than encourage belief in gloomy secrets or sinister +powers. And as he was about to quit the neighbourhood, he would not again +see Lilian, not even enter the town of L----. Was I to ascribe this +relief from his presence to the promise of the Shadow; or was I not +rather right in battling firmly against any grotesque illusion, and +accepting his departure as a simple proof that my jealous fears had been +amongst my other chimeras, and that as he had really only visited Lilian +out of friendship to me, in my peril, so he might, with his characteristic +acuteness, have guessed my jealousy, and ceased his visits from a kindly +motive delicately concealed? And might not the same motive now have +dictated the words which were intended to assure me that L---- contained +no attractions to tempt him to return to it? Thus, gradually soothed and +cheered by the course to which my reflections led me, I continued to muse +for hours. At length, looking at my watch, I was surprised to find it was +the second hour after midnight. I was just about to rise from my chair +to undress, and secure some hours of sleep, when the well-remembered cold +wind passed through the room, stirring the roots of my hair; and before me +stood, against the wall, the Luminous Shadow. + +"Rise and follow me," said the voice, sounding much nearer than it had +ever done before. + +And at those words I rose mechanically, and like a sleepwalker. + +"Take up the light." + +I took it. The Scin-Laeca glided along the wall towards the threshold, +and motioned me to open the door. I did so. The Shadow flitted on +through the corridor. I followed, with hushed footsteps, down a small +stair into Forman's study. In all my subsequent proceedings, about to be +narrated, the Shadow guided me, sometimes by voice, sometimes by sign. I +obeyed the guidance, not only unresistingly, but without a desire to +resist. I was unconscious either of curiosity or of awe,--only of a calm +and passive indifference, neither pleasurable nor painful. In this +obedience, from which all will seemed extracted, I took into my hands the +staff which I had examined the day before, and which lay on the table, +just where Margrave had cast it on re-entering the house. I unclosed the +shutter to the casement, lifted the sash, and, with the light in my left +hand, the staff in my right, stepped forth into the garden. The night was +still; the flame of the candle scarcely trembled in the air; the Shadow +moved on before me towards the old pavilion described in an earlier part +of this narrative, and of which the mouldering doors stood wide open. I +followed the Shadow into the pavilion, up the crazy stair to the room +above, with its four great blank unglazed windows, or rather arcades, +north, south, east, and west. I halted on the middle of the floor: right +before my eyes, through the vista made by breathless boughs, stood out +from the moonlit air the dreary mausoleum. Then, at the command conveyed +to me, I placed the candle on a wooden settle, touched a spring in the +handle of the staff; a lid flew back, and I drew from the hollow, first a +lump of some dark bituminous substance, next a smaller slender wand of +polished steel, of which the point was tipped with a translucent material, +which appeared to me like crystal. Bending down, still obedient to the +direction conveyed to me, I described on the floor with the lump of +bitumen (if I may so call it) the figure of the pentacle with the +interlaced triangles, in a circle nine feet in diameter, just as I had +drawn it for Margrave the evening before. The material used made the +figure perceptible, in a dark colour of mingled black and red. I applied +the flame of the candle to the circle, and immediately it became lambent +with a low steady splendour that rose about an inch from the floor; and +gradually front this light there emanated a soft, gray, transparent mist +and a faint but exquisite odour. I stood in the midst of the circle, and +within the circle also, close by my side, stood the Scin-Laeca,--no longer +reflected on the wall, but apart from it, erect, rounded into more +integral and distinct form, yet impalpable, and from it there breathed an +icy air. Then lifting the wand, the broader end of which rested in the +palm of my hand, the two forefingers closing lightly over it in a line +parallel with the point, I directed it towards the wide aperture before +me, fronting the mausoleum. I repeated aloud some words whispered to me +in a language I knew not: those words I would not trace on this paper, +could I remember them. As they came to a close, I heard a howl from the +watch-dog in the yard,--a dismal, lugubrious howl. Other dogs in the +distant village caught up the sound, and bayed in a dirge-like chorus; and +the howling went on louder and louder. Again strange words were whispered +to me, and I repeated them in mechanical submission; and when they, too, +were ended, I felt the ground tremble beneath me, and as my eyes looked +straight forward down the vista, that, stretching from the casement, was +bounded by the solitary mausoleum, vague formless shadows seemed to pass +across the moonlight,--below, along the sward, above, in the air; and then +suddenly a terror, not before conceived, came upon me. + +And a third time words were whispered; but though I knew no more of their +meaning than I did of those that had preceded them, I felt a repugnance to +utter them aloud. Mutely I turned towards the Scin-Laeca, and the +expression of its face was menacing and terrible; my will became yet more +compelled to the control imposed upon it, and my lips commenced the +formula again whispered into my ear, when I heard distinctly a voice of +warning and of anguish, that murmured "Hold!" I knew the voice; it was +Lilian's. I paused; I turned towards the quarter from which the voice had +come, and in the space afar I saw the features, the form of Lilian. Her +arms were stretched towards me in supplication, her countenance was deadly +pale, and anxious with unutterable distress. The whole image seemed in +unison with the voice,--the look, the attitude, the gesture of one who +sees another in deadly peril, and cries, "Beware!" + +This apparition vanished in a moment; but that moment sufficed to free my +mind from the constraint which had before enslaved it. I dashed the wand +to the ground, sprang from the circle, rushed from the place. How I got +into my own room I can remember not,--I know not; I have a vague +reminiscence of some intervening wandering, of giant trees, of shroud-like +moonlight, of the Shining Shadow and its angry aspect, of the blind walls +and the iron door of the House of the Dead, of spectral images,--a +confused and dreary phantasmagoria. But all I can recall with +distinctness is the sight of my own hueless face in the mirror in my own +still room, by the light of the white moon through the window; and, +sinking down, I said to myself, "This, at least, is an hallucination or a +dream!" + + + + +CHAPTER LII. + +A heavy sleep came over me at daybreak, but I did not undress nor go to +bed. The sun was high in the heavens when, on waking, I saw the servant +who had attended me bustling about the room. + +"I beg your pardon, sir, I am afraid I disturbed you; but I have been +three times to see if you were not coming down, and I found you so soundly +asleep I did not like to wake you. Mr. Strahan has finished breakfast, +and gone out riding; Mr. Margrave has left,--left before six o'clock." + +"Ah, he said he was going early." + +"Yes, sir; and he seemed so cross when he went. I could never have +supposed so pleasant a gentleman could put himself into such a passion!" + +"What was the matter?" + +"Why, his walking-stick could not be found; it was not in the hall. He +said he had left it in the study; we could not find it there. At last he +found it himself in the old summerhouse, and said--I beg pardon--he said +he was sure you had taken it there: that some one, at all events, had been +meddling with it. However, I am very glad it was found, since he seems to +set such store on it." + +"Did Mr. Margrave go himself into the summer-house to look for it?" + +"Yes, sir; no one else would have thought of such a place; no one likes to +go there, even in the daytime." + +"Why?" + +"Why, sir, they say it is haunted since poor Sir Philip's death; and, +indeed, there are strange noises in every part of the house. I am afraid +you had a bad night, sir," continued the servant, with evident curiosity, +glancing towards the bed, which I had not pressed, and towards the +evening-dress which, while he spoke, I was rapidly changing for that which +I habitually wore in the morning. "I hope you did not feel yourself ill?" + +"No! but it seems I fell asleep in my chair." + +"Did you hear, sir, how the dogs howled about two o'clock in the morning? +They woke me. Very frightful!" + +"The moon was at her full. Dogs will bay at the moon." + +I felt relieved to think that I should not find Strahan in the +breakfast-room; and hastening through the ceremony of a meal which I +scarcely touched, I went out into the park unobserved, and creeping round +the copses and into the neglected gardens, made my way to the pavilion. I +mounted the stairs; I looked on the floor of the upper room; yes, there +still was the black figure of the pentacle, the circle. So, then, it was +not a dream! Till then I had doubted. Or might it not still be so far a +dream that I had walked in my sleep, and with an imagination preoccupied +by my conversations with Margrave,--by the hieroglyphics on the staff I +had handled, by the very figure associated with superstitious practices +which I had copied from some weird book at his request, by all the strange +impressions previously stamped on my mind,--might I not, in truth, have +carried thither in sleep the staff, described the circle, and all the rest +been but visionary delusion? Surely, surely, so common-sense, and so +Julius Faber would interpret the riddles that perplexed me! Be that as it +may, my first thought was to efface the marks on the floor. I found this +easier than I had ventured to hope. I rubbed the circle and the pentacle +away from the boards with the sole of my foot, leaving but an +undistinguishable smudge behind. I know not why, but I felt the more +nervously anxious to remove all such evidences of my nocturnal visit to +that room, because Margrave had so openly gone thither to seek for the +staff, and had so rudely named me to the servant as having meddled with +it. Might he not awake some suspicion against me? Suspicion, what of? I +knew not, but I feared! + +The healthful air of day gradually nerved my spirits and relieved my +thoughts. But the place had become hateful to me. I resolved not to wait +for Strahan's return, but to walk back to L----, and leave a message for +my host. It was sufficient excuse that I could not longer absent myself +from my patients; accordingly I gave directions to have the few things +which I had brought with me sent to my house by any servant who might be +going to L----, and was soon pleased to find myself outside the park-gates +and on the high-road. + +I had not gone a mile before I met Strahan on horseback. He received my +apologies for not waiting his return to bid him farewell without +observation, and, dismounting, led his horse and walked beside me on my +road. I saw that there was something on his mind; at last he said, +looking down,-- + +"Did you hear the dogs howl last night?" + +"Yes! the full moon!" + +"You were awake, then, at the time. Did you hear any other sound? Did +you see anything?" + +"What should I hear or see?" + +Strahan was silent for some moments; then he said, with great +seriousness,-- + +"I could not sleep when I went to bed last night; I felt feverish and +restless. Somehow or other, Margrave got into my head, mixed up in some +strange way with Sir Philip Derval. I heard the dogs howl, and at the +same time, or rather a few minutes later, I felt the whole house tremble, +as a frail corner-house in London seems to tremble at night when a +carriage is driven past it. The howling had then ceased, and ceased as +suddenly as it had begun. I felt a vague, superstitious alarm; I got up, +and went to my window, which was unclosed (it is my habit to sleep with my +windows open); the moon was very bright, and I saw, I declare I saw along +the green alley that leads from the old part of the house to the +mausoleum--No, I will not say what I saw or believed I saw,--you would +ridicule me, and justly. But, whatever it might be, on the earth without +or in the fancy within my brain, I was so terrified, that I rushed back to +my bed, and buried my face in my pillow. I would have come to you; but I +did not dare to stir. I have been riding hard all the morning in order to +recover my nerves. But I dread sleeping again under that roof, and now +that you and Margrave leave me, I shall go this very day to London. I +hope all that I have told you is no bad sign of any coming disease; blood +to the head, eh?" + +"No; but imagination overstrained can produce wondrous effects. You do +right to change the scene. Go to London at once, amuse yourself, and--" + +"Not return, till the old house is razed to the ground. That is my +resolve. You approve? That's well. All success to you, Fenwick. I will +canter back and get my portmanteau ready and the carriage out, in time for +the five o'clock train." + +So then he, too, had seen--what? I did not dare and I did not desire to +ask him. But he, at least, was not walking in his sleep! Did we both +dream, or neither? + + + + +CHAPTER LIII. + +There is an instance of the absorbing tyranny of every-day life which must +have struck all such of my readers as have ever experienced one of those +portents which are so at variance with every-day life, that the ordinary +epithet bestowed on them is "supernatural." + +And be my readers few or many, there will be no small proportion of them +to whom once, at least, in the course of their existence, a something +strange and eerie has occurred,--a something which perplexed and baffled +rational conjecture, and struck on those chords which vibrate to +superstition. It may have been only a dream unaccountably verified,--an +undefinable presentiment or forewarning; but up from such slighter and +vaguer tokens of the realm of marvel, up to the portents of ghostly +apparitions or haunted chambers, I believe that the greater number of +persons arrived at middle age, however instructed the class, however +civilized the land, however sceptical the period, to which they belong, +have either in themselves experienced, or heard recorded by intimate +associates whose veracity they accept as indisputable in all ordinary +transactions of life, phenomena which are not to be solved by the wit that +mocks them, nor, perhaps, always and entirely, to the contentment of the +reason or the philosophy that explains them away. Such phenomena, I say, +are infinitely more numerous than would appear from the instances +currently quoted and dismissed with a jest; for few of those who have +witnessed them are disposed to own it, and they who only hear of them +through others, however trustworthy, would not impugn their character for +common-sense by professing a belief to which common-sense is a merciless +persecutor. But he who reads my assertion in the quiet of his own room, +will perhaps pause, ransack his memory, and find there, in some dark +corner which he excludes from "the babbling and remorseless day," a pale +recollection that proves the assertion not untrue. + +And it is, I say, an instance of the absorbing tyranny of everyday life, +that whenever some such startling incident disturbs its regular tenor of +thought and occupation, that same every-day life hastens to bury in its +sands the object which has troubled its surface; the more unaccountable, +the more prodigious, has been the phenomenon which has scared and +astounded us, the more, with involuntary effort, the mind seeks to rid +itself of an enigma which might disease the reason that tries to solve it. +We go about our mundane business with renewed avidity; we feel the +necessity of proving to ourselves that we are still sober, practical men, +and refuse to be unfitted for the world which we know, by unsolicited +visitations from worlds into which every glimpse is soon lost amid +shadows. And it amazes us to think how soon such incidents, though not +actually forgotten, though they can be recalled--and recalled too vividly +for health--at our will, are nevertheless thrust, as it were, out of the +mind's sight as we cast into lumber-rooms the crutches and splints that +remind us of a broken limb which has recovered its strength and tone. It +is a felicitous peculiarity in our organization, which all members of my +profession will have noticed, how soon, when a bodily pain is once passed, +it becomes erased from the recollection,--how soon and how invariably the +mind refuses to linger over and recall it. No man freed an hour before +from a raging toothache, the rack of a neuralgia, seats himself in his +armchair to recollect and ponder upon the anguish he has undergone. It is +the same with certain afflictions of the mind,--not with those that strike +on our affections, or blast our fortunes, overshadowing our whole future +with a sense of loss; but where a trouble or calamity has been an +accident, an episode in our wonted life, where it affects ourselves alone, +where it is attended with a sense of shame and humiliation, where the pain +of recalling it seems idle, and if indulged would almost madden +us,--agonies of that kind we do not brood over as we do over the death or +falsehood of beloved friends, or the train of events by which we are +reduced from wealth to penury. No one, for instance, who has escaped from +a shipwreck, from the brink of a precipice, from the jaws of a tiger, +spends his days and nights in reviving his terrors past, re-imagining +dangers not to occur again, or, if they do occur, from which the +experience undergone can suggest no additional safeguards. The current of +our life, indeed, like that of the rivers, is most rapid in the midmost +channel, where all streams are alike comparatively slow in the depth and +along the shores in which each life, as each river, has a character +peculiar to itself. And hence, those who would sail with the tide of the +world, as those who sail with the tide of a river, hasten to take the +middle of the stream, as those who sail against the tide are found +clinging to the shore. I returned to my habitual duties and avocations +with renewed energy; I did not suffer my thoughts to dwell on the dreary +wonders that had haunted me, from the evening I first met Sir Philip +Derval to the morning on which I had quitted the house of his heir; +whether realities or hallucinations, no guess of mine could unravel such +marvels, and no prudence of mine guard me against their repetition. But I +had no fear that they would be repeated, any more than the man who had +gone through shipwreck, or the hairbreadth escape from a fall down a +glacier, fears again to be found in a similar peril. Margrave had +departed, whither I knew not, and, with his departure, ceased all sense of +his influence. A certain calm within me, a tranquillizing feeling of +relief, seemed to me like a pledge of permanent delivery. + +But that which did accompany and haunt me, through all my occupations and +pursuits, was the melancholy remembrance of the love I had lost in Lilian. +I heard from Mrs. Ashleigh, who still frequently visited me, that her +daughter seemed much in the same quiet state of mind,--perfectly +reconciled to our separation, seldom mentioning my name, if mentioning +it, with indifference; the only thing remarkable in her state was her +aversion to all society, and a kind of lethargy that would come over her, +often in the daytime. She would suddenly fall into sleep and so remain +for hours, but a sleep that seemed very serene and tranquil, and from +which she woke of herself. She kept much within her own room, and always +retired to it when visitors were announced. + +Mrs. Ashleigh began reluctantly to relinquish the persuasion she had so +long and so obstinately maintained, that this state of feeling towards +myself--and, indeed, this general change in Lilian--was but temporary and +abnormal; she began to allow that it was best to drop all thoughts ofa +renewed engagement,--a future union. I proposed to see Lilian in her +presence and in my professional capacity; perhaps some physical cause, +especially for this lethargy, might be detected and removed. Mrs. +Ashleigh owned to me that the idea had occurred to herself: she had +sounded Lilian upon it: but her daughter had so resolutely opposed +it,--had said with so quiet a firmness "that all being over between us, a +visit from me would be unwelcome and painful,"--that Mrs. Ashleigh felt +that an interview thus deprecated would only confirm estrangement. One +day, in calling, she asked my advice whether it would not be better to try +the effect of change of air and scene, and, in some other place, some +other medical opinion might be taken? I approved of this suggestion with +unspeakable sadness. + +"And," said Mrs. Ashleigh, shedding tears, "if that experiment prove +unsuccessful, I will write and let you know; and we must then consider +what to say to the world as a reason why the marriage is broken off. I +can render this more easy by staying away. I will not return to L---- +till the matter has ceased to be the topic of talk, and at a distance any +excuse will be less questioned and seem more natural. But +still--still--let us hope still." + +"Have you one ground for hope?" + +"Perhaps so; but you will think it very frail and fallacious." + +"Name it, and let me judge." + +"One night--in which you were on a visit to Derval Court--" + +"Ay, that night." + +"Lilian woke me by a loud cry (she sleeps in the next room to me, and the +door was left open); I hastened to her bedside in alarm; she was asleep, +but appeared extremely agitated and convulsed. She kept calling on your +name in a tone of passionate fondness, but as if in great terror. She +cried, 'Do not go, Allen--do not go--you know not what you brave!--what +you do!' Then she rose in her bed, clasping her hands. Her face was set +and rigid; I tried to awake her, but could not. After a little time, she +breathed a deep sigh, and murmured, 'Allen, Allen! dear love! did you not +hear, did you not see me? What could thus baffle matter and traverse +space but love and soul? Can you still doubt me, Allen?--doubt that I +love you now, shall love you evermore?--yonder, yonder, as here below?' +She then sank back on her pillow, weeping, and then I woke her." + +"And what did she say on waking?" + +"She did not remember what she had dreamed, except that she had passed +through some great terror; but added, with a vague smile, 'It is over, and +I feel happy now.' Then she turned round and fell asleep again, but +quietly as a child, the tears dried, the smile resting." + +"Go, my dear friend, go; take Lilian away from this place as soon as you +can; divert her mind with fresh scenes. I hope!--I do hope! Let me know +where you fix yourself. I will seize a holiday,--I need one; I will +arrange as to my patients; I will come to the same place; she need not +know of it, but I must be by to watch, to hear your news of her. Heaven +bless you for what you have said! I hope!--I do hope!" + + + + +CHAPTER LIV. + +Some days after, I received a few lines from Mrs. Ashleigh. Her +arrangements for departure were made. They were to start the next +morning. She had fixed on going into the north of Devonshire, and staying +some weeks either at Ilfracombe or Lynton, whichever place Lilian +preferred. She would write as soon as they were settled. + +I was up at my usual early hour the next morning. I resolved to go out +towards Mrs. Ashleigh's house, and watch, unnoticed, where I might, +perhaps, catch a glimpse of Lilian as the carriage that would convey her +to the railway passed my hiding-place. + +I was looking impatiently at the clock; it was yet two hours before the +train by which Mrs. Ashleigh proposed to leave. A loud ring at my bell! +I opened the door. Mrs. Ashleigh rushed in, falling on my breast. + +"Lilian! Lilian!" + +"Heavens! What has happened?" + +"She has left! she is gone,--gone away! Oh, Allen, how?--whither? +Advise me. What is to be done?" + +"Come in--compose yourself--tell me all,--clearly, quickly. Lilian +gone,--gone away? Impossible! She must be hid somewhere in the +house,--the garden; she, perhaps, did not like the journey. She may have +crept away to some young friend's house. But I talk when you should talk: +tell me all." + +Little enough to tell! Lilian had seemed unusually cheerful the night +before, and pleased at the thought of the excursion. Mother and daughter +retired to rest early: Mrs. Ashleigh saw Lilian sleeping quietly before +she herself went to bed. She woke betimes in the morning, dressed +herself, went into the next room to call Lilian--Lilian was not there. No +suspicion of flight occurred to her. Perhaps her daughter might be up +already, and gone downstairs, remembering something she might wish to pack +and take with her on the journey. Mrs. Ashleigh was confirmed in this +idea when she noticed that her own room door was left open. She went +downstairs, met a maidservant in the hall, who told her, with alarm and +surprise, that both the street and garden doors were found unclosed. No +one had seen Lilian. Mrs. Ashleigh now became seriously uneasy. On +remounting to her daughter's room, she missed Lilian's bonnet and mantle. +The house and garden were both searched in vain. There could be no doubt +that Lilian had gone,--must have stolen noiselessly at night through her +mother's room, and let herself out of the house and through the garden. + +"Do you think she could have received any letter, any message, any visitor +unknown to you?" + +"I cannot think it. Why do you ask? Oh, Allen, you do not believe there +is any accomplice in this disappearance! No, you do not believe it. But +my child's honour! What will the world think?" + +Not for the world cared I at that moment. I could think only of Lilian, +and without one suspicion that imputed blame to her. + +"Be quiet, be silent; perhaps she has gone on some visit and will return. +Meanwhile, leave inquiry to me." + + + + +CHAPTER LV. + +It seemed incredible that Lilian could wander far without being observed. +I soon ascertained that she had not gone away by the railway--by any +public conveyance--had hired no carriage; she must therefore be still in +the town, or have left it on foot. The greater part of the day was +consumed in unsuccessful inquiries, and faint hopes that she would return; +meanwhile the news of her disappearance had spread: how could such news +fail to do so? + +An acquaintance of mine met me under the archway of Monks' Gate. He wrung +my hand and looked at me with great compassion. + +"I fear," said he, "that we were all deceived in that young Margrave. He +seemed so well conducted, in spite of his lively manners. But--" + +"But what?" + +"Mrs. Ashleigh was, perhaps, imprudent to admit him into her house so +familiarly. He was certainly very handsome. Young ladies will be +romantic." + +"How dare you, sir!" I cried, choked with rage. "And without any +colouring to so calumnious a suggestion! Margrave has not been in the +town for many days. No one knows even where he is." + +"Oh, yes, it is known where he is. He wrote to order the effects which he +had left here to be sent to Penrith." + +"When?" + +"The letter arrived the day before yesterday. I happened to be calling at +the house where he last lodged, when at L----, the house opposite Mrs. +Ashleigh's garden. No doubt the servants in both houses gossip with each +other. Miss Ashleigh could scarcely fail to hear of Mr. Margrave's +address from her maid; and since servants will exchange gossip, they may +also convey letters. Pardon me, you know I am your friend." + +"Not from the moment you breathe a word against my betrothed wife," said +I, fiercely. + +I wrenched myself from the clasp of the man's hand, but his words still +rang in my ears. I mounted my horse; I rode into the adjoining suburbs, +the neighbouring villages; there, however, I learned nothing, till, just +at nightfall, in a hamlet about ten miles from L----, a labourer declared +he had seen a young lady dressed as I described, who passed by him in a +path through the fields a little before noon; that he was surprised to see +one so young, so well dressed, and a stranger to the neighbourhood (for he +knew by sight the ladies of the few families scattered around) walking +alone; that as he stepped out of the path to make way for her, he looked +hard fnto her face, and she did not heed him,--seemed to gaze right before +her, into space. If her expression had been less quiet and gentle, he +should have thought, he could scarcely say why, that she was not quite +right in her mind; there was a strange unconscious stare in her eyes, as +if she were walking in her sleep. Her pace was very steady,--neither +quick nor slow. He had watched her till she passed out of sight, amidst a +wood through which the path wound its way to a village at some distance. + +I followed up this clew. I arrived at the village to which my informant +directed me, but night had set in. Most of the houses were closed, so I +could glean no further information from the cottages or at the inn. But +the police superintendent of the district lived in the village, and to him +I gave instructions which I had not given, and, indeed, would have been +disinclined to give, to the police at L----. He was intelligent and +kindly; he promised to communicate at once with the different +police-stations for miles round, and with all delicacy and privacy. It +was not probable that Lilian could have wandered in one day much farther +than the place at which I then was; it was scarcely to be conceived that +she could baffle my pursuit and the practised skill of the police. I +rested but a few hours, at a small public-house, and was on horseback +again at dawn. A little after sunrise I again heard of the wanderer. At +a lonely cottage, by a brick-kiln, in the midst of a wide common, she had +stopped the previous evening, and asked for a draught of milk. The woman +who gave it to her inquired if she had lost her way. She said "No;" and, +only tarrying a few minutes, had gone across the common; and the woman +supposed she was a visitor at a gentleman's house which was at the farther +end of the waste, for the path she took led to no town, no village. It +occurred to me then that Lilian avoided all high-roads, all places, even +the humblest, where men congregated together. But where could she have +passed the night? Not to fatigue the reader with the fruitless result of +frequent inquiries, I will but say that at the end of the second day I had +succeeded in ascertaining that I was still on her track; and though I had +ridden to and fro nearly double the distance--coming back again to places +I had left behind--it was at the distance of forty miles from L---- that I +last heard of her that second day. She had been sitting alone by a little +brook only an hour before. I was led to the very spot by a woodman--it +was at the hour of twilight when he beheld her; she was leaning her face +on her hand, and seemed weary. He spoke to her; she did not answer, but +rose and resumed her way along the banks of the streamlet. That night I +put up at no inn; I followed the course of the brook for miles, then +struck into every path that I could conceive her to have taken,--in vain. +Thus I consumed the night on foot, tying my horse to a tree, for he was +tired out, and returning to him at sunrise. At noon, the third day, I +again heard of her, and in a remote, savage part of the country. The +features of the landscape were changed; there was little foliage and +little culture, but the ground was broken into moulds and hollows, and +covered with patches of heath and stunted brushwood. She had been seen by +a shepherd, and he made the same observation as the first who had guided +me on her track,--she looked to him "like some one walking in her sleep." +An hour or two later, in a dell, amongst the furze-bushes, I chanced on a +knot of ribbon. I recognized the colour Lilian habitually wore; I felt +certain that the ribbon was hers. Calculating the utmost speed I could +ascribe to her, she could not be far off, yet still I failed to discover +her. The scene now was as solitary as a desert. I met no one on my way. +At length, a little after sunset, I found myself in view of the sea. A +small town nestled below the cliffs, on which I was guiding my weary +horse. I entered the town, and while my horse was baiting went in search +of the resident policeman. The information I had directed to be sent +round the country had reached him; he had acted on it, but without result. +I was surprised to hear him address me by name, and looking at him more +narrowly, I recognized him for the policeman Waby. This young man had +always expressed so grateful a sense of my attendance on his sister, and +had, indeed, so notably evinced his gratitude in prosecuting with Margrave +the inquiries which terminated in the discovery of Sir Philip Derval's +murderer, that I confided to him the name of the wanderer, of which he had +not been previously informed; but which it would be, indeed, impossible to +conceal from him should the search in which his aid was asked prove +successful,--as he knew Miss Ashleigh by sight. His face immediately +became thoughtful. He paused a minute or two, and then said,-- + +"I think I have it, but I do not like to say; I may pain you, sir." + +"Not by confidence; you pain me by concealment." + +The man hesitated still: I encouraged him, and then he spoke out frankly. + +"Sir, did you never think it strange that Mr. Margrave should move from +his handsome rooms in the hotel to a somewhat uncomfortable lodging, from +the window of which he could look down on Mrs. Ashleigh's garden? I have +seen him at night in the balcony of that window, and when I noticed him +going so frequently into Mrs. Ashleigh's house during your unjust +detention, I own, sir, I felt for you--" + +"Nonsense! Mr. Margrave went to Mrs. Ashleigh's house as my friend. He +has left L---- weeks ago. What has all this to do with--" + +"Patience, sir; hear me out. I was sent from L---- to this station (on +promotion, sir) a fortnight since last Friday, for there has been a good +deal of crime hereabouts; it is a bad neighbourhood, and full of +smugglers. Some days ago, in watching quietly near a lonely house, of +which the owner is a suspicious character down in my books, I saw, to my +amazement, Mr. Margrave come out of that house,--come out of a private +door in it, which belongs to a part of the building not inhabited by the +owner, but which used formerly, when the house was a sort of inn, to be +let to night lodgers of the humblest description. I followed him; he went +down to the seashore, walked about, singing to himself; then returned to +the house, and re-entered by the same door. I soon learned that he lodged +in the house,--had lodged there for several days. The next morning, a +fine yacht arrived at a tolerably convenient creek about a mile from the +house, and there anchored. Sailors came ashore, rambling down to this +town. The yacht belonged to Mr. Margrave; he had purchased it by +commission in London. It is stored for a long voyage. He had directed it +to come to him in this out-of-the-way place, where no gentleman's yacht +ever put in before, though the creek or bay is handy enough for such +craft. Well, sir, is it not strange that a rich young gentleman should +come to this unfrequented seashore, put up with accommodation that must be +of the rudest kind, in the house of a man known as a desperate smuggler, +suspected to be worse; order a yacht to meet him here; is not all this +strange? But would it be strange if he were waiting for a young lady? +And if a young lady has fled at night from her home, and has come secretly +along bypaths, which must have been very fully explained to her +beforehand, and is now near that young gentleman's lodging, if not +actually in it--if this be so, why, the affair is not so very strange +after all. And now do you forgive me, sir?" + +"Where is this house? Lead me to it." + +"You can hardly get to it except on foot; rough walking, sir, and about +seven miles off by the shortest cut." + +"Come, and at once; come quickly. We must be there before--before--" + +"Before the young lady can get to the place. Well, from what you say of +the spot in which she was last seen, I think, on reflection, we may easily +do that. I am at your service, sir. But I should warn you that the +owners of the house, man and wife, are both of villanous character,--would +do anything for money. Mr. Margrave, no doubt, has money enough; and if +the young lady chooses to go away with Mr. Margrave, you know I have no +power to help it." + +"Leave all that to me; all I ask of you is to show me the house." + +We were soon out of the town; the night had closed in; it was very dark, +in spite of a few stars; the path was rugged and precipitous, sometimes +skirting the very brink of perilous cliffs, sometimes delving down to the +seashore--there stopped by rock or wave--and painfully rewinding up the +ascent. + +"It is an ugly path, sir, but it saves four miles; and anyhow the road is +a bad one." + +We came, at last, to a few wretched fishermen's huts. The moon had now +risen, and revealed the squalor of poverty-stricken ruinous hovels; a +couple of boats moored to the shore, a moaning, fretful sea; and at a +distance a vessel, with lights on board, lying perfectly still at anchor +in a sheltered curve of the bold rude shore. The policeman pointed to the +vessel. + +"The yacht, sir; the wind will be in her favour if she sails tonight." + +We quickened our pace as well as the nature of the path would permit, left +the huts behind us, and about a mile farther on came to a solitary house, +larger than, from the policeman's description of Margrave's lodgement, I +should have presupposed: a house that in the wilder parts of Scotland +might be almost a laird's; but even in the moonlight it looked very +dilapidated and desolate. Most of the windows were closed, some with +panes broken, stuffed with wisps of straw; there were the remains of a +wall round the house; it was broken in some parts (only its foundation +left). On approaching the house I observed two doors,--one on the side +fronting the sea, one on the other side, facing a patch of broken ground +that might once have been a garden, and lay waste within the enclosure of +the ruined wall, encumbered with various litter; heaps of rubbish, a +ruined shed, the carcass of a worn-out boat. This latter door stood wide +open,--the other was closed. The house was still and dark, as if either +deserted, or all within it retired to rest. + +"I think that open door leads at once to the rooms Mr. Margrave hires; he +can go in and out without disturbing the other inmates. They used to +keep, on the side which they inhabit, a beer-house, but the magistrates +shut it up; still, it is a resort for bad characters. Now, sir, what +shall we do? + +"Watch separately. You wait within the enclosure of the wall, hid by +those heaps of rubbish, near the door; none can enter but what you will +observe them. If you see her, you will accost and stop her, and call +aloud for me; I shall be in hearing. I will go back to the high part of +the ground yonder--it seems to me that she must pass that way; and I would +desire, if possible, to save her from the humiliation, the--the shame of +coming within the precincts of that man's abode. I feel I may trust you +now and hereafter. It is a great thing for the happiness and honour of +this poor young lady and her mother, that I may be able to declare that I +did not take her from that man, from any man--from that house, from any +house. You comprehend me, and will obey? I speak to you as a +confidant,--a friend." + +"I thank you with my whole heart, sir, for so doing. You saved my +sister's life, and the least I can do is to keep secret all that would +pain your life if blabbed abroad. I know what mischief folks' tongues can +make. I will wait by the door, never fear, and will rather lose my place +than not strain all the legal power I possess to keep the young lady back +from sorrow." + +This dialogue was interchanged in close hurried whisper behind the broken +wall, and out of all hearing. Waby now crept through a wide gap into the +inclosure, and nestled himself silently amidst the wrecks of the broken +boat, not six feet from the open door, and close to the wall of the house +itself. I went back some thirty yards up the road, to the rising ground +which I had pointed out to him. According to the best calculation I could +make--considering the pace at which I had cleared the precipitous pathway, +and reckoning from the place and time at which Lilian had been last +seen-she could not possibly have yet entered that house. I might presume +it would be more than half an hour before she could arrive; I was in hopes +that, during the interval, Margrave might show himself, perhaps at the +door, or from the windows, or I might even by some light from the latter +be guided to the room in which to find him. If, after waiting a +reasonable time, Lilian should fail to appear, I had formed my plan of +action; but it was important for the success of that plan that I should +not lose myself in the strange house, nor bring its owners to Margrave's +aid,--that I should surprise him alone and unawares. Half an hour, three +quarters, a whole hour thus passed. No sign of my poor wanderer; but +signs there were of the enemy from whom I resolved, at whatever risk, to +free and to save her. A window on the ground-floor, to the left of the +door, which had long fixed my attention because I had seen light through +the chinks of the shutters, slowly unclosed, the shutters fell back, the +casement opened, and I beheld Margrave distinctly; he held something in +his hand that gleamed in the moonlight, directed not towards the mound on +which I stood, nor towards the path I had taken, but towards an open space +beyond the ruined wall to the right. Hid by a cluster of stunted shrubs I +watched him with a heart that beat with rage, not with terror. He seemed +so intent in his own gaze as to be unheeding or unconscious of all else. +I stole from my post, and, still under cover, sometimes of the broken +wall, sometimes of the shaggy ridges that skirted the path, crept on, on +till I reached the side of the house itself; then, there secure from his +eyes, should he turn them, I stepped over the ruined wall, scarcely two +feet high in that place, on--on towards the door. I passed the spot on +which the policeman had shrouded himself; he was seated, his back against +the ribs of the broken boat. I put my hand to his mouth that he might not +cry out in surprise, and whispered in his ear; he stirred not. I shook +him by the arm: still he stirred not. A ray of the moon fell on his face. +I saw that he was in a profound slumber. Persuaded that it was no natural +sleep, and that he had become useless to me, I passed him by. I was at +the threshold of the open door, the light from the window close by falling +on the ground; I was in the passage; a glimmer came through the chinks of +a door to the left; I turned the handle noiselessly, and, the next moment, +Margrave was locked in my grasp. + +"Call out," I hissed in his ear, "and I strangle you before any one can +come to your help." + +He did not call out; his eye, fixed on mine as he writhed round, saw, +perhaps, his peril if he did. His countenance betrayed fear, but as I +tightened my grasp that expression gave way to one of wrath and +fierceness; and as, in turn, I felt the grip of his hand, I knew that +the struggle between us would be that of two strong men, each equally +bent on the mastery of the other. + +I was, as I have said before, endowed with an unusual degree of physical +power, disciplined in early youth by athletic exercise and contest. In +height and in muscle I had greatly the advantage over my antagonist; but +such was the nervous vigour, the elastic energy of his incomparable frame, +in which sinews seemed springs of steel, that had our encounter been one +in which my strength was less heightened by rage, I believe that I could +no more have coped with him than the bison can cope with the boa; but I +was animated by that passion which trebles for a time all our +forces,--which makes even the weak man a match for the strong. I felt +that if I were worsted, disabled, stricken down, Lilian might be lost in +losing her sole protector; and on the other hand, Margrave had been taken +at the disadvantage of that surprise which will half unnerve the fiercest +of the wild beasts; while as we grappled, reeling and rocking to and fro +in our struggle, I soon observed that his attention was distracted,--that +his eye was turned towards an object which he had dropped involuntarily +when I first seized him. He sought to drag me towards that object, and +when near it stooped to seize. It was a bright, slender, short wand of +steel. I remembered when and where I had seen it, whether in my waking +state or in vision; and as his hand stole down to take it from the floor, +I set on the wand my strong foot. I cannot tell by what rapid process of +thought and association I came to the belief that the possession of a +little piece of blunted steel would decide the conflict in favor of the +possessor; but the struggle now was concentred on the attainment of that +seemingly idle weapon. I was becoming breathless and exhausted, while +Margrave seemed every moment to gather up new force, when collecting all +my strength for one final effort, I lifted him suddenly high in the air, +and hurled him to the farthest end of the cramped arena to which our +contest was confined. He fell, and with a force by which most men would +have been stunned; but he recovered himself with a quick rebound, and, as +he stood facing me, there was something grand as well as terrible in his +aspect. His eyes literally flamed, as those of a tiger; his rich hair, +flung back from his knitted forehead, seemed to erect itself as an angry +mane; his lips, slightly parted, showed the glitter of his set teeth; his +whole frame seemed larger in the tension of the muscles, and as, gradually +relaxing his first defying and haughty attitude, he crouched as the +panther crouches for its deadly spring, I felt as if it were a wild beast, +whose rush was coming upon me,--wild beast, but still Man, the king of +the animals, fashioned forth from no mixture of humbler races by the slow +revolutions of time, but his royalty stamped on his form when the earth +became fit for his coming.[1] + +At that moment I snatched up the wand, directed it towards him, and +advancing with a fearless stride, cried,-- + +"Down to my feet, miserable sorcerer!" + +To my own amaze, the effect was instantaneous. My terrible antagonist +dropped to the floor as a dog drops at the word of his master. The +muscles of his frowning countenance relaxed, the glare of his wrathful +eyes grew dull and rayless; his limbs lay prostrate and unnerved, his head +rested against the wall, his arms limp and drooping by his side. I +approached him slowly and cautiously; he seemed cast into a profound +slumber. + +"You are at my mercy now!" said I. + +He moved his head as in sign of deprecating submission. + +"You hear and understand me? Speak!" + +His lips faintly muttered, "Yes." + +"I command you to answer truly the questions I shall address to you." + +"I must, while yet sensible of the power that has passed to your hand." + +"Is it by some occult magnetic property in this wand that you have +exercised so demoniac an influence over a creature so pure as Lilian +Ashleigh?" + +"By that wand and by other arts which you could not comprehend." + +"And for what infamous object,--her seduction, her dishonour?" + +"No! I sought in her the aid of a gift which would cease did she cease +to be pure. At first I but cast my influence upon her that through her I +might influence yourself. I needed your help to discover a secret. +Circumstances steeled your mind against me. I could no longer hope that +you would voluntarily lend yourself to my will. Meanwhile, I had found in +her the light of a loftier knowledge than that of your science; through +that knowledge, duly heeded and cultivated, I hoped to divine what I +cannot of myself discover. Therefore I deepened over her mind the spells +I command; therefore I have drawn her hither as the loadstone draws the +steel, and therefore I would have borne her with me to the shores to which +I was about this night to sail. I had cast the inmates of the house and +all around it into slumber, in order that none might witness her +departure; had I not done so, I should have summoned others to my aid, in +spite of your threat." + +"And would Lilian Ashleigh have passively accompanied you, to her own +irretrievable disgrace?" + +"She could not have helped it; she would have been unconscious of her +acts; she was, and is, in a trance; nor, had she gone with me, would she +have waked from that state while she lived; that would not have been +long." + +"Wretch! and for what object of unhallowed curiosity do you exert an +influence which withers away the life of its victim?" + +"Not curiosity, but the instinct of self-preservation. I count on no life +beyond the grave. I would defy the grave, and live on." + +"And was it to learn, through some ghastly agencies, the secret of +renewing existence, that you lured me by the shadow of your own image on +the night when we met last?" + +The voice of Margrave here became very faint as he answered me, and his +countenance began to exhibit the signs of an exhaustion almost mortal. + +"Be quick," he murmured, "or I die. The fluid which emanates from that +wand, in the hand of one who envenoms that fluid with his own hatred and +rage, will prove fatal to my life. Lower the wand from my forehead! +low--low,--lower still!" + +"What was the nature of that rite in which you constrained me to share?" + +"I cannot say. You are killing me. Enough that you were saved from a +great danger by the apparition of the protecting image vouchsafed to your +eye; otherwise you would--you would--Oh, release me! Away! away!" + +The foam gathered to his lips; his limbs became fearfully convulsed. + +"One question more: where is Lilian at this moment? Answer that question, +and I depart." + +He raised his head, made a visible effort to rally his strength, and +gasped out,-- + +"Yonder. Pass through the open space up the cliff, beside a thorn-tree; +you will find her there, where she halted when the wand dropped from my +hand. But--but--beware! Ha! you will serve me yet, and through her! +They said so that night, though you heard them not. They said it!" Here +his face became death-like; he pressed his hand on his heart, and shrieked +out, "Away! away! or you are my murderer!" + +I retreated to the other end of the room, turning the wand from him, and +when I gained the door, looked back; his convulsions had ceased, but he +seemed locked in a profound swoon. + +I left the room,--the house,--paused by Waby; he was still sleeping. +"Awake!" I said, and touched him with the wand. He started up at once, +rubbed his eyes, began stammering out excuses. I checked them, and bade +him follow me. I took the way up the open ground towards which Margrave +had pointed the wand, and there, motionless, beside a gnarled fantastic +thorn-tree, stood Lilian. Her arms were folded across her breast; her +face, seen by the moonlight, looked so innocent and so infantine, that I +needed no other evidence to tell me how unconscious she was of the peril +to which her steps had been drawn. I took her gently by the hand. "Come +with me," I said in a whisper, and she obeyed me silently, and with a +placid smile. + +Rough though the way, she seemed unconscious of fatigue. I placed her +arm in mine, but she did not lean on it. We got back to the town. I +obtained there an old chaise and a pair of horses. At morning Lilian +was under her mother's roof. About the noon of that day fever seized +her; she became rapidly worse, and, to all appearance, in imminent +danger. Delirium set in; I watched beside her night and day, +supported by an inward conviction of her recovery, but tortured by +the sight of her sufferings. On the third day a change for the better +became visible; her sleep was calm, her breathing regular. + +Shortly afterwards she woke out of danger. Her eyes fell at once on me, +with all their old ineffable tender sweetness. + +"Oh, Allen, beloved, have I not been very ill? But I am almost well now. +Do not weep; I shall live for you,--for your sake." And she bent forward, +drawing my hand from my streaming eyes, and kissed me with a child's +guileless kiss on my burning forehead. + +[1] And yet, even if we entirely omit the consideration of the soul, that +immaterial and immortal principle which is for a time united to his body, +and view him only in his merely animal character, man is still the most +excellent of animals.--Dr. Kidd, On the Adaptation of External Nature to +the Physical Condition of Man (Sect. iii. p. 18). + + + + +CHAPTER LVI. + +Lilian recovered, but the strange thing was this: all memory of the weeks +that had elapsed since her return from visiting her aunt was completely +obliterated; she seemed in profound ignorance of the charge on which I +had been confined,--perfectly ignorant even of the existence of Margrave. +She had, indeed, a very vague reminiscence of her conversation with me in +the garden,--the first conversation which had ever been embittered by a +disagreement,--but that disagreement itself she did not recollect. Her +belief was that she had been ill and light-headed since that evening. +From that evening to the hour of her waking, conscious and revived, all +was a blank. Her love for me was restored, as if its thread had never +been broken. Some such instances of oblivion after bodily illness or +mental shock are familiar enough to the practice of all medical men;[1] +and I was therefore enabled to appease the anxiety and wonder of Mrs. +Ashleigh, by quoting various examples of loss, or suspension, of memory. +We agreed that it would be necessary to break to Lilian, though very +cautiously, the story of Sir Philip Derval's murder, and the charge to +which I had been subjected. She could not fail to hear of those events +from others. How shall I express her womanly terror, her loving, +sympathizing pity, on hearing the tale, which I softened as well as I +could? + +"And to think that I knew nothing of this!" she cried, clasping my hand; +"to think that you were in peril, and that I was not by your side!" + +Her mother spoke of Margrave, as a visitor,--an agreeable, lively +stranger; Lilian could not even recollect his name, but she seemed shocked +to think that any visitor had been admitted while I was in circumstances +so awful! Need I say that our engagement was renewed? Renewed! To her +knowledge and to her heart it had never been interrupted for a moment. +But oh! the malignity of the wrong world! Oh, that strange lust of +mangling reputations, which seizes on hearts the least wantonly cruel! +Let two idle tongues utter a tale against some third person, who never +offended the babblers, and how the tale spreads, like fire, lighted none +know how, in the herbage of an American prairie! Who shall put it out? + +What right have we to pry into the secrets of other men's hearths? True +or false, the tale that is gabbled to us, what concern of ours can it be? +I speak not of cases to which the law has been summoned, which law has +sifted, on which law has pronounced. But how, when the law is silent, can +we assume its verdicts? How be all judges where there has been no +witness-box, no cross-examination, no jury? Yet, every day we put on our +ermine, and make ourselves judges,--judges sure to condemn, and on what +evidence? That which no court of law will receive. Somebody has said +something to somebody, which somebody repeats to everybody! + +The gossip of L---- had set in full current against Lilian's fair name. +No ladies had called or sent to congratulate Mrs. Ashleigh on her return, +or to inquire after Lilian herself during her struggle between life and +death. + +How I missed the Queen of the Hill at this critical moment! How I longed +for aid to crush the slander, with which I knew not how to grapple,--aid +in her knowledge of the world and her ascendancy over its judgments! I +had heard from her once since her absence, briefly but kindly expressing +her amazement at the ineffable stupidity which could for a moment have +subjected me to a suspicion of Sir Philip Derval's strange murder, and +congratulating me heartily on my complete vindication from so monstrous a +charge. To this letter no address was given. I supposed the omission to +be accidental, but on calling at her house to inquire her direction, I +found that the servants did not know it. + +What, then, was my joy when just at this juncture I received a note from +Mrs. Poyntz, stating that she had returned the night before, and would be +glad to see me. + +I hastened to her house. "Ah," thought I, as I sprang lightly up the +ascent to the Hill, "how the tattlers will be silenced by a word from her +imperial lips!" And only just as I approached her door did it strike me +how difficult--nay, how impossible--to explain to her--the hard positive +woman, her who had, less ostensibly but more ruthlessly than myself, +destroyed Dr. Lloyd for his belief in the comparatively rational +pretensions of clairvoyance--all the mystical excuses for Lilian's flight +from her home? How speak to her--or, indeed, to any one--about an occult +fascination and a magic wand? No matter: surely it would be enough to say +that at the time Lilian had been light-headed, under the influence of the +fever which had afterwards nearly proved fatal, The early friend of Anne +Ashleigh would not be a severe critic on any tale that might right the +good name of Anne Ashleigh's daughter. So assured, with a light heart and +a cheerful face, I followed the servant into the great lady's pleasant but +decorous presence-chamber. + +[1] Such instances of suspense of memory are recorded in most +physiological and in some metaphysical works. Dr. Abercrombie notices +some, more or less similar to that related in the text: "A young lady +who was present at a catastrophe in Scotland, in which many people lost +their lives by the fall of the gallery of a church, escaped without any +injury, but with the complete loss of the recollection of any of the +circumstances; and this extended not only to the accident, but to +everything that had occurred to her for a certain time before going to +church. A lady whom I attended some years ago in a protracted illness, in +which her memory became much impaired, lost the recollection of a period +of about ten or twelve years, but spoke with perfect consistency of things +as they stood before that time." Dr. Aberercmbie adds: "As far as I have +been able to trace it, the principle in such cases seems to be, that when +the memory is impaired to a certain degree, the loss of it extends +backward to some event or some period by which a particularly deep +impression had been made upon the mind."--ABERCROMBIE: On the +Intellectual Powers, pp. 118, 119 (15th edition). + + + + +CHAPTER LVII. + +Mrs. Poyntz was on her favourite seat by the window, and for a wonder, not +knitting--that classic task seemed done; but she was smoothing and folding +the completed work with her white comely hand, and smiling over it, as if +in complacent approval, when I entered the room. At the fire-side sat the +he-colonel inspecting a newly-invented barometer; at another window, in +the farthest recess of the room, stood Miss Jane Poyntz, with a young +gentleman whom I had never before seen, but who turned his eyes full upon +me with a haughty look as the servant announced my name. He was tall, +well proportioned, decidedly handsome, but with that expression of cold +and concentred self-esteem in his very attitude, as well as his +countenance, which makes a man of merit unpopular, a man without merit +ridiculous. + +The he-colonel, always punctiliously civil, rose from his seat, shook +hands with me cordially, and said, "Coldish weather to-day; but we shall +have rain to-morrow. Rainy seasons come in cycles. We are about to +commence a cycle of them with heavy showers." He sighed, and returned to +his barometer. + +Miss Jane bowed to me graciously enough, but was evidently a little +confused,--a circumstance which might well attract my notice, for I had +never before seen that high-bred young lady deviate a hairsbreadth from +the even tenor of a manner admirable for a cheerful and courteous ease, +which, one felt convinced, would be unaltered to those around her if an +earthquake swallowed one up an inch before her feet. + +The young gentleman continued to eye me loftily, as the heir-apparent to +some celestial planet might eye an inferior creature from a half-formed +nebula suddenly dropped upon his sublime and perfected, star. + +Mrs. Poyntz extended to me two fingers, and said frigidly, "Delighted to +see you again! How kind to attend so soon to my note!" + +Motioning me to a seat beside her, she here turned to her husband, and +said, "Poyntz, since a cycle of rain begins tomorrow, better secure your +ride to-day. Take these young people with you. I want to talk with Dr. +Fenwick." + +The colonel carefully put away his barometer, and saying to his daughter, +"Come!" went forth. Jane followed her father; the young gentleman +followed Jane. + +The reception I had met chilled and disappointed me. I felt that Mrs. +Poyntz was changed, and in her change the whole house seemed changed. The +very chairs looked civilly unfriendly, as if preparing to turn their backs +on me. However, I was not in the false position of an intruder; I had +been summoned; it was for Mrs. Poyntz to speak first, and I waited quietly +for her to do so. + +She finished the careful folding of her work, and then laid it at rest in +the drawer of the table at which she sat. Having so done, she turned to +me, and said,-- + +"By the way, I ought to have introduced to you my young guest, Mr. +Ashleigh Sumner. You would like him. He has talents,--not showy, but +solid. He will succeed in public life." + +"So that young man is Mr. Ashleigh Sumner? I do not wonder that Miss +Ashleigh rejected him." + +I said this, for I was nettled, as well as surprised, at the coolness with +which a lady who had professed a friendship for me mentioned that +fortunate young gentleman, with so complete an oblivion of all the +antecedents that had once made his name painful to my ear. + +In turn, my answer seemed to nettle Mrs. Poyntz. + +"I am not so sure that she did reject; perhaps she rather misunderstood +him; gallant compliments are not always proposals of marriage. However +that be, his spirits were not much damped by Miss Ashleigh's disdain, nor +his heart deeply smitten by her charms; for he is now very happy, very +much attached to another young lady, to whom he proposed three days ago, +at Lady Delafield's, and not to make a mystery of what all our little +world will know before tomorrow, that young lady is my daughter Jane." + +"Were I acquainted with Mr. Sumner, I should offer to him my sincere +congratulations." + +Mrs. Poyntz resumed, without heeding a reply more complimentary to Miss +Jane than to the object of her choice,-- + +"I told you that I meant Jane to marry a rich country gentleman, and +Ashleigh Sumner is the very country gentleman I had then in my thoughts. +He is cleverer and more ambitious than I could have hoped; he will be a +minister some day, in right of his talents, and a peer, if he wishes it, +in right of his lands. So that matter is settled." + +There was a pause, during which my mind passed rapidly through links of +reminiscence and reasoning, which led me to a mingled sentiment of +admiration for Mrs. Poyntz as a diplomatist and of distrust for Mrs. +Poyntz as a friend. It was now clear why Mrs. Poyntz, before so little +disposed to approve my love, had urged me at once to offer my hand to +Lilian, in order that she might depart affianced and engaged to the house +in which she would meet Mr. Ashleigh Sumner. Hence Mrs. Poyntz's anxiety +to obtain all the information I could afford her of the sayings and +doings at Lady Haughton's; hence, the publicity she had so suddenly given +to my engagement; hence, when Mr. Sumner had gone away a rejected suitor, +her own departure from L----; she had seized the very moment when a vain +and proud man, piqued by the mortification received from one lady, falls +the easier prey to the arts which allure his suit to another. All was so +far clear to me. And I--was my self-conceit less egregious and less +readily duped than that of yon glided popinjay's! How skilfully this +woman had knitted me into her work with the noiseless turn of her white +hands! and yet, forsooth, I must vaunt the superior scope of my intellect, +and plumb all the fountains of Nature,--I, who could not fathom the little +pool of this female schemer's mind! + +But that was no time for resentment to her or rebuke to myself. She was +now the woman who could best protect and save from slander my innocent, +beloved Lilian. But how approach that perplexing subject? + +Mrs. Poyntz approached it, and with her usual decision of purpose, which +bore so deceitful a likeness to candour of mind. + +"But it was not to talk of my affairs that I asked you to call, Allen +Fenwick." As she uttered my name, her voice softened, and her manner took +that maternal, caressing tenderness which had sometimes amused and +sometimes misled me. "No, I do not forget that you asked me to be your +friend, and I take without scruple the license of friendship. What are +these stories that I have heard already about Lilian Ashleigh, to whom you +were once engaged?" + +"To whom I am still engaged." + +"Is it possible? Oh, then, of course the stories I have heard are all +false. Very likely; no fiction in scandal ever surprises me. Poor dear +Lilian, then, never ran away from her mother's house?" + +I smothered the angry pain which this mode of questioning caused me; I +knew how important it was to Lilian to secure to her the countenance and +support of this absolute autocrat; I spoke of Lilian's long previous +distemper of mind; I accounted for it as any intelligent physician, +unacquainted with all that I could not reveal, would account. Heaven +forgive me for the venial falsehood, but I spoke of the terrible charge +against myself as enough to unhinge for a time the intellect of a girl so +acutely sensitive as Lilian; I sought to create that impression as to the +origin of all that might otherwise seem strange; and in this state of +cerebral excitement she had wandered from home--but alone. I had tracked +every step of her way; I had found and restored her to her home. A +critical delirium had followed, from which she now rose, cured in health, +unsuspicious that there could be a whisper against her name. And then, +with all the eloquence I could command, and in words as adapted as I could +frame them to soften the heart of a woman, herself a mother, I implored +Mrs. Poyntz's aid to silence all the cruelties of calumny, and extend her +shield over the child of her own early friend. + +When I came to an end, I had taken, with caressing force, Mrs. Poyntz's +reluctant hands in mine. There were tears in my voice, tears in my eyes. +And the sound of her voice in reply gave me hope, for it was unusually +gentle. She was evidently moved. The hope was soon quelled. + +"Allen Fenwick," she said, "you have a noble heart; I grieve to see how it +abuses your reason. I cannot aid Lilian Ashleigh in the way you ask. Do +not start back so indignantly. Listen to me as patiently as I have +listened to you. That when you brought back the unfortunate young woman +to her poor mother, her mind was disordered, and became yet more +dangerously so, I can well believe; that she is now recovered, and thinks +with shame, or refuses to think at all, of her imprudent flight, I can +believe also; but I do not believe, the World cannot believe, that she did +not, knowingly and purposely, quit her mother's roof, and in quest of that +young stranger so incautiously, so unfeelingly admitted to her mother's +house during the very time you were detained on the most awful of human +accusations. Every one in the town knows that Mr. Margrave visited daily +at Mrs. Ashleigh's during that painful period; every one in the town knows +in what strange out-of-the-way place this young man had niched himself; +and that a yacht was bought, and lying in wait there. What for? It is +said that the chaise in which you brought Miss Ashleigh back to her home +was hired in a village within an easy reach of Mr. Margrave's lodging--of +Mr. Margrave's yacht. I rejoice that you saved the poor girl from ruin; +but her good name is tarnished; and if Anne Ashleigh, whom I sincerely +pity, asks me my advice, I can but give her this: 'Leave L----, take your +daughter abroad; and if she is not to marry Mr. Margrave, marry her as +quietly and as quickly as possible to some foreigner.'" + +"Madam! madam! this, then, is your friendship to her--to me! Oh, shame +on you to insult thus an affianced husband! Shame on me ever to have +thought you had a heart!" + +"A heart, man!" she exclaimed, almost fiercely, springing up, and +startling me with the change in her countenance and voice. "And little +you would have valued, and pitilessly have crushed this heart, if I had +suffered myself to show it to you! What right have you to reproach me? I +felt a warm interest in your career, an unusual attraction in your +conversation and society. Do you blame me for that, or should I blame +myself? Condemned to live amongst brainless puppets, my dull occupation +to pull the strings that moved them, it was a new charm to my life to +establish friendship and intercourse with intellect and spirit and +courage. Ah! I understand that look, half incredulous, half +inquisitive." + +"Inquisitive, no; incredulous, yes! You desired my friendship, and how +does your harsh judgment of my betrothed wife prove either to me or to her +mother, whom you have known from your girlhood, the first duty of a +friend,--which is surely not that of leaving a friend's side the moment +that he needs countenance in calumny, succour in trouble!" + +"It is a better duty to prevent the calumny and avert the trouble. Leave +aside Anne Ashleigh, a cipher that I can add or abstract from my sum of +life as I please. What is my duty to yourself? It is plain. It is to +tell you that your honour commands you to abandon all thoughts of Lilian +Ashleigh as your wife. Ungrateful that you are! Do you suppose it was no +mortification to my pride of woman and friend, that you never approached +me in confidence except to ask my good offices in promoting your courtship +to another; no shock to the quiet plans I had formed as to our familiar +though harmless intimacy, to hear that you were bent on a marriage in +which my friend would be lost to me?" + +"Not lost! not lost! On the contrary, the regard I must suppose you had +for Lilian would have been a new link between our homes." + +"Pooh! Between me and that dreamy girl there could have been no sympathy, +there could have grown up no regard. You would have been chained to your +fireside, and--and--but no matter. I stifled my disappointment as soon as +I felt it,--stifled it, as all my life I have stifled that which either +destiny or duty--duty to myself as to others--forbids me to indulge. Ah, +do not fancy me one of the weak criminals who can suffer a worthy liking +to grow into a debasing love! I was not in love with you, Allen Fenwick." + +"Do you think I was ever so presumptuous a coxcomb as to fancy it?" + +"No," she said, more softly; "I was not so false to my household ties and +to my own nature. But there are some friendships which are as jealous as +love. I could have cheerfully aided you in any choice which my sense +could have approved for you as wise; I should have been pleased to have +found in such a wife my most intimate companion. But that silly +child!--absurd! Nevertheless, the freshness and enthusiasm of your love +touched me; you asked my aid, and I gave it. Perhaps I did believe that +when you saw more of Lilian Ashleigh you would be cured of a fancy +conceived by the eye--I should have known better what dupes the wisest men +can be to the witcheries of a fair face and eighteen! When I found your +illusion obstinate, I wrenched myself away from a vain regret, turned to +my own schemes and my own ambition, and smiled bitterly to think that, in +pressing you to propose so hastily to Lilian, I made your blind passion an +agent in my own plans. Enough of this. I speak thus openly and boldly to +you now, because now I have not a sentiment that can interfere with the +dispassionate soundness of my counsels. I repeat, you cannot now marry +Lilian Ashleigh; I cannot take my daughter to visit her; I cannot destroy +the social laws that I myself have set in my petty kingdom." + +"Be it as you will. I have pleaded for her while she is still Lilian +Ashleigh. I plead for no one to whom I have once given my name. Before +the woman whom I have taken from the altar, I can place, as a shield +sufficient, my strong breast of man. Who has so deep an interest in +Lilian's purity as I have? Who is so fitted to know the exact truth of +every whisper against her? Yet when I, whom you admit to have some +reputation for shrewd intelligence,--I, who tracked her way,--I, who +restored her to her home,--when I, Allen Fenwick, am so assured of her +inviolable innocence in thought as in deed, that I trust my honour to her +keeping,--surely, surely, I confute the scandal which you yourself do not +believe, though you refuse to reject and to annul it?" + +"Do not deceive yourself, Allen Fenwick," said she, still standing beside +me, her countenance now hard and stern. "Look where I stand, I am the +World! The World, not as satirists depreciate, or as optimists extol its +immutable properties, its all-persuasive authority. I am the World! And +my voice is the World's voice when it thus warns you. Should you make +this marriage, your dignity of character and position would be gone! If +you look only to lucre and professional success, possibly they may not +ultimately suffer. You have skill, which men need; their need may still +draw patients to your door and pour guineas into your purse. But you have +the pride, as well as the birth of a gentleman, and the wounds to that +pride will be hourly chafed and never healed. Your strong breast of man +has no shelter to the frail name of woman. The World, in its health, will +look down on your wife, though its sick may look up to you. This is not +all. The World, in its gentlest mood of indulgence, will say +compassionately, 'Poor man! how weak, and how deceived! What an +unfortunate marriage!' But the World is not often indulgent,--it looks +most to the motives most seen on the surface. And the World will more +frequently say, 'No; much too clever a man to be duped! Miss Ashleigh had +money. A good match to the man who liked gold better than honour.'" + +I sprang to my feet, with difficulty suppressing my rage; and, remembering +it was a woman who spoke to me, "Farewell, madam," said I, through my +grinded teeth. "Were you, indeed, the Personation of The World, whose +mean notions you mouth so calmly, I could not disdain you more." I turned +to the door, and left her still standing erect and menacing, the hard +sneer on her resolute lip, the red glitter in her remorseless eye. + + + + +CHAPTER LVIII. + +If ever my heart vowed itself to Lilian, the vow was now the most trustful +and the most sacred. I had relinquished our engagement before; but then +her affection seemed, no matter from what cause; so estranged from me, +that though I might be miserable to lose her, I deemed that she would be +unhappy in our union. Then, too, she was the gem and darling of the +little world in which she lived; no whisper assailed her: now I knew that +she loved me; I knew that her estrangement had been involuntary; I knew +that appearances wronged her, and that they never could be explained. I +was in the true position of man to woman: I was the shield, the bulwark, +the fearless confiding protector! Resign her now because the world +babbled, because my career might be impeded, because my good name might be +impeached,--resign her, and, in that resignation, confirm all that was +said against her! Could I do so, I should be the most craven of +gentlemen, the meanest of men! + +I went to Mrs. Ashleigh, and entreated her to hasten my union with her +daughter, and fix the marriage-day. + +I found the poor lady dejected and distressed. She was now sufficiently +relieved from the absorbing anxiety for Lilian to be aware of the change +on the face of that World which the woman I had just quitted personified +and concentred; she had learned the cause from the bloodless lips of Miss +Brabazon. + +"My child! my poor child!" murmured the mother. "And she so +guileless,--so sensitive! Could she know what is said, it would kill her. +She would never marry you, Allen,--she would never bring shame to you!" + +"She never need learn the barbarous calumny. Give her to me, and at once; +patients, fortune, fame, are not found only at L----. Give her to me at +once. But let me name a condition: I have a patrimonial independence, I +have amassed large savings, I have my profession and my repute. I cannot +touch her fortune--I cannot,--never can! Take it while you live; when you +die, leave it to accumulate for her children, if children she have; not +to me; not to her--unless I am dead or ruined!" + +"Oh, Allen, what a heart! what a heart! No, not heart, Allen,--that bird +in its cage has a heart: soul--what a soul!" + + + + +CHAPTER LIX. + + +How innocent was Lilian's virgin blush when I knelt to her, and prayed +that she would forestall the date that had been fixed for our union, and +be my bride before the breath of the autumn had withered the pomp of +thewoodland and silenced the song of the birds! Meanwhile, I was so +fearfully anxious that she should risk no danger of hearing, even of +surmising, the cruel slander against her--should meet no cold contemptuous +looks, above all, should be safe from the barbed talk of Mrs. Poyntz--that +I insisted on the necessity of immediate change of air and scene. I +proposed that we should all three depart, the next day, for the banks of +my own beloved and native Windermere. By that pure mountain air, Lilian's +health would be soon re-established; in the church hallowed to me by the +graves of my fathers our vows should be plighted. No calumny had ever +cast a shadow over those graves. I felt as if my bride would be safer in +the neighbourhood of my mother's tomb. + +I carried my point: it was so arranged. Mrs. Ashleigh, however, was +reluctant to leave before she had seen her dear friend, Margaret Poyntz. +I had not the courage to tell her what she might expect to hear from that +dear friend, but, as delicately as I could, I informed her that I had +already seen the Queen of the Hill, and contradicted the gossip that had +reached her; but that as yet, like other absolute sovereigns, the Queen of +the Hill thought it politic to go with the popular stream, reserving all +check on its direction till the rush of its torrent might slacken; and +that it would be infinitely wiser in Mrs. Ashleigh to postpone +conversation with Mrs. Poyntz until Lilian's return to L---- as my wife. +Slander by that time would have wearied itself out, and Mrs. Poyntz +(assuming her friendship to Mrs. Ashleigh to be sincere) would then be +enabled to say with authority to her subjects, "Dr. Fenwick alone knows +the facts of the story, and his marriage with Miss Ashleigh refutes all +the gossip to her prejudice." + +I made that evening arrangements with a young and rising practitioner to +secure attendance on my patients during my absence. I passed the greater +part of the night in drawing up memoranda to guide my proxy in each case, +however humble the sufferer. This task finished, I chanced, in searching +for a small microscope, the wonders of which I thought might interest and +amuse Lilian, to open a drawer in which I kept the manuscript of my +cherished Physiological Work, and, in so doing, my eye fell upon the wand +which I had taken from Margrave. I had thrown it into that drawer on my +return home, after restoring Lilian to her mother's house, and, in the +anxiety which had subsequently preyed upon my mind, had almost forgotten +the strange possession I had as strangely acquired. There it now lay, the +instrument of agencies over the mechanism of nature which no doctrine +admitted by my philosophy could accept, side by side with the presumptuous +work which had analyzed the springs by which Nature is moved, and decided +the principles by which reason metes out, from the inch of its knowledge, +the plan of the Infinite Unknown. + +I took up the wand and examined it curiously. It was evidently the work +of an age far remote from our own, scored over with half-obliterated +characters in some Eastern tongue, perhaps no longer extant. I found that +it was hollow within. A more accurate observation showed, in the centre +of this hollow, an exceedingly fine thread-like wire, the unattached end +of which would slightly touch the palm when the wand was taken into the +hand. Was it possible that there might be a natural and even a simple +cause for the effects which this instrument produced? Could it serve to +collect, from that great focus of animal heat and nervous energy which is +placed in the palm of the human hand, some such latent fluid as that which +Reichenbach calls the "odic," and which, according to him, "rushes through +and pervades universal Nature"? After all, why not? For how many +centuries lay unknown all the virtues of the loadstone and the amber? It +is but as yesterday that the forces of vapour have become to men genii +more powerful than those conjured up by Aladdin; that light, at a touch, +springs forth from invisible air; that thought finds a messenger swifter +than the wings of the fabled Afrite. As, thus musing, my hand closed over +the wand, I felt a wild thrill through my frame. I recoiled; I was +alarmed lest (according to the plain common-sense theory of Julius Faber) +I might be preparing my imagination to form and to credit its own +illusions. Hastily I laid down the wand. But then it occurred to me that +whatever its properties, it had so served the purposes of the dread +Fascinator from whom it had been taken, that he might probably seek to +repossess himself of it; he might contrive to enter my house in my +absence; more prudent to guard in my own watchful keeping the +incomprehensible instrument of incomprehensible arts. I resolved, +therefore, to take the wand with me, and placed it in my travelling-trunk, +with such effects as I selected for use in the excursion that was to +commence with the morrow. I now lay down to rest, but I could not sleep. +The recollections of the painful interview with Mrs. Poyntz became vivid +and haunting. It was clear that the sentiment she had conceived for me +was that of no simple friendship,--something more or something less, but +certainly something else; and this conviction brought before me that proud +hard face, disturbed by a pang wrestled against but not subdued, and that +clear metallic voice, troubled by the quiver of an emotion which, perhaps, +she had never analyzed to herself. I did not need her own assurance to +know that this sentiment was not to be confounded with a love which she +would have despised as a weakness and repelled as a crime; it was an +inclination of the intellect, not a passion of the heart. But still it +admitted a jealousy little less keen than that which has love for its +cause,--so true it is that jealousy is never absent where self-love is +always present. Certainly, it was no susceptibility of sober friendship +which had made the stern arbitress of a coterie ascribe to her interest +in me her pitiless judgment of Lilian. Strangely enough, with the image +of this archetype of conventional usages and the trite social life, came +that of the mysterious Margrave, surrounded by all the attributes with +which superstition clothes the being of the shadowy border-land that lies +beyond the chart of our visual world itself. By what link were creatures +so dissimilar riveted together in the metaphysical chain of association? +Both had entered into the record of my life when my life admitted its own +first romance of love. Through the aid of this cynical schemer I had been +made known to Lilian. At her house I had heard the dark story of that +Louis Grayle, with whom, in mocking spite of my reason, conjectures, which +that very reason must depose itself before it could resolve into +distempered fancies, identified the enigmatical Margrave. And now both +she, the representative of the formal world most opposed to visionary +creeds, and he, who gathered round him all the terrors which haunt the +realm of fable, stood united against me,--foes with whom the intellect I +had so haughtily cultured knew not how to cope. Whatever assault I might +expect from either, I was unable to assail again. Alike, then, in this, +are the Slander and the Phantom,--that which appalls us most in their +power over us is our impotence against them. + +But up rose the sun, chasing the shadows from the earth, and brightening +insensibly the thoughts of man. After all, Margrave had been baffled and +defeated, whatever the arts he had practised and the secrets he possessed. +It was, at least, doubtful whether his evil machinations would be renewed. +He had seemed so incapable of long-sustained fixity of purpose, that it +was probable he was already in pursuit of some new agent or victim; and as +to this commonplace and conventional spectre, the so-called World, if it +is everywhere to him whom it awes, it is nowhere to him who despises it. +What was the good or bad word of a Mrs. Poyntz to me? Ay, but to Lilian? +There, indeed, I trembled; but still, even in trembling, it was sweet to +think that my home would be her shelter,--my choice her vindication. Ah! +how unutterably tender and reverential Love becomes when it assumes the +duties of the guardian, and hallows its own heart into a sanctuary of +refuge for the beloved! + + + + +CHAPTER LX. + +The beautiful lake! We two are on its grassy margin,--twilight melting +into night; the stars stealing forth, one after one. What a wonderful +change is made within us when we come from our callings amongst men, +chafed, wearied, wounded; gnawed by our cares, perplexed by the doubts of +our very wisdom, stung by the adder that dwells in cities,--Slander; nay, +even if renowned, fatigued with the burden of the very names that we have +won! What a change is made within us when suddenly we find ourselves +transported into the calm solitudes of Nature,--into scenes familiar to +our happy dreaming childhood; back, back from the dusty thoroughfares of +our toil-worn manhood to the golden fountain of our youth! Blessed is +the change, even when we have no companion beside us to whom the heart +can whisper its sense of relief and joy. But if the one in whom all our +future is garnered up be with us there, instead of that weary World which +has so magically vanished away from the eye and the thought, then does the +change make one of those rare epochs of life in which the charm is the +stillness. In the pause from all by which our own turbulent struggles for +happiness trouble existence, we feel with a rapt amazement how calm a +thing it is to be happy. And so as the night, in deepening, brightened, +Lilian and I wandered by the starry lake. Conscious of no evil in +ourselves, how secure we felt from evil! A few days more--a few days +more, and we two should be as one! And that thought we uttered in many +forms of words, brooding over it in the long intervals of enamoured +silence. + +And when we turned back to the quiet inn at which we had taken up our +abode, and her mother, with her soft face, advanced to meet us, I said to +Lilian,-- + +"Would that in these scenes we could fix our home for life, away and afar +from the dull town we have left behind us, with the fret of its wearying +cares and the jar of its idle babble!" + +"And why not, Allen? Why not? But no, you would not be happy." + +"Not be happy, and with you? Sceptic, by what reasoning do you arrive at +that ungracious conclusion?" + +"The heart loves repose and the soul contemplation, but the mind needs +action. Is it not so?" + +"Where learned you that aphorism, out of place on such rosy lips?" + +"I learned it in studying you," murmured Lilian, tenderly. + +Here Mrs. Ashleigh joined us. For the first time I slept under the same +roof as Lilian. And I forgot that the universe contained an enigma to +solve or an enemy to fear. + + + + +CHAPTER LXI. + +Twenty days--the happiest my life had ever known--thus glided on. Apart +from the charm which love bestows on the beloved, there was that in +Lilian's conversation which made her a delightful companion. Whether it +was that, in this pause from the toils of my career, my mind could more +pliantly supple itself to her graceful imagination, or that her +imagination was less vague and dreamy amidst those rural scenes, which +realized in their loveliness and grandeur its long-conceived ideals, than +it had been in the petty garden-ground neighboured by the stir and hubbub +of the busy town,--in much that I had once slighted or contemned as the +vagaries of undisciplined fancy, I now recognized the sparkle and play of +an intuitive genius, lighting up many a depth obscure to instructed +thought. It is with some characters as with the subtler and more ethereal +order of poets,--to appreciate them we must suspend the course of +artificial life; in the city we call them dreamers, on the mountain-top we +find them interpreters. + +In Lilian, the sympathy with Nature was not, as in Margrave, from the +joyous sense of Nature's lavish vitality; it was refined into exquisite +perception of the diviner spirit by which that vitality is informed. +Thus, like the artist, from outward forms of beauty she drew forth the +covert types, lending to things the most familiar exquisite meanings +unconceived before. For it is truly said by a wise critic of old, that +"the attribute of Art is to suggest infinitely more than it expresses; +"and such suggestions, passing from the artist's innermost thought into +the mind that receives them, open on and on into the Infinite of Ideas, as +a moonlit wave struck by a passing oar impels wave upon wave along one +track of light. + +So the days glided by, and brought the eve of our bridal morn. It had +been settled that, after the ceremony (which was to be performed by +license in the village church, at no great distance, which adjoined my +paternal home, now passed away to strangers), we should make a short +excursion into Scotland, leaving Mrs. Ashleigh to await our return at the +little inn. + +I had retired to my own room to answer some letters from anxious patients, +and having finished these I looked into my trunk for a Guide-Book to the +North, which I had brought with me. My hand came upon Margrave's wand, +and remembering that strange thrill which had passed through me when I +last handled it, I drew it forth, resolved to examine calmly if I could +detect the cause of the sensation. It was not now the time of night in +which the imagination is most liable to credulous impressions, nor was I +now in the anxious and jaded state of mind in which such impressions may +be the more readily conceived. The sun was slowly setting over the +delicious landscape; the air cool and serene; my thoughts +collected,--heart and conscience alike at peace. I took, then, the wand, +and adjusted it to the palm of the hand as I had done before. I felt the +slight touch of the delicate wire within, and again the thrill! I did not +this time recoil; I continued to grasp the wand, and sought deliberately +to analyze my own sensations in the contact. There came over me an +increased consciousness of vital power; a certain exhilaration, +elasticity, vigour, such as a strong cordial may produce on a fainting +man. All the forces of my frame seemed refreshed, redoubled; and as such +effects on the physical system are ordinarily accompanied by correspondent +effects on the mind, so I was sensible of a proud elation of spirits,--a +kind of defying, superb self-glorying. All fear seemed blotted out from +my thought, as a weakness impossible to the grandeur and might which +belong to Intellectual Man; I felt as if it were a royal delight to scorn +Earth and its opinions, brave Hades and its spectres. Rapidly this +new-born arrogance enlarged itself into desires vague but daring. My mind +reverted to the wild phenomena associated with its memories of Margrave. +I said half-aloud, "if a creature so beneath myself in constancy of will +and completion of thought can wrest from Nature favours so marvellous, +what could not be won from her by me, her patient persevering seeker? +What if there be spirits around and about, invisible to the common eye, +but whom we can submit to our control; and what if this rod be charged +with some occult fluid, that runs through all creation, and can be so +disciplined as to establish communication wherever life and thought can +reach to beings that live and think? So would the mystics of old explain +what perplexes me. Am I sure that the mystics of old duped them selves +or their pupils? This, then, this slight wand, light as a reed in my +grasp, this, then, was the instrument by which Margrave sent his +irresistible will through air and space, and by which I smote himself, in +the midst of his tiger-like wrath, into the helplessness of a sick man's +swoon! Can the instrument at this distance still control him; if now +meditating evil, disarm and disable his purpose?" Involuntarily, as I +revolved these ideas, I stretched forth the wand, with a concentred +energy of desire that its influence should reach Margrave and command +him. And since I knew not his whereabout, yet was vaguely aware that, +according to any conceivable theory by which the wand could be supposed +to carry its imagined virtues to definite goals in distant space, it +should be pointed in the direction of the object it was intended to +affect, so I slowly moved the wand as if describing a circle; and thus, in +some point of the circle--east, west, north, or south--the direction could +not fail to be true. Before I had performed half the circle, the wand of +itself stopped, resisting palpably the movement of my hand to impel it +onward. Had it, then, found the point to which my will was guiding it, +obeying my will by some magnetic sympathy never yet comprehended by any +recognized science? I know not; but I had not held it thus fixed for +many seconds, before a cold air, well remembered, passed by me, stirring +the roots of my hair; and, reflected against the opposite wall, stood the +hateful Scin-Laeca. The Shadow was dimmer in its light than when before +beheld, and the outline of the features was less distinct; still it was +the unmistakable lemur, or image, of Margrave. + +And a voice was conveyed to my senses, saying, as from a great distance, +and in weary yet angry accents, + +"You have summoned me? Wherefore?" + +I overcame the startled shudder with which, at first, I beheld the Shadow +and heard the Voice. + +"I summoned you not," said I; "I sought but to impose upon you my will, +that you should persecute, with your ghastly influences, me and mine no +more. And now, by whatever authority this wand bestows on me, I so abjure +and command you!" + +I thought there was a sneer of disdain on the lip through which the answer +seemed to come,-- + +"Vain and ignorant, it is but a shadow you command. My body you have cast +into a sleep, and it knows not that the shadow is here; nor, when it +wakes, will the brain be aware of one reminiscence of the words that you +utter or the words that you hear." + +"What, then, is this shadow that simulates the body? Is it that which in +popular language is called the soul?" + +"It is not: soul is no shadow." + +"What then?" + +"Ask not me. Use the wand to invoke Intelligences higher than mine." + +"And how?" + +"I will tell you not. Of yourself you may learn, if you guide the wand by +your own pride of will and desire; but in the hands of him who has learned +not the art, the wand has its dangers. Again I say you have summoned me! +Wherefore?" + +"Lying shade, I summoned thee not." + +"So wouldst thou say to the demons, did they come in their terrible wrath, +when the bungler, who knows not the springs that he moves, calls them up +unawares, and can neither control nor dispel. Less revengeful than they, +I leave thee unharmed, and depart." + +"Stay. If, as thou sayest, no command I address to thee--to thee, who art +only the image or shadow--can have effect on the body and mind of the +being whose likeness thou art, still thou canst tell me what passes now in +his brain. Does it now harbour schemes against me through the woman I +love? Answer truly." + +"I reply for the sleeper, of whom I am more than a likeness, though only +the shadow. His thought speaks thus: 'I know, Allen Fenwick, that in thee +is the agent I need for achieving the end that I seek. Through the woman +thou lovest, I hope to subject thee. A grief that will harrow thy heart +is at hand; when that grief shall befall, thou wilt welcome my coming. In +me alone thy hope will be placed; through me alone wilt thou seek a path +out of thy sorrow. I shall ask my conditions: they will make thee my tool +and my slave!'" + +The shadow waned,--it was gone. I did not seek to detain it, nor, had I +sought, could I have known by what process. But a new idea now possessed +me. This shadow, then, that had once so appalled and controlled me, was, +by its own confession, nothing more than a shadow! It had spoken of +higher Intelligences; from them I might learn what the Shadow could not +reveal. As I still held the wand firmer and firmer in my grasp, my +thoughts grew haughtier and bolder. Could the wand, then, bring those +loftier beings thus darkly referred to before me? With that thought, +intense and engrossing, I guided the wand towards the space, opening +boundless and blue from the casement that let in the skies. The wand no +longer resisted my hand. + +In a few moments I felt the floors of the room vibrate; the air was +darkened; a vaporous, hazy cloud seemed to rise from the ground without +the casement; an awe, infinitely more deep and solemn than that which the +Scin-Laeca had caused in its earliest apparition, curdled through my +veins, and stilled the very beat of my heart. + +At that moment I heard, without, the voice of Lilian, singing a simple, +sacred song which I had learned at my mother's knees, and taught to her +the day before: singing low, and as with a warning angel's voice. By an +irresistible impulse I dashed the wand to the ground, and bowed my head as +I had bowed it when my infant mind comprehended, without an effort, +mysteries more solemn than those which perplexed me now. Slowly I raised +my eyes, and looked round; the vaporous, hazy cloud had passed away, or +melted into the ambient rose-tints amidst which the sun had sunk. + +Then, by one of those common reactions from a period of overstrained +excitement, there succeeded to that sentiment of arrogance and daring with +which these wild, half-conscious invocations had been fostered and +sustained, a profound humility, a warning fear. + +"What!" said I, inly, "have all those sound resolutions, which my reason +founded on the wise talk of Julius Faber, melted away in the wrack of +haggard, dissolving fancies! Is this my boasted intellect, my vaunted +science! I--I, Allen Fenwick, not only the credulous believer, but the +blundering practitioner, of an evil magic! Grant what may be possible, +however uncomprehended,--grant that in this accursed instrument of +antique superstition there be some real powers--chemical, magnetic, no +matter what-by which the imagination can be aroused, inflamed, deluded, so +that it shapes the things I have seen, speaks in the tones I have +heard,--grant this, shall I keep ever ready, at the caprice of will, a +constant tempter to steal away my reason and fool my senses? Or if, on +the other hand, I force my sense to admit what all sober men must reject; +if I unschool myself to believe that in what I have just experienced there +is no mental illusion; that sorcery is a fact, and a demon world has gates +which open to a key that a mortal can forge,--who but a saint would not +shrink from the practice of powers by which each passing thought of ill +might find in a fiend its abettor? In either case--in any case--while I +keep this direful relic of obsolete arts, I am haunted,--cheated out of my +senses, unfitted for the uses of life. If, as my ear or my fancy informs +me, grief--human grief--is about to befall me, shall I, in the sting of +impatient sorrow, have recourse to an aid which, the same voice declares, +will reduce me to a tool and a slave,--tool and slave to a being I dread +as a foe? Out on these nightmares! and away with the thing that bewitches +the brain to conceive them!" + +I rose; I took up the wand, holding it so that its hollow should not rest +on the palm of the hand. I stole from the house by the back way, in order +to avoid Lilian, whose voice I still heard, singing low, on the lawn in +front. I came to a creek, to the bank of which a boat was moored, undid +its chain, rowed on to a deep part of the lake, and dropped the wand into +its waves. It sank at once; scarcely a ripple furrowed the surface, not a +bubble arose from the deep. And, as the boat glided on, the star mirrored +itself on the spot where the placid waters had closed over the tempter to +evil. + +Light at heart, I sprang again on the shore, and hastening to Lilian, +where she stood on the silvered, shining sward, clasped her to my breast. + +"Spirit of my life!" I murmured, "no enchantments for me but thine! Thine +are the spells by which creation is beautified, and, in that beauty, +hallowed. What though we can see not into the measureless future from the +verge of the moment; what though sorrow may smite us while we are dreaming +of bliss, let the future not rob me of thee, and a balm will be found for +each wound! Love me ever as now, oh, my Lilian; troth to troth, side by +side, till the grave!" + +"And beyond the grave," answered Lilian, softly. + + + + +CHAPTER LXII. + +Our vows are exchanged at the altar, the rite which made Lilian my wife is +performed; we are returned from the church amongst the hills, in which my +fathers had worshipped; the joy-bells that had pealed for my birth had +rung for my marriage. Lilian has gone to her room to prepare for our +bridal excursion; while the carriage we have hired is waiting at the door. +I am detaining her mother on the lawn, seeking to cheer and compose her +spirits, painfully affected by that sense of change in the relations of +child and parent which makes itself suddenly felt by the parent's heart on +the day that secures to the child another heart on which to lean. + +But Mrs. Ashleigh's was one of those gentle womanly natures which, if +easily afflicted, are easily consoled. And, already smiling through her +tears, she was about to quit me and join her daughter, when one of the +inn-servants came to me with some letters, which had just been delivered +by the postman. As I took them from the servant, Mrs. Ashleigh asked if +there were any for her. She expected one from her housekeeper at L----, +who had been taken ill in her absence, and about whom the kind mistress +felt anxious. The servant replied that there was no letter for her, but +one directed to Miss Ashleigh, which he had just sent up to the young +lady. + +Mrs. Ashleigh did not doubt that her housekeeper had written to Lilian, +whom she had known from the cradle and to whom she was tenderly attached, +instead of to her mistress; and, saying something to me to that effect, +quickened her steps towards the house. + +I was glancing over my own letters, chiefly from patients, with a rapid +eye, when a cry of agony, a cry as if of one suddenly stricken to the +heart, pierced my ear,--a cry from within the house. "Heavens! was that +Lilian's voice?" The same doubt struck Mrs. Ashleigh, who had already +gained the door. She rushed on, disappearing within the threshold and +calling to me to follow. I bounded forward, passed her on the stairs, was +in Lilian's room before her. + +My bride was on the floor prostrate, insensible: so still, so colourless, +that my first dreadful thought was that life had gone. In her hand was a +letter, crushed as with a convulsive sudden grasp. + +It was long before the colour came back to her cheek, before the breath +was perceptible on her lip. She woke, but not to health, not to sense. +Hours were passed in violent convulsions, in which I momentarily feared +her death. To these succeeded stupor, lethargy, not benignant sleep. +That night, my bridal night, I passed as in some chamber to which I had +been summoned to save youth from the grave. At length--at length--life +was rescued, was assured! Life came back, but the mind was gone. She +knew me not, nor her mother. She spoke little and faintly; in the words +she uttered there was no reason. + +I pass hurriedly on; my experience here was in fault, my skill +ineffectual. Day followed day, and no ray came back to the darkened +brain. We bore her, by gentle stages, to London. I was sanguine of good +result from skill more consummate than mine, and more especially devoted +to diseases of the mind. I summoned the first advisers. In vain! in +vain! + + + + +CHAPTER LXIII. + +And the cause of this direful shock? Not this time could it be traced to +some evil spell, some phantasmal influence. The cause was clear, and +might have produced effects as sinister on nerves of stronger fibre if +accompanied by a heart as delicately sensitive, an honour as exquisitely +pure. + +The letter found in her hand was without name; it was dated from L----, +and bore the postmark of that town. It conveyed to Lilian, in the biting +words which female malice can make so sharp, the tale we had sought +sedulously to guard from her ear,--her flight, the construction that +scandal put upon it. It affected for my blind infatuation a contemptuous +pity; it asked her to pause before she brought on the name I offered to +her an indelible disgrace. If she so decided, she was warned not to +return to L----, or to prepare there for the sentence that would exclude +her from the society of her own sex. I cannot repeat more, I cannot +minute down all that the letter expressed or implied, to wither the orange +blossoms in a bride's wreath. The heart that took in the venom cast its +poison on the brain, and the mind fled before the presence of a thought so +deadly to all the ideas which its innocence had heretofore conceived. + +I knew not whom to suspect of the malignity of this mean and miserable +outrage, nor did I much care to know. The handwriting, though evidently +disguised, was that of a woman, and, therefore, had I discovered the +author, my manhood would have forbidden me the idle solace of revenge. +Mrs. Poyntz, however resolute and pitiless her hostility when once +aroused, was not without a certain largeness of nature irreconcilable with +the most dastardly of all the weapons that envy or hatred can supply to +the vile. She had too lofty a self-esteem and too decorous a regard for +the moral sentiment of the world that she typified, to do, or connive at, +an act which degrades the gentlewoman. Putting her aside, what other +female enemy had Lilian provoked? No matter! What other woman at L---- +was worth the condescension of a conjecture? + +After listening to all that the ablest of my professional brethren in the +metropolis could suggest to guide me, and trying in vain their remedies, I +brought back my charge to L----. Retaining my former residence for the +visits of patients, I engaged, for the privacy of my home, a house two +miles from the town, secluded in its own grounds, and guarded by high +walls. + +Lilian's mother removed to my mournful dwelling-place. Abbot's House, in +the centre of that tattling coterie, had become distasteful to her, and to +me it was associated with thoughts of anguish and of terror. I could not, +without a shudder, have entered its grounds,--could not, without a stab at +the heart, have seen again the old fairy-land round the Monks' Well, nor +the dark cedar-tree under which Lilian's hand had been placed in mine; and +a superstitious remembrance, banished while Lilian's angel face had +brightened the fatal precincts, now revived in full force. The dying +man's curse--had it not been fulfilled? + +A new occupant for the old house was found within a week after Mrs. +Ashleigh had written from London to a house-agent at L----, intimating her +desire to dispose of the lease. Shortly before we had gone to Windermere, +Miss Brabazon had become enriched by a liberal life-annuity bequeathed to +her by her uncle, Sir Phelim. Her means thus enabled her to move from the +comparatively humble lodging she had hitherto occupied to Abbot's House; +but just as she had there commenced a series of ostentatious +entertainments, implying an ambitious desire to dispute with Mrs. Poyntz +the sovereignty of the Hill, she was attacked by some severe malady which +appeared complicated with spinal disease, and after my return to L---- I +sometimes met her, on the spacious platform of the Hill, drawn along +slowly in a Bath chair, her livid face peering forth from piles of Indian +shawls and Siberian furs, and the gaunt figure of Dr. Jones stalking by +her side, taciturn and gloomy as some sincere mourner who conducts to the +grave the patron on whose life he him self had conveniently lived. It was +in the dismal month of February that I returned to L----, and I took +possession of my plighted nuptial home on the anniversary of the very day +in which I had passed through the dead dumb world from the naturalist's +gloomy death-room. + + + + +CHAPTER LXIV. + +Lilian's wondrous gentleness of nature did not desert her in the +suspension of her reason. She was habitually calm,--very silent; when she +spoke it was rarely on earthly things, on things familiar to her past, +things one could comprehend. Her thought seemed to have quitted the +earth, seeking refuge in some imaginary heaven. She spoke of wanderings +with her father as if he were living still; she did not seem to understand +the meaning we attach to the word "Death." She would sit for hours +murmuring to herself: when one sought to catch the words, they seemed in +converse with invisible spirits. We found it cruel to disturb her at +such times, for if left unmolested, her face was serene,--more serenely +beautiful than I had seen it even in our happiest hours; but when we +called her back to the wrecks of her real life, her eye became troubled, +restless, anxious, and she would sigh--oh, so heavily! At times, if we +did not seem to observe her, she would quietly resume her once favourite +accomplishments,--drawing, music. And in these her young excellence was +still apparent, only the drawings were strange and fantastic: they had a +resemblance to those with which the painter Blake, himself a visionary, +illustrated the Poems of the "Night Thoughts" and "The Grave,"--faces of +exquisite loveliness, forms of aerial grace, coming forth from the bells +of flowers, or floating upwards amidst the spray of fountains, their +outlines melting away in fountain or in flower. So with her music: her +mother could not recognize the airs she played, for a while so sweetly and +with so ineffable a pathos, that one could scarcely hear her without +weeping; and then would come, as if involuntarily, an abrupt discord, and, +starting, she would cease and look around, disquieted, aghast. + +And still she did not recognize Mrs. Ashleigh nor myself as her mother, +her husband; but she had by degrees learned to distinguish us both from +others. To her mother she gave no name, seemed pleased to see her, but +not sensibly to miss her when away; me she called her brother: if longer +absent than usual, me she missed. When, after the toils of the day, I +came to join her, even if she spoke not, her sweet face brightened. When +she sang, she beckoned me to come near to her, and looked at me fixedly, +with eyes ever tender, often tearful; when she drew she would pause and +glance over her shoulder to see that I was watching her, and point to the +drawings with a smile of strange significance, as if they conveyed in some +covert allegory messages meant for me; so, at least, I interpreted her +smile, and taught myself to say, "Yes, Lilian, I understand!" + +And more than once, when I had so answered, she rose, and kissed my +forehead. I thought my heart would have broken when I felt that +spirit-like melancholy kiss. + +And yet how marvellously the human mind teaches itself to extract +consolations from its sorrows. The least wretched of my hours were those +that I had passed in that saddened room, seeking how to establish +fragments of intercourse, invent signs, by which each might interpret +each, between the intellect I had so laboriously cultured, so arrogantly +vaunted, and the fancies wandering through the dark, deprived of their +guide in reason. It was something even of joy to feel myself needed for +her guardianship, endeared and yearned for still by some unshattered +instinct of her heart; and when, parting from her for the night, I stole +the moment in which on her soft face seemed resting least of shadow, to +ask, in a trembling whisper, "Lilian, are the angels watching over you?" +and she would answer "Yes," sometimes in words, sometimes with a +mysterious happy smile--then--then I went to my lonely room, comforted +and thankful. + + + + +CHAPTER LXV. + +The blow that had fallen on my hearth effectually, inevitably killed all +the slander that might have troubled me in joy. Before the awe of a great +calamity the small passions of a mean malignity slink abashed. I had +requested Mrs. Ashleigh not to mention the vile letter which Lilian had +received. I would not give a triumph to the unknown calumniator, nor +wring forth her vain remorse, by the pain of acknowledging an indignity to +my darling's honour; yet, somehow or other, the true cause of Lilian's +affliction had crept out,--perhaps through the talk of servants,--and the +public shock was universal. By one of those instincts of justice that lie +deep in human hearts, though in ordinary moments overlaid by many a +worldly layer, all felt (all mothers felt especially) that innocence alone +could have been so unprepared for reproach. The explanation I had +previously given, discredited then, was now accepted without a question. +Lilian's present state accounted for all that ill nature had before +misconstrued. Her good name was restored to its maiden whiteness, by the +fate that had severed the ties of the bride. The formal dwellers on the +Hill vied with the franker, warmer-hearted households of Low Town in the +nameless attentions by which sympathy and respect are rather delicately +indicated than noisily proclaimed. Could Lilian have then recovered and +been sensible of its repentant homage, how reverently that petty world +would have thronged around her! And, ah! could fortune and man's esteem +have atoned for the blight of hopes that had been planted and cherished on +ground beyond their reach, ambition and pride might have been well +contented with the largeness of the exchange that courted their +acceptance. Patients on patients crowded on me. Sympathy with my sorrow +seemed to create and endear a more trustful belief in my skill. But the +profession I had once so enthusiastically loved became to me wearisome, +insipid, distasteful; the kindness heaped on me gave no comfort,--it but +brought before me more vividly the conviction that it came too late to +avail me: it could not restore to me the mind, the love, the life of my +life, which lay dark and shattered in the brain of my guileless Lilian. +Secretly I felt a sullen resentment. I knew that to the crowd the +resentment was unjust. The world itself is but an appearance; who can +blame it if appearances guide its laws? But to those who had been +detached from the crowd by the professions of friendship,--those who, when +the slander was yet new, and might have been awed into silence had they +stood by my side,--to the pressure of their hands, now, I had no response. + +Against Mrs. Poyntz, above all others, I bore a remembrance of unrelaxed, +unmitigable indignation. Her schemes for her daughter's marriage had +triumphed: Jane was Mrs. Ashleigh Sumner. Her mind was, perhaps, softened +now that the object which had sharpened its worldly faculties was +accomplished: but in vain, on first hearing of my affliction, had this +she-Machiavel owned a humane remorse, and, with all her keen comprehension +of each facility that circumstances gave to her will, availed herself of +the general compassion to strengthen the popular reaction in favour of +Lilian's assaulted honour; in vain had she written to me with a gentleness +of sympathy foreign to her habitual characteristics; in vain besought me +to call on her; in vain waylaid and accosted me with a humility that +almost implored forgiveness. I vouchsafed no reproach, but I could imply +no pardon. I put between her and my great sorrow the impenetrable wall of +my freezing silence. + +One word of hers at the time that I had so pathetically besought her aid, +and the parrot-flock that repeated her very whisper in noisy shrillness +would have been as loud to defend as it had been to defame; that vile +letter might never have been written. Whoever its writer, it surely was +one of the babblers who took their malice itself from the jest or the nod +of their female despot; and the writer might have justified herself in +saying she did but coarsely proclaim what the oracle of worldly opinion, +and the early friend of Lilian's own mother, had authorized her to +believe. + +By degrees, the bitterness at my heart diffused itself to the +circumference of the circle in which my life went its cheerless mechanical +round. That cordial brotherhood with his patients, which is the true +physician's happiest gift and humanest duty, forsook my breast. The +warning words of Mrs. Poyntz had come true. A patient that monopolized +my thought awaited me at my own hearth! My conscience became troubled; I +felt that my skill was lessened. I said to myself, "The physician who, on +entering the sick-room, feels, while there, something that distracts the +finest powers of his intellect from the sufferer's case is unfit for his +calling." A year had scarcely passed since my fatal wedding day, before I +had formed a resolution to quit L---- and abandon my profession; and my +resolution was confirmed, and my goal determined, by a letter I received +from Julius Faber. + +I had written at length to him, not many days after the blow that had +fallen on me, stating all circumstances as calmly and clearly as my grief +would allow; for I held his skill at a higher estimate than that of any +living brother of my art, and I was not without hope in the efficacy of +his advice. The letter I now received from him had been begun, and +continued at some length, before my communication reached him; and this +earlier portion contained animated and cheerful descriptions of his +Australian life and home, which contrasted with the sorrowful tone of the +supplement written in reply to the tidings with which I had wrung his +friendly and tender heart. In this, the latter part of his letter, he +suggested that if time had wrought no material change for the better, it +might be advisable to try the effect of foreign travel. Scenes entirely +new might stimulate observation, and the observation of things external +withdraw the sense from that brooding over images delusively formed +within, which characterized the kind of mental alienation I had described. +"Let any intellect create for itself a visionary world, and all reasonings +built on it are fallacious: the visionary world vanishes in proportion as +we can arouse a predominant interest in the actual." + +This grand authority, who owed half his consummate skill as a practitioner +to the scope of his knowledge as a philosopher, then proceeded to give me +a hope which I had not dared of myself to form. He said:-- + + "I distinguish the case you so minutely detail from that insanity which + is reason lost; here it seems rather to be reason held in suspense. + Where there is hereditary predisposition, where there is organic + change of structure in the brain,--nay, where there is that kind of + insanity which takes the epithet of moral, whereby the whole + character becomes so transformed that the prime element of sound + understanding, conscience itself, is either erased or warped into the + sanction of what in a healthful state it would most disapprove,--it is + only charlatans who promise effectual cure. But here I assume that + there is no hereditary taint; here I am convinced, from my own + observation, that the nobility of the organs, all fresh as yet in the + vigour of youth, would rather submit to death than to the permanent + overthrow of their equilibrium in reason; here, where you tell me the + character preserves all its moral attributes of gentleness and purity, + and but over-indulges its own early habit of estranged contemplation; + here, without deceiving you in false kindness, I give you the + guarantee of my experience when I bid you 'hope!' I am persuaded + that, sooner or later, the mind, thus for a time affected, will right + itself; because here, in the cause of the malady, we do but deal with + the nervous system. And that, once righted, and the mind once + disciplined in those practical duties which conjugal life + necessitates, the malady itself will never return; never be + transmitted to the children on whom your wife's restoration to health + may permit you to count hereafter. If the course of travel I + recommend and the prescriptions I conjoin with that course fail you, + let me know; and though I would fain close my days in this land, I + will come to you. I love you as my son. I will tend your wife as my + daughter." + +Foreign travel! The idea smiled on me. Julius Faber's companionship, +sympathy, matchless skill! The very thought seemed as a raft to a +drowning mariner. I now read more attentively the earlier portions of +his letter. They described, in glowing colours, the wondrous country in +which he had fixed his home; the joyous elasticity of its atmosphere; the +freshness of its primitive, pastoral life; the strangeness of its scenery, +with a Flora and a Fauna which have no similitudes in the ransacked +quarters of the Old World. And the strong impulse seized me to transfer +to the solitudes of that blithesome and hardy Nature a spirit no longer at +home in the civilized haunts of men, and household gods that shrank from +all social eyes, and would fain have found a wilderness for the desolate +hearth, on which they had ceased to be sacred if unveiled. As if to give +practical excuse and reason for the idea that seized me, Julius Faber +mentioned, incidentally, that the house and property of a wealthy +speculator in his immediate neighbourhood were on sale at a price which +seemed to me alluringly trivial, and, according to his judgment, far below +the value they would soon reach in the hands of a more patient capitalist. +He wrote at the period of the agricultural panic in the colony which +preceded the discovery of its earliest gold-fields. But his geological +science had convinced him that strata within and around the property now +for sale were auriferous, and his intelligence enabled him to predict how +inevitably man would be attracted towards the gold, and how surely the +gold would fertilize the soil and enrich its owners. He described the +house thus to be sold--in case I might know of a purchaser. It had been +built at a cost unusual in those early times, and by one who clung to +English tastes amidst Australian wilds, so that in this purchase a settler +would escape the hardships he had then ordinarily to encounter; it was, +in short, a home to which a man more luxurious than I might bear a bride +with wants less simple than those which now sufficed for my darling +Lilian. + +This communication dwelt on my mind through the avocations of the day on +which I received it, and in the evening I read all, except the supplement, +aloud to Mrs. Ashleigh in her daughter's presence. I desired to see if +Faber's descriptions of the country and its life, which in themselves were +extremely spirited and striking, would arouse Lilian's interest. At first +she did not seem to heed me while I read; but when I came to Faber's +loving account of little Amy, Lilian turned her eyes towards me, and +evidently listened with attention. He wrote how the child had already +become the most useful person in the simple household. How watchful the +quickness of the heart had made the service of the eye; all their +associations of comfort had grown round her active, noiseless movements; +it was she who bad contrived to monopolize the management, or supervision, +of all that added to Home the nameless, interior charm. Under her eyes +the rude furniture of the log-house grew inviting with English neatness; +she took charge of the dairy; she had made the garden gay with flowers +selected from the wild, and suggested the trellised walk, already covered +with hardy vine. She was their confidant in every plan of improvement, +their comforter in every anxious doubt, their nurse in every passing +ailment, her very smile a refreshment in the weariness of daily toil. +"How all that is best in womanhood," wrote the old man, with the +enthusiasm which no time had reft from his hearty, healthful genius,--"how +all that is best in womanhood is here opening fast into flower from the +bud of the infant's soul! The atmosphere seems to suit it,--the +child-woman in the child-world!" + +I heard Lilian sigh; I looked towards her furtively; tears stood in her +softened eyes; her lip was quivering. Presently, she began to rub her +right hand over the left--over the wedding-ring--at first slowly; then +with quicker movement. + +"It is not here," she said impatiently; "it is not here!" + +"What is not here?" asked Mrs. Ashleigh, hanging over her. + +Lilian leaned back her head on her mother's bosom, and answered faintly,-- + +"The stain! Some one said there was a stain on this hand. I do not see +it, do you?" + +"There is no stain, never was," said I; "the hand is white as your own +innocence, or the lily from which you take your name." + +"Hush! you do not know my name. I will whisper it. Soft!--my name is +Nightshade! Do you want to know where the lily is now, brother? I will +tell you. There, in that letter. You call her Amy,--she is the lily; +take her to your breast, hide her. Hist! what are those bells? +Marriage-bells. Do not let her hear them; for there is a cruel wind that +whispers the bells, and the bells ring out what it whispers, louder and +louder, + +"'Stain on lily + Shame on lily, + Wither lily.' + +"If she hears what the wind whispers to the bells, she will creep away +into the dark, and then she, too, will turn to Nightshade." + +"Lilian, look up, awake! You have been in a long, long dream: it is +passing away. Lilian, my beloved, my blessed Lilian!" + +Never till then had I heard from her even so vague an allusion to the +fatal calumny and its dreadful effect, and while her words now pierced my +heart, it beat, amongst its pangs, with a thrilling hope. + +But, alas! the idea that had gleamed upon her had vanished already. She +murmured something about Circles of Fire, and a Veiled Woman in black +garments; became restless, agitated, and unconscious of our presence, +and finally sank into a heavy sleep. + +That night (my room was next to hers with the intervening door open) I +heard her cry out. I hastened to her side. She was still asleep, but +there was an anxious labouring expression on her young face, and yet not +an expression wholly of pain--for her lips were parted with a smile,--that +glad yet troubled smile with which one who has been revolving some subject +of perplexity or fear greets a sudden thought that seems to solve the +riddle, or prompt the escape from danger; and as I softly took her hand +she returned my gentle pressure, and inclining towards me, said, still in +sleep,-- + +"Let us go." + +"Whither?" I answered, under my breath, so as not to awake her; "is it to +see the child of whom I read, and the land that is blooming out of the +earth's childhood?" + +"Out of the dark into the light; where the leaves do not change; where the +night is our day, and the winter our summer. Let us go! let us go!" + +"We will go. Dream on undisturbed, my bride. Oh, that the dream could +tell you that my love has not changed in our sorrow, holier and deeper +than on the day in which our vows were exchanged! In you still all my +hopes fold their wings; where you are, there still I myself have my +dreamland!" + +The sweet face grew bright as I spoke; all trouble left the smile; softly +she drew her hand from my clasp, and rested it for a moment on my bended +head, as if in blessing. + +I rose; stole back to my own room, closing the door, lest the sob I could +not stifle should mar her sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER LXVI. + +I unfolded my new prospects to Mrs. Ashleigh. She was more easily +reconciled to them than I could have supposed, judging by her habits, +which were naturally indolent, and averse to all that disturbed their even +tenor. But the great grief which had befallen her had roused up that +strength of devotion which lies dormant in all hearts that are capable of +loving another more than self. With her full consent I wrote to Faber, +communicating my intentions, instructing him to purchase the property he +had so commended, and inclosing my banker's order for the amount, on an +Australian firm. I now announced my intention to retire from my +profession; made prompt arrangements with a successor to my practice; +disposed of my two houses at L----; fixed the day of my departure. +Vanity was dead within me, or I might have been gratified by the sensation +which the news of my design created. My faults became at once forgotten; +such good qualities as I might possess were exaggerated. The public +regret vented and consoled itself in a costly testimonial, to which even +the poorest of my patients insisted on the privilege to contribute, graced +with an inscription flattering enough to have served for the epitaph on +some great man's tomb. No one who has served an art and striven for a +name is a stoic to the esteem of others; and sweet indeed would such +honours have been to me had not publicity itself seemed a wrong to the +sanctity of that affliction which set Lilian apart from the movement and +the glories of the world. + +The two persons most active in "getting up" this testimonial were, +nominally, Colonel Poyntz--in truth, his wife--and my old disparager, Mr. +Vigors! It is long since my narrative has referred to Mr. Vigors. It is +due to him now to state that, in his capacity of magistrate, and in his +own way, he had been both active and delicate in the inquiries set on foot +for Lilian during the unhappy time in which she had wandered, spellbound, +from her home. He, alone, of all the more influential magnates of the +town, had upheld her innocence against the gossips that aspersed it; and +during the last trying year of my residence at L----, he had sought me, +with frank and manly confessions of his regret for his former prejudice +against me, and assurances of the respect in which he had held me ever +since my marriage--marriage but in rite--with Lilian. He had then, strong +in his ruling passion, besought me to consult his clairvoyants as to her +case. I declined this invitation so as not to affront him,--declined it, +not as I should once have done, but with no word nor look of incredulous +disdain. The fact was, that I had conceived a solemn terror of all +practices and theories out of the beaten track of sense and science. +Perhaps in my refusal I did wrong. I know not. I was afraid of my own +imagination. He continued not less friendly in spite of my refusal. And, +such are the vicissitudes in human feeling, I parted from him whom I had +regarded as my most bigoted foe with a warmer sentiment of kindness than +for any of those on whom I had counted on friendship. He had not deserted +Lilian. It was not so with Mrs. Poyntz. I would have paid tenfold the +value of the testimonial to have erased, from the list of those who +subscribed to it, her husband's name. + +The day before I quitted L----, and some weeks after I had, in fact, +renounced my practice, I received an urgent entreaty from Miss Brabazon to +call on her. She wrote in lines so blurred that I could with difficulty +decipher them, that she was very ill, given over by Dr. Jones, who had +been attending her. She implored my opinion. + + + + +CHAPTER LXVII. + +On reaching the house, a formal man-servant, with indifferent face, +transferred me to the guidance of a hired nurse, who led me up the stairs, +and, before I was well aware of it, into the room in which Dr. Lloyd had +died. Widely different, indeed, the aspect of the walls, the character of +the furniture! The dingy paperhangings were replaced by airy muslins, +showing a rose-coloured ground through their fanciful openwork; luxurious +fauteuils, gilded wardrobes, full-length mirrors, a toilet-table tricked +out with lace and ribbons; and glittering with an array of silver gewgaws +and jewelled trinkets,--all transformed the sick chamber of the simple +man of science to a boudoir of death for the vain coquette. But the room +itself, in its high lattice and heavy ceiling, was the same--as the coffin +itself has the same confines, whether it be rich in velvets and bright +with blazoning, or rude as a pauper's shell. + +And the bed, with its silken coverlet, and its pillows edged with the +thread-work of Louvain, stood in the same sharp angle as that over which +had flickered the frowning smoke-reek above the dying, resentful foe. As +I approached, a man, who was seated beside the sufferer, turned round his +face, and gave me a silent kindly nod of recognition. He was Mr. C----, +one of the clergy of the town, the one with whom I had the most frequently +come into contact wherever the physician resigns to the priest the +language that bids man hope. Mr. C-----, as a preacher, was renowned for +his touching eloquence; as a pastor, revered for his benignant piety; as +friend and neighbour, beloved for a sweetness of nature which seemed to +regulate all the movements of a mind eminently masculine by the beat of a +heart tender as the gentlest woman's. + +This good man; then whispering something to the sufferer which I did not +overhear, stole towards me, took me by the hand, and said, also in a +whisper, "Be merciful as Christians are." He led me to the bedside, there +left me, went out, and closed the door. + +"Do you think I am really dying, Dr. Fenwick?" said a feeble voice. "I +fear Dr. Jones has misunderstood my case. I wish I had called you in at +the first, but--but I could not--I could not! Will you feel my pulse? +Don't you think you could do me good?" + +I had no need to feel the pulse in that skeleton wrist; the aspect of the +face sufficed to tell me that death was drawing near. + +Mechanically, however, I went through the hackneyed formulae of +professional questions. This vain ceremony done, as gently and delicately +as I could, I implied the expediency of concluding, if not yet settled, +those affairs which relate to this world. + +"This duty," I said, "in relieving the mind from care for others to whom +we owe the forethought of affection, often relieves the body also of many +a gnawing pain, and sometimes, to the surprise of the most experienced +physician, prolongs life itself." + +"Ah," said the old maid, peevishly, "I understand! But it is not my will +that troubles me. I should not be left to a nurse from a hospital if my +relations did not know that my annuity dies with me; and I forestalled it +in furnishing this house, Dr. Fenwick, and all these pretty things will be +sold to pay those horrid tradesmen!--very hard!--so hard!--just as I got +things about me in the way I always said I would have them if I could ever +afford it! I always said I would have my bedroom hung with muslin, like +dear Lady L----'s; and the drawing-room in geranium-coloured silk: so +pretty. You have not seen it: you would not know the house, Dr. Fenwick. +And just when all is finished, to be taken away and thrust into the grave. +It is so cruel!" And she began to weep. Her emotion brought on a violent +paroxysm, which, when she recovered from it, had produced one of those +startling changes of mind that are sometimes witnessed before +death,--changes whereby the whole character of a life seems to undergo +solemn transformation. The hard will becomes gentle, the proud meek, the +frivolous earnest. That awful moment when the things of earth pass away +like dissolving scenes, leaving death visible on the background by the +glare that shoots up in the last flicker of life's lamp. + +And when she lifted her haggard face from my shoulder, and heard my +pitying, soothing voice, it was not the grief of a trifler at the loss of +fondled toys that spoke in the fallen lines of her lip, in the woe of her +pleading eyes. + +"So this is death," she said. "I feel it hurrying on. I must speak. I +promised Mr. C---- that I would. Forgive me, can you--can you? That +letter--that letter to Lilian Ashleigh, I wrote it! Oh, do not look at me +so terribly; I never thought it could do such evil! And am I not punished +enough? I truly believed when I wrote that Miss Ashleigh was deceiving +you, and once I was silly enough to fancy that you might have liked me. +But I had another motive; I had been so poor all my life--I had become +rich unexpectedly; I set my heart on this house--I had always fancied +it--and I thought if I could prevent Miss Ashleigh marrying you, and scare +her and her mother from coming back to L----, I could get the house. And +I did get it. What for?--to die. I had not been here a week before I got +the hurt that is killing me--a fall down the stairs,--coming out of this +very room; the stairs had been polished. If I had stayed in my old +lodging, it would not have happened. Oh, say you forgive me! Say, say +it, even if you do not feel you can! Say it!" And the miserable woman +grasped me by the arm as Dr. Lloyd had grasped me. + +I shaded my averted face with my hands; my heart heaved with the agony of +my suppressed passion. A wrong, however deep, only to myself, I could +have pardoned without effort; such a wrong to Lilian,--no! I could not +say "I forgive." + +The dying wretch was perhaps more appalled by my silence than she would +have been by my reproach. Her voice grew shrill in her despair. + +"You will not pardon me! I shall die with your curse on my head! Mercy! +mercy! That good man, Mr. C----, assured me you would be merciful. Have +you never wronged another? Has the Evil One never tempted you?" + +Then I spoke in broken accents: "Me! Oh, had it been I whom you +defamed--but a young creature so harmless, so unoffending, and for so +miserable a motive!" + +"But I tell you, I swear to you, I never dreamed I could cause such +sorrow; and that young man, that Margrave, put it into my head!" + +"Margrave! He had left L---- long before that letter was written!" + +"But he came back for a day just before I wrote: it was the very day. I +met him in the lane yonder. He asked after you,--after Miss Ashleigh; +and when he spoke he laughed, and I said, 'Miss Ashleigh had been ill, and +was gone away;' and he laughed again. And I thought be knew more than he +would tell me, so I asked him if he supposed Mrs. Ashleigh would come +back, and said how much I should like to take this house if she did not; +and again he laughed, and said, 'Birds never stay in the nest after the +young ones are hurt,' and went away singing. When I got home, his laugh +and his song haunted me. I thought I saw him still in my room, prompting +me to write, and I sat down and wrote. Oh, pardon, pardon me! I have +been a foolish poor creature, but never meant to do such harm. The Evil +One tempted me! There he is, near me now! I see him yonder! there, at +the doorway. He comes to claim me! As you hope for mercy yourself, free +me from him! Forgive me!" + +I made an effort over myself. In naming Margrave as her tempter, the +woman had suggested an excuse, echoed from that innermost cell of my mind, +which I recoiled from gazing into, for there I should behold his image. +Inexpiable though the injury she had wrought against me and mine, still +the woman was human--fellow-creature-like myself;--but he? + +I took the pale hand that still pressed my arm, and said, with firm +voice,-- + +"Be comforted. In the name of Lilian, my wife, I forgive you for her and +for me as freely and as fully as we are enjoined by Him, against whose +precepts the best of us daily sin, to forgive--we children of wrath--to +forgive one another!" + +"Heaven bless you!--oh, bless you!" she murmured, sinking back upon her +pillow. + +"Ah!" thought I, "what if the pardon I grant for a wrong far deeper than I +inflicted on him whose imprecation smote me in this chamber, should indeed +be received as atonement, and this blessing on the lips of the dying annul +the dark curse that the dead has left on my path through the Valley of the +Shadow!" + +I left my patient sleeping quietly,--the sleep that precedes the last. As +I went down the stairs into the hall, I saw Mrs. Poyntz standing at the +threshold, speaking to the man-servant and the nurse. + +I would have passed her with a formal bow, but she stopped me. + +"I came to inquire after poor Miss Brabazon," said she. + +"You can tell me more than the servants can: is there no hope?" + +"Let the nurse go up and watch beside her. She may pass away in the sleep +into which she has fallen." + +"Allen Fenwick, I must speak with you--nay, but for a few minutes. I hear +that you leave L---- to-morrow. It is scarcely among the chances of life +that we should meet again." While thus saying, she drew me along the lawn +down the path that led towards her own home. "I wish," said she, +earnestly, "that you could part with a kindlier feeling towards me; but I +can scarcely expect it. Could I put myself in your place, and be moved by +your feelings, I know that I should be implacable; but I--" + +"But you, madam, are The World! and the World governs itself, and +dictates to others, by laws which seem harsh to those who ask from its +favour the services which the World cannot tender, for the World admits +favourites, but ignores friends. You did but act to me as the World ever +acts to those who mistake its favour for its friendship." + +"It is true," said Mrs. Poyntz, with blunt candour; and we continued to +walk on silently. At length she said abruptly, "But do you not rashly +deprive yourself of your only consolation in sorrow? When the heart +suffers, does your skill admit any remedy like occupation to the mind? +Yet you abandon that occupation to which your mind is most accustomed; you +desert your career; you turn aside, in the midst of the race, from the +fame which awaits at the goal; you go back from civilization itself, and +dream that all your intellectual cravings can find content in the life of +a herdsman, amidst the monotony of a wild! No, you will repent, for you +are untrue to your mind!" + +"I am sick of the word 'mind'!" said I, bitterly. And therewith I +relapsed into musing. + +The enigmas which had foiled my intelligence in the unravelled Sibyl Book +of Nature were mysteries strange to every man's normal practice of +thought, even if reducible to the fraudulent impressions of outward sense; +for illusions in a brain otherwise healthy suggest problems in our human +organization which the colleges that record them rather guess at than +solve. But the blow which had shattered my life had been dealt by the +hand of a fool. Here, there were no mystic enchantments. Motives the +most commonplace and paltry, suggested to a brain as trivial and shallow +as ever made the frivolity of woman a theme for the satire of poets, had +sufficed, in devastating the field of my affections, to blast the uses for +which I had cultured my mind; and had my intellect been as great as heaven +ever gave to man, it would have been as vain a shield as mine against the +shaft that bad lodged in my heart. While I had, indeed, been preparing my +reason and my fortitude to meet such perils, weird and marvellous, as +those by which tales round the winter fireside scare the credulous child, +a contrivance--so vulgar and hackneyed that not a day passes but what some +hearth is vexed by an anonymous libel--had wrought a calamity more dread +than aught which my dark guess into the Shadow-Land unpierced by +Philosophy could trace to the prompting of malignant witchcraft. So, ever +this truth runs through all legends of ghost and demon--through the +uniform records of what wonder accredits and science rejects as the +supernatural--lo! the dread machinery whose wheels roll through Hades! +What need such awful engines for such mean results? The first blockhead +we meet in our walk to our grocer's can tell us more than the ghost tells +us; the poorest envy we ever aroused hurts us more than the demon. How +true an interpreter is Genius to Hell as to Earth! The Fiend comes to +Faust, the tired seeker of knowledge; Heaven and Hell stake their cause in +the Mortal's temptation. And what does the Fiend to astonish the Mortal? +Turn wine into fire, turn love into crime. We need no Mephistopheles to +accomplish these marvels every day! + +Thus silently thinking, I walked by the side of the world-wise woman; and +when she next spoke, I looked up, and saw that we were at the Monks' Well, +where I had first seen Lilian gazing into heaven! + +Mrs. Poyntz had, as we walked, placed her hand on my arm; and, turning +abruptly from the path into the glade, I found myself standing by her side +in the scene where a new sense of being had first disclosed to my sight +the hues with which Love, the passionate beautifier, turns into purple and +gold the gray of the common air. Thus, when romance has ended in sorrow, +and the Beautiful fades from the landscape, the trite and positive forms +of life, banished for a time, reappear, and deepen our mournful +remembrance of the glories they replace. And the Woman of the World, +finding how little I was induced to respond to her when she had talked of +myself, began to speak, in her habitual clear, ringing accents, of her own +social schemes and devices,-- + +"I shall miss you when you are gone, Allen Fenwick; for though, during the +last year or so, all actual intercourse between us has ceased, yet my +interest in you gave some occupation to my thoughts when I sat +alone,--having lost my main object of ambition in settling my daughter, +and having no longer any one in the house with whom I could talk of the +future, or for whom I could form a project. It is so wearisome to count +the changes which pass within us, that we take interest in the changes +that pass without. Poyntz still has his weather-glass; I have no longer +my Jane." + +"I cannot linger with you on this spot," said I, impatiently turning back +into the path; she followed, treading over fallen leaves. And unheeding +my interruption, she thus continued her hard talk,-- + +"But I am not sick of my mind, as you seem to be of yours; I am only +somewhat tired of the little cage in which, since it has been alone, it +ruffles its plumes against the flimsy wires that confine it from wider +space. I shall take up my home for a time with the new-married couple: +they want me. Ashleigh Sumner has come into parliament. He means to +attend regularly and work hard, but he does not like Jane to go into the +world by herself, and he wishes her to go into the world, because he wants +a wife to display his wealth for the improvement of his position. In +Ashleigh Sumner's house I shall have ample scope for my energies, such as +they are. I have a curiosity to see the few that perch on the wheels of +the State and say, 'It is we who move the wheels!' It will amuse me to +learn if I can maintain in a capital the authority I have won in a country +town; if not, I can but return to my small principality. Wherever I live +I must sway, not serve. If I succeed--as I ought, for in Jane's beauty +and Ashleigh's fortune I have materials for the woof of ambition, wanting +which here, I fall asleep over my knitting--if I succeed, there will be +enough to occupy the rest of my life. Ashleigh Sumner must be a power; +the power will be represented and enjoyed by my child, and created and +maintained by me! Allen Fenwick, do as I do. Be world with the world, +and it will only be in moments of spleen and chagrin that you will sigh to +think that the heart may be void when the mind is full. Confess you envy +me while you listen." + +"Not so; all that to you seems so great appears to me so small! Nature +alone is always grand, in her terrors as well as her charms. The World +for you, Nature for me. Farewell!" + +"Nature!" said Mrs. Poyntz, compassionately. "Poor Allen Fenwick! Nature +indeed,--intellectual suicide! Nay, shake hands, then, if for the last +time." + +So we shook hands and parted, where the wicket-gate and the stone stairs +separated my blighted fairy-land from the common thoroughfare. + + + + +CHAPTER LXVIII. + +That night as I was employed in collecting the books and manuscripts which +I proposed to take with me, including my long-suspended physiological +work, and such standard authorities as I might want to consult or refer to +in the portions yet incompleted, my servant entered to inform me, in +answer to the inquiries I had sent him to make, that Miss Brabazon had +peacefully breathed her last an hour before. Well! my pardon had perhaps +soothed her last moments; but how unavailing her death-bed repentance to +undo the wrong she had done! + +I turned from that thought, and, glancing at the work into which I had +thrown all my learning, methodized into system with all my art, I recalled +the pity which Mrs. Poyntz had expressed for my meditated waste of mind. +The tone of superiority which this incarnation of common-sense accompanied +by uncommon will assumed over all that was too deep or too high for her +comprehension had sometimes amused me; thinking over it now, it piqued. I +said to myself, "After all, I shall bear with me such solace as +intellectual occupation can afford. I shall have leisure to complete this +labour; and a record that I have lived and thought may outlast all the +honours which worldly ambition may bestow upon Ashleigh Summer!" And, as +I so murmured, my hand, mechanically selecting the books I needed, fell on +the Bible that Julius Faber had given to me. + +It opened at the Second Book of Esdras, which our Church places amongst +the Apocrypha, and is generally considered by scholars to have been +written in the first or second century of the Christian era,[1]--but in +which the questions raised by man in the remotest ages, to which we can +trace back his desire "to comprehend the ways of the Most High," are +invested with a grandeur of thought and sublimity of word to which I know +of no parallel in writers we call profane. + +My eye fell on this passage in the lofty argument between the Angel whose +name was Uriel, and the Prophet, perplexed by his own cravings for +knowledge:-- + + "He [the Angel] answered me, and said, I went into a forest, into a + plain, and the trees took counsel, + + "And said, Come, let us go and make war against the sea, that it may + depart away before us, and that we may make us more woods. + + "The floods of the sea also in like manner took counsel, and said, + Come, let us go up and subdue the woods of the plain, that there also + we may make us another country. + + "The thought of the wood was in vain, for the fire came and consumed it. + + "The thought of the floods of the sea came likewise to nought, for the + sand stood up and stopped them. + + "If thou went judge now betwixt these two, whom wouldst thou begin to + justify; or whom wouldst thou condemn? + + "I answered and said, Verily it is a foolish thought that they both + have devised; for the ground is given unto the wood, and the sea also + hath his place to bear his floods. + + "Then answered he me, and said, Thou halt given a right judgment; but + why judgest thou not thyself also? + + "For like as the ground is given unto the wood, and the sea to his + floods, even so they that dwell upon the earth may understand nothing + but that which is upon the earth; and He that dwelleth above the + heavens may only understand the things that are above the height of + the heavens." + +I paused at those words, and, closing the Sacred Volume, fell into deep, +unquiet thought. + +[1] Such is the supposition of Jahn. Dr. Lee, however, is of opinion that +the author was contemporary, and, indeed, identical, with the author of +the Book of Enoch. + + + + + +CHAPTER LXIX. + +I had hoped that the voyage would produce some beneficial effect upon +Lilian; but no effect, good or bad, was perceptible, except, perhaps, a +deeper silence, a gentler calm. She loved to sit on the deck when the +nights were fair, and the stars mirrored on the deep. And once thus, as I +stood beside her, bending over the rail of the vessel, and gazing on the +long wake of light which the moon made amidst the darkness of an ocean to +which no shore could be seen, I said to myself, "Where is my track of +light through the measureless future? Would that I could believe as I did +when a child! Woe is me, that all the reasonings I take from my knowledge +should lead me away from the comfort which the peasant who mourns finds in +faith! Why should riddles so dark have been thrust upon me,--me, no fond +child of fancy; me, sober pupil of schools the severest? Yet what +marvel--the strangest my senses have witnessed or feigned in the fraud +they have palmed on me--is greater than that by which a simple affection, +that all men profess to have known, has changed the courses of life +prearranged by my hopes and confirmed by my judgment? How calmly before I +knew love I have anatomized its mechanism, as the tyro who dissects the +web-work of tissues and nerves in the dead! Lo! it lives, lives in me; +and, in living, escapes from my scalpel, and mocks all my knowledge. Can +love be reduced to the realm of the senses? No; what nun is more barred +by her grate from the realm of the senses than my bride by her solemn +affliction? Is love, then, the union of kindred, harmonious minds? No, +my beloved one sits by my side, and I guess not her thoughts, and my mind +is to her a sealed fountain. Yet I love her more--oh, ineffably +more!--for the doom which destroys the two causes philosophy assigns to +love--in the form, in the mind! How can I now, in my vain physiology, say +what is love, what is not? Is it love which must tell me that man has a +soul, and that in soul will be found the solution of problems never to be +solved in body or mind alone?" + +My self-questionings halted here as Lilian's hand touched my shoulder. +She had risen from her seat, and had come to me. + +"Are not the stars very far from earth?" she said. + +"Very far." + +"Are they seen for the first time to-night?" + +"They were seen, I presume, as we see them, by the fathers of all human +races!" +" +"Yet close below us they shine reflected in the waters; and yet, see, wave +flows on wave before we can count it!" + +"Lilian, by what sympathy do you read and answer my thought?" + +Her reply was incoherent and meaningless. If a gleam of intelligence had +mysteriously lighted my heart to her view, it was gone. But drawing her +nearer towards me, my eye long followed wistfully the path of light, +dividing the darkness on either hand, till it closed in the sloping +horizon. + + + + +CHAPTER LXX. + +The voyage is over. At the seaport at which we landed I found a letter +from Faber. My instructions had reached him in time to effect the +purchase on which his descriptions had fixed my desire. The stock, the +implements of husbandry, the furniture of the house, were included in the +purchase. All was prepared for my arrival, and I hastened from the then +miserable village, which may some day rise into one of the mightiest +capitals of the world, to my lodge in the wilderness. + +It was the burst of the Australian spring, which commences in our autumn +month of October. The air was loaded with the perfume of the acacias. +Amidst the glades of the open forest land, or climbing the craggy banks +of winding silvery creeks,[1] creepers and flowers of dazzling hue +contrasted the olive-green of the surrounding foliage. The exhilarating +effect of the climate in that season heightens the charm of the strange +scenery. In the brilliancy of the sky, in the lightness of the +atmosphere, the sense of life is wondrously quickened. With the very +breath the Adventurer draws in from the racy air, he feels as if +inhaling hope. + +We have reached our home, we are settled in it; the early unfamiliar +impressions are worn away. We have learned to dispense with much that we +at first missed, and are reconciled to much that at first disappointed or +displeased. + +The house is built but of logs; the late proprietor had commenced, upon a +rising ground, a mile distant, a more imposing edifice of stone, but it is +not half finished. + +This log-house is commodious, and much has been done, within and without, +to conceal or adorn its primitive rudeness. It is of irregular, +picturesque form, with verandas round three sides of it, to which the +grape-vine has been trained, with glossy leaves that clamber up to the +gable roof. There is a large garden in front, in which many English +fruit-trees have been set, and grow fast amongst the plants of the tropics +and the orange-trees of Southern Europe. Beyond stretch undulous +pastures, studded not only with sheep, but with herds of cattle, which my +speculative predecessor had bred from parents of famous stock, and +imported from England at mighty cost; but as yet the herds had been of +little profit, and they range their luxuriant expanse of pasture with as +little heed. To the left soar up, in long range, the many-coloured hills; +to the right meanders a creek, belted by feathery trees; and on its +opposite bank a forest opens, through frequent breaks, into park-like +glades and alleys. The territory, of which I so suddenly find myself the +lord, is vast, even for a colonial capitalist. + +It had been originally purchased as "a special survey," comprising twenty +thousand acres, with the privilege of pasture over forty thousand more. +In very little of this land, though it includes some of the most fertile +districts in the known world, has cultivation been even commenced. At the +time I entered into possession, even sheep were barely profitable; labour +was scarce and costly. Regarded as a speculation, I could not wonder that +my predecessor fled in fear from his domain. Had I invested the bulk of +my capital in this lordly purchase, I should have deemed myself a ruined +man; but a villa near London, with a hundred acres, would have cost me as +much to buy, and thrice as much to keep up. I could afford the investment +I had made. I found a Scotch bailiff already on the estate, and I was +contented to escape from rural occupations, to which I brought no +experience, by making it worth his while to serve me with zeal. Two +domestics of my own, and two who had been for many years with Mrs. +Ashleigh, had accompanied us: they remained faithful and seemed contented. +So the clockwork of our mere household arrangements went on much the same +as in our native home. Lilian was not subjected to the ordinary +privations and discomforts that await the wife even of the wealthy +emigrant. Alas! would she have heeded them if she had been? + +The change of scene wrought a decided change for the better in her health +and spirits, but not such as implied a dawn of reviving reason. But her +countenance was now more rarely overcast. Its usual aspect was glad with +a soft mysterious smile. She would murmur snatches of songs, that were +partly borrowed from English poets, and partly glided away into what +seemed spontaneous additions of her own,--wanting intelligible meaning, +but never melody nor rhyme. Strange, that memory and imitation--the two +earliest parents of all inventive knowledge--should still be so active, +and judgment--the after faculty, that combines the rest into purpose and +method-be annulled! + +Julius Faber I see continually, though his residence is a few miles +distant. He is sanguine as to Lilian's ultimate recovery; and, to my +amazement and to my envy, he has contrived, by some art which I cannot +attain, to establish between her and himself intelligible communion. She +comprehends his questions, when mine, though the simplest, seem to her in +unknown language; and he construes into sense her words, that to me are +meaningless riddles. + +"I was right," he said to me one day, leaving her seated in the garden +beside her quiet, patient mother, and joining me where I lay--listless yet +fretful--under the shadeless gum-trees, gazing not on the flocks and +fields that I could call my own, but on the far mountain range, from which +the arch of the horizon seemed to spring,--"I was right," said the great +physician; "this is reason suspended, not reason lost. Your wife will +recover; but--" + +"But what?" + +"Give me your arm as I walk homeward, and I will tell you the conclusion +to which I have come." + +I rose, the old man leaned on me, and we went down the valley along the +craggy ridges of the winding creek. The woodland on the opposite bank was +vocal with the chirp and croak and chatter of Australian birds,--all +mirthful, all songless, save that sweetest of warblers, which some early +irreverent emigrant degraded to the name of magpie, but whose note is +sweeter than the nightingale's, and trills through the lucent air with a +distinct ecstatic melody of joy that dominates all the discords, so +ravishing the sense, that, while it sings, the ear scarcely heeds the +scream of the parrots. + +[1] Creek is the name given by Australian colonists to precarious water +Courses and tributary streams. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXI. + +"You may remember," said Julius Faber, "Sir Humphry Davy's eloquent +description of the effect produced on him by the inhalation of nitrous +oxide. He states that he began to lose the perception of external things; +trains of vivid visible images rapidly passed through his mind, and were +connected with words in such a manner as to produce perceptions perfectly +novel. 'I existed,' he said, 'in a world of newly-connected and +newly-modified ideas.' When he recovered, he exclaimed: 'Nothing exists +but thoughts; the universe is composed of impressions, ideas, pleasures, +and pains!' + +"Now observe, that thus a cultivator of positive science, endowed with one +of the healthiest of human brains, is, by the inhalation of a gas, +abstracted from all external life,--enters into a new world, which +consists of images he himself creates and animates so vividly that, on +waking, he resolves the universe itself into thoughts." + +"Well," said I, "but what inference do you draw from that voluntary +experiment, applicable to the malady of which you bid me hope the cure?" + +"Simply this: that the effect produced on a healthful brain by the nitrous +oxide may be produced also by moral causes operating on the blood, or on +the nerves. There is a degree of mental excitement in which ideas are +more vivid than sensations, and then the world of external things gives +way to the world within the brain.[1] But this, though a suspension of +that reason which comprehends accuracy of judgment, is no more a permanent +aberration of reason than were Sir Humphry Davy's visionary ecstasies +under the influence of the gas. The difference between the two states of +suspension is that of time, and it is but an affair of time with our +beloved patient. Yet prepare yourself. I fear that the mind will not +recover without some critical malady of the body!" + +"Critical! but not dangerous?--say not dangerous! I can endure the +pause of her reason; I could not endure the void in the universe if her +life were to fade from the earth." + +"Poor friend! would not you yourself rather lose life than reason?" + +"I--yes! But we men are taught to set cheap value on our own lives; we do +not estimate at the same rate the lives of those we love. Did we do so, +Humanity would lose its virtues." + +"What, then! Love teaches that there is something of nobler value than +mere mind? Yet surely it cannot be the mere body? What is it, if not +that continuance of being which your philosophy declines to +acknowledge,--namely, soul? If you fear so painfully that your Lilian +should die, is it not that you fear to lose her forever?" + +"Oh, cease, cease!" I cried impatiently. "I cannot now argue on +metaphysics. What is it that you anticipate of harm to her life? Her +health has been stronger ever since her affliction. She never seems to +know ailment now. Do you not perceive that her cheek has a more hardy +bloom, her frame a more rounded symmetry, than when you saw her in +England?" + +"Unquestionably. Her physical forces have been silently recruiting +themselves in the dreams which half lull, half amuse her imagination. +Imagination! that faculty, the most glorious which is bestowed on the +human mind, because it is the faculty which enables thought to create, is +of all others the most exhausting to life when unduly stimulated and +consciously reasoning on its own creations. I think it probable that had +this sorrow not befallen you, you would have known a sorrow yet +graver,--you would have long survived your Lilian. As it is now, when she +recovers, her whole organization, physical and mental, will have undergone +a beneficent change. But, I repeat my prediction,--some severe malady of +the body will precede the restoration of the mind; and it is my hope that +the present suspense or aberration of the more wearing powers of the mind +may fit the body to endure and surmount the physical crisis. I remember a +case, within my own professional experience, in many respects similar to +this, but in other respects it was less hopeful. I was consulted by a +young student of a very delicate physical frame, of great mental energies, +and consumed by an intense ambition. He was reading for university +honours. He would not listen to me when I entreated him to rest his mind. +I thought that he was certain to obtain the distinction for which he +toiled, and equally certain to die a few months after obtaining it. He +falsified both my prognostics. He so overworked himself that, on the day +of examination, his nerves were agitated, his memory failed him; he +passed, not without a certain credit, but fell far short of the rank +amongst his fellow competitors to which he aspired. Here, then, the +irritated mind acted on the disappointed heart, and raised a new train of +emotions. He was first visited by spectral illusions; then he sank into a +state in which the external world seemed quite blotted out. He heeded +nothing that was said to him; seemed to see nothing that was placed before +his eyes,--in a word, sensations became dormant, ideas preconceived +usurped their place, and those ideas gave him pleasure. He believed that +his genius was recognized, and lived amongst its supposed creations +enjoying an imaginary fame. So it went on for two years, during which +suspense of his reason, his frail form became robust and vigorous. At the +end of that time he was seized with a fever, which would have swept him in +three days to the grave had it occurred when I was first called in to +attend him. He conquered the fever, and, in recovering, acquired the full +possession of the intellectual faculties so long suspended. When I last +saw him, many years afterwards, he was in perfect health, and the object +of his young ambition was realized; the body had supported the mind,--he +had achieved distinction. Now what had so, for a time, laid this strong +intellect into visionary sleep? The most agonizing of human emotions in a +noble spirit,--shame! What has so stricken down your Lilian? You have +told me the story: shame!--the shame of a nature pre-eminently pure. But +observe that, in his case as in hers, the shock inflicted does not produce +a succession of painful illusions: on the contrary, in both, the illusions +are generally pleasing. Had the illusions been painful, the body would +have suffered, the patient died. Why did a painful shock produce pleasing +illusions? Because, no matter how a shock on the nerves may originate, if +it affects the reason, it does but make more vivid than impressions from +actual external objects the ideas previously most cherished. Such ideas +in the young student were ideas of earthly fame; such ideas in the young +maiden are ideas of angel comforters and heavenly Edens. You miss her +mind on the earth, and, while we speak, it is in paradise." + +"Much that you say, my friend, is authorized by the speculations of great +writers, with whom I am not unfamiliar; but in none of those writers, nor +in your encouraging words, do I find a solution for much that has no +precedents in my experience,--much, indeed, that has analogies in my +reading, but analogies which I have hitherto despised as old wives' +fables. I have bared to your searching eye the weird mysteries of my +life. How do you account for facts which you cannot resolve into +illusions,--for the influence which that strange being, Margrave, +exercised over Lilian's mind or fancy, so that for a time her love for me +was as dormant as is her reason now; so that he could draw her--her whose +nature you admit to be singularly pure and modest--from her mother's home? +The magic wand; the trance into which that wand threw Margrave himself; +the apparition which it conjured up in my own quiet chamber when my mind +was without a care and my health without a flaw,--how account for all +this: as you endeavoured, and perhaps successfully, to account for all my +impressions of the Vision in the Museum, of the luminous, haunting shadow +in its earlier apparitions, when my fancy was heated, my heart tormented, +and, it might be, even the physical forces of this strong frame +disordered?" + +"Allen," said the old pathologist, "here we approach a ground which few +physicians have dared to examine. Honour to those who, like our bold +contemporary, Elliotson, have braved scoff and sacrificed dross in seeking +to extract what is practical in uses, what can be tested by experiment, +from those exceptional phenomena on which magic sought to found a +philosophy, and to which philosophy tracks the origin of magic." + +"What! do I understand you? Is it you, Julius Faber, who attach faith to +the wonders attributed to animal magnetism and electro-biology, or +subscribe to the doctrines which their practitioners teach?" + +"I have not examined into those doctrines, nor seen with my own eyes the +wonders recorded, upon evidence too respectable, nevertheless, to permit +me peremptorily to deny what I have not witnessed.[2] But wherever I look +through the History of Mankind in all ages and all races, I find a +concurrence in certain beliefs which seem to countenance the theory that +there is in some peculiar and rare temperaments a power over forms of +animated organization, with which they establish some unaccountable +affinity; and even, though much more rarely, a power over inanimate +matter. You are familiar with the theory of Descartes, 'that those +particles of the blood which penetrate to the brain do not only serve to +nourish and sustain its substance, but to produce there a certain very +subtle Aura, or rather a flame very vivid and pure, that obtains the name +of the Animal Spirits;'[3] and at the close of his great fragment upon +Man, he asserts that 'this flame is of no other nature than all the fires +which are in inanimate bodies.'[4] This notion does but forestall the +more recent doctrine that electricity is more or less in all, or nearly +all, known matter. Now, whether in the electric fluid or some other fluid +akin to it of which we know still less, thus equally pervading all matter, +there may be a certain magnetic property more active, more operative upon +sympathy in some human constitutions than in others, and which can account +for the mysterious power I have spoken of, is a query I might suggest, but +not an opinion I would hazard. For an opinion I must have that basis of +experience or authority which I do not need when I submit a query to the +experience and authority of others. Still, the supposition conveyed in +the query is so far worthy of notice, that the ecstatic temperament (in +which phrase I comprehend all constitutional mystics) is peculiarly +sensitive to electric atmospheric influences. This is a fact which most +medical observers will have remarked in the range of their practice. +Accordingly, I was prepared to find Mr Hare Townshend, in his interesting +work,[5] state that he himself was of 'the electric temperament,' sparks +flying from his hair when combed in the dark, etc. That accomplished +writer, whose veracity no one would impugn, affirms that between this +electrical endowment and whatever mesmeric properties he might possess, +there is a remarkable relationship and parallelism. Whatever state of the +atmosphere tends to accumulate and insulate electricity in the body, +promotes equally' (says Mr. Townshend) 'the power and facility with which +I influence others mesmerically.' What Mr. Townshend thus observes in +himself, American physicians and professors of chemistry depose to have +observed in those modern magicians, the mediums of (so-called) 'spirit +manifestation.' They state that all such mediums are of the electric +temperament, thus everywhere found allied with the ecstatic, and their +power varies in proportion as the state of the atmosphere serves to +depress or augment the electricity stored in themselves. Here, then, in +the midst of vagrant phenomena, either too hastily dismissed as altogether +the tricks of fraudful imposture, or too credulously accepted as +supernatural portents-here, at least, in one generalized fact, we may, +perhaps, find a starting point, from which inductive experiment may +arrive, soon or late, at a rational theory. But however the power of +which we are speaking (a power accorded to special physical temperament) +may or may not be accounted for by some patient student of nature, I am +persuaded that it is in that power we are to seek for whatever is not +wholly imposture, in the attributes assigned to magic or witchcraft. It +is well said, by a writer who has gone into the depth of these subjects +with the research of a scholar and the science of a pathologist, 'that if +magic had exclusively reposed on credulity and falsehood, its reign would +never have endured so long; but that its art took its origin in singular +phenomena, proper to certain affections of the nerves, or manifested in +the conditions of sleep. These phenomena, the principle of which was at +first unknown, served to root faith in magic, and often abused even +enlightened minds. The enchanters and magicians arrived, by divers +practices, at the faculty of provoking in other brains a determined order +of dreams, of engendering hallucinations of all kinds, of inducing fits of +hypnotism, trance, mania, during which the persons so affected imagined +that they saw, heard, touched, supernatural beings, conversed with them, +proved their influences, assisted at prodigies of which magic proclaimed +itself to possess the secret. The public, the enchanters, and the +enchanted were equally dupes.'[6] Accepting this explanation, +unintelligible to no physician of a practice so lengthened as mine has +been, I draw from it the corollary, that as these phenomena are exhibited +only by certain special affections, to which only certain special +constitutions are susceptible, so not in any superior faculties of +intellect, or of spiritual endowment, but in peculiar physical +temperaments, often strangely disordered, the power of the sorcerer in +affecting the imagination of others is to be sought. In the native tribes +of Australasia the elders are instructed in the arts of this so-called +sorcery, but only in a very few constitutions does instruction avail to +produce effects in which the savages recognize the powers of a sorcerer: +it is so with the Obi of the negroes. The fascination of Obi is an +unquestionable fact, but the Obi man cannot be trained by formal lessons; +he is born a fascinator, as a poet is born a poet. It is so with the +Laplanders, of whom Tornoeus reports that of those instructed in the +magical art 'only a few are capable of it.' 'Some,' he says, 'are +naturally magicians.' And this fact is emphatically insisted upon by the +mystics of our own middle ages, who state that a man must be born a +magician; in other words, that the gift is constitutional, though +developed by practice and art. Now, that this gift and its practice +should principally obtain in imperfect states of civilization, and fade +into insignificance in the busy social enlightenment of cities, may be +accounted for by reference to the known influences of imagination. In the +cruder states of social life not only is imagination more frequently +predominant over all other faculties, but it has not the healthful vents +which the intellectual competition of cities and civilization affords. +The man who in a savage tribe, or in the dark feudal ages, would be a +magician, is in our century a poet, an orator, a daring speculator, an +inventive philosopher. In other words, his imagination is drawn to +pursuits congenial to those amongst whom it works. It is the tendency of +all intellect to follow the directions of the public opinion amidst which +it is trained. Where a magician is held in reverence or awe, there will +be more practitioners of magic than where a magician is despised as an +impostor or shut up as a lunatic. In Scandinavia, before the introduction +of Christianity, all tradition records the wonderful powers of the Vala, +or witch, who was then held in reverence and honour. Christianity was +introduced, and the early Church denounced the Vala as the instrument of +Satan, and from that moment down dropped the majestic prophetess into a +miserable and execrated old hag!" + +"The ideas you broach," said I, musingly, "have at moments crossed me, +though I have shrunk from reducing them to a theory which is but one of +pure hypothesis. But this magic, after all, then, you would place in the +imagination of the operator, acting on the imagination of those whom it +affects? Here, at least, I can follow you, to a certain extent, for here +we get back into the legitimate realm of physiology." + +"And possibly," said Faber, "we may find hints to guide us to useful +examination, if not to complete solution of problems that, once +demonstrated, may lead to discoveries of infinite value,--hints, I say, in +two writers of widely opposite genius, Van Helmont and Bacon. Van +Helmont, of all the mediaeval mystics, is, in spite of his many +extravagant whims, the one whose intellect is the most suggestive to the +disciplined reasoners of our day. He supposed that the faculty which he +calls Fantasy, and which we familiarly call Imagination,--is invested with +the power of creating for itself ideas independent of the senses, each +idea clothed in a form fabricated by the imagination, and becoming an +operative entity. This notion is so far favoured by modern physiologists, +that Lincke reports a case where the eye itself was extirpated; yet the +extirpation was followed by the appearance of luminous figures before the +orbit. And again, a woman, stone-blind, complained of 'luminous images, +with pale colours, before her eyes.' Abercrombie mentions the case 'of a +lady quite blind, her eyes being also disorganized and sunk, who never +walked out without seeing a little old woman in a red cloak, who seemed to +walk before her.'[7] Your favourite authority, the illustrious Miller, +who was himself in the habit of 'seeing different images in the field of +vision when he lay quietly down to sleep, asserts that these images are +not merely presented to the fancy, but that even the images of dreams are +really seen,' and that 'any one may satisfy himself of this by accustoming +himself regularly to open his eyes when waking after a dream,--the images +seen in the dream are then sometimes visible, and can be observed to +disappear gradually.' He confirms this statement not only by the result +of his own experience, but by the observations made by Spinoza, and the +yet higher authority of Aristotle, who accounts for spectral appearance as +the internal action of the sense of vision.[8] And this opinion is +favoured by Sir David Brewster, whose experience leads him to suggest +'that the objects of mental contemplation may be seen as distinctly as +external objects, and will occupy the same local position in the axis of +vision as if they had been formed by the agency of light.' Be this as it +may, one fact remains,--that images can be seen even by the blind as +distinctly and vividly as you and I now see the stream below our feet and +the opossums at play upon yonder boughs. Let us come next to some +remarkable suggestions of Lord Bacon. In his Natural History, treating of +the force of the imagination, and the help it receives 'by one man working +by another,' he cites an instance he had witnessed of a kind of juggler, +who could tell a person what card he thought of. He mentioned this 'to a +pretended learned man, curious in such things,' and this sage said to him, +'It is not the knowledge of the man's thought, for that is proper to God, +but the enforcing of a thought upon him, and binding his imagination by a +stronger, so that he could think of no other card.' You see this sage +anticipated our modern electro-biologists! And the learned man then +shrewdly asked Lord Bacon, 'Did the juggler tell the card to the man +himself who had thought of it, or bid another tell it?' 'He bade another +tell it,' answered Lord Bacon. 'I thought so,' returned his learned +acquaintance, 'for the juggler himself could not have put on so strong an +imagination; but by telling the card to the other, who believed the +juggler was some strange man who could do strange things, that other man +caught a strong imagination.'[9] The whole story is worth reading, +because Lord Bacon evidently thinks it conveys a guess worth examining. +And Lord Bacon, were he now living, would be the man to solve the +mysteries that branch out of mesmerism or (so-called) spiritual +manifestation, for he would not pretend to despise their phenomena for +fear of hurting his reputation for good sense. Bacon then goes on to +state that there are three ways to fortify the imagination. 'First, +authority derived from belief in an art and in the man who exercises it; +secondly, means to quicken and corroborate the imagination; thirdly, means +to repeat and refresh it.' For the second and the third he refers to the +practices of magic, and proceeds afterwards to state on what things +imagination has most force,--'upon things that have the lightest and +easiest motions, and, therefore, above all, upon the spirits of men, and, +in them, on such affections as move lightest,--in love, in fear, in +irresolution. And,' adds Bacon, earnestly, in a very different spirit +from that which dictates to the sages of our time the philosophy of +rejecting without trial that which belongs to the Marvellous,--'and +whatsoever is of this kind, should be thoroughly inquired into.' And this +great founder or renovator of the sober inductive system of investigation +even so far leaves it a matter of speculative inquiry, whether imagination +may not be so powerful that it can actually operate upon a plant, that he +says: 'This likewise should be made upon plants, and that diligently; as +if you should tell a man that such a tree would die this year, and will +him, at these and these times, to go unto it and see how it thriveth.' I +presume that no philosopher has followed such recommendations: had some +great philosopher done so, possibly we should by this time know all the +secrets of what is popularly called witchcraft." + +And as Faber here paused, there came a strange laugh from the +fantastic she-oak-tree overhanging the stream,--a wild, impish laugh. + +"Pooh! it is but the great kingfisher, the laughing-bird of the +Australian bush," said Julius Faber, amused at my start of superstitious +alarm. + +We walked on for some minutes in musing silence, and the rude log-hut in +which my wise companion had his home came in view,--the flocks grazing on +undulous pastures, the lone drinking at a watercourse fringed by the +slender gum-trees, and a few fields, laboriously won from the luxuriant +grassland, rippling with the wave of corn. + +I halted, and said, "Rest here for a few moments, till I gather up the +conclusions to which your speculative reasoning seems to invite me." + +We sat down on a rocky crag, half mantled by luxuriant creepers with +vermilion buds. + +"From the guesses," said I, "which you have drawn from the erudition of +others and your own ingenious and reflective inductions, I collect this +solution of the mysteries, by which the experience I gain from my senses +confounds all the dogmas approved by my judgment. To the rational +conjectures by which, when we first conversed on the marvels that +perplexed me, you ascribe to my imagination, predisposed by mental +excitement, physical fatigue or derangement, and a concurrence of singular +events tending to strengthen such predisposition, the phantasmal +impressions produced on my senses,--to these conjectures you now add a new +one, more startling and less admitted by sober physiologists. You +conceive it possible that persons endowed with a rare and peculiar +temperament can so operate on imagination, and, through the imagination, +on the senses of others, as to exceed even the powers ascribed to the +practitioners of mesmerism' and electro-biology, and give a certain +foundation of truth to the old tales of magic and witchcraft. You imply +that Margrave may be a person thus gifted, and hence the influence he +unquestionably exercised over Lilian, and over, perhaps, less innocent +agents, charmed or impelled by his will. And not discarding, as I own I +should have been originally induced to do, the queries or suggestions +adventured by Bacon in his discursive speculations on Nature, to wit, +'that there be many things, some of them inanimate, that operate upon the +spirits of men by secret sympathy and antipathy,' and to which Bacon gave +the quaint name of 'imaginants,' so even that wand, of which I have +described to you the magic-like effects, may have had properties +communicated to it by which it performs the work of the magician, as +mesmerists pretend that some substance mesmerized by them can act on the +patient as sensibly as if it were the mesmerizer himself. Do I state your +suppositions correctly?" + +"Yes; always remembering that they are only suppositions, and volunteered +with the utmost diffidence. But since, thus seated in the early +wilderness, we permit ourselves the indulgence of childlike guess, may it +not be possible, apart from the doubtful question whether a man can +communicate to an inanimate material substance a power to act upon the +mind or imagination of another man--may it not, I say, be possible that +such a substance may contain in itself such a virtue or property potent +over certain constitutions, though not over all. For instance, it is in +my experience that the common hazel-wood will strongly affect some nervous +temperaments, though wholly without effect on others. I remember a young +girl, who having taken up a hazel-stick freshly cut, could not relax her +hold of it; and when it was wrenched away from her by force, was +irresistibly attracted towards it, repossessed herself of it, and, after +holding it a few minutes, was cast into a kind of trance, in which she +beheld phantasmal visions. Mentioning this curious case, which I supposed +unique, to a learned brother of our profession, he told me that he had +known other instances of the effect of the hazel upon nervous temperaments +in persons of both sexes. Possibly it was some such peculiar property in +the hazel that made it the wood selected for the old divining-rod. Again, +we know that the bay-tree, or laurel, was dedicated to the oracular +Pythian Apollo. Now wherever, in the old world, we find that the learning +of the priests enabled them to exhibit exceptional phenomena, which +imposed upon popular credulity, there was a something or other which is +worth a philosopher's while to explore; and, accordingly, I always +suspected that there was in the laurel some property favourable to +ecstatic vision in highly impressionable temperaments. My suspicion, a few +years ago, was justified by the experience of a German physician, +who had under his care a cataleptic or ecstatic patient, and who +assured me that he found nothing in this patient so stimulated the state +of 'sleep-waking,' or so disposed that state to indulge in the +hallucinations of prevision, as the berry of the laurel.[10] Well, we do +not know what this wand that produced a seemingly magical effect upon you +was really composed of. You did not notice the metal employed in the +wire, which you say communicated a thrill to the sensitive nerves in the +palm of the hand. You cannot tell how far it might have been the vehicle +of some fluid force in nature. Or still more probably, whether the pores +of your hand insensibly imbibed, and communicated to the brain, some of +those powerful narcotics from which the Buddhists and the Arabs make +unguents that induce visionary hallucinations, and in which substances +undetected in the hollow of the wand, or the handle of the wand itself, +might be steeped.[11] One thing we do know, namely, that amongst the +ancients, and especially in the East, the construction of wands for +magical purposes was no commonplace mechanical craft, but a special and +secret art appropriated to men who cultivated with assiduity all that was +then known of natural science in order to extract from it agencies that +might appear supernatural. Possibly, then, the rods or wands of the East, +of which Scripture makes mention, were framed upon some principles of +which we in our day are very naturally ignorant, since we do not ransack +science for the same secrets; and thus, in the selection or preparation of +the material employed, mainly consisted whatever may be referrible to +natural philosophical causes in the antique science of Rhabdomancy, or +divination and enchantment by wands. The staff, or wand, of which you +tell me, was, you say, made of iron or steel and tipped with crystal. +Possibly iron and crystal do really contain some properties not hitherto +scientifically analyzed, and only, indeed, potential over exceptional +temperaments, which may account for the fact that iron and crystal have +been favourites with all professed mystics, ancient and modern. The +Delphic Pythoness had her iron tripod, Mesmer his iron bed; and many +persons, indisputably honest, cannot gaze long upon a ball of crystal but +what they begin to see visions. I suspect that a philosophical cause for +such seemingly preternatural effects of crystal and iron will be found in +connection with the extreme impressionability to changes in temperatures +which is the characteristic both of crystal and iron. But if these +materials do contain certain powers over exceptional constitutions, we do +not arrive at a supernatural but at a natural phenomenon." + +"Still," said I, "even granting that your explanatory hypotheses hit or +approach the truth;--still what a terrible power you would assign to man's +will over men's reason and deeds!" + +"Man's will," answered Faber, "has over men's deeds and reason, habitual +and daily, power infinitely greater and, when uncounterbalanced, +infinitely more dangerous than that which superstition exaggerates in +magic. Man's will moves a war that decimates a race, and leaves behind it +calamities little less dire than slaughter. Man's will frames, but it +also corrupts laws; exalts, but also demoralizes opinion; sets the world +mad with fanaticism, as often as it curbs the heart's fierce instincts by +the wisdom of brother-like mercy. You revolt at the exceptional, limited +sway over some two or three individuals which the arts of a sorcerer (if +sorcerer there be) can effect; and yet, at the very moment in which you +were perplexed and appalled by such sway, or by your reluctant belief in +it, your will was devising an engine to unsettle the reason and wither the +hopes of millions!" + +"My will! What engine?" + +"A book conceived by your intellect, adorned by your learning, and directed +by your will, to steal from the minds of other men their persuasion of the +soul's everlasting Hereafter." + +I bowed my head, and felt myself grow pale. + +"And if we accept Bacon's theory of 'secret sympathy,' or the plainer +physiological maxim that there must be in the imagination, morbidly +impressed by the will of another, some trains of idea in affinity with +such influence and preinclined to receive it, no magician could warp you +to evil, except through thoughts that themselves went astray. Grant that +the Margrave who still haunts your mind did really, by some occult, +sinister magnetism, guide the madman to murder, did influence the +servant-woman's vulgar desire to pry into the secrets of her ill-fated +master, or the old maid's covetous wish and envious malignity: what could +this awful magician do more than any commonplace guilty adviser, to a mind +predisposed to accept the advice?" + +"You forget one example which destroys your argument,--the spell which +this mysterious fascinator could cast upon a creature so pure from all +guilt as Lilian!" + +"Will you forgive me if I answer frankly?" + +"Speak." + +"Your Lilian is spotless and pure as you deem her, and the fascination, +therefore, attempts no lure through a sinful desire; it blends with its +attraction no sentiment of affection untrue to yourself. Nay, it is +justice to your Lilian, and may be melancholy comfort to you, to state my +conviction, based on the answers my questions have drawn from her, that +you were never more cherished by her love than when that love seemed to +forsake you. Her imagination impressed her with the illusion that through +your love for her you were threatened with a great peril. What seemed the +levity of her desertion was the devotion of self-sacrifice. And, in her +strange, dream-led wanderings, do not think that she was conscious of the +fascination you impute to this mysterious Margrave: in her belief it was +your own guardian angel that guided her steps, and her pilgrimage was +ordained to disarm the foe that menaced you, and dissolve the spell that +divided her life from yours! But had she not, long before this, willingly +prepared herself to be so deceived? Had not her fancies been +deliberately encouraged to dwell remote from the duties we are placed on +the earth to perform? The loftiest faculties in our nature are those that +demand the finest poise, not to fall from their height and crush all the +walls that they crown. With exquisite beauty of illustration, Hume says +of the dreamers of 'bright fancies,' 'that they may be compared to those +angels whom the Scriptures represent as covering their eyes with their +wings.' Had you been, like my nephew, a wrestler for bread with the +wilderness, what helpmate would your Lilian have been to you? How often +would you have cried out in justifiable anger, 'I, son of Adam, am on +earth, not in Paradise! Oh, that my Eve were at home on my hearth, and +not in the skies with the seraphs!' No Margrave, I venture to say, could +have suspended the healthful affections, or charmed into danger the +wide-awake soul of my Amy. When she rocks in its cradle the babe the +young parents intrust to her heed; when she calls the kine to the milking, +the chicks to their corn; when she but flits through my room to renew the +flowers on the stand, or range in neat order the books that I read, no +spell on her fancy could lead her a step from the range of her provident +cares! At day she is contented to be on the commonplace earth; at evening +she and I knock together at the one door of heaven, which opes to +thanksgiving and prayer; and thanksgiving and prayer send us back, calm +and hopeful, to the task that each morrow renews." + +I looked up as the old man paused, and in the limpid clearness of the +Australian atmosphere, I saw the child he thus praised standing by the +garden-gate, looking towards us, and though still distant she seemed near. +I felt wroth with her. My heart so cherished my harmless, defenceless +Lilian, that I was jealous of the praise taken from her to be bestowed on +another. + +"Each of us," said I, coldly, "has his or her own nature, and the uses +harmonious to that nature's idiosyncrasy. The world, I grant, would get +on very ill if women were not more or less actively useful and quietly +good, like your Amy. But the world would lose standards that exalt and +refine, if no woman were permitted to gain, through the indulgence of +fancy, thoughts exquisite as those which my Lilian conceived, while +thought, alas! flowed out of fancy. I do not wound you by citing your Amy +as a type of the mediocre; I do not claim for Lilian the rank we accord to +the type of genius. But both are alike to such types in this: namely, +that the uses of mediocrity are for every-day life, and the uses of +genius, amidst a thousand mistakes which mediocrity never commits, are to +suggest and perpetuate ideas which raise the standard of the mediocre to a +nobler level. There would be fewer Amys in life if there were no Lilian! +as there would be far fewer good men of sense if there were no erring +dreamer of genius!" + +"You say well, Allen Fenwick. And who should be so indulgent to the +vagaries of the imagination as the philosophers who taught your youth to +doubt everything in the Maker's plan of creation which could not be +mathematically proved? 'The human mind,' said Luther, 'is like a drunkard +on horseback; prop it on one side, and it falls on the other.' So the man +who is much too enlightened to believe in a peasant's religion, is always +sure to set up some insane superstition of his own. Open biographical +volumes wherever you please, and the man who has no faith in religion is a +man who has faith in a nightmare. See that type of the elegant +sceptics,--Lord Herbert of Cherbury. He is writing a book against +Revelation; he asks a sign from heaven to tell him if his book is approved +by his Maker, and the man who cannot believe in the miracles performed by +his Saviour gravely tells us of a miracle vouchsafed to himself. Take the +hardest and strongest intellect which the hardest and strongest race of +mankind ever schooled and accomplished. See the greatest of great men, +the great Julius Caesar! Publicly he asserts in the Senate that the +immortality of the soul is a vain chimera. He professes the creed which +Roman voluptuaries deduced from Epicurus, and denies all Divine +interference in the affairs of the earth. A great authority for the +Materialists--they have none greater! They can show on their side no +intellect equal to Caesar's! And yet this magnificent freethinker, +rejecting a soul and a Deity, habitually entered his chariot muttering a +charm; crawled on his knees up the steps of a temple to propitiate the +abstraction called 'Nemesis;' and did not cross the Rubicon till he had +consulted the omens. What does all this prove?--a very simple truth. Man +has some instincts with the brutes; for instance, hunger and sexual love. +Man has one instinct peculiar to himself, found universally (or with +alleged exceptions in savage States so rare, that they do not affect the +general law[12]),--an instinct of an invisible power without this earth, +and of a life beyond the grave, which that power vouchsafes to his spirit. +But the best of us cannot violate an instinct with impunity. Resist +hunger as long as you can, and, rather than die of starvation, your +instinct will make you a cannibal; resist love when youth and nature impel +to it, and what pathologist does not track one broad path into madness or +crime? So with the noblest instinct of all. Reject the internal +conviction by which the grandest thinkers have sanctioned the hope of the +humblest Christian, and you are servile at once to some faith +inconceivably more hard to believe. The imagination will not be withheld +from its yearnings for vistas beyond the walls of the flesh, and the span +of the present hour. Philosophy itself, in rejecting the healthful creeds +by which man finds his safeguards in sober prayer and his guide through +the wilderness of visionary doubt, invents systems compared to which the +mysteries of theology are simple. Suppose any man of strong, plain +understanding had never heard of a Deity like Him whom we Christians +adore, then ask this man which he can the better comprehend in his mind, +and accept as a natural faith,--namely, the simple Christianity of his +shepherd or the Pantheism of Spinoza? Place before an accomplished critic +(who comes with a perfectly unprejudiced mind to either inquiry), first, +the arguments of David Hume against the gospel miracles, and then the +metaphysical crotchets of David Hume himself. This subtle philosopher, +not content, with Berkeley, to get rid of matter,--not content, with +Condillac, to get rid of spirit or mind,--proceeds to a miracle greater +than any his Maker has yet vouchsafed to reveal. He, being then alive and +in the act of writing, gets rid of himself altogether. Nay, he confesses +he cannot reason with any one who is stupid enough to think he has a self. +His words are: 'What we call a mind is nothing but a heap or collection of +different perceptions or objects united together by certain relations, and +supposed, though falsely, to be endowed with perfect simplicity and +identity. If any one, upon serious and candid reflection, thinks he has a +different notion of himself, I must confess I can reason with him no +longer.' Certainly I would rather believe all the ghost stories upon +record than believe that I am not even a ghost, distinct and apart from +the perceptions conveyed to me, no matter how,--just as I am distinct and +apart from the furniture in my room, no matter whether I found it there or +whether I bought it. If some old cosmogonist asked you to believe that +the primitive cause of the solar system was not to 'be traced to a Divine +Intelligence, but to a nebulosity, originally so diffused that its +existence can with difficulty be conceived, and that the origin of the +present system of organized beings equally dispensed with the agency of a +creative mind, and could be referred to molecules formed in the water by +the power of attraction, till by modifications of cellular tissue in the +gradual lapse of ages, one monad became an oyster and another a +Man,--would you not say this cosmogony could scarce have misled the human +understanding even in the earliest dawn of speculative inquiry? Yet such +are the hypotheses to which the desire to philosophize away that simple +proposition of a Divine First Cause, which every child can comprehend, led +two of the greatest geniuses and profoundest reasoners of modern +times,--La Place and La Marck.[13] Certainly, the more you examine those +arch phantasmagorists, the philosophers who would leave nothing in the +universe but their own delusions, the more your intellectual pride may be +humbled. The wildest phenomena which have startled you are not more +extravagant than the grave explanations which intellectual presumption +adventures on the elements of our own organism and the relations between +the world of matter and the world of ideas." + +Here our conversation stopped, for Amy had now joined us, and, looking up +to reply, I saw the child's innocent face between me and the furrowed brow +of the old man. + +[1] See, on the theory elaborated from this principle, Dr. Hibbert's +interesting and valuable work on the "Philosophy of Apparitions." + +[2] What Faber here says is expressed with more authority by one of the +most accomplished metaphysicians of our time (Sir W. Hamilton): + +"Somnambulism is a phenomenon still more astonishing [than dreaming]. In +this singular state a person performs a regular series of rational +actions, and those frequently of the most difficult and delicate nature; +and what is still more marvellous, with a talent to which he could make no +pretension when awake. (Cr. Ancillon, Essais Philos. ii. 161.) His +memory and reminiscence supply him with recollections of words and things +which, perhaps, never were at his disposal in the ordinary state,--he +speaks more fluently a more refined language. And if we are to credit +what the evidence on which it rests hardly allows us to disbelieve, he has +not only perception of things through other channels than the common +organs of sense, but the sphere of his cognition is amplified to an extent +far beyond the limits to which sensible perception is confined. This +subject is one of the most perplexing in the whole compass of philosophy; +for, on the one hand, the phenomena are so remarkable that they cannot be +believed, and yet, on the other, they are of so unambiguous and palpable a +character, and the witnesses to their reality are so numerous, so +intelligent, and so high above every suspicion of deceit, that it is +equally impossible to deny credit to what is attested by such ample and un +exceptionable evidence."--Sir W. Hamilton: Lectures on Metaphysics and +Logic, vol. ii. p. 274. + +This perplexity, in which the distinguished philosopher leaves the +judgment so equally balanced that it finds it impossible to believe, and +yet impossible to disbelieve, forms the right state of mind in which a +candid thinker should come to the examination of those more extraordinary +phenomena which he has not himself yet witnessed, but the fair inquiry +into which may be tendered to him by persons above the imputation of +quackery and fraud. Muffler, who is not the least determined, as he is +certainly one of the most distinguished, disbelievers of mesmeric +phenomena, does not appear to have witnessed, or at least to have +carefully examined, them, or he would, perhaps, have seen that even the +more extraordinary of those phenomena confirm, rather than contradict, his +own general theories, and may be explained by the sympathies one sense has +with another,--"the laws of reflection through the medium of the brain." +(Physiology of the Senses, p. 1311.) And again by the maxim "that the +mental principle, or cause of the mental phenomena, cannot be confined to +the brain, but that it exists in a latent state in every part of the +organism." (Ibid., p. 1355.) The "nerve power," contended for by Mr. +Bain, also may suggest a rational solution of much that has seemed +incredible to those physiologists who have not condescended to sift the +genuine phenomena of mesmerism from the imposture to which, in all ages, +the phenomena exhibited by what may be called the ecstatic temperament +have been applied. + +[3] Descartes, L'Homme, vol. iv. p. 345. Cousin's Edition. + +[4] Ibid., p. 428. + +[5] Facts in Mesmerism. + +[6] La Magic et l'Astrologie dans l'Antiquitd et an Moyen-Age. Par L. F. +Alfred Maury, Membre de Nnstitut. p. 225. + +[7] "She had no illusions when within doors."--Abercrombie, On the +Intellectual Powers, p. 277. (15th Edition.) + +[8] Muller, Physiology of the Senses, Baley's translation, pp. 1068-1395, +and elsewhere. Mr. Bain, in his thoughtful and suggestive work on the +"Senses and Intellect," makes very powerful use of these statements in +support of his proposition, which Faber advances in other words, namely, +"the return of the nervous currents exactly on their old track in revived +sensations." + +[9] Perhaps it is for the reason suggested in the text, namely, that the +magician requires the interposition of a third imagination between his own +and that of the consulting believer, that any learned adept in (so-called) +magic will invariably refuse to exhibit without the presence of a third +person. Hence the author of "Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magic," printed +at Parisy 1852-53--a book less remarkable for its learning than for the +earnest belief of a scholar of our own day in the reality of the art of +which he records the history--insists much on the necessity of rigidly +observing Le Ternaire, in the number of persons who assist in an +enchanter's experiments. + +[10] I may add that Dr. Kerner instances the effect of laurel-berries on +the Seeress of Prevorst, corresponding with that asserted by Julius Faber +in the text. + +[11] See for these unguents the work of M. Maury, before quoted, "La Magic +et l'Astrologie," etc., p. 417. + +[12] It seems extremely doubtful whether the very few instances in which +it has been asserted that a savage race has been found without recognition +of a Deity and a future state would bear searching examination. It is +set forth, for example, in most of the popular works on Australia, that +the Australian savages have no notion of a Deity or a Hereafter, that they +only worship a devil, or evil spirit. This assumption, though made more +peremptorily, and by a greater number of writers than any similar one +regarding other savages, is altogether erroneous, and has no other +foundation than the ignorance of the writers. The Australian savages +recognize a Deity, but He is too august for a name in their own language; +in English they call Him the Great Master,--an expression synonymous with +"The Great Lord." They believe in a hereafter of eternal joy, and place +it amongst the stars.--See Strzelecki's Physical Description of New South +Wales. + +[13] See the observations on La Place and La Marck in the Introduction to +Kirby's "Bridgewater Treatise." + + + + +CHAPTER LXXII. + +I turned back alone. The sun was reddening the summits of the distant +mountain-range, but dark clouds, that portended rain, were gathering +behind my way and deepening the shadows in many a chasm and hollow which +volcanic fires had wrought on the surface of uplands undulating like +diluvian billows fixed into stone in the midst of their stormy swell. I +wandered on and away from the beaten track, absorbed in thought. Could I +acknowledge in Julius Faber's conjectures any basis for logical +ratiocination; or were they not the ingenious fancies of that empirical +Philosophy of Sentiment by which the aged, in the decline of severer +faculties, sometimes assimilate their theories to the hazy romance of +youth? I can well conceive that the story I tell will be regarded by most +as a wild and fantastic fable; that by some it may be considered a vehicle +for guesses at various riddles of Nature, without or within us, which are +free to the license of romance, though forbidden to the caution of +science. But, I--I--know unmistakably my own identity, my own positive +place in a substantial universe. And beyond that knowledge, what do I +know? Yet had Faber no ground for his startling parallels between the +chimeras of superstition and the alternatives to faith volunteered by the +metaphysical speculations of knowledge? On the theorems of Condillac, I, +in common with numberless contemporaneous students (for, in my youth, +Condillac held sway in the schools, as now, driven forth from the schools, +his opinions float loose through the talk and the scribble of men of the +world, who perhaps never opened his page),--on the theorems of Condillac I +had built up a system of thought designed to immure the swathed form of +material philosophy from all rays and all sounds of a world not material, +as the walls of some blind mausoleum shut out, from the mummy within, the +whisper of winds and the gleaming of stars. + +And did not those very theorems, when carried out to their strict and +completing results by the close reasonings of Hume, resolve my own living +identity, the one conscious indivisible me, into a bundle of memories +derived from the senses which had bubbled and duped my experience, and +reduce into a phantom, as spectral as that of the Luminous Shadow, the +whole solid frame of creation? + +While pondering these questions, the storm whose forewarnings I had +neglected to heed burst forth with all the suddenness peculiar to the +Australian climes. The rains descended like the rushing of floods. In +the beds of watercourses, which, at noon, seemed dried up and exhausted, +the torrents began to swell and to rave; the gray crags around them were +animated into living waterfalls. I looked round, and the landscape was as +changed as a scene that replaces a scene on the player's stage. I was +aware that I had wandered far from my home, and I knew not what direction +I should take to regain it. Close at hand, and raised above the torrents +that now rushed in many a gully and tributary creek, around and before me, +the mouth of a deep cave, overgrown with bushes and creeping flowers +tossed wildly to and fro between the rain from above and the spray of +cascades below, offered a shelter from the storm. I entered,--scaring +innumerable flocks of bats striking against me, blinded by the glare of +the lightning that followed me into the cavern, and hastening to resettle +themselves on the pendants of stalactites, or the jagged buttresses of +primaeval wall. + +From time to time the lightning darted into the gloom and lingered +amongst its shadows; and I saw, by the flash, that the floors on which I +stood were strewed with strange bones, some amongst them the fossilized +relics of races destroyed by the Deluge. The rain continued for more than +two hours with unabated violence; then it ceased almost as suddenly as it +had come on, and the lustrous moon of Australia burst from the clouds +shining bright as an English dawn, into the hollows of the cave. And then +simultaneously arose all the choral songs of the wilderness,--creatures +whose voices are heard at night,--the loud whir of the locusts, the +musical boom of the bullfrog, the cuckoo note of the morepork, and, +mournful amidst all those merrier sounds, the hoot of the owl, through the +wizard she-oaks and the pale green of the gum-trees. + +I stepped forth into the open air and gazed, first instinctively on the +heavens, next, with more heedful eye, upon the earth. The nature of the +soil bore the evidence of volcanic fires long since extinguished. Just +before my feet, the rays fell full upon a bright yellow streak in the +block of quartz half imbedded in the soft moist soil. In the midst of all +the solemn thoughts and the intense sorrows which weighed upon heart and +mind, that yellow gleam startled the mind into a direction remote from +philosophy, quickened the heart to a beat that chimed with no household +affections. Involuntarily I stooped; impulsively I struck the block with +the hatchet, or tomahawk, I carried habitually about me, for the purpose +of marking the trees that I wished to clear from the waste of my broad +domain. The quartz was shattered by the stroke, and left disburied its +glittering treasure. My first glance had not deceived me. I, vain seeker +after knowledge, had, at least, discovered gold. I took up the bright +metal--gold! I paused; I looked round; the land that just before had +seemed to me so worthless took the value of Ophir. Its features had +before been as unknown to me as the Mountains of the Moon, and now my +memory became wonderfully quickened. I recalled the rough map of my +possessions, the first careless ride round their boundaries. Yes, the +land on which I stood--for miles, to the spur of those farther +mountains--the land was mine, and, beneath its surface, there was gold! I +closed my eyes; for some moments visions of boundless wealth, and of the +royal power which such wealth could command, swept athwart my brain. But +my heart rapidly settled back to its real treasure. "What matters," I +sighed, "all this dross? Could Ophir itself buy back to my Lilian's smile +one ray of the light which gave 'glory to the grass and splendour to the +flower'?" + +So muttering, I flung the gold into the torrent that raged below, and went +on through the moonlight, sorrowing silently,--only thankful for the +discovery that had quickened my reminiscence of the landmarks by which to +steer my way through the wilderness. + +The night was half gone, for even when I had gained the familiar track +through the pastures, the swell of the many winding creeks that now +intersected the way obliged me often to retrace my steps; to find, +sometimes, the bridge of a felled tree which had been providently left +unremoved over the now foaming torrent, and, more than once, to swim +across the current, in which swimmers less strong or less practised would +have been dashed down the falls, where loose logs and torn trees went +clattering and whirling: for I was in danger of life. A band of the +savage natives were stealthily creeping on my track,--the natives in those +parts were not then so much awed by the white man as now. A boomerang[1] +had whirred by me, burying itself amongst the herbage close before my +feet. I had turned, sought to find and to face these dastardly foes; they +contrived to elude me. But when I moved on, my ear, sharpened by danger, +heard them moving, too, in my rear. Once only three hideous forms +suddenly faced me, springing up from a thicket, all tangled with +honeysuckles and creepers of blue and vermilion. I walked steadily up to +them. They halted a moment or so in suspense; but perhaps they were +scared by my stature or awed by my aspect; and the Unfamiliar, though +Human, had terror for them, as the Unfamiliar, although but a Shadow, had +had terror for me. They vanished, and as quickly as if they had crept +into the earth. + +At length the air brought me the soft perfume of my well-known acacias, +and my house stood before me, amidst English flowers and English +fruit-trees, under the effulgent Australian moon. Just as I was opening +the little gate which gave access from the pastureland into the garden, a +figure in white rose up from under light, feathery boughs, and a hand was +laid on my arm. I started; but my surprise was changed into fear when I +saw the pale face and sweet eyes of Lilian. + +"Heavens! you here! you! at this hour! Lilian, what is this?" + +"Hush!" she whispered, clinging to me; "hush! do not tell: no one knows. +I missed you when the storm came on; I have missed you ever since. Others +went in search of you and came back. I could not sleep, but the rest are +sleeping, so I stole down to watch for you. Brother, brother, if any harm +chanced to you, even the angels could not comfort me; all would be dark, +dark! But you are safe, safe, safe!" And she clung to me yet closer. + +"Ah, Lilian, Lilian, your vision in the hour I first beheld you was indeed +prophetic,--'each has need of the other.' Do you remember?" + +"Softly, softly," she said, "let me think!" She stood quietly by my side, +looking up into the sky, with all its numberless stars, and its solitary +moon now sinking slow behind the verge of the forest. "It comes back to +me," she murmured softly,--"the Long ago,--the sweet Long ago!" + +I held my breath to listen. + +"There, there!" she resumed, pointing to the heavens; "do you see? You +are there, and my father, and--and--Oh! that terrible face, those serpent +eyes, the dead man's skull! Save me! save me!" + +She bowed her head upon my bosom, and I led her gently back towards the +house. As we gained the door which she had left open, the starlight +shining across the shadowy gloom within, she lifted her face from my +breast, and cast a hurried fearful look round the shining garden, then +into the dim recess beyond the threshold. + +"It is there--there!--the Shadow that lured me on, whispering that if I +followed it I should join my beloved. False, dreadful Shadow! it will +fade soon,--fade into the grinning horrible skull. Brother, brother, +where is my Allen? Is he dead--dead--or is it I who am dead to him?" + +I could but clasp her again to my breast, and seek to mantle her shivering +form with my dripping garments, all the while my eyes--following the +direction which hers had taken--dwelt on the walls of the nook within the +threshold, half lost in darkness, half white in starlight. And there I, +too, beheld the haunting Luminous Shadow, the spectral effigies of the +mysterious being, whose very existence in the flesh was a riddle unsolved +by my reason. Distinctly I saw the Shadow, but its light was far paler, +its outline far more vague, than when I had beheld it before. I took +courage, as I felt Lilian's heart beating against my own. I advanced, I +crossed the threshold,--the Shadow was gone. + +"There is no Shadow here,--no phantom to daunt thee, my life's life," said +I, bending over Lilian. + +"It has touched me in passing; I feel it--cold, cold, cold!" she answered +faintly. + +I bore her to her room, placed her on her bed, struck a light, watched +over her. At dawn there was a change in her face, and from that time +health gradually left her; strength slowly, slowly, yet to me perceptibly, +ebbed from her life away. + +[1] A missile weapon peculiar to the Australian savages. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXIII. + +Months upon months have rolled on since the night in which Lilian had +watched for my coming amidst the chilling airs--under the haunting moon. +I have said that from the date of that night her health began gradually to +fail, but in her mind there was evidently at work some slow revolution. +Her visionary abstractions were less frequent; when they occurred, less +prolonged. There was no longer in her soft face that celestial serenity +which spoke her content in her dreams, but often a look of anxiety and +trouble. She was even more silent than before; but when she did speak, +there were now evident some struggling gleams of memory. She startled us, +at times, by a distinct allusion to the events and scenes of her early +childhood. More than once she spoke of commonplace incidents and mere +acquaintances at L----. At last she seemed to recognize Mrs. Ashleigh as +her mother; but me, as Allen Fenwick, her betrothed, her bridegroom, no! +Once or twice she spoke to me of her beloved as of a stranger to myself, +and asked me not to deceive her--should she ever see him again? There was +one change in this new phase of her state that wounded me to the quick. +She had always previously seemed to welcome my presence; now there were +hours, sometimes days together, in which my presence was evidently painful +to her. She would become agitated when I stole into her room, make signs +to me to leave her, grow yet more disturbed if I did not immediately obey, +and become calm again when I was gone. + +Faber sought constantly to sustain my courage and administer to my hopes +by reminding me of the prediction he had hazarded,--namely, that through +some malady to the frame the reason would be ultimately restored. + +He said, "Observe! her mind was first roused from its slumber by the +affectionate, unconquered impulse of her heart. You were absent; the +storm alarmed her, she missed you,--feared for you. The love within her, +not alienated, though latent, drew her thoughts into definite human +tracks. And thus, the words that you tell me she uttered when you +appeared before her were words of love, stricken, though as yet +irregularly, as the winds strike the harp-strings from chords of awakened +memory. The same unwonted excitement, together with lengthened exposure +to the cold night-air, will account for the shock to her physical system, +and the languor and waste of strength by which it has been succeeded." + +"Ay, and the Shadow that we both saw within the threshold. What of that?" + +"Are there no records on evidence, which most physicians of very extended +practice will perhaps allow that their experience more or less tend to +confirm--no records of the singular coincidences between individual +impressions which are produced by sympathy? Now, whether you or your +Lilian were first haunted by this Shadow I know not. Perhaps before it +appeared to you in the wizard's chamber it had appeared to her by the +Monks' Well. Perhaps, as it came to you in the prison, so it lured her +through the solitudes, associating its illusory guidance with dreams of +you. And again, when she saw it within your threshold, your fantasy, so +abruptly invoked, made you see with the eyes of your Lilian! Does this +doctrine of sympathy, though by that very mystery you two loved each other +at first,--though, without it, love at first sight were in itself an +incredible miracle,--does, I say, this doctrine of sympathy seem to you +inadmissible? Then nothing is left for us but to revolve the conjecture I +before threw out. Have certain organizations like that of Margrave the +power to impress, through space, the imaginations of those over whom they +have forced a control? I know not. But if they have, it is not +supernatural; it is but one of those operations in Nature so rare and +exceptional, and of which testimony and evidence are so imperfect and so +liable to superstitious illusions, that they have not yet been traced--as, +if truthful, no doubt they can be, by the patient genius of science--to +one of those secondary causes by which the Creator ordains that Nature +shall act on Man." + +By degrees I became dissatisfied with my conversations with Faber. I +yearned for explanations; all guesses but bewildered me more. In his +family, with one exception, I found no congenial association. His nephew +seemed to me an ordinary specimen of a very trite human nature,--a young +man of limited ideas, fair moral tendencies, going mechanically right +where not tempted to wrong. The same desire of gain which had urged him +to gamble and speculate when thrown in societies rife with such example, +led him, now in the Bush, to healthful, industrious, persevering labour. +"Spes fovet agricolas," says the poet; the same Hope which entices the +fish to the hook impels the plough of the husband-man. The young farmer's +young wife was somewhat superior to him; she had more refinement of taste, +more culture of mind, but, living in his life, she was inevitably levelled +to his ends and pursuits; and, next to the babe in the cradle, no object +seemed to her so important as that of guarding the sheep from the scab and +the dingoes. I was amazed to see how quietly a man whose mind was so +stored by life and by books as that of Julius Faber--a man who had loved +the clash of conflicting intellects, and acquired the rewards of +fame--could accommodate himself to the cabined range of his kinsfolks' +half-civilized existence, take interest in their trivial talk, find +varying excitement in the monotonous household of a peasant-like farmer. +I could not help saying as much to him once. "My friend," replied the old +man, "believe me that the happiest art of intellect, however lofty, is +that which enables it to be cheerfully at home with the Real!" + +The only one of the family in which Faber was domesticated in whom I found +an interest, to whose talk I could listen without fatigue, was the child +Amy. Simple though she was in language, patient of labour as the most +laborious, I recognized in her a quiet nobleness of sentiment, which +exalted above the commonplace the acts of her commonplace life. She had +no precocious intellect, no enthusiastic fancies, but she had an exquisite +activity of heart. It was her heart that animated her sense of duty, and +made duty a sweetness and a joy. She felt to the core the kindness of +those around her; exaggerated, with the warmth of her gratitude, the +claims which that kindness imposed. Even for the blessing of life, which +she shared with all creation, she felt as if singled out by the undeserved +favour of the Creator, and thus was filled with religion, because she was +filled with love. + +My interest in this child was increased and deepened by my saddened and +not wholly unremorseful remembrance of the night on which her sobs had +pierced my ear,--the night from which I secretly dated the mysterious +agencies that had wrenched from their proper field and career both my mind +and my life. But a gentler interest endeared her to my thoughts in the +pleasure that Lilian felt in her visits, in the affectionate intercourse +that sprang up between the afflicted sufferer and the harmless infant. +Often when we failed to comprehend some meaning which Lilian evidently +wished to convey to us--we, her mother and her husband--she was understood +with as much ease by Amy, the unlettered child, as by Faber, the +gray-haired thinker. + +"How is it,--how is it?" I asked, impatiently and jealously, of Faber. +"Love is said to interpret where wisdom fails, and you yourself talk of +the marvels which sympathy may effect between lover and beloved; yet when, +for days together, I cannot succeed in unravelling Lilian's wish or her +thought--and her own mother is equally in fault--you or Amy, closeted +alone with her for five minutes, comprehend and are comprehended." + +"Allen," answered Faber, "Amy and I believe in spirit; and she, in whom +mind is dormant but spirit awake, feels in such belief a sympathy which +she has not, in that respect, with yourself, nor even with her mother. +You seek only through your mind to conjecture hers. Her mother has sense +clear enough where habitual experience can guide it, but that sense is +confused, and forsakes her when forced from the regular pathway in which +it has been accustomed to tread. Amy and I through soul guess at soul, +and though mostly contented with earth, we can both rise at times into +heaven. We pray." + +"Alas!" said I, half mournfully, half angrily, "when you thus speak of +Mind as distinct from Soul, it was only in that Vision which you bid me +regard as the illusion of a fancy stimulated by chemical vapours, +producing on the brain an effect similar to that of opium or the +inhalation of the oxide gas, that I have ever seen the silver spark of the +Soul distinct from the light of the Mind. And holding, as I do, that all +intellectual ideas are derived from the experiences of the body, whether I +accept the theory of Locke, or that of Condillac, or that into which their +propositions reach their final development in the wonderful subtlety of +Hume, I cannot detect the immaterial spirit in the material +substance,--much less follow its escape from the organic matter in which +the principle of thought ceases with the principle of life. When the +metaphysician, contending for the immortality of the thinking faculty, +analyzes Mind, his analysis comprehends the mind of the brute, nay, of the +insect, as well as that of man. Take Reid's definition of Mind, as the +most comprehensive which I can at the moment remember: 'By the mind of a +man we understand that in him which thinks, remembers, reasons, and +wills.[1] But this definition only distinguishes the mind of man from +that of the brute by superiority in the same attributes, and not by +attributes denied to the brute. An animal, even an insect, thinks, +remembers, reasons, and wills.[1] Few naturalists will now support the +doctrine that all the mental operations of brute or insect are to be +exclusively referred to instincts; and, even if they do, the word +'instinct' is a very vague word,--loose and large enough to cover an abyss +which our knowledge has not sounded. And, indeed, in proportion as an +animal like the dog becomes cultivated by intercourse, his instincts grow +weaker, and his ideas formed by experience (namely, his mind), more +developed, often to the conquest of the instincts themselves. Hence, with +his usual candour, Dr. Abercrombie--in contending 'that everything mental +ceases to exist after death, when we know that everything corporeal +continues to exist, is a gratuitous assumption contrary to every rule of +philosophical inquiry'--feels compelled, by his reasoning, to admit the +probability of a future life even to the lower animals. His words are: +'To this anode of reasoning it has been objected that it would go to +establish an immaterial principle in the lower animals which in them +exhibits many of the phenomena of mind. I have only to answer, Be it so. +There are in the lower animals many of the phenomena of mind, and with +regard to these, we also contend that they are entirely distinct from +anything we know of the properties of matter, which is all that we mean, +or can mean, by being immaterial.'[2] Am I then driven to admit that if +man's mind is immaterial and imperishable, so also is that of the ape and +the ant?" + +"I own," said Faber, with his peculiar smile, arch and genial, +"that if I were compelled to make that admission, it would not shock my +pride. I do not presume to set any limit to the goodness of the Creator; +and should be as humbly pleased as the Indian, if in-- + + "'yonder sky, + My faithful dog should bear me company.' + +"You are too familiar with the works of that Titan in wisdom and error, +Descartes, not to recollect the interesting correspondence between the +urbane philosopher and our combative countryman, Henry More,[3] on this +very subject; in which certainly More has the best of it when Descartes +insists on reducing what he calls the soul (l'ame) of brutes into the same +kind of machines as man constructs from inorganized matter. The learning, +indeed, lavished on the insoluble question involved in the psychology of +the inferior animals is a proof at least of the all-inquisitive, redundant +spirit of man.[4] We have almost a literature in itself devoted to +endeavours to interpret the language of brutes.[5] Dupont de Nemours has +discovered that dogs talk in vowels, using only two consonants, G, Z, when +they are angry. He asserts that cats employ the same vowels as dogs; but +their language is more affluent in consonants, including M, N, B, R, V, F. +How many laborious efforts have been made to define and to construe the +song of the nightingale! One version of that song, by Beckstein, the +naturalist, published in 1840, I remember to have seen. And I heard a +lady, gifted with a singularly charming voice, chant the mysterious vowels +with so exquisite a pathos, that one could not refuse to believe her when +she declared that she fully comprehended the bird's meaning, and gave to +the nightingale's warble the tender interpretation of her own woman's +heart. + +"But leaving all such discussions to their proper place amongst the +Curiosities of Literature, I come in earnest to the question you have so +earnestly raised; and to me the distinction between man and the lower +animals in reference to a spiritual nature designed for a future +existence, and the mental operations whose uses are bounded to an +existence on earth, seems ineffaceably clear. Whether ideas or even +perceptions be innate or all formed by experience is a speculation for +metaphysicians, which, so far as it affects the question of as immaterial +principle, I am quite willing to lay aside. I can well understand that a +materialist may admit innate ideas in Man, as he must admit them in the +instinct of brutes, tracing them to hereditary predispositions. On the +other hand, we know that the most devout believers in our spiritual nature +have insisted, with Locke, in denying any idea, even of the Deity, to be +innate. + +"But here comes my argument. I care not how ideas are formed,--the +material point is, how are the capacities to receive ideas formed? The +ideas may all come from experience, but the capacity to receive the ideas +must be inherent. I take the word 'capacity' as a good plain English +word, rather than the more technical word 'receptivity,' employed by Kant. +And by capacity I mean the passive power[6] to receive ideas, whether in +man or in any living thing by which ideas are received. A man and an +elephant is each formed with capacities to receive ideas suited to the +several places in the universe held by each. + +"The more I look through Nature the more I find that on all varieties of +organized life is carefully bestowed the capacity to receive the +impressions, be they called perceptions or ideas, which are adapted to the +uses each creature is intended to derive from them. I find, then, that +Man alone is endowed with the capacity to receive the ideas of a God, of +Soul, of Worship, of a Hereafter. I see no trace of such a capacity in +the inferior races; nor, however their intelligence may be refined by +culture, is such capacity ever apparent in them. + +"But wherever capacities to receive impressions are sufficiently general +in any given species of creature to be called universal to that species, +and yet not given to another species, then, from all analogy throughout +Nature, those capacities are surely designed by Providence for the +distinct use and conservation of the species to which they are given. + +"It is no answer to me to say that the inherent capacities thus bestowed +on Man do not suffice in themselves to make him form right notions of a +Deity or a Hereafter; because it is plainly the design of Providence that +Man must learn to correct and improve all his notions by his own study and +observation. He must build a hut before he can build a Parthenon; he must +believe with the savage or the heathen before he can believe with the +philosopher or Christian. In a word, in all his capacities, Man has only +given to him, not the immediate knowledge of the Perfect, but the means to +strive towards the Perfect. And thus one of the most accomplished of +modern reasoners, to whose lectures you must have listened with delight, +in your college days, says well:-- + + "'Accordingly the sciences always studied with keenest interest are + those in a state of progress and uncertainty; absolute certainty and + absolute completion would be the paralysis of any study, and the last + worst calamity that could befall Man, as he is at present + constituted, would be that full and final possession of speculative + truth which he now vainly anticipates as the consummation of his + intellectual happiness.'[7] + +"Well, then, in all those capacities for the reception of impressions from +external Nature which are given to Man and not to the brutes, I see the +evidence of Man's Soul. I can understand why the inferior animal has no +capacity to receive the idea of a Deity and of Worship--simply because the +inferior animal, even if graciously admitted to a future life, may not +therein preserve the sense of its identity. I can understand even why +that sympathy with each other which we men possess and which constitutes +the great virtue we emphatically call Humanity, is not possessed by the +lesser animals (or, at least, in a very rare and exceptional degree) even +where they live in communities, like beavers, or bees, or ants; because +men are destined to meet, to know, and to love each other in the life to +come, and the bond between the brute ceases here. + +"Now the more, then, we examine the inherent capacities bestowed +distinctly and solely on Man, the more they seem to distinguish him from +the other races by their comprehension of objects beyond his life upon +this earth. + + "'Man alone,' says Muller, 'can conceive abstract notions; and it is in + abstract notions--such as time, space, matter, spirit, light, form, + quantity, essence--that man grounds, not only all philosophy, all + science, but all that practically improves one generation for the + benefit of the next.' + +"And why? Because all these abstract notions unconsciously lead the mind +away from the material into the immaterial,--from the present into the +future. But if Man ceases to exist when he disappears in the grave, you +must be compelled to affirm that he is the only creature in existence whom +Nature or Providence has condescended to deceive and cheat by capacities +for which there are no available objects. How nobly and how truly has +Chalmers said:-- + + "'What inference shall we draw from this remarkable law in Nature that + there is nothing waste and nothing meaningless in the feelings and + faculties wherewith living creatures are endowed? For each desire + there is a counterpart object; for each faculty there is room and + opportunity for exercise either in the present or the coming + futurity. Now, but for the doctrine of immortality, Man would be an + exception to this law,-he would stand forth as an anomaly in Nature, + with aspirations in his heart for which the universe had no antitype + to offer, with capacities of understanding and thought that never + were to be followed by objects of corresponding greatness through the + whole history of his being! + + . . . . . . . . . . . . + + "'With the inferior animals there is a certain squareness of + adjustment, if we may so term it, between each desire and its + correspondent gratification. The one is evenly met by the other, and + there is a fulness and definiteness of enjoyment up to the capacity + of enjoyment. Not so with Man, who, both from the vastness of his + propensities and the vastness of his powers, feels himself chained + and beset in a field too narrow for him. He alone labours under the + discomfort of an incongruity between his circumstances and his + powers; and unless there be new circumstances awaiting him in a more + advanced state of being, he, the noblest of Nature's products here, + would turn out to be the greatest of her failures.'[8] + +"This, then, I take to be the proof of Soul in Man, not that he has a +mind--because, as you justly say, inferior animals have that, though in a +lesser degree--but because he has the capacities to comprehend, as soon as +he is capable of any abstract ideas whatsoever, the very truths not needed +for self-conservation on earth, and therefore not given to yonder ox and +opossum,--namely, the nature of Deity, Soul, Hereafter. And in the +recognition of these truths, the Human society, that excels the society of +beavers, bees, and ants, by perpetual and progressive improvement on the +notions inherited from its progenitors, rests its basis. Thus, in fact, +this world is benefited for men by their belief in the next, while the +society of brutes remains age after age the same. Neither the bee nor the +beaver has, in all probability, improved since the Deluge. + +"But inseparable from the conviction of these truths is the impulse of +prayer and worship. It does not touch my argument when a philosopher of +the school of Bolingbroke or Lucretius says, 'that the origin of prayer is +in Man's ignorance of the phenomena of Nature.' That it is fear or +ignorance which, 'when rocked the mountains or when groaned the ground, +taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray.' My answer is, the brutes are +much more forcibly impressed by natural phenomena than Man is; the bird +and the beast know before you and I do when the mountain will rock and the +ground groan, and their instinct leads them to shelter; but it does not +lead them to prayer. If my theory be right that Soul is to be sought not +in the question whether mental ideas be innate or formed by experience, by +the sense, by association or habit, but in the inherent capacity to +receive ideas, then, the capacity bestowed on Man alone, to be impressed +by Nature herself with the idea of a Power superior to Nature, with which +Power he can establish commune, is a proof that to Man alone the Maker has +made Nature itself proclaim His existence,--that to Man alone the Deity +vouchsafes the communion with Himself which comes from prayer." + +"Even were this so," said I, "is not the Creator omniscient? If all-wise, +all-foreseeing? If all-foreseeing, all-pre-ordaining? Can the prayer of +His creature alter the ways of His will?" + +"For the answer to a question," returned Faber, "which is not unfrequently +asked by the clever men of the world, I ought to refer you to the skilled +theologians who have so triumphantly carried the reasoner over that ford +of doubt which is crossed every day by the infant. But as we have not +their books in the wilderness, I am contented to draw my reply as a +necessary and logical sequence from the propositions I have sought to +ground on the plain observation of Nature. I can only guess at the +Deity's Omniscience, or His modes of enforcing His power by the +observation of His general laws; and of all His laws, I know of none more +general than the impulse which bids men pray,--which makes Nature so act, +that all the phenomena of Nature we can conceive, however startling and +inexperienced, do not make the brute pray, but there is not a trouble that +can happen to Man, but what his impulse is to pray,--always provided, +indeed, that he is not a philosopher. I say not this in scorn of the +philosopher, to whose wildest guess our obligations are infinite, but +simply because for all which is impulsive to Man, there is a reason in +Nature which no philosophy can explain away. I do not, then, bewilder +myself by seeking to bind and limit the Omniscience of the Deity to my +finite ideas. I content myself with supposing that somehow or other, He +has made it quite compatible with His Omniscience that Man should obey the +impulse which leads him to believe that, in addressing a Deity, he is +addressing a tender, compassionate, benignant Father, and in that +obedience shall obtain beneficial results. If that impulse be an +illusion, then we must say that Heaven governs the earth by a lie; and +that is impossible, because, reasoning by analogy, all Nature is +truthful,--that is, Nature gives to no species instincts or impulses which +are not of service to it. Should I not be a shallow physician if, where I +find in the human organization a principle or a property so general that I +must believe it normal to the healthful conditions of that organization, I +should refuse to admit that Nature intended it for use? Reasoning by all +analogy, must I not say the habitual neglect of its use must more or less +injure the harmonious well-being of the whole human system? I could have +much to add upon the point in dispute by which the creed implied in your +question would enthrall the Divine mercy by the necessities of its Divine +wisdom, and substitute for a benignant Deity a relentless Fate. But here +I should exceed my province. I am no theologian. Enough for me that in +all my afflictions, all my perplexities, an impulse, that I obey as an +instinct, moves me at once to prayer. Do I find by experience that the +prayer is heard, that the affliction is removed, the doubt is solved? +That, indeed, would be presumptuous to say. But it is not presumptuous to +think that by the efficacy of prayer my heart becomes more fortified +against the sorrow, and my reason more serene amidst the doubt." + +I listened, and ceased to argue. I felt as if in that solitude, and in +the pause of my wonted mental occupations, my intellect was growing +languid, and its old weapons rusting in disuse. My pride took alarm. I +had so from my boyhood cherished the idea of fame, and so glorified the +search after knowledge, that I recoiled in dismay from the thought that I +had relinquished knowledge, and cut myself off from fame. I resolved to +resume my once favourite philosophical pursuits, re-examine and complete +the Work to which I had once committed my hopes of renown; and, +simultaneously, a restless desire seized me to communciate, though but at +brief intervals, with other minds than those immediately within my +reach,--minds fresh from the old world, and reviving the memories of its +vivid civilization. Emigrants frequently passed my doors, but I had +hitherto shrunk from tendering the hospitalities so universally accorded +in the colony. I could not endure to expose to such rough strangers my +Lilian's mournful affliction, and that thought was not less intolerable to +Mrs. Ashleigh. I now hastily constructed a log-building a few hundred +yards from the house, and near the main track taken by travellers through +the spacious pastures. I transported to this building my books and +scientific instruments. In an upper story I placed my telescopes and +lenses, my crucibles and retorts. I renewed my chemical experiments; I +sought to invigorate my mind by other branches of science which I had +hitherto less cultured,--meditated new theories on Light and Colour, +collected specimens in Natural History, subjected animalcules to my +microscope, geological fossils to my hammer. With all these quickened +occupations of thought, I strove to distract myself from sorrow, and +strengthen my reason against the, illusion of my fantasy. The Luminous +Shadow was not seen again on my wall, and the thought of Margrave himself +was banished. + +In this building I passed many hours of each day; more and more earnestly +plunging my thoughts into depths of abstract study, as Lilian's +unaccountable dislike to my presence became more and more decided. When I +thus ceased to think that my life cheered and comforted hers, my heart's +occupation was gone. I had annexed to the apartment reserved for myself +in the log-hut a couple of spare rooms, in which I could accommodate +passing strangers. I learned to look forward to their coming with +interest, and to see them depart with regret; yet, for the most part, they +were of the ordinary class of colonial adventurers,--bankrupt tradesmen, +unlucky farmers, forlorn mechanics, hordes of unskilled labourers, now and +then a briefless barrister, or a sporting collegian who had lost his all +on the Derby. One day, however, a young man of education and manners that +unmistakably proclaimed the cultured gentleman of Europe, stopped at my +door. He was a cadet of a noble Prussian family, which for some political +reasons had settled itself in Paris; there he had become intimate with +young French nobles, and living the life of a young French noble had soon +scandalized his German parents, forestalled his slender inheritance, and +been compelled to fly his father's frown and his tailor's bills. All this +he told me with a lively frankness which proved how much the wit of a +German can be quickened in the atmosphere of Paris. An old college +friend, of birth inferior to his own, had been as unfortunate in seeking +to make money as this young prodigal had been an adept in spending it. +The friend, a few years previously, had accompanied other Germans in a +migration to Australia, and was already thriving; the spendthrift noble +was on his way to join the bankrupt trader, at a German settlement fifty +miles distant from my house. This young man was unlike any German I ever +met. He had all the exquisite levity by which the well-bred Frenchman +gives to the doctrines of the Cynic the grace of the Epicurean. He owned +himself to be good for nothing with an elegance of candour which not only +disarmed censure, but seemed to challenge admiration; and, withal, the +happy spendthrift was so inebriate with hope,--sure that he should be rich +before he was thirty. How and wherefore rich, he could have no more +explained than I can square the circle. When the grand serious German +nature does Frenchify itself, it can become so extravagantly French! + +I listened, almost enviously, to this light-hearted profligate's babble, +as we sat by my rude fireside,--I, sombre man of science and sorrow, he, +smiling child of idleness and pleasure, so much one of Nature's +courtier-like nobles, that there, as he smoked his villanous pipe, in his +dust-soiled shabby garments, and with his ruffianly revolver stuck into +his belt, I would defy the daintiest Aristarch who ever presided as critic +over the holiday world not to have said, "There smiles the genius beyond +my laws, the born darling of the Graces, who in every circumstance, in +every age, like Aristippus, would have socially charmed; would have been +welcome to the orgies of a Caesar or a Clodius, to the boudoirs of a +Montespan or a Pompadour; have lounged through the Mulberry Gardens with a +Rochester and a Buckingham, or smiled from the death-cart, with a +Richelieu and a Lauzun, a gentleman's disdain of a mob!" + +I was so thinking as we sat, his light talk frothing up from his careless +lips, when suddenly from the spray and the sparkle of that light talk was +flung forth the name of Margrave. + +"Margrave!" I exclaimed. "Pardon me. What of him?" + +"What of him! I asked if, by chance, you knew the only Englishman I ever +had the meanness to envy?" + +"Perhaps you speak of one person, and I thought of another." + +"Pardieu, my dear host, there can scarcely be two Margraves! The one of +whom I speak flashed like a meteor upon Paris, bought from a prince of the +Bourse a palace that might have lodged a prince of the blood-royal, +eclipsed our Jew bankers in splendour, our jeunesse doree in good looks +and hair-brain adventures, and, strangest of all, filled his salons with +philosophers and charlatans, chemists and spirit-rappers; insulting the +gravest dons of the schools by bringing them face to face with the most +impudent quacks, the most ridiculous dreamers,--and yet, withal, himself +so racy and charming, so bon prince, so bon enfant! For six months he was +the rage at Paris: perhaps he might have continued to be the rage there +for six years, but all at once the meteor vanished as suddenly as it had +flashed. Is this the Margrave whom you know?" + +"I should not have thought the Margrave whom I knew could have reconciled +his tastes to the life of cities." + +"Nor could this man: cities were too tame for him. He has gone to some +far-remote wilds in the East,--some say in search of the Philosopher's +Stone; for he actually maintained in his house a Sicilian adventurer, who, +when at work on that famous discovery, was stifled by the fumes of his own +crucible. After that misfortune, Margrave took Paris in disgust, and we +lost him." + +"So this is the only Englishman whom you envy! Envy him? Why?" + +"Because he is the only Englishman I ever met who contrived to be rich and +yet free from the spleen; I envied him because one had only to look at his +face and see how thoroughly he enjoyed the life of which your countrymen +seem to be so heartily tired. But now that I have satisfied your +curiosity, pray satisfy mine. Who and what is this Englishman?" + +"Who and what was he supposed at Paris to be?" + +"Conjectures were numberless. One of your countrymen suggested that which +was the most generally favoured. This gentleman, whose name I forget, but +who was one of those old roues who fancy themselves young because they +live with the young, no sooner set eyes upon Margrave, than he exclaimed, +'Louis Grayle come to life again, as I saw him forty-four years ago! But +no--still younger, still handsomer--it must be his son!" + +"Louis Grayle, who was said to be murdered at Aleppo?" + +"The same. That strange old man was enormously rich; but it seems that he +hated his lawful heirs, and left behind him a fortune so far below that +which he was known to possess that he must certainly have disposed of it +secretly before his death. Why so dispose of it, if not to enrich some +natural son, whom, for private reasons, he might not have wished to +acknowledge, or point out to the world by the signal bequest of his will? +All that Margrave ever said of himself and the source of his wealth +confirmed this belief. He frankly proclaimed himself a natural son, +enriched by a father whose name he knew not nor cared to know." + +"It is true. And Margrave quitted Paris for the East. When?" + +"I can tell you the date within a day or two, for his flight preceded mine +by a week; and, happily, all Paris was so busy in talking of it, that I +slipped away without notice." + +And the Prussian then named a date which it thrilled me to hear, for it +was in that very month, and about that very day, that the Luminous Shadow +had stood within my threshold. + +The young count now struck off into other subjects of talk: nothing more +was said of Margrave. An hour or two afterwards he went on his way, and I +remained long gazing musingly on the embers of the dying glow on my +hearth. + +[1] "Are intelligence and instinct, thus differing in their relative +proportion in man as compared with all other animals, yet the same in kind +and manner of operation in both? To this question we must give at once an +affirmative answer. The expression of Cuvier, regarding the faculty of +reasoning in lower animals, 'Leur intelligence execute des operations du +meme genre,' is true in its full sense. We can in no manner define reason +so as to exclude acts which are at every moment present to our +observation, and which we find in many instances to contravene the natural +instincts of the species. The demeanour and acts of the dog in reference +to his master, or the various uses to which he is put by man, are as +strictly logical as those we witness in the ordinary transactions of +life."--Sir Henry Holland, chapters on "Mental Physiology," p. 220. + +The whole of the chapter on Instincts and Habits in this work should be +read in connection with the passage just quoted. The work itself, at once +cautious and suggestive, is not one of the least obligations which +philosophy and religion alike owe to the lucubrations of English medical +men. + +[2] Abercrombie's Intellectual Powers, p. 26. (15th Edition.) + +[3] OEuvres de Descartes, vol. x. p. 178, et seq. (Cousin's Edition.) + +[4] M. Tissot the distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Dijon, in his +recent work, "La Vie dans l'Homme," p. 255, gives a long and illustrious +list of philosophers who assign a rational soul (ame) to the inferior +animals, though he truly adds, "that they have not always the courage of +their opinion." + +[5] Some idea of the extent of research and imagination bestowed on this +subject may be gleaned from the sprightly work of Pierquin de Gemblouz, +"Idiomologie des Animaux," published at Paris, 1844. + +[6] "Faculty is active power: capacity is passive power."--Sir W. +Hamilton: Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic, vol. i. p.178. + +[7] Sir W. Hamilton's "Lectures," vol. i. p. 10. + +[8] Chalmers, "Bridgewater Treatise," vol. ii. pp. 28, 30. Perhaps I +should observe, that here and elsewhere in the dialogues between Faber and +Fenwick, it has generally been thought better to substitute the words of +the author quoted for the mere outline or purport of the quotation which +memory afforded to the interlocutor. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXIV. + +My Work, my Philosophical Work-the ambitious hope of my intellectual +life--how eagerly I returned to it again! Far away from my household +grief, far away from my haggard perplexities--neither a Lilian nor a +Margrave there! + +As I went over what I had before written, each link in its chain of +reasoning seemed so serried, that to alter one were to derange all; and +the whole reasoning was so opposed to the possibility of the wonders I +myself had experienced, so hostile to the subtle hypotheses of a Faber, or +the childlike belief of an Amy, that I must have destroyed the entire work +if I had admitted such contradictions to its design! + +But the work was I myself!--I, in my solid, sober, healthful mind, before +the brain had been perplexed by a phantom. Were phantoms to be allowed as +testimonies against science? No; in returning to my Book, I returned to +my former Me! + +How strange is that contradiction between our being as man and our being +as Author! Take any writer enamoured of a system: a thousand things may +happen to him every day which might shake his faith in that system; and +while he moves about as mere man, his faith is shaken. But when he +settles himself back into the phase of his being as author, the mere act +of taking pen in hand and smoothing the paper before him restores his +speculations to their ancient mechanical train. The system, the beloved +system, reasserts its tyrannic sway, and he either ignores, or moulds into +fresh proofs of his theory as author, all which, an hour before, had given +his theory the lie in his living perceptions as man. + +I adhered to my system,--I continued my work. Here, in the barbarous +desert, was a link between me and the Cities of Europe. All else might +break down under me. The love I had dreamed of was blotted out from the +world, and might never be restored; my heart might be lonely, my life be +an exile's. My reason might, at last, give way before the spectres which +awed my senses, or the sorrow which stormed my heart. But here at least +was a monument of my rational thoughtful Me,--of my individualized +identity in multiform creation. And my mind, in the noon of its force, +would shed its light on the earth when my form was resolved to its +elements. Alas! in this very yearning for the Hereafter, though but the +Hereafter of a Name, could I see only the craving of Mind, and hear not +the whisper of Soul! + +The avocation of a colonist, usually so active, had little interest for +me. This vast territorial lordship, in which, could I have endeared its +possession by the hopes that animate a Founder, I should have felt all the +zest and the pride of ownership, was but the run of a common to the +passing emigrant, who would leave no son to inherit the tardy products of +his labour. I was not goaded to industry by the stimulus of need. I +could only be ruined if I risked all my capital in the attempt to improve. +I lived, therefore, amongst my fertile pastures, as careless of culture as +the English occupant of the Highland moor, which he rents for the range of +its solitudes. + +I knew, indeed, that if ever I became avaricious, I might swell my modest +affluence into absolute wealth. I had revisited the spot in which I had +discovered the nugget of gold, and had found the precious metal in rich +abundance just under the first coverings of the alluvial soil. I +concealed my discovery from all. I knew that, did I proclaim it, the +charm of my bush-life would be gone. My fields would be infested by all +the wild adventurers who gather to gold as the vultures of prey round a +carcass; my servants would desert me, my very flocks would be +shepherdless! + +Months again rolled on months. I had just approached the close of my +beloved Work, when it was again suspended, and by an anguish keener than +all which I had previously known. + +Lilian became alarmingly ill. Her state of health, long gradually +declining, had hitherto admitted checkered intervals of improvement, and +exhibited no symptoms of actual danger. But now she was seized with a +kind of chronic fever, attended with absolute privation of sleep, an +aversion to even the lightest nourishment, and an acute nervous +susceptibility to all the outward impressions of which she had long seemed +so unconscious; morbidly alive to the faintest sound, shrinking from the +light as from a torture. Her previous impatience at my entrance into her +room became aggravated into vehement emotions, convulsive paroxysms of +distress; so that Faber banished me from her chamber, and, with a heart +bleeding at every fibre, I submitted to the cruel sentence. + +Faber had taken up his abode in my house and brought Amy with him; one or +the other never left Lilian, night or day. The great physician spoke +doubtfully of the case, but not despairingly. + +"Remember," he said, "that in spite of the want of sleep, the abstinence +from food, the form has not wasted as it would do were this fever +inevitably mortal. It is upon that phenomenon I build a hope that I have +not been mistaken in the opinion I hazarded from the first. We are now in +the midst of the critical struggle between life and reason; if she +preserve the one, my conviction is that she will regain the other. That +seeming antipathy to yourself is a good omen. You are inseparably +associated with her intellectual world; in proportion as she revives to +it, must become vivid and powerful the reminiscences of the shock that +annulled, for a time, that world to her. So I welcome, rather than fear, +the over-susceptibility of the awakening senses to external sights and +sounds. A few days will decide if I am right. In this climate the +progress of acute maladies is swift, but the recovery from them is yet +more startlingly rapid. Wait, endure, be prepared to submit to the will +of Heaven; but do not despond of its mercy." + +I rushed away from the consoler,--away into the thick of the forests, the +heart of the solitude. All around me, there, was joyous with life; the +locust sang amidst the herbage; the cranes gambolled on the banks of the +creek; the squirrel-like opossums frolicked on the feathery boughs. "And +what," said I to myself,--"what if that which seems so fabulous in the +distant being whose existence has bewitched my own, be substantially true? +What if to some potent medicament Margrave owes his glorious vitality, his +radiant youth? Oh, that I had not so disdainfully turned away from his +hinted solicitations--to what?--to nothing guiltier than lawful +experiment. Had I been less devoted a bigot to this vain schoolcraft, +which we call the Medical Art, and which, alone in this age of science, +has made no perceptible progress since the days of its earliest +teachers--had I said, in the true humility of genuine knowledge, 'these +alchemists were men of genius and thought; we owe to them nearly all the +grand hints of our chemical science,--is it likely that they would have +been wholly drivellers and idiots in the one faith they clung to the +most?'--had I said that, I might now have no fear of losing my Lilian. +Why, after all, should there not be in Nature one primary essence, one +master substance; in which is stored the specific nutriment of life?" + +Thus incoherently muttering to the woods what my pride of reason would not +have suffered me gravely to say to my fellow-men, I fatigued my tormented +spirits into a gloomy calm, and mechanically retraced my steps at the +decline of day. I seated myself at the door of my solitary log-hut, lean +ing my cheek upon my hand, and musing. Wearily I looked up, roused by a +discord of clattering hoofs and lumbering wheels on the hollow-sounding +grass-track. A crazy groaning vehicle, drawn by four horses, emerged from +the copse of gum-trees,--fast, fast along the road, which no such pompous +vehicle had traversed since that which had borne me--luxurious satrap for +an early colonist--to my lodge in the wilderness. What emigrant rich +enough to squander in the hire of such an equipage more than its cost in +England, could thus be entering on my waste domain? An ominous thrill +shot through me. + +The driver--perhaps some broken-down son of luxury in the Old World, fit +for nothing in the New World but to ply, for hire, the task that might +have led to his ruin when plied in sport--stopped at the door of my hut, +and called out, "Friend, is not this the great Fenwick Section, and is not +yonder long pile of building the Master's house?" + +Before I could answer I heard a faint voice, within the vehicle, speaking +to the driver; the last nodded, descended from his seat, opened the +carriage-door, and offered his arm to a man, who, waving aside the +proffered aid, descended slowly and feebly; paused a moment as if for +breath, and then, leaning on his staff, walked from the road, across the +sward rank with luxuriant herbage, through the little gate in the new-set +fragrant wattle-fence, wearily, languidly, halting often, till he stood +facing me, leaning both wan and emaciated hands upon his staff, and his +meagre form shrinking deep within the folds of a cloak lined thick with +costly sables. His face was sharp, his complexion of a livid yellow, his +eyes shone out from their hollow orbits, unnaturally enlarged and fatally +bright. Thus, in ghastly contrast to his former splendour of youth and +opulence of life, Margrave stood before me. + +"I come to you," said Margrave, in accents hoarse and broken, "from the +shores of the East. Give me shelter and rest. I have that to say which +will more than repay you." + +Whatever, till that moment, my hate and my fear of this unexpected +visitant, hate would have been inhumanity, fear a meanness, conceived for +a creature so awfully stricken down. + +Silently, involuntarily, I led him into the house. There he rested a few +minutes, with closed eyes and painful gasps for breath. Meanwhile, the +driver brought from the carriage a travelling-bag and a small wooden chest +or coffer, strongly banded with iron clamps. Margrave, looking up as the +man drew near, exclaimed fiercely, "Who told you to touch that chest? How +dare you? Take it from that man, Fenwick! Place it here,--here by my +side!" + +I took the chest from the driver, whose rising anger at being so +imperiously rated in the land of democratic equality was appeased by the +gold which Margrave lavishly flung to him. + +"Take care of the poor gentleman, squire," he whispered to me, in the +spontaneous impulse of gratitude, "I fear he will not trouble you long. +He must be monstrous rich. Arrived in a vessel hired all to himself, and +a train of outlandish attendants, whom he has left behind in the town +yonder. May I bait my horses in your stables? They have come a long +way." + +I pointed to the neighbouring stables, and the man nodded his thanks, +remounted his box, and drove off. + +I returned to Margrave. A faint smile came to his lips as I placed the +chest beside him. + +"Ay, ay," he muttered. "Safe! safe! I shall soon be well again,--very +soon! And now I can sleep in peace!" + +I led him into an inner room, in which there was a bed. He threw himself +on it with a loud sigh of relief. Soon, half raising himself on his +elbow, he exclaimed, "The chest--bring it hither! I need it always beside +me! There, there! Now for a few hours of sleep; and then, if I can take +food, or some such restoring cordial as your skill may suggest, I shall be +strong enough to talk. We will talk! we will talk!" + +His eyes closed heavily as his voice fell into a drowsy mutter: a moment +more and he was asleep. + +I watched beside him, in mingled wonder and compassion. Looking into that +face, so altered yet still so young, I could not sternly question what had +been the evil of that mystic life, which seemed now oozing away through +the last sands in the hour-glass. I placed my hand softly on his pulse: +it scarcely beat. I put my ear to his breast, and involuntarily sighed, +as I distinguished in its fluttering heave that dull, dumb sound, in which +the heart seems knelling itself to the greedy grave! + +Was this, indeed, the potent magician whom I had so feared!--this the +guide to the Rosicrucian's secret of life's renewal, in whom, but an hour +or two ago, my fancies gulled my credulous trust! + +But suddenly, even while thus chiding my wild superstitions, a fear, that +to most would seem scarcely less superstitious, shot across me. Could +Lilian be affected by the near neighbourhood of one to whose magnetic +influence she had once been so strangely subjected? I left Margrave still +sleeping, closed and locked the door of the hut, went back to my dwelling, +and met Amy at the threshold. Her smile was so cheering that I felt at +once relieved. + +"Hush!" said the child, putting her finger to her lips, "she is so quiet! +I was coming in search of you, with a message from her." + +"From Lilian to me--what! to me!" + +"Hush! About an hour ago, she beckoned me to draw near to her, and then +said, very softly: 'Tell Allen that light is coming back to me, and it all +settles on him--on him. Tell him that I pray to be spared to walk by his +side on earth, hand-in-hand to that heaven which is no dream, Amy. Tell +him that,--no dream!'" + +While the child spoke my tears gushed, and the strong hands in which I +veiled my face quivered like the leaf of the aspen. And when I could +command my voice, I said plaintively,-- + +"May I not, then, see her?--only for a moment, and answer her message +though but by a look?" + +"No, no!" + +"No! Where is Faber?" + +"Gone into the forest, in search of some herbs, but he gave me this note +for you." + +I wiped the blinding tears from my eyes, and read these lines:-- + +"I have, though with hesitation, permitted Amy to tell you the cheering +words, by which our beloved patient confirms my belief that reason is +coming back to her,--slowly, labouringly, but if she survive, for +permanent restoration. On no account attempt to precipitate or disturb +the work of nature. As dangerous as a sudden glare of light to eyes long +blind and newly regaining vision in the friendly and soothing dark would +be the agitation that your presence at this crisis would cause. Confide +in me." + +I remained brooding over these lines and over Lilian's message long and +silently, while Amy's soothing whispers stole into my ear, soft as the +murmurs of a rill heard in the gloom of forests. Rousing myself at +length, my thoughts returned to Margrave. Doubtless he would soon awake. +I bade Amy bring me such slight nutriment as I thought best suited to his +enfeebled state, telling her it was for a sick traveller, resting himself +in my hut. When Amy returned, I took from her the little basket with +which she was charged, and having, meanwhile, made a careful selection +from the contents of my medicine-chest, went back to the hut. I had not +long resumed my place beside Margrave's pillow before he awoke. + +"What o'clock is it?" he asked, with an anxious voice. + +"About seven." + +"Not later? That is well; my time is precious." + +"Compose yourself, and eat." + +I placed the food before him, and he partook of it, though sparingly, and +as if with effort. He then dozed for a short time, again woke up, and +impatiently demanded the cordial, which I had prepared in the mean while. +Its effect was greater and more immediate than I could have anticipated, +proving, perhaps, how much of youth there was still left in his system, +however undermined and ravaged by disease. Colour came back to his cheek, +his voice grew perceptibly stronger. And as I lighted the lamp on the +table near us--for it was growing dark--he gathered himself up, and spoke +thus,-- + +"You remember that I once pressed on you certain experiments. My object +then was to discover the materials from which is extracted the specific +that enables the organs of life to expel disease and regain vigour. In +that hope I sought your intimacy,--an intimacy you gave, but withdrew." + +"Dare you complain? Who and what was the being from whose intimacy I +shrank appalled?" + +"Ask what questions you please," cried Margrave, impatiently, "later--if I +have strength left to answer them; but do not interrupt me, while I +husband my force to say what alone is important to me and to you. +Disappointed in the hopes I had placed in you, I resolved to repair to +Paris,--that great furnace of all bold ideas. I questioned learned +formalists; I listened to audacious empirics. The first, with all their +boasted knowledge, were too timid to concede my premises; the second, with +all their speculative daring, too knavish to let me trust to their +conclusions. I found but one man, a Sicilian, who comprehended the +secrets that are called occult, and had the courage to meet Nature and all +her agencies face to face. He believed, and sincerely, that he was +approaching the grand result, at the very moment when he perished from +want of the common precautions which a tyro in chemistry would have taken. +At his death the gaudy city became hateful; all its pretended pleasures +only served to exhaust life the faster. The true joys of youth are those +of the wild bird and wild brute, in the healthful enjoyment of Nature. In +cities, youth is but old age with a varnish. I fled to the East; I passed +through the tents of the Arabs; I was guided--no matter by whom or by +what--to the house of a Dervish, who had had for his teacher the most +erudite master of secrets occult, whom I knew years ago at Aleppo---Why +that exclamation?" + +"Proceed. What I have to say will come--later." + +"From this Dervish I half forced and half purchased the secret I sought to +obtain. I now know from what peculiar substance the so-called elixir of +life is extracted; I know also the steps of the process through which that +task is accomplished. You smile incredulously. What is your doubt? +State it while I rest for a moment. My breath labours; give me more of +the cordial." + +"Need I tell you my doubt? You have, you say, at your command the elixir +of life of which Cagliostro did not leave his disciples the recipe; and +you stretch out your hand for a vulgar cordial which any village chemist +could give you!" + +"I can explain this apparent contradiction. The process by which the +elixir is extracted from the material which hoards its essence is one that +requires a hardihood of courage which few possess. This Dervish, who had +passed through that process once, was deaf to all prayer, and unmoved by +all bribes, to attempt it again. He was poor; for the secret by which +metals may be transmuted is not, as the old alchemists seem to imply, +identical with that by which the elixir of life is extracted. He had only +been enabled to discover, in the niggard strata of the lands within range +of his travel, a few scanty morsels of the glorious substance. From these +he had extracted scarcely enough of the elixir to fill a third of that +little glass which I have just drained. He guarded every drop for +himself. Who that holds healthful life as the one boon above all price +to the living, would waste upon others what prolongs and recruits his own +being? Therefore, though he sold me his secret, he would not sell me his +treasure." + +"Any quack may sell you the information how to make not only an elixir, +but a sun and a moon, and then scare you from the experiment by tales of +the danger of trying it! How do you know that this essence which the +Dervish possessed was the elixir of life, since, it seems, you have not +tried on yourself what effect its precious drops could produce? Poor +wretch, who once seemed to me so awfully potent! do you come to the +Antipodes in search of a drug that only exists in the fables by which a +child is amused?" + +"The elixir of life is no fable," cried Margrave, with a kindling of eye, +a power of voice, a dilatation of form, that startled me in one just +before so feeble. "That elixir was bright in my veins when we last met. +From that golden draught of the life-spring of joy I took all that can +gladden creation. What sage would not have exchanged his wearisome +knowledge for my lusty revels with Nature? What monarch would not have +bartered his crown, with its brain-ache of care, for the radiance that +circled my brows, flashing out from the light that was in me? Oh again, +oh again! to enjoy the freedom of air with the bird, and the glow of the +sun with the lizard; to sport through the blooms of the earth, Nature's +playmate and darling; to face, in the forest and desert, the pard and the +lion,--Nature's bravest and fiercest,--her firstborn, the heir of her +realm, with the rest of her children for slaves!" + +As these words burst from his lips, there was a wild grandeur in the +aspect of this enigmatical being which I had never beheld in the former +time of his affluent, dazzling youth. And, indeed, in his language, and +in the thoughts it clothed, there was an earnestness, a concentration, a +directness, a purpose, which had seemed wanting to his desultory talk in +the earlier days I expected that reaction of languor and exhaustion would +follow his vehement outbreak of passion, but, after a short pause, he went +on with steady accents. His will was sustaining his strength. He was +determined to force his convictions on me, and the vitality, once so rich, +rallied all its lingering forces to the aid of its intense desire. + +"I tell you, then," he resumed, with deliberate calmness, "that, years +ago, I tested in my own person that essence which is the sovereign +medicament. In me, as you saw me at L----, you beheld the proof of its +virtues. Feeble and ill as I am now, my state was incalculably more +hopeless when formerly restored by the elixir. He from whom I then took +the sublime restorative died without revealing the secret of its +composition. What I obtained was only just sufficient to recruit the lamp +of my life, then dying down--and no drop was left for renewing the light +which wastes its own rays in the air that it gilds. Though the Dervish +would not sell me his treasure, he permitted me to see it. The appearance +and odour of this essence are strangely peculiar,--unmistakable by one who +has once beheld and partaken of it. In short, I recognized in the hands +of the Dervish the bright life-renewer, as I had borne it away from the +corpse of the Sage of Aleppo." + +"Hold! Are you then, in truth, the murderer of Haroun, and is your true +name Louis Grayle?" + +"I am no murderer, and Louis Grayle did not leave me his name. I again +adjure you to postpone, for this night at least, the questions you wish to +address to me. + +"Seeing that this obstinate pauper possessed that for which the pale +owners of millions, at the first touch of palsy or gout, would consent to +be paupers, of course I coveted the possession of the essence even more +than the knowledge of the substance from which it is extracted. I had no +coward fear of the experiment, which this timid driveller had not the +nerve to renew. But still the experiment might fail. I must traverse +land and sea to find the fit place for it, while, in the rags of the +Dervish, the unfailing result of the experiment was at hand. The Dervish +suspected my design, he dreaded my power. He fled on the very night in +which I had meant to seize what he refused to sell me. After all, I +should have done him no great wrong; for I should have left him wealth +enough to transport himself to any soil in which the material for the +elixir may be most abundant; and the desire of life would have given his +shrinking nerves the courage to replenish its ravished store. I had Arabs +in my pay, who obeyed me as hounds their master. I chased the fugitive. +I came on his track, reached a house in a miserable village, in which, I +was told, he had entered but an hour before. The day was declining, the +light in the room imperfect. I saw in a corner what seemed to me the form +of the Dervish,--stooped to seize it, and my hand closed on an asp. The +artful Dervish had so piled his rags that they took the shape of the form +they had clothed, and he had left, as a substitute for the giver of life, +the venomous reptile of death. + +"The strength of my system enabled me to survive the effect of the poison; +but during the torpor that numbed me, my Arabs, alarmed, gave no chase to +my quarry. At last, though enfeebled and languid, I was again on my +horse. Again the pursuit, again the track! I learned--but this time by a +knowledge surer than man's--that the Dervish had taken his refuge in a +hamlet that had sprung up over the site of a city once famed through +Assyria. The same voice that in formed me of his whereabouts warned me +not to pursue. I rejected the warning. In my eager impatience I sprang +on to the chase; in my fearless resolve I felt sure of the prey. I +arrived at the hamlet wearied out, for my forces were no longer the same +since the bite of the asp. The Dervish eluded me still; he had left the +floor, on which I sank exhausted, but a few minutes before my horse +stopped at the door. The carpet, on which he had rested, still lay on the +ground. I dismissed the youngest and keenest of my troop in search of the +fugitive. Sure that this time he would not escape, my eyes closed in +sleep. + +"How long I slept I know not,--a long dream of solitude, fever, and +anguish. Was it the curse of the Dervish's car pet? Was it a taint in +the walls of the house, or of the air, which broods sickly and rank over +places where cities lie buried? I know not; but the Pest of the East had +seized me in slumber. When my senses recovered I found myself alone, +plundered of my arms, despoiled of such gold as I had carried about me. +All had deserted and left me, as the living leave the dead whom the Plague +has claimed for its own. As soon as I could stand I crawled from the +threshold. The moment my voice was heard, my face seen, the whole squalid +populace rose as on a wild beast,--a mad dog. I was driven from the place +with imprecations and stones, as a miscreant whom the Plague had overtaken +while plotting the death of a holy man. Bruised and bleeding, but still +defying, I turned in wrath on that dastardly rabble; they slunk away from +my path. I knew the land for miles around. I had been in that land +years, long years ago. I came at last to the road which the caravans take +on their way to Damascus. There I was found, speechless and seemingly +lifeless, by some European travellers. Conveyed to Damascus, I languished +for weeks between life and death. But for the virtue of that essence, +which lingered yet in my veins, I could not have survived--even thus +feeble and shattered. I need not say that I now abandoned all thought of +discovering the Dervish. I had at least his secret, if I had failed of +the paltry supply he had drawn from its uses. Such appliances as he had +told me were needful are procured in the East with more ease than in +Europe. To sum up, I am here, instructed in all the knowledge, and +supplied with all the aids, which warrant me in saying, 'Do you care for +new life in its richest enjoyments, if not for yourself, for one whom you +love and would reprieve from the grave? Then, share with me in a task +that a single night will accomplish, and ravish a prize by which the life +that you value the most will be saved from the dust and the worm, to live +on, ever young, ever blooming, when each infant, new-born while I speak, +shall have passed to the grave. Nay, where is the limit to life, while +the earth hides the substance by which life is renewed?" + +I give as faithfully as I can recall them the words in which Margrave +addressed me. But who can guess by cold words transcribed, even were they +artfully ranged by a master of language, the effect words produce when +warm from the breath of the speaker? Ask one of an audience which some +orator held enthralled, why his words do not quicken a beat in the +reader's pulse, and the answer of one who had listened will be, "The words +took their charm from the voice and the eye, the aspect, the manner, the +man!" So it was with the incomprehensible being before me. Though his +youth was faded, though his beauty was dimmed, though my fancies clothed +him with memories of abhorrent dread, though my reason opposed his +audacious beliefs and assumptions, still he charmed and spell-bound me; +still he was the mystical fascinator; still, if the legends of magic had +truth for their basis, he was the born magician,--as genius, in what +calling soever, is born with the gift to enchant and subdue us. + +Constraining myself to answer calmly, I said, "You have told me your +story; you have defined the object of the experiment in which you ask me +to aid. You do right to bid me postpone my replies or my questions. Seek +to recruit by sleep the strength you have so sorely tasked. To-morrow--" + +"To-morrow, ere night, you will decide whether the man whom out of all +earth I have selected to aid me shall be the foe to condemn me to perish! +I tell you plainly I need your aid, and your prompt aid. Three days from +this, and all aid will be too late!" + +I had already gained the door of the room, when he called to me to come +back. + +"You do not live in this but, but with your family yonder. Do not tell +them that I am here; let no one but yourself see me as I now am. Lock the +door of the but when you quit it. I should not close my eyes if I were +not secure from intruders." + +"There is but one in my house, or in these parts, whom I would except from +the interdict you impose. You are aware of your own imminent danger; the +life, which you believe the discovery of a Dervish will indefinitely +prolong, seems to my eye of physician to hang on a thread. I have already +formed my own conjecture as to the nature of the disease that enfeebles +you. But I would fain compare that conjecture with the weightier opinion +of one whose experience and skill are superior to mine. Permit me, then, +when I return to you to-morrow, to bring with me the great physician to +whom I refer. His name will not, perhaps, be unknown to you: I speak of +Julius Faber." + +"A physician of the schools! I can guess well enough how learnedly he +would prate, and how little he could do. But I will not object to his +visit, if it satisfies you that, since I should die under the hands of the +doctors, I may be permitted to indulge my own whim in placing my hopes in +a Dervish. Yet stay. You have, doubtless, spoken of me to this Julius +Faber, your fellow-physician and friend? Promise me, if you bring him +here, that you will not name me,--that you will not repeat to him the tale +I have told you, or the hope which has led me to these shores. What I +have told you, no matter whether, at this moment, you consider me the dupe +of a chimera, is still under the seal of the confidence which a patient +reposes in the physician he himself selects for his confidant. I select +you, and not Julius Faber!" + +"Be it as you will," said I, after a moment's reflection. "The moment you +make yourself my patient, I am bound to consider what is best for you. +And you may more respect, and profit by, an opinion based upon your purely +physical condition than by one in which you might suppose the advice was +directed rather to the disease of the mind than to that of the body." + +"How amazed and indignant your brother-physician will be if he ever see me +a second time! How learnedly he will prove that, according to all correct +principles of science and nature, I ought to be dead!" + +He uttered this jest with a faint weary echo of his old merry, melodious +laugh, then turned his face to the wall; and so I left him to repose. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXV. + +I found Mrs. Ashleigh waiting for me in our usual sitting-room. She was +in tears. She had begun to despond of Lilian's recovery, and she infected +me with her own alarm. However, I disguised my participation in her +fears, soothed and sustained her as I best could, and persuaded her to +retire to rest. I saw Faber for a few minutes before I sought my own +chamber. He assured me that there was no perceptible change for the worse +in Lilian's physical state since he had last seen me, and that her mind, +even within the last few hours, had become decidedly more clear. He +thought that, within the next twenty-four hours, the reason would make a +strong and successful effort for complete recovery; but he declined to +hazard more than a hope that the effort would not exhaust the enfeebled +powers of the frame. He himself was so in need of a few hours of rest +that I ceased to harass him with questions which he could not answer, and +fears which he could not appease. Before leaving him for the night, I +told him briefly that there was a traveller in my but smitten by a disease +which seemed to me so grave that I would ask his opinion of the case, if +he could accompany me to the but the next morning. + +My own thoughts that night were not such as would suffer me to sleep. + +Before Margrave's melancholy state much of my former fear and abhorrence +faded away. This being, so exceptional that fancy might well invest him +with preternatural attributes, was now reduced by human suffering to human +sympathy and comprehension; yet his utter want of conscience was still as +apparent as in his day of joyous animal spirits. With what hideous +candour he had related his perfidy and ingratitude to the man to whom, in +his belief, he owed an inestimable obligation, and with what insensibility +to the signal retribution which in most natures would have awakened +remorse! + +And by what dark hints and confessions did he seem to confirm the +incredible memoir of Sir Philip Derval! He owned that he had borne from +the corpse of Haroun the medicament to which he ascribed his recovery from +a state yet more hopeless than that under which he now laboured! He had +alluded, rapidly, obscurely, to some knowledge at his command "surer than +man's." And now, even now the mere wreck of his former existence--by what +strange charm did he still control and confuse my reason? And how was it +that I felt myself murmuring, again and again, "But what, after all, if +his hope be no chimera, and if Nature do hide a secret by which I could +save the life of my beloved Lilian?" + +And again and again, as that thought would force itself on me, I rose and +crept to Lilian's threshold, listening to catch the faintest sound of her +breathing. All still, all dark! In that sufferer recognized science +detects no mortal disease, yet dares not bid me rely on its amplest +resources of skill to turn aside from her slumber the stealthy advance of +death; while in yon log-hut one whose malady recognized science could not +doubt to be mortal has composed himself to sleep, confident of life! +Recognized science?--recognized ignorance! The science of to-day is the +ignorance of to-morrow! Every year some bold guess lights up a truth to +which, but the year before, the schoolmen of science were as blinded as +moles. + +"What, then," my lips kept repeating,--"what if Nature do hide a secret by +which the life of my life can be saved? What do we know of the secrets of +Nature? What said Newton himself of his knowledge? 'I am like a child +picking up pebbles and shells on the sand, while the great ocean of Truth +lies all undiscovered around me!' And did Newton himself, in the ripest +growth of his matchless intellect, hold the creed of the alchemists in +scorn? Had he not given to one object of their research, in the +transmutation of metals, his days and his nights? Is there proof that he +ever convinced himself that the research was the dream, which we, who are +not Newtons, call it?[1] And that other great sage, inferior only to +Newton--the calculating doubt-weigher, Descartes--had he not believed in +the yet nobler hope of the alchemists,--believed in some occult nostrum or +process by which human life could attain to the age of the Patriarchs?"[2] + +In thoughts like these the night wore away, the moonbeams that streamed +through my window lighting up the spacious solitudes beyond,--mead and +creek, forest-land, mountaintop,--and the silence without broken by the +wild cry of the night hawk and the sibilant melancholy dirge of the +shining chrysococyx,[3]--bird that never sings but at night, and +obstinately haunts the roofs of the sick and dying, ominous of woe and +death. + +But up sprang the sun, and, chasing these gloomy sounds, out burst the +wonderful chorus of Australian groves, the great kingfisher opening the +jocund melodious babble with the glee of his social laugh. + +And now I heard Faber's step in Lilian's room,--heard through the door her +soft voice, though I could not distinguish the words. It was not long +before I saw the kind physician standing at the threshold of my chamber. +He pressed his finger to his lip, and made me a sign to follow him. I +obeyed, with noiseless tread and stifled breathing. He awaited me in the +garden under the flowering acacias, passed his arm in mine, and drew me +into the open pasture-land. + +"Compose yourself," he then said; "I bring you tidings both of gladness +and of fear. Your Lilian's mind is restored: even the memories which had +been swept away by the fever that followed her return to her home in L---- +are returning, though as yet indistinct. She yearns to see you, to bless +you for all your noble devotion, your generous, greathearted love; but I +forbid such interview now. If, in a few hours, she become either +decidedly stronger or decidedly more enfeebled, you shall be summoned to +her side. Even if you are condemned to a loss for which the sole +consolation must be placed in the life hereafter, you shall have, at +least, the last mortal commune of soul with soul. Courage! courage! You +are man! Bear as man what you have so often bid other men submit to +endure." + +I had flung myself on the ground,--writhing worm that had no home but on +earth! Man, indeed! Man! All, at that moment, I took from manhood was +its acute sensibility to love and to anguish! + +But after all such paroxysms of mortal pain, there comes a strange lull. +Thought itself halts, like the still hush of water between two descending +torrents. I rose in a calm, which Faber might well mistake for fortitude. + +"Well," I said quietly, "fulfil your promise. If Lilian is to pass away +from me, I shall see her, at least, again; no wall, you tell me, between +our minds; mind to mind once more,--once more!" + +"Allen," said Faber, mournfully and softly, "why do you shun to repeat my +words--soul to soul?" + +"Ay, ay,--I understand. Those words mean that you have resigned all hope +that Lilian's life will linger here, when her mind comes back in full +consciousness; I know well that last lightning flash and the darkness +which swallows it up!" + +"You exaggerate my fears. I have not resigned the hope that Lilian will +survive the struggle through which she is passing, but it will be cruel to +deceive you--my hope is weaker than it was." + +"Ay, ay. Again, I understand! Your science is in fault,--it desponds. +Its last trust is in the wonderful resources of Nature, the vitality +stored in the young!" + +"You have said,--those resources of Nature are wondrous. The vitality of +youth is a fountain springing up from the deeps out of sight, when, a +moment before, we had measured the drops oozing out from the sands, and +thought that the well was exhausted." + +"Come with me,--come. I told you of another sufferer yonder. I want your +opinion of his case. But can you be spared a few minutes from Lilian's +side?" + +"Yes; I left her asleep. What is the case that perplexes your eye of +physician, which is usually keener than mine, despite all the length of my +practice?" + +"The sufferer is young, his organization rare in its vigour. He has gone +through and survived assaults upon life that are commonly fatal. His +system has been poisoned by the fangs of a venomous asp, and shattered by +the blast of the plague. These alone, I believe, would not suffice to +destroy him. But he is one who has a strong dread of death; and while the +heart was thus languid and feeble, it has been gnawed by emotions of hope +or of fear. I suspect that he is dying, not from the bite of the reptile, +not from the taint of the pestilence, but from the hope and the fear that +have overtasked the heart's functions. Judge for yourself." + +We were now at the door of the hut. I unlocked it: we entered. Margrave +had quitted his bed, and was pacing the room slowly. His step was less +feeble, his countenance less haggard than on the previous evening. + +He submitted himself to Faber's questioning with a quiet indifference, and +evidently cared nothing for any opinion which the great physician might +found on his replies. + +When Faber had learned all he could, he said, with a grave smile: "I see +that my advice will have little weight with you; such as it is, at least +reflect on it. The conclusions to which your host arrived in his view of +your case, and which he confided to me, are, in my humble judgment, +correct. I have no doubt that the great organ of the heart is involved in +the cause of your sufferings; but the heart is a noble and much-enduring +organ. I have known men in whom it has been more severely and +unequivocally affected with disease than it is in you, live on for many +years, and ultimately die of some other disorder. But then life was held, +as yours must be held, upon one condition,--repose. I enjoin you to +abstain from all violent action, to shun all excitements that cause moral +disturbance. You are young: would you live on, you must live as the old. +More than this,--it is my duty to warn you that your tenure on earth is +very precarious; you may attain to many years; you may be suddenly called +hence tomorrow. The best mode to regard this uncertainty with the calm in +which is your only chance of long life, is so to arrange all your worldly +affairs, and so to discipline all your human anxieties, as to feel always +prepared for the summons that may come without warning. For the rest, +quit this climate as soon as you can,--it is the climate in which the +blood courses too quickly for one who should shun all excitement. Seek +the most equable atmosphere, choose the most tranquil pursuits; and +Fenwick himself, in his magnificent pride of stature and strength, may be +nearer the grave than you are." + +"Your opinion coincides with that I have just heard?" asked Margrave, +turning to me. + +"In much--yes." + +"It is more favourable than I should have supposed. I am far from +disdaining the advice so kindly offered. Permit me, in turn, two or three +questions, Dr. Faber. Do you prescribe to me no drugs from your +pharmacopoeia?" + +"Drugs may palliate many sufferings incidental to organic disease, but +drugs cannot reach organic disease itself." + +"Do you believe that, even where disease is plainly organic, Nature +herself has no alternative and reparative powers, by which the organ +assailed may recover itself?" + +"A few exceptional instances of such forces in Nature are upon record; but +we must go by general laws, and not by exceptions." + +"Have you never known instances--do you not at this moment know one--in +which a patient whose malady baffles the doctor's skill, imagines or +dreams of a remedy? Call it a whim if you please, learned sir; do you not +listen to the whim, and, in despair of your own prescriptions, comply with +those of the patient?" + +Faber changed countenance, and even started. Margrave watched him and +laughed. + +"You grant that there are such cases, in which the patient gives the law +to the physician. Now, apply your experience to my case. Suppose some +strange fancy had seized upon my imagination--that is the doctor's cant +word for all phenomena which we call exceptional--some strange fancy that +I had thought of a cure for this disease for which you have no drugs; and +suppose this fancy of mine to be so strong, so vivid, that to deny me its +gratification would produce the very emotion from which you warn me as +fatal,--storm the heart, that you would soothe to repose, by the passions +of rage and despair,--would you, as my trusted physician, concede or deny +me my whim?" + +"Can you ask? I should grant it at once, if I had no reason to know that +the thing that you fancied was harmful." + +"Good man and wise doctor! I have no other question to ask. I thank +you." + +Faber looked hard on the young, wan face, over which played a smile of +triumph and irony; then turned away with an expression of doubt and +trouble on his own noble countenance. I followed him silently into the +open air. + +"Who and what is this visitor of yours?" he asked abruptly. + +"Who and what? I cannot tell you." + +Faber remained some moments musing, and muttering slowly to himself, "Tut! +but a chance coincidence,--a haphazard allusion to a fact which he could +not have known!" + +"Faber," said I, abruptly, "can it be that Lilian is the patient in whose +self-suggested remedies you confide more than in the various learning at +command of your practised skill?" + +"I cannot deny it," replied Faber, reluctantly. "In the intervals of that +suspense from waking sense, which in her is not sleep, nor yet altogether +catalepsy, she has, for the last few days, stated accurately the precise +moment in which the trance--if I may so call it--would pass away, and +prescribed for herself the remedies that should be then administered. In +every instance, the remedies so self-prescribed, though certainly not +those which would have occurred to my mind, have proved efficacious. Her +rapid progress to reason I ascribe to the treatment she herself ordained +in her trance, without remembrance of her own suggestions when she awoke. +I had meant to defer communicating these phenomena in the idiosyncrasy of +her case until our minds could more calmly inquire into the process by +which ideas--not apparently derived, as your metaphysical school would +derive all ideas, from preconceived experiences--will thus sometimes act +like an instinct on the human sufferer for self-preservation, as the bird +is directed to the herb or the berry which heals or assuages its ailments. +We know how the mesmerists would account for this phenomenon of hygienic +introvision and clairvoyance. But here, there is no mesmerizer, unless +the patient can be supposed to mesmerize herself. Long, however, before +mesmerism was heard of, medical history attests examples in which patients +who baffled the skill of the ablest physicians have fixed their fancies on +some remedy that physicians would call inoperative for good or for harm, +and have recovered by the remedies thus singularly self-suggested. And +Hippocrates himself, if I construe his meaning rightly, recognizes the +powers for self-cure which the condition of trance will sometimes bestow +on the sufferer, 'where' (says the father of our art) 'the sight being +closed to the external, the soul more truthfully perceives the affections +of the body.' In short--I own it--in this instance, the skill of the +physician has been a compliant obedience to the instinct called forth in +the patient; and the hopes I have hitherto permitted myself to give you +were founded on my experience that her own hopes, conceived in trance, bad +never been fallacious or exaggerated. The simples that I gathered for her +yesterday she had described; they are not in our herbal. But as they are +sometimes used by the natives, I had the curiosity to analyze their +chemical properties shortly after I came to the colony, and they seemed to +me as innocent as lime-blossoms. They are rare in this part of Australia, +but she told me where I should find them,--a remote spot, which she has +certainly never visited. Last night, when you saw me disturbed, dejected, +it was because, for the first time, the docility with which she had +hitherto, in her waking state, obeyed her own injunctions in the state of +trance, forsook her. She could not be induced to taste the decoction I +had made from the herbs; and if you found me this morning with weaker +hopes than before, this is the real cause,--namely, that when I visited +her at sunrise, she was not in sleep but in trance, and in that trance +she told me that she had nothing more to suggest or reveal; that on the +complete restoration of her senses, which was at hand, the abnormal +faculties vouchsafed to trance would be withdrawn. 'As for my life,' she +said quietly, as if unconscious of our temporary joy or woe in the term of +its tenure here,--'as for my life, your aid is now idle; my own vision +obscure; on my life a dark and cold shadow is resting. I cannot foresee +if it will pass away. When I strive to look around, I see but my +Allen--'" + +"And so," said I, mastering my emotions, "in bidding me hope, you did not +rely on your own resources of science, but on the whisper of Nature in the +brain of your patient?" + +"It is so." + +We both remained silent some moments, and then, as he disappeared within +my house, I murmured,-- + +"And when she strives to look beyond the shadow, she sees only me! Is +there some prophet-hint of Nature there also, directing me not to scorn +the secret which a wanderer, so suddenly dropped on my solitude, assures +me that Nature will sometimes reveal to her seeker? And oh! that dark +wanderer--has Nature a marvel more weird than himself?" + +[1] "Besides the three great subjects of Newton's labours--the fluxional +calculus, physical astronomy, and optics--a very large portion of his +time, while resident in his college, was devoted to researches of which +scarcely a trace remains. Alchemy, which had fascinated so many eager and +ambitious minds, seems to have tempted Newton with an overwhelming force. +What theories he formed, what experiments he tried, in that laboratory +where, it is said, the fire was scarcely extinguished for weeks together, +will never be known. It is certain that no success attended his labours; +and Newton was not a man--like Kepler--to detail to the world all the +hopes and disappointments, all the crude and mystical fancies, which mixed +themselves up with his career of philosophy... Many years later we find +Newton in correspondence with Locke, with reference to a mysterious red +earth by which Boyle, who was then recently dead, had asserted that he +could effect the grand desideratum of multiplying gold. By this time, +however, Newton's faith had become somewhat shaken by the unsatisfactory +communications which he had himself received from Boyle on the subject of +the golden recipe, though he did not abandon the idea of giving the +experiment a further trial as soon as the weather should become suitable +for furnace experiments."--Quarterly Review, No. 220, pp. 125, 126. + +[2] Southey, in his "Doctor," vol. vi. p. 2, reports the conversation of +Sir Kenelm Digby with Descartes, in which the great geometrician said, +"That as for rendering man immortal, it was what he could not venture to +promise, but that he was very sure he could prolong his life to the +standard of the patriarchs." And Southey adds, "that St. Evremond, to +whom Digby repeated this, says that this opinion of Descartes was well +known both to his friends in Holland and in France." By the stress +Southey lays on this hearsay evidence, it is clear that he was not +acquainted with the works and biography of Descartes, or be would have +gone to the fountain-head for authority on Descartes's opinions, namely, +Descartes himself. It is to be wished that Southey had done so, for no +one more than he would have appreciated the exquisitely candid and lovable +nature of the illustrious Frenchman, and the sincerity with which he +cherished in his heart whatever doctrine he conceived in his +understanding. Descartes, whose knowledge of anatomy was considerable, +had that passion for the art of medicine which is almost inseparable from +the pursuit of natural philosophy. At the age of twenty-four he had +sought (in Germany) to obtain initiation into the brotherhood of the +Rosicrucians, but unluckily could not discover any member of the society +to introduce him. "He desired," says Cousin, "to assure the health of +man, diminish his ills, extend his existence. He was terrified by the +rapid and almost momentary passage of man upon earth. He believed it was +not, perhaps, impossible to prolong its duration." There is a hidden +recess of grandeur in this idea, and the means proposed by Descartes for +the execution of his project were not less grand. In his "Discourse on +Method," Descartes says, "If it is possible to find some means to render +generally men more wise and more able than they have been till now, it is, +I believe, in medicine that those means must be sought... I am sure that +there is no one, even in the medical profession, who will not avow that +all which one knows of the medical art is almost nothing in comparison to +that which remains to learn, and that one could be exempted from an +infinity of maladies, both of body and mind, and even, perhaps, from the +decrepitude of old age, if one had sufficient lore of their causes and of +all the remedies which nature provides for them. Therefore, having design +to employ all my life in the research of a science so necessary, and +having discovered a path which appears to me such that one ought +infallibly, in following, to find it, if one is not hindered prematurely +by the brevity of life or by the defects of experience, I consider that +there is no better remedy against those two hindrances than to communicate +faithfully to the public the little I have found," etc. ("Discours de la +Methode," vol. i. OEuvres de Descartes, Cousin's Edition.) And again, in +his "Correspondence" (vol. ix. p. 341), he says: "The conservation of +health has been always the principal object of my studies, and I have no +doubt that there is a means of acquiring much knowledge touching medicine +which, up to this time, is ignored." He then refers to his meditated +Treatise on Animals as only an entrance upon that knowledge. But whatever +secrets Descartes may have thought to discover, they are not made known to +the public according to his promise. And in a letter to M. Chanut, +written in 1646 (four years before he died), he says ingenuously: "I will +tell you in confidence that the notion, such as it is, which I have +endeavoured to acquire in physical philosophy, had greatly assisted me to +establish certain foundations for moral philosophy; and that I am more +easily satisfied upon this point than I am on many others touching +medicine, to which I have, nevertheless, devoted much more time. So +that"--(adds the grand thinker, with a pathetic nobleness )--"so that, +instead of finding the means to preserve life, I have found another good, +more easy and more sure, which is--not to fear death." + +[3] Chrysococyx lucidus,--namely, the bird popularly called the shining or +bronzed cuckoo. "Its note is an exceedingly melancholy whistle, heard at +night, when it is very annoying to any sick or nervous person who may be +inclined to sleep. I have known many instances where the bird has been +perched on a tree in the vicinity of the room of an invalid, uttering its +mournful notes, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that it could +be dislodged from its position."--Dr. Bennett: Gatherings of a Naturalist +in Australasia. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXVI. + +I strayed through the forest till noon, in debate with myself, and strove +to shape my wild doubts into purpose, before I could nerve and compose +myself again to face Margrave alone. + +I re-entered the but. To my surprise, Margrave was not in the room in +which I had left him, nor in that which adjoined it. I ascended the +stairs to the kind of loft in which I had been accustomed to pursue my +studies, but in which I had not set foot since my alarm for Lilian had +suspended my labours. There I saw Margrave quietly seated before the +manuscript of my Ambitious Work, which lay open on the rude table, just as +I had left it, in the midst of its concluding summary. + +"I have taken the license of former days, you see," said Margrave, +smiling, "and have hit by chance on a passage I can understand without +effort. But why such a waste of argument to prove a fact so simple? In +man, as in brute, life once lost is lost forever; and that is why life is +so precious to man." + +I took the book from his hand, and flung it aside in wrath. His approval +revolted me more with my own theories than all the argumentative rebukes +of Faber. + +"And now," I said, sternly, "the time has come for the explanation you +promised. Before I can aid you in any experiment that may serve to +prolong your life, I must know how far that life has been a baleful and +destroying influence?" + +"I have some faint recollection of having saved your life from an imminent +danger, and if gratitude were the attribute of man, as it is of the dog, I +should claim your aid to serve mine as a right. Ask me what you will. +You must have seen enough of me to know that I do not affect either the +virtues or vices of others. I regard both with so supreme an +indifference, that I believe I am vicious or virtuous unawares. I know +not if I can explain what seems to have perplexed you, but if I cannot +explain I have no intention to lie. Speak--I listen! We have time enough +now before us." + +So saying, he reclined back in the chair, stretching out his limbs +wearily. All round this spoilt darling of Material Nature were the aids +and appliances of Intellectual Science,--books and telescopes and +crucibles, with the light of day coming through a small circular aperture +in the boarded casement, as I had constructed the opening for my +experimental observation of the prismal rays. + +While I write, his image is as visible before my remembrance as if before +the actual eye,--beautiful even in its decay, awful even in its weakness, +mysterious as is Nature herself amidst all the mechanism by which our +fancied knowledge attempts to measure her laws and analyze her light. + +But at that moment no such subtle reflections delayed my inquisitive eager +mind from its immediate purpose,--who and what was this creature boasting +of a secret through which I might rescue from death the life of her who +was my all upon the earth? + +I gathered rapidly and succinctly together all that I knew and all that I +guessed of Margrave's existence and arts. I commenced from my vision in +that mimic Golgotha of creatures inferior to man, close by the scene of +man's most trivial and meaningless pastime. I went on,--Derval's murder; +the missing contents of the casket; the apparition seen by the maniac +assassin guiding him to the horrid deed; the luminous haunting shadow; the +positive charge in the murdered man's memoir connecting Margrave with +Louis Grayle, and accusing him of the murder of Haroun; the night in the +moonlit pavilion at Derval Court; the baneful influence on Lilian; the +struggle between me and himself in the house by the seashore,--the strange +All that is told in this Strange Story. + +But warming as I spoke, and in a kind of fierce joy to be enabled thus to +free my own heart of the doubts that had burdened it, now that I was +fairly face to face with the being by whom my reason had been so perplexed +and my life so tortured. I was restrained by none of the fears lest my +own fancy deceived me, with which in his absence I had striven to reduce +to natural causes the portents of terror and wonder. I stated plainly, +directly, the beliefs, the impressions which I had never dared even to +myself to own without seeking to explain them away. And coming at last to +a close, I said: "Such are the evidences that seem to me to justify +abhorrence of the life that you ask me to aid in prolonging. Your own +tale of last night but confirms them. And why to me--to me--do you come +with wild entreaties to lengthen the life that has blighted my own? How +did you even learn the home in which I sought unavailing refuge? How--as +your hint to Faber clearly revealed--were you aware that, in yon house, +where the sorrow is veiled, where the groan is suppressed, where the +foot-tread falls ghostlike, there struggles now between life and death my +heart's twin, my world's sunshine? Ah! through my terror for her, is it a +demon that tells you how to bribe my abhorrence into submission, and +supple my reason into use to your ends?" + +Margrave had listened to me throughout with a fixed attention, at times +with a bewildered stare, at times with exclamations of surprise, but not +of denial. And when I had done, he remained for some moments silent, +seemingly stupefied, passing his hand repeatedly over his brow, in the +gesture so familiar to him in former days. + +At length he said quietly, without evincing any sign either of resentment +or humiliation,-- + +"In much that you tell me I recognize myself; in much I am as lost in +amazement as you in wild doubt or fierce wrath. Of the effect that you +say Philip Derval produced on me I have no recollection. Of himself I +have only this,--that he was my foe, that he came to England intent on +schemes to shorten my life or destroy its enjoyments. All my faculties +tend to self-preservation; there, they converge as rays in a focus; in +that focus they illume and--they burn. I willed to destroy my intended +destroyer. Did my will enforce itself on the agent to which it was +guided? Likely enough. Be it so. Would you blame me for slaying the +tiger or serpent--not by the naked hand, but by weapons that arm it? But +what could tiger and serpent do more against me than the man who would rob +me of life? He had his arts for assault, I had mine for self-defence. He +was to me as the tiger that creeps through the jungle, or the serpent +uncoiling his folds for the spring. Death to those whose life is +destruction to mine, be they serpent or tiger or man! Derval perished. +Yes! the spot in which the maniac had buried the casket was revealed to +me--no matter how; the contents of the casket passed into my hands. I +coveted that possession because I believed that Derval had learned from +Haroun of Aleppo the secret by which the elixir of life is prepared, and I +supposed that some stores of the essence would be found in his casket. I +was deceived--not a drop! What I there found I knew not how to use or +apply, nor did I care to learn. What I sought was not there. You see a +luminous shadow of myself; it haunts, it accosts, it compels you. Of +this I know nothing. Was it the emanation of my intense will really +producing this spectre of myself, or was it the thing of your own +imagination,--an imagination which my will impressed and subjugated? I +know not. At the hours when my shadow, real or supposed, was with you, my +senses would have been locked in sleep. It is true, however, that I +intensely desire to learn from races always near to man, but concealed +from his every-day vision, the secret that I believed Philip Derval had +carried with him to the tomb; and from some cause or another I cannot now +of myself alone, as I could years ago, subject those races to my +command,--I must, in that, act through or with the mind of another. It is +true that I sought to impress upon your waking thoughts the images of the +circle, the powers of the wand, which, in your trance or sleep-walking, +made you the involuntary agent of my will. I knew by a dream--for by +dreams, more or less vivid, are the results of my waking will sometimes +divulged to myself--that the spell had been broken, the discovery I sought +not effected. All my hopes were then transferred from yourself, the dull +votary of science, to the girl whom I charmed to my thraldom through her +love for you and through her dreams of a realm which the science of +schools never enters. In her, imagination was all pure and all potent; +and tell me, O practical reasoner, if reason has ever advanced one step +into knowledge except through that imaginative faculty which is strongest +in the wisdom of ignorance, and weakest in the ignorance of the wise. +Ponder this, and those marvels that perplex you will cease to be +marvellous. I pass on to the riddle that puzzles you most. By Philip +Derval's account I am, in truth, Louis Grayle restored to youth by the +elixir, and while yet infirm, decrepit, murdered Haroun,--a man of a frame +as athletic as yours! By accepting this notion you seem to yourself alone +to unravel the mysteries you ascribe to my life and my powers. O wise +philosopher! O profound logician! you accept that notion, yet hold my +belief in the Dervish's tale a chimera! I am Grayle made young by the +elixir, and yet the elixir itself is a fable!" + +He paused and laughed, but the laugh was no longer even an echo of its +former merriment or playfulness,--a sinister and terrible laugh, mocking, +threatening, malignant. + +Again he swept his hand over his brow, and resumed,-- + +"Is it not easier to so accomplished a sage as you to believe that the +idlers of Paris have guessed the true solution of that problem, my place +on this earth? May I not be the love-son of Louis Grayle? And when +Haroun refused the elixir to him, or he found that his frame was too far +exhausted for even the elixir to repair organic lesions of structure in +the worn frame of old age, may he not have indulged the common illusion of +fathers, and soothed his death-pangs with the thought that he should live +again in his son? Haroun is found dead on his carpet--rumour said +strangled. What proof of the truth of that rumour? Might he not have +passed away in a fit? Will it lessen your perplexity if I state +recollections? They are vague,--they often perplex myself; but so far +from a wish to deceive you, my desire is to relate them so truthfully that +you may aid me to reduce them into more definite form." + +His face now became very troubled, the tone of his voice very +irresolute,--the face and the voice of a man who is either blundering his +way through an intricate falsehood, or through obscure reminiscences. + +"This Louis Grayle! this Louis Grayle! I remember him well, as one +remembers a nightmare. Whenever I look back, before the illness of which +I will presently speak, the image of Louis Grayle returns to me. I see +myself with him in African wilds, commanding the fierce Abyssinians. I +see myself with him in the fair Persian valley,-lofty, snow-covered +mountains encircling the garden of roses. I see myself with him in the +hush of the golden noon, reclined by the spray of cool fountains,--now +listening to cymbals and lutes, now arguing with graybeards on secrets +bequeathed by the Chaldees,--with him, with him in moonlit nights, +stealing into the sepulchres of mythical kings. I see myself with him in +the aisles of dark caverns, surrounded by awful shapes, which have no +likeness amongst the creatures of earth. Louis Grayle! Louis Grayle! all +my earlier memories go back to Louis Grayle! All my arts and powers, all +that I have learned of the languages spoken in Europe, of the sciences +taught in her schools, I owe to Louis Grayle. But am I one and the same +with him? No--I am but a pale reflection of his giant intellect. I have +not even a reflection of his childlike agonies of sorrow. Louis Grayle! +He stands apart from me, as a rock from the tree that grows out from its +chasms. Yes, the gossip was right; I must be his son." + +He leaned his face on both hands, rocking himself to and fro. At length, +with a sigh, he resumed,-- + +"I remember, too, a long and oppressive illness, attended with racking +pains, a dismal journey in a wearisome litter, the light hand of the woman +Ayesha, so sad and so stately, smoothing my pillow or fanning my brows. I +remember the evening on which my nurse drew the folds of the litter aside, +and said, 'See Aleppo! and the star of thy birth shining over its walls!' + +"I remember a face inexpressibly solemn and mournful. I remember the +chill that the calm of its ominous eye sent through my veins,--the face of +Haroun, the Sage of Aleppo. I remember the vessel of crystal he bore in +his hand, and the blessed relief from my pains that a drop from the +essence which flashed through the crystal bestowed! And then--and then--I +remember no more till the night on which Ayesha came to my couch and said, +'Rise.' + +"And I rose, leaning on her, supported by her. We went through dim narrow +streets, faintly lit by wan stars, disturbing the prowl of the dogs, that +slunk from the look of that woman. We came to a solitary house, small and +low, and my nurse said, 'Wait.' + +"She opened the door and went in; I seated myself on the threshold. And +after a time she came out from the house, and led me, still leaning on +her, into her chamber. + +"A man lay, as in sleep, on the carpet, and beside him stood another man, +whom I recognized as Ayesha's special attendant,--an Indian. 'Haroun is +dead,' said Ayesha. 'Search for that which will give thee new life. Thou +hast seen, and wilt know it, not I.' + +"And I put my hand on the breast of Haroun--for the dead man was he--and +drew from it the vessel of crystal. + +"Having done so, the frown of his marble brow appalled me. I staggered +back, and swooned away. + +"I came to my senses, recovering and rejoicing, miles afar from the city, +the dawn red on its distant wall. Ayesha had tended me; the elixir had +already restored me. + +"My first thought, when full consciousness came back to me, rested on +Louis Grayle, for he also had been at Aleppo; I was but one of his +numerous train. He, too, was enfeebled and suffering; he had sought the +known skill of Haroun for himself as for me; and this woman loved and had +tended him as she had loved and tended me. And my nurse told me that he +was dead, and forbade me henceforth to breathe his name. + +"We travelled on,--she and I, and the Indian her servant,--my strength +still renewed by the wondrous elixir. No longer supported by her, what +gazelle ever roved through its pasture with a bound more elastic than +mine? + +"We came to a town, and my nurse placed before me a mirror. I did not +recognize myself. In this town we rested, obscure, till the letter there +reached me by which I learned that I was the offspring of love, and +enriched by the care of a father recently dead. Is it not clear that +Louis Grayle was this father?" + +"If so, was the woman Ayesha your mother?" + +"The letter said that 'my mother had died in my infancy.' Nevertheless, +the care with which Ayesha had tended me induced a suspicion that made me +ask her the very question you put. She wept when I asked her, and said, +'No, only my nurse. And now I needed a nurse no more.' The day after I +received the letter which announced an inheritance that allowed me to vie +with the nobles of Europe, this woman left me, and went back to her +tribe." + +"Have you never seen her since?" + +Margrave hesitated a moment, and then answered, though with seeming +reluctance, "Yes, at Damascus. Not many days after I was borne to that +city by the strangers who found me half-dead on their road, I woke one +morning to find her by my side. And she said, 'In joy and in health you +did not need me. I am needed now."' + +"Did you then deprive yourself of one so devoted? You have not made this +long voyage--from Egypt to Australia--alone,--you, to whom wealth gave no +excuse for privation?" + +"The woman came with me; and some chosen attendants. I engaged to +ourselves the vessel we sailed in." + +"Where have you left your companions?" + +"By this hour," answered Margrave, "they are in reach of my summons; and +when you and I have achieved the discovery--in the results of which we +shall share--I will exact no more from your aid. I trust all that rests +for my cure to my nurse and her swarthy attendants. You will aid me now, +as a matter of course; the physician whose counsel you needed to guide +your own skill enjoins you to obey my whim--if whim you still call it; you +will obey it, for on that whim rests your own sole hope of +happiness,--you, who can love--I love nothing but life. Has my frank +narrative solved all the doubts that stood between you and me, in the +great meeting-grounds of an interest in common?" + +"Solved all the doubts! Your wild story but makes some the darker, +leaving others untouched: the occult powers of which you boast, and some +of which I have witnessed,--your very insight into my own household +sorrows, into the interests I have, with yourself, in the truth of a faith +so repugnant to reason--" + +"Pardon me," interrupted Margrave, with that slight curve of the lip which +is half smile and half sneer, "if, in my account of myself, I omitted what +I cannot explain, and you cannot conceive: let me first ask how many of +the commonest actions of the commonest men are purely involuntary and +wholly inexplicable. When, for instance, you open your lips and utter a +sentence, you have not the faintest idea beforehand what word will follow +another. When you move a muscle can you tell me the thought that prompts +to the movement? And, wholly unable thus to account for your own simple +sympathies between impulse and act, do you believe that there exists a man +upon earth who can read all the riddles in the heart and brain of another? +Is it not true that not one drop of water, one atom of matter, ever really +touches another? Between each and each there is always a space, however +infinitesimally small. How, then, could the world go on, if every man +asked another to make his whole history and being as lucid as daylight +before he would buy and sell with him? All interchange and alliance rest +but on this,--an interest in common. You and I have established that +interest: all else, all you ask more, is superfluous. Could I answer +each doubt you would raise, still, whether the answer should please or +revolt you, your reason would come back to the same starting-point, +--namely, In one definite proposal have we two an interest in common?" + +And again Margrave laughed, not in mirth, but in mockery. The laugh and +the words that preceded it were not the laugh and the words of the young. +Could it be possible that Louis Grayle had indeed revived to false youth +in the person of Margrave, such might have been his laugh and such his +words. The whole mind of Margrave seemed to have undergone change since I +last saw him; more rich in idea, more crafty even in candour, more +powerful, more concentred. As we see in our ordinary experience, that +some infirmity, threatening dissolution, brings forth more vividly the +reminiscences of early years, when impressions were vigorously stamped, so +I might have thought that as Margrave neared the tomb, the memories he had +retained from his former existence, in a being more amply endowed, more +formidably potent, struggled back to the brain; and the mind that had +lived in Louis Grayle moved the lips of the dying Margrave. + +"For the powers and the arts that it equally puzzles your reason to assign +or deny to me," resumed my terrible guest, "I will say briefly but this: +they come from faculties stored within myself, and doubtless conduce to my +self-preservation,--faculties more or less, perhaps (so Van Helmont +asserts), given to all men, though dormant in most; vivid and active in me +because in me self-preservation has been and yet is the strong +master-passion, or instinct; and because I have been taught how to use and +direct such faculties by disciplined teachers,--some by Louis Grayle, the +enchanter; some by my nurse, the singer of charmed songs. But in much +that I will to have done, I know no more than yourself how the agency +acts. Enough for me to will what I wish, and sink calmly into slumber, +sure that the will would work somehow its way. But when I have willed to +know what, when known, should shape my own courses, I could see, without +aid from your pitiful telescopes, all objects howsoever far. What wonder +in that? Have you no learned puzzle-brained metaphysicians who tell you +that space is but an idea, all this palpable universe an idea in the mind, +and no more? Why am I an enigma as dark as the Sibyls, and your +metaphysicians as plain as a hornbook?" Again the sardonic laugh. +"Enough: let what I have said obscure or enlighten your guesses, we come +back to the same link of union, which binds man to man, bids States arise +from the desert, and foeman embrace as brothers. I need you and you need +me; without your aid my life is doomed; without my secret the breath will +have gone from the lips of your Lilian before the sun of to-morrow is red +on the hill-tops." + +"Fiend or juggler," I cried in rage, "you shall not so enslave and +enthrall me by this mystic farrago and jargon. Make your fantastic +experiment on yourself if you will: trust to your arts and your powers. +My Lilian's life shall not hang on your fiat. I trust it--to--" + +"To what--to man's skill? Hear what the sage of the college shall tell +you, before I ask you again for your aid. Do you trust to God's saving +mercy? Ah, of course you believe in a God? Who, except a philosopher, +can reason a Maker away? But that the Maker will alter His courses to +hear you; that, whether or not you trust in Him, or in your doctor, it +will change by a hairbreadth the thing that must be--do you believe this, +Allen Fenwick?" + +And there sat this reader of hearts! a boy in his aspect, mocking me and +the graybeards of schools. + +I could listen no more; I turned to the door and fled down the stairs, and +heard, as I fled, a low chant: feeble and faint, it was still the old +barbaric chant, by which the serpent is drawn from its hole by the +charmer. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXVII. + +To those of my readers who may seek with Julius Faber to explore, through +intelligible causes, solutions of the marvels I narrate, Margrave's +confession may serve to explain away much that my own superstitious +beliefs had obscured. To them Margrave is evidently the son of Louis +Grayle. The elixir of life is reduced to some simple restorative, owing +much of its effect to the faith of a credulous patient: youth is so soon +restored to its joy in the sun, with or without an elixir. To them +Margrave's arts of enchantment are reduced to those idiosyncrasies of +temperament on which the disciples of Mesmer build up their +theories,--exaggerated, in much, by my own superstitions; aided, in part, +by such natural, purely physical magic as, explored by the ancient +priest-crafts, is despised by the modern philosophies, and only remains +occult because Science delights no more in the slides of the lantern which +fascinated her childhood with simulated phantoms. To them Margrave is, +perhaps, an enthusiast, but, because an enthusiast, not less an impostor. +"L'Homme se pique," says Charron. Man cogs the dice for himself ere he +rattles the box for his dupes. Was there ever successful impostor who did +not commence by a fraud on his own understanding? Cradled in Orient +Fableland, what though Margrave believes in its legends; in a wand, an +elixir; in sorcerers or Afrites? That belief in itself makes him keen to +detect, and skilful to profit by, the latent but kindred credulities of +others. In all illustrations of Duper and Duped through the records of +superstition--from the guile of a Cromwell, a Mahomet, down to the cheats +of a gypsy--professional visionaries are amongst the astutest observers. +The knowledge that Margrave had gained of my abode, of my affliction, or +of the innermost thoughts in my mind, it surely demanded no preternatural +aids to acquire. An Old Bailey attorney could have got at the one, and +any quick student of human hearts have readily mastered the other. In +fine, Margrave, thus rationally criticised, is no other prodigy (save in +degree and concurrence of attributes simple, though not very common) than +may be found in each alley that harbours a fortune-teller who has just +faith enough in the stars or the cards to bubble himself while he swindles +his victims; earnest, indeed, in the self-conviction that he is really a +seer, but reading the looks of his listeners, divining the thoughts that +induce them to listen, and acquiring by practice a startling ability to +judge what the listeners will deem it most seer-like to read in the cards +or divine from the stars. + + +I leave this interpretation unassailed. It is that which is the most +probable; it is clearly that which, in a case not my own, I should have +accepted; and yet I revolved and dismissed it. The moment we deal with +things beyond our comprehension, and in which our own senses are appealed +to and baffled, we revolt from the Probable, as it seems to the senses of +those who have not experienced what we have. And the same principle of +Wonder that led our philosophy up from inert ignorance into restless +knowledge, now winding back into shadow land, reverses its rule by the +way, and, at last, leaves us lost in the maze, our knowledge inert, and +our ignorance restless. + +And putting aside all other reasons for hesitating to believe that +Margrave was the son of Louis Grayle,--reasons which his own narrative +might suggest,--was it not strange that Sir Philip Derval, who had +instituted inquiries so minute, and reported them in his memoir with so +faithful a care, should not have discovered that a youth, attended by the +same woman who had attended Grayle, had disappeared from the town on the +same night as Grayle himself disappeared? But Derval had related +truthfully, according to Margrave's account, the flight of Ayesha and her +Indian servant, yet not alluded to the flight, not even to the existence +of the boy, who must have been of no mean importance in the suite of Louis +Grayle, if he were, indeed, the son whom Grayle had made his constant +companion, and constituted his principal heir. Not many minutes did I +give myself up to the cloud of reflections through which no sunbeam of +light forced its way. One thought overmastered all; Margrave had +threatened death to my Lilian, and warned me of what I should learn from +the lips of Faber, "the sage of the college." I stood, shuddering, at the +door of my home; I did not dare to enter. + +"Allen," said a voice, in which my ear detected the unwonted tremulous +faltering, "be firm,--be calm. I keep my promise. The hour is come in +which you may again see the Lilian of old, mind to mind, soul to soul." + +Faber's hand took mine, and led me into the house. + +"You do, then, fear that this interview will be too much for her +strength?" said I, whisperingly. + +"I cannot say; but she demands the interview, and I dare not refuse it." + + + + +CHAPTER LXXVIII. + +I left Faber on the stairs, and paused at the door of Lilian's room. The +door opened suddenly, noiselessly, and her mother came out with one hand +before her face, and the other locked in Amy's, who was leading her as a +child leads the blind. Mrs. Ashleigh looked up, as I touched her, with a +vacant, dreary stare. She was not weeping, as was her womanly wont in +every pettier grief, but Amy was. No word was exchanged between us. I +entered, and closed the door; my eyes turned mechanically to the corner in +which was placed the small virgin bed, with its curtains white as a +shroud. Lilian was not there. I looked around, and saw her half reclined +on a couch near the window. She was dressed, and with care. Was not that +her bridal robe? + +"Allen! Allen!" she murmured. "Again, again my Allen--again, again your +Lilian!" And, striving in vain to rise, she stretched out her arms in the +yearning of reunited love. And as I knelt beside her, those arms closed +round me for the first time in the frank, chaste, holy tenderness of a +wife's embrace. + +"Ah!" she said, in her low voice (her voice, like Cordelia's, was ever +low), "all has come back to me,--all that I owe to your protecting, noble, +trustful, guardian love!" + +"Hush! hush! the gratitude rests with me; it is so sweet to love, to +trust, to guard! my own, my beautiful--still my beautiful! Suffering has +not dimmed the light of those dear eyes to me! Put your lips to my +ear. Whisper but these words: 'I love you, and for your sake I wish to +live.'" + +"For your sake, I pray--with my whole weak human heart--I pray to live! +Listen. Some day hereafter, if I am spared, under the purple blossoms of +yonder waving trees I shall tell you all, as I see it now; all that +darkened or shone on me in my long dream, and before the dream closed +around me, like a night in which cloud and star chase each other! Some +day hereafter, some quiet, sunlit, happy, happy day! But now, all I would +say is this: Before that dreadful morning--" Here she paused, shuddered, +and passionately burst forth, "Allen, Allen! you did not believe that +slanderous letter! God bless you! God bless you! Great-hearted, +high-souled--God bless you, my darling! my husband! And He will! Pray to +Him humbly as I do, and He will bless you." She stooped and kissed away +my tears; then she resumed, feebly, meekly, sorrowfully,-- + +"Before that morning I was not worthy of such a heart, such a love as +yours. No, no; hear me. Not that a thought of love for another ever +crossed me! Never, while conscious and reasoning, was I untrue to you, +even in fancy. But I was a child,--wayward as the child who pines for +what earth cannot give, and covets the moon for a toy. Heaven had been so +kind to my lot on earth, and yet with my lot on earth I was secretly +discontented. When I felt that you loved me, and my heart told me that I +loved again, I said to myself, 'Now the void that my soul finds on earth +will be filled.' I longed for your coming, and yet when you went I +murmured, 'But is this the ideal of which I have dreamed?' I asked for an +impossible sympathy. Sympathy with what? Nay, smile on me, +dearest!--sympathy with what? I could not have said. Ah, Allen, then, +then, I was not worthy of you! Infant that I was, I asked you to +understand me: now I know that I am a woman, and my task is to study you. +Do I make myself clear? Do you forgive me? I was not untrue to you; I +was untrue to my own duties in life. I believed, in my vain conceit, that +a mortal's dim vision of heaven raised me above the earth; I did not +perceive the truth that earth is a part of the same universe as heaven! +Now, perhaps, in the awful affliction that darkened my reason, my soul has +been made more clear. As if to chastise but to teach me, my soul has been +permitted to indulge its own presumptuous desire; it has wandered forth +from the trammels of mortal duties and destinies; it comes back, alarmed +by the dangers of its own rash and presumptuous escape from the tasks +which it should desire upon earth to perform. Allen, Allen, I am less +unworthy of you now! Perhaps in my darkness one rapid glimpse of the true +world of spirit has been vouchsafed to me. If so, how unlike to the +visions my childhood indulged as divine! Now, while I know still more +deeply that there is a world for the angels, I know, also, that the mortal +must pass through probation in the world of mortals. Oh, may I pass +through it with you, grieving in your griefs, rejoicing in your joy!" + +Here language failed her. Again the dear arms embraced me, and the dear +face, eloquent with love, hid itself on my human breast. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXIX. + +That interview is over! Again I am banished from Lilian's room; the +agitation, the joy of that meeting has overstrained her enfeebled nerves. +Convulsive tremblings of the whole frame, accompanied with vehement sobs, +succeeded our brief interchange of sweet and bitter thoughts. Faber, in +tearing me from her side, imperiously and sternly warned me that the sole +chance yet left of preserving her life was in the merciful suspense of the +emotions that my presence excited. He and Amy resumed their place in her +chamber. Even her mother shared my sentence of banishment. So Mrs. +Ashleigh and I sat facing each other in the room below; over me a leaden +stupor had fallen, and I heard, as a voice from afar or in a dream, the +mother's murmured wailings, + +"She will die! she will die! Her eyes have the same heavenly look as my +Gilbert's on the day on which his closed forever. Her very words are his +last words,--'Forgive me all my faults to you.' She will die! she will +die!" + +Hours thus passed away. At length Faber entered the room; he spoke first +to Mrs. Ashleigh,--meaningless soothings, familiar to the lips of all who +pass from the chamber of the dying to the presence of mourners, and know +that it is a falsehood to say "hope," and a mockery as yet, to say, +"endure." + +But he led her away to her own room, docile as a wearied child led to +sleep, stayed with her some time, and then returned to me, pressing me to +his breast father-like. + +"No hope! no hope!" said I, recoiling from his embrace. "You are silent. +Speak! speak! Let me know the worst." + +"I have a hope, yet I scarcely dare to bid you share it; for it grows +rather out of my heart as man than my experience as physician. I cannot +think that her soul would be now so reconciled to earth, so fondly, so +earnestly, cling to this mortal life, if it were about to be summoned +away. You know how commonly even the sufferers who have dreaded death the +most become calmly resigned to its coming, when death visibly reveals +itself out from the shadows in which its shape has been guessed and not +seen. As it is a bad sign for life when the patient has lost all will to +live on, so there is hope while the patient, yet young and with no +perceptible breach in the great centres of life (however violently their +forts may be stormed), has still intense faith in recovery, perhaps drawn +(who can say?) from the whispers conveyed from above to the soul. + +"I cannot bring myself to think that all the uses for which a reason, +always so lovely even in its errors, has been restored, are yet fulfilled. +It seems to me as if your union, as yet so imperfect, has still for its +end that holy life on earth by which two mortal beings strengthen each +other for a sphere of existence to which this is the spiritual ladder. +Through yourself I have hope yet for her. Gifted with powers that rank +you high in the manifold orders of man,--thoughtful, laborious, and brave; +with a heart that makes intellect vibrate to every fine touch of humanity; +in error itself, conscientious; in delusion, still eager for truth; in +anger, forgiving; in wrong, seeking how to repair; and, best of all, +strong in a love which the mean would have shrunk to defend from the fangs +of the slanderer,--a love, raising passion itself out of the realm of the +senses, made sublime by the sorrows that tried its devotion,--with all +these noble proofs in yourself of a being not meant to end here, your life +has stopped short in its uses, your mind itself has been drifted, a bark +without rudder or pilot, over seas without shore, under skies without +stars. And wherefore? Because the mind you so haughtily vaunted has +refused its companion and teacher in Soul. + +"And therefore, through you, I hope that she will be spared yet to live +on; she, in whom soul has been led dimly astray, by unheeding the checks +and the definite goals which the mind is ordained to prescribe to its +wanderings while here; the mind taking thoughts from the actual and +visible world, and the soul but vague glimpses and hints from the instinct +of its ultimate heritage. Each of you two seems to me as yet incomplete, +and your destinies yet uncompleted. Through the bonds of the heart, +through the trials of time, ye have both to consummate your marriage. I +do not--believe me--I do not say this in the fanciful wisdom of allegory +and type, save that, wherever deeply examined, allegory and type run +through all the most commonplace phases of outward and material life. I +hope, then, that she may yet be spared to you; hope it, not from my skill +as physician, but my inward belief as a Christian. To perfect your own +being and end, 'Ye will need one another!'" + +I started--the very words that Lilian had heard in her vision! + +"But," resumed Faber, "how can I presume to trace the numberless links of +effect up to the First Cause, far off--oh; far off--out of the scope of my +reason. I leave that to philosophers, who would laugh my meek hope to +scorn. Possibly, probably, where I, whose calling has been but to save +flesh from the worm, deem that the life of your Lilian is needed yet, to +develop and train your own convictions of soul, Heaven in its wisdom may +see that her death would instruct you far more than her life. I have +said, Be prepared for either,--wisdom through joy, or wisdom through +grief. Enough that, looking only through the mechanism by which this +moral world is impelled and improved, you know that cruelty is impossible +to wisdom. Even a man, or man's law, is never wise but when merciful. +But mercy has general conditions; and that which is mercy to the myriads +may seem hard to the one, and that which seems hard to the one in the pang +of a moment may be mercy when viewed by the eye that looks on through +eternity." + +And from all this discourse--of which I now, at calm distance of time, +recall every word--my human, loving heart bore away for the moment but +this sentence, "Ye will need one another;" so that I cried out, "Life, +life, life! Is there no hope for her life? Have you no hope as +physician? I am a physician, too; I will see her. I will judge. I will +not be banished from my post." + +"Judge, then, as physician, and let the responsibility rest with you. At +this moment, all convulsion, all struggle, has ceased; the frame is at +rest. Look on her, and perhaps only the physician's eye could distinguish +her state from death. It is not sleep, it is not trance, it is not the +dooming coma from which there is no awaking. Shall I call it by the name +received in our schools? Is it the catalepsy in which life is suspended, +but consciousness acute? She is motionless, rigid; it is but with a +strain of my own sense that I know that the breath still breathes, and the +heart still beats. But I am convinced that though she can neither speak, +nor stir, nor give sign, she is fully, sensitively conscious of all that +passes around her. She is like those who have seen the very coffin +carried into their chamber, and been unable to cry out, 'Do not bury me +alive!' Judge then for yourself, with this intense consciousness and this +impotence to evince it, what might be the effect of your presence,--first +an agony of despair, and then the complete extinction of life!" + +"I have known but one such case,--a mother whose heart was wrapped up in a +suffering infant. She had lain for two days and two nights, still, as if +in her shroud. All save myself said, 'Life is gone.' I said, 'Life still +is there.' They brought in the infant, to try what effect its presence +would produce; then her lips moved, and the hands crossed upon her bosom +trembled." + +"And the result?" exclaimed Faber, eagerly. "If the result of your +experience sanction your presence, come; the sight of the babe rekindled +life?" + +"No; extinguished its last spark! I will not enter Lilian's room. I will +go away,--away from the house itself. That acute consciousness! I know +it well! She may even hear me move in the room below, hear me speak at +this moment. Go back to her, go back! But if hers be the state which I +have known in another, which may be yet more familiar to persons of far +ampler experience than mine, there is no immediate danger of death. The +state will last through to-day, through to-night, perhaps for days to +come. Is it so?" + +"I believe that for at least twelve hours there will be no change in her +state. I believe also that if she recover from it, calm and refreshed, as +from a sleep, the danger of death will have passed away." + +"And for twelve hours my presence would be hurtful?" + +"Rather say fatal, if my diagnosis be right." + +I wrung my friend's hand, and we parted. + +Oh, to lose her now!--now that her love and her reason had both returned, +each more vivid than before! Futile, indeed, might be Margrave's boasted +secret; but at least in that secret was hope. In recognized science I saw +only despair. + +And at that thought all dread of this mysterious visitor vanished,--all +anxiety to question more of his attributes or his history. His life +itself became to me dear and precious. What if it should fail me in the +steps of the process, whatever that was, by which the life of my Lilian +might be saved! + +The shades of evening were now closing in. I remembered that I had left +Margrave without even food for many hours. I stole round to the back of +the house, filled a basket with elements more generous than those of the +former day; extracted fresh drugs from my stores, and, thus laden, hurried +back to the hut. I found Margrave in the room below, seated on his +mysterious coffer, leaning his face on his hand. When I entered, he +looked up, and said,-- + +"You have neglected me. My strength is waning. Give me more of the +cordial, for we have work before us to-night, and I need support." + +He took for granted my assent to his wild experiment; and he was right. + +I administered the cordial. I placed food before him, and this time he +did not eat with repugnance. I poured out wine, and he drank it +sparingly, but with ready compliance, saying, "In perfect health, I looked +upon wine as poison; now it is like a foretaste of the glorious elixir." + +After he had thus recruited himself, he seemed to acquire an energy that +startlingly contrasted his languor the day before; the effort of breathing +was scarcely perceptible; the colour came back to his cheeks; his bended +frame rose elastic and erect. + +"If I understood you rightly," said I, "the experiment you ask me to aid +can be accomplished in a single night?" + +"In a single night,--this night." + +"Command me. Why not begin at once? What apparatus or chemical agencies +do you need?" + +"Ah!" said Margrave, "formerly, how I was misled! Formerly, how my +conjectures blundered! I thought, when I asked you to give a month to the +experiment I wish to make, that I should need the subtlest skill of the +chemist. I then believed, with Van Helmont, that the principle of life is +a gas, and that the secret was but in the mode by which the gas might be +rightly administered. But now all that I need is contained in this +coffer, save one very simple material,--fuel sufficient for a steady fire +for six hours. I see even that is at hand, piled up in your outhouse. +And now for the substance itself,--to that you must guide me." + +"Explain." + +"Near this very spot is there not gold--in mines yet undiscovered?--and +gold of the purest metal?" + +"There is. What then? Do you, with the alchemists, blend in one +discovery gold and life?" + +"No. But it is only where the chemistry of earth or of man produces gold, +that the substance from which the great pabulum of life is extracted by +ferment can be found. Possibly, in the attempts at that transmutation of +metals, which I think your own great chemist, Sir Humphry Davy, allowed +might be possible, but held not to be worth the cost of the +process,--possibly, in those attempts, some scanty grains of this +substance were found by the alchemists, in the crucible, with grains of +the metal as niggardly yielded by pitiful mimicry of Nature's stupendous +laboratory; and from such grains enough of the essence might, perhaps, +have been drawn forth, to add a few years of existence to some feeble +graybeard,--granting, what rests on no proofs, that some of the alchemists +reached an age rarely given to man. But it is not in the miserly +crucible, it is in the matrix of Nature herself, that we must seek in +prolific abundance Nature's grand principle,--life. As the loadstone is +rife with the magnetic virtue, as amber contains the electric, so in this +substance, to which we yet want a name, is found the bright life-giving +fluid. In the old goldmines of Asia and Europe the substance exists, but +can rarely be met with. The soil for its nutriment may there be well-nigh +exhausted. It is here, where Nature herself is all vital with youth, that +the nutriment of youth must be sought. Near this spot is gold; guide me +to it." + +"You cannot come with me. The place which I know as auriferous is some +miles distant, the way rugged. You can not walk to it. It is true I have +horses, but--" + +"Do you think I have come this distance and not foreseen and forestalled +all that I want for my object? Trouble your self not with conjectures how +I can arrive at the place. I have provided the means to arrive at and +leave it. My litter and its bearers are in reach of my call. Give me +your arm to the rising ground, fifty yards from your door." + +I obeyed mechanically, stifling all surprise. I had made my resolve, and +admitted no thought that could shake it. When we reached the summit of +the grassy hillock, which sloped from the road that led to the seaport, +Margrave, after pausing to recover breath, lifted up his voice, in a key, +not loud, but shrill and slow and prolonged, half cry and half chant, like +the nighthawk's. Through the air--so limpid and still, bringing near far +objects, far sounds--the voice pierced its way, artfully pausing, till +wave after wave of the atmosphere bore and transmitted it on. + +In a few minutes the call seemed re-echoed, so exactly, so cheerily, that +for the moment I thought that the note was the mimicry of the shy mocking +Lyre-Bird, which mimics so merrily all that it hears in its coverts, from +the whir of the locust to the howl of the wild dog. + +"What king," said the mystical charmer, and as he spoke he carelessly +rested his hand on my shoulder, so that I trembled to feel that this dread +son of Nature, Godless and soulless, who had been--and, my heart +whispered, who still could be--my bane and mind-darkener, leaned upon me +for support, as the spoilt younger-born on his brother,--"what king," said +this cynical mocker, with his beautiful boyish face,--"what king in your +civilized Europe has the sway of a chief of the East? What link is so +strong between mortal and mortal, as that between lord and slave? I +transport yon poor fools from the land of their birth; they preserve here +their old habits,--obedience and awe. They would wait till they starved +in the solitude,--wait to hearken and answer my call. And I, who thus +rule them, or charm them--I use and despise them. They know that, and yet +serve me! Between you and me, my philosopher, there is but one thing +worth living for,--life for oneself." + +Is it age, is it youth, that thus shocks all my sense, in my solemn +completeness of man? Perhaps, in great capitals, young men of pleasure +will answer, "It is youth; and we think what he says!" Young friends, I +do not believe you. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXX. + +Along the grass-track I saw now, under the moon, just risen, a strange +procession, never seen before in Australian pastures. It moved on, +noiselessly but quickly. We descended the hillock, and met it on the +way,--a sable litter, borne by four men, in unfamiliar Eastern garments; +two other servitors, more bravely dressed, with yataghans and +silver-hilted pistols in their belts, preceded this sombre equipage. +Perhaps Margrave divined the disdainful thought that passed through my +mind, vaguely and half-unconsciously; for he said, with a hollow, bitter +laugh that had replaced the lively peal of his once melodious mirth,-- + +"A little leisure and a little gold, and your raw colonist, too, will have +the tastes of a pacha." + +I made no answer. I had ceased to care who and what was my tempter. To +me his whole being was resolved into one problem: Had he a secret by which +death could be turned from Lilian? + +But now, as the litter halted, from the long dark shadow which it cast +upon the turf the figure of a woman emerged and stood before us. The +outlines of her shape were lost in the loose folds of a black mantle, and +the features of her face were hidden by a black veil, except only the +dark, bright, solemn eyes. Her stature was lofty, her bearing majestic, +whether in movement or repose. + +Margrave accosted her in some language unknown to me. She replied in what +seemed to me the same tongue. The tones of her voice were sweet, but +inexpressibly mournful. The words that they uttered appeared intended to +warn, or deprecate, or dissuade; but they called to Margrave's brow a +lowering frown, and drew from his lips a burst of unmistakable anger. The +woman rejoined, in the same melancholy music of voice. And Margrave then, +leaning his arm upon her shoulder, as he had leaned it on mine, drew her +away from the group into a neighbouring copse of the flowering +eucalypti,--mystic trees, never changing the hues of their pale-green +leaves, ever shifting the tints of their ash-gray, shedding bark. For +some moments I gazed on the two human forms, dimly seen by the glinting +moonlight through the gaps in the foliage. Then turning away my eyes, I +saw, standing close at my side, a man whom I had not noticed before. His +footstep, as it stole to me, had fallen on the sward without sound. His +dress, though Oriental, differed from that of his companions, both in +shape and colour; fitting close to the breast, leaving the arms bare to +the elbow, and of a uniform ghastly white, as are the cerements of the +grave. His visage was even darker than those of the Syrians or Arabs +behind him, and his features were those of a bird of prey,--the beak of +the eagle, but the eye of the vulture. His cheeks were hollow; the arms, +crossed on his breast, were long and fleshless. Yet in that skeleton form +there was a something which conveyed the idea of a serpent's suppleness +and strength; and as the hungry, watchful eyes met my own startled gaze, I +recoiled impulsively with that inward warning of danger which is conveyed +to man, as to inferior animals, in the very aspect of the creatures that +sting or devour. At my movement the man inclined his head in the +submissive Eastern salutation, and spoke in his foreign tongue, softly, +humbly, fawningly, to judge by his tone and his gesture. + +I moved yet farther away from him with loathing, and now the human thought +flashed upon me: was I, in truth, exposed to no danger in trusting myself +to the mercy of the weird and remorseless master of those hirelings from +the East,--seven men in number, two at least of them formidably armed, and +docile as bloodhounds to the hunter, who has only to show them their +prey? But fear of man like myself is not my weakness; where fear found +its way to my heart, it was through the doubts or the fancies in which man +like myself disappeared in the attributes, dark and unknown, which we give +to a fiend or a spectre. And, perhaps, if I could have paused to analyze +my own sensations, the very presence of this escort-creatures of flesh and +blood-lessened the dread of my incomprehensible tempter. Rather, a +hundred times, front and defy those seven Eastern slaves--I, haughty son +of the Anglo-Saxon who conquers all races because he fears no odds--than +have seen again on the walls of my threshold the luminous, bodiless +Shadow! Besides: Lilian! Lilian! for one chance of saving her life, +however wild and chimerical that chance might be, I would have shrunk not +a foot from the march of an army. + +Thus reassured and thus resolved, I advanced, with a smile of disdain, to +meet Margrave and his veiled companion, as they now came from the moonlit +copse. + +"Well," I said to him, with an irony that unconsciously mimicked his own, +"have you taken advice with your nurse? I assume that the dark form by +your side is that of Ayesha." + +The woman looked at me from her sable veil, with her steadfast solemn +eyes, and said, in English, though with a foreign accent: "The nurse born +in Asia is but wise through her love; the pale son of Europe is wise +through his art. The nurse says, 'Forbear!' Do you say, 'Adventure'?" + +"Peace!" exclaimed Margrave, stamping his foot on the ground. "I take no +counsel from either; it is for me to resolve, for you to obey, and for him +to aid. Night is come, and we waste it; move on." + +The woman made no reply, nor did I. He took my arm and walked back to the +hut. The barbaric escort followed. When we reached the door of the +building, Margrave said a few words to the woman and to the +litter-bearers. They entered the but with us. Margrave pointed out to +the woman his coffer, to the men the fuel stowed in the outhouse. Both +were borne away and placed within the litter. Meanwhile, I took from the +table, on which it was carelessly thrown, the light hatchet that I +habitually carried with me in my rambles. + +"Do you think that you need that idle weapon?" said Margrave. "Do you +fear the good faith of my swarthy attendants?" + +"Nay, take the hatchet yourself; its use is to sever the gold from the +quartz in which we may find it embedded, or to clear, as this shovel, +which will also be needed, from the slight soil above it, the ore that the +mine in the mountain flings forth, as the sea casts its waifs on the +sands." + +"Give me your hand, fellow-labourer!" said Margrave, joyfully. "Ah, there +is no faltering terror in this pulse! I was not mistaken in the Man. +What rests, but the Place and the Hour? I shall live! I shall live!" + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXI. + +Margrave now entered the litter, and the Veiled Woman drew the black +curtains round him. I walked on, as the guide, some yards in advance. +The air was still, heavy, and parched with the breath of the Australasian +sirocco. + +We passed through the meadow-lands, studded with slumbering flocks; we +followed the branch of the creek, which was linked to its source in the +mountains by many a trickling waterfall; we threaded the gloom of stunted, +misshapen trees, gnarled with the stringy bark which makes one of the +signs of the strata that nourish gold; and at length the moon, now in all +her pomp of light, mid-heaven amongst her subject stars, gleamed through +the fissures of the cave, on whose floor lay the relics of antediluvian +races, and rested in one flood of silvery splendour upon the hollows of +the extinct volcano, with tufts of dank herbage, and wide spaces of paler +sward, covering the gold below,--Gold, the dumb symbol of organized +Matter's great mystery, storing in itself, according as Mind, the informer +of Matter, can distinguish its uses, evil and good, bane and blessing. + +Hitherto the Veiled Woman had remained in the rear, with the white-robed, +skeleton-like image that had crept to my side unawares with its noiseless +step. Thus in each winding turn of the difficult path at which the convoy +following behind me came into sight, I had seen, first, the two +gayly-dressed, armed men, next the black bier-like litter, and last the +Black-veiled Woman and the White-robed Skeleton. + +But now, as I halted on the tableland, backed by the mountain and fronting +the valley, the woman left her companion, passed by the litter and the +armed men, and paused by my side, at the mouth of the moonlit cavern. + +There for a moment she stood, silent, the procession below mounting upward +laboriously and slow; then she turned to me, and her veil was withdrawn. + +The face on which I gazed was wondrously beautiful, and severely awful. +There was neither youth nor age, but beauty, mature and majestic as that +of a marble Demeter. + +"Do you believe in that which you seek?" she asked, in her foreign, +melodious, melancholy accents. + +"I have no belief," was my answer. "True science has none. True science +questions all things, takes nothing upon credit. It knows but three +states of the mind,--Denial, Conviction, and that vast interval between +the two, which is not belief, but suspense of judgment." + +The woman let fall her veil, moved from me, and seated herself on a crag +above that cleft between mountain and creek, to which, when I had first +discovered the gold that the land nourished, the rain from the clouds had +given the rushing life of the cataract; but which now, in the drought and +the hush of the skies, was but a dead pile of stones. + +The litter now ascended the height: its bearers halted; a lean hand tore +the curtains aside, and Margrave descended, leaning, this time, not on the +Black-veiled Woman, but on the White-robed Skeleton. + +There, as he stood, the moon shone full on his wasted form; on his face, +resolute, cheerful, and proud, despite its hollowed outlines and sicklied +hues. He raised his head, spoke in the language unknown to me, and the +armed men and the litter-bearers grouped round him, bending low, their +eyes fixed on the ground. The Veiled Woman rose slowly and came to his +side, motioning away, with a mute sign, the ghastly form on which he +leaned, and passing round him silently, instead, her own sustaining arm. +Margrave spoke again a few sentences, of which I could not even guess the +meaning. When he had concluded, the armed men and the litter-bearers came +nearer to his feet, knelt down, and kissed his hand. They then rose, and +took from the bier-like vehicle the coffer and the fuel. This done, they +lifted again the litter, and again, preceded by the armed men, the +procession descended down the sloping hillside, down into the valley +below. + +Margrave now whispered, for some moments, into the ear of the hideous +creature who had made way for the Veiled Woman. The grim skeleton bowed +his head submissively, and strode noiselessly away through the long +grasses,--the slender stems, trampled under his stealthy feet, relifting +themselves, as after a passing wind. And thus he, too, sank out of sight +down into the valley below. On the tableland of the hill remained only we +three,--Margrave, myself, and the Veiled Woman. + +She had reseated herself apart, on the gray crag above the dried torrent. +He stood at the entrance of the cavern, round the sides of which clustered +parasital plants, with flowers of all colours, some amongst them opening +their petals and exhaling their fragrance only in the hours of night; so +that, as his form filled up the jaws of the dull arch, obscuring the +moonbeam that strove to pierce the shadows that slept within, it stood +now--wan and blighted--as I had seen it first, radiant and joyous, +literally "framed in blooms." + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXII. + +"So," said Margrave, turning to me, "under the soil that spreads around us +lies the gold which to you and to me is at this moment of no value, except +as a guide to its twin-born,--the regenerator of life!" + +"You have not yet described to me the nature of the substance which we are +to explore, nor of the process by which the virtues you impute to it are +to be extracted." + +"Let us first find the gold, and instead of describing the life-amber, so +let me call it, I will point it out to your own eyes. As to the process, +your share in it is so simple, that you will ask me why I seek aid from a +chemist. The life-amber, when found, has but to be subjected to heat and +fermentation for six hours; it will be placed, in a small caldron which +that coffer contains, over the fire which that fuel will feed. To give +effect to the process, certain alkalies and other ingredients are +required; but these are prepared, and mine is the task to commingle them. +From your science as chemist I need and ask nought. In you I have sought +only the aid of a man." + +"If that be so, why, indeed, seek me at all? Why not confide in those +swarthy attendants, who doubtless are slaves to your orders?" + +"Confide in slaves! when the first task enjoined to them would be to +discover, and refrain from purloining gold! Seven such unscrupulous +knaves, or even one such, and I, thus defenceless and feeble! Such is not +the work that wise masters confide to fierce slaves. But that is the +least of the reasons which exclude them from my choice, and fix my choice +of assistant on you. Do you forget what I told you of the danger which +the Dervish declared no bribe I could offer could tempt him a second time +to brave?" + +"I remember now; those words had passed away from my mind." + +"And because they had passed away from your mind, I chose you for my +comrade. I need a man by whom danger is scorned." + +"But in the process of which you tell me I see no possible danger unless +the ingredients you mix in your caldron have poisonous fumes." + +"It is not that. The ingredients I use are not poisons." + +"What other danger, except you dread your own Eastern slaves? But, if so, +why lead them to these solitudes; and, if so, why not bid me be armed?" + +"The Eastern slaves, fulfilling my commands, wait for my summons where +their eyes cannot see what we do. The danger is of a kind in which the +boldest son of the East would be more craven, perhaps, than the daintiest +Sybarite of Europe, who would shrink from a panther and laugh at a ghost. +In the creed of the Dervish, and of all who adventure into that realm of +nature which is closed to philosophy and open to magic, there are races in +the magnitude of space unseen as animalcules in the world of a drop. For +the tribes of the drop, science has its microscope. Of the host of yon +azure Infinite magic gains sight, and through them gains command over +fluid conductors that link all the parts of creation. Of these races, +some are wholly indifferent to man, some benign to him, and some dreadly +hostile. In all the regular and prescribed conditions of mortal being, +this magic realm seems as blank and tenantless as yon vacant air. But +when a seeker of powers beyond the rude functions by which man plies the +clockwork that measures his hours, and stops when its chain reaches the +end of its coil, strives to pass over those boundaries at which philosophy +says, 'Knowledge ends,'--then he is like all other travellers in regions +unknown; he must propitiate or brave the tribes that are hostile,--must +depend for his life on the tribes that are friendly. Though your science +discredits the alchemist's dogmas, your learning informs you that all +alchemists were not ignorant impostors; yet those whose discoveries prove +them to have been the nearest allies to your practical knowledge, ever +hint in their mystical works at the reality of that realm which is open to +magic,--ever hint that some means less familiar than furnace and bellows +are essential to him who explores the elixir of life. He who once quaffs +that elixir, obtains in his very veins the bright fluid by which he +transmits the force of his will to agencies dormant in nature, to giants +unseen in the space. And here, as he passes the boundary which divides +his allotted and normal mortality from the regions and races that magic +alone can explore, so, here, he breaks down the safeguard between himself +and the tribes that are hostile. Is it not ever thus between man and man? +Let a race the most gentle and timid and civilized dwell on one side a +river or mountain, and another have home in the region beyond, each, if it +pass not the intervening barrier, may with each live in peace. But if +ambitious adventurers scale the mountain, or cross the river, with design +to subdue and enslave the population they boldly invade, then all the +invaded arise in wrath and defiance,--the neighbours are changed into +foes. And therefore this process--by which a simple though rare material +of nature is made to yield to a mortal the boon of a life which brings, +with its glorious resistance to Time, desires and faculties to subject to +its service beings that dwell in the earth and the air and the deep--has +ever been one of the same peril which an invader must brave when he +crosses the bounds of his nation. By this key alone you unlock all the +cells of the alchemist's lore; by this alone understand how a labour, +which a chemist's crudest apprentice could perform, has baffled the giant +fathers of all your dwarfed children of science. Nature, that stores this +priceless boon, seems to shrink from conceding it to man; the invisible +tribes that abhor him, oppose themselves to the gain that might give them +a master. The duller of those who were the life-seekers of old would have +told you how some chance, trivial, unlooked-for, foiled their grand hope +at the very point of fruition,--some doltish mistake, some improvident +oversight, a defect in the sulphur, a wild overflow in the quicksilver, or +a flaw in the bellows, or a pupil who failed to replenish the fuel, by +falling asleep by the furnace. The invisible foes seldom vouchsafe to +make themselves visible where they can frustrate the bungler, as they mock +at his toils from their ambush. But the mightier adventurers, equally +foiled in despite of their patience and skill, would have said, 'Not with +us rests the fault; we neglected no caution, we failed from no oversight. +But out from the caldron dread faces arose, and the spectres or demons +dismayed and baffled us.' Such, then, is the danger which seems so +appalling to a son of the East, as it seemed to a sees in the dark age of +Europe. But we can deride all its threats, you and I. For myself, I own +frankly I take all the safety that the charms and resources of magic +bestow. You, for your safety, have the cultured and disciplined reason +which reduces all fantasies to nervous impressions; and I rely on the +courage of one who has questioned, unquailing, the Luminous Shadow, and +wrested from the hand of the magician himself the wand which concentred +the wonders of will!" + +To this strange and long discourse I listened without interruption, and +now quietly answered,-- + +"I do not merit the trust you affect in my courage; but I am now on my +guard against the cheats of the fancy, and the fumes of a vapour can +scarcely bewilder the brain in the open air of this mountain-land. I +believe in no races like those which you tell me lie viewless in space, as +do gases. I believe not in magic; I ask not its aids, and I dread not its +terrors. For the rest, I am confident of one mournful courage,--the +courage that comes from despair. I submit to your guidance, whatever it +be, as a sufferer whom colleges doom to the grave submits to the quack who +says, 'Take my specific and live!' My life is nought in itself; my life +lives in another. You and I are both brave from despair; you would turn +death from yourself, I would turn death from one I love more than myself. +Both know how little aid we can win from the colleges, and both, +therefore, turn to the promises most audaciously cheering. Dervish or +magician, alchemist or phantom, what care you and I? And if they fail us, +what then? They cannot fail us more than the colleges do!" + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXIII. + +The gold has been gained with an easy labour. I knew where to seek for +it, whether under the turf or in the bed of the creek. But Margrave's +eyes, hungrily gazing round every spot from which the ore was disburied, +could not detect the substance of which he alone knew the outward +appearance. I had begun to believe that, even in the description given to +him of this material, he had been credulously duped, and that no such +material existed, when, coming back from the bed of the watercourse, I saw +a faint yellow gleam amidst the roots of a giant parasite plant, the +leaves and blossoms of which climbed up the sides of the cave with its +antediluvian relics. The gleam was the gleam of gold, and on removing the +loose earth round the roots of the plant, we came on--No, I will not, I +dare not, describe it. The gold-digger would cast it aside, the +naturalist would pause not to heed it; and did I describe it, and +chemistry deign to subject it to analysis, could chemistry alone detach or +discover its boasted virtues? + +Its particles, indeed, are very minute, not seeming readily to crystallize +with each other; each in itself of uniform shape and size, spherical as +the egg which contains the germ of life, and small as the egg from which +the life of an insect may quicken. + +But Margrave's keen eye caught sight of the atoms upcast by the light of +the moon. He exclaimed to me, "Found! I shall live!" And then, as he +gathered up the grains with tremulous hands, he called out to the Veiled +Woman, hitherto still seated motionless on the crag. At his word she rose +and went to the place bard by, where the fuel was piled, busying herself +there. I had no leisure to heed her. I continued my search in the soft +and yielding soil that time and the decay of vegetable life had +accumulated over the Pre-Adamite strata on which the arch of the cave +rested its mighty keystone. + + +When we had collected of these particles about thrice as much as a man +might hold in his hand, we seemed to have exhausted their bed. We +continued still to find gold, but no more of the delicate substance, to +which, in our sight, gold was as dross. + +"Enough," then said Margrave, reluctantly desisting. "What we have gained +already will suffice for a life thrice as long as legend attributes to +Haroun. I shall live,--I shall live through the centuries." + +"Forget not that I claim my share." + +"Your share--yours! True--your half of my life! It is true." He paused +with a low, ironical, malignant laugh; and then added, as he rose and +turned away, "But the work is yet to be done." + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXIV. + +While we had thus laboured and found, Ayesha had placed the fuel where the +moonlight fell fullest on the sward of the tableland,--a part of it +already piled as for a fire, the rest of it heaped confusedly close at +hand; and by the pile she had placed the coffer. And there she stood, her +arms folded under her mantle, her dark image seeming darker still as the +moonlight whitened all the ground from which the image rose motionless. +Margrave opened his coffer, the Veiled Woman did not aid him, and I +watched in silence, while he as silently made his weird and wizard-like +preparations. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXV. + +On the ground a wide circle was traced by a small rod, tipped apparently +with sponge saturated with some combustible naphtha-like fluid, so that a +pale lambent flame followed the course of the rod as Margrave guided it, +burning up the herbage over which it played, and leaving a distinct ring, +like that which, in our lovely native fable-talk, we call the "Fairy's +Ring," but yet more visible because marked in phosphorescent light. On +the ring thus formed were placed twelve small lamps, fed with the fluid +from the same vessel, and lighted by the same rod. The light emitted by +the lamps was more vivid and brilliant than that which circled round the +ring. + +Within the circumference, and immediately round the woodpile, Margrave +traced certain geometrical figures, in which--not without a shudder, that +I overcame at once by a strong effort of will in murmuring to myself the +name of "Lilian"--I recognized the interlaced triangles which my own hand, +in the spell enforced on a sleep-walker, had described on the floor of the +wizard's pavilion. The figures were traced, like the circle, in flame, +and at the point of each triangle (four in number) was placed a lamp, +brilliant as those on the ring. This task performed, the caldron, based +on an iron tripod, was placed on the wood-pile. And then the woman, +before inactive and unheeding, slowly advanced, knelt by the pile, and +lighted it. The dry wood crackled and the flame burst forth, licking the +rims of the caldron with tongues of fire. + +Margrave flung into the caldron the particles we had collected, poured +over them first a liquid, colourless as water, from the largest of the +vessels drawn from his coffer, and then, more sparingly, drops from small +crystal phials, like the phials I had seen in the hand of Philip Derval. + +Having surmounted my first impulse of awe, I watched these proceedings, +curious yet disdainful, as one who watches the mummeries of an enchanter +on the stage. + +"If," thought I, "these are but artful devices to inebriate and fool my +own imagination, my imagination is on its guard, and reason shall not, +this time, sleep at her post!" + +"And now," said Margrave, "I consign to you the easy task by which you are +to merit your share of the elixir. It is my task to feed and replenish +the caldron; it is Ayesha's to heed the fire, which must not for a moment +relax in its measured and steady heat. Your task is the lightest of all +it is but to renew from this vessel the fluid that burns in the lamps, and +on the ring. Observe, the contents of the vessel must be thriftily +husbanded; there is enough, but not more than enough, to sustain the light +in the lamps, on the lines traced round the caldron, and on the farther +ring, for six hours. The compounds dissolved in this fluid are +scarce,--only obtainable in the East, and even in the East months might +have passed before I could have increased my supply. + +"I had no months to waste. Replenish, then, the light only when it begins +to flicker or fade. Take heed, above all, that no part of the outer +ring--no, not an inch--and no lamp of the twelve, that are to its zodiac +like stars, fade for one moment in darkness." + +I took the crystal vessel from his hand. + +"The vessel is small," said I, "and what is yet left of its contents is +but scanty; whether its drops suffice to replenish the lights I cannot +guess,--I can but obey your instructions. But, more important by far than +the light to the lamps and the circle, which in Asia or Africa might scare +away the wild beasts unknown to this land--more important than light to a +lamp, is the strength to your frame, weak magician! What will support you +through six weary hours of night-watch?" + +"Hope," answered Margrave, with a ray of his old dazzling style. "Hope! +I shall live,--I shall live through the centuries!" + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXVI. + +One hour passed away; the fagots under the caldron burned clear in the +sullen sultry air. The materials within began to seethe, and their +colour, at first dull and turbid, changed into a pale-rose hue; from time +to time the Veiled Woman replenished the fire, after she had done so +reseating herself close by the pyre, with her head bowed over her knees, +and her face hid under her veil. + +The lights in the lamps and along the ring and the triangles now began to +pale. I resupplied their nutriment from the crystal vessel. As yet +nothing strange startled my eye or my ear beyond the rim of the +circle,--nothing audible, save, at a distance, the musical wheel-like +click of the locusts, and, farther still, in the forest, the howl of the +wild dogs, that never bark; nothing visible, but the trees and the +mountain-range girding the plains silvered by the moon, and the arch of +the cavern, the flush of wild blooms on its sides, and the gleam of dry +bones on its floor, where the moonlight shot into the gloom. + +The second hour passed like the first. I had taken my stand by the side +of Margrave, watching with him the process at work in the caldron, when I +felt the ground slightly vibrate beneath my feet, and, looking up, it +seemed as if all the plains beyond the circle were heaving like the swell +of the sea, and as if in the air itself there was a perceptible tremor. + +I placed my hand on Margrave's shoulder and whispered, "To me earth and +air seem to vibrate. Do they seem to vibrate to you?" + +"I know not, I care not," he answered impetuously. "The essence is +bursting the shell that confined it. Here are my air and my earth! +Trouble me not. Look to the circle! feed the lamps if they fail." + +I passed by the Veiled Woman as I walked towards a place in the ring in +which the flame was waning dim; and I whispered to her the same question +which I had whispered to Margrave. She looked slowly around, and +answered, "So is it before the Invisible make themselves visible! Did I +not bid him forbear?" Her head again drooped on her breast, and her watch +was again fixed on the fire. + +I advanced to the circle and stooped to replenish the light where it +waned. As I did so, on my arm, which stretched somewhat beyond the line +of the ring, I felt a shock like that of electricity. The arm fell to my +side numbed and nerveless, and from my hand dropped, but within the ring, +the vessel that contained the fluid. Recovering my surprise or my stun, +hastily with the other hand I caught up the vessel, but some of the scanty +liquid was already spilled on the sward; and I saw with a thrill of +dismay, that contrasted indeed the tranquil indifference with which I had +first undertaken my charge, how small a supply was now left. + +I went back to Margrave, and told him of the shock, and of its consequence +in the waste of the liquid. + +"Beware," said he, "that not a motion of the arm, not an inch of the foot, +pass the verge of the ring; and if the fluid be thus unhappily stinted, +reserve all that is left for the protecting circle and the twelve outer +lamps! See how the Grand Work advances! how the hues in the caldron are +glowing blood-red through the film on the surface!" + +And now four hours of the six were gone; my arm had gradually recovered +its strength. Neither the ring nor the lamps had again required +replenishing; perhaps their light was exhausted less quickly, as it was no +longer to be exposed to the rays of the intense Australian moon. Clouds +had gathered over the sky, and though the moon gleamed at times in the +gaps that they left in blue air, her beam was more hazy and dulled. The +locusts no longer were heard in the grass, nor the howl of the dogs in the +forest. Out of the circle, the stillness was profound. + +And about this time I saw distinctly in the distance a vast Eye! It drew +nearer and nearer, seeming to move from the ground at the height of some +lofty giant. Its gaze riveted mine; my blood curdled in the blaze from +its angry ball; and now as it advanced larger and larger, other Eyes, as +if of giants in its train, grew out from the space in its rear; numbers on +numbers, like the spearheads of some Eastern army, seen afar by pale +warders of battlements doomed to the dust. My voice long refused an +utterance to my awe; at length it burst forth shrill and loud,-- + +"Look! look! Those terrible Eyes! Legions on legions! And hark! that +tramp of numberless feet; they are not seen, but the hollows of earth echo +the sound of their march!" + +Margrave, more than ever intent on the caldron, in which, from time to +time, he kept dropping powders or essences drawn forth from his coffer, +looked up, defyingly, fiercely. + +"Ye come," he said, in a low mutter, his once mighty voice sounding hollow +and labouring, but fearless and firm,--"ye come,--not to conquer, vain +rebels!--ye whose dark chief I struck down at my feet in the tomb where my +spell had raised up the ghost of your first human master, the Chaldee! +Earth and air have their armies still faithful to me, and still I remember +the war-song that summons them up to confront you! Ayesha! Ayesha! +recall the wild troth that we pledged amongst roses; recall the dread bond +by which we united our sway over hosts that yet own thee as queen, though +my sceptre is broken, my diadem reft from my brows!" + +The Veiled Woman rose at this adjuration. Her veil now was withdrawn, and +the blaze of the fire between Margrave and herself flushed, as with the +rosy bloom of youth, the grand beauty of her softened face. It was seen, +detached as it were, from her dark-mantled form; seen through the mist of +the vapours which rose from the caldron, framing it round like the clouds. +that are yieldingly pierced by the light of the evening star. + +Through the haze of the vapour came her voice, more musical, more +plaintive than I had heard it before, but far softer, more tender; still +in her foreign tongue; the words unknown to me, and yet their sense, +perhaps, made intelligible by the love, which has one common language and +one common look to all who have loved,--the love unmistakably heard in the +loving tone, unmistakably seen in the loving face. + +A moment or so more, and she had come round from the opposite side of the +fire-pile, and bending over Margrave's upturned brow, kissed it quietly, +solemnly; and then her countenance grew fierce, her crest rose erect; it +was the lioness protecting her young. She stretched forth her arm from +the black mantle, athwart the pale front that now again bent over the +caldron,--stretched it towards the haunted and hollow-sounding space +beyond, in the gesture of one whose right hand has the sway of the +sceptre. And then her voice stole on the air in the music of a chant, not +loud, yet far-reaching; so thrilling, so sweet, and yet so solemn, that I +could at once comprehend how legend united of old the spell of enchantment +with the power of song. All that I recalled of the effects which, in the +former time, Margrave's strange chants had produced on the ear that they +ravished and the thoughts they confused, was but as the wild bird's +imitative carol, compared to the depth and the art and the soul of the +singer, whose voice seemed endowed with a charm to enthrall all the tribes +of creation, though the language it used for that charm might to them, as +to me, be unknown. As the song ceased, I heard, from behind, sounds like +those I had heard in the spaces before me,--the tramp of invisible feet, +the whir of invisible wings, as if armies were marching to aid against +armies in march to destroy. + +"Look not in front nor around," said Ayesha. "Look, like him, on the +caldron below. The circle and the lamps are yet bright; I will tell you +when the light again fails." + +I dropped my eyes on the caldron. + +"See," whispered Margrave, "the sparkles at last begin to arise, and the +rose-hues to deepen,--signs that we near the last process." + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXVII. + +The fifth hour had passed away, when Ayesha said to me, "Lo! the circle is +fading; the lamps grow dim. Look now without fear on the space beyond; +the eyes that appalled thee are again lost in air, as lightnings that +fleet back into cloud." + +I looked up, and the spectres had vanished. The sky was tinged with +sulphurous hues, the red and the black intermixed. I replenished the +lamps and the ring in front, thriftily, heedfully; but when I came to the +sixth lamp, not a drop in the vessel that fed them was left. In a vague +dismay, I now looked round the half of the wide circle in rear of the two +bended figures intent on the caldron. All along that disk the light was +already broken, here and there flickering up, here and there dying down; +the six lamps in that half of the circle still twinkled, but faintly, as +stars shrinking fast from the dawn of day. But it was not the fading +shine in that half of the magical ring which daunted my eye and quickened +with terror the pulse of my heart; the Bushland beyond was on fire. From +the background of the forest rose the flame and the smoke,--the smoke, +there, still half smothering the flame. But along the width of the +grasses and herbage, between the verge of the forest and the bed of the +water-creek just below the raised platform from which I beheld the dread +conflagration, the fire was advancing,--wave upon wave, clear and red +against the columns of rock behind,--as the rush of a flood through the +mists of some Alp crowned with lightnings. + +Roused from my stun at the first sight of a danger not foreseen by the +mind I had steeled against far rarer portents of Nature, I cared no more +for the lamps and the circle. Hurrying back to Ayesha, I exclaimed: "The +phantoms have gone from the spaces in front; but what incantation or spell +can arrest the red march of the foe, speeding on in the rear! While we +gazed on the caldron of life, behind us, unheeded, behold the Destroyer!" + +Ayesha looked, and made no reply; but, as by involuntary instinct, bowed +her majestic head, then rearing it erect, placed herself yet more +immediately before the wasted form of the young magician (he still bending +over the caldron, and hearing me not in the absorption and hope of his +watch),--placed herself before him, as the bird whose first care is her +fledgling. + +As we two there stood, fronting the deluge of fire, we heard Margrave +behind us, murmuring low, "See the bubbles of light, how they sparkle and +dance! I shall live, I shall live!" And his words scarcely died in our +ears before, crash upon crash, came the fall of the age-long trees in the +forest; and nearer, all near us, through the blazing grasses, the hiss of +the serpents, the scream of-the birds, and the bellow and tramp of the +herds plunging wild through the billowy red of their pastures. + +Ayesha now wound her arms around Margrave, and wrenched him, reluctant and +struggling, from his watch over the seething caldron. In rebuke; of his +angry exclamations, she pointed to the march of the fire, spoke in +sorrowful tones a few words in her own language, and then, appealing to me +in English, said,-- + +"I tell him that here the Spirits who oppose us have summoned a foe that +is deaf to my voice, and--" + +"And," exclaimed Margrave, no longer with gasp and effort, but with the +swell of a voice which drowned all the discords of terror and of agony +sent forth from the Phlegethon burning below,--"and this witch, whom I +trusted, is a vile slave and impostor, more desiring my death than my +life. She thinks that in life I should scorn and forsake her, that in +death I should die in her arms! Sorceress, avaunt! Art thou useless and +powerless now when I need thee most? Go! Let the world be one funeral +pyre! What to me is the world? My world is my life! Thou knowest that +my last hope is here,--that all the strength left me this night will die +down, like the lamps in the circle, unless the elixir restore it. Bold +friend, spurn that sorceress away. Hours yet ere those flames can assail +us! A few minutes more, and life to your Lilian and me!" + +Thus having said, Margrave turned from us, and cast into the caldron the +last essence yet left in his empty coffer. Ayesha silently drew her black +veil over her face; and turned, with the being she loved, from the terror +he scorned, to share in the hope that he cherished. + +Thus left alone, with my reason disenthralled, disenchanted, I surveyed +more calmly the extent of the actual peril with which we were threatened, +and the peril seemed less, so surveyed. + +It is true all the Bush-land behind, almost up to the bed of the creek, +was on fire; but the grasses, through which the flame spread so rapidly, +ceased at the opposite marge of the creek. Watery pools were still, at +intervals, left in the bed of the creek, shining tremulous, like waves of +fire, in the glare reflected from the burning land; and even where the +water failed, the stony course of the exhausted rivulet was a barrier +against the march of the conflagration. Thus, unless the wind, now still, +should rise, and waft some sparks to the parched combustible herbage +immediately around us, we were saved from the fire, and our work might yet +be achieved. + +I whispered to Ayesha the conclusion to which I came. "Thinkest thou," +she answered, without raising her mournful head, "that the Agencies of +Nature are the movements of chance? The Spirits I invoked to his aid are +leagued with the hosts that assail. A mightier than I am has doomed him!" + +Scarcely had she uttered these words before Margrave exclaimed, "Behold +how the Rose of the alchemist's dream enlarges its blooms from the folds +of its petals! I shall live, I shall live!" + +I looked, and the liquid which glowed in the caldron had now taken a +splendour that mocked all comparisons borrowed from the lustre of gems. +In its prevalent colour it had, indeed, the dazzle and flash of the ruby; +but out from the mass of the molten red, broke coruscations of all prismal +hues, shooting, shifting, in a play that made the wavelets them selves +seem living things, sensible of their joy. No longer was there scum or +film upon the surface; only ever and anon a light rosy vapour floating +up, and quick lost in the haggard, heavy, sulphurous air, hot with the +conflagration rushing towards us from behind. And these coruscations +formed, on the surface of the molten ruby, literally the shape of a Rose, +its leaves made distinct in their outlines by sparks of emerald and +diamond and sapphire. + +Even while gazing on this animated liquid lustre, a buoyant delight seemed +infused into my senses; all terrors conceived before were annulled; the +phantoms, whose armies had filled the wide spaces in front, were +forgotten; the crash of the forest behind was unheard. In the reflection +of that glory, Margrave's wan cheek seemed already restored to the +radiance it wore when I saw it first in the framework of blooms. + +As I gazed, thus enchanted, a cold hand touched my own. + +"Hush!" whispered Ayesha, from the black veil, against which the rays of +the caldron fell blunt, and absorbed into Dark. "Behind us, the light of +the circle is extinct, but there we are guarded from all save the brutal +and soulless destroyers. But before!--but before !--see, two of the lamps +have died out!--see the blank of the gap in the ring Guard that +breach,--there the demons will enter." + +"Not a drop is there left in his vessel by which to replenish the lamps on +the ring." + +"Advance, then; thou hast still the light of the soul, and the demons may +recoil before a soul that is dauntless and guiltless. If not, Three are +lost!--as it is, One is doomed." + +Thus adjured, silently, involuntarily, I passed from the Veiled Woman's +side, over the sere lines on the turf which had been traced by the +triangles of light long since extinguished, and towards the verge of the +circle. As I advanced, overhead rushed a dark cloud of wings,--birds +dislodged from the forest on fire, and screaming, in dissonant terror, as +they flew towards the farthermost mountains; close by my feet hissed and +glided the snakes, driven forth from their blazing coverts, and glancing +through the ring, unscared by its waning lamps; all undulating by me, +bright-eyed and hissing, all made innocuous by fear,--even the terrible +Death-adder, which I trampled on as I halted at the verge of the circle, +did not turn to bite, but crept harmless away. I halted at the gap +between the two dead lamps, and bowed my head to look again into the +crystal vessel. Were there, indeed, no lingering drops yet left, if but +to recruit the lamps for some priceless minutes more? As I thus stood, +right into the gap between the two dead lamps strode a gigantic Foot. All +the rest of the form was unseen; only, as volume after volume of smoke +poured on from the burning land behind, it seemed as if one great column +of vapour, eddying round, settled itself aloft from the circle, and that +out from that column strode the giant Foot. And, as strode the Foot, so +with it came, like the sound of its tread, a roll of muttered thunder. + +I recoiled, with a cry that rang loud through the lurid air. + +"Courage!" said the voice of Ayesha. "Trembling soul, yield not an inch +to the demon!" + +At the charm, the wonderful charm, in the tone of the Veiled Woman's +voice, my will seemed to take a force more sublime than its own. I folded +my arms on my breast, and stood as if rooted to the spot, confronting the +column of smoke and the stride of the giant Foot. And the Foot halted, +mute. + +Again, in the momentary hush of that suspense, I heard a voice,--it was +Margrave's. + +"The last hour expires, the work is accomplished! Come! come! Aid me to +take the caldron from the fire; and quick!--or a drop may be wasted in +vapour--the Elixir of Life from the caldron!" + +At that cry I receded, and the Foot advanced. + +And at that moment, suddenly, unawares, from behind, I was stricken down. +Over me, as I lay, swept a whirlwind of trampling hoofs and glancing +horns. The herds, in their flight from the burning pastures, had rushed +over the bed of the watercourse, scaled the slopes of the banks. Snorting +and bellowing, they plunged their blind way to the mountains. One cry +alone, more wild than their own savage blare, pierced the reek through +which the Brute Hurricane swept. At that cry of wrath and despair I +struggled to rise, again dashed to earth by the hoofs and the horns. But +was it the dream-like deceit of my reeling senses, or did I see that giant +Foot stride past through the close-serried ranks of the maddening herds? +Did I hear, distinct through all the huge uproar of animal terror, the +roll of low thunder which followed the stride of that Foot? + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXVIII. + +When my sense had recovered its shock, and my eyes looked dizzily round, +the charge of the beasts had swept by; and of all the wild tribes which +had invaded the magical circle, the only lingerer was the brown +Death-adder, coiled close by the spot where my head had rested. Beside +the extinguished lamps which the hoofs had confusedly scattered, the +fire, arrested by the watercourse, had consumed the grasses that fed it, +and there the plains stretched, black and desert as the Phlegroean Field +of the Poet's Hell. But the fire still raged in the forest beyond,--white +flames, soaring up from the trunks of the tallest trees, and forming, +through the sullen dark of the smoke-reek, innumerable pillars of fire, +like the halls in the City of fiends. + +Gathering myself up, I turned my eyes from the terrible pomp of the lurid +forest, and looked fearfully down on the hoof-trampled sward for my two +companions. + +I saw the dark image of Ayesha still seated, still bending, as I had seen +it last. I saw a pale hand feebly grasping the rim of the magical +caldron, which lay, hurled down from its tripod by the rush of the beasts, +yards away from the dim fading embers of the scattered wood-pyre. I saw +the faint writhings of a frail wasted frame, over which the Veiled Woman +was bending. I saw, as I moved with bruised limbs to the place, close by +the lips of the dying magician, the flash of the ruby-like essence spilled +on the sward, and, meteor-like, sparkling up from the torn tufts of +herbage. + +I now reached Margrave's side. Bending over him as the Veiled Woman bent, +and as I sought gently to raise him, he turned his face, fiercely +faltering out, "Touch me not, rob me not! You share with me! Never! +never! These glorious drops are all mine! Die all else! I will live! I +will live!" Writhing himself from my pitying arms, he plunged his face +amidst the beautiful, playful flame of the essence, as if to lap the +elixir with lips scorched away from its intolerable burning. Suddenly, +with a low shriek, he fell back, his face upturned to mine, and on that +face unmistakably reigned Death! + +Then Ayesha tenderly, silently, drew the young head to her lap, and it +vanished from my sight behind her black veil. + +I knelt beside her, murmuring some trite words of comfort; but she heeded +me not, rocking herself to and fro as the mother who cradles a child to +sleep. Soon the fast-flickering sparkles of the lost elixir died out on +the grass; and with their last sportive diamond-like tremble of light, up, +in all the suddenness of Australian day, rose the sun, lifting himself +royally above the mountain-tops, and fronting the meaner blaze of the +forest as a young king fronts his rebels. And as there, where the +bush-fires had ravaged, all was a desert, so there, where their fury had +not spread, all was a garden. Afar, at the foot of the mountains, the +fugitive herds were grazing; the cranes, flocking back to the pools, +renewed the strange grace of their gambols; and the great kingfisher, +whose laugh, half in mirth, half in mockery, leads the choir that welcome +the morn,--which in Europe is night,--alighted bold on the roof of the +cavern, whose floors were still white with the bones of races, extinct +before--so helpless through instincts, so royal through Soul--rose Man! + +But there, on the ground where the dazzling elixir had wasted its +virtues,--there the herbage already had a freshness of verdure which, amid +the duller sward round it, was like an oasis of green in a desert. And +there wild-flowers, whose chill hues the eye would have scarcely +distinguished the day before, now glittered forth in blooms of unfamiliar +beauty. Towards that spot were attracted myriads of happy insects, whose +hum of intense joy was musically loud. But the form of the life-seeking +sorcerer lay rigid and stark; blind to the bloom of the wild-flowers, deaf +to the glee of the insects,--one hand still resting heavily on the rim of +the emptied caldron, and the face still hid behind the Black Veil. What! +the wondrous elixir, sought with such hope and well-nigh achieved through +such dread, fleeting back to the earth from which its material was drawn, +to give bloom, indeed,--but to herbs: joy indeed,--but to insects! + +And now, in the flash of the sun, slowly wound up the slopes that led to +the circle the same barbaric procession which had sunk into the valley +under the ray of the moon. The armed men came first, stalwart and tall, +their vests brave with crimson and golden lace, their weapons gayly +gleaming with holiday silver. After them, the Black Litter. As they came +to the place, Ayesha, not raising her head, spoke to them in her own +Eastern tongue. A wail was her answer. The armed men bounded forward, +and the bearers left the litter. + +All gathered round the dead form with the face concealed under the black +veil; all knelt, and all wept. Far in the distance, at the foot of the +blue mountains, a crowd of the savage natives had risen up as if from the +earth; they stood motionless, leaning on their clubs and spears, and +looking towards the spot on which we were,--strangely thus brought into +the landscape, as if they too, the wild dwellers on the verge which +Humanity guards from the Brute, were among the mourners for the mysterious +Child of mysterious Nature! And still, in the herbage, hummed the small +insects, and still, from the cavern, laughed the great kingfisher. I said +to Ayesha, "Farewell! your love mourns the dead, mine calls me to the +living. You are now with your own people, they may console you; say if I +can assist." + +"There is no consolation for me! What mourner can be consoled if the dead +die forever? Nothing for him is left but a grave; that grave shall be in +the land where the song of Ayesha first lulled him to sleep. Thou assist +Me,--thou, the wise man of Europe! From me ask assistance. What road +wilt thou take to thy home?" + +"There is but one road known to me through the maze of the solitude,--that +which we took to this upland." + +"On that road Death lurks, and awaits thee! Blind dupe, couldst thou +think that if the grand secret of life had been won, he whose head rests +on my lap would have yielded thee one petty drop of the essence which had +filched from his store of life but a moment? Me, who so loved and so +cherished him,--me he would have doomed to the pitiless cord of my +servant, the Strangler, if my death could have lengthened a hair-breadth +the span of his being. But what matters to me his crime or his madness? +I loved him! I loved him!" + +She bowed her veiled head lower and lower; perhaps, under the veil, her +lips kissed the lips of the dead. Then she said whisperingly,-- + +"Juma the Strangler, whose word never failed to his master, whose prey +never slipped from his snare, waits thy step on the road to thy home! But +thy death cannot now profit the dead, the beloved. And thou hast had pity +for him who took but thine aid to design thy destruction. His life is +lost, thine is saved." + +She spoke no more in the tongue that I could interpret. She spoke, in the +language unknown, a few murmured words to her swarthy attendants; then the +armed men, still weeping, rose, and made a dumb sign to me to go with +them. I understood by the sign that Ayesha had told them to guard me on +my way; but she gave no reply to my parting thanks. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXIX. + +I descended into the valley; the armed men followed. The path, on that +side of the watercourse not reached by the flames, wound through meadows +still green, or amidst groves still unscathed. As a turning in the way +brought in front of my sight the place I had left behind, I beheld the +black litter creeping down the descent, with its curtains closed, and the +Veiled Woman walking by its side. But soon the funeral procession was +lost to my eyes, and the thoughts that it roused were erased. The waves +in man's brain are like those of the sea, rushing on, rushing over the +wrecks of the vessels that rode on their surface, to sink, after storm, in +their deeps. One thought cast forth into the future now mastered all in +the past: "Was Lilian living still?" Absorbed in the gloom of that +thought, hurried on by the goad that my heart, in its tortured impatience, +gave to my footstep, I outstripped the slow stride of the armed men, and, +midway between the place I had left and the home which I sped to, came, +far in advance of my guards, into the thicket in which the bushmen had +started up in my path on the night that Lilian had watched for my coming. +The earth at my feet was rife with creeping plants and many-coloured +flowers, the sky overhead was half-hid by motionless pines. Suddenly, +whether crawling out from the herbage, or dropping down from the trees, by +my side stood the white-robed and skeleton form,--Ayesha's attendant, the +Strangler. + +I sprang from him shuddering, then halted and faced him. The hideous +creature crept towards me, cringing and fawning, making signs of humble +good-will and servile obeisance. Again I recoiled,--wrathfully, +loathingly; turned my face homeward, and fled on. I thought I had baffled +his chase, when, just at the mouth of the thicket, he dropped from a bough +in my path close behind me. Before I could turn, some dark muffling +substance fell between my sight and the sun, and I felt a fierce strain at +my throat. But the words of Ayesha had warned me; with one rapid hand I +seized the noose before it could tighten too closely, with the other I +tore the bandage away from my eyes, and, wheeling round on the dastardly +foe, struck him down with one spurn of my foot. His hand, as he fell, +relaxed its hold on the noose; I freed my throat from the knot, and sprang +from the copse into the broad sunlit plain. I saw no more of the armed +men or the Strangler. Panting and breathless, I paused at last before the +fence, fragrant with blossoms, that divided my home from the solitude. + +The windows of Lilian's room were darkened; all within the house seemed +still. + +Darkened and silenced Home! with the light and sounds of the jocund day +all around it. Was there yet hope in the Universe for me? All to which I +had trusted Hope had broken down! The anchors I had forged for her hold +in the beds of the ocean, her stay from the drifts of the storm, had +snapped like the reeds which pierce the side that leans on the barb of +their points, and confides in the strength of their stems. No hope in the +baffled resources of recognized knowledge! No hope in the daring +adventures of Mind into regions unknown; vain alike the calm lore of the +practised physician, and the magical arts of the fated Enchanter! I had +fled from the commonplace teachings of Nature, to explore in her +Shadow-land marvels at variance with reason. Made brave by the grandeur +of love, I had opposed without quailing the stride of the Demon, and by +hope, when fruition seemed nearest, had been trodden into dust by the +hoofs of the beast! And yet, all the while, I had scorned, as a dream +more wild than the word of a sorcerer, the hope that the old man and the +child, the wise and the ignorant, took from their souls as inborn. Man +and fiend had alike failed a mind, not ignoble, not skilless, not abjectly +craven; alike failed a heart not feeble and selfish, not dead to the +hero's devotion, willing to shed every drop of its blood for a something +more dear than an animal's life for itself! What remained--what remained +for man's hope?--man's mind and man's heart thus exhausting their all with +no other result but despair! What remained but the mystery of mysteries, +so clear to the sunrise of childhood, the sunset of age, only dimmed by +the clouds which collect round the noon of our manhood? Where yet was +Hope found? In the soul; in its every-day impulse to supplicate comfort +and light, from the Giver of soul, wherever the heart is afflicted, the +mind is obscured. + +Then the words of Ayesha rushed over me: "What mourner can be consoled, if +the Dead die forever?" Through every pulse of my frame throbbed that +dread question. All Nature around seemed to murmur it. And suddenly, as +by a flash from heaven, the grand truth in Faber's grand reasoning shone +on me, and lighted up all, within and without. Alan alone, of all earthly +creatures, asks, "Can the Dead die forever?" and the instinct that urges +the question is God's answer to man! No instinct is given in vain. + +And born with the instinct of soul is the instinct that leads the soul +from the seen to the unseen, from time to eternity, from the torrent that +foams towards the Ocean of Death, to the source of its stream, far aloft +from the Ocean. + +"Know thyself," said the Pythian of old. "That precept descended from +Heaven." Know thyself! Is that maxim wise? If so, know thy soul. But +never yet did man come to the thorough conviction of soul but what he +acknowledged the sovereign necessity of prayer. In my awe, in my rapture, +all my thoughts seemed enlarged and illumined and exalted. I prayed,--all +my soul seemed one prayer. All my past, with its pride and presumption +and folly, grew distinct as the form of a penitent, kneeling for pardon +before setting forth on the pilgrimage vowed to a shrine. And, sure now, +in the deeps of a soul first revealed to myself, that the Dead do not die +forever, my human love soared beyond its brief trial of terror and sorrow. +Daring not to ask from Heaven's wisdom that Lilian, for my sake, might not +yet pass away from the earth, I prayed that my soul might be fitted to +bear with submission whatever my Maker might ordain. And if surviving +her--without whom no beam from yon material sun could ever warm into joy a +morrow in human life--so to guide my steps that they might rejoin her at +last, and, in rejoining, regain forever! + +How trivial now became the weird riddle that, a little while before, had +been clothed in so solemn an awe! What mattered it to the vast interests +involved in the clear recognition of Soul and Hereafter, whether or not my +bodily sense, for a moment, obscured the face of the Nature I should one +day behold as a spirit? Doubtless the sights and the sounds which had +haunted the last gloomy night, the calm reason of Faber would strip of +their magical seemings; the Eyes in the space and the Foot in the circle +might be those of no terrible Demons, but of the wild's savage children +whom I had seen, halting, curious and mute, in the light of the morning. +The tremor of the ground (if not, as heretofore, explicable by the +illusory impression of my own treacherous senses) might be but the natural +effect of elements struggling yet under a soil unmistakably charred by +volcanoes. The luminous atoms dissolved in the caldron might as little be +fraught with a vital elixir as are the splendours of naphtha or phosphor. +As it was, the weird rite had no magic result. The magician was not rent +limb from limb by the fiends. By causes as natural as ever extinguished +life's spark in the frail lamp of clay, he had died out of sight--under +the black veil. + +What mattered henceforth to Faith, in its far grander questions and +answers, whether Reason, in Faber, or Fancy, in me, supplied the more +probable guess at a hieroglyph which, if construed aright, was but a word +of small mark in the mystical language of Nature? If all the arts of +enchantment recorded by Fable were attested by facts which Sages were +forced to acknowledge, Sages would sooner or later find some cause for +such portents--not supernatural. But what Sage, without cause +supernatural, both without and within him, can guess at the wonders he +views in the growth of a blade of grass, or the tints on an insect's wing? +Whatever art Man can achieve in his progress through time, Man's reason, +in time, can suffice to explain. But the wonders of God? These belong to +the Infinite; and these, O Immortal! will but develop new wonder on +wonder, though thy sight be a spirit's, and thy leisure to track and to +solve an eternity. + +As I raised my face from my clasped hands, my eyes fell full upon a form +standing in the open doorway. There, where on the night in which Lilian's +long struggle for reason and life had begun, the Luminous Shadow had been +beheld in the doubtful light of a dying moon and a yet hazy dawn; there, +on the threshold, gathering round her bright locks the aureole of the +glorious sun, stood Amy, the blessed child! And as I gazed, drawing +nearer and nearer to the silenced house, and that Image of Peace on its +threshold, I felt that Hope met me at the door,--Hope in the child's +steadfast eyes, Hope in the child's welcoming smile! + +"I was at watch for you," whispered Amy. "All is well." + +"She lives still--she lives! Thank God! thank God!" + +"She lives,--she will recover!" said another voice, as my head sunk on +Faber's shoulder. "For some hours in the night her sleep was disturbed, +convulsed. I feared, then, the worst. Suddenly, just before the dawn, +she called out aloud, still in sleep,-- + +"'The cold and dark shadow has passed away from me and from Allen,--passed +away from us both forever!' + +"And from that moment the fever left her; the breathing became soft, the +pulse steady, and the colour stole gradually back to her cheek. The +crisis is past. Nature's benign Disposer has permitted Nature to restore +your life's gentle partner, heart to heart, mind to mind--" + +"And soul to soul," I cried, in my solemn joy. "Above as below, soul to +soul!" Then, at a sign from Faber, the child took me by the hand and led +me up the stairs into Lilian's room. + +Again those clear arms closed around me in wife-like and holy love, and +those true lips kissed away my tears,--even as now, at the distance of +years from that happy morn, while I write the last words of this Strange +Story, the same faithful arms close around me, the same tender lips kiss +away my tears. + +THE END. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRANGE STORY, COMPLETE *** + +****** This file should be named b128w10.txt or b128w10.zip ****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, b128w11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, b128w10a.txt + +This eBook was produced by Andrew Heath +and David Widger, widger@cecomet.net + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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