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+Project Gutenberg's The Portent and Other Stories, by George MacDonald
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Portent and Other Stories
+
+Author: George MacDonald
+
+
+Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8913]
+This file was first posted on August 24, 2003
+Last Updated: April 18, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PORTENT AND OTHER STORIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Sandra Brown and the DP Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PORTENT AND OTHER STORIES
+
+
+By George MacDonald
+
+
+
+
+THE PORTENT
+
+
+A STORY OF THE INNER VISION OF THE HIGHLANDERS,
+
+COMMONLY CALLED _THE SECOND SIGHT_
+
+
+DEDICATION.
+
+
+MY DEAR SIR, KENSINGTON, _May, 1864._
+
+Allow me, with the honour due to my father's friend, to inscribe this
+little volume with your name. The name of one friend is better than
+those of all the Muses.
+
+And permit me to say a few words about the story.--It is a Romance. I am
+well aware that, with many readers, this epithet will be enough to
+ensure condemnation. But there ought to be a place for any story, which,
+although founded in the marvellous, is true to human nature and to
+itself. Truth to Humanity, and harmony within itself, are almost the
+sole unvarying essentials of a work of art. Even _The Rime of the
+Ancient Mariner_--than which what more marvellous?--is true in these
+respects. And Shakespere himself will allow any amount of the
+marvellous, provided this truth is observed. I hope my story is thus
+true; and therefore, while it claims some place, undeserving of being
+classed with what are commonly called _sensational novels._
+
+I am well aware that such tales are not of much account, at present; and
+greatly would I regret that they should ever become the fashion; of
+which, however, there is no danger. But, seeing so much of our life must
+be spent in dreaming, may there not be a still nook, shadowy, but not
+miasmatic, in some lowly region of literature, where, in the pauses of
+labour, a man may sit down, and dream such a day-dream as I now offer to
+your acceptance, and that of those who will judge the work, in part at
+least, by its purely literary claims? If I confined my pen to such
+results, you, at least, would have a right to blame me. But you, for
+one, will, I am sure, justify an author in dreaming _sometimes_.
+
+In offering you a story, however, founded on _The Second Sight_, the
+belief in which was common to our ancestors, I owe you, at the same
+time, an apology. For the tone and colour of the story are so different
+from those naturally belonging to a Celtic tale, that you might well be
+inclined to refuse my request, simply on the ground that your pure
+Highland blood revolted from the degenerate embodiment given to the
+ancient belief. I can only say that my early education was not Celtic
+enough to enable me to do better in this respect. I beg that you will
+accept the offering with forgiveness, if you cannot with approbation.
+
+Yours affectionately,
+
+GEORGE MACDONALD.
+
+
+_To_ DUNCAN MCCOLL, Esq., R.N., _Huntly._
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+THE PORTENT
+
+THE CRUEL PAINTER
+
+THE CASTLE
+
+THE WOW O' RIVVEN
+
+THE BROKEN SWORDS
+
+THE GRAY WOLF
+
+UNCLE CORNELIUS HIS STORY
+
+
+
+
+Chapter I
+
+
+_My Boyhood._
+
+My father belonged to the widespread family of the Campbells, and
+possessed a small landed property in the north of Argyll. But although
+of long descent and high connection, he was no richer than many a farmer
+of a few hundred acres. For, with the exception of a narrow belt of
+arable land at its foot, a bare hill formed almost the whole of his
+possessions. The sheep ate over it, and no doubt found it good; I
+bounded and climbed all over it, and thought it a kingdom. From my very
+childhood, I had rejoiced in being alone. The sense of room about me had
+been one of my greatest delights. Hence, when my thoughts go back to
+those old years, it is not the house, nor the family room, nor that in
+which I slept, that first of all rises before my inward vision, but that
+desolate hill, the top of which was only a wide expanse of moorland,
+rugged with height and hollow, and dangerous with deep, dark pools, but
+in many portions purple with large-belled heather, and crowded with
+cranberry and blaeberry plants. Most of all, I loved it in the still
+autumn morning, outstretched in stillness, high uplifted towards the
+heaven. On every stalk hung the dew in tiny drops, which, while the
+rising sun was low, sparkled and burned with the hues of all the gems.
+Here and there a bird gave a cry; no other sound awoke the silence. I
+never see the statue of the Roman youth, praying with outstretched arms,
+and open, empty, level palms, as waiting to receive and hold the
+blessing of the gods, but that outstretched barren heath rises before
+me, as if it meant the same thing as the statue--or were, at least, the
+fit room in the middle space of which to set the praying and expectant
+youth.
+
+There was one spot upon the hill, half-way between the valley and the
+moorland, which was my favourite haunt. This part of the hill was
+covered with great blocks of stone, of all shapes and sizes--here
+crowded together, like the slain where the battle had been fiercest;
+there parting asunder from spaces of delicate green--of softest grass.
+In the centre of one of these green spots, on a steep part of the hill,
+were three huge rocks--two projecting out of the hill, rather than
+standing up from it, and one, likewise projecting from the hill, but
+lying across the tops of the two, so as to form a little cave, the back
+of which was the side of the hill. This was my refuge, my home within a
+home, my study--and, in the hot noons, often my sleeping chamber, and my
+house of dreams. If the wind blew cold on the hillside, a hollow of
+lulling warmth was there, scooped as it were out of the body of the
+blast, which, sweeping around, whistled keen and thin through the cracks
+and crannies of the rocky chaos that lay all about; in which confusion
+of rocks the wind plunged, and flowed, and eddied, and withdrew, as the
+sea-waves on the cliffy shores or the unknown rugged bottoms. Here I
+would often lie, as the sun went down, and watch the silent growth of
+another sea, which the stormy ocean of the wind could not disturb--the
+sea of the darkness. First it would begin to gather in the bottom of
+hollow places. Deep valleys, and all little pits on the hill-sides, were
+well-springs where it gathered, and whence it seemed to overflow, till
+it had buried the earth beneath its mass, and, rising high into the
+heavens, swept over the faces of the stars, washed the blinding day from
+them, and let them shine, down through the waters of the dark, to the
+eyes of men below. I would lie till nothing but the stars and the dim
+outlines of hills against the sky was to be seen, and then rise and go
+home, as sure of my path as if I had been descending a dark staircase in
+my father's house.
+
+On the opposite side the valley, another hill lay parallel to mine; and
+behind it, at some miles' distance, a great mountain. As often as, in my
+hermit's cave, I lifted my eyes from the volume I was reading, I saw
+this mountain before me. Very different was its character from that of
+the hill on which I was seated. It was a mighty thing, a chieftain of
+the race, seamed and scarred, featured with chasms and precipices and
+over-leaning rocks, themselves huge as hills; here blackened with shade,
+there overspread with glory; interlaced with the silvery lines of
+falling streams, which, hurrying from heaven to earth, cared not how
+they went, so it were downwards. Fearful stories were told of the gulfs,
+sullen waters, and dizzy heights upon that terror-haunted mountain. In
+storms the wind roared like thunder in its caverns and along the jagged
+sides of its cliffs, but at other times that uplifted land-uplifted, yet
+secret and full of dismay--lay silent as a cloud on the horizon.
+
+I had a certain peculiarity of constitution, which I have some reason to
+believe I inherit. It seems to have its root in an unusual delicacy of
+hearing, which often conveys to me sounds inaudible to those about me.
+This I have had many opportunities of proving. It has likewise, however,
+brought me sounds which I could never trace back to their origin; though
+they may have arisen from some natural operation which I had not
+perseverance or mental acuteness sufficient to discover. From this, or,
+it may be, from some deeper cause with which this is connected, arose a
+certain kind of fearfulness associated with the sense of hearing, of
+which I have never heard a corresponding instance. Full as my mind was
+of the wild and sometimes fearful tales of a Highland nursery, fear
+never entered my mind by the eyes, nor, when I brooded over tales of
+terror, and fancied new and yet more frightful embodiments of horror,
+did I shudder at any imaginable spectacle, or tremble lest the fancy
+should become fact, and from behind the whin-bush or the elder-hedge
+should glide forth the tall swaying form of the Boneless. When alone in
+bed, I used to lie awake, and look out into the room, peopling it with
+the forms of all the persons who had died within the scope of my memory
+and acquaintance. These fancied forms were vividly present to my
+imagination. I pictured them pale, with dark circles around their hollow
+eyes, visible by a light which glimmered within them; not the light of
+life, but a pale, greenish phosphorescence, generated by the decay of
+the brain inside. Their garments were white and trailing, but torn and
+soiled, as by trying often in vain to get up out of the buried coffin.
+But so far from being terrified by these imaginings, I used to delight
+in them; and in the long winter evenings, when I did not happen to have
+any book that interested me sufficiently, I used even to look forward
+with expectation to the hour when, laying myself straight upon my back,
+as if my bed were my coffin, I could call up from underground all who
+had passed away, and see how they fared, yea, what progress they had
+made towards final dissolution of form--but all the time, with my
+fingers pushed hard into my ears, lest the faintest sound should invade
+the silent citadel of my soul. If inadvertently I removed one of my
+fingers, the agony of terror I instantly experienced is indescribable. I
+can compare it to nothing but the rushing in upon my brain of a whole
+churchyard of spectres. The very possibility of hearing a sound, in such
+a mood, and at such a time, was almost enough to paralyse me. So I could
+scare myself in broad daylight, on the open hillside, by imagining
+unintelligible sounds; and my imagination was both original and fertile
+in the invention of such. But my mind was too active to be often
+subjected to such influences. Indeed life would have been hardly
+endurable had these moods been of more than occasional occurrence. As I
+grew older, I almost outgrew them. Yet sometimes one awful dread would
+seize me--that, perhaps, the prophetic power manifest in the gift of
+second sight, which, according to the testimony of my old nurse, had
+belonged to several of my ancestors, had been in my case transformed in
+kind without losing its nature, transferring its abode from the sight to
+the hearing, whence resulted its keenness, and my fear and suffering.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter II
+
+
+_The Second Hearing_.
+
+One summer evening, I had lingered longer than usual in my rocky
+retreat: I had lain half dreaming in the mouth of my cave, till the
+shadows of evening had fallen, and the gloaming had deepened half-way
+towards the night. But the night had no more terrors for me than the
+day. Indeed, in such regions there is a solitariness for which there
+seems a peculiar sense, and upon which the shadows of night sink with a
+strange relief, hiding from the eye the wide space which yet they throw
+more open to the imagination. When I lifted my head, only a star here
+and there caught my eye; but, looking intently into the depths of
+blue-grey, I saw that they were crowded with twinkles. The mountain rose
+before me, a huge mass of gloom; but its several peaks stood out against
+the sky with a clear, pure, sharp outline, and looked nearer to me than
+the bulk from which they rose heaven-wards. One star trembled and
+throbbed upon the very tip of the loftiest, the central peak, which
+seemed the spire of a mighty temple where the light was
+worshipped--crowned, therefore, in the darkness, with the emblem of the
+day. I was lying, as I have said, with this fancy still in my thought,
+when suddenly I heard, clear, though faint and far away, the sound as of
+the iron-shod hoofs of a horse, in furious gallop along an uneven rocky
+surface. It was more like a distant echo than an original sound. It
+seemed to come from the face of the mountain, where no horse, I knew,
+could go at that speed, even if its rider courted certain destruction.
+There was a peculiarity, too, in the sound--a certain tinkle, or clank,
+which I fancied myself able, by auricular analysis, to distinguish from
+the body of the sound. Supposing the sound to be caused by the feet of a
+horse, the peculiarity was just such as would result from one of the
+shoes being loose. A terror--strange even to my experience--seized me,
+and I hastened home. The sounds gradually died away as I descended the
+hill. Could they have been an echo from some precipice of the mountain?
+I knew of no road lying so that, if a horse were galloping upon it, the
+sounds would be reflected from the mountain to me.
+
+The next day, in one of my rambles, I found myself near the cottage of
+my old foster-mother, who was distantly related to us, and was a trusted
+servant in the family at the time I was born. On the death of my mother,
+which took place almost immediately after my birth, she had taken the
+entire charge of me, and had brought me up, though with difficulty; for
+she used to tell me, I should never be either _folk_ or _fairy_. For
+some years she had lived alone in a cottage, at the bottom of a deep
+green circular hollow, upon which, in walking over a healthy table-land,
+one came with a sudden surprise. I was her frequent visitor. She was a
+tall, thin, aged woman, with eager eyes, and well-defined clear-cut
+features. Her voice was harsh, but with an undertone of great
+tenderness. She was scrupulously careful in her attire, which was rather
+above her station. Altogether, she had much the bearing of a
+gentle-woman. Her devotion to me was quite motherly. Never having had
+any family of her own, although she had been the wife of one of my
+father's shepherds, she expended the whole maternity of her nature upon
+me. She was always my first resource in any perplexity, for I was sure
+of all the help she could give me. And as she had much influence with my
+father, who was rather severe in his notions, I had had occasion to beg
+her interference. No necessity of this sort, however, had led to my
+visit on the present occasion.
+
+I ran down the side of the basin, and entered the little cottage. Nurse
+was seated on a chair by the wall, with her usual knitting, a stocking,
+in one hand; but her hands were motionless, and her eyes wide open and
+fixed. I knew that the neighbours stood rather in awe of her, on the
+ground that she had the second sight; but, although she often told us
+frightful enough stories, she had never alluded to such a gift as being
+in her possession. Now I concluded at once that she was _seeing_. I was
+confirmed in this conclusion when, seeming to come to herself suddenly,
+she covered her head with her plaid, and sobbed audibly, in spite of her
+efforts to command herself. But I did not dare to ask her any questions,
+nor did she attempt any excuse for her behaviour. After a few moments,
+she unveiled herself, rose, and welcomed me with her usual kindness;
+then got me some refreshment, and began to question me about matters at
+home. After a pause, she said suddenly: "When are you going to get your
+commission, Duncan, do you know?" I replied that I had heard nothing of
+it; that I did not think my father had influence or money enough to
+procure me one, and that I feared I should have no such good chance of
+distinguishing myself. She did not answer, but nodded her head three
+times, slowly and with compressed lips--apparently as much as to say, "I
+know better."
+
+Just as I was leaving her, it occurred to me to mention that I had heard
+an odd sound the night before. She turned towards me, and looked at me
+fixedly. "What was it like, Duncan, my dear?"
+
+"Like a horse galloping with a loose shoe," I replied.
+
+"Duncan, Duncan, my darling!" she said, in a low, trembling voice, but
+with passionate earnestness, "you did not hear it? Tell me that you did
+not hear it! You only want to frighten poor old nurse: some one has been
+telling you the story!"
+
+It was my turn to be frightened now; for the matter became at once
+associated with my fears as to the possible nature of my auricular
+peculiarities. I assured her that nothing was farther from my intention
+than to frighten her; that, on the contrary, she had rather alarmed me;
+and I begged her to explain. But she sat down white and trembling, and
+did not speak. Presently, however, she rose again, and saying, "I have
+known it happen sometimes without anything very bad following," began to
+put away the basin and plate I had been using, as if she would compel
+herself to be calm before me. I renewed my entreaties for an
+explanation, but without avail. She begged me to be content for a few
+days, as she was quite unable to tell the story at present. She
+promised, however, of her own accord, that before I left home she would
+tell me all she knew.
+
+The next day a letter arrived announcing the death of a distant
+relation, through whose influence my father had had a lingering hope of
+obtaining an appointment for me. There was nothing left but to look out
+for a situation as tutor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+_My Old Nurses Story_.
+
+I was now almost nineteen. I had completed the usual curriculum of study
+at one of the Scotch universities; and, possessed of a fair knowledge of
+mathematics and physics, and what I considered rather more than a good
+foundation for classical and metaphysical acquirement, I resolved to
+apply for the first suitable situation that offered. But I was spared
+the trouble. A certain Lord Hilton, an English nobleman, residing in one
+of the midland counties, having heard that one of my father's sons was
+desirous of such a situation, wrote to him, offering me the post of
+tutor to his two boys, of the ages of ten and twelve. He had been partly
+educated at a Scotch university; and this, it may be, had prejudiced him
+in favour of a Scotch tutor; while an ancient alliance of the families
+by marriage was supposed by my nurse to be the reason of his offering me
+the situation. Of this connection, however, my father said nothing to
+me, and it went for nothing in my anticipations. I was to receive a
+hundred pounds a year, and to hold in the family the position of a
+gentleman, which might mean anything or nothing, according to the
+disposition of the heads of the family. Preparations for my departure
+were immediately commenced. I set out one evening for the cottage of my
+old nurse, to bid her good-bye for many months, probably years. I was to
+leave the next day for Edinburgh, on my way to London, whence I had to
+repair by coach to my new abode--almost to me like the land beyond the
+grave, so little did I know about it, and so wide was the separation
+between it and my home. The evening was sultry when I began my walk, and
+before I arrived at its end, the clouds rising from all quarters of the
+horizon, and especially gathering around the peaks of the mountain,
+betokened the near approach of a thunderstorm. This was a great delight
+to me. Gladly would I take leave of my home with the memory of a last
+night of tumultuous magnificence; followed, probably, by a day of
+weeping rain, well suited to the mood of my own heart in bidding
+farewell to the best of parents and the dearest of homes. Besides, in
+common with most Scotchmen who are young and hardy enough to be unable
+to realise the existence of coughs and rheumatic fevers, it was a
+positive pleasure to me to be out in rain, hail, or snow.
+
+"I am come to bid you good-bye, Margaret; and to hear the story which
+you promised to tell me before I left home: I go to-morrow."
+
+"Do you go so soon, my darling? Well, it will be an awful night to tell
+it in; but, as I promised, I suppose I must."
+
+At the moment, two or three great drops of rain, the first of the storm,
+fell down the wide chimney, exploding in the clear turf-fire.
+
+"Yes, indeed you must," I replied.
+
+After a short pause, she commenced. Of course she spoke in Gaelic; and I
+translate from my recollection of the Gaelic; but rather from the
+impression left upon my mind, than from any recollection of the words.
+She drew her chair near the fire, which we had reason to fear would soon
+be put out by the falling rain, and began.
+
+"How old the story is, I do not know. It has come down through many
+generations. My grandmother told it to me as I tell it to you; and her
+mother and my mother sat beside, never interrupting, but nodding their
+heads at every turn. Almost it ought to begin like the fairy tales,
+_Once upon a time,_--it took place so long ago; but it is too dreadful
+and too true to tell like a fairy tale.--There were two brothers, sons
+of the chief of our clan, but as different in appearance and disposition
+as two men could be. The elder was fair-haired and strong, much given to
+hunting and fishing; fighting too, upon occasion, I dare say, when they
+made a foray upon the Saxon, to get back a mouthful of their own. But he
+was gentleness itself to every one about him, and the very soul of
+honour in all his doings. The younger was very dark in complexion, and
+tall and slender compared to his brother. He was very fond of
+book-learning, which, they say, was an uncommon taste in those times. He
+did not care for any sports or bodily exercises but one; and that, too,
+was unusual in these parts. It was horsemanship. He was a fierce rider,
+and as much at home in the saddle as in his study-chair. You may think
+that, so long ago, there was not much fit room for riding hereabouts;
+but, fit or not fit, he rode. From his reading and riding, the
+neighbours looked doubtfully upon him, and whispered about the black
+art. He usually bestrode a great powerful black horse, without a white
+hair on him; and people said it was either the devil himself, or a
+demon-horse from the devil's own stud. What favoured this notion was,
+that, in or out of the stable, the brute would let no other than his
+master go near him. Indeed, no one would venture, after he had killed
+two men, and grievously maimed a third, tearing him with his teeth and
+hoofs like a wild beast. But to his master he was obedient as a hound,
+and would even tremble in his presence sometimes.
+
+"The youth's temper corresponded to his habits. He was both gloomy and
+passionate. Prone to anger, he had never been known to forgive. Debarred
+from anything on which he had set his heart, he would have gone mad with
+longing if he had not gone mad with rage. His soul was like the night
+around us now, dark, and sultry, and silent, but lighted up by the red
+levin of wrath and torn by the bellowings of thunder-passion. He must
+have his will: hell might have his soul. Imagine, then, the rage and
+malice in his heart, when he suddenly became aware that an orphan girl,
+distantly related to them, who had lived with them for nearly two years,
+and whom he had loved for almost all that period, was loved by his elder
+brother, and loved him in return. He flung his right hand above his
+head, swore a terrible oath that if he might not, his brother should
+not, rushed out of the house, and galloped off among the hills.
+
+"The orphan was a beautiful girl, tall, pale, and slender, with
+plentiful dark hair, which, when released from the snood, rippled down
+below her knees. Her appearance formed a strong contrast with that of
+her favoured lover, while there was some resemblance between her and the
+younger brother. This fact seemed, to his fierce selfishness, ground for
+a prior claim.
+
+"It may appear strange that a man like him should not have had instant
+recourse to his superior and hidden knowledge, by means of which he
+might have got rid of his rival with far more of certainty and less of
+risk; but I presume that, for the moment, his passion overwhelmed his
+consciousness of skill. Yet I do not suppose that he foresaw the mode in
+which his hatred was about to operate. At the moment when he learned
+their mutual attachment, probably through a domestic, the lady was on
+her way to meet her lover as he returned from the day's sport. The
+appointed place was on the edge of a deep, rocky ravine, down in whose
+dark bosom brawled and foamed a little mountain torrent. You know the
+place, Duncan, my dear, I dare say."
+
+(Here she gave me a minute description of the spot, with directions how
+to find it.)
+
+"Whether any one saw what I am about to relate, or whether it was put
+together afterwards, I cannot tell. The story is like an old tree--so
+old that it has lost the marks of its growth. But this is how my
+grandmother told it to me.--An evil chance led him in the right
+direction. The lovers, startled by the sound of the approaching horse,
+parted in opposite directions along a narrow mountain-path on the edge
+of the ravine. Into this path he struck at a point near where the lovers
+had met, but to opposite sides of which they had now receded; so that he
+was between them on the path. Turning his horse up the course of the
+stream, he soon came in sight of his brother on the ledge before him.
+With a suppressed scream of rage, he rode head-long at him, and ere he
+had time to make the least defence, hurled him over the precipice. The
+helplessness of the strong man was uttered in one single despairing cry
+as he shot into the abyss. Then all was still. The sound of his fall
+could not reach the edge of the gulf. Divining in a moment that the
+lady, whose name was Elsie, must have fled in the opposite direction, he
+reined his steed on his haunches. He could touch the precipice with his
+bridle-hand half outstretched; his sword-hand half outstretched would
+have dropped a stone to the bottom of the ravine. There was no room to
+wheel. One desperate practicability alone remained. Turning his horse's
+head towards the edge, he compelled him, by means of the powerful bit,
+to rear till he stood almost erect; and so, his body swaying over the
+gulf, with quivering and straining muscles, to turn on his hind-legs.
+Having completed the half-circle, he let him drop, and urged him
+furiously in the opposite direction. It must have been by the devil's
+own care that he was able to continue his gallop along that ledge of
+rock.
+
+"He soon caught sight of the maiden. She was leaning, half fainting,
+against the precipice. She had heard her lover's last cry, and although
+it had conveyed no suggestion of his voice to her ear, she trembled from
+head to foot, and her limbs would bear her no farther. He checked his
+speed, rode gently up to her, lifted her unresisting, laid her across
+the shoulders of his horse, and, riding carefully till he reached a more
+open path, dashed again wildly along the mountain-side. The lady's long
+hair was shaken loose, and dropped trailing on the ground. The horse
+trampled upon it, and stumbled, half dragging her from the saddle-bow.
+He caught her, lifted her up, and looked at her face. She was dead. I
+suppose he went mad. He laid her again across the saddle before him, and
+rode on, reckless whither. Horse, and man, and maiden were found the
+next day, lying at the foot of a cliff, dashed to pieces. It was
+observed that a hind-shoe of the horse was loose and broken. Whether
+this had been the cause of his fall, could not be told; but ever when he
+races, as race he will, till the day of doom, along that mountain-side,
+his gallop is mingled with the clank of the loose and broken shoe. For,
+like the sin, the punishment is awful: he shall carry about for ages the
+phantom-body of the girl, knowing that her soul is away, sitting with
+the soul of his brother, down in the deep ravine, or scaling with him
+the topmost crags of the towering mountain-peaks. There are some who,
+from time to time, see the doomed man careering along the face of the
+mountain, with the lady hanging across the steed; and they say it always
+betokens a storm, such as this which is now raving around us."
+
+I had not noticed till now, so absorbed had I been in her tale, that the
+storm had risen to a very ecstasy of fury.
+
+"They say, likewise, that the lady's hair is still growing; for, every
+time they see her, it is longer than before; and that now such is its
+length and the head-long speed of the horse, that it floats and streams
+out behind, like one of those curved clouds, like a comet's tail, far up
+in the sky; only the cloud is white, and the hair dark as night. And
+they say it will go on growing till the Last Day, when the horse will
+falter and her hair will gather in; and the horse will fall, and the
+hair will twist, and twine, and wreathe itself like a mist of threads
+about him, and blind him to everything but her. Then the body will rise
+up within it, face to face with him, animated by a fiend, who, twining
+her arms around him, will drag him down to the bottomless pit."
+
+I may mention something which now occurred, and which had a strange
+effect on my old nurse. It illustrates the assertion that we see around
+us only what is within us: marvellous things enough will show themselves
+to the marvellous mood.--During a short lull in the storm, just as she
+had finished her story, we heard the sound of iron-shod hoofs
+approaching the cottage. There was no bridle-way into the glen. A knock
+came to the door, and, on opening it, we saw an old man seated on a
+horse, with a long slenderly-filled sack lying across the saddle before
+him. He said he had lost the path in the storm, and, seeing the light,
+had scrambled down to inquire his way. I perceived at once, from the
+scared and mysterious look of the old woman's eyes, that she was
+persuaded that this appearance had more than a little to do with the
+awful rider, the terrific storm, and myself who had heard the sound of
+the phantom-hoofs. As he ascended the hill, she looked after him, with
+wide and pale but unshrinking eyes; then turning in, shut and locked the
+door behind her, as by a natural instinct. After two or three of her
+significant nods, accompanied by the compression of her lips, she
+said:--
+
+"He need not think to take me in, wizard as he is, with his disguises. I
+can see him through them all. Duncan, my dear, when you suspect
+anything, do not be too incredulous. This human demon is of course a
+wizard still, and knows how to make himself, as well as anything he
+touches, take a quite different appearance from the real one; only every
+appearance must bear some resemblance, however distant, to the natural
+form. That man you saw at the door was the phantom of which I have been
+telling you. What he is after now, of course, I cannot tell; but you
+must keep a bold heart, and a firm and wary foot, as you go home
+to-night."
+
+I showed some surprise, I do not doubt; and, perhaps, some fear as well;
+but I only said, "How do you know him, Margaret?"
+
+"I can hardly tell you," she replied; "but I do know him. I think he
+hates me. Often, of a wild night, when there is moonlight enough by
+fits, I see him tearing around this little valley, just on the top
+edge--all round; the lady's hair and the horses mane and tail driving
+far behind, and mingling, vaporous, with the stormy clouds. About he
+goes, in wild careering gallop; now lost as the moon goes in, then
+visible far round when she looks out again--an airy, pale-grey spectre,
+which few eyes but mine could see; for, as far as I am aware, no one of
+the family but myself has ever possessed the double gift of seeing and
+hearing both. In this case I hear no sound, except now and then a clank
+from the broken shoe. But I did not mean to tell you that I had ever
+seen him. I am not a bit afraid of him. He cannot do more than he may.
+His power is limited; else ill enough would he work, the miscreant."
+
+"But," said I, "what has all this, terrible as it is, to do with the
+fright you took at my telling you that I had heard the sound of the
+broken shoe? Surely you are not afraid of only a storm?"
+
+"No, my boy; I fear no storm. But the fact is, that that sound is seldom
+heard, and never, as far as I know, by any of the blood of that wicked
+man, without betokening some ill to one of the family, and most probably
+to the one who hears it--but I am not quite sure about that. Only some
+evil it does portend, although a long time may elapse before it shows
+itself; and I have a hope it may mean some one else than you."
+
+"Do not wish that," I replied. "I know no one better able to bear it
+than I am; and I hope, whatever it may be, that I only shall have to
+meet it. It must surely be something serious to be so foretold--it can
+hardly be connected with my disappointment in being compelled to be a
+pedagogue instead of a soldier."
+
+"Do not trouble yourself about that, Duncan," replied she. "A soldier
+you must be. The same day you told me of the clank of the broken
+horseshoe, I saw you return wounded from battle, and fall fainting from
+your horse in the street of a great city--only fainting, thank God. But
+I have particular reasons for being uneasy at your hearing that boding
+sound. Can you tell me the day and hour of your birth?"
+
+"No," I replied. "It seems very odd when I think of it, but I really do
+not know even the day."
+
+"Nor any one else; which is stranger still," she answered.
+
+"How does that happen, nurse?"
+
+"We were in terrible anxiety about your mother at the time. So ill was
+she, after you were just born, in a strange, unaccountable way, that you
+lay almost neglected for more than an hour. In the very act of giving
+birth to you, she seemed to the rest around her to be out of her mind,
+so wildly did she talk; but I knew better. I knew that she was fighting
+some evil power; and what power it was, I knew full well; for twice,
+during her pains, I heard the click of the horseshoe. But no one could
+help her. After her delivery, she lay as if in a trance, neither dead,
+nor at rest, but as if frozen to ice, and conscious of it all the while.
+Once more I heard the terrible sound of iron; and, at the moment, your
+mother started from her trance, screaming, 'My child! my child!' We
+suddenly became aware that no one had attended to the child, and rushed
+to the place where he lay wrapped in a blanket. Uncovering him, we found
+him black in the face, and spotted with dark spots upon the throat. I
+thought he was dead; but, with great and almost hopeless pains, we
+succeeded in making him breathe, and he gradually recovered. But his
+mother continued dreadfully exhausted. It seemed as if she had spent her
+life for her child's defence and birth. That was you, Duncan, my dear.
+
+"I was in constant attendance upon her. About a week after your birth,
+as near as I can guess, just in the gloaming, I heard yet again the
+awful clank--only once. Nothing followed till about midnight. Your
+mother slept, and you lay asleep beside her. I sat by the bedside. A
+horror fell upon me suddenly, though I neither saw nor heard anything.
+Your mother started from her sleep with a cry, which sounded as if it
+came from far away, out of a dream, and did not belong to this world. My
+blood curdled with fear. She sat up in bed, with wide staring eyes and
+half-open rigid lips, and, feeble as she was, thrust her arms straight
+out before her with great force, her hands open and lifted up, with the
+palms outwards. The whole action was of one violently repelling another.
+She began to talk wildly as she had done before you were born, but,
+though I seemed to hear and understand it all at the time, I could not
+recall a word of it afterwards. It was as if I had listened to it when
+half asleep. I attempted to soothe her, putting my arms round her, but
+she seemed quite unconscious of my presence, and my arms seemed
+powerless upon the fixed muscles of hers. Not that I tried to constrain
+her, for I knew that a battle was going on of some kind or other, and my
+interference might do awful mischief. I only tried to comfort and
+encourage her. All the time, I was in a state of indescribable cold and
+suffering, whether more bodily or mental I could not tell. But at length
+I heard yet again the clank of the shoe A sudden peace seemed to fall
+upon my mind--or was it a warm, odorous wind that filled the room? Your
+mother dropped her arms, and turned feebly towards her baby. She saw
+that he slept a blessed sleep. She smiled like a glorified spirit, and
+fell back exhausted on the pillow. I went to the other side of the room
+to get a cordial. When I returned to the bedside, I saw at once that she
+was dead. Her face smiled still, with an expression of the uttermost
+bliss."
+
+Nurse ceased, trembling as overcome by the recollection; and I was too
+much moved and awed to speak. At length, resuming the conversation, she
+said: "You see it is no wonder, Duncan, my dear, if, after all this, I
+should find, when I wanted to fix the date of your birth, that I could
+not determine the day or the hour when it took place. All was confusion
+in my poor brain. But it was strange that no one else could, any more
+than I. One thing only I can tell you about it. As I carried you across
+the room to lay you down, for I assisted at your birth, I happened to
+look up to the window. Then I saw what I did not forget, although I did
+not think of it again till many days after,--a bright star was shining
+on the very tip of the thin crescent moon."
+
+"Oh, then," said I, "it is possible to determine the day and the very
+hour when my birth took place."
+
+"See the good of book-learning!" replied she. "When you work it out,
+just let me know, my dear, that I may remember it."
+
+"That I will."
+
+A silence of some moments followed. Margaret resumed:--
+
+"I am afraid you will laugh at my foolish fancies, Duncan; but in
+thinking over all these things, as you may suppose I often do, lying
+awake in my lonely bed, the notion sometimes comes to me: What if my
+Duncan be the youth whom his wicked brother hurled into the ravine, come
+again in a new body, to live out his life on the earth, cut short by his
+brother's hatred? If so, his persecution of you, and of your mother for
+your sake, is easy to understand. And if so, you will never be able to
+rest till you find your fere, wherever she may have been born on the
+face of the earth. For born she must be, long ere now, for you to find.
+I misdoubt me much, however, if you will find her without great conflict
+and suffering between, for the Powers of Darkness will be against you;
+though I have good hope that you will overcome at last. You must forgive
+the fancies of a foolish old woman, my dear."
+
+I will not try to describe the strange feelings, almost sensations, that
+arose in me while listening to these extraordinary utterances, lest it
+should be supposed I was ready to believe all that Margaret narrated or
+concluded. I could not help doubting her sanity; but no more could I
+help feeling very peculiarly moved by her narrative.
+
+Few more words were spoken on either side, but after receiving renewed
+exhortations to carefulness on my way home, I said good-bye to dear old
+nurse, considerably comforted, I must confess, that I was not doomed to
+be a tutor all my days; for I never questioned the truth of that vision
+and its consequent prophecy.
+
+I went out into the midst of the storm, into the alternating throbs of
+blackness and radiance; now the possessor of no more room than what my
+body filled, and now isolated in world-wide space. And the thunder
+seemed to follow me, bellowing after me as I went.
+
+Absorbed in the story I had heard, I took my way, as I thought,
+homewards. The whole country was well known to me. I should have said,
+before that night, that I could have gone home blindfold. Whether the
+lightning bewildered me and made me take a false turn, I cannot tell;
+for the hardest thing to understand, in intellectual as well as moral
+mistakes, is--how we came to go wrong. But after wandering for some
+time, plunged in meditation, and with no warning whatever of the
+presence of inimical powers, a brilliant lightning-flash showed me that
+at least I was not near home. The light was prolonged for a second or
+two by a slight electric pulsation; and by that I distinguished a wide
+space of blackness on the ground in front of me. Once more wrapped in
+the folds of a thick darkness, I dared not move. Suddenly it occurred to
+me what the blackness was, and whither I had wandered. It was a huge
+quarry, of great depth, long disused, and half filled with water. I knew
+the place perfectly. A few more steps would have carried me over the
+brink. I stood still, waiting for the next flash, that I might be quite
+sure of the way I was about to take before I ventured to move. While I
+stood, I fancied I heard a single hollow plunge in the black water far
+below. When the lightning came, I turned, and took my path in another
+direction.
+
+After walking for some time across the heath, I fell. The fall became a
+roll, and down a steep declivity I went, over and over, arriving at the
+bottom uninjured.
+
+Another flash soon showed me where I was-in the hollow valley, within a
+couple of hundred yards from nurse's cottage. I made my way towards it.
+There was no light in it, except the feeblest glow from the embers of
+her peat fire. "She is in bed," I said to myself, "and I will not
+disturb her." Yet something drew me towards the little window. I looked
+in. At first I could see nothing. At length, as I kept gazing, I saw
+something, indistinct in the darkness, like an outstretched human form.
+
+By this time the storm had lulled. The moon had been up for some time,
+but had been quite concealed by tempestuous clouds. Now, however, these
+had begun to break up; and, while I stood looking into the cottage, they
+scattered away from the face of the moon, and a faint vapoury gleam of
+her light, entering the cottage through a window opposite that at which
+I stood, fell directly on the face of my old nurse, as she lay on her
+back, outstretched upon chairs, pale as death, and with her eyes closed.
+The light fell nowhere but on her face. A stranger to her habits would
+have thought she was dead; but she had so much of the appearance she had
+had on a former occasion, that I concluded at once she was in one of her
+trances. But having often heard that persons in such a condition ought
+not to be disturbed, and feeling quite sure she knew best how to manage
+herself, I turned, though reluctantly, and left the lone cottage behind
+me in the night, with the death-like woman lying motionless in the midst
+of it.
+
+I found my way home without any further difficulty, and went to bed,
+where I soon fell asleep, thoroughly wearied, more by the mental
+excitement I had been experiencing than by the amount of bodily exercise
+I had gone through.
+
+My sleep was tormented with awful dreams; yet, strange to say, I awoke
+in the morning refreshed and fearless. The sun was shining through the
+chinks in my shutters, which had been closed because of the storm, and
+was making streaks and bands of golden brilliancy upon the wall. I had
+dressed and completed my preparations long before I heard the steps of
+the servant who came to call me.
+
+What a wonderful thing waking is! The time of the ghostly moonshine
+passes by, and the great positive sunlight comes. A man who dreams, and
+knows that he is dreaming, thinks he knows what waking is; but knows it
+so little, that he mistakes, one after another, many a vague and dim
+change in his dream for an awaking. When the true waking comes at last,
+he is filled and overflowed with the power of its reality. So, likewise,
+one who, in the darkness, lies waiting for the light about to be struck,
+and trying to conceive, with all the force of his imagination, what the
+light will be like, is yet, when the reality flames up before him,
+seized as by a new and unexpected thing, different from and beyond all
+his imagining. He feels as if the darkness were cast to an infinite
+distance behind him. So shall it be with us when we wake from this dream
+of life into the truer life beyond, and find all our present notions of
+being, thrown back as into a dim, vapoury region of dreamland, where yet
+we thought we knew, and whence we looked forward into the present. This
+must be what Novalis means when he says: "Our life is not a dream; but
+it may become a dream, and perhaps ought to become one."
+
+And so I looked back upon the strange history of my past; sometimes
+asking myself,--"Can it be that all this realty happened to the same
+_me_, who am now thinking about it in doubt and wonder?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+_Hilton Hall_.
+
+As my father accompanied me to the door, where the gig, which was to
+carry me over the first stage of my journey, was in waiting, a large
+target of hide, well studded with brass nails, which had hung in the
+hall for time unknown--to me, at least--fell on the floor with a dull
+bang. My father started, but said nothing; and, as it seemed to me,
+rather pressed my departure than otherwise. I would have replaced the
+old piece of armour before I went, but he would not allow me to touch
+it, saying, with a grim smile,--
+
+"Take that for an omen, my boy, that your armour must be worn over the
+conscience, and not over the body. Be a man, Duncan, my boy. Fear
+nothing, and do your duty."
+
+A grasp of the hand was all the good-bye I could make; and I was soon
+rattling away to meet the coach _for Edinburgh and London. Seated on the
+top, I_ was soon buried in a reverie, from which I was suddenly startled
+by the sound of tinkling iron. Could it be that my adversary was riding
+unseen alongside of the coach? Was that the clank of the ominous shoe?
+But I soon discovered the cause of the sound, and laughed at my own
+apprehensiveness. For I observed that the sound was repeated every time
+that we passed any trees by the wayside, and that it was the peculiar
+echo they gave of the loose chain and steel work about the harness. The
+sound was quite different from that thrown back by the houses on the
+road. I became perfectly familiar with it before the day was over.
+
+I reached London in safety, and slept at the house of an old friend of
+my father, who treated me with great kindness, and seemed altogether to
+take a liking to me. Before I left he held out a hope of being able,
+some day or other, to procure for me what I so much desired--a
+commission in the army.
+
+After spending a day or two with him, and seeing something of London, I
+climbed once more on the roof of a coach; and, late in the afternoon,
+was set down at the great gate of Hilton Hall. I walked up the broad
+avenue, through the final arch of which, as through a huge Gothic
+window, I saw the hall in the distance. Everything about me looked
+strange, rich, and lovely. Accustomed to the scanty flowers and
+diminutive wood of my own country, what I now saw gave me a feeling of
+majestic plenty, which I can recall at will, but which I have never
+experienced again. Behind the trees which formed the avenue, I saw a
+shrubbery, composed entirely of flowering plants, almost all unknown to
+me. Issuing from the avenue, I found myself amid open, wide, lawny
+spaces, in which the flower-beds lay like islands of colour. A statue on
+a pedestal, the only white thing in the surrounding green, caught my
+eye. I had seen scarcely any sculpture; and this, attracting my
+attention by a favourite contrast of colour, retained it by its own
+beauty. It was a Dryad, or some nymph of the woods, who had just glided
+from the solitude of the trees behind, and had sprung upon the pedestal
+to look wonderingly around her. A few large brown leaves lay at her
+feet, borne thither by some eddying wind from the trees behind. As I
+gazed, filled with a new pleasure, a drop of rain upon my face made me
+look up. From a grey, fleecy cloud, with sun-whitened border, a light,
+gracious, plentiful rain was falling. A rainbow sprang across the sky,
+and the statue stood within the rainbow. At the same moment, from the
+base of the pedestal rose a figure in white, graceful as the Dryad
+above, and neither running, nor appearing to walk quickly, yet fleet as
+a ghost, glided past me at a few paces, distance, and, keeping in a
+straight line for the main entrance of the hall, entered by it and
+vanished.
+
+I followed in the direction of the mansion, which was large, and of
+several styles and ages. One wing appeared especially ancient. It was
+neglected and out of repair, and had in consequence a desolate, almost
+sepulchral look, an expression heightened by the number of large
+cypresses which grew along its line. I went up to the central door and
+knocked. It was opened by a grave, elderly butler. I passed under its
+flat arch, as if into the midst of the waiting events of my story. For,
+as I glanced around the hall, my consciousness was suddenly saturated,
+if I may be allowed the expression, with the strange feeling--known to
+everyone, and yet so strange--that I had seen it before; that, in fact,
+I knew it perfectly. But what was yet more strange, and far more
+uncommon, was, that, although the feeling with regard to the hall faded
+and vanished instantly, and although I could not in the least surmise
+the appearance of any of the regions into which I was about to be
+ushered, I yet followed the butler with a kind of indefinable
+expectation of seeing something which I had seen before; and every room
+or passage in that mansion affected me, on entering it for the first
+time, with the same sensation of previous acquaintance which I had
+experienced with regard to the hall. This sensation, in every case, died
+away at once, leaving that portion such as it might be expected to look
+to one who had never before entered the place.
+
+I was received by the housekeeper, a little, prim, benevolent old lady,
+with colourless face and antique head-dress, who led me to the room
+prepared for me. To my surprise, I found a large wood-fire burning on
+the hearth; but the feeling of the place revealed at once the necessity
+for it; and I scarcely needed to be informed that the room, which was
+upon the ground floor, and looked out upon a little solitary grass-grown
+and ivy-mantled court, had not been used for years, and therefore
+required to be thus prepared for an inmate. My bedroom was a few paces
+down a passage to the right.
+
+Left alone, I proceeded to make a more critical survey of my room. Its
+look of ancient mystery was to me incomparably more attractive than any
+show of elegance or comfort could have been. It was large and low,
+panelled throughout in oak, black with age, and worm-eaten in many
+parts--otherwise entire. Both the windows looked into the little court
+or yard before mentioned. All the heavier furniture of the room was
+likewise of black oak, but the chairs and couches were covered with
+faded tapestry and tarnished gilding, apparently the superannuated
+members of the general household of seats. I could give an individual
+description of each, for every atom in that room, large enough for
+discernable shape or colour, seems branded into my brain. If I happen to
+have the least feverishness on me, the moment I fall asleep, I am in
+that room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+_Lady Alice_.
+
+When the bell rang for dinner, I managed to find my way to the
+drawing-room, where were assembled Lady Hilton, her only daughter, a
+girl of about thirteen, and the two boys, my pupils. Lady Hilton would
+have been pleasant, could she have been as natural as she wished to
+appear. She received me with some degree of kindness; but the
+half-cordiality of her manner towards me was evidently founded on the
+impassableness of the gulf between us. I knew at once that we should
+never be friends; that she would never come down from the lofty
+table-land upon which she walked; and that if, after being years in the
+house, I should happen to be dying, she would send the housekeeper to
+me. All right, no doubt; I only say that it was so. She introduced to me
+my pupils; fine, open-eyed, manly English boys, with something a little
+overbearing in their manner, which speedily disappeared in relation to
+me. Lord Hilton was not at home. Lady Hilton led the way to the
+dining-room; the elder boy gave his arm to his sister, and I was about
+to follow with the younger, when from one of the deep bay windows glided
+out, still in white, the same figure which had passed me upon the lawn.
+I started, and drew back. With a slight bow, she preceded me, and
+followed the others down the great staircase. Seated at table, I had
+leisure to make my observations upon them all; but most of my glances
+found their way to the lady who, twice that day, had affected me like an
+apparition. What is time, but the airy ocean in which ghosts come and
+go!
+
+She was about twenty years of age; rather above the middle height, and
+rather slight in form; her complexion white rather than pale, her face
+being only less white than the deep marbly whiteness of her arms. Her
+eyes were large, and full of liquid night--a night throbbing with the
+light of invisible stars. Her hair seemed raven-black, and in quantity
+profuse. The expression of her face, however, generally partook more of
+vagueness than any other characteristic. Lady Hilton called her Lady
+Alice; and she never addressed Lady Hilton but in the same ceremonious
+style.
+
+I afterwards learned from the old house-keeper, that Lady Alice's
+position in the family was a very peculiar one. Distantly connected with
+Lord Hilton's family on the mother's side, she was the daughter of the
+late Lord Glendarroch, and step-daughter to Lady Hilton, who had become
+Lady Hilton within a year after Lord Glendarroch's death. Lady Alice,
+then quite a child, had accompanied her stepmother, to whom she was
+moderately attached, and who had been allowed to retain undisputed
+possession of her. She had no near relatives, else the fortune I
+afterwards found to be at her disposal would have aroused contending
+claims to the right of guardianship.
+
+Although she was in many respects kindly treated by her stepmother,
+certain peculiarities tended to her isolation from the family pursuits
+and pleasures. Lady Alice had no accomplishments. She could neither
+spell her own language, nor even read it aloud. Yet she delighted in
+reading to herself, though, for the most part, books which Mrs. Wilson
+characterised as very odd. Her voice, when she spoke, had a quite
+indescribable music in it; yet she neither sang nor played. Her habitual
+motion was more like a rhythmical gliding than an ordinary walk, yet she
+could not dance. Mrs. Wilson hinted at other and more serious
+peculiarities, which she either could not, or would not describe; always
+shaking her head gravely and sadly, and becoming quite silent, when I
+pressed for further explanation; so that, at last, I gave up all
+attempts to arrive at an understanding of the mystery by her means. Not
+the less, however, I speculated on the subject.
+
+One thing soon became evident to me: that she was considered not merely
+deficient as to the power of intellectual acquirement, but in a quite
+abnormal intellectual condition. Of this, however, I could myself see no
+sign. The peculiarity, almost oddity, of some of her remarks, was
+evidently not only misunderstood, but, with relation to her mental
+state, misinterpreted. Such remarks Lady Hilton generally answered only
+by an elongation of the lips intended to represent a smile. To me, they
+appeared to indicate a nature closely allied to genius, if not identical
+with it-a power of regarding things from an original point of view,
+which perhaps was the more unfettered in its operation from the fact
+that she was incapable of looking at them in the ordinary common-place
+way. It seemed to me, sometimes, as if her point of observation was
+outside of the sphere within which the thing observed took place; and as
+if what she said, had a relation, occasionally, to things and thoughts
+and mental conditions familiar to her, but at which not even a definite
+guess could be made by me. I am compelled to acknowledge, however, that
+with such utterances as these mingled now and then others, silly enough
+for any drawing-room young lady; which seemed again to be accepted by
+the family as proofs that she was not _altogether_ out of her right
+mind. She was gentle and kind to the children, as they were still
+called; and they seemed reasonably fond of her.
+
+There was something to me exceedingly touching in the solitariness of
+this girl; for no one spoke to her as if she were like other people, or
+as if any heartiness were possible between them. Perhaps no one could
+have felt quite at home with her but a mother, whose heart had been one
+with hers from a season long anterior to the development of any
+repulsive oddity. But her position was one of peculiar isolation, for no
+one really approached her individual being; and that she should be
+unaware of this loneliness, seemed to me saddest of all. I soon found,
+however, that the most distant attempt on my part to show her attention,
+was either received with absolute indifference, or coldly repelled
+without the slightest acknowledgment.
+
+But I return to the first night of my sojourn at Hilton Hall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+_My Quarters._
+
+After making arrangements for commencing work in the morning, I took my
+leave, and retired to my own room, intent upon carrying out with more
+minuteness the survey I had already commenced: several cupboards in the
+wall, and one or two doors, apparently of closets, had especially
+attracted my attention. Strange was its look as I entered--as of a room
+hollowed out of the past, for a memorial of dead times. The fire had
+sunk low, and lay smouldering beneath the white ashes, like the life of
+the world beneath the snow, or the heart of a man beneath cold and grey
+thoughts. I lighted the candles which stood upon the table, but the
+room, instead of being brightened looked blacker than before, for the
+light revealed its essential blackness.
+
+As I cast my eyes around me, standing with my back to the hearth (on
+which, for mere companionship's sake, I had just heaped fresh wood), a
+thrill ran suddenly throughout my frame. I felt as if, did it last a
+moment longer, I should become aware of another presence in the room;
+but, happily for me, it ceased before it had reached that point; and I,
+recovering my courage, remained ignorant of the cause of my fear, if
+there were any, other than the nature of the room itself. With a candle
+in my hand, I proceeded to open the various cupboards and closets. At
+first I found nothing remarkable about any of them. The latter were
+quite empty, except the last I came to, which had a piece of very old
+elaborate tapestry hanging at the back of it. Lifting this up, I saw
+what seemed at first to be panels, corresponding to those which formed
+the room; but on looking more closely, I discovered that this back of
+the closet was, or had been, a door. There was nothing unusual in this,
+especially in such an old house; but the discovery roused in me a strong
+desire to know what lay behind the old door. I found that it was secured
+only by an ordinary bolt, from which the handle had been removed.
+Soothing my conscience with the reflection that I had a right to know
+what sort of place had communication with my room, I succeeded, by the
+help of my deer-knife, in forcing back the rusty bolt; and though, from
+the stiffness of the hinges, I dreaded a crack, they yielded at last
+with only a creak.
+
+The opening door revealed a large hall, empty utterly, save of dust and
+cobwebs, which festooned it in all quarters, and gave it an appearance
+of unutterable desolation. The now familiar feeling, that I had seen the
+place before, filled my mind the first moment, and passed away the next.
+A broad, right-angled staircase, with massive banisters, rose from the
+middle of the hall. This staircase could not have originally belonged to
+the ancient wing which I had observed on my first approach, being much
+more modern; but I was convinced, from the observations I had made as to
+the situation of my room, that I was bordering upon, if not within, the
+oldest portion of the pile. In sudden horror, lest I should hear a light
+footfall upon the awful stair, I withdrew hurriedly, and having secured
+both the doors, betook myself to my bedroom; in whose dingy four-post
+bed, with its carving and plumes reminding me of a hearse, I was soon
+ensconced amidst the snowiest linen, with the sweet and clean odour of
+lavender. In spite of novelty, antiquity, speculation, and dread, I was
+soon fast asleep; becoming thereby a fitter inhabitant of such regions,
+than when I moved about with restless and disturbing curiosity, through
+their ancient and death-like repose.
+
+I made no use of my discovered door, although I always intended doing
+so; especially after, in talking about the building with Lady Hilton, I
+found that I was at perfect liberty to make what excursions I pleased
+into the deserted portions.
+
+My pupils turned out to be teachable, and therefore my occupation was
+pleasant. Their sister frequently came to me for help, as there happened
+to be just then an interregnum of governesses: soon she settled into a
+regular pupil.
+
+After a few weeks Lord Hilton returned. Though my room was so far from
+the great hall, I heard the clank of his spurs on its pavement. I
+trembled; for it sounded like the broken shoe. But I shook off the
+influence in a moment, heartily ashamed of its power over me. Soon I
+became familiar enough both with the sound and its cause; for his
+lordship rarely went anywhere except on horseback, and was booted and
+spurred from morning till night.
+
+He received me with some appearance of interest, which immediately
+stiffened and froze. Beginning to shake hands with me as if he meant it,
+he instantly dropped my hand, as if it had stung him.
+
+His nobility was of that sort which stands in constant need of repair.
+Like a weakly constitution, it required keeping up, and his lordship
+could not be said to neglect it; for he seemed to find his principal
+employment in administering continuous doses of obsequiousness to his
+own pride. His rank, like a coat made for some large ancestor, hung
+loose upon him: he was always trying to persuade himself that it was an
+excellent fit, but ever with an unacknowledged misgiving. This misgiving
+might have done him good, had he not met it with renewed efforts at
+looking that which he feared he was not. Yet this man was capable of the
+utmost persistency in carrying out any scheme he had once devised.
+Enough of him for the present: I seldom came into contact with him.
+
+I scarcely ever saw Lady Alice, except at dinner, or by accidental
+meeting in the grounds and passages of the house; and then she took no
+notice of me whatever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+_The Library_.
+
+One day, a week after his arrival, Lord Hilton gave a dinner-party to
+some of his neighbours and tenants. I entered the drawing-room rather
+late, and saw that, though there were many guests, not one was talking
+to Lady Alice. She appeared, however, altogether unconscious of neglect.
+Presently dinner was announced, and the company marshalled themselves,
+and took their way to the dining-room. Lady Alice was left unattended,
+the guests taking their cue from the behaviour of their entertainers. I
+ventured to go up to her, and offer her my arm. She made me a haughty
+bow, and passed on before me unaccompanied. I could not help feeling
+hurt at this, and I think she saw it; but it made no difference to her
+behaviour, except that she avoided everything that might occasion me the
+chance of offering my services.
+
+Nor did I get any further with Lady Hilton. Her manner and smile
+remained precisely the same as on our first interview. She did not even
+show any interest in the fact that her daughter, Lady Lucy, had joined
+her brothers in the schoolroom. I had an uncomfortable feeling that the
+latter was like her mother, and was not to be trusted. Self-love is the
+foulest of all foul feeders, and will defile that it may devour. But I
+must not anticipate.
+
+The neglected library was open to me at all hours; and in it I often
+took refuge from the dreariness of unsympathetic society. I was never
+admitted within the magic circle of the family interests and enjoyments.
+If there was such a circle, Lady Alice and I certainly stood outside of
+it; but whether even then it had any real inside to it, I doubted much.
+Nevertheless, as I have said, our common exclusion had not the effect of
+bringing us together as sharers of the same misfortune. In the library I
+found companions more to my need. But, even there, they were not easy to
+find; for the books were in great confusion. I could discover no
+catalogue, nor could I hear of the existence of such a useless luxury.
+One morning at breakfast, therefore, I asked Lord Hilton if I might
+arrange and catalogue the books during my leisure hours. He replied:--
+
+"Do anything you like with them, Mr. Campbell, except destroy them."
+
+Now I was in my element. I never had been by any means a book-worm; but
+the very outside of a book had a charm to me. It was a kind of
+sacrament--an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace;
+as, indeed, what on God's earth is not? So I set to work amongst the
+books, and soon became familiar with many titles at least, which had
+been perfectly unknown to me before. I found a perfect set of our
+poets-perfect according to the notion of the editor and the issue of the
+publisher, although it omitted both Chaucer and George Herbert. I began
+to nibble at that portion of the collection which belonged to the
+sixteenth century; but with little success. I found nothing, to my idea,
+but love poems without any love in them, and so I soon became weary. But
+I found in the library what I liked far better--many romances of a very
+marvellous sort, and plentiful interruption they gave to the formation
+of the catalogue. I likewise came upon a whole nest of the German
+classics which seemed to have kept their places undisturbed, in virtue
+of their unintelligibility. There must have been some well-read scholar
+in the family, and that not long before, to judge by the near approach
+of the line of this literature; happening to be a tolerable reader of
+German, I found in these volumes a mine of wealth inexhaustible. I
+learned from Mrs. Wilson that this scholar was a younger brother of Lord
+Hilton, who had died about twenty years before. He had led a retired,
+rather lonely life, was of a melancholy and brooding disposition, and
+was reported to have had an unfortunate love-story. This was one of many
+histories which she gave me. For the library being dusty as a catacomb,
+the private room of Old Time himself, I had often to betake myself to
+her for assistance. The good lady had far more regard than the owners of
+it for the library, and was delighted with the pains I was taking to
+re-arrange and clean it. She would allow no one to help me but herself;
+and to many a long-winded story, most of which I forgot as soon as I
+heard them, did I listen, or seem to listen, while she dusted the
+shelves and I the books.
+
+One day I had sent a servant to ask Mrs. Wilson to come to me. I had
+taken down all the books from a hitherto undisturbed corner, and had
+seated myself on a heap of them, no doubt a very impersonation of the
+genius of the place; for while I waited for the housekeeper, I was
+consuming a morsel of an ancient metrical romance. After waiting for
+some time, I glanced towards the door, for I had begun to get impatient
+for the entrance of my helper. To my surprise, there stood Lady Alice,
+her eyes fixed upon me with an expression I could not comprehend. Her
+face instantly altered to its usual look of indifference, dashed with
+the least possible degree of scorn, as she turned and walked slowly
+away. I rose involuntarily. An old cavalry sword, which I had just taken
+down from the wall, and had placed leaning against the books from which
+I now rose, fell with a clash to the floor. I started; for it was a
+sound that always startled me; and stooping I lifted the weapon. But
+what was my surprise when I raised my head, to see once more the face of
+Lady Alice staring in at the door! yet not the same face, for it had
+changed in the moment that had passed. It was pale with fear--not
+fright; and her great black eyes were staring beyond me as if she saw
+something through the wall of the room. Once more her face altered to
+the former scornful indifference, and she vanished. Keen of hearing as I
+was, I had never yet heard the footstep of Lady Alice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+_The Somnambulist._
+
+One night I was sitting in my room, devouring an old romance which I had
+brought from the library. It was late. The fire blazed bright; but the
+candles were nearly burnt out, and I grew sleepy over the volume,
+romance as it was.
+
+Suddenly I found myself on my feet, listening with an agony of
+intention. Whether I had heard anything I could not tell; but I felt as
+if I had. Yes; I was sure of it. Far away, somewhere in the labyrinthine
+pile, I heard a faint cry. Driven by some secret impulse, I flew,
+without a moment's reflection, to the closet door, lifted the tapestry
+within, unfastened the second door, and stood in the great waste echoing
+hall, amid the touches, light and ghostly, of the cobwebs set afloat in
+the eddies occasioned by my sudden entrance.
+
+A faded moonbeam fell on the floor, and filled the place with an ancient
+dream-light, which wrought strangely on my brain, and filled it, as if
+it, too, were but a deserted, sleepy house, haunted by old dreams and
+memories. Recollecting myself, I went back for a light; but the candles
+were both flickering in the sockets, and I was compelled to trust to the
+moon. I ascended the staircase. Old as it was, not a board creaked, not
+a banister shook--the whole felt solid as rock. Finding, at length, no
+more stair to ascend, I groped my way on; for here there was no direct
+light from the moon--only the light of the moonlit air. I was in some
+trepidation, I confess; for how should I find my way back? But the worst
+result likely to ensue was, that I should have to spend the night
+without knowing where; for with the first glimmer of morning, I should
+be able to return to my room. At length, after wandering into several
+rooms and out again, my hand fell on a latched door. I opened it, and
+entered a long corridor, with many windows on one side. Broad strips of
+moonlight lay slantingly across the narrow floor, divided by regular
+intervals of shade.
+
+I started, and my heart swelled; for I saw a movement somewhere--I could
+neither tell where, nor of what: I was only aware of motion. I stood in
+the first shadow, and gazed, but saw nothing. I sped across the light to
+the next shadow, and stood again, looking with fearful fixedness of gaze
+towards the far end of the corridor. Suddenly a white form glimmered and
+vanished. I crossed to the next shadow. Again a glimmer and vanishing,
+but nearer. Nerving myself to the utmost, I ceased the stealthiness of
+my movements, and went forward, slowly and steadily. A tall form,
+apparently of a woman, dressed in a long white robe, appeared in one of
+the streams of light, threw its arms over its head, gave a wild
+cry--which, notwithstanding its wildness and force, had a muffled sound,
+as if many folds, either of matter or of space, intervened--and fell at
+full length along the moonlight. Amidst the thrill of agony which shook
+me at the cry, I rushed forward, and, kneeling beside the prostrate
+figure, discovered that, unearthly as was the scream which had preceded
+her fall, it was the Lady Alice. I saw the fact in a moment: the Lady
+Alice was a somnambulist. Startled by the noise of my advance, she had
+awaked; and the usual terror and fainting had followed. She was cold and
+motionless as death. What was to be done? If I called, the probability
+was that no one would hear me; or if any one should hear--but I need not
+follow the course of my thought, as I tried in vain to recover the poor
+girl. Suffice it to say, that both for her sake and my own, I could not
+face the chance of being found, in the dead of night, by common-minded
+domestics, in such a situation.
+
+I was kneeling by her side, not knowing what to do, when a horror, as
+from the presence of death suddenly recognized, fell upon me. I thought
+she must be dead. But at the same moment, I hear, or seemed to hear,
+(how should I know which?) the rapid gallop of a horse, and the clank of
+a loose shoe.
+
+In an agony of fear, I caught her up in my arms, and, carrying her on my
+arms, as one carries a sleeping child, hurried back through the
+corridor. Her hair, which was loose, trailed on the ground; and, as I
+fled, I trampled on it and stumbled. She moaned; and that instant the
+gallop ceased. I lifted her up across my shoulder, and carried her more
+easily. How I found my way to the stair I cannot tell: I know that I
+groped about for some time, like one in a dream with a ghost in his
+arms. At last I reached it, and descending, crossed the hall, and
+entered my room. There I placed Lady Alice upon an old couch, secured
+the doors, and began to breathe--and think. The first thing was to get
+her warm, for she was cold as the dead. I covered her with my plaid and
+my dressing-gown, pulled the couch before the fire, and considered what
+to do next.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+_The First Waking_.
+
+While I hesitated, Nature had her own way, and, with a deep-drawn sigh,
+Lady Alice opened her eyes. Never shall I forget the look of mingled
+bewilderment, alarm, and shame, with which her great eyes met mine. But,
+in a moment, this expression changed to that of anger. Her dark eyes
+flashed with light; and a cloud of roseate wrath grew in her face, till
+it glowed with the opaque red of a camellia. She had almost started from
+the couch, when, apparently discovering the unsuitableness of her dress,
+she checked her impetuosity, and remained leaning on her elbow. Overcome
+by her anger, her beauty, and my own confusion, I knelt before her,
+unable to speak, or to withdraw my eyes from hers. After a moment's
+pause, she began to question me like a queen, and I to reply like a
+culprit.
+
+"How did I come here?"
+
+"I carried you."
+
+"Where did you find me, pray?"
+
+Her lip curled with ten times the usual scorn.
+
+"In the old house, in a long corridor."
+
+"What right had you to be there?"
+
+"I heard a cry, and could not help going."
+
+"Tis impossible.--I see. Some wretch told you, and you watched for me."
+
+"I did not, Lady Alice."
+
+She burst into tears, and fell back on the couch, with her face turned
+away. Then, anger reviving, she went on through her sobs:--
+
+"Why did you not leave me where I fell? You had done enough to hurt me
+without bringing me here."
+
+And again she fell a-weeping.
+
+Now I found words.
+
+"Lady Alice," I said, "how could I leave you lying in the moonlight?
+Before the sun rose, the terrible moon might have distorted your
+beautiful face."
+
+"Be silent, sir. What have you to do with my face?"
+
+"And the wind, Lady Alice, was blowing through the corridor windows,
+keen and cold as the moonlight. How could I leave you?"
+
+"You could have called for help."
+
+"Forgive me, Lady Alice, if I erred in thinking you would rather command
+the silence of a gentleman to whom an accident had revealed your secret,
+than be exposed to the domestics who would have gathered round us."
+
+Again she half raised herself, and again her eyes flashed.
+
+"A secret with _you_, sir!"
+
+"But, besides, Lady Alice," I cried, springing to my feet, in distress
+at her hardness, "I heard the horse with the clanking shoe, and, in
+terror, I caught you up, and fled with you, almost before I knew what I
+did. And I hear it now--I hear it now!" I cried, as once more the
+ominous sound rang through my brain.
+
+The angry glow faded from her face, and its paleness grew almost ghastly
+with dismay.
+
+"Do _you_ hear it?" she said, throwing back her covering, and rising
+from the couch. "I do not."
+
+She stood listening with distended eyes, as if _they_ were the gates by
+which such sounds entered.
+
+"I do not hear it," she said again, after a pause. "It must be gone
+now." Then, turning to me, she laid her hand on my arm, and looked at
+me. Her black hair, disordered and entangled, wandered all over her
+white dress to her knees. Her face was paler than ever; and her eyes
+were so wide open that I could see the white all round the large dark
+iris.
+
+"Did you hear it?" she said. "No one ever heard it before but me. I must
+forgive you--you could not help it. I will trust you, too. Take me to my
+room."
+
+Without a word of reply, I wrapped my plaid about her. Then bethinking
+me of my chamber-candle, I lighted it, and opening the two doors, led
+her out of the room.
+
+"How is this?" she asked. "Why do you take me this way? I do not know
+the place."
+
+"This is the way I brought you in, Lady Alice," I answered. "I know no
+other way to the spot where I found you. And I can guide you no farther
+than there--hardly even so far, for I groped my way there for the first
+time this night or morning--whichever it may be."
+
+"It is past midnight, but not morning yet," she replied, "I always know.
+But there must be another way from your room?"
+
+"Yes, of course; but we should have to pass the housekeeper's door--she
+is always late."
+
+"Are we near her room? I should know my way from there. I fear it would
+not surprise any of the household to see me. They would say--'It is only
+Lady Alice.' Yet I cannot tell you how I shrink from being seen. No--I
+will try the way you brought me--if you do not mind going back with me."
+
+This conversation passed in low tone and hurried words. It was scarcely
+over before we found ourselves at the foot of the staircase. Lady Alice
+shivered, and drew the plaid close round her.
+
+We ascended, and soon found the corridor; but when we got through it,
+she was rather bewildered. At length, after looking into several of the
+rooms, empty all, except for stray articles of ancient furniture, she
+exclaimed, as she entered one, and, taking the candle from my hand, held
+it above her head--
+
+"Ah, yes! I am right at last. This is the haunted room. I know my way
+now."
+
+I caught a darkling glimpse of a large room, apparently quite furnished;
+but how, except from the general feeling of antiquity and mustiness, I
+could not tell. Little did I think then what memories--old, now, like
+the ghosts that with them haunt the place--would ere long find their
+being and take their abode in that ancient room, to forsake it never
+more. In strange, half-waking moods, I seem to see the ghosts and the
+memories flitting together through the spectral moonlight, and weaving
+mystic dances in and out of the storied windows and the tapestried
+walls.
+
+At the door of this room she said, "I must leave you here. I will put
+down the light a little further on, and you can come for it. I owe you
+many thanks. You will not be afraid of being left so near the haunted
+room?"
+
+I assured her that at present I felt strong enough to meet all the
+ghosts in or out of Hades. Turning, she smiled a sad, sweet smile, then
+went on a few paces, and disappeared. The light, however, remained; and
+I found the candle, with my plaid, deposited at the foot of a short
+flight of steps, at right angles to the passage she left me in. I made
+my way back to my room, threw myself on the couch on which she had so
+lately lain, and neither went to bed nor slept that night. Before the
+morning, I had fully entered that phase of individual development
+commonly called _love_, of which the real nature is as great a mystery
+to me now, as it was at any period previous to its evolution in myself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+_Love and Power_.
+
+When the morning came, I began to doubt whether my wakefulness had not
+been part of my dream, and I had not dreamed the whole of my supposed
+adventures. There was no sign of a lady's presence left in the
+room.--How could there have been?--But throwing the plaid which covered
+me aside, my hand was caught by a single thread of something so fine
+that I could not see it till the light grew strong. I wound it round and
+round my finger, and doubted no longer.
+
+At breakfast there was no Lady Alice--nor at dinner. I grew uneasy, but
+what could I do? I soon learned that she was ill; and a weary fortnight
+passed before I saw her again. Mrs. Wilson told me that she had caught
+cold, and was confined to her room. So I was ill at ease, not from love
+alone, but from anxiety as well. Every night I crept up through the
+deserted house to the stair where she had vanished, and there sat in the
+darkness or groped and peered about for some sign. But I saw no light
+even, and did not know where her room was. It might be far beyond this
+extremity of my knowledge; for I discovered no indication of the
+proximity of the inhabited portion of the house. Mrs. Wilson said there
+was nothing serious the matter; but this did not satisfy me, for I
+imagined something mysterious in the way in which she spoke.
+
+As the days went on, and she did not appear, my soul began to droop
+within me; my intellect seemed about to desert me altogether. In vain I
+tried to read. Nothing could fix my attention. I read and re-read the
+same page; but although I understood every word as I read, I found when
+I came to a pause, that there lingered in my mind no palest notion of
+the idea. It was just what one experiences in attempting to read when
+half-asleep.
+
+I tried Euclid, and fared a little better with that. But having now to
+initiate my boys into the mysteries of equations, I soon found that
+although I could manage a very simple one, yet when I attempted one more
+complex--one in which something bordering upon imagination was necessary
+to find out the object for which to appoint the symbol to handle it
+by--the necessary power of concentration was itself a missing factor.
+
+But although my thoughts were thus beyond my control, my duties were not
+altogether irksome to me. I remembered that they kept me near her; and
+although I could not learn, I found that I could teach a little.
+
+Perhaps it is foolish to dwell upon an individual variety of an almost
+universal stage in the fever of life; but one exception to these
+indications of mental paralysis I think worth mentioning.
+
+I continued my work in the library, although it did not advance with the
+same steadiness as before. One day, in listless mood, I took up a
+volume, without knowing what it was, or what I sought. It opened at the
+_Amoretti_ of Edmund Spenser. I was on the point of closing it again,
+when a line caught my eye. I read the sonnet; read another; found I
+could understand them perfectly; and that hour the poetry of the
+sixteenth century, hitherto a sealed fountain, became an open well of
+refreshment, and the strength that comes from sympathy. What if its
+second-rate writers were full of conceits and vagaries, the feelings are
+very indifferent to the mere intellectual forms around which the same
+feelings in others have gathered, if only by their means they hint at,
+and sometimes express themselves. Now I understood this old fantastic
+verse, and knew that the foam-bells on the torrent of passionate feeling
+are iris-hued. And what was more--it proved an intellectual nexus
+between my love and my studies, or at least a bridge by which I could
+pass from the one to the other.
+
+That same day, I remember well, Mrs. Wilson told me that Lady Alice was
+much better. But as days passed, and still she did not make her
+appearance, my anxiety only changed its object, and I feared that it was
+from aversion to me that she did not join the family. But her name was
+never mentioned in my hearing by any of the other members of it; and her
+absence appeared to be to them a matter of no moment or interest.
+
+One night, as I sat in my room, I found, as usual, that it was
+impossible to read; and throwing the book aside, relapsed into that
+sphere of thought which now filled my soul, and had for its centre the
+Lady Alice. I recalled her form as she lay on the couch, and brooded
+over the remembrance till a longing to see her, almost unbearable, arose
+within me.
+
+"Would to heaven," I said to myself, "that will were power!"
+
+In this concurrence of idleness, distraction, and vehement desire, I
+found all at once, without any foregone resolution, that I was
+concentrating and intensifying within me, until it rose almost to a
+command, the operative volition that Lady Alice should come to me. In a
+moment more I trembled at the sense of a new power which sprang into
+conscious being within me. I had had no prevision of its existence, when
+I gave way to such extravagant and apparently helpless wishes. I now
+actually awaited the fulfilment of my desire; but in a condition
+ill-fitted to receive it, for the effort had already exhausted me to
+such a degree, that every nerve was in a conscious tremor. Nor had I
+long to wait.
+
+I heard no sound of approach: the closet-door folded back, and in
+glided, open-eyed, but sightless pale as death, and clad in white,
+ghostly-pure and saint-like, the Lady Alice. I shuddered from head to
+foot at what I had done. She was more terrible to me in that moment than
+any pale-eyed ghost could have been. For had I not exercised a kind of
+necromantic art, and roused without awaking the slumbering dead? She
+passed me, walking round the table at which I was seated, went to the
+couch, laid herself down with a maidenly care, turned a little on one
+side, with her face towards me, and gradually closed her eyes. In
+something deeper than sleep she lay, and yet not in death. I rose, and
+once more knelt beside her, but dared not touch her. In what far realms
+of life might the lovely soul be straying! What mysterious modes of
+being might now be the homely surroundings of her second life! Thoughts
+unutterable rose in me, culminated, and sank, like the stars of heaven,
+as I gazed on the present symbol of an absent life--a life that I loved
+by means of the symbol; a symbol that I loved because of the life. How
+long she lay thus, how long I gazed upon her thus, I do not know.
+Gradually, but without my being able to distinguish the gradations, her
+countenance altered to that of one who sleeps. But the change did not
+end there. A colour, faint as the blush in the centre of a white rose,
+tinged her lips, and deepened; then her cheek began to share in the hue,
+then her brow and her neck. The colour was that of the cloud which, the
+farthest from the sunset, yet acknowledges the rosy atmosphere. I
+watched, as it were, the dawn of a soul on the horizon of the visible.
+The first approaches of its far-off flight were manifest; and as I
+watched, I saw it come nearer and nearer, till its great, silent,
+speeding pinions were folded, and it looked forth, a calm, beautiful,
+infinite woman, from the face and form sleeping before me.
+
+I knew that she was awake, some moments before she opened her eyes. When
+at last those depths of darkness disclosed themselves, slowly uplifting
+their white cloudy portals, the same consternation she had formerly
+manifested, accompanied by yet greater anger, followed.
+
+"Yet again! Am I your slave, because I am weak?" She rose in the majesty
+of wrath, and moved towards the door.
+
+"Lady Alice, I have not touched you. I am to blame, but not as you
+think. Could I help longing to see you? And if the longing passed, ere I
+was aware, into a will that you should come, and you obeyed it, forgive
+me."
+
+I hid my face in my hands, overcome by conflicting emotions. A kind of
+stupor came over me. When I lifted my head, she was standing by the
+closet-door.
+
+"I have waited," she said, "to make a request of you."
+
+"Do not utter it, Lady Alice. I know what it is. I give you my word--my
+solemn promise, if you like--that I will never do it again." She thanked
+me, with a smile, and vanished.
+
+Much to my surprise, she appeared at dinner next day. No notice was
+taken of her, except by the younger of my pupils, who called out,--
+
+"Hallo, Alice! Are you down?"
+
+She smiled and nodded, but did not speak. Everything went on as usual.
+There was no change in her behaviour, except in one point. I ventured
+the experiment of paying her some ordinary enough attention. She thanked
+me, without a trace of the scornful expression I all but expected to see
+upon her beautiful face. But when I addressed her about the weather, or
+something equally interesting, she made no reply; and Lady Hilton gave
+me a stare, as much as to say, "Don't you know it's of no use to talk to
+her?" Alice saw the look, and colouring to the eyes, rose, and left the
+room. When she had gone, Lady Hilton said to me,--
+
+"Don't speak to her, Mr. Campbell--it distresses her. She is very
+peculiar, you know."
+
+She could not hide the scorn and dislike with which she spoke; and I
+could not help saying to myself, "What a different thing scorn looks on
+_your_ face, Lady Hilton!" for it made her positively and hatefully ugly
+for the moment--to my eyes, at least.
+
+After this, Alice sat down with us at all our meals, and seemed
+tolerably well. But, in some indescribable way, she was quite a
+different person from the Lady Alice who had twice awaked in my
+presence. To use a phrase common in describing one of weak
+intellect--she never seemed to be all there. There was something
+automatical in her movements; and a sort of frozen indifference was the
+prevailing expression of her countenance. When she smiled, a sweet light
+shone in her eyes, and she looked for the moment like the Lady Alice of
+my nightly dreams. But, altogether, the Lady Alice of the night, and the
+Lady Alice of the day, were two distinct persons. I believed that the
+former was the real one.
+
+What nights I had now, watching and striving lest unawares I should fall
+into the exercise of my new power! I allowed myself to think of her as
+much as I pleased in the daytime, or at least as much as I dared; for
+when occupied with my pupils, I dreaded lest any abstraction should even
+hint that I had a thought to conceal. I knew that I could not hurt her
+then; for that only in the night did she enter that state of existence
+in which my will could exercise authority over her. But at night--at
+night--when I knew she lay there, and might be lying here; when but a
+thought would bring her, and that thought was fluttering its wings,
+ready to spring awake out of the dreams of my heart--then the struggle
+was fearful. And what added force to the temptation was, that to call
+her to me in the night, seemed like calling the real immortal Alice
+forth from the tomb in which she wandered about all day. It was as
+painful to me to see her such in the day, as it was entracing to
+remember her such as I had seen her in the night. What matter if her
+true self came forth in anger against me? What was I? It was enough for
+my life, I said, to look on her, such as she really was. "Bring her yet
+once, and tell her all--tell her how madly, hopelessly you love her. She
+will forgive you at least," said a voice within me. But I heard it as
+the voice of the tempter, and kept down the thought which might have
+grown to the will.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+_A New Pupil_.
+
+One day, exactly three weeks after her last visit to my room, as I was
+sitting with my three pupils in the schoolroom, Lady Alice entered, and
+began to look on the bookshelves as if she wanted some volume. After a
+few moments, she turned, and, approaching the table, said to me, in an
+abrupt, yet hesitating way.
+
+"Mr. Campbell, I cannot spell. How am I to learn?"
+
+I thought for a moment, and replied: "Copy a passage every day, Lady
+Alice, from some favourite book. Then, if you allow me, I shall be most
+happy to point out any mistakes you may have made."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Campbell, I will; but I am afraid you will despise me,
+when you find how badly I spell."
+
+"There is no fear of that," I rejoined. "It is a mere peculiarity. So
+long as one can _think_ well, spelling is altogether secondary."
+
+"Thank you; I will try," she said, and left the room. Next day, she
+brought me an old ballad, written tolerably, but in a school-girl's
+hand. She had copied the antique spelling, letter for letter.
+
+"This is quite correct," I said; "but to copy such as this will not
+teach you properly; for it is very old, and consequently old-fashioned."
+
+"Is it old? Don't we spell like that now? You see I do not know anything
+about it. You must set me a task, then."
+
+This I undertook with more pleasure than I dared to show. Every day she
+brought me the appointed exercise, written with a steadily improving
+hand. To my surprise, I never found a single error in the spelling. Of
+course, when, advancing a step in the process, I made her write from my
+dictation, she did make blunders, but not so many as I had expected; and
+she seldom repeated one after correction.
+
+This new association gave me many opportunities of doing more for her
+than merely teaching her to spell. We talked about what she copied; and
+I had to explain. I also told her about the writers. Soon she expressed
+a desire to know something of figures. We commenced arithmetic. I
+proposed geometry along with it, and found the latter especially fitted
+to her powers. One by one we included several other necessary branches;
+and ere long I had four around the schoolroom table--equally my pupils.
+Whether the attempts previously made to instruct her had been
+insufficient or misdirected, or whether her intellectual powers had
+commenced a fresh growth, I could not tell; but I leaned to the latter
+conclusion, especially after I began to observe that her peculiar
+remarks had become modified in form, though without losing any of their
+originality. The unearthliness of her beauty likewise disappeared, a
+slight colour displacing the almost marbly whiteness of her cheek.
+
+Long before Lady Alice had made this progress, my nightly struggles
+began to diminish in violence. They had now entirely ceased. The
+temptation had left me. I felt certain that for weeks she had never
+walked in her sleep. She was beyond my power, and I was glad of it.
+
+I was, of course, most careful of my behaviour during all this period. I
+strove to pay Lady Alice no more attention than I paid to the rest of my
+pupils; and I cannot help thinking that I succeeded. But now and then,
+in the midst of some instruction I was giving Lady Alice, I caught the
+eye of Lady Lucy, a sharp, common-minded girl, fixed upon one or the
+other of us, with an inquisitive vulgar expression, which I did not
+like. This made me more careful still. I watched my tones, to keep them
+even, and free from any expression of the feeling of which my heart was
+full. Sometimes, however, I could not help revealing the gratification I
+felt when she made some marvellous remark--marvellous, I mean, in
+relation to her other attainments; such a remark as a child will
+sometimes make, showing that he has already mastered, through his
+earnest simplicity, some question that has for ages perplexed the wise
+and the prudent. On one of these occasions, I found the cat eyes of Lady
+Lucy glittering on me. I turned away; not, I fear, without showing some
+displeasure.
+
+Whether it was from Lady Lucy's evil report, or that the change in Lady
+Alice's habits and appearance had attracted the attention of Lady
+Hilton, I cannot tell; but one morning she appeared at the door of the
+study, and called her. Lady Alice rose and went, with a slight gesture
+of impatience. In a few minutes she returned, looking angry and
+determined, and resumed her seat. But whatever it was that had passed
+between them, it had destroyed that quiet flow of the feelings which was
+necessary to the working of her thoughts. In vain she tried: she could
+do nothing correctly. At last she burst into tears and left the room. I
+was almost beside myself with distress and apprehension. She did not
+return that day.
+
+Next morning she entered at the usual hour, looking composed, but paler
+than of late, and showing signs of recent weeping. When we were all
+seated, and had just commenced our work, I happened to look up, and
+caught her eyes intently fixed on me. They dropped instantly, but
+without any appearance of confusion. She went on with her arithmetic,
+and succeeded tolerably. But this respite was to be of short duration.
+Lady Hilton again entered, and called her. She rose angrily, and my
+quick ear caught the half-uttered words, "That woman will make an idiot
+of me again!" She did not return; and never from that hour resumed her
+place in the schoolroom.
+
+The time passed heavily. At dinner she looked proud and constrained; and
+spoke only in monosyllables.
+
+For two days I scarcely saw her. But the third day, as I was busy in the
+library alone, she entered.
+
+"Can I help you, Mr. Campbell?" she said.
+
+I glanced involuntarily towards the door.
+
+"Lady Hilton is not at home," she replied to my look, while a curl of
+indignation contended with a sweet tremor of shame for the possession of
+her lip.--"Let me help you."
+
+"You will help me best if you sing that ballad I heard you singing just
+before you came in. I never heard you sing before."
+
+"Didn't you? I don't think I ever did sing before."
+
+"Sing it again, will you, please?"
+
+"It is only two verses. My old Scotch nurse used to sing it when I was a
+little girl-oh, so long ago! I didn't know I could sing it."
+
+She began without more ado, standing in the middle of the room, with her
+back towards the door.
+
+  Annie was dowie, an' Willie was wae:
+  What can be the matter wi' siccan a twae?
+  For Annie was bonnie's the first o' the day,
+  And Willie was strang an' honest an' gay.
+
+  Oh! the tane had a daddy was poor an' was proud;
+  An' the tither a minnie that cared for the gowd.
+  They lo'ed are anither, an' said their say--
+  But the daddy an' minnie hae pairtit the twae.
+
+Just as she finished the song, I saw the sharp eyes of Lady Lucy peeping
+in at the door.
+
+"Lady Lucy is watching at the door, Lady Alice," I said.
+
+"I don't care," she answered; but turned with a flush on her face, and
+stepped noiselessly to the door.
+
+"There is no one there," she said, returning.
+
+"There was, though," I answered.
+
+"They want to drive me mad," she cried, and hurried from the room.
+
+The next day but one, she came again with the same request. But she had
+not been a minute in the library before Lady Hilton came to the door and
+called her in angry tones.
+
+"Presently," replied Alice, and remained where she was.
+
+"Do go, Lady Alice," I said. "They will send me away if you refuse."
+
+She blushed scarlet, and went without another word.
+
+She came no more to the library.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+_Confession_.
+
+Day followed day, the one the child of the other. Alice's old paleness
+and unearthly look began to reappear; and, strange to tell, my midnight
+temptation revived. After a time she ceased to dine with us again, and
+for days I never saw her. It was the old story of suffering with me,
+only more intense than before. The day was dreary, and the night stormy.
+"Call her," said my heart; but my conscience resisted.
+
+I was lying on the floor of my room one midnight, with my face to the
+ground, when suddenly I heard a low, sweet, strange voice singing
+somewhere. The moment I became aware that I heard it I felt as if I had
+been listening to it unconsciously for some minutes past. I lay still,
+either charmed to stillness, or fearful of breaking the spell. As I lay,
+I was lapt in the folds of a waking dream.
+
+I was in bed in a castle, on the seashore; the wind came from the sea in
+chill _eerie soughs_, and the waves fell with a threatful tone upon the
+beach, muttering many maledictions as they rushed up, and whispering
+cruel portents as they drew back, hissing and gurgling, through the
+million narrow ways of the pebbly ramparts; and I knew that a maiden in
+white was standing in the cold wind, by the angry sea, singing. I had a
+kind of dreamy belief in my dream; but, overpowered by the spell of the
+music, I still lay and listened. Keener and stronger, under the impulses
+of my will, grew the power of my hearing. At last I could distinguish
+the words. The ballad was _Annie of Lochroyan;_ and Lady Alice was
+singing it. The words I heard were these:--
+
+  Oh, gin I had a bonnie ship,
+  And men to sail wi' me,
+  It's I wad gang to my true love,
+  Sin' he winna come to me.
+
+  Lang stood she at her true love's door,
+  And lang tirled at the pin;
+  At length up gat his fause mother,
+  Says, "Wha's that wad be in?"
+
+         *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Love Gregory started frae his sleep,
+  And to his mother did say:
+  "I dreamed a dream this night, mither,
+  That maks my heart right wae.
+
+  "I dreamed that Annie of Lochroyan,
+  The flower of a' her kin,
+  Was standing mournin' at my door,
+  But nane wad let her in."
+
+I sprang to my feet, and opened the hidden door. There she stood, white,
+asleep, with closed eyes, singing like a bird, only with a heartful of
+sad meaning in every tone. I stepped aside, without speaking, and she
+passed me into the room. I closed the door, and followed her. She lay
+already upon the couch, still and restful--already covered with my
+plaid. I sat down beside her, waiting; and gazed upon her in wonderment.
+That she was possessed of very superior intellectual powers, whatever
+might be the cause of their having lain dormant so long, I had already
+fully convinced myself; but I was not prepared to find art as well as
+intellect. I had already heard her sing the little song of two verses,
+which she had learned from her nurse. But here was a song, of her own
+making as to the music, so true and so potent, that, before I knew
+anything of the words, it had surrounded me with a dream of the place in
+which the scene of the ballad was laid. It did not then occur to me
+that, perhaps, our idiosyncrasies were such as not to require even the
+music of the ballad for the production of _rapport_ between our minds,
+the brain of the one generating in the brain of the other the vision
+present to itself.
+
+I sat and thought:--Some obstruction in the gateways, outward, prevented
+her, in her waking hours, from uttering herself at all. This
+obstruction, damming back upon their sources the out-goings of life,
+threw her into this abnormal sleep. In it the impulse to utterance,
+still unsatisfied, so wrought within her unable, yet compliant form,
+that she could not rest, but rose and walked. And now, a fresh surge
+from the sea of her unknown being, unrepressed by the _hitherto_ of the
+objects of sense, had burst the gates and bars, swept the obstructions
+from its channel, and poured from her in melodious song.
+
+The first green lobes, at least, of these thoughts, appeared above the
+soil of my mind, while I sat and gazed on the sleeping girl. And now I
+had once more the delight of watching a spirit-dawn, a soul-rise, in
+that lovely form. The light flushing of its pallid sky was, as before,
+the first sign. I dreaded the flash of lovely flame, and the outburst of
+regnant anger, ere I should have time to say that I was not to blame.
+But when, at length, the full dawn, the slow sunrise came, it was with
+all the gentleness of a cloudy summer morn. Never did a more celestial
+rosy red hang about the skirts of the level sun, than deepened and
+glowed upon her face, when, opening her eyes, she saw me beside her. She
+covered her face with her hands; and instead of the words of indignant
+reproach which I dreaded to hear, she murmured behind the snowy screen:
+"I am glad you have broken your promise."
+
+My heart gave a bound and was still. I grew faint with delight. "No," I
+said; "I have not broken my promise, Lady Alice; I have struggled nearly
+to madness to keep it--and I have kept it."
+
+"I have come then of myself. Worse and worse! But it is their fault."
+
+Tears now found their way through the repressing fingers. I could not
+endure to see her weep. I knelt beside her, and, while she still covered
+her face with her hands, I said--I do not know what I said. They were
+wild, and, doubtless, foolish words in themselves, but they must have
+been wise and true in their meaning. When I ceased, I knew that I had
+ceased only by the great silence around me. I was still looking at her
+hands. Slowly she withdrew them. It was as when the sun breaks forth on
+a cloudy day. The winter was over and gone; the time of the singing of
+birds had come. She smiled on me through her tears, and heart met heart
+in the light of that smile.
+
+She rose to go at once, and I begged for no delay. I only stood with
+clasped hands, gazing at her. She turned at the door, and said;
+
+"I daresay I shall come again; I am afraid I cannot help it; only mind
+you do not wake me."
+
+Before I could reply, I was alone; and I felt that I must not follow
+her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+_Questioning_.
+
+I laid myself on the couch she had left, but not to sleep. A new pulse
+of life, stronger than I could bear, was throbbing within me. I dreaded
+a fever, lest I should talk in it, and drop the clue to my secret
+treasure. But the light of the morning stilled me, and a bath in
+ice-cold water made me strong again. Yet I felt all that day as if I
+were dying a delicious death, and going to a yet more exquisite life. As
+far as I might, however, I repressed all indications of my delight; and
+endeavoured, for the sake both of duty and of prudence, to be as
+attentive to my pupils and their studies as it was possible for man to
+be. This helped to keep me in my right mind. But, more than all my
+efforts at composure, the pain which, as far as my experience goes,
+invariably accompanies, and sometimes even usurps, the place of the
+pleasure which gave it birth, was efficacious in keeping me sane.
+
+Night came, but brought no Lady Alice. It was a week before I saw her
+again. Her heart had been stilled, and she was able to sleep aright.
+
+But seven nights after, she did come. I waited her awaking, possessed
+with one painful thought, which I longed to impart to her. She awoke
+with a smile, covered her face for a moment, but only for a moment, and
+then sat up. I stood before her; and the first words I spoke were:
+
+"Lady Alice, ought I not to go?"
+
+"No," she replied at once. "I can claim some compensation from them for
+the wrong they have been doing me. Do you know in what relation I stand
+to Lord and Lady Hilton? They are but my stepmother and her husband."
+
+"I know that."
+
+"Well, I have a fortune of my own, about which I never thought or
+cared--till--till--within the last few weeks. Lord Hilton is my
+guardian. Whether they made me the stupid creature I _was,_ I do not
+know; but I believe they have represented me as far worse than I was, to
+keep people from making my acquaintance. They prevented my going on with
+my lessons, because they saw I was getting to understand things, and
+grow like other people; and that would not suit their purposes. It would
+be false delicacy in you to leave me to them, when you can make up to me
+for their injustice. Their behaviour to me takes away any right they had
+over me, and frees you from any obligation, because I am yours.--Am I
+not?"
+
+Once more she covered her face with her hands. I could answer only by
+withdrawing one of them, which I _was_ now emboldened to keep in my own.
+
+I was very willingly persuaded to what was so much my own desire. But
+whether the reasoning was quite just or not, I am not yet sure. Perhaps
+it might be so for her, and yet not for me: I do not know; I am a poor
+casuist.
+
+She resumed, laying her other hand upon mine:--
+
+"It would be to tell the soul which you have called forth, to go back
+into its dark moaning cavern, and never more come out to the light of
+day."
+
+How could I resist this?
+
+A long pause ensued.
+
+"It is strange," she said, at length, "to feel, when I lie down at
+night, that I may awake in your presence, without knowing how. It is
+strange, too, that, although I should be utterly ashamed to come
+wittingly, I feel no confusion when I find myself here. When I feel
+myself coming awake, I lie for a little while with my eyes closed,
+wondering and hoping, and afraid to open them, lest I should find myself
+only in my own chamber; shrinking a little, too--just a little--from the
+first glance into your face."
+
+"But when you awake, do you know nothing of what has taken place in your
+sleep?"
+
+"Nothing whatever."
+
+"Have you no vague sensations, no haunting shadows, no dim ghostly
+moods, seeming to belong to that condition, left?"
+
+"None whatever."
+
+She rose, said "Good-night," and left me.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIV
+
+
+_Jealousy._
+
+Again seven days passed before she revisited me. Indeed, her visits had
+always an interval of seven days, or a multiple of seven, between.
+
+Since the last, a maddening jealousy had seized me. For, returning from
+those unknown regions into which her soul had wandered away, and where
+she had stayed for hours, did she not sometimes awake with a smile? How
+could I be sure that she did not lead two distinct existences?--that she
+had not some loving spirit, or man, who, like her, had for a time left
+the body behind--who was all in all to her in that region, and whom she
+forgot when she forsook it, as she forgot me when she entered it? It was
+a thought I could not brook. But I put aside its persistency as well as
+I could, till she should come again. For this I waited. I could not now
+endure the thought of compelling the attendance of her unconscious form;
+of making her body, like a living cage, transport to my presence the
+unresisting soul. I shrank from it as a true man would shrink from
+kissing the lips of a sleeping woman whom he loved, not knowing that she
+loved him in return.
+
+It may well be said that to follow such a doubt was to inquire too
+curiously; but once the thought had begun, and grown, and been born, how
+was I to slay the monster, and be free of its hated presence? Was its
+truth not a possibility?--Yet how could even she help me, for she knew
+nothing of the matter? How could she vouch for the unknown? What news
+can the serene face of the moon, ever the same to us, give of the hidden
+half of herself turned ever towards what seems to us but the blind
+abysmal darkness, which yet has its own light and its own life? All I
+could hope for was to see her, to tell her, to be comforted at least by
+her smile.
+
+My saving angel glided blind into my room, lay down upon her bier, and
+awaited the resurrection. I sat and awaited mine, panting to untwine
+from my heart the cold death-worm that twisted around it, yet picturing
+to myself the glow of love on the averted face of the beautiful
+spirit--averted from me, and bending on a radiant companion all the
+light withdrawn from the lovely form beside me. That light began to
+return. "She is coming, she is coming," I said within me. "Back from its
+glowing south travels the sun of my spring, the glory of my summer."
+Floating slowly up from the infinite depths of her being, came the
+conscious woman; up--up from the realms of stillness lying deeper than
+the plummet of self-knowledge can sound; up from the formless, up into
+the known, up into the material, up to the windows that look forth on
+the embodied mysteries around. Her eyelids rose. One look of love all
+but slew my fear. When I told her my grief, she answered with a smile of
+pity, yet half of disdain at the thought.
+
+"If ever I find it so, I will kill myself there, that I may go to my
+Hades with you. But if I am dreaming of another, how is it that I always
+rise in my vision and come to you? You will go crazy if you fancy such
+foolish things," she added, with a smile of reproof.
+
+The spectral thought vanished, and I was free.
+
+"Shall I tell you," she resumed, covering her face with her hands, "why
+I behaved so proudly to you, from the very first day you entered the
+house? It was because, when I passed you on the lawn, before ever you
+entered the house, I felt a strange, undefinable attraction towards you,
+which continued, although I could not account for it and would not yield
+to it. I was heartily annoyed at it. But you see it was of no use--here
+I am. That was what made me so fierce, too, when I first found myself in
+your room."
+
+It was indeed long before she came to my room again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+_The Chamber of Ghosts_.
+
+But now she returned once more into the usual routine of the family. I
+fear I was unable to repress all signs of agitation when, next day, she
+entered the dining-room, after we were seated, and took her customary
+place at the table. Her behaviour was much the same as before; but her
+face was very different. There was light in it now, and signs of mental
+movement. The smooth forehead would be occasionally wrinkled, and she
+would fall into moods which were evidently not of inanity, but of
+abstracted thought. She took especial care that our eyes should not
+meet. If by chance they did, instead of sinking hers, she kept them
+steady, and opened them wider, as if she was fixing them on nothing at
+all, or she raised them still higher, as if she was looking at something
+above me, before she allowed them to fall. But the change in her
+altogether was such that it must have attracted the notice and roused
+the speculation of Lady Hilton at least. For me, so well did she act her
+part, that I was thrown into perplexity by it. And when day after day
+passed, and the longing to speak to her grew, and remained unsatisfied,
+new doubts arose. Perhaps she was tired of me. Perhaps her new studies
+filled her mind with the clear, gladsome morning light of the pure
+intellect, which always throws doubt and distrust and a kind of negation
+upon the moonlight of passion, mysterious, and mingled ever with faint
+shadows of pain. I walked as in an unresting sleep. Utterly as I loved
+her, I was yet alarmed and distressed to find how entirely my being had
+grown dependent upon her love; how little of individual, self-existing,
+self-upholding life, I seemed to have left; how little I cared for
+anything, save as I could associate it with her.
+
+I was sitting late one night in my room. I had all but given up hope of
+her coming. I had, perhaps, deprived her of the somnambulic power. I was
+brooding over this possibility, when all at once I felt as if I were
+looking into the haunted room. It seemed to be lighted by the moon,
+shining through the stained windows. The feeling came and went suddenly,
+as such visions of places generally do; but this had an indescribable
+something about it more clear and real than such resurrections of the
+past, whether willed or unwilled, commonly possess; and a great longing
+seized me to look into the room once more. I rose with a sense of
+yielding to the irresistible, left the room, groped my way through the
+hall and up the oak staircase--I had never thought of taking a light
+with me--and entered the corridor. No sooner had I entered it, than the
+thought sprang up in my mind--"What if she should be there!" My heart
+stood still for a moment, like a wounded deer, and then bounded on, with
+a pang in every bound. The corridor was night itself, with a dim,
+bluish-grey light from the windows, sufficing to mark their own spaces.
+I stole through it, and, without erring once, went straight to the
+haunted chamber. The door stood half open. I entered, and was bewildered
+by the dim, mysterious, dreamy loveliness upon which I gazed. The moon
+shone full upon the windows, and a thousand coloured lights and shadows
+crossed and intertwined upon the walls and floor, all so soft, and
+mingling, and undefined, that the brain was filled as with a flickering
+dance of ghostly rainbows. But I had little time to think of these; for
+out of the only dark corner in the room came a white figure, flitting
+across the chaos of lights, bedewed, besprinkled, bespattered, as she
+passed, with their multitudinous colours. I was speechless, motionless,
+with something far beyond joy. With a low moan of delight, Lady Alice
+sank into my arms. Then, looking up, with a light laugh--"The scales are
+turned, dear," she said. "You are in my power now; I brought you here. I
+thought I could, and I tried, for I wanted so much to see you--and you
+are come." She led me across the room to the place where she had been
+seated, and we sat side by side.
+
+"I thought you had forgotten me," I said, "or had grown tired of me."
+
+"Did you? That was unkind. You have made my heart so still, that, body
+and soul, I sleep at night."
+
+"Then shall I never see you more?"
+
+"We can meet here. This is the best place. No one dares come near the
+haunted room at night. We might even venture in the evening. Look, now,
+from where we are sitting, across the air, between the windows and the
+shadows on the floor. Do you see nothing moving?"
+
+I looked, but could see nothing. She resumed:--
+
+"I almost fancy, sometimes, that what old stories say about this room
+may be true. I could fancy now that I see dim transparent forms in
+ancient armour, and in strange antique dresses, men and women, moving
+about, meeting, speaking, embracing, parting, coming and going. But I
+was never afraid of such beings. I am sure these would not, could not
+hurt us."
+
+If the room was not really what it was well fitted to be--a rendezvous
+for the ghosts of the past--then either my imagination, becoming more
+active as she spoke, began to operate upon my brain, or her fancies were
+mysteriously communicated to me; for I was persuaded that I saw such dim
+undefined forms as she described, of a substance only denser than the
+moonlight, flitting, and floating about, between the windows and the
+illuminated floor. Could they have been coloured shadows thrown from the
+stained glass upon the fine dust with which the slightest motion in such
+an old and neglected room must fill its atmosphere? I did not think of
+that then, however.
+
+"I could persuade myself that I, too, see them," I replied. "I cannot
+say that I am afraid of such beings any more than you--if only they will
+not speak."
+
+"Ah!" she replied, with a lengthened, meaning utterance, expressing
+sympathy with what I said; "I know what you mean. I, too, am afraid of
+hearing things. And that reminds me, I have never yet asked you about
+the galloping horse. I too hear sometimes the sound of a loose
+horse-shoe. It always betokens some evil to me; but I do not know what
+it means. Do you?"
+
+"Do you know," I rejoined, "that there is a connection between your
+family and mine, somewhere far back in their histories?"
+
+"No! Is there? How glad I am! Then perhaps you and I are related, and
+that is how we are so much alike, and have power over each other, and
+hear the same things."
+
+"Yes. I suppose that is how."
+
+"But can you account for that sound which we both hear?"
+
+"I will tell you what my old foster-mother told me," I replied. And I
+began by narrating when and where I had first heard the sound; and then
+gave her, as nearly as I could, the legend which nurse had recounted to
+me. I did not tell her its association with the events of my birth, for
+I feared exciting her imagination too much. She listened to it very
+quietly, however, and when I came to a close, only said:
+
+"Of course, we cannot tell how much of it is true, but there may be
+something in it. I have never heard anything of the sort, and I, too,
+have an old nurse. She is with me still. You shall see her some day."
+
+She rose to go.
+
+"Will you meet me here again soon?" I said.
+
+"As soon as you wish," she answered.
+
+"Then to-morrow, at midnight?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+And we parted at the door of the haunted chamber. I watched the
+flickering with which her whiteness just set the darkness in motion, and
+nothing more, seeming to see it long after I knew she must have turned
+aside and descended the steps leading towards her own room. Then I
+turned and groped my way back to mine.
+
+We often met after this in the haunted room. Indeed my spirit haunted it
+all day and all night long. And when we met amid the shadows, we were
+wrapped in the mantle of love, and from its folds looked out fearless on
+the ghostly world about us. Ghosts or none, they never annoyed us. Our
+love was a talisman, yea, an elixir of life, which made us equal to the
+twice-born,--the disembodied dead. And they were as a wall of fear about
+us, to keep far off the unfriendly foot and the prying eye.
+
+In the griefs that followed, I often thought with myself that I would
+gladly die for a thousand years, might I then awake for one night in the
+haunted chamber, a ghost, among the ghosts who crowded its stained
+moonbeams, and see my dead Alice smiling across the glimmering rays, and
+beckoning me to the old nook, she, too, having come awake out of the
+sleep of death, in the dream of the haunted chamber. "Might we but sit
+there," I said, "through the night, as of old, and love and comfort each
+other, till the moon go down, and the pale dawn, which is the night of
+the ghosts, begin to arise, then gladly would I go to sleep for another
+thousand years, in the hope that when I next became conscious of life,
+it might be in another such ghostly night, in the chamber of the
+ghosts."
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XVI
+
+
+_The Clanking Shoe_.
+
+Time passed. We began to feel very secure in that room, watched as it
+was by the sleepless sentry, Fear. One night I ventured to take a light
+with me.
+
+"How nice to have a candle!" she said as I entered. "I hope they are all
+in bed, though. It will drive some of them into fits if they see the
+light."
+
+"I wanted to show you something I found in the library to-day."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+I opened a book, and showed her a paper inside it, with some verses
+written on it.
+
+"Whose writing is that?" I asked.
+
+"Yours, of course. As if I did not know your writing!"
+
+"Will you look at the date?"
+
+"_Seventeen hundred and ninety-three.'_ You are making game of me,
+Duncan. But the paper does look yellow and old."
+
+"I found it as you see it, in that book. It belonged to Lord Hilton's
+brother. The verses are a translation of part of the poem beside which
+they lie--one by Von Salis, who died shortly before that date at the
+bottom. I will read them to you, and then show you something else that
+is strange about them. The poem is called _Psyche's Sorrow._ Psyche
+means the soul, Alice."
+
+"I remember. You told me about her before, you know."
+
+  "Psyche's sighing all her prison darkens;
+  She is moaning for the far-off stars;
+  Fearing, hoping, every sound she hearkens--
+  Fate may now be breaking at her bars.
+
+  Bound, fast bound, are Psyche's airy pinions:
+  High her heart, her mourning soft and low--
+  Knowing that in sultry pain's dominions
+  Grow the palms that crown the victor's brow;
+
+  That the empty hand the wreath encloses;
+  Earth's cold winds but make the spirit brave;
+  Knowing that the briars bear the roses,
+  Golden flowers the waste deserted grave.
+
+  In the cypress-shade her myrtle groweth;
+  Much she loves, because she much hath borne;
+  Love-led, through the darksome way she goeth--
+  On to meet him in the breaking morn.
+
+  She can bear--"
+
+"Here the translation ceases, you see; and then follows the date, with
+the words in German underneath it--'How weary I am!' Now what is
+strange, Alice, is, that this date is the very month and year in which I
+was born."
+
+She did not reply to this with anything beyond a mere assent. Her mind
+was fixed on the poem itself. She began to talk about it, and I was
+surprised to find how thoroughly she entered into it and understood it.
+She seemed to have crowded the growth of a lifetime into the last few
+months. At length I told her how unhappy I had felt for some time, at
+remaining in Lord Hilton's house, as matters now were.
+
+"Then you must go," she said, quite quietly.
+
+This troubled me.
+
+"You do not mind it?"
+
+"No. I shall be very glad."
+
+"Will you go with me?" I asked, perplexed.
+
+"Of course I will."
+
+I did not know what to say to this, for I had no money, and of course I
+should have none of my salary. She divined at once the cause of my
+hesitation.
+
+"I have a diamond bracelet in my room," she said, with a smile, "and a
+few guineas besides."
+
+"How shall we get away?"
+
+"Nothing is easier. My old nurse, whom I mentioned to you before, lives
+at the lodge gate."
+
+"Oh! I know her very well," I interrupted. "But she's not Scotch?"
+
+"Indeed she is. But she has been with our family almost all her life. I
+often go to see her, and sometimes stay all night with her. You can get
+a carriage ready in the village, and neither of us will be missed before
+morning."
+
+I looked at her in renewed surprise at the decision of her invention.
+She covered her face, as she seldom did now, but went on:
+
+"We can go to London, where you will easily find something to do. Men
+always can there. And when I come of age--"
+
+"Alice, how old are you?" I interrupted.
+
+"Nineteen," she answered. "By the way," she resumed, "when I think of
+it--how odd!--that"--pointing to the date on the paper--"is the very
+month in which I too was born."
+
+I was too much surprised to interrupt her, and she continued:
+
+"I never think of my age without recalling one thing about my birth,
+which nurse often refers to. She was going up the stair to my mother's
+room, when she happened to notice a bright star, not far from the new
+moon. As she crossed the room with me in her arms, just after I was
+born, she saw the same star almost on the tip of the opposite horn. My
+mother died a week after. Who knows how different I might have been if
+she had lived!"
+
+It was long before I spoke. The awful and mysterious thoughts roused in
+my mind by the revelations of the day held me silent. At length I said,
+half thinking aloud:
+
+"Then you and I, Alice, were born the same hour, and our mothers died
+together."
+
+Receiving no answer, I looked at her. She was fast asleep, and breathing
+gentle, full breaths. She had been sitting for some time with her head
+lying on my shoulder and my arm around her. I could not bear to wake
+her.
+
+We had been in this position perhaps for half an hour, when suddenly a
+cold shiver ran through me, and all at once I became aware of the
+far-off gallop of a horse. It drew nearer. On and on it came--nearer and
+nearer. Then came the clank of the broken shoe!
+
+At the same moment, Alice started from her sleep and, springing to her
+feet, stood an instant listening. Then crying out, in an agonised
+whisper,--"The horse with the clanking shoe!" she flung her arms around
+me. Her face was white as the spectral moon which, the moment I put the
+candle out, looked in through a clear pane beside us; and she gazed
+fearfully, yet wildly-defiant, towards the door. We clung to each other.
+We heard the sound come nearer and nearer, till it thundered right up to
+the very door of the room, terribly loud. It ceased. But the door was
+flung open, and Lord Hilton entered, followed by servants with lights.
+
+I have but a very confused remembrance of what followed. I heard a vile
+word from the lips of Lord Hilton; I felt my fingers on his throat; I
+received a blow on the head; and I seem to remember a cry of agony from
+Alice as I fell. What happened next I do not know.
+
+When I came to myself, I was lying on a wide moor, with the night wind
+blowing about me. I presume that I had wandered thither in a state of
+unconsciousness, after being turned out of the Hall, and that I had at
+last fainted from loss of blood. I was unable to move for a long time.
+At length the morning broke, and I found myself not far from the Hall. I
+crept back, a mile or two, to the gates, and having succeeded in rousing
+Alice's old nurse, was taken in with many lamentations, and put to bed
+in the lodge. I had a violent fever; and it was all the poor woman could
+do to keep my presence a secret from the family at the Hall.
+
+When I began to mend, my first question was about Alice. I learned,
+though with some difficulty--for my kind attendant was evidently
+unwilling to tell me all the truth--that Alice, too, had been very ill;
+and that, a week before, they had removed her. But she either would not
+or could not tell me where they had taken her. I believe she could not.
+Nor do I know for certain to this day.
+
+Mrs. Blakesley offered me the loan of some of her savings to get me to
+London. I received it with gratitude, and as soon as I was fit to
+travel, made my way thither. Afraid for my reason, if I had no
+employment to keep my thoughts from brooding on my helplessness, and so
+increasing my despair, and determined likewise that my failure should
+not make me burdensome to any one else, I enlisted in the Scotch Greys,
+before letting any of my friends know where I was. Through the help of
+one already mentioned in my story, I soon obtained a commission. From
+the field of Waterloo, I rode into Brussels with a broken arm and a
+sabre-cut in the head.
+
+As we passed along one of the streets, through all the clang of
+iron-shod hoofs on the stones around me, I heard the ominous clank. At
+the same moment, I heard a cry. It was the voice of my Alice. I looked
+up. At a barred window I saw her face; but it was terribly changed. I
+dropped from my horse. As soon as I was able to move from the hospital,
+I went to the place, and found it was a lunatic asylum. I was permitted
+to see the inmates, but discovered no one resembling her. I do not now
+believe that she was ever there. But I may be wrong. Nor will I trouble
+my reader with the theories on which I sought to account for the vision.
+They will occur to himself readily enough.
+
+For years and years I know not whether she was alive or dead. I sought
+her far and near. I wandered over England, France, and Germany,
+hopelessly searching; listening at _tables-d'hote_; lurking about
+mad-houses; haunting theatres and churches; often, in wild regions,
+begging my way from house to house; I did not find her.
+
+Once I visited Hilton Hall. I found it all but deserted. I learned that
+Mrs. Wilson was dead, and that there were only two or three servants in
+the place. I managed to get into the house unseen, and made my way to
+the haunted chamber. My feelings were not so keen as I had anticipated,
+for they had been dulled by long suffering. But again I saw the moon
+shine through those windows of stained glass. Again her beams were
+crowded with ghosts. She was not amongst them. "My lost love!" I cried;
+and then, rebuking myself, "No; she is not lost. They say that Time and
+Space exist not, save in our thoughts. If so, then that which has been,
+is, and the Past can never cease. She is mine, and I shall find
+her--what matters it where, or when, or how? Till then, my soul is but a
+moon-lighted chamber of ghosts; and I sit within, the dreariest of them
+all. When she enters, it will be a home of love. And I wait--I wait."
+
+I sat and brooded over the Past, till I fell asleep in the
+phantom-peopled night. And all the night long they were about me--the
+men and women of the long past. And I was one of them. I wandered in my
+dreams over the whole house, habited in a long old-fashioned gown,
+searching for one who was Alice, and yet would be some one else. From
+room to room I wandered till weary, and could not find her. At last, I
+gave up the search, and, retreating to the library, shut myself in.
+There, taking down from the shelf the volume of Von Salis, I tried hard
+to go on with the translation of _Pysche's Sorrow_, from the point where
+the student had left it, thinking it, all the time, my own unfinished
+work.
+
+When I woke in the morning, the chamber of ghosts, in which I had fallen
+asleep, had vanished. The sun shone in through the windows of the
+library; and on its dusty table lay Von Salis, open at _Pysche's
+Trauer_. The sheet of paper with the translation on it, was not there. I
+hastened to leave the house, and effected my escape before the servants
+were astir.
+
+Sometimes I condensed my whole being into a single intensity of
+will--that she should come to me; and sustained it, until I fainted with
+the effort. She did not come. I desisted altogether at last, for I
+bethought me that, whether dead or alive, it must cause her torture not
+to be able to obey it.
+
+Sometimes I questioned my own sanity. But the thought of the loss of my
+reason did not in itself trouble me much. What tortured me almost to the
+madness it supposed was the possible fact, which a return to my right
+mind might reveal--that there never had been a Lady Alice. What if I
+died, and awoke from my madness, and found a clear blue air of life, a
+joyous world of sunshine, a divine wealth of delight around and in
+me--but no Lady Alice--she having vanished with all the other phantoms
+of a sick brain! "Rather let me be mad still," I said, "if mad I am; and
+so dream on that I have been blessed. Were I to wake to such a heaven, I
+would pray God to let me go and live the life I had but dreamed, with
+all its sorrows, and all its despair, and all its madness, that when I
+died again, I might know that such things had been, and could never be
+awaked from, and left behind with the dream." But I was not mad, any
+more than Hamlet; though, like him, despair sometimes led me far along
+the way at the end of which madness lies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+_The Physician._
+
+I was now Captain Campbell, of the Scotch Greys, contriving to live on
+my half pay, and thinking far more about the past than the present or
+the future. My father was dead. My only brother was also gone, and the
+property had passed into other hands. I had no fixed place of abode, but
+went from one spot to another, as the whim seized me--sometimes
+remaining months, sometimes removing next day, but generally choosing
+retired villages about which I knew nothing.
+
+I had spent a week in a small town on the borders of Wales, and intended
+remaining a fortnight longer, when I was suddenly seized with a violent
+illness, in which I lay insensible for three weeks. When I recovered
+consciousness, I found that my head had been shaved, and that the
+cicatrice of my old wound was occasionally very painful. Of late I have
+suspected that I had some operation performed upon my skull during my
+illness; but Dr. Ruthwell never dropped a hint to that effect. This was
+the friend whom, when first I opened my seeing eyes, I beheld sitting by
+my bedside, watching the effect of his last prescription. He was one of
+the few in the profession, whose love of science and love of their
+fellows combined, would be enough to chain them to the art of healing,
+irrespective of its emoluments. He was one of the few, also, who see the
+marvellous in all science, and, therefore, reject nothing merely because
+the marvellous may seem to predominate in it. Yet neither would he
+accept anything of the sort as fact, without the strictest use of every
+experiment within his power, even then remaining often in doubt. This
+man conferred honour by his friendship; and I am happy to think that
+before many days of recovery had passed, we were friends indeed. But I
+lay for months under his care before I was able to leave my bed.
+
+He attributed my illness to the consequences of the sabre-cut, and my
+recovery to the potency of the drugs he had exhibited. I attributed my
+illness in great measure to the constant contemplation of my early
+history, no longer checked by any regular employment; and my recovery in
+equal measure to the power of his kindness and sympathy, helping from
+within what could never have been reached from without.
+
+He told me that he had often been greatly perplexed with my symptoms,
+which would suddenly change in the most unaccountable manner, exhibiting
+phases which did not, as far as his knowledge went, belong to any
+variety of the suffering which gave the prevailing character to my
+ailment; and after I had so far recovered as to render it safe to turn
+my regard more particularly upon my own case, he said to me one day,
+
+"You would laugh at me, Campbell, were I to confess some of the bother
+this illness of yours has occasioned me; enough, indeed, to overthrow
+any conceit I ever had in my own diagnosis."
+
+"Go on," I answered; "I promise not to laugh."
+
+He little knew how far I should be from laughing. "In your case," he
+continued, "the _pathognomonic,_ if you will excuse medical slang, was
+every now and then broken by the intrusion of altogether foreign
+symptoms."
+
+I listened with breathless attention.
+
+"Indeed, on several occasions, when, after meditating on your case till
+I was worn out, I had fallen half asleep by your bedside, I came to
+myself with the strangest conviction that I was watching by the bedside
+of a woman."
+
+"Thank Heaven!" I exclaimed, starting up, "She lives still."
+
+I need not describe the doctor's look of amazement, almost
+consternation; for he thought a fresh access of fever was upon me, and I
+had already begun to rave. For his reassurance, however, I promised to
+account fully for my apparently senseless excitement; and that evening I
+commenced the narrative which forms the preceeding part of this story.
+Long before I reached its close, my exultation had vanished, and, as I
+wrote it for him, it ended with the expressed conviction that she must
+be dead. Ere long, however, the hope once more revived. While, however,
+the narrative was in progress, I gave him a summary, which amounted to
+this:--
+
+I had loved a lady--loved her still. I did not know where she was, and
+had reason to fear that her mind had given way under the suffering of
+our separation. Between us there existed, as well, the bond of a distant
+blood relationship; so distant, that but for its probable share in the
+production of another relationship of a very marvellous nature, it would
+scarcely have been worth alluding to. This was a kind of psychological
+attraction, which, when justified and strengthened by the spiritual
+energies of love, rendered the immediate communication of certain
+feelings, both mental and bodily, so rapid, that almost the
+consciousness of the one existed for the time in the mental
+circumstances of the other. Nay, so complete at times was the
+communication, that I even doubted her testimony as to some strange
+correspondence in our past history on this very ground, suspecting that,
+my memory being open to her retrospection, she saw my story, and took it
+for her own. It was, therefore, easy for me to account for Dr.
+Ruthwell's scientific bewilderment at the symptoms I manifested.
+
+As my health revived, my hope and longing increased. But although I
+loved Lady Alice with more entireness than even during the latest period
+of our intercourse, a certain calm endurance had supervened, which
+rendered the relief of fierce action no longer necessary to the
+continuance of a sane existence. It was as if the concentrated orb of
+love had diffused itself in a genial warmth through the whole orb of
+life, imparting fresh vitality to many roots which had remained leafless
+in my being. For years the field of battle was the only field that had
+borne the flower of delight; now nature began to live again for me.
+
+One day, the first on which I ventured to walk into the fields alone, I
+was delighted with the multitude of the daisies peeping from the grass
+everywhere--the first attempts of the earth, become conscious of
+blindness, to open eyes, and see what was about and above her.
+Everything is wonderful after the resurrection from illness. It is a
+resurrection of all nature. But somehow or other I was not satisfied
+with the daisies. They did not seem to me so lovely as the daisies I
+used to see when I was a child. I thought with myself, "This is the
+cloud that gathers with life, the dimness that passion and suffering
+cast over the eyes of the mind." That moment my gaze fell upon a single,
+solitary, red-tipped daisy. My reasoning vanished, and my melancholy
+with it, slain by the red tips of the lonely beauty. This was the kind
+of daisy I had loved as a child; and with the sight of it, a whole field
+of them rushed back into my mind; a field of my father's where,
+throughout the multitude, you could not have found a white one. My
+father was dead; the fields had passed into other hands; but perhaps the
+red-tipped _gowans_ were left. I must go and see. At all events, the
+hill that overlooked the field would still be there, and no change would
+have passed upon _it._ It would receive me with the same familiar look
+as of old, still fronting the great mountain from whose sides I had
+first heard the sound of that clanking horseshoe, which, whatever might
+be said to account for it, had certainly had a fearful connection with
+my joys and sorrows both. Did the ghostly rider still haunt the place?
+or, if he did, should I hear again that sound of coming woe? Whether or
+not, I defied him. I would not be turned from my desire to see the old
+place by any fear of a ghostly marauder, whom I should be only too glad
+to encounter, if there were the smallest chance of coming off with the
+victory.
+
+As soon as my friend would permit me, I set out for Scotland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+_Old Friends._
+
+I made the journey by easy stages, chiefly on the back of a favourite
+black horse, which had carried me well in several fights, and had come
+out of them scarred, like his master, but sound in wind and limb. It was
+night when I reached the village lying nearest to my birth place.
+
+When I woke in the morning, I found the whole region filled with a white
+mist, hiding the mountains around. Now and then a peak looked through,
+and again retired into the cloudy folds. In the wide, straggling street,
+below the window at which I had made them place my breakfast-table, a
+periodical fair was being held; and I sat looking down on the gathering
+crowd, trying to discover some face known to my childhood, and still to
+be recognized through the veil which years must have woven across the
+features. When I had finished my breakfast, I went down and wandered
+about among the people. Groups of elderly men were talking earnestly;
+and young men and maidens who had come to be _fee'd_, were joking and
+laughing. They stared at the Sassenach gentleman, and, little thinking
+that he understood every word they uttered, made their remarks upon him
+in no very subdued tones. I approached a stall where a brown old woman
+was selling gingerbread and apples. She was talking to a man with long,
+white locks. Near them was a group of young people. One of them must
+have said something about me; for the old woman, who had been taking
+stolen glances at me, turned rather sharply towards them, and rebuked
+them for rudeness.
+
+"The gentleman is no Sassenach," she said. "He understands everything
+you are saying."
+
+This was spoken in Gaelic, of course. I turned and looked at her with
+more observance. She made me a courtesy, and said, in the same language:
+
+"Your honour will be a Campbell, I'm thinking."
+
+"I am a Campbell," I answered, and waited.
+
+"Your honour's Christian name wouldn't be Duncan, sir?"
+
+"It is Duncan," I answered; "but there are many Duncan Campbells."
+
+"Only one to me, your honour; and that's yourself. But you will not
+remember me?"
+
+I did not remember her. Before long, however, urged by her anxiety to
+associate her Present with my Past, she enabled me to recall in her
+time-worn features those of a servant in my father's house when I was a
+child.
+
+"But how could you recollect me?" I said.
+
+"I have often seen you since I left your father's, sir. But it was
+really, I believe, that I hear more about you than anything else, every
+day of my life."
+
+"I do not understand you."
+
+"From old Margaret, I mean."
+
+"Dear old Margaret! Is she alive?"
+
+"Alive and hearty, though quite bedridden. Why, sir, she must be within
+near sight of a hundred."
+
+"Where does she live?"
+
+"In the old cottage, sir. Nothing will make her leave it. The new laird
+wanted to turn her out; but Margaret muttered something at which he grew
+as white as his shirt, and he has never ventured across her threshold
+again."
+
+"How do you see so much of her, though?"
+
+"I never leave her, sir. She can't wait on herself, poor old lady. And
+she's like a mother to me. Bless her! But your honour will come and see
+her?"
+
+"Of course I will. Tell her so when you go home."
+
+"Will you honour me by sleeping at my house, sir?" said the old man to
+whom she had been talking. "My farm is just over the brow of the hill,
+you know."
+
+I had by this time recognised him, and I accepted his offer at once.
+
+"When may we look for you, sir?" he asked.
+
+"When shall you be home?" I rejoined.
+
+"This afternoon, sir. I have done my business already."
+
+"Then I shall be with you in the evening, for I have nothing to keep me
+here."
+
+"Will you take a seat in my gig?"
+
+"No, thank you. I have my own horse with me. You can take him in too, I
+dare say?"
+
+"With pleasure, sir."
+
+We parted for the meantime. I rambled about the neighbourhood till it
+was time for an early dinner.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter XIX
+
+
+_Old Constancy._
+
+The fog cleared off; and, as the hills began to throw long, lazy
+shadows, their only embraces across the wide valleys, I mounted and set
+out on the ride of a few miles which should bring me to my old
+acquaintance's dwelling.
+
+I lingered on the way. All the old places demanded my notice. They
+seemed to say, "Here we are--waiting for you." Many a tuft of harebells
+drew me towards the roadside, to look at them and their children, the
+blue butterflies, hovering over them; and I stopped to gaze at many a
+wild rosebush, with a sunset of its own roses. The sun had set to me,
+before I had completed half the distance. But there was a long twilight,
+and I knew the road well.
+
+My horse was an excellent walker, and I let him walk on, with the reins
+on his neck; while I, lost in a dream of the past, was singing a song of
+my own making, with which I often comforted my longing by giving it
+voice.
+
+  The autumn winds are sighing
+  Over land and sea;
+  The autumn woods are dying
+  Over hill and lea;
+  And my heart is sighing, dying,
+  Maiden, for thee.
+
+  The autumn clouds are flying
+  Homeless over me;
+  The homeless birds are crying
+  In the naked tree;
+  And my heart is flying, crying,
+  Maiden, to thee.
+
+  My cries may turn to gladness,
+  And my flying flee;
+  My sighs may lose the sadness,
+  Yet sigh on in me;
+  All my sadness, all my gladness,
+  Maiden, lost in thee.
+
+I was roused by a heavy drop of rain upon my face. I looked up. A cool
+wave of wind flowed against me. Clouds had gathered; and over the peak
+of a hill to the left, the sky was very black. Old Constancy threw his
+head up, as if he wanted me to take the reins, and let him step out. I
+remembered that there used to be an awkward piece of road somewhere not
+far in front, where the path, with a bank on the left side, sloped to a
+deep descent on the right. If the road was as bad there as it used to
+be, it would be better to pass it before it grew quite dark. So I took
+the reins, and away went old Constancy. We had just reached the spot,
+when a keen flash of lightning broke from the cloud overhead, and my
+horse instantly stood stock-still, as if paralysed, with his nostrils
+turned up towards the peak of the mountain. I sat as still as he, to
+give him time to recover himself. But all at once, his whole frame was
+convulsed, as if by an agony of terror. He gave a great plunge, and then
+I felt his muscles swelling and knotting under me, as he rose on his
+hind legs, and went backwards, with the scaur behind him. I leaned
+forward on his neck to bring him down, but he reared higher and higher,
+till he stood bolt upright, and it was time to slip off, lest he should
+fall upon me. I did so; but my foot alighted upon no support. He had
+backed to the edge of the shelving ground, and I fell, and went to the
+bottom. The last thing I was aware of, was the thundering fall of my
+horse beside me.
+
+When I came to myself, it was dark. I felt stupid and aching all over;
+but I soon satisfied myself that no bones were broken. A mass of
+something lay near me. It was poor Constancy. I crawled to him, laid my
+hand on his neck, and called him by his name. But he made no answer in
+that gentle, joyful speech--for it was speech in old Constancy--with
+which he always greeted me, if only after an hour's absence. I felt for
+his heart. There was just a flutter there. He tried to lift his head,
+and gave a little kick with one of his hind legs. In doing so, he struck
+a bit of rock, and the clank of the iron made my flesh creep. I got hold
+of his leg in the dark, and felt the shoe. _It was loose_. I felt his
+heart again. The motion had ceased. I needed all my manhood to keep from
+crying like a child; for my charger was my friend. How long I lay beside
+him, I do not know; but, at length, I heard the sound of wheels coming
+along the road. I tried to shout, and, in some measure, succeeded; for a
+voice, which I recognised as that of my farmer-friend, answered
+cheerily. He was shocked to discover that his expected guest was in such
+evil plight. It was still dark, for the rain was falling heavily; but,
+with his directions, I was soon able to take my seat beside him in the
+gig. He had been unexpectedly detained, and was now hastening home with
+the hope of being yet in time to welcome me.
+
+Next morning, after the luxurious rest of a heather-bed, I found myself
+not much the worse for my adventure, but heart-sore for the loss of my
+horse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+_Margaret_.
+
+Early in the forenoon, I came in sight of the cottage of Margaret. It
+lay unchanged, a grey, stone-fashioned hut, in the hollow of the
+mountain-basin. I scrambled down the soft green brae, and soon stood
+within the door of the cottage. There I was met and welcomed by
+Margaret's attendant. She led me to the bed where my old nurse lay. Her
+eyes were yet undimmed by years, and little change had passed upon her
+countenance since I parted with her on that memorable night. The moment
+she saw me, she broke out into a passionate lamentation such as a mother
+might utter over the maimed strength and disfigured beauty of her child.
+
+"What ill has he done--my bairn--to be all night the sport of the powers
+of the air and the wicked of the earth? But the day will dawn for my
+Duncan yet, and a lovely day it will be!"
+
+Then looking at me anxiously, she said,
+
+"You're not much the worse for last night, my bairn. But woe's me! His
+grand horse, that carried him so, that I blessed the beast in my
+prayers!"
+
+I knew that no one could have yet brought her the news of my accident.
+
+"You saw me fall, then, nurse?" I said.
+
+"That I did," she answered. "I see you oftener than you think. But there
+was a time when I could hardly see you at all, and I thought you were
+dead, my Duncan."
+
+I stooped to kiss her. She laid the one hand that had still the power of
+motion upon my head, and dividing the hair, which had begun to be mixed
+with grey, said: "Eh! The bonny grey hairs! My Duncan's a man in spite
+of them!"
+
+She searched until she found the scar of the sabre-cut.
+
+"Just where I thought to find it!" she said. "That was a terrible day;
+worse for me than for you, Duncan."
+
+"You saw me _then!_" I exclaimed.
+
+"Little do folks know," she answered, "who think I'm lying here like a
+live corpse in its coffin, what liberty my soul--and that's just
+me--enjoys. Little do they know what I see and hear. And there's no
+witchcraft or evil-doing in it, my boy; but just what the Almighty made
+me. Janet, here, declares she heard the cry that I made, when this same
+cut, that's no so well healed yet, broke out in your bonny head. I saw
+no sword, only the bursting of the blood from the wound. But sit down,
+my bairn, and have something to eat after your walk. We'll have time
+enough for speech."
+
+Janet had laid out the table with fare of the old homely sort, and I was
+a boy once more as I ate the well-known food. Every now and then I
+glanced towards the old face. Soon I saw that she was asleep. From her
+lips broke murmured sounds, so partially connected that I found it
+impossible to remember them; but the impression they left on my mind was
+something like this,
+
+"Over the water. Yes; it is a rough sea--green and white. But over the
+water. There is a path for the pathless. The grass on the hill is long
+and cool. Never horse came there. If they once sleep in that grass, no
+harm can hurt them more. Over the water. Up the hill." And then she
+murmured the words of the psalm: "He that dwelleth in the secret place."
+
+For an hour I sat beside her. It was evidently a sweet, natural sleep,
+the most wonderful sleep of all, mingled with many a broken
+dream-rainbow. I rose at last, and, telling Janet that I would return in
+the evening, went back to my quarters; for my absence from the mid-day
+meal would have been a disappointment to the household.
+
+When I returned to the cottage, I found Margaret only just awaked, and
+greatly refreshed. I sat down beside her in the twilight, and the
+following conversation began:
+
+"You said, nurse, that, some time ago, you could not see me. Did you
+know nothing about me all that time?"
+
+"I took it to mean that you were ill, my dear. Shortly after you left
+us, the same thing happened first; but I do not think you were ill
+then."
+
+"I should like to tell you all my story, dear Margaret," I said,
+conceiving a sudden hope of assistance from one who hovered so near the
+unseen that she often flitted across the borders. "But would it tire
+you?"
+
+"Tire me, my child!" she said, with sudden energy. "Did I not carry you
+in my bosom, till I loved you more than the darling I had lost? Do I not
+think about you and your fortunes, till, sitting there, you are no
+nearer to me than when a thousand miles away? You do not know my love to
+you, Duncan. I have lived upon it when, I daresay, you did not care
+whether I was alive or dead. But that was all one to my love. When you
+leave me now, I shall not care much. My thoughts will only return to
+their old ways. I think the sight of the eyes is sometimes an intrusion
+between the heart and its love."
+
+Here was philosophy, or something better, from the lips of an old
+Highland seeress! For me, I felt it so true, that the joy of hearing her
+say so turned, by a sudden metamorphosis, into freak. I pretended to
+rise, and said:
+
+"Then I had better go, nurse. Good-bye."
+
+She put out her one hand, with a smile that revealed her enjoyment of
+the poor humour, and said, while she held me fast:
+
+"Nay, nay, my Duncan. A little of the scarce is sometimes dearer to us
+than much of the better. I shall have plenty of time to think about you
+when I can't see you, my boy." And her philosophy melted away into
+tears, that filled her two blue eyes.
+
+"I was only joking," I said.
+
+"Do you need to tell me that?" she rejoined, smiling. "I am not so old
+as to be stupid yet. But I want to hear your story. I am hungering to
+hear it."
+
+"But," I whispered, "I cannot speak about it before anyone else."
+
+"I will send Janet away. Janet, I want to talk to Mr. Campbell alone."
+
+"Very well, Margaret," answered Janet, and left the room.
+
+"Will she listen?" I asked.
+
+"She dares not," answered Margaret, with a smile; "she has a terrible
+idea of my powers."
+
+The twilight grew deeper; the glow of the peat-fire became redder; the
+old woman lay still as death. And I told all the story of Lady Alice. My
+voice sounded to myself as I spoke, not like my own, but like its echo
+from the vault of some listening cave, or like the voices one hears
+beside as sleep is slowly creeping over the sense. Margaret did not once
+interrupt me. When I had finished she remained still silent, and I began
+to fear I had talked her asleep.
+
+"Can you help me?" I said.
+
+"I think I can," she answered. "Will you call Janet?" I called her.
+
+"Make me a cup of tea, Janet. Will you have some tea with me, Duncan?"
+
+Janet lighted a little lamp, and the tea was soon set out, with
+"flour-scons" and butter. But Margaret ate nothing; she only drank her
+tea, lifting her cup with her one trembling hand. When the remains of
+our repast had been removed, she said:--
+
+"Now, Janet, you can leave us; and on no account come into the room till
+Mr. Campbell calls you. Take the lamp with you."
+
+Janet obeyed without a word of reply, and we were left once more alone,
+lighted only by the dull glow of the fire.
+
+The night had gathered cloudy and dark without, reminding me of that
+night when she told me the story of the two brothers. But this time no
+storm disturbed the silence of the night. As soon as Janet was gone,
+Margaret said:--
+
+"Will you take the pillow from under my head, Duncan, my dear?"
+
+I did so, and she lay in an almost horizontal position. With the living
+hand she lifted the powerless arm, and drew it across her chest, outside
+the bed-clothes. Then she laid the other arm over it, and, looking up at
+me, said:--
+
+"Kiss me, my bairn; I need strength for what I am going to do for your
+sake."
+
+I kissed her.
+
+"There now!" she said, "I am ready. Good-bye. Whatever happens, do not
+speak to me; and let no one come near me but yourself. It will be
+wearisome for you, but it is for your sake, my Duncan. And don't let the
+fire out. Don't leave me."
+
+I assured her I would attend to all she said. She closed her eyes, and
+lay still. I went to the fire, and sat down in a high-backed arm-chair,
+to wait the event.--There was plenty of fuel in the corner. I made up
+the fire, and then, leaning back, with my eyes fixed on it, let my
+thoughts roam at will. Where was my old nurse now? What was she seeing
+or encountering? Would she meet our adversary? Would she be strong
+enough to foil him? Was she dead for the time, although some bond
+rendered her return from the regions of the dead inevitable?--But she
+might never come back, and then I should have no tidings of the kind
+which I knew she had gone to see, and which I longed to hear!
+
+I sat thus for a long time. I had again replenished the fire--that is
+all I know about the lapse of the time--when, suddenly, a kind of
+physical repugnance and terror seized me, and I sat upright in my chair,
+with every fibre of my flesh protesting against some--shall I call it
+presence?--in its neighbourhood. But my real self repelled the invading
+cold, and took courage for any contest that might be at hand. Like
+Macbeth, I only inhabited trembling; _I_ did not tremble. I had
+withdrawn my gaze from the fire, and fixed it upon the little window,
+about two feet square, at which the dark night looked in. Why or when I
+had done so I knew not.
+
+What I next relate, I relate only as what seemed to happen. I do not
+altogether trust myself in the matter, and think I was subjected to a
+delusion of some sort or other. My feelings of horror grew as I looked
+through or rather at the window, till, notwithstanding all my resolution
+and the continued assurance that nothing could make me turn my back on
+the cause of the terror, I was yet so far _possessed_ by a feeling I
+could neither account for nor control, that I felt my hair rise upon my
+head, as if instinct with individual fear of its own--the only instance
+of the sort in my experience.--In such a condition, the sensuous nerves
+are so easily operated upon, either from within or from without, that
+all certainty ceases.
+
+I saw two fiery eyes looking in at the window, huge, and wide apart.
+Next, I saw the outline of a horse's head, in which the eyes were set;
+and behind, the dimmer outline of a man's form seated on the horse. The
+apparition faded and reappeared, just as if it retreated, and again rode
+up close to the window. Curiously enough, I did not even fancy that I
+heard any sound. Instinctively I felt for my sword, but there was no
+sword there. And what would it have availed me? Probably I was in more
+need of a soothing draught. But the moment I put my hand to the imagined
+sword-hilt, a dim figure swept between me and the horseman, on my side
+of the window--a tall, stately female form. She stood facing the window,
+in an attitude that seemed to dare the further approach of a foe. How
+long she remained thus, or he confronted her, I have no idea; for when
+_self_-consciousness returned, I found myself still gazing at the window
+from which both apparitions had vanished. Whether I had slept, or, from
+the relaxation of mental tension, had only forgotten, I could not tell;
+but all fear had vanished, and I proceeded at once to make up the sunken
+fire. Throughout the time I am certain I never heard the clanking shoe,
+for that I should have remembered.
+
+The rest of the night passed without any disturbance; and when the first
+rays of the early morning came into the room, they awoke me from a
+comforting sleep in the arm-chair. I rose and approached the bed softly.
+
+Margaret lay as still as death. But having been accustomed to similar
+conditions in my Alice, I believed I saw signs of returning animation,
+and withdrew to my seat. Nor was I mistaken; for, in a few minutes more,
+she murmured my name. I hastened to her.
+
+"Call Janet," she said.
+
+I opened the door, and called her. She came in a moment, looking at once
+frightened and relieved.
+
+"Get me some tea," said Margaret once more.
+
+After she had drunk the tea, she looked at me, and said,
+
+"Go home now, Duncan, and come back about noon. Mind you go to bed."
+
+She closed her eyes once more. I waited till I saw her fast in an
+altogether different sleep from the former, if sleep that could in any
+sense be called.
+
+As I went, I looked back on the vision of the night as on one of those
+illusions to which the mind, busy with its own suggestions, is always
+liable. The night season, simply because it excludes the external, is
+prolific in such. The more of the marvellous any one may have
+experienced in the course of his history, the more sceptical ought he to
+become, for he is the more exposed to delusion. None have made more
+blunders in the course of their revelations than genuine seers. Was it
+any wonder that, as I sat at midnight beside the woman of a hundred
+years, who had voluntarily died for a time that she might discover what
+most of all things it concerned me to know, the ancient tale, on which,
+to her mind, my whole history turned, and which she had herself told me
+in this very cottage, should take visible shape to my excited brain and
+watching eyes?
+
+I have one thing more to tell, which strengthens still further this view
+of the matter. As I walked home, before I had gone many hundred yards
+from the cottage, I suddenly came upon my own old Constancy. He was
+limping about, picking the best grass he could find from among the roots
+of the heather and cranberry bushes. He gave a start when I came upon
+him, and then a jubilant neigh.
+
+But he could not be so glad as I was. When I had taken sufficient pains
+to let him know this fact, I walked on, and he followed me like a dog,
+with his head at my heel; but as he limped much, I turned to examine
+him; and found one cause of his lameness to be, that the loose shoe,
+which was a hind one, was broken at the toe; and that one half, held
+only at the toe, had turned round and was sticking right out, striking
+his forefoot every time he moved. I soon remedied this, and he walked
+much better.
+
+But the phenomena of the night, and the share my old horse might have
+borne in them, were not the subjects, as may well be supposed, that
+occupied my mind most, on my walk to the farm. Was it possible that
+Margaret might have found out something about _her?_ That was the one
+question.
+
+After removing the anxiety of my hostess, and partaking of their
+Highland breakfast, a ceremony not to be completed without a glass of
+peaty whisky, I wandered to my ancient haunt on the hill. Thence I could
+look down on my old home, where it lay unchanged, though not one human
+form, which had made it home to me, moved about its precincts. I went no
+nearer. I no more felt that that was home, than one feels that the form
+in the coffin is the departed dead. I sat down in my old study-chamber
+among the rocks, and thought that if I could but find Alice she would be
+my home--of the past as well as of the future;--for in her mind my
+necromantic words would recall the departed, and we should love them
+together.
+
+Towards noon I was again at the cottage.
+
+Margaret was sitting up in bed, waiting for me. She looked weary, but
+cheerful; and a clean white _mutch_ gave her a certain _company_-air.
+Janet left the room directly, and Margaret motioned me to a chair by her
+side. I sat down. She took my hand, and said,
+
+"Duncan, my boy, I fear I can give you but little help; but I will tell
+you all I know. If I were to try to put into words the things I had to
+encounter before I could come near her, you would not understand what I
+meant. Nor do I understand the things myself. They seem quite plain to
+me at the time, but very cloudy when I come back. But I did succeed in
+getting one glimpse of her. She was fast asleep. She seemed to have
+suffered much, for her face was very thin, and as patient as it was
+pale."
+
+"But where was she?"
+
+"I must leave you to find out that, if you can, from my description.
+But, alas! it is only the places immediately about the persons that I
+can see. Where they are, or how far I have gone to get there, I cannot
+tell."
+
+She then gave me a rather minute description of the chamber in which the
+lady was lying. Though most of the particulars were unknown to me, the
+conviction, or hope at least, gradually dawned upon me, that I knew the
+room. Once or twice I had peeped into the sanctuary of Lady Alice's
+chamber, when I knew she was not there; and some points in the
+description Margaret gave set my heart in a tremor with the bare
+suggestion that she might now be at Hilton Hall.
+
+"Tell me, Margaret," I said, almost panting for utterance, "was there a
+mirror over the fireplace, with a broad gilt frame, carved into huge
+representations of crabs and lobsters, and all crawling sea-creatures
+with shells on them--very ugly, and very strange?"
+
+She would have interrupted me before, but I would not be stopped.
+
+"I must tell you, my dear Duncan," she answered, "that in none of these
+trances, or whatever you please to call them, did I ever see a mirror.
+It has struck me before as a curious thing, that a mirror is then an
+absolute blank to me--I see nothing on which I could put a name. It does
+not even seem a vacant space to me. A mirror must have nothing in common
+with the state I am then in, for I feel a kind of repulsion from it; and
+indeed it would be rather an awful thing to look at, for of course I
+should see no reflection of myself in it."
+
+(Here I beg once more to remind the reader, that Margaret spoke in
+Gaelic, and that my translation into ordinary English does not in the
+least represent the extreme simplicity of the forms of her speculations,
+any more than of the language which conveyed them.)
+
+"But," she continued, "I have a vague recollection of seeing some broad,
+big, gilded thing with figures on it. It might be something else,
+though, altogether."
+
+"I will go in hope," I answered, rising at once.
+
+"Not already, Duncan?"
+
+"Why should I stay longer?"
+
+"Stay over to-night."
+
+"What is the use? I cannot."
+
+"For my sake, Duncan!"
+
+"Yes, dear Margaret; for your sake. Yes, surely."
+
+"Thank you," she answered. "I will not keep you longer now. But if I
+send Janet to you, come at once. And, Duncan, wear this for my sake."
+
+She put into my hand an ancient gold cross, much worn. To my amazement I
+recognised the counterpart of one Lady Alice had always worn. I pressed
+it to my heart.
+
+"I am a Catholic; you are a Protestant, Duncan; but never mind: that's
+the same sign to both of us. You won't part with it. It has been in our
+family for many long years."
+
+"Not while I live," I answered, and went out, half wild with hope, into
+the keen mountain air. How deliciously it breathed upon me!
+
+I passed the afternoon in attempting to form some plan of action at
+Hilton Hall, whither I intended to proceed as soon as Margaret set me at
+liberty. That liberty came sooner than I expected; and yet I did not go
+at once. Janet came for me towards sundown. I thought she looked
+troubled. I rose at once and followed her, but asked no questions. As I
+entered the cottage, the sun was casting the shadow of the edge of the
+hollow in which the cottage stood just at my feet; that is, the sun was
+more than half set to one who stood at the cottage door. I entered.
+
+Margaret sat, propped with pillows. I saw some change had passed upon
+her. She held out her hand to me. I took it. She smiled feebly, closed
+her eyes, and went with the sun, down the hill of night. But down the
+hill of night is up the hill of morning in other lands, and no doubt
+Margaret soon found that she was more at home there than here.
+
+I sat holding the dead hand, as if therein lay some communion still with
+the departed. Perhaps she who saw more than others while yet alive,
+could see when dead that I held her cold hand in my warm grasp. Had I
+not good cause to love her? She had exhausted the last remnants of her
+life in that effort to find for me my lost Alice. Whether she had
+succeeded I had yet to discover. Perhaps she knew now.
+
+I hastened the funeral a little, that I might follow my quest. I had her
+grave dug amidst her own people and mine; for they lay side by side. The
+whole neighbourhood for twenty miles round followed Margaret to the
+grave. Such was her character and reputation, that the belief in her
+supernatural powers had only heightened the notion of her venerableness.
+
+When I had seen the last sod placed on her grave, I turned and went,
+with a desolate but hopeful heart. I had a kind of feeling that her
+death had sealed the truth of her last vision. I mounted old Constancy
+at the churchyard gate, and set out for Hilton Hall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+_Hilton._
+
+It was a dark, drizzling night when I arrived at the little village of
+Hilton, within a mile of the Hall. I knew a respectable second-rate inn
+on the side next the Hall, to which the gardener and other servants had
+been in the habit of repairing of an evening; and I thought I might
+there stumble upon some information, especially as the old-fashioned
+place had a large kitchen in which all sorts of guests met. When I
+reflected on the utter change which time, weather, and a great scar must
+have made upon me, I feared no recognition. But what was my surprise
+when, by one of those coincidences which have so often happened to me, I
+found in the ostler one of my own troop at Waterloo! His countenance and
+salute convinced me that he recognised me. I said to him:
+
+"I know you perfectly, Wood; but you must not know me. I will go with
+you to the stable."
+
+He led the way instantly.
+
+"Wood," I said, when we had reached the shelter of the stable, "I don't
+want to be known here, for reasons which I will explain to you another
+time."
+
+"Very well, sir. You may depend on me, sir."
+
+"I know I may, and I shall. Do you know anybody about the Hall?"
+
+"Yes, sir. The gardener comes here sometimes, sir. I believe he's in the
+house now. Shall I ask him to step this way, sir?"
+
+"No. All I want is to learn who is at the Hall now. Will you get him
+talking? I shall be by, having something to drink."
+
+"Yes, sir. As soon as I have rubbed down the old horse, sir--bless him!"
+
+"You'll find me there."
+
+I went in, and, with my condition for an excuse, ordered something hot
+by the kitchen-fire. Several country people were sitting about it. They
+made room for me, and I took my place at a table on one side. I soon
+discovered the gardener, although time had done what he could to
+disguise him. Wood came in presently, and, loitering about, began to
+talk to him.
+
+"What's the last news at the Hall, William?" he said.
+
+"News!" answered the old man, somewhat querulously. "There's never
+nothing but news up there, and very new-fangled news, too. What do you
+think, now, John? They do talk of turning all them greenhouses into
+hothouses; for, to be sure, there's nothing the new missus cares about
+but just the finest grapes in the country; and the flowers, purty
+creatures, may go to the devil for her. There's a lady for ye!"
+
+"But you'll be glad to have her home, and see what she's like, won't
+you? It's rather dull up there now, isn't it?"
+
+"I don't know what you call dull," replied the old man, as if half
+offended at the suggestion. "I don't believe a soul missed his lordship
+when he died; and there's always Mrs. Blakesley and me, as is the best
+friends in the world, besides the three maids and the stableman, who
+helps me in the garden, now there's no horses. And then there's Jacob
+and--"
+
+"But you don't mean," said Wood, interrupting him, "that there's _none_
+o' the family at home now?"
+
+"No. Who should there be? Least ways, only the poor lady. And she hardly
+counts now--bless her sweet face!"
+
+"Do you ever see her?" interposed one of the by-sitters.
+
+"Sometimes."
+
+"Is she quite crazy?"
+
+"Al-to-gether; but that quiet _and_ gentle, you would think she was an
+angel instead of a mad woman. But not a notion has she in _her_ head, no
+more than the babe unborn."
+
+It was a dreadful shock to me. Was this to be the end of all? Were it
+not better she had died? For me, life was worthless now. And there were
+no wars, with the chance of losing it honestly.
+
+I rose, and went to my own room. As I sat in dull misery by the fire, it
+struck me that it might not have been Lady Alice after all that the old
+man spoke about. That moment a tap came to my door, and Wood entered.
+After a few words, I asked him who was the lady the gardener had said
+was crazy.
+
+"Lady Alice," he answered, and added: "A love story, that came to a bad
+end up at the Hall years ago. A tutor was in it, they say. But I don't
+know the rights of it."
+
+When he left me, I sat in a cold stupor, in which the thoughts--if
+thoughts they could be called--came and went of themselves. Overcome by
+the appearances of things--as what man the strongest may not sometimes
+be?--I felt as if I had lost her utterly, as if there was no Lady Alice
+anywhere, and as if, to add to the vacant horror of the world without
+her, a shadow of her, a goblin _simulacrum_, soul-less, unreal, yet
+awfully like her, went wandering about the place which had once been
+glorified by her presence--as to the eyes of seers the phantoms of
+events which have happened years before are still visible, clinging to
+the room in which they have indeed _taken place_. But, in a little
+while, something warm began to throb and flow in my being; and I thought
+that if she were dead, I should love her still; that now she was not
+worse than dead; it was only that her soul was out of sight. Who could
+tell but it might be wandering in worlds of too noble shapes and too
+high a speech, to permit of representation in the language of the world
+in which her bodily presentation remained, and therefore her speech and
+behaviour seemed to men to be mad? Nay, was it not in some sense better
+for me that it should be so? To see once the pictured likeness of her of
+whom I had no such memorial, would I not give years of my
+poverty-stricken life? And here was such a statue of her, as that of his
+wife which the widowed king was bending before, when he said:--
+
+  "What fine chisel
+  Could ever yet cut breath?"
+
+This statue I might see, "looking like an angel," as the gardener had
+said. And, while the bond of visibility remained, must not the soul be,
+somehow, nearer to the earth, than if the form lay decaying beneath it?
+Was there not some possibility that the love for whose sake the reason
+had departed, might be able to recall that reason once more to the
+windows of sense,--make it look forth at those eyes, and lie listening
+in the recesses of those ears? In her somnambulic sleeps, the present
+body was the sign that the soul was within reach: so it might be still.
+
+Mrs. Blakesley was still at the lodge, then: I would call upon her
+to-morrow. I went to bed, and dreamed all night that Alice was sitting
+somewhere in a land "full of dark mountains," and that I was wandering
+about in the darkness, alternately calling and listening; sometimes
+fancying I heard a faint reply, which might be her voice or an echo of
+my own; but never finding her. I woke in an outburst of despairing
+tears, and my despair was not comforted by my waking.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+_The Sleeper._
+
+It was a lovely morning in autumn. I walked to the Hall. I entered at
+the same gate by which I had entered first, so many years before. But it
+was not Mrs. Blakesley that opened it. I inquired after her, and the
+woman told me that she lived at the Hall now, and took care of Lady
+Alice. So far, this was hopeful news.
+
+I went up the same avenue, through the same wide grassy places, saw the
+same statue from whose base had arisen the lovely form which soon became
+a part of my existence. Then everything looked rich, because I had come
+from a poor, grand country. In all my wanderings I had seen nothing so
+rich; yet now it seemed poverty-stricken. That it was autumn could not
+account for this; for I had always found that the sadness of autumn
+vivified the poetic sense; and that the colours of decay had a pathetic
+glory more beautiful than the glory of the most gorgeous summer with all
+its flowers. It was winter within me--that was the reason; and I could
+feel no autumn around me, because I saw no spring beyond me. It had
+fared with my mind as with the garden in the _Sensitive Plant,_ when the
+lady was dead. I was amazed and troubled at the stolidity with which I
+walked up to the door, and, having rung the bell, waited. No sweet
+memories of the past arose in my mind; not one of the well-known objects
+around looked at me as claiming a recognition. Yet, when the door was
+opened, my heart beat so violently at the thought that I might see her,
+that I could hardly stammer out my inquiry after Mrs. Blakesley.
+
+I was shown to a room. None of the sensations I had had on first
+crossing the threshold were revived. I remembered them all; I felt none
+of them. Mrs. Blakesley came. She did not recognise me. I told her who I
+was. She stared at me for a moment, seemed to see the same face she had
+known still glimmering through all the changes that had crowded upon it,
+held out both her hands, and burst into tears.
+
+"Mr. Campbell," she said, "you _are_ changed! But not like her. She's
+the same to look at; but, oh dear!"
+
+We were both silent for some time. At length she resumed:--
+
+"Come to my room; I have been mistress here for some time now."
+
+I followed her to the room Mrs. Wilson used to occupy. She put wine on
+the table. I told her my story. My labours, and my wounds, and my
+illness, slightly touched as I trust they were in the course of the
+tale, yet moved all her womanly sympathies.
+
+"What can I do for you, Mr. Campbell?" she said.
+
+"Let me see her," I replied.
+
+She hesitated for a moment.
+
+"I dare not, sir. I don't know what it might do to her. It might send
+her raving; and she is so quiet."
+
+"Has she ever raved?"
+
+"Not often since the first week or two. Now and then occasionally, for
+an hour or so, she would be wild, wanting to get out. But she gave that
+over altogether; and she has had her liberty now for a long time. But,
+Heaven bless her! at the worst she was always a lady."
+
+"And am I to go away without even seeing her?"
+
+"I am very sorry for you, Mr. Campbell."
+
+I felt hurt--foolishly, I confess--and rose. She put her hand on my arm.
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do, sir. She always falls asleep in the
+afternoon; you may see her asleep, if you like."
+
+"Thank you; thank you," I answered. "That will be much better. When
+shall I come?"
+
+"About three o'clock."
+
+I went wandering about the woods, and at three I was again in the
+housekeeper's room. She came to me presently, looking rather troubled.
+
+"It is very odd," she began, the moment she entered, "but for the first
+time, I think, for years, she's not for her afternoon sleep."
+
+"Does she sleep at night?" I asked.
+
+"Like a bairn. But she sleeps a great deal; and the doctor says that's
+what keeps her so quiet. She would go raving again, he says, if the
+sleep did not soothe her poor brain."
+
+"Could you not let me see her when she is asleep to-night?"
+
+Again she hesitated, but presently replied:--
+
+"I will, sir; but I trust to you never to mention it."
+
+"Of course I will not."
+
+"Come at ten o'clock, then. You will find the outer door on this side
+open. Go straight to my room."
+
+With renewed thanks I left her and, once again betaking myself to the
+woods, wandered about till night, notwithstanding signs of an
+approaching storm. I thus kept within the boundaries of the demesne, and
+had no occasion to request re-admittance at any of the gates.
+
+As ten struck on the tower-clock, I entered Mrs. Blakesley's room. She
+was not there. I sat down. In a few minutes she came.
+
+"She is fast asleep," she said. "Come this way."
+
+I followed, trembling. She led me to the same room Lady Alice used to
+occupy. The door was a little open. She pushed it gently, and I followed
+her in. The curtains towards the door were drawn. Mrs. Blakesley took me
+round to the other side.--There lay the lovely head, so phantom-like for
+years, coming only in my dreams; filling now, with a real presence, the
+eyes that had longed for it, as if in them dwelt an appetite of sight.
+It calmed my heart at once, which had been almost choking me with the
+violence of its palpitation. "That is not the face of insanity," I said
+to myself. "It is clear as the morning light." As I stood gazing, I made
+no comparisons between the past and the present, although I was aware of
+some difference--of some measure of the unknown fronting me; I was
+filled with the delight of beholding the face I loved--full, as it
+seemed to me, of mind and womanhood; sleeping--nothing more. I murmured
+a fervent "Thank God!" and was turning away with a feeling of
+satisfaction for all the future, and a strange great hope beginning to
+throb in my heart, when, after a little restless motion of her head on
+the pillow, her patient lips began to tremble. My soul rushed into my
+ears.
+
+"Mr. Campbell," she murmured, "I cannot spell; what am I to do to
+learn?"
+
+The unexpected voice, naming my name, sounded in my ears like a voice
+from the far-off regions where sighing is over. Then a smile gleamed up
+from the depths unseen, and broke and melted away all over her face. But
+her nurse had heard her speak, and now approached in alarm. She laid
+hold of my arm, and drew me towards the door. I yielded at once, but
+heard a moan from the bed as I went. I looked back--the curtains hid her
+from my view. Outside the door, Mrs. Blakesley stood listening for a
+moment, and then led the way downstairs.
+
+"You made her restless. You see, sir, she never was like other people,
+poor dear!"
+
+"Her face is not like one insane," I rejoined.
+
+"I often think she looks more like herself when she's asleep," answered
+she. "And then I have often seen her smile. She never smiles when she's
+awake. But, gracious me, Mr. Campbell! what _shall_ I do?"
+
+This exclamation was caused by my suddenly falling back in my chair and
+closing my eyes. I had almost fainted. I had eaten nothing since
+breakfast; and had been wandering about in a state of excitement all
+day. I greedily swallowed the glass of wine she brought me, and then
+first became aware that the storm which I had seen gathering while I was
+in the woods had now broken loose. "What a night in the old hall!"
+thought I. The wind was dashing itself like a thousand eagles against
+the house, and the rain was trampling the roofs and the court like
+troops of galloping steeds. I rose to go.
+
+But Mrs. Blakesley interfered.
+
+"You don't leave this house to-night, Mr. Campbell," she said. "I won't
+have your death laid at my door."
+
+I laughed.
+
+"Dear Mrs. Blakesley,--" I said, seeing her determined.
+
+"I won't hear a word," she interrupted. "I wouldn't let a horse out in
+such a tempest. No, no; you shall just sleep in your old quarters,
+across the passage there."
+
+I did not care for any storm. It hardly even interested me. That
+beautiful face filled my whole being. But I yielded to Mrs. Blakesley,
+and not unwillingly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+_My Old Room._
+
+Once more I was left alone in that room of dark oak, looking out on the
+little ivy-mantled court, of which I was now reminded by the howling of
+the storm within its high walls. Mrs. Blakesley had extemporised a bed
+for me on the old sofa; and the fire was already blazing away
+splendidly. I sat down beside it, and the sombre-hued Past rolled back
+upon me.
+
+After I had floated, as it were, upon the waves of memory for some time,
+I suddenly glanced behind me and around the room, and a new and strange
+experience dawned upon me. Time became to my consciousness what some
+metaphysicians say it is in itself--only a _form_ of human thought. For
+the Past had returned and had become the Present. I could not be sure
+that the Past had passed, that I had not been dreaming through the whole
+series of years and adventures, upon which I was able to look back. For
+here was the room, all as before; and here was I, the same man, with the
+same love glowing in my heart. I went on thinking. The storm went on
+howling. The logs went on cheerily burning. I rose and walked about the
+room, looking at everything as I had looked at it on the night of my
+first arrival. I said to myself, "How strange that I should feel as if
+all this had happened to me before!" And then I said, "Perhaps it _has_
+happened to me before." Again I said, "And when it did happen before, I
+felt as if it had happened before that; and perhaps it has been
+happening to me at intervals for ages." I opened the door of the closet,
+and looked at the door behind it, which led into the hall of the old
+house. It was bolted. But the bolt slipped back at my touch; twelve
+years were nothing in the history of its rust; or was it only yesterday
+I had forced the iron free from the adhesion of the rust-welded
+surfaces? I stood for a moment hesitating whether to open the door, and
+have one peep into the wide hall, full of intent echoes, listening
+breathless for one air of sound, that they might catch it up jubilant
+and dash it into the ears of--Silence--their ancient enemy--their Death.
+But I drew back, leaving the door unopened; and, sitting down again by
+my fire, sank into a kind of unconscious weariness. Perhaps I slept--I
+do not know; but as I became once more aware of myself, I awoke, as it
+were, in the midst of an old long-buried night. I was sitting in my own
+room, waiting for Lady Alice. And, as I sat waiting, and wishing she
+would come, by slow degrees my wishes intensified themselves, till I
+found myself, with all my gathered might, willing that she should come.
+The minutes passed, but the will remained.
+
+How shall I tell what followed? The door of the closet opened--slowly,
+gently--and in walked Lady Alice, pale as death, her eyes closed, her
+whole person asleep. With a gliding motion as in a dream, where the
+volition that produces motion is unfelt, she seemed to me to dream
+herself across the floor to my couch, on which she laid herself down as
+gracefully, as simply, as in the old beautiful time. Her appearance did
+not startle me, for my whole condition was in harmony with the
+phenomenon. I rose noiselessly, covered her lightly from head to foot,
+and sat down, as of old to watch. How beautiful she was! I thought she
+had grown taller; but, perhaps, it was only that she had gained in form
+without losing anything in grace. Her face was, as it had always been,
+colourless; but neither it nor her figure showed any signs of suffering.
+The holy sleep had fed her physical as well as shielded her mental
+nature. But what would the waking be? Not all the power of the revived
+past could shut out the anticipation of the dreadful difference to be
+disclosed, the moment she should open those sleeping eyes. To what a
+frightfully farther distance was that soul now removed, whose return I
+had been wont to watch, as from the depths of the unknown world! That
+was strange; this was terrible. Instead of the dawn of rosy intelligence
+I had now to look for the fading of the loveliness as she woke, till her
+face withered into the bewildered and indigent expression of the insane.
+
+She was waking. My love with the unknown face was at hand. The reviving
+flush came, grew, deepened. She opened her eyes. God be praised! They
+were lovelier than ever. And the smile that broke over her face was the
+very sunlight of the soul.
+
+"Come again, you see!" she said gently, as she stretched her beautiful
+arms towards me.
+
+I could not speak. I could only submit to her embrace, and hold myself
+with all my might, lest I should burst into helpless weeping. But a sob
+or two broke their prison, and she felt the emotion she had not seen.
+Relaxing her hold, she pushed me gently from her, and looked at me with
+concern that grew as she looked.
+
+"You are dreadfully changed, my Duncan! What is the matter? Has Lord
+Hilton been rude to you? You look so much older, somehow. What can it
+be?"
+
+I understood at once how it was. The whole of those dreary twelve years
+was gone. The thread of her consciousness had been cut, those years
+dropped out, and the ends reunited. She thought this was one of her old
+visits to me, when, as now, she had walked in her sleep. I answered,
+
+"I will tell you all another time. I don't want to waste the moments
+with you, my Alice, in speaking about it. Lord Hilton _has_ behaved very
+badly to me; but never mind."
+
+She half rose in anger; and her eyes looked insane for the first time.
+
+"How dares he?" she said, and then checked herself with a sigh at her
+own helplessness.
+
+"But it will all come right, Alice," I went on in terror lest I should
+disturb her present conception of her circumstances. I felt as if the
+very face I wore, with the changes of those twelve forgotten years,
+which had passed over her like the breath of a spring wind, were a mask
+of which I had to be ashamed before her. Her consciousness was my
+involuntary standard of fact. Hope of my life as she was, there was thus
+mingled with my delight in her presence a restless fear that made me
+wish fervently that she would go. I wanted time to quiet my thoughts and
+resolve how I should behave to her.
+
+"Alice," I said, "it is nearly morning. You were late to-night. Don't
+you think you had better go--for fear, you know?"
+
+"Ah!" she said, with a smile, in which there was no doubt of fear, "you
+are tired of me already! But I will go at once to dream about you."
+
+She rose.
+
+"Go, my darling," I said; "and mind you get some right sleep. Shall I go
+with you?"
+
+Much to my relief, she answered,
+
+"No, no; please not. I can go alone as usual. When a ghost meets me, I
+just walk through him, and then he's nowhere; and I laugh."
+
+One kiss, one backward lingering look, and the door closed behind her. I
+heard the echo of the great hall. I was alone. But what a loneliness--a
+loneliness crowded with presence! I paced up and down the room, threw
+myself on the couch she had left, started up, and paced again. It was
+long before I could think. But the conviction grew upon me that she
+would be mine yet. Mine yet? Mine she _was_, beyond all the power of
+madness or demons; and mine I trusted she would be beyond the dispute of
+the world. About me, at least, she was not insane. But what should I do?
+The only chance of her recovery lay in seeing me still; but I could
+resolve on nothing till I knew whether Mrs. Blakesley had discovered her
+absence from her room; because, if I drew her, and she were watched and
+prevented from coming, it would kill her, or worse. I must take
+to-morrow to think.
+
+Yet at the moment, by a sudden impulse, I opened the window gently,
+stepped into the little grassy court, where the last of the storm was
+still moaning, and withdrew the bolts of a door which led into an alley
+of trees running along one side of the kitchen-garden. I felt like a
+housebreaker; but I said, "It is _her_ right." I pushed the bolts
+forward again, so as just to touch the sockets and look as if they went
+in, and then retreated into my own room, where I paced about till the
+household was astir.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+_Prison-Breaking._
+
+It was with considerable anxiety that I repaired to Mrs. Blakesley's
+room. There I found the old lady at the breakfast-table, so thoroughly
+composed, that I was at once reassured as to her ignorance of what had
+occurred while she slept. But she seemed uneasy till I should take my
+departure, which I attributed to the fear that I might happen to meet
+Lady Alice.
+
+Arrived at my inn, I kept my room, my dim-seen plans rendering it
+desirable that I should attract as little attention in the neighbourhood
+as might be. I had now to concentrate these plans, and make them
+definite to myself. It was clear that there was no chance of spending
+another night at Hilton Hall by invitation: would it be honourable to go
+there without one, as I, knowing all the _outs and ins_ of the place,
+could, if I pleased? I went over the whole question of Alice's position
+in that house, and of the crime committed against her. I saw that, if I
+could win my wife by restoring to her the exercise of reason, that very
+success would justify the right I already possessed in her. And could
+she not demand of me to climb over any walls, or break open whatsoever
+doors, to free her from her prison--from the darkness of a clouded
+brain? Let them say what they would of the meanness and wickedness of
+gaining such access to, and using such power over, the insane--she was
+mine, and as safe with me as with her mother. There is a love that tears
+and destroys; and there is a love that enfolds and saves. I hated
+mesmerism and its vulgar impertinences; but here was a power I
+possessed, as far as I knew, only over one, and that one allied to me by
+a reciprocal influence, as well as long-tried affection.--Did not love
+give me the right to employ this power?
+
+My cognitions concluded in the resolve to use the means in my hands for
+the rescue of Lady Alice. Midnight found me in the alley of the
+kitchen-garden. The door of the little court opened easily. Nor had I
+withdrawn its bolts without knowing that I could manage to open the
+window of my old room from the outside. I stood in the dark, a stranger
+and housebreaker, where so often I had sat waiting the visits of my
+angel. I secured the door of the room, struck a light, lighted a remnant
+of taper which I found on the table, threw myself on the couch, and said
+to my Alice--"Come."
+
+And she came. I rose. She laid herself down. I pulled off my coat--it
+was all I could find--and laid it over her. The night was chilly. She
+revived with the same sweet smile, but, giving a little shiver, said:
+
+"Why have you no fire, Duncan? I must give orders about it. That's some
+trick of old Clankshoe."
+
+"Dear Alice, do not breath a word about me to any one. I have quarrelled
+with Lord Hilton. He has turned me away, and I have no business to be in
+the house."
+
+"Oh!" she replied, with a kind of faint recollecting hesitation. "That
+must be why you never come to the haunted chamber now. I go there every
+night, as soon as the sun is down."
+
+"Yes, that is it, Alice."
+
+"Ah! that must be what makes the day so strange to me too."
+
+She looked very bewildered for a moment, and then resumed:
+
+"Do you know, Duncan, I feel very strange all day--as if I was walking
+about in a dull dream that would never come to an end? But it is very
+different at night--is it not, dear?"
+
+She had not yet discovered any distinction between my presence to her
+dreams and my presence to her waking sight. I hardly knew what reply to
+make; but she went on:
+
+"They won't let me come to you now, I suppose. I shall forget my Euclid
+and everything. I feel as if I had forgotten it all already. But you
+won't be vexed with your poor Alice, will you? She's only a beggar-girl,
+you know."
+
+I could answer only by a caress.
+
+"I had a strange dream the other night. I thought I was sitting on a
+stone in the dark. And I heard your voice calling me. And it went all
+round about me, and came nearer, and went farther off, but I could not
+move to go to you. I tried to answer you, but I could only make a queer
+sound, not like my own voice at all."
+
+"I dreamed it too, Alice."
+
+"The same dream?"
+
+"Yes, the very same."
+
+"I am so glad. But I didn't like the dream. Duncan, my head feels so
+strange sometimes. And I am so sleepy. Duncan, dearest--am _I_ dreaming
+now? Oh! tell me that I am awake and that I hold you; for to-morrow,
+when I wake, I shall fancy that I have lost you. They've spoiled my poor
+brain, somehow. I am all right, I know, but I cannot get at it. The red
+is withered, somehow."
+
+"You are wide awake, my Alice. I know all about it. I will help you to
+understand it all, only you must do exactly as I tell you."
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"Then go to bed now, and sleep as much as you can; else I will not let
+you come to me at night."
+
+"That would be too cruel, when it is all I have."
+
+"Then go, dearest, and sleep."
+
+"I will."
+
+She rose and went. I, too, went, making all close behind me. The moon
+was going down. Her light looked to me strange, and almost malignant. I
+feared that when she came to the full she would hurt my darling's brain,
+and I longed to climb the sky, and cut her in pieces. Was I too going
+mad? I needed rest, that was all.
+
+Next morning, I called again upon Mrs. Blakesley, to inquire after Lady
+Alice, anxious to know how yesterday had passed.
+
+"Just the same," answered the old lady. "You need not look for any
+change. Yesterday I did see her smile once, though."
+
+And was that nothing?
+
+In her case there was a reversal of the usual facts of nature--(_I say
+facts_, not _laws_): the dreams of most people are more or less insane;
+those of Lady Alice were sound; thus, with her, restoring the balance of
+sane life. That smile was the sign of the dream-life beginning to leaven
+the waking and false life.
+
+"Have you heard of young Lord Hilton's marriage?" asked Mrs. Blakesley.
+
+"I have only heard some rumours about it," I answered. "Who is the new
+countess?"
+
+"The daughter of a rich merchant somewhere. They say she isn't the best
+of tempers. They're coming here in about a month. I am just terrified to
+think how it may fare with my lamb now. They won't let her go wandering
+about wherever she pleases, I doubt. And if they shut her up, she will
+die."
+
+I vowed inwardly that she should be free, if I carried her off, madness
+and all.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+_New Entrenchments._
+
+But this way of breaking into the house every night did not afford me
+the facility I wished. For I wanted to see Lady Alice during the day, or
+at least in the evening before she went to sleep; as otherwise I could
+not thoroughly judge of her condition. So I got Wood to pack up a small
+stock of provisions for me in his haversack, which I took with me; and
+when I entered the house that night, I bolted the door of the court
+behind me, and made all fast.
+
+I waited till the usual time for her appearance had passed; and, always
+apprehensive now, as was very natural, I had begun to grow uneasy, when
+I heard her voice, as I had heard it once before, singing. Fearful of
+disturbing her, I listened for a moment. Whether the song was her own or
+not, I cannot be certain. When I questioned her afterwards, she knew
+nothing about it. It was this,--
+
+      Days of old,
+  Ye are not dead, though gone from me;
+        Ye are not cold,
+  But like the summer-birds gone o'er the sea.
+  The sun brings back the swallows fast,
+        O'er the sea:
+  When thou comest at the last,
+  The days of old come back to me.
+
+She ceased singing. Still she did not enter. I went into the closet, and
+found that the door was bolted. When I opened it, she entered, as usual;
+and, when she came to herself, seemed still better than before.
+
+"Duncan," she said, "I don't know how it is, but I believe I must have
+forgotten everything I ever knew. I feel as if I had. I don't think I
+can even read. Will you teach me my letters?"
+
+She had a book in her hand. I hailed this as another sign that her
+waking and sleeping thoughts bordered on each other; for she must have
+taken the book during her somnambulic condition. I did as she desired.
+She seemed to know nothing till I told her. But the moment I told her
+anything, she knew it perfectly. Before she left me that night she was
+reading tolerably, with many pauses of laughter that she should ever
+have forgotten how. The moment she shared the light of my mind, all was
+plain; where that had not shone, all was dark. The fact was, she was
+living still in the shadow of that shock which her nervous constitution
+had received from our discovery and my ejection.
+
+As she was leaving me, I said,
+
+"Shall you be in the haunted room at sunset tomorrow, Alice?"
+
+"Of course I shall," she answered.
+
+"You will find me there then," I rejoined--"that is, if you think there
+is no danger of being seen."
+
+"Not the least," she answered. "No one follows me there; not even Mrs.
+Blakesley, good soul! They are all afraid, as usual."
+
+"And you won't be frightened to see me there?"
+
+"Frightened? No. Why? Oh! you think me queer too, do you?"
+
+She looked vexed, but tried to smile.
+
+"I? I would trust you with my life," I said. "That's not much,
+though--with my soul, whatever that means, Alice."
+
+"Then don't talk nonsense," she rejoined coaxingly, "about my being
+frightened to see you."
+
+When she had gone, I followed into the old hall, taking my sack with me;
+for, after having found the door in the closet bolted, I was determined
+not to spend one night more in my old quarters, and never to allow Lady
+Alice to go there again, if I could prevent her. And I had good hopes
+that, if we met in the day, the same consequences would follow as had
+followed long ago--namely, that she would sleep at night.
+
+It was just such a night as that on which I had first peeped into the
+hall. The moon shone through one of the high windows, scarcely more dim
+than before, and showed all the dreariness of the place. I went up the
+great old staircase, hoping I trod in the very footsteps of Lady Alice,
+and reached the old gallery in which I had found her on that night when
+our strangely-knit intimacy began. My object was to choose one of the
+deserted rooms in which I might establish myself without chance of
+discovery. I had not turned many corners, or gone through many passages,
+before I found one exactly to my mind. I will not trouble my reader with
+a description of its odd position and shape. All I wanted was
+concealment, and that it provided plentifully. I lay down on the floor,
+and was soon fast asleep.
+
+Next morning, having breakfasted from the contents of my bag, I
+proceeded to make myself thoroughly acquainted with the bearings, etc.,
+of this portion of the house. Before evening, I knew it all thoroughly.
+
+But I found it very difficult to wait for the evening. By the windows of
+one of the rooms looking westward, I sat watching the down-going of the
+sun. When he set, my moon would rise. As he touched the horizon, I went
+the old, well-known way to the haunted chamber. What a night had passed
+for me since I left Alice in that charmed room! I had a vague feeling,
+however, notwithstanding the misfortune that had befallen us there, that
+the old phantoms that haunted it were friendly to Alice and me. But I
+waited her arrival in fear. Would she come? Would she be as in the
+night? Or should I find her but half awake to life, and perhaps asleep
+to me?
+
+One moment longer, and a light hand was laid on the door. It opened
+gently, and Alice, entering, flitted across the room straight to my
+arms. How beautiful she was! her old-fashioned dress bringing her into
+harmony with the room and its old consecrated twilight! For this room
+looked eastward, and there was only twilight here. She brought me some
+water, at my request; and then we read, and laughed over our reading.
+Every moment she not only knew something fresh, but knew that she had
+known it before. The dust of the years had to be swept away; but it was
+only dust, and flew at a breath. The light soon failed us in that dusky
+chamber; and we sat and whispered, till only when we kissed could we see
+each other's eyes. At length Lady Alice said:
+
+"They are looking for me; I had better go. Shall I come at night?"
+
+"No," I answered. "Sleep, and do not move."
+
+"Very well, I will."
+
+She went, and I returned to my den. There I lay and thought. Had she
+ever been insane at all? I doubted it. A kind of mental sleep or stupor
+had come upon her--nothing more. True it might be allied to madness; but
+is there a strong emotion that man or woman experiences that is not
+_allied_ to madness? Still her mind was not clear enough to reflect the
+past. But if she never recalled that entirely, not the less were her
+love and tenderness--all womanliness--entire in her.
+
+Next evening we met again, and the next, and many evenings. Every time I
+was more convinced than before that she was thoroughly sane in every
+practical sense, and that she would recall everything as soon as I
+reminded her. But this I forbore to do, fearing a reaction.
+
+Meantime, after a marvellous fashion, I was living over again the old
+lovely time that had gone by twelve years ago; living it over again,
+partly in virtue of the oblivion that had invaded the companion and
+source of the blessedness of the time. She had never ceased to live it;
+but had renewed it in dreams, unknown as such, from which she awoke to
+forgetfulness and quiet, while I awoke from my troubled fancies to tears
+and battles.
+
+It was strange, indeed, to live the past over again thus.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Escape.
+
+It was time, however, to lay some plan, and make some preparations, for
+our departure. The first thing to be secured was a convenient exit from
+the house. I searched in all directions, but could discover none better
+than that by which I had entered. Leaving the house one evening, as soon
+as Lady Alice had retired, I communicated my situation to Wood, who
+entered with all his heart into my projects. Most fortunately, through
+all her so-called madness, Lady Alice had retained and cherished the
+feeling that there was something sacred about the diamond-ring and the
+little money which had been intended for our flight before; and she had
+kept them carefully concealed, where she could find them in a moment. I
+had sent the ring to a friend in London, to sell it for me; and it
+produced more than I expected. I had then commissioned Wood to go to the
+county town and buy a light gig for me; and in this he had been very
+fortunate. My dear old Constancy had the accomplishment, not at all
+common to chargers, of going admirably in harness; and I had from the
+first enjoined upon Wood to get him into as good condition as possible.
+I now fixed a certain hour at which Wood was to be at a certain spot on
+one of the roads skirting the park, where I had found a crazy door in
+the plank-fence--with Constancy in the dogcart, and plenty of wraps for
+Alice.
+
+"And for Heaven's sake, Wood," I concluded, "look to his shoes."
+
+It may seem strange that I should have been able to go and come thus
+without detection; but it must be remembered that I had made myself more
+familiar with the place than any of its inhabitants, and that there were
+only a very few domestics in the establishment. The gardener and
+stableman slept in the house, for its protection; but I knew their
+windows perfectly, and most of their movements. I could watch them all
+day long, if I liked, from some loophole or other of my quarter; where,
+indeed, I sometimes found that the only occupation I could think of.
+
+The next evening I said, "Alice, I must leave the house: will you go
+with me?"
+
+"Of course I will, Duncan. When?"
+
+"The night after to-morrow, as soon as every one is in bed and the house
+quiet. If you have anything you value very much, take it; but the
+lighter we go the better."
+
+"I have nothing, Duncan. I will take a little bag--that will do for me."
+
+"But dress as warmly as you can. It will be cold."
+
+"Oh, yes; I won't forget that. Good night."
+
+She took it as quietly as going to church.
+
+I had not seen Mrs. Blakesley since she had told me that the young earl
+and countess were expected in about a month; else I might have learned
+one fact which it was very important I should have known, namely, that
+their arrival had been hastened by eight or ten days. The very morning
+of our intended departure, I was looking into the court through a little
+round hole I had cleared for observation in the dust of one of the
+windows, believing I had observed signs of unusual preparation on the
+part of the household, when a carriage drove up, followed by two others,
+and Lord and Lady Hilton descended and entered, with an attendance of
+some eight or ten.
+
+There was a great bustle in the house all day. Of course I felt uneasy,
+for if anything should interfere with our flight, the presence of so
+many would increase whatever difficulty might occur. I was also uneasy
+about the treatment my Alice might receive from the new-comers. Indeed,
+it might be put out of her power to meet me at all. It had been arranged
+between us that she should not come to the haunted chamber at the usual
+hour, but towards midnight.
+
+I was there waiting for her. The hour arrived; the house seemed quiet;
+but she did not come. I began to grow very uneasy. I waited half an hour
+more, and then, unable to endure it longer, crept to her door. I tried
+to open it, but found it fast. At the same moment I heard a light sob
+inside. I put my lips to the keyhole, and called "_Alice_." She answered
+in a moment:--
+
+"They have locked me in."
+
+The key was gone. There was no time to be lost. Who could tell what they
+might do to-morrow, if already they were taking precautions against her
+madness? I would try the key of a neighbouring door, and if that would
+not fit, I would burst the door open, and take the chance. As it was,
+the key fitted the lock, and the door opened. We locked it again on the
+outside, restored the key, and in another moment were in the haunted
+chamber. Alice was dressed, ready for flight. To me, it was very
+pathetic to see her in the shapes of years gone by. She looked faded and
+ancient, notwithstanding that this was the dress in which I had seen her
+so often of old. Her stream had been standing still, while mine had
+flowed on. She was a portrait of my own young Alice, a picture of her
+own former self.
+
+One or two lights glancing about below detained us for a little while.
+We were standing near the window, feeling now very anxious to be clear
+of the house; Alice was holding me and leaning on me with the essence of
+trust; when, all at once, she dropped my arm, covered her face with her
+hands, and called out: "The horse with the clanking shoe!" At the same
+moment, the heavy door which communicated with this part of the house
+flew open with a crash, and footsteps came hurrying along the passage. A
+light gleamed into the room, and by it I saw that Lady Alice, who was
+standing close to me still, was gazing, with flashing eyes, at the door.
+She whispered hurriedly:
+
+"I remember it all now, Duncan. My brain is all right. It is come again.
+But they shall not part us this time. You follow me for once."
+
+As she spoke, I saw something glitter in her hand. She had caught up an
+old Malay creese that lay in a corner, and was now making for the door,
+at which half a dozen domestics were by this time gathered. They, too,
+saw the glitter, and made way. I followed close, ready to fell the first
+who offered to lay hands on her. But she walked through them unmenaced,
+and, once clear, sped like a bird into the recesses of the old house.
+One fellow started to follow. I tripped him up. I was collared by
+another. The same instant he lay by his companion, and I followed Alice.
+She knew the route well enough, and I overtook her in the great hall. We
+heard pursuing feet rattling down the echoing stair. To enter my room
+and bolt the door behind us was a moment's work; and a few moments more
+took us into the alley of the kitchen-garden. With speedy, noiseless
+steps, we made our way to the park, and across it to the door in the
+fence, where Wood was waiting for us, old Constancy pawing the ground
+with impatience for a good run.
+
+He had had enough of it before twelve hours were over.
+
+Was I not well recompensed for my long years of despair? The cold stars
+were sparkling overhead; a wind blew keen against us--the wind of our
+own flight; Constancy stepped out with a will; and I urged him on, for
+he bore my beloved and me into the future life. Close beside me she sat,
+wrapped warm from the cold, rejoicing in her deliverance, and now and
+then looking up with tear-bright eyes into my face. Once and again I
+felt her sob, but I knew it was a sob of joy, and not of grief. The
+spell was broken at last, and she was mine. I felt that not all the
+spectres of the universe could tear her from me, though now and then a
+slight shudder would creep through me, when the clank of Constancy's bit
+would echo sharply back from the trees we swept past.
+
+We rested no more than was absolutely necessary; and in as short a space
+as ever horse could perform the journey, we reached the Scotch border,
+and before many more hours had gone over us, Alice was my wife.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+_Freedom_.
+
+Honest Wood joined us in the course of a week or two, and has continued
+in my service ever since. Nor was it long before Mrs. Blakesley was
+likewise added to our household, for she had been instantly dismissed
+from the countess's service on the charge of complicity in Lady Alice's
+abduction.
+
+We lived for some months in a cottage on a hill-side, overlooking one of
+the loveliest of the Scotch lakes. Here I was once more tutor to my
+Alice. And a quick scholar she was, as ever. Nor, I trust, was I slow in
+my part. Her character became yet clearer to me, every day. I understood
+her better and better.
+
+She could endure marvellously; but without love and its joy she could
+not _live_, in any real sense. In uncongenial society, her whole mental
+faculty had frozen; when love came, her mental world, like a garden in
+the spring sunshine, blossomed and budded. When she lost me, the Present
+vanished, or went by her like an ocean that has no milestones; she
+caring only for the Past, living only in the Past, and that reflection
+of it in the dim glass of her hope, which prefigured the Future.
+
+We have never again heard the clanking shoe. Indeed, after we had passed
+a few months in the absorption of each other's society, we began to find
+that we doubted a great deal of what seemed to have happened to us. It
+was as if the gates of the unseen world were closing against us, because
+we had shut ourselves up in the world of the present. But we let it go
+gladly. We felt that love was the gate to an unseen world infinitely
+beyond that region of the psychological in which we had hitherto moved;
+for this love was teaching us to love all men, and live for all men. In
+fact, we are now, I am glad to say, very much like other people; and
+wonder, sometimes, how much of the story of our lives might be accounted
+for on the supposition that unusual coincidences had fallen in with
+psychological peculiarities. Dr. Ruthwell, who is sometimes our most
+welcome guest, has occasionally hinted at the sabre-cut as the key to
+all the mysteries of the story, seeing nothing of it was at least
+recorded before I came under his charge. But I have only to remind him
+of one or two circumstances, to elicit from his honesty and immediate
+confession of bewilderment, followed by silence; although he evidently
+still clings to the notion that in that sabre-cut lies the solution of
+much of the marvel. At all events, he considers me sane enough now, else
+he would hardly honour me with so much of his confidence as he does.
+Having examined into Lady Alice's affairs, I claimed the fortune which
+she had inherited. Lord Hilton, my former pupil, at once acknowledged
+the justice of the claim, and was considerably astonished to find how
+much more might have been demanded of him, which had been spent over the
+allowance made from her income for her maintenance. But we had enough
+without claiming that.
+
+My wife purchased for me the possession of my forefathers, and there we
+live in peace and hope. To her I owe the delight which I feel every day
+of my life in looking upon the haunts of my childhood as still mine.
+They help me to keep young. And so does my Alice's hair; for although
+much grey now mingles with mine, hers is as dark as ever. For her heart,
+I know that cannot grow old; and while the heart is young, man may laugh
+old Time in the face, and dare him to do his worst.
+
+
+
+
+THE CRUEL PAINTER
+
+
+
+
+Among the young men assembled at the University of Prague, in the year
+159--, was one called Karl von Wolkenlicht. A somewhat careless student,
+he yet held a fair position in the estimation of both professors and
+men, because he could hardly look at a proposition without understanding
+it. Where such proposition, however, had to do with anything relating to
+the deeper insights of the nature, he was quite content that, for him,
+it should remain a proposition; which, however, he laid up in one of his
+mental cabinets, and was ready to reproduce at a moment's notice. This
+mental agility was more than matched by the corresponding corporeal
+excellence, and both aided in producing results in which his remarkable
+strength was equally apparent. In all games depending upon the
+combination of muscle and skill, he had scarce rivalry enough to keep
+him in practice. His strength, however, was embodied in such a softness
+of muscular outline, such a rare Greek-like style of beauty, and
+associated with such a gentleness of manner and behaviour, that, partly
+from the truth of the resemblance, partly from the absurdity of the
+contrast, he was known throughout the university by the diminutive of
+the feminine form of his name, and was always called Lottchen.
+
+"I say, Lottchen," said one of his fellow-students, called Richter,
+across the table in a wine-cellar they were in the habit of frequenting,
+"do you know, Heinrich Hoellenrachen here says that he saw this morning,
+with mortal eyes, whom do you think?--Lilith."
+
+"Adam's first wife?" asked Lottchen, with an attempt at carelessness,
+while his face flushed like a maiden's.
+
+"None of your chaff!" said Richter. "Your face is honester than your
+tongue, and confesses what you cannot deny, that you would give your
+chance of salvation--a small one to be sure, but all you've got--for one
+peep at Lilith. Wouldn't you now, Lottchen?"
+
+"Go to the devil!" was all Lottchen's answer to his tormentor; but he
+turned to Heinrich, to whom the students had given the surname above
+mentioned, because of the enormous width of his jaws, and said with
+eagerness and envy, disguising them as well as he could, under the
+appearance of curiosity--
+
+"You don't mean it, Heinrich? You've been taking the beggar in! Confess
+now."
+
+"Not I. I saw her with my two eyes."
+
+"Notwithstanding the different planes of their orbits," suggested
+Richter.
+
+"Yes, notwithstanding the fact that I can get a parallax to any of the
+fixed stars in a moment, with only the breadth of my nose for the base,"
+answered Heinrich, responding at once to the fun, and careless of the
+personal defect insinuated. "She was near enough for even me to see her
+perfectly."
+
+"When? Where? How?" asked Lottchen.
+
+"Two hours ago. In the churchyard of St. Stephen's. By a lucky chance.
+Any more little questions, my child?" answered Hoellenrachen.
+
+"What could have taken her there, who is seen nowhere?" said Richter.
+
+"She was seated on a grave. After she left, I went to the place; but it
+was a new-made grave. There was no stone up. I asked the sexton about
+her. He said he supposed she was the daughter of the woman buried there
+last Thursday week. I knew it was Lilith."
+
+"Her mother dead!" said Lottchen, musingly. Then he thought with
+himself--"She will be going there again, then!" But he took care that
+this ghost-thought should wander unembodied. "But how did you know her,
+Heinrich? You never saw her before."
+
+"How do you come to be over head and ears in love with her, Lottchen,
+and you haven't seen her at all?" interposed Richter.
+
+"Will you or will you not go to the devil?" rejoined Lottchen, with a
+comic crescendo; to which the other replied with a laugh.
+
+"No one could miss knowing her," said Heinrich.
+
+"Is she so very like, then?"
+
+"It is always herself, her very self."
+
+A fresh flask of wine, turning out to be not up to the mark, brought the
+current of conversation against itself; not much to the dissatisfaction
+of Lottchen, who had already resolved to be in the churchyard of St.
+Stephen's at sun-down the following day, in the hope that he too might
+be favoured with a vision of Lilith.
+
+This resolution he carried out. Seated in a porch of the church, not
+knowing in what direction to look for the apparition he hoped to see,
+and desirous as well of not seeming to be on the watch for one, he was
+gazing at the fallen rose-leaves of the sunset, withering away upon the
+sky; when, glancing aside by an involuntary movement, he saw a woman
+seated upon a new-made grave, not many yards from where he sat, with her
+face buried in her hands, and apparently weeping bitterly. Karl was in
+the shadow of the porch, and could see her perfectly, without much
+danger of being discovered by her; so he sat and watched her. She raised
+her head for a moment, and the rose-flush of the west fell over it,
+shining on the tears with which it was wet, and giving the whole a bloom
+which did not belong to it, for it was always pale, and now pale as
+death. It was indeed the face of Lilith, the most celebrated beauty of
+Prague.
+
+Again she buried her face in her hands; and Karl sat with a strange
+feeling of helplessness, which grew as he sat; and the longing to help
+her whom he could not help, drew his heart towards her with a trembling
+reverence which was quite new to him. She wept on. The western roses
+withered slowly away, and the clouds blended with the sky, and the stars
+gathered like drops of glory sinking through the vault of night, and the
+trees about the churchyard grew black, and Lilith almost vanished in the
+wide darkness. At length she lifted her head, and seeing the night
+around her, gave a little broken cry of dismay. The minutes had swept
+over her head, not through her mind, and she did not know that the dark
+had come.
+
+Hearing her cry, Karl rose and approached her. She heard his footsteps,
+and started to her feet. Karl spoke--
+
+"Do not be frightened," he said. "Let me see you home. I will walk behind
+you."
+
+"Who are you?" she rejoined.
+
+"Karl Wolkenlicht."
+
+"I have heard of you. Thank you. I can go home alone."
+
+Yet, as if in a half-dreamy, half-unconscious mood, she accepted his
+offered hand to lead her through the graves, and allowed him to walk
+beside her, till, reaching the corner of a narrow street, she suddenly
+bade him good-night and vanished. He thought it better not to follow
+her, so he returned her good-night and went home.
+
+How to see her again was his first thought the next day; as, in fact,
+how to see her at all had been his first thought for many days. She went
+nowhere that ever he heard of; she knew nobody that he knew; she was
+never seen at church, or at market; never seen in the street. Her home
+had a dreary, desolate aspect. It looked as if no one ever went out or
+in. It was like a place on which decay had fallen because there was no
+indwelling spirit. The mud of years was baked upon its door, and no
+faces looked out of its dusty windows.
+
+How then could she be the most celebrated beauty of Prague? How then was
+it that Heinrich Hoellenrachen knew her the moment he saw her? Above all,
+how was it that Karl Wolkenlicht had, in fact, fallen in love with her
+before ever he saw her? It was thus--
+
+Her father was a painter. Belonging thus to the public, it had taken the
+liberty of re-naming him. Every one called him Teufelsbuerst, or
+Devilsbrush. It was a name with which, to judge from the nature of his
+representations, he could hardly fail to be pleased. For, not as a
+nightmare dream, which may alternate with the loveliest visions, but as
+his ordinary everyday work, he delighted to represent human suffering.
+
+Not an aspect of human woe or torture, as expressed in countenance or
+limb, came before his willing imagination, but he bore it straightway to
+his easel. In the moments that precede sleep, when the black space
+before the eyes of the poet teems with lovely faces, or dawns into a
+spirit-landscape, face after face of suffering, in all varieties of
+expression, would crowd, as if compelled by the accompanying fiends, to
+present themselves, in awful levee, before the inner eye of the
+expectant master. Then he would rise, light his lamp, and, with rapid
+hand, make notes of his visions; recording, with swift successive sweeps
+of his pencil, every individual face which had rejoiced his evil fancy.
+Then he would return to his couch, and, well satisfied, fall asleep to
+dream yet further embodiments of human ill.
+
+What wrong could man or mankind have done him, to be thus fearfully
+pursued by the vengeance of the artist's hate?
+
+Another characteristic of the faces and form which he drew was, that
+they were all beautiful in the original idea. The lines of each face,
+however distorted by pain, would have been, in rest, absolutely
+beautiful; and the whole of the execution bore witness to the fact that
+upon this original beauty the painter had directed the artillery of
+anguish to bring down the sky-soaring heights of its divinity to the
+level of a hated existence. To do this, he worked in perfect accordance
+with artistic law, falsifying no line of the original forms. It was the
+suffering, rather than his pencil, that wrought the change. The latter
+was the willing instrument to record what the imagination conceived with
+a cruelty composed enough to be correct.
+
+To enhance the beauty he had thus distorted, and so to enhance yet
+further the suffering that produced the distortion, he would often
+represent attendant demons, whom he made as ugly as his imagination
+could compass; avoiding, however, all grotesqueness beyond what was
+sufficient to indicate that they were demons, and not men. Their
+ugliness rose from hate, envy, and all evil passions; amongst which he
+especially delighted to represent a gloating exultation over human
+distress. And often in the midst of his clouds of demon faces, would
+some one who knew him recognise the painter's own likeness, such as the
+mirror might have presented it to him when he was busiest over the
+incarnation of some exquisite torture.
+
+But apparently with the wish to avoid being supposed to choose such
+representations for their own sakes, he always found a story, often in
+the histories of the church, whose name he gave to the painting, and
+which he pretended to have inspired the pictorial conception. No one,
+however, who looked upon his suffering martyrs, could suppose for a
+moment that he honoured their martyrdom. They were but the vehicles for
+his hate of humanity. He was the torturer, and not Diocletian or Nero.
+
+But, stranger yet to tell, there was no picture, whatever its subject,
+into which he did not introduce one form of placid and harmonious
+loveliness. In this, however, his fierceness was only more fully
+displayed. For in no case did this form manifest any relation either to
+the actors or the endurers in the picture. Hence its very loveliness
+became almost hateful to those who beheld it. Not a shade crossed the
+still sky of that brow, not a ripple disturbed the still sea of that
+cheek. She did not hate, she did not love the sufferers: the painter
+would not have her hate, for that would be to the injury of her
+loveliness: would not have her love, for he hated. Sometimes she floated
+above, as a still, unobservant angel, her gaze turned upward, dreaming
+along, careless as a white summer cloud, across the blue. If she looked
+down on the scene below, it was only that the beholder might see that
+she saw and did not care--that not a feather of her outspread pinions
+would quiver at the sight. Sometimes she would stand in the crowd, as if
+she had been copied there from another picture, and had nothing to do
+with this one, nor any right to be in it at all. Or when the red blood
+was trickling drop by drop from the crushed limb, she might be seen
+standing nearest, smiling over a primrose or the bloom on a peach. Some
+had said that she was the painter's wife; that she had been false to
+him; that he had killed her; and, finding that that was no sufficing
+revenge, thus half in love, and half in deepest hate, immortalised his
+vengeance. But it was now universally understood that it was his
+daughter, of whose loveliness extravagant reports went abroad; though
+all said, doubtless reading this from her father's pictures, that she
+was a beauty without a heart. Strange theories of something else
+supplying its place were rife among the anatomical students. With the
+girl in the pictures, the wild imagination of Lottchen, probably in part
+from her apparently absolute unattainableness and her undisputed
+heartlessness, had fallen in love, as far as the mere imagination can
+fall in love.
+
+But again, how was he to see her? He haunted the house night after
+night. Those blue eyes never met his. No step responsive to his came
+from that door. It seemed to have been so long unopened that it had
+grown as fixed and hard as the stones that held its bolts in their
+passive clasp. He dared not watch in the daytime, and with all his
+watching at night, he never saw father or daughter or domestic cross the
+threshold. Little he thought that, from a shot-window near the door, a
+pair of blue eyes, like Lilith's, but paler and colder, were watching
+him just as a spider watches the fly that is likely ere long to fall
+into his toils. And into those toils Karl soon fell. For her form
+darkened the page; her form stood on the threshold of sleep; and when,
+overcome with watching, he did enter its precincts, her form entered
+with him, and walked by his side. He must find her; or the world might
+go to the bottomless pit for him. But how?
+
+Yes. He would be a painter. Teufelsbuerst would receive him as a humble
+apprentice. He would grind his colours, and Teufelsbuerst would teach him
+the mysteries of the science which is the handmaiden of art. Then he
+might see her, and that was all his ambition.
+
+In the clear morning light of a day in autumn, when the leaves were
+beginning to fall seared from the hand of that Death which has his dance
+in the chapels of nature as well as in the cathedral aisles of men--he
+walked up and knocked at the dingy door. The spider painter opened it
+himself. He was a little man, meagre and pallid, with those faded blue
+eyes, a low nose in three distinct divisions, and thin, curveless, cruel
+lips. He wore no hair on his face; but long grey locks, long as a
+woman's, were scattered over his shoulders, and hung down on his breast.
+When Wolkenlicht had explained his errand, he smiled a smile in which
+hypocrisy could not hide the cunning, and, after many difficulties,
+consented to receive him as a pupil, on condition that he would become
+an inmate of his house. Wolkenlicht's heart bounded with delight, which
+he tried to hide: the second smile of Teufelsbuerst might have shown him
+that he had ill succeeded. The fact that he was not a native of Prague,
+but coming from a distant part of the country, was entirely his own
+master in the city, rendered this condition perfectly easy to fulfil;
+and that very afternoon he entered the studio of Teufelsbuerst as his
+scholar and servant.
+
+It was a great room, filled with the appliances and results of art. Many
+pictures, festooned with cobwebs, were hung carelessly on the dirty
+walls. Others, half finished, leaned against them, on the floor.
+Several, in different stages of progress, stood upon easels. But all
+spoke the cruel bent of the artist's genius. In one corner a lay figure
+was extended on a couch, covered with a pall of black velvet. Through
+its folds, the form beneath was easily discernible; and one hand and
+forearm protruded from beneath it, at right angles to the rest of the
+frame. Lottchen could not help shuddering when he saw it. Although he
+overcame the feeling in a moment, he felt a great repugnance to seating
+himself with his back towards it, as the arrangement of an easel, at
+which Teufelsbuerst wished him to draw, rendered necessary. He contrived
+to edge himself round, so that when he lifted his eyes he should see the
+figure, and be sure that it could not rise without his being aware of
+it. But his master saw and understood his altered position; and under
+some pretence about the light, compelled him to resume the position in
+which he had placed him at first; after which he sat watching, over the
+top of his picture, the expression of his countenance as he tried to
+draw; reading in it the horrid fancy that the figure under the pall had
+risen, and was stealthily approaching to look over his shoulder. But
+Lottchen resisted the feeling, and, being already no contemptible
+draughtsman, was soon interested enough to forget it. And then, any
+moment _she_ might enter.
+
+Now began a system of slow torture, for the chance of which the painter
+had been long on the watch--especially since he had first seen Karl
+lingering about the house. His opportunities of seeing physical
+suffering were nearly enough even for the diseased necessities of his
+art; but now he had one in his power, on whom, his own will fettering
+him, he could try any experiments he pleased for the production of a
+kind of suffering, in the observation of which he did not consider that
+he had yet sufficient experience. He would hold the very heart of the
+youth in his hand, and wring it and torture it to his own content. And
+lest Karl should be strong enough to prevent those expressions of pain
+for which he lay on the watch, he would make use of further means, known
+to himself, and known to few besides.
+
+All that day Karl saw nothing of Lilith; but he heard her voice
+once--and that was enough for one day. The next, she was sitting to her
+father the greater part of the day, and he could see her as often as he
+dared glance up from his drawing. She had looked at him when she
+entered, but had shown no sign of recognition; and all day long she took
+no further notice of him. He hoped, at first, that this came of the
+intelligence of love; but he soon began to doubt it. For he saw that,
+with the holy shadow of sorrow, all that distinguished the expression of
+her countenance from that which the painter so constantly reproduced,
+had vanished likewise. It was the very face of the unheeding angel whom,
+as often as he lifted his eyes higher than hers, he saw on the wall
+above her, playing on a psaltery in the smoke of the torment ascending
+for ever from burning Babylon.--The power of the painter had not merely
+wrought for the representation of the woman of his imagination; it had
+had scope as well in realising her.
+
+Karl soon began to see that communication, other than of the eyes, was
+all but hopeless; and to any attempt in that way she seemed altogether
+indisposed to respond. Nor if she had wished it, would it have been
+safe; for as often as he glanced towards her, instead of hers, he met
+the blue eyes of the painter gleaming upon him like winter lightning.
+His tones, his gestures, his words, seemed kind: his glance and his
+smile refused to be disguised.
+
+The first day he dined alone in the studio, waited upon by an old woman;
+the next he was admitted to the family table, with Teufelsbuerst and
+Lilith. The room offered a strange contrast to the study. As far as
+handicraft, directed by a sumptuous taste, could construct a
+house-paradise, this was one. But it seemed rather a paradise of demons;
+for the walls were covered with Teufelsbuerst's paintings. During the
+dinner, Lilith's gaze scarcely met that of Wolkenlicht; and once or
+twice, when their eyes did meet, her glance was so perfectly
+unconcerned, that Karl wished he might look at her for ever without the
+fear of her looking at him again. She seemed like one whose love had
+rushed out glowing with seraphic fire, to be frozen to death in a more
+than wintry cold: she now walked lonely without her love. In the
+evenings, he was expected to continue his drawing by lamplight; and at
+night he was conducted by Teufelsbuerst to his chamber. Not once did he
+allow him to proceed thither alone, and not once did he leave him there
+without locking and bolting the door on the outside. But he felt nothing
+except the coldness of Lilith.
+
+Day after day she sat to her father, in every variety of costume that
+could best show the variety of her beauty. How much greater that beauty
+might be, if it ever blossomed into a beauty of soul, Wolkenlicht never
+imagined; for he soon loved her enough to attribute to her all the
+possibilities of her face as actual possessions of her being. To account
+for everything that seemed to contradict this perfection, his brain was
+prolific in inventions; till he was compelled at last to see that she
+was in the condition of a rose-bud, which, on the point of blossoming,
+had been chilled into a changeless bud by the cold of an untimely frost.
+For one day, after the father and daughter had become a little more
+accustomed to his silent presence, a conversation began between them,
+which went on until he saw that Teufelsbuerst believed in nothing except
+his art. How much of his feeling for that could be dignified by the name
+of belief, seeing its objects were such as they were, might have been
+questioned. It seemed to Wolkenlicht to amount only to this: that,
+amidst a thousand distastes, it was a pleasant thing to reproduce on the
+canvas the forms he beheld around him, modifying them to express the
+prevailing feelings of his own mind.
+
+A more desolate communication between souls than that which then passed
+between father and daughter could hardly be imagined. The father spoke
+of humanity and all its experiences in a tone of the bitterest scorn. He
+despised men, and himself amongst them; and rejoiced to think that the
+generations rose and vanished, brood after brood, as the crops of corn
+grew and disappeared. Lilith, who listened to it all unmoved, taking
+only an intellectual interest in the question, remarked that even the
+corn had more life than that; for, after its death, it rose again in the
+new crop. Whether she meant that the corn was therefore superior to man,
+forgetting that the superior can produce being without losing its own,
+or only advanced an objection to her father's argument, Wolkenlicht
+could not tell. But Teufelsbuerst laughed like the sound of a saw, and
+said: "Follow out the analogy, my Lilith, and you will see that man is
+like the corn that springs again after it is buried; but unfortunately
+the only result we know of is a vampire."
+
+Wolkenlicht looked up, and saw a shudder pass through the frame, and
+over the pale thin face of the painter. This he could not account for.
+But Teufelsbuerst could have explained it, for there were strange
+whispers abroad, and they had reached his ear; and his philosophy was
+not quite enough for them. But the laugh with which Lilith met this
+frightful attempt at wit, grated dreadfully on Wolkenlicht's feeling.
+With her, too, however, a reaction seemed to follow. For, turning round
+a moment after, and looking at the picture on which her father was
+working, the tears rose in her eyes, and she said: "Oh! father, how like
+my mother you have made me this time!" "Child!" retorted the painter
+with a cold fierceness, "you have no mother. That which is gone out is
+gone out. Put no name in my hearing on that which is not. Where no
+substance is, how can there be a name?"
+
+Lilith rose and left the room. Wolkenlicht now understood that Lilith
+was a frozen bud, and could not blossom into a rose. But pure love lives
+by faith. It loves the vaguely beheld and unrealised ideal. It dares
+believe that the loved is not all that she ever seemed. It is in virtue
+of this that love loves on. And it was in virtue of this, that
+Wolkenlicht loved Lilith yet more after he discovered what a grave of
+misery her unbelief was digging for her within her own soul. For her
+sake he would bear anything--bear even with calmness the torments of his
+own love; he would stay on, hoping and hoping.--The text, that we know
+not what a day may bring forth, is just as true of good things as of
+evil things; and out of Time's womb the facts must come.
+
+But with the birth of this resolution to endure, his suffering abated;
+his face grew more calm; his love, no less earnest, was less imperious;
+and he did not look up so often from his work when Lilith was present.
+The master could see that his pupil was more at ease, and that he was
+making rapid progress in his art. This did not suit his designs, and he
+would betake himself to his further schemes.
+
+For this purpose he proceeded first to simulate a friendship for
+Wolkenlicht, the manifestations of which he gradually increased, until,
+after a day or two, he asked him to drink wine with him in the evening.
+Karl readily agreed. The painter produced some of his best; but took
+care not to allow Lilith to taste it; for he had cunningly prepared and
+mingled with it a decoction of certain herbs and other ingredients,
+exercising specific actions upon the brain, and tending to the
+inordinate excitement of those portions of it which are principally
+under the rule of the imagination. By the reaction of the brain during
+the operation of these stimulants, the imagination is filled with
+suggestions and images. The nature of these is determined by the
+prevailing mood of the time. They are such as the imagination would
+produce of itself, but increased in number and intensity. Teufelsbuerst,
+without philosophising about it, called his preparation simply a
+love-philtre, a concoction well known by name, but the composition of
+which was the secret of only a few. Wolkenlicht had, of course, not the
+least suspicion of the treatment to which he was subjected.
+
+Teufelsbuerst was, however, doomed to fresh disappointment. Not that his
+potion failed in the anticipated effect, for now Karl's real sufferings
+began; but that such was the strength of Karl's will, and his fear of
+doing anything that might give a pretext for banishing him from the
+presence of Lilith, that he was able to conceal his feelings far too
+successfully for the satisfaction of Teufelsbuerst's art. Yet he had to
+fetter himself with all the restraints that self-exhortation could load
+him with, to refrain from falling at the feet of Lilith and kissing the
+hem of her garment. For that, as the lowliest part of all that
+surrounded her, itself kissing the earth, seemed to come nearest within
+the reach of his ambition, and therefore to draw him the most.
+
+No doubt the painter had experience and penetration enough to perceive
+that he was suffering intensely; but he wanted to see the suffering
+embodied in outward signs, bringing it within the region over which his
+pencil held sway. He kept on, therefore, trying one thing after another,
+and rousing the poor youth to agony; till to his other sufferings were
+added, at length, those of failing health; a fact which notified itself
+evidently enough even for Teufelsbuerst, though its signs were not of the
+sort he chiefly desired. But Karl endured all bravely.
+
+Meantime, for various reasons, he scarcely ever left the house.
+
+I must now interrupt the course of my story to introduce another
+element.
+
+A few years before the period of my tale, a certain shoemaker of the
+city had died under circumstances more than suggestive of suicide. He
+was buried, however, with such precautions, that six weeks elapsed
+before the rumour of the facts broke out; upon which rumour, not before,
+the most fearful reports began to be circulated, supported by what
+seemed to the people of Prague incontestable evidence.--A _spectrum_ of
+the deceased appeared to multitudes of persons, playing horrible pranks,
+and occasioning indescribable consternation throughout the whole town.
+This went on till at last, about eight months after his burial, the
+magistrates caused his body to be dug up; when it was found in just the
+condition of the bodies of those who in the eastern countries of Europe
+are called _vampires_. They buried the corpse under the gallows; but
+neither the digging up nor the reburying were of avail to banish the
+spectre. Again the spade and pick-axe were set to work, and the dead man
+being found considerably improved in _condition_ since his last
+interment, was, with various horrible indignities, burnt to ashes,
+"after which the _spectrum_ was never seen more."
+
+And a second epidemic of the same nature had broken out a little before
+the period to which I have brought my story.
+
+About midnight, after a calm frosty day, for it was now winter, a
+terrible storm of wind and snow came on. The tempest howled frightfully
+about the house of the painter, and Wolkenlicht found some solace in
+listening to the uproar, for his troubled thoughts would not allow him
+to sleep. It raged on all the next three days, till about noon on the
+fourth day, when it suddenly fell, and all was calm. The following
+night, Wolkenlicht, lying awake, heard unaccountable noises in the next
+house, as of things thrown about, of kicking and fighting horses, and of
+opening and shutting gates. Flinging wide his lattice and looking out,
+the noise of howling dogs came to him from every quarter of the town.
+The moon was bright and the air was still. In a little while he heard
+the sounds of a horse going at full gallop round the house, so that it
+shook as if it would fall; and flashes of light shone into his room. How
+much of this may have been owing to the effect of the drugs on poor
+Lottchen's brain, I leave my readers to determine. But when the family
+met at breakfast in the morning, Teufelsbuerst, who had been already out
+of doors, reported that he had found the marks of strange feet in the
+snow, all about the house and through the garden at the back; stating,
+as his belief, that the tracks must be continued over the roofs, for
+there was no passage otherwise. There was a wicked gleam in his eye as
+he spoke; and Lilith believed that he was only trying an experiment on
+Karl's nerves. He persisted that he had never seen any footprints of the
+sort before. Karl informed him of his experiences during the night; upon
+which Teufelsbuerst looked a little graver still, and proceeded to tell
+them that the storm, whose snow was still covering the ground, had
+arisen the very moment that their next door neighbour died, and had
+ceased as suddenly the moment he was buried, though it had raved
+furiously all the time of the funeral, so that "it made men's bodies
+quake and their teeth chatter in their heads." Karl had heard that the
+man, whose name was John Kuntz, was dead and buried. He knew that he had
+been a very wealthy, and therefore most respectable, alderman of the
+town; that he had been very fond of horses; and that he had died in
+consequence of a kick received from one of his own, as he was looking at
+his hoof. But he had not heard that, just before he died, a black cat
+"opened the casement with her nails, ran to his bed, and violently
+scratched his face and the bolster, as if she endeavoured by force to
+remove him out of the place where he lay. But the cat afterwards was
+suddenly gone, and she was no sooner gone, but he breathed his last."
+
+So said Teufelsbuerst, as the reporter of the town talk. Lilith looked
+very pale and terrified; and it was perhaps owing to this that the
+painter brought no more tales home with him. There were plenty to bring,
+but he heard them all and said nothing. The fact was that the
+philosopher himself could not resist the infection of the fear that was
+literally raging in the city; and perhaps the reports that he himself
+had sold himself to the devil had sufficient response from his own evil
+conscience to add to the influence of the epidemic upon him. The whole
+place was infested with the presence of the dead Kuntz, till scarce a
+man or woman would dare to be alone. He strangled old men; insulted
+women; squeezed children to death; knocked out the brains of dogs
+against the ground; pulled up posts; turned milk into blood; nearly
+killed a worthy clergyman by breathing upon him the intolerable airs of
+the grave, cold and malignant and noisome; and, in short, filled the
+city with a perfect madness of fear, so that every report was believed
+without the smallest doubt or investigation.
+
+Though Teufelsbuerst brought home no more of the town talk, the old
+servant was a faithful purveyor, and frequented the news-mart
+assiduously. Indeed she had some nightmare experiences of her own that
+she was proud to add to the stock of horrors which the city enjoyed with
+such a hearty community of goods. For those regions were not far removed
+from the birthplace and home of the vampire. The belief in vampires is
+the quintessential concentration and embodiment of all the passion of
+fear in Hungary and the adjacent regions. Nor, of all the other
+inventions of the human imagination, has there ever been one so perfect
+in crawling terror as this. Lilith and Karl were quite familiar with the
+popular ideas on the subject. It did not require to be explained to
+them, that a vampire was a body retaining a kind of animal life after
+the soul had departed. If any relation existed between it and the
+vanished ghost, it was only sufficient to make it restless in its grave.
+Possessed of vitality enough to keep it uncorrupted and pliant, its only
+instinct was a blind hunger for the sole food which could keep its awful
+life persistent--living human blood. Hence it, or, if not it, a sort of
+semi-material exhalation or essence of it, retaining its form and
+material relations, crept from its tomb, and went roaming about till it
+found some one asleep, towards whom it had an attraction, founded on old
+affection. It sucked the blood of this unhappy being, transferring so
+much of its life to itself as a vampire could assimilate. Death was the
+certain consequence. If suspicion conjectured aright, and they opened
+the proper grave, the body of the vampire would be found perfectly fresh
+and plump, sometimes indeed of rather florid complexion;--with grown
+hair, eyes half open, and the stains of recent blood about its greedy,
+leech-like lips. Nothing remained but to consume the corpse to ashes,
+upon which the vampire would show itself no more. But what added
+infinitely to the horror was the certainty that whoever died from the
+mouth of the vampire, wrinkled grandsire or delicate maiden, must in
+turn rise from the grave, and go forth a vampire, to suck the blood of
+the dearest left behind. This was the generation of the vampire brood.
+Lilith trembled at the very name of the creature. Karl was too much in
+love to be afraid of anything. Yet the evident fear of the unbelieving
+painter took a hold of his imagination; and, under the influence of the
+potions of which he still partook unwittingly, when he was not thinking
+about Lilith, he was thinking about the vampire.
+
+Meantime, the condition of things in the painter's household continued
+much the same for Wolkenlicht--work all day; no communication between
+the young people; the dinner and the wine; silent reading when work was
+done, with stolen glances many over the top of the book, glances that
+were never returned; the cold good-night; the locking of the door; the
+wakeful night and the drowsy morning. But at length a change came, and
+sooner than any of the party had expected. For, whether it was that the
+impatience of Teufelsbuerst had urged him to yet more dangerous
+experiments, or that the continuance of those he had been so long
+employing had overcome at length the vitality of Wolkenlicht--one
+afternoon, as he was sitting at his work, he suddenly dropped from his
+chair, and his master hurrying to him in some alarm, found him rigid and
+apparently lifeless. Lilith was not in the study when this took place.
+In justice to Teufelsbuerst, it must be confessed that he employed all
+the skill he was master of, which for beneficent purposes was not very
+great, to restore the youth; but without avail. At last, hearing the
+footsteps of Lilith, he desisted in some consternation; and that she
+might escape being shocked by the sight of a dead body where she had
+been accustomed to see a living one, he removed the lay figure from the
+couch, and laid Karl in its place, covering him with a black velvet
+pall. He was just in time. She started at seeing no one in Karl's place
+and said--
+
+"Where is your pupil, father?"
+
+"Gone home," he answered, with a kind of convulsive grin.
+
+She glanced round the room, caught sight of the lay figure where it had
+not been before, looked at the couch, and saw the pall yet heaved up
+from beneath, opened her eyes till the entire white sweep around the
+iris suggested a new expression of consternation to Teufelsbuerst, though
+from a quarter whence he did not desire or look for it; and then,
+without a word, sat down to a drawing she had been busy upon the day
+before. But her father, glancing at her now, as Wolkenlicht had used to
+do, could not help seeing that she was frightfully pale. She showed no
+other sign of uneasiness. As soon as he released her, she withdrew, with
+one more glance, as she passed, at the couch and the figure blocked out
+in black upon it. She hastened to her chamber, shut and locked the door,
+sat down on the side of the couch, and fell, not a-weeping, but
+a-thinking. Was he dead? What did it matter? They would all be dead
+soon. Her mother was dead already. It was only that the earth could not
+bear more children, except she devoured those to whom she had already
+given birth. But what if they had to come back in another form, and live
+another sad, hopeless, love-less life over again?--And so she went on
+questioning, and receiving no replies; while through all her thoughts
+passed and repassed the eyes of Wolkenlicht, which she had often felt to
+be upon her when she did not see them, wild with repressed longing, the
+light of their love shining through the veil of diffused tears, ever
+gathering and never overflowing. Then came the pale face, so
+worshipping, so distant in its self-withdrawn devotion, slowly dawning
+out of the vapours of her reverie. When it vanished, she tried to see it
+again. It would not come when she called it; but when her thoughts left
+knocking at the door of the lost, and wandered away, out came the pale,
+troubled, silent face again, gathering itself up from some unknown nook
+in her world of phantasy, and once more, when she tried to steady it by
+the fixedness of her own regard, fading back into the mist. So the
+phantasm of the dead drew near and wooed, as the living had never
+dared.--What if there were any good in loving? What if men and women did
+not die all out, but some dim shade of each, like that pale, mind-ghost
+of Wolkenlicht, floated through the eternal vapours of chaos? And what
+if they might sometimes cross each other's path, meet, know that they
+met, love on? Would not that revive the withered memory, fix the
+fleeting ghost, give a new habitation, a body even, to the poor,
+unhoused wanderers, frozen by the eternal frosts, no longer thinking
+beings, but thoughts wandering through the brain of the "Melancholy
+Mass?" Back with the thought came the face of the dead Karl, and the
+maiden threw herself on her bed in a flood of bitter tears. She could
+have loved him if he had only lived: she did love him, for he was dead.
+But even in the midst of the remorse that followed--for had she not
+killed him?--life seemed a less hard and hopeless thing than before. For
+it is love itself and not its responses or results that is the soul of
+life and its pleasures.
+
+Two hours passed ere she could again show herself to her father, from
+whom she seemed in some new way divided by the new feeling in which he
+did not, and could not share. But at last, lest he should seek her, and
+finding her, should suspect her thoughts, she descended and sought
+him.--For there is a maidenliness in sorrow, that wraps her garments
+close around her.--But he was not to be seen; the door of the study was
+locked. A shudder passed through her as she thought of what her father,
+who lost no opportunity of furthering his all but perfect acquaintance
+with the human form and structure, might be about with the figure which
+she knew lay dead beneath that velvet pall, but which had arisen to
+haunt the hollow caves and cells of her living brain. She rushed away,
+and up once more to her silent room, through the darkness which had now
+settled down in the house; threw herself again on her bed, and lay
+almost paralysed with horror and distress.
+
+But Teufelsbuerst was not about anything so frightful as she supposed,
+though something frightful enough. I have already implied that
+Wolkenlicht was, in form, as fine an embodiment of youthful manhood as
+any old Greek republic could have provided one of its sculptors with as
+model for an Apollo. It is true, that to the eye of a Greek artist he
+would not have been more acceptable in consequence of the regimen he had
+been going through for the last few weeks; but the emaciation of
+Wolkenlicht's frame, and the consequent prominence of the muscles,
+indicating the pain he had gone through, were peculiarly attractive to
+Teufelsbuerst.--He was busy preparing to take a cast of the body of his
+dead pupil, that it might aid to the perfection of his future labours.
+
+He was deep in the artistic enjoyment of a form, at the same time so
+beautiful and strong, yet with the lines of suffering in every limb and
+feature, when his daughter's hand was laid on the latch. He started,
+flung the velvet drapery over the body, and went to the door. But Lilith
+had vanished. He returned to his labours. The operation took a long
+time, for he performed it very carefully. Towards midnight, he had
+finished encasing the body in a close-clinging shell of plaster, which,
+when broken off, and fitted together, would be the matrix to the form of
+the dead Wolkenlicht. Before leaving it to harden till the morning, he
+was just proceeding to strengthen it with an additional layer all over,
+when a flash of lightning, reflected in all its dazzle from the snow
+without, almost blinded him. A peal of long-drawn thunder followed; the
+wind rose; and just such a storm came on as had risen some time before
+at the death of Kuntz, whose spectre was still tormenting the city. The
+gnomes of terror, deep hidden in the caverns of Teufelsbuerst's nature,
+broke out jubilant. With trembling hands he tried to cast the pall over
+the awful white chrysalis,--failed, and fled to his chamber. And there
+lay the studio naked to the eyes of the lightning, with its tortured
+forms throbbing out of the dark, and quivering, as with life, in the
+almost continuous palpitations of the light; while on the couch lay the
+motionless mass of whiteness, gleaming blue in the lightning, almost
+more terrible in its crude indications of the human form, than that
+which it enclosed. It lay there as if dropped from some tree of chaos,
+haggard with the snows of eternity--a huge mis-shapen nut, with a corpse
+for its kernel.
+
+But the lightning would soon have revealed a more terrible sight still,
+had there been any eyes to behold it. At midnight, while a peal of
+thunder was just dying away in the distance, the crust of death flew
+asunder, rending in all directions; and, pale as his investiture,
+staring with ghastly eyes, the form of Karl started up sitting on the
+couch. Had he not been far beyond ordinary men in strength, he could not
+thus have rent his sepulchre. Indeed, had Teufelsbuerst been able to
+finish his task by the additional layer of gypsum which he contemplated,
+he must have died the moment life revived; although, so long as the
+trance lasted, neither the exclusion from the air, nor the practical
+solidification of the walls of his chest, could do him any injury. He
+had lain unconscious throughout the operations of Teufelsbuerst, but now
+the catalepsy had passed away, possibly under the influence of the
+electric condition of the atmosphere. Very likely the strength he now
+put forth was intensified by a convulsive reaction of all the powers of
+life, as is not infrequently the case in sudden awakenings from similar
+interruptions of vital activity. The coming to himself and the bursting
+of his case were simultaneous. He sat staring about him, with, of all
+his mental faculties, only his imagination awake, from which the
+thoughts that occupied it when he fell senseless had not yet faded.
+These thoughts had been compounded of feelings about Lilith, and
+speculations about the vampire that haunted the neighbourhood; and the
+fumes of the last drug of which he had partaken, still hovering in his
+brain, combined with these thoughts and fancies to generate the delusion
+that he had just broken from the embrace of his coffin, and risen, the
+last-born of the vampire race. The sense of unavoidable obligation to
+fulfil his doom, was yet mingled with a faint flutter of joy, for he
+knew that he must go to Lilith. With a deep sigh, he rose, gathered up
+the pall of black velvet, flung it around him, stepped from the couch,
+and left the study to find her.
+
+Meantime, Teufelsbuerst had sufficiently recovered to remember that he
+had left the door of the studio unfastened, and that any one entering
+would discover in what he had been engaged, which, in the case of his
+getting into any difficulty about the death of Karl, would tell
+powerfully against him. He was at the farther end of a long passage,
+leading from the house to the studio, on his way to make all secure,
+when Karl appeared at the door, and advanced towards him. The painter,
+seized with invincible terror, turned and fled. He reached his room, and
+fell senseless on the floor. The phantom held on its way, heedless.
+
+Lilith, on gaining her room the second time, had thrown herself on her
+bed as before, and had wept herself into a troubled slumber. She lay
+dreaming--and dreadful dreams. Suddenly she awoke in one of those peals
+of thunder which tormented the high regions of the air, as a storm
+billows the surface of the ocean. She lay awake and listened. As it died
+away, she thought she heard, mingling with its last muffled murmurs, the
+sound of moaning. She turned her face towards the room in keen terror.
+But she saw nothing. Another light, long-drawn sigh reached her ear, and
+at the same moment a flash of lightning illumined the room. In the
+corner farthest from her bed, she spied a white face, nothing more. She
+was dumb and motionless with fear. Utter darkness followed, a darkness
+that seemed to enter into her very brain. Yet she felt that the face was
+slowly crossing the black gulf of the room, and drawing near to where
+she lay. The next flash revealed, as it bended over her, the ghastly
+face of Karl, down which flowed fresh tears. The rest of his form was
+lost in blackness. Lilith did not faint, but it was the very force of
+her fear that seemed to keep her alive. It became for the moment the
+atmosphere of her life. She lay trembling and staring at the spot in the
+darkness where she supposed the face of Karl still to be. But the next
+flash showed her the face far off, looking at her through the panes of
+her lattice-window.
+
+For Lottchen, as soon as he saw Lilith, seemed to himself to go through
+a second stage of awaking. Her face made him doubt whether he could be a
+vampire after all; for instead of wanting to bite her arm and suck the
+blood, he all but fell down at her feet in a passion of speechless love.
+The next moment he became aware that his presence must be at least very
+undesirable to her; and in an instant he had reached her window, which
+he knew looked upon a lower roof that extended between two different
+parts of the house, and before the next flash came, he had stepped
+through the lattice and closed it behind him.
+
+Believing his own room to be attainable from this quarter, he proceeded
+along the roof in the direction he judged best. The cold winter air by
+degrees restored him entirely to his right mind, and he soon
+comprehended the whole of the circumstances in which he found himself.
+Peeping through a window he was passing, to see whether it belonged to
+his room, he spied Teufelsbuerst, who, at the very moment, was lifting
+his head from the faint into which he had fallen at the first sight of
+Lottchen. The moon was shining clear, and in its light the painter saw,
+to his horror, the pale face staring in at his window. He thought it had
+been there ever since he had fainted, and dropped again in a deeper
+swoon than before. Karl saw him fall, and the truth flashed upon him
+that the wicked artist took him for what he had believed himself to be
+when first he recovered from his trance--namely, the vampire of the
+former Karl Wolkenlicht. The moment he comprehended it, he resolved to
+keep up the delusion if possible. Meantime he was innocently preparing a
+new ingredient for the popular dish of horrors to be served at the
+ordinary of the city the next day. For the old servant's were not the
+only eyes that had seen him besides those of Teufelsbuerst. What could be
+more like a vampire, dragging his pall after him, than this apparition
+of poor, half-frozen Lottchen, crawling across the roof? Karl remembered
+afterwards that he had heard the dogs howling awfully in every
+direction, as he crept along; but this was hardly necessary to make
+those who saw him conclude that it was the same phantasm of John Kuntz,
+which had been infesting the whole city, and especially the house next
+door to the painter's, which had been the dwelling of the respectable
+alderman who had degenerated into this most disreputable of moneyless
+vagabonds. What added to the consternation of all who heard of it, was
+the sickening conviction that the extreme measures which they had
+resorted to in order to free the city from the ghoul, beyond which
+nothing could be done, had been utterly unavailing, successful as they
+had proved in every other known case of the kind. For, urged as well by
+various horrid signs about his grave, which not even its close proximity
+to the altar could render a place of repose, they had opened it, had
+found in the body every peculiarity belonging to a vampire, had pulled
+it out with the greatest difficulty on account of a quite supernatural
+ponderosity; which rendered the horse which had killed him--a strong
+animal--all but unable to drag it along, and had at last, after cutting
+it in pieces, and expending on the fire two hundred and sixteen great
+billets, succeeded in conquering its incombustibleness, and reducing it
+to ashes. Such, at least, was the story which had reached the painter's
+household, and was believed by many; and if all this did not compel the
+perturbed corpse to rest, what more could be done?
+
+When Karl had reached his room, and was dressing himself, the thought
+struck him that something might be made of the report of the extreme
+weight of the body of old Kuntz, to favour the continuance of the
+delusion of Teufelsbuerst, although he hardly knew yet to what use he
+could turn this delusion. He was convinced that he would have made no
+progress however long he might have remained in his house; and that he
+would have more chance of favour with Lilith if he were to meet her in
+any other circumstances whatever than those in which he invariably saw
+her--namely, surrounded by her father's influences, and watched by her
+father's cold blue eyes.
+
+As soon as he was dressed, he crept down to the studio, which was now
+quiet enough, the storm being over, and the moon filling it with her
+steady shine. In the corner lay in all directions the fragments of the
+mould which his own body had formed and filled. The bag of plaster and
+the bucket of water which the painter had been using stood beside.
+Lottchen gathered all the pieces together, and then making his way to an
+outhouse where he had seen various odds and ends of rubbish lying, chose
+from the heap as many pieces of old iron and other metal as he could
+find. To these he added a few large stones from the garden. When he had
+got all into the studio, he locked the door, and proceeded to fit
+together the parts of the mould, filling up the hollow as he went on
+with the heaviest things he could get into it, and solidifying the whole
+by pouring in plaster; till, having at length completed it, and
+obliterated, as much as possible, the marks of joining, he left it to
+harden, with the conviction that now it would make a considerable
+impression on Teufelsbuerst's imagination, as well as on his muscular
+sense. He then left everything else as nearly undisturbed as he could;
+and, knowing all the ways of the house, was soon in the street, without
+leaving any signs of his exit.
+
+Karl soon found himself before the house in which his friend
+Hoellenrachen resided. Knowing his studious habits, he had hoped to see
+his light still burning, nor was he disappointed. He contrived to bring
+him to his window, and a moment after, the door was cautiously opened.
+
+"Why, Lottchen, where do you come from?"
+
+"From the grave, Heinrich, or next door to it."
+
+"Come in, and tell me all about it. We thought the old painter had made
+a model of you, and tortured you to death."
+
+"Perhaps you were not far wrong. But get me a horn of ale, for even a
+vampire is thirsty, you know."
+
+"A vampire!" exclaimed Heinrich, retreating a pace, and involuntarily
+putting himself upon his guard.
+
+Karl laughed.
+
+"My hand was warm, was it not, old fellow?" he said. "Vampires are cold,
+all but the blood."
+
+"What a fool I am!" rejoined Heinrich. "But you know we have been
+hearing such horrors lately that a fellow may be excused for shuddering
+a little when a pale-faced apparition tells him at two o'clock in the
+morning that he is a vampire, and thirsty, too."
+
+Karl told him the whole story; and the mental process of regarding it
+for the sake of telling it, revealed to him pretty clearly some of the
+treatment of which he had been unconscious at the time. Heinrich was
+quite sure that his suspicions were correct. And now the question was,
+what was to be done next?
+
+"At all events," said Heinrich, "we must keep you out of the way for
+some time. I will represent to my landlady that you are in hiding from
+enemies, and her heart will rule her tongue. She can let you have a
+garret-room, I know; and I will do as well as I can to bear you company.
+We shall have time then to invent some plan of operation."
+
+To this proposal Karl agreed with hearty thanks, and soon all was
+arranged. The only conclusion they could yet arrive at was, that somehow
+or other the old demon-painter must be tamed.
+
+Meantime, how fared it with Lilith? She too had no doubt that she had
+seen the body-ghost of poor Karl, and that the vampire had, according to
+rule, paid her the first visit because he loved her best. This was
+horrible enough if the vampire were not really the person he
+represented; but if in any sense it were Karl himself, at least it gave
+some expectation of a more prolonged existence than her father had
+taught her to look for; and if love anything like her mother's still
+lasted, even along with the habits of a vampire, there was something to
+hope for in the future. And then, though he had visited her, he had not,
+as far as she was aware, deprived her of a drop of blood. She could not
+be certain that he had not bitten her, for she had been in such a
+strange condition of mind that she might not have felt it, but she
+believed that he had restrained the impulses of his vampire nature, and
+had left her, lest he should yet yield to them. She fell fast asleep;
+and, when morning came, there was not, as far as she could judge, one of
+those triangular leech-like perforations to be found upon her whole
+body. Will it be believed that the moment she was satisfied of this, she
+was seized by a terrible jealousy, lest Karl should have gone and bitten
+some one else? Most people will wonder that she should not have gone out
+of her senses at once; but there was all the difference between a visit
+from a real vampire and a visit from a man she had begun to love, even
+although she took him for a vampire. All the difference does _not_ lie
+in a name. They were very different causes, and the effects must be very
+different.
+
+When Teufelsbuerst came down in the morning, he crept into the studio
+like a murderer. There lay the awful white block, seeming to his eyes
+just the same as he had left it. What was to be done with it? He dared
+not open it. Mould and model must go together. But whither? If inquiry
+should be made after Wolkenlicht, and this were discovered anywhere on
+his premises, would it not be enough to bring him at once to the
+gallows? Therefore it would be dangerous to bury it in the garden, or in
+the cellar.
+
+"Besides," thought he, with a shudder, "that would be to fix the vampire
+as a guest for ever."--And the horrors of the past night rushed back
+upon his imagination with renewed intensity. What would it be to have
+the dead Karl crawling about his house for ever, now inside, now out,
+now sitting on the stairs, now staring in at the windows?
+
+He would have dragged it to the bottom of his garden, past which the
+Moldau flowed, and plunged it into the stream; but then, should the
+spectre continue to prove troublesome, it would be almost impossible to
+reach the body so as to destroy it by fire; besides which, he could not
+do it without assistance, and the probability of discovery. If, however,
+the apparition should turn out to be no vampire, but only a respectable
+ghost, they might manage to endure its presence, till it should be weary
+of haunting them.
+
+He resolved at last to convey the body for the meantime into a concealed
+cellar in the house, seeing something must be done before his daughter
+came down. Proceeding to remove it, his consternation as greatly
+increased when he discovered how the body had grown in weight since he
+had thus disposed of it, leaving on his mind scarcely a hope that it
+could turn out not to be a vampire after all. He could scarcely stir it,
+and there was but one whom he could call to his assistance--the old
+woman who acted as his housekeeper and servant.
+
+He went to her room, roused her, and told her the whole story. Devoted
+to her master for many years, and not quite so sensitive to fearful
+influences as when less experienced in horrors, she showed immediate
+readiness to render him assistance. Utterly unable, however, to lift the
+mass between them, they could only drag and push it along; and such a
+slow toil was it that there was no time to remove the traces of its
+track, before Lilith came down and saw a broad white line leading from
+the door of the studio down the cellarstairs. She knew in a moment what
+it meant; but not a word was uttered about the matter, and the name of
+Karl Wolkenlicht seemed to be entirely forgotten.
+
+But how could the affairs of a house go on all the same when every one
+of the household knew that a dead body lay in the cellar?--nay more,
+that, although it lay still and dead enough all day, it would come half
+alive at nightfall, and, turning the whole house into a sepulchre by its
+presence, go creeping about like a cat all over it in the dark--perhaps
+with phosphorescent eyes? So it was not surprising that the painter
+abandoned his studio early, and that the three found themselves together
+in the gorgeous room formerly described, as soon as twilight began to
+fall.
+
+Already Teufelsbuerst had begun to experience a kind of shrinking from
+the horrid faces in his own pictures, and to feel disgusted at the
+abortions of his own mind. But all that he and the old woman now felt
+was an increasing fear as the night drew on, a kind of sickening and
+paralysing terror. The thing down there would not lie quiet--at least
+its phantom in the cellars of their imagination would not. As much as
+possible, however, they avoided alarming Lilith, who, knowing all they
+knew, was as silent as they. But her mind was in a strange state of
+excitement, partly from the presence of a new sense of love, the
+pleasure of which all the atmosphere of grief into which it grew could
+not totally quench. It comforted her somehow, as a child may comfort
+when his father is away.
+
+Bedtime came, and no one made a move to go. Without a word spoken on the
+subject, the three remained together all night; the elders nodding and
+slumbering occasionally, and Lilith getting some share of repose on a
+couch. All night the shape of death might be somewhere about the house;
+but it did not disturb them. They heard no sound, saw no sight; and when
+the morning dawned, they separated, chilled and stupid, and for the time
+beyond fear, to seek repose in their private chambers. There they
+remained equally undisturbed.
+
+But when the painter approached his easel a few hours after, looking
+more pale and haggard still than he was wont, from the fears of the
+night, a new bewilderment took possession of him. He had been busy with
+a fresh embodiment of his favourite subject, into which he had sketched
+the form of the student as the sufferer. He had represented poor
+Wolkenlicht as just beginning to recover from a trance, while a group of
+surgeons, unaware of the signs of returning life, were absorbed in a
+minute dissection of one of the limbs. At an open door he had painted
+Lilith passing, with her face buried in a bunch of sweet peas. But when
+he came to the picture, he found, to his astonishment and terror, that
+the face of one of the group was now turned towards that of the victim,
+regarding his revival with demoniac satisfaction, and taking pains to
+prevent the others from discovering it. The face of this prince of
+torturers was that of Teufelsbuerst himself. Lilith had altogether
+vanished, and in her place stood the dim vampire reiteration of the body
+that lay extended on the table, staring greedily at the assembled
+company. With trembling hands the painter removed the picture from the
+easel, and turned its face to the wall.
+
+Of course this was the work of Lottchen. When he left the house, he took
+with him the key of a small private door, which was so seldom used that,
+while it remained closed, the key would not be missed, perhaps for many
+months. Watching the windows, he had chosen a safe time to enter, and
+had been hard at work all night on these alterations. Teufelsbuerst
+attributed them to the vampire, and left the picture as he found it, not
+daring to put brush to it again.
+
+The next night was passed much after the same fashion. But the fear had
+begun to die away a little in the hearts of the women, who did not know
+what had taken place in the studio on the previous night. It burrowed,
+however, with gathered force in the vitals of Teufelsbuerst. But this
+night likewise passed in peace; and before it was over, the old woman
+had taken to speculating in her own mind as to the best way of disposing
+of the body, seeing it was not at all likely to be troublesome. But when
+the painter entered his studio in trepidation the next morning, he found
+that the form of the lovely Lilith was painted out of every picture in
+the room. This could not be concealed; and Lilith and the servant became
+aware that the studio was the portion of the house in haunting which the
+vampire left the rest in peace.
+
+Karl recounted all the tricks he had played to his friend Heinrich, who
+begged to be allowed to bear him company the following night. To this
+Karl consented, thinking it would be considerably more agreeable to have
+a companion. So they took a couple of bottles of wine and some
+provisions with them, and before midnight found themselves snug in the
+studio. They sat very quiet for some time, for they knew that if they
+were seen, two vampires would not be so terrible as one, and might
+occasion discovery. But at length Heinrich could bear it no longer.
+
+"I say, Lottchen, let's go and look; for your dead body. What has the
+old beggar done with it?"
+
+"I think I know. Stop; let me peep out. All right! Come along."
+
+With a lamp in his hand, he led the way to the cellars, and after
+searching about a little they discovered it.
+
+"It looks horrid enough," said Heinrich, "but think a drop or two of
+wine would brighten it up a little."
+
+So he took a bottle from his pocket, and after they had had a glass
+apiece, he dropped a third in blots all over the plaster. Being red
+wine, it had the effect Hoellenrachen desired.
+
+"When they visit it next, they will know that the vampire can find the
+food he prefers," said he.
+
+In a corner close by the plaster, they found the clothes Karl had worn.
+
+"Hillo!" said Heinrich, "we'll make something of this find."
+
+So he carried them with him to the studio. There he got hold of the
+lay-figure.
+
+"What are you about, Heinrich?"
+
+"Going to make a scarecrow to keep the ravens off old Teufel's
+pictures," answered Heinrich, as he went on dressing the lay-figure in
+Karl's clothes. He next seated the creature at an easel with its back to
+the door, so that it should be the first thing the painter should see
+when he entered. Karl meant to remove this before he went, for it was
+too comical to fall in with the rest of his proceedings. But the two sat
+down to their supper, and by the time they had finished the wine, they
+thought they should like to go to bed. So they got up and went home, and
+Karl forgot the lay-figure, leaving it in busy motionlessness all night
+before the easel. When Teufelsbuerst saw it, he turned and fled with a
+cry that brought his daughter to his help. He rushed past her, able only
+to articulate:
+
+"The vampire! The vampire! Painting!"
+
+Far more courageous than he, because her conscience was more peaceful,
+Lilith passed on to the studio. She too recoiled a step or two when she
+saw the figure; but with the sight of the back of Karl, as she supposed
+it to be, came the longing to see the face that was on the other side.
+So she crept round and round by the wall, as far off as she could. The
+figure remained motionless. It was a strange kind of shock that she
+experienced when she saw the face, disgusting from its inanity. The
+absurdity next struck her; and with the absurdity flashed into her mind
+the conviction that this was not the doing of a vampire; for of all
+creatures under the moon, he could not be expected to be a humorist. A
+wild hope sprang up in her mind that Karl was not dead. Of this she soon
+resolved to make herself sure.
+
+She closed the door of the studio; in the strength of her new hope
+undressed the figure, put it in its place, concealed the garments--all
+the work of a few minutes; and then, finding her father just recovering
+from the worst of his fear, told him there was nothing in the studio but
+what ought to be there, and persuaded him to go and see. He not only saw
+no one, but found that no further liberties had been taken with his
+pictures. Reassured, he soon persuaded himself that the spectre in this
+case had been the offspring of his own terror-haunted brain. But he had
+no spirit for painting now. He wandered about the house, himself
+haunting it like a restless ghost.
+
+When night came, Lilith retired to her own room. The waters of fear had
+begun to subside in the house; but the painter and his old attendant did
+not yet follow her example.
+
+As soon, however, as the house was quite still, Lilith glided
+noiselessly down the stairs, went into the studio, where as yet there
+assuredly was no vampire, and concealed herself in a corner.
+
+As it would not do for an earnest student like Heinrich to be away from
+his work very often, he had not asked to accompany Lottchen this time.
+And indeed Karl himself, a little anxious about the result of the
+scarecrow, greatly preferred going alone.
+
+While she was waiting for what might happen, the conviction grew upon
+Lilith, as she reviewed all the past of the story, that these phenomena
+were the work of the real Karl, and of no vampire. In a few moments she
+was still more sure of this. Behind the screen where she had taken
+refuge, hung one of the pictures out of which her portrait had been
+painted the night before last. She had taken a lamp with her into the
+studio, with the intention of extinguishing it the moment she heard any
+sign of approach; but as the vampire lingered, she began to occupy
+herself with examining the picture beside her. She had not looked at it
+long, before she wetted the tip of her forefinger, and began to rub away
+at the obliteration. Her suspicions were instantly confirmed: the
+substance employed was only a gummy wash over the paint. The delight she
+experienced at the discovery threw her into a mischievous humour.
+
+"I will see," she said to herself, "whether I cannot match Karl
+Wolkenlicht at this game."
+
+In a closet in the room hung a number of costumes, which Lilith had at
+different times worn for her father. Among them was a large white
+drapery, which she easily disposed as a shroud. With the help of some
+chalk, she soon made herself ghastly enough, and then placing her lamp
+on the floor behind the screen, and setting a chair over it, so that it
+should throw no light in any direction, she waited once more for the
+vampire. Nor had she much longer to wait. She soon heard a door move,
+the sound of which she hardly knew, and then the studio door opened. Her
+heart beat dreadfully, not with fear lest it should be a vampire after
+all, but with hope that it was Karl. To see him once more was too great
+joy. Would she not make up to him for all her coldness! But would he
+care for her now? Perhaps he had been quite cured of his longing for a
+hard heart like hers. She peeped. It was he sure enough, looking as
+handsome as ever. He was holding his light to look at her last work, and
+the expression of his face, even in regarding her handiwork, was enough
+to let her know that he loved her still. If she had not seen this, she
+dared not have shown herself from her hiding-place. Taking the lamp in
+her hand, she got upon the chair, and looked over the screen, letting
+the light shine from below upon her face. She then made a slight noise
+to attract Karl's attention. He looked up, evidently rather startled,
+and saw the face of Lilith in the air: He gave a stifled cry threw
+himself on his knees with his arms stretched towards her, and moaned--
+
+"I have killed her! I have killed her!"
+
+Lilith descended, and approached him noiselessly. He did not move. She
+came close to him and said--
+
+"Are you Karl Wolkenlicht?"
+
+His lips moved, but no sound came.
+
+"If you are a vampire, and I am a ghost," she said--but a low happy
+laugh alone concluded the sentence.
+
+Karl sprang to his feet. Lilith's laugh changed into a burst of sobbing
+and weeping, and in another moment the ghost was in the arms of the
+vampire.
+
+Lilith had no idea how far her father had wronged Karl, and though, from
+thinking over the past, he had no doubt that the painter had drugged
+him, he did not wish to pain her by imparting this conviction. But
+Lilith was afraid of a reaction of rage and hatred in her father after
+the terror was removed; and Karl saw that he might thus be deprived of
+all further intercourse with Lilith, and all chance of softening the old
+man's heart towards him; while Lilith would not hear of forsaking him
+who had banished all the human race but herself. They managed at length
+to agree upon a plan of operation.
+
+The first thing they did was to go to the cellar where the plaster mass
+lay, Karl carrying with him a great axe used for cleaving wood. Lilith
+shuddered when she saw it, stained as it was with the wine Heinrich had
+spilt over it, and almost believed herself the midnight companion of a
+vampire after all, visiting with him the terrible corpse in which he
+lived all day. But Karl soon reassured her; and a few good blows of the
+axe revealed a very different core to that which Teufelsbuerst supposed
+to be in it. Karl broke it into pieces, and with Lilith's help, who
+insisted on carrying her share, the whole was soon at the bottom of the
+Moldau and every trace of its ever having existed removed. Before
+morning, too, the form of Lilith had dawned anew in every picture. There
+was no time to restore to its former condition the one Karl had first
+altered; for in it the changes were all that they seemed; nor indeed was
+he capable of restoring it in the master's style; but they put it quite
+out of the way, and hoped that sufficient time might elapse before the
+painter thought of it again.
+
+When they had done, and Lilith, for all his entreaties, would remain
+with him no longer, Karl took his former clothes with him, and having
+spent the rest of the night in his old room, dressed in them in the
+morning. When Teufelsbuerst entered his studio next day, there sat Karl,
+as if nothing had happened, finishing the drawing on which he had been
+at work when the fit of insensibility came upon him. The painter
+started, stared, rubbed his eyes, thought it was another spectral
+illusion, and was on the point of yielding to his terror, when Karl
+rose, and approached him with a smile. The healthy, sunshiny countenance
+of Karl, let him be ghost or goblin, could not fail to produce somewhat
+of a tranquillising effect on Teufelsbuerst. He took his offered hand
+mechanically, his countenance utterly vacant with idiotic bewilderment.
+Karl said--
+
+"I was not well, and thought it better to pay a visit to a friend for a
+few days; but I shall soon make up for lost time, for I am all right
+now."
+
+He sat down at once, taking no notice of his master's behaviour, and
+went on with his drawing. Teufelsbuerst stood staring at him for some
+minutes without moving, then suddenly turned and left the room. Karl
+heard him hurrying down the cellar stairs. In a few moments he came up
+again. Karl stole a glance at him. There he stood in the same spot, no
+doubt more full of bewilderment than ever, but it was not possible that
+his face should express more. At last he went to his easel, and sat down
+with a long-drawn sigh as if of relief. But though he sat at his easel,
+he painted none that day; and as often as Karl ventured a glance, he saw
+him still staring at him. The discovery that his pictures were restored
+to their former condition aided, no doubt, in leading him to the same
+conclusion as the other facts, whatever that conclusion might
+be--probably that he had been the sport of some evil power, and had been
+for the greater part of a week utterly bewitched. Lilith had taken care
+to instruct the old woman, with whom she was all-powerful; and as
+neither of them showed the smallest traces of the astonishment which
+seemed to be slowly vitrifying his own brain, he was at last perfectly
+satisfied that things had been going on all right everywhere but in his
+inner man; and in this conclusion he certainly was not far wrong, in
+more senses than one. But when all was restored again to the old
+routine, it became evident that the peculiar direction of his art in
+which he had hitherto indulged had ceased to interest him. The shock had
+acted chiefly upon that part of his mental being which had been so
+absorbed. He would sit for hours without doing anything, apparently
+plunged in meditation.--Several weeks elapsed without any change, and
+both Lilith and Karl were getting dreadfully anxious about him. Karl
+paid him every attention; and the old man, for he now looked much older
+than before, submitted to receive his services as well as those of
+Lilith. At length, one morning, he said in a slow thoughtful tone--
+
+"Karl Wolkenlicht, I should like to paint you."
+
+"Certainly, sir," answered Karl, jumping up, "where would you like me to
+sit?"
+
+So the ice of silence and inactivity was broken, and the painter drew
+and painted; and the spring of his art flowed once more; and he made a
+beautiful portrait of Karl--a portrait without evil or suffering. And as
+soon as he had finished Karl, he began once more to paint Lilith; and
+when he had painted her, he composed a picture for the very purpose of
+introducing them together; and in this picture there was neither
+ugliness nor torture, but human feeling and human hope instead. Then
+Karl knew that he might speak to him of Lilith; and he spoke, and was
+heard with a smile. But he did not dare to tell him the truth of the
+vampire story till one day that Teufelsbuerst was lying on the floor of a
+room in Karl's ancestral castle, half smothered in grandchildren; when
+the only answer it drew from the old man was a kind of shuddering laugh
+and the words "Don't speak of it, Karl, my boy!"
+
+
+
+
+THE CASTLE
+
+
+
+
+On the top of a high cliff, forming part of the base of a great
+mountain, stood a lofty castle. When or how it was built, no man knew;
+nor could any one pretend to understand its architecture. Every one who
+looked upon it felt that it was lordly and noble; and where one part
+seemed not to agree with another, the wise and modest dared not to call
+them incongruous, but presumed that the whole might be constructed on
+some higher principle of architecture than they yet understood. What
+helped them to this conclusion was, that no one had ever seen the whole
+of the edifice; that, even of the portion best known, some part or other
+was always wrapped in thick folds of mist from the mountain; and that,
+when the sun shone upon this mist, the parts of the building that
+appeared through the vaporous veil were strangely glorified in their
+indistinctness, so that they seemed to belong to some aerial abode in
+the land of the sunset; and the beholders could hardly tell whether they
+had ever seen them before, or whether they were now for the first time
+partially revealed.
+
+Nor, although it was inhabited, could certain information be procured as
+to its internal construction. Those who dwelt in it often discovered
+rooms they had never entered before--yea, once or twice,--whole suites
+of apartments, of which only dim legends had been handed down from
+former times. Some of them expected to find, one day, secret places,
+filled with treasures of wondrous jewels; amongst which they hoped to
+light upon Solomon's ring, which had for ages disappeared from the
+earth, but which had controlled the spirits, and the possession of which
+made a man simply what a man should be, the king of the world. Now and
+then, a narrow, winding stair, hitherto untrodden, would bring them
+forth on a new turret, whence new prospects of the circumjacent country
+were spread out before them. How many more of these there might be, or
+how much loftier, no one could tell. Nor could the foundations of the
+castle in the rock on which it was built be determined with the smallest
+approach to precision. Those of the family who had given themselves to
+exploring in that direction, found such a labyrinth of vaults and
+passages, and endless successions of down-going stairs, out of one
+underground space into a yet lower, that they came to the conclusion
+that at least the whole mountain was perforated and honeycombed in this
+fashion. They had a dim consciousness, too, of the presence, in those
+awful regions, of beings whom they could not comprehend. Once they came
+upon the brink of a great black gulf, in which the eye could see nothing
+but darkness: they recoiled with horror; for the conviction flashed upon
+them that that gulf went down into the very central spaces of the earth,
+of which they had hitherto been wandering only in the upper crust; nay,
+that the seething blackness before them had relations mysterious, and
+beyond human comprehension, with the far-off voids of space, into which
+the stars dare not enter.
+
+At the foot of the cliff whereon the castle stood, lay a deep lake,
+inaccessible save by a few avenues, being surrounded on all sides with
+precipices which made the water look very black, although it was pure as
+the nightsky. From a door in the castle, which was not to be otherwise
+entered, a broad flight of steps, cut in the rock, went down to the
+lake, and disappeared below its surface. Some thought the steps went to
+the very bottom of the water.
+
+Now in this castle there dwelt a large family of brothers and sisters.
+They had never seen their father or mother. The younger had been
+educated by the elder, and these by an unseen care and ministration,
+about the sources of which they had, somehow or other, troubled
+themselves very little--for what people are accustomed to, they regard
+as coming from nobody; as if help and progress and joy and love were the
+natural crops of Chaos or old Night. But Tradition said that one day--it
+was utterly uncertain _when_--their father would come, and leave them no
+more; for he was still alive, though where he lived nobody knew. In the
+meantime all the rest had to obey their eldest brother, and listen to
+his counsels.
+
+But almost all the family was very fond of liberty, as they called it;
+and liked to run up and down, hither and thither, roving about, with
+neither law nor order, just as they pleased. So they could not endure
+their brother's tyranny, as they called it. At one time they said that
+he was only one of themselves, and therefore they would not obey him; at
+another, that he was not like them, and could not understand them, and
+_therefore_ they would not obey him. Yet, sometimes, when he came and
+looked them full in the face, they were terrified, and dared not
+disobey, for he was stately and stern and strong. Not one of them loved
+him heartily, except the eldest sister, who was very beautiful and
+silent, and whose eyes shone as if light lay somewhere deep behind them.
+Even she, although she loved him, thought him very hard sometimes; for
+when he had once said a thing plainly, he could not be persuaded to
+think it over again. So even she forgot him sometimes, and went her own
+ways, and enjoyed herself without him. Most of them regarded him as a
+sort of watchman, whose business it was to keep them in order; and so
+they were indignant and disliked him. Yet they all had a secret feeling
+that they ought to be subject to him; and after any particular act of
+disregard, none of them could think, with any peace, of the old story
+about the return of their father to his house. But indeed they never
+thought much about it, or about their father at all; for how could those
+who cared so little for their brother, whom they saw every day, care for
+their father whom they had never seen?--One chief cause of complaint
+against him was that he interfered with their favourite studies and
+pursuits; whereas he only sought to make them give up trifling with
+earnest things, and seek for truth, and not for amusement, from the many
+wonders around them. He did not want them to turn to other studies, or
+to eschew pleasures; but, in those studies, to seek the highest things
+most, and other things in proportion to their true worth and nobleness.
+This could not fail to be distasteful to those who did not care for what
+was higher than they. And so matters went on for a time. They thought
+they could do better without their brother; and their brother knew they
+could not do at all without him, and tried to fulfil the charge
+committed into his hands.
+
+At length, one day, for the thought seemed to strike them
+simultaneously, they conferred together about giving a great
+entertainment in their grandest rooms to any of their neighbours who
+chose to come, or indeed to any inhabitants of the earth or air who
+would visit them. They were too proud to reflect that some company might
+defile even the dwellers in what was undoubtedly the finest palace on
+the face of the earth. But what made the thing worse, was, that the old
+tradition said that these rooms were to be kept entirely for the use of
+the owner of the castle. And, indeed, whenever they entered them, such
+was the effect of their loftiness and grandeur upon their minds, that
+they always thought of the old story, and could not help believing it.
+Nor would the brother permit them to forget it now; but, appearing
+suddenly amongst them, when they had no expectation of being interrupted
+by him, he rebuked them, both for the indiscriminate nature of their
+invitation, and for the intention of introducing any one, not to speak
+of some who would doubtless make their appearance on the evening in
+question, into the rooms kept sacred for the use of the unknown father.
+But by this time their talk with each other had so excited their
+expectations of enjoyment, which had previously been strong enough, that
+anger sprung up within them at the thought of being deprived of their
+hopes, and they looked each other in the eyes; and the look said: "We
+are many and he is one--let us get rid of him, for he is always finding
+fault, and thwarting us in the most innocent pleasures;--as if we would
+wish to do anything wrong!" So without a word spoken, they rushed upon
+him; and although he was stronger than any of them, and struggled hard
+at first, yet they overcame him at last. Indeed some of them thought he
+yielded to their violence long before they had the mastery of him; and
+this very submission terrified the more tender-hearted amongst them.
+However, they bound him; carried him down many stairs, and, having
+remembered an iron staple in the wall of a certain vault, with a thick
+rusty chain attached to it, they bore him thither, and made the chain
+fast around him. There they left him, shutting the great gnarring brazen
+door of the vault, as they departed for the upper regions of the castle.
+
+Now all was in a tumult of preparation. Every one was talking of the
+coming festivity; but no one spoke of the deed they had done. A sudden
+paleness overspread the face, now of one, and now of another; but it
+passed away, and no one took any notice of it; they only plied the task
+of the moment the more energetically. Messengers were sent far and near,
+not to individuals or families, but publishing in all places of
+concourse a general invitation to any who chose to come on a certain
+day, and partake for certain succeeding days of the hospitality of the
+dwellers in the castle. Many were the preparations immediately begun for
+complying with the invitation. But the noblest of their neighbours
+refused to appear; not from pride, but because of the unsuitableness and
+carelessness of such a mode. With some of them it was an old condition
+in the tenure of their estates, that they should go to no one's dwelling
+except visited in person, and expressly solicited. Others, knowing what
+sort of persons would be there, and that, from a certain physical
+antipathy, they could scarcely breathe in their company, made up their
+minds at once not to go. Yet multitudes, many of them beautiful and
+innocent as well as gay, resolved to appear.
+
+Meanwhile the great rooms of the castle were got in readiness--that is,
+they proceeded to deface them with decorations; for there was a
+solemnity and stateliness about them in their ordinary condition, which
+was at once felt to be unsuitable for the light-hearted company so soon
+to move about in them with the self-same carelessness with which men
+walk abroad within the great heavens and hills and clouds. One day,
+while the workmen were busy, the eldest sister, of whom I have already
+spoken, happened to enter, she knew not why. Suddenly the great idea of
+the mighty halls dawned upon her, and filled her soul. The so-called
+decorations vanished from her view, and she felt as if she stood in her
+father's presence. She was at one elevated and humbled. As suddenly the
+idea faded and fled, and she beheld but the gaudy festoons and draperies
+and paintings which disfigured the grandeur. She wept and sped away. Now
+it was too late to interfere, and things must take their course. She
+would have been but a Cassandra-prophetess to those who saw but the
+pleasure before them. She had not been present when her brother was
+imprisoned; and indeed for some days had been so wrapt in her own
+business, that she had taken but little heed of anything that was going
+on. But they all expected her to show herself when the company was
+gathered; and they had applied to her for advice at various times during
+their operations.
+
+At length the expected hour arrived, and the company began to assemble.
+It was a warm summer evening. The dark lake reflected the rose-coloured
+clouds in the west, and through the flush rowed many gaily painted
+boats, with various coloured flags, towards the massy rock on which the
+castle stood. The trees and flowers seemed already asleep, and breathing
+forth their sweet dream-breath. Laughter and low voices rose from the
+breast of the lake to the ears of the youths and maidens looking forth
+expectant from the lofty windows. They went down to the broad platform
+at the top of the stairs in front of the door to receive their visitors.
+By degrees the festivities of the evening commenced. The same smiles
+flew forth both at eyes and lips, darting like beams through the
+gathering crowd. Music, from unseen sources, now rolled in billows, now
+crept in ripples through the sea of air that filled the lofty rooms. And
+in the dancing halls, when hand took hand, and form and motion were
+moulded and swayed by the indwelling music, it governed not these alone,
+but, as the ruling spirit of the place, every new burst of music for a
+new dance swept before it a new and accordant odour, and dyed the flames
+that glowed in the lofty lamps with a new and accordant stain. The
+floors bent beneath the feet of the time-keeping dancers. But twice in
+the evening some of the inmates started, and the pallor occasionally
+common to the household overspread their faces, for they felt underneath
+them a counter-motion to the dance, as if the floor rose slightly to
+answer their feet. And all the time their brother lay below in the
+dungeon, like John the Baptist in the castle of Herod, when the lords
+and captains sat around, and the daughter of Herodias danced before
+them. Outside, all around the castle, brooded the dark night unheeded;
+for the clouds had come up from all sides, and were crowding together
+overhead. In the unfrequent pauses of the music, they might have heard,
+now and then, the gusty rush of a lonely wind, coming and going no one
+could know whence or whither, born and dying unexpected and unregarded.
+
+But when the festivities were at their height, when the external and
+passing confidence which is produced between superficial natures by a
+common pleasure was at the full, a sudden crash of thunder quelled the
+music, as the thunder quells the noise of the uplifted sea. The windows
+were driven in, and torrents of rain, carried in the folds of a rushing
+wind, poured into the halls. The lights were swept away; and the great
+rooms, now dark within, were darkened yet more by the dazzling shoots of
+flame from the vault of blackness overhead. Those that ventured to look
+out of the windows saw, in the blue brilliancy of the quick-following
+jets of lightning, the lake at the foot of the rock, ordinarily so still
+and so dark, lighted up, not on the surface only, but down to half its
+depth; so that, as it tossed in the wind, like a tortured sea of
+writhing flames, or incandescent half-molten serpents of brass, they
+could not tell whether a strong phosphorescence did not issue from the
+transparent body of the waters, as if earth and sky lightened together,
+one consenting source of flaming utterance.
+
+Sad was the condition of the late plastic mass of living form that had
+flowed into shape at the will and law of the music. Broken into
+individuals, the common transfusing spirit withdrawn, they stood
+drenched, cold, and benumbed, with clinging garments; light, order,
+harmony, purpose departed, and chaos restored; the issuings of life
+turned back on their sources, chilly and dead. And in every heart
+reigned the falsest of despairing convictions, that this was the only
+reality, and that was but a dream. The eldest sister stood with clasped
+hands and down-bent head, shivering and speechless, as if waiting for
+something to follow. Nor did she wait long. A terrible flash and
+thunder-peal made the castle rock; and in the pausing silence that
+followed, her quick sense heard the rattling of a chain far off, deep
+down; and soon the sound of heavy footsteps, accompanied with the
+clanking of iron, reached her ear. She felt that her brother was at
+hand. Even in the darkness, and amidst the bellowing of another
+deep-bosomed cloud-monster, she knew that he had entered the room. A
+moment after, a continuous pulsation of angry blue light began, which,
+lasting for some moments, revealed him standing amidst them, gaunt,
+haggard, and motionless; his hair and beard untrimmed, his face ghastly,
+his eyes large and hollow. The light seemed to gather around him as a
+centre. Indeed some believed that it throbbed and radiated from his
+person, and not from the stormy heavens above them. The lightning had
+rent the wall of his prison, and released the iron staple of his chain,
+which he had wound about him like a girdle. In his hand he carried an
+iron fetter-bar, which he had found on the floor of the vault. More
+terrified at his aspect than at all the violence of the storm, the
+visitors, with many a shriek and cry, rushed out into the tempestuous
+night. By degrees, the storm died away. Its last flash revealed the
+forms of the brothers and sisters lying prostrate, with their faces on
+the floor, and that fearful shape standing motionless amidst them still.
+
+Morning dawned, and there they lay, and there he stood. But at a word
+from him, they arose and went about their various duties, though
+listlessly enough. The eldest sister was the last to rise; and when she
+did, it was only by a terrible effort that she was able to reach her
+room, where she fell again on the floor. There she remained lying for
+days. The brother caused the doors of the great suite of rooms to be
+closed, leaving them just as they were, with all the childish adornment
+scattered about, and the rain still falling in through the shattered
+windows. "Thus let them lie," said he, "till the rain and frost have
+cleansed them of paint and drapery: no storm can hurt the pillars and
+arches of these halls."
+
+The hours of this day went heavily. The storm was gone, but the rain was
+left; the passion had departed, but the tears remained behind. Dull and
+dark the low misty clouds brooded over the castle and the lake, and shut
+out all the neighbourhood. Even if they had climbed to the loftiest
+known turret, they would have found it swathed in a garment of clinging
+vapour, affording no refreshment to the eye, and no hope to the heart.
+There was one lofty tower that rose sheer a hundred feet above the rest,
+and from which the fog could have been seen lying in a grey mass
+beneath; but that tower they had not yet discovered, nor another close
+beside it, the top of which was never seen, nor could be, for the
+highest clouds of heaven clustered continually around it. The rain fell
+continuously, though not heavily, without; and within, too, there were
+clouds from which dropped the tears which are the rain of the spirit.
+All the good of life seemed for the time departed, and their souls lived
+but as leafless trees that had forgotten the joy of the summer, and whom
+no wind prophetic of spring had yet visited. They moved about
+mechanically, and had not strength enough left to wish to die.
+
+The next day the clouds were higher, and a little wind blew through such
+loopholes in the turrets as the false improvements of the inmates had
+not yet filled with glass, shutting out, as the storm, so the serene
+visitings of the heavens. Throughout the day, the brother took various
+opportunities of addressing a gentle command, now to one and now to
+another of his family. It was obeyed in silence. The wind blew fresher
+through the loopholes and the shattered windows of the great rooms, and
+found its way, by unknown passages, to faces and eyes hot with weeping.
+It cooled and blessed them.--When the sun arose the next day, it was in
+a clear sky.
+
+By degrees, everything fell into the regularity of subordination. With
+the subordination came increase of freedom. The steps of the more
+youthful of the family were heard on the stairs and in the corridors
+more light and quick than ever before. Their brother had lost the
+terrors of aspect produced by his confinement, and his commands were
+issued more gently, and oftener with a smile, than in all their previous
+history. By degrees his presence was universally felt through the house.
+It was no surprise to any one at his studies, to see him by his side
+when he lifted up his eyes, though he had not before known that he was
+in the room. And although some dread still remained, it was rapidly
+vanishing before the advances of a firm friendship. Without immediately
+ordering their labours, he always influenced them, and often altered
+their direction and objects. The change soon evident in the household
+was remarkable. A simpler, nobler expression was visible on all the
+countenances. The voices of the men were deeper, and yet seemed by their
+very depth more feminine than before; while the voices of the women were
+softer and sweeter, and at the same time more full and decided. Now the
+eyes had often an expression as if their sight was absorbed in the gaze
+of the inward eyes; and when the eyes of two met, there passed between
+those eyes the utterance of a conviction that both meant the same thing.
+But the change was, of course, to be seen more clearly, though not more
+evidently, in individuals.
+
+One of the brothers, for instance, was very fond of astronomy. He had
+his observatory on a lofty tower, which stood pretty clear of the
+others, towards the north and east. But hitherto, his astronomy, as he
+had called it, had been more of the character of astrology. Often, too,
+he might have been seen directing a heaven-searching telescope to catch
+the rapid transit of a fiery shooting-star, belonging altogether to the
+earthly atmosphere, and not to the serene heavens. He had to learn that
+the signs of the air are not the signs of the skies. Nay, once, his
+brother surprised him in the act of examining through his longest tube a
+patch of burning heath upon a distant hill. But now he was diligent from
+morning till night in the study of the laws of the truth that has to do
+with stars; and when the curtain of the sunlight was about to rise from
+before the heavenly worlds which it had hidden all day long, he might be
+seen preparing his instruments with that solemn countenance with which
+it becometh one to look into the mysterious harmonies of Nature. Now he
+learned what law and order and truth are, what consent and harmony mean;
+how the individual may find his own end in a higher end, where law and
+freedom mean the same thing, and the purest certainty exists without the
+slightest constraint. Thus he stood on the earth, and looked to the
+heavens.
+
+Another, who had been much given to searching out the hollow places and
+recesses in the foundations of the castle, and who was often to be found
+with compass and ruler working away at a chart of the same which he had
+been in process of constructing, now came to the conclusion, that only
+by ascending the upper regions of his abode could he become capable of
+understanding what lay beneath; and that, in all probability, one clear
+prospect, from the top of the highest attainable turret, over the castle
+as it lay below, would reveal more of the idea of its internal
+construction, than a year spent in wandering through its subterranean
+vaults. But the fact was, that the desire to ascend wakening within him
+had made him forget what was beneath; and having laid aside his chart
+for a time at least, he was now to be met in every quarter of the upper
+parts, searching and striving upward, now in one direction, now in
+another; and seeking, as he went, the best outlooks into the clear air
+of outer realities.
+
+And they began to discover that they were all meditating different
+aspects of the same thing; and they brought together their various
+discoveries, and recognised the likeness between them; and the one thing
+often explained the other, and combining with it helped to a third. They
+grew in consequence more and more friendly and loving; so that every now
+and then one turned to another and said, as in surprise, "Why, you are
+my brother!"--"Why, you are my sister!" And yet they had always known
+it.
+
+The change reached to all. One, who lived on the air of sweet sounds,
+and who was almost always to be found seated by her harp or some other
+instrument, had, till the late storm, been generally merry and playful,
+though sometimes sad. But for a long time after that, she was often
+found weeping, and playing little simple airs which she had heard in
+childhood--backward longings, followed by fresh tears. Before long,
+however, a new element manifested itself in her music. It became yet
+more wild, and sometimes retained all its sadness, but it was mingled
+with anticipation and hope. The past and the future merged in one; and
+while memory yet brought the rain-cloud, expectation threw the rainbow
+across its bosom--and all was uttered in her music, which rose and
+swelled, now to defiance, now to victory; then died in a torrent of
+weeping.
+
+As to the eldest sister, it was many days before she recovered from the
+shock. At length, one day, her brother came to her, took her by the
+hand, led her to an open window, and told her to seat herself by it, and
+look out. She did so; but at first saw nothing more than an
+unsympathising blaze of sunlight. But as she looked, the horizon widened
+out, and the dome of the sky ascended, till the grandeur seized upon her
+soul, and she fell on her knees and wept. Now the heavens seemed to bend
+lovingly over her, and to stretch out wide cloud-arms to embrace her;
+the earth lay like the bosom of an infinite love beneath her, and the
+wind kissed her cheek with an odour of roses. She sprang to her feet,
+and turned, in an agony of hope, expecting to behold the face of the
+father, but there stood only her brother, looking calmly though lovingly
+on her emotion. She turned again to the window. On the hilltops rested
+the sky: Heaven and Earth were one; and the prophecy awoke in her soul,
+that from betwixt them would the steps of the father approach.
+
+Hitherto she had seen but Beauty; now she beheld Truth. Often had she
+looked on such clouds as these, and loved the strange ethereal curves
+into which the winds moulded them; and had smiled as her little pet
+sister told her what curious animals she saw in them, and tried to point
+them out to her. Now they were as troops of angels, jubilant over her
+new birth, for they sang, in her soul, of beauty, and truth, and love.
+She looked down, and her little sister knelt beside her.
+
+She was a curious child, with black, glittering eyes, and dark hair; at
+the mercy of every wandering wind; a frolicsome, daring girl, who
+laughed more than she smiled. She was generally in attendance on her
+sister, and was always finding and bringing her strange things. She
+never pulled a primrose, but she knew the haunts of all the orchis
+tribe, and brought from them bees and butterflies innumerable, as
+offerings to her sister. Curious moths and glow-worms were her greatest
+delight; and she loved the stars, because they were like the glow-worms.
+But the change had affected her too; for her sister saw that her eyes
+had lost their glittering look, and had become more liquid and
+transparent. And from that time she often observed that her gaiety was
+more gentle, her smile more frequent, her laugh less bell-like; and
+although she was as wild as ever, there was more elegance in her
+motions, and more music in her voice. And she clung to her sister with
+far greater fondness than before.
+
+The land reposed in the embrace of the warm summer days. The clouds of
+heaven nestled around the towers of the castle; and the hearts of its
+inmates became conscious of a warm atmosphere--of a presence of love.
+They began to feel like the children of a household, when the mother is
+at home. Their faces and forms grew daily more and more beautiful, till
+they wondered as they gazed on each other. As they walked in the gardens
+of the castle, or in the country around, they were often visited,
+especially the eldest sister, by sounds that no one heard but
+themselves, issuing from woods and waters; and by forms of love that
+lightened out of flowers, and grass, and great rocks. Now and then the
+young children would come in with a slow, stately step, and, with great
+eyes that looked as if they would devour all the creation, say that they
+had met the father amongst the trees, and that he had kissed them;
+"And," added one of them once, "I grew so big!" But when the others went
+out to look, they could see no one. And some said it must have been the
+brother, who grew more and more beautiful, and loving, and reverend, and
+who had lost all traces of hardness, so that they wondered they could
+ever have thought him stern and harsh. But the eldest sister held her
+peace, and looked up, and her eyes filled with tears. "Who can tell,"
+thought she, "but the little children know more about it than we?"
+
+Often, at sunrise, might be heard their hymn of praise to their unseen
+father, whom they felt to be near, though they saw him not. Some words
+thereof once reached my ear through the folds of the music in which they
+floated, as in an upward snowstorm of sweet sounds. And these are some
+of the words I heard--but there was much I seemed to hear which I could
+not understand, and some things which I understood but cannot utter
+again.
+
+"We thank thee that we have a father, and not a maker; that thou hast
+begotten us, and not moulded us as images of clay; that we have come
+forth of thy heart, and have not been fashioned by thy hands. It _must_
+be so. Only the heart of a father is able to create. We rejoice in it,
+and bless thee that we know it. We thank thee for thyself. Be what thou
+art--our root and life, our beginning and end, our all in all. Come home
+to us. Thou livest; therefore we live. In thy light we see. Thou
+art--that is all our song."
+
+Thus they worship, and love, and wait. Their hope and expectation grow
+ever stronger and brighter, that one day, ere long, the Father will show
+Himself amongst them, and thenceforth dwell in His own house for
+evermore. What was once but an old legend has become the one desire of
+their hearts.
+
+And the loftiest hope is the surest of being fulfilled.
+
+
+
+
+THE WOW O'RIVEN
+
+
+
+
+Elsie Scott had let her work fall on her knees, and her hands on her
+work, and was looking out of the wide, low window of her room, which was
+on one of the ground floors of the village street. Through a gap in the
+household shrubbery of fuchsias and myrtles filling the window-sill, one
+passing on the foot pavement might get a momentary glimpse of her pale
+face, lighted up with two blue eyes, over which some inward trouble had
+spread a faint, gauze-like haziness. But almost before her thoughts had
+had time to wander back to this trouble, a shout of children's voices,
+at the other end of the street, reached her ear. She listened a moment.
+A shadow of displeasure and pain crossed her countenance; and rising
+hastily, she betook herself to an inner apartment, and closed the door
+behind her.
+
+Meantime the sounds drew nearer; and by and by an old man, whose strange
+appearance and dress showed that he had little capacity either for good
+or evil, passed the window. His clothes were comfortable enough in
+quality and condition, for they were the annual gift of a benevolent
+lady in the neighbourhood; but, being made to accommodate his taste,
+both known and traditional, they were somewhat peculiar in cut and
+adornment. Both coat and trousers were of a dark grey cloth; but the
+former, which, in its shape, partook of the military, had a straight
+collar of yellow, and narrow cuffs of the same; while upon both sleeves,
+about the place where a corporal wears his stripes, was expressed, in
+the same yellow cloth, a somewhat singular device. It was as close an
+imitation of a bell, with its tongue hanging out of its mouth, as the
+tailor's skill could produce from a single piece of cloth. The origin of
+the military cut of his coat was well known. His preference for it arose
+in the time of the wars of the first Napoleon, when the threatened
+invasion of the country caused the organisation of many volunteer
+regiments. The martial show and exercises captivated the poor man's
+fancy; and from that time forward nothing pleased his vanity, and
+consequently conciliated his goodwill more, than to style him by his
+favourite title--the _Colonel_. But the badge on his arm had a deeper
+origin, which will be partially manifest in the course of the story--if
+story it can be called. It was, indeed, the baptism of the fool, the
+outward and visible sign of his relation to the infinite and unseen. His
+countenance, however, although the features were not of any peculiarly
+low or animal type, showed no corresponding sign of the consciousness of
+such a relation, being as vacant as human countenance could well be.
+
+The cause of Elsie's annoyance was that the fool was annoyed; he was
+followed by a troop of boys, who turned his rank into scorn, and
+assailed him with epithets hateful to him. Although the most harmless of
+creatures when left alone, he was dangerous when roused; and now he
+stooped repeatedly to pick up stones and hurl them at his tormentors,
+who took care, while abusing him, to keep at a considerable distance,
+lest he should get hold of them. Amidst the sounds of derision that
+followed him, might be heard the words frequently repeated--"_Come hame,
+come hame_." But in a few minutes the noise ceased, either from the
+interference of some friendly inhabitant, or that the boys grew weary,
+and departed in search of other amusement. By and by, Elsie might be
+seen again at her work in the window; but the cloud over her eyes was
+deeper, and her whole face more sad.
+
+Indeed, so much did the persecution of this poor man affect her, that an
+onlooker would have been compelled to seek the cause in some yet deeper
+sympathy than that commonly felt for the oppressed, even by women. And
+such a sympathy existed, strange as it may seem, between the beautiful
+girl (for many called her _a bonnie lassie_) and this "tatter of
+humanity". Nothing would have been farther from the thoughts of those
+that knew them, than the supposition of any correspondence or connection
+between them; yet this sympathy sprang in part from a real similarity in
+their history and present condition.
+
+All the facts that were known about _Feel Jock's_ origin were these:
+that seventy years ago, a man who had gone with his horse and cart some
+miles from the village, to fetch home a load of peat from a desolate
+_moss_, had heard, while toiling along as rough a road on as lonely a
+hillside as any in Scotland, the cry of a child; and, searching about,
+had found the infant, hardly wrapt in rags, and untended, as if the
+earth herself had just given birth--that desert moor, wide and dismal,
+broken and watery, the only bosom for him to lie upon, and the cold,
+clear night-heaven his only covering. The man had brought him home, and
+the parish had taken parish-care of him. He had grown up, and proved
+what he now was--almost an idiot. Many of the townspeople were kind to
+him, and employed him in fetching water for them from the river or wells
+in the neighbourhood, paying him for his trouble in victuals, or whisky,
+of which he was very fond. He seldom spoke; and the sentences he could
+utter were few; yet the tone, and even the words of his limited
+vocabulary, were sufficient to express gratitude and some measure of
+love towards those who were kind to him, and hatred of those who teased
+and insulted him. He lived a life without aim, and apparently to no
+purpose; in this resembling most of his more gifted fellow-men, who,
+with all the tools and materials necessary for building a noble mansion,
+are yet content with a clay hut.
+
+Elsie, on the contrary, had been born in a comfortable farmhouse, amidst
+homeliness and abundance. But at a very early age she had lost both
+father and mother; not so early, however, but that she had faint
+memories of warm soft times on her mother's bosom, and of refuge in her
+mother's arms from the attacks of geese, and the pursuit of pigs.
+Therefore, in after-times, when she looked forward to heaven, it was as
+much a reverting to the old heavenly times of childhood and mother's
+love, as an anticipation of something yet to be revealed. Indeed,
+without some such memory, how should we ever picture to ourselves a
+perfect rest? But sometimes it would seem as if the more a heart was
+made capable of loving, the less it had to love; and poor Elsie, in
+passing from a mother's to a brother's guardianship, felt a change of
+spiritual temperature too keen. He was not a bad man, or incapable of
+benevolence when touched by the sight of want in anything of which he
+would himself have felt the privation; but he was so coarsely made that
+only the purest animal necessities affected him, and a hard word, or
+unfeeling speech, could never have reached the quick of his nature
+through the hide that enclosed it. Elsie, on the contrary, was
+excessively and painfully sensitive, as if her nature constantly
+portended an invisible multitude of half-spiritual, half-nervous
+antenna, which shrank and trembled in every current of air at all below
+their own temperature. The effect of this upon her behaviour was such
+that she was called odd; and the poor girl felt she was not like other
+people, yet could not help it. Her brother, too, laughed at her without
+the slightest idea of the pain he occasioned, or the remotest feeling of
+curiosity as to what the inward and consistent causes of the outward
+abnormal condition might be. Tenderness was the divine comforting she
+needed; and it was altogether absent from her brother's character and
+behaviour.
+
+Her neighbours looked on her with some interest, but they rather shunned
+than courted her acquaintance; especially after the return of certain
+nervous attacks, to which she had been subject in childhood, and which
+were again brought on by the events I must relate. It is curious how
+certain diseases repel, by a kind of awe, the sympathies of the
+neighbours: as if, by the fact of being subject to them, the patient
+were removed into another realm of existence, from which, like the dead
+with the living, she can hold communion with those around her only
+partially, and with a mixture of dread pervading the intercourse. Thus
+some of the deepest, purest wells of spiritual life, are, like those in
+old castles, choked up by the decay of the outer walls. But what tended
+more than anything, perhaps, to keep up the painful unrest of her soul
+(for the beauty of her character was evident in the fact that the
+irritation seldom reached her _mind_), was a circumstance at which, in
+its present connection, some of my readers will smile, and others feel a
+shudder corresponding in kind to that of Elsie.
+
+Her brother was very fond of a rather small, but ferocious-looking
+bull-dog, which followed close at his heels, wherever he went, with
+hanging head and slouching gait, never leaping or racing about like
+other dogs. When in the house, he always lay under his master's chair.
+He seemed to dislike Elsie, and she felt an unspeakable repugnance to
+him. Though she never mentioned her aversion, her brother easily saw it
+by the way in which she avoided the animal; and attributing it entirely
+to fear--which indeed had a great share in the matter--he would cruelly
+aggravate it, by telling her stories of the fierce hardihood and
+relentless persistency of this kind of animal. He dared not yet further
+increase her terror by offering to set the creature upon her, because it
+was doubtful whether he might be able to restrain him; but the mental
+suffering which he occasioned by this heartless conduct, and for which
+he had no sympathy, was as severe as many bodily sufferings to which he
+would have been sorry to subject her. Whenever the poor girl happened
+inadvertently to pass near the dog, which was seldom, a low growl made
+her aware of his proximity, and drove her to a quick retreat. He was, in
+fact, the animal impersonation of the animal opposition which she had
+continually to endure. Like chooses like; and the bulldog _in_ her
+brother made choice of the bull-dog _out of_ him for his companion. So
+her day was one of shrinking fear and multiform discomfort.
+
+But a nature capable of so much distress, must of necessity be _capable_
+of a corresponding amount of pleasure; and in her case this was manifest
+in the fact that sleep and the quiet of her own room restored her
+wonderfully. If she were only let alone, a calm mood, filled with images
+of pleasure, soon took possession of her mind.
+
+Her acquaintance with the fool had commenced some ten years previous to
+the time I write of, when she was quite a little girl, and had come from
+the country with her brother, who, having taken a small farm close to
+the town, preferred residing in the town to occupying the farmhouse,
+which was not comfortable. She looked at first with some terror on his
+uncouth appearance, and with much wonderment on his strange dress. This
+wonder was heightened by a conversation she overheard one day in the
+street, between the fool and a little pale-faced boy, who, approaching
+him respectfully, said, "Weel, cornel!" "Weel, laddie!" was the reply.
+"Fat dis the wow say, cornel?" "Come hame, come hame!" answered the
+_colonel_, with both accent and quantity heaped on the word _hame_. What
+the wow could be, she had no idea; only, as the years passed on, the
+strange word became in her mind indescribably associated with the
+strange shape in yellow cloth on his sleeves. Had she been a native of
+the town, she could not have failed to know its import, so familiar was
+every one with it, although it did not belong to the local vocabulary;
+but, as it was, years passed away before she discovered its meaning. And
+when, again and again, the fool, attempting to convey his gratitude for
+some kindness she had shown him mumbled over the words--"_The wow o'
+Rivven--the wow o' Rivven,_" the wonder would return as to what could be
+the idea associated with them in his mind, but she made no advance
+towards their explanation.
+
+That, however, which most attracted her to the old man, was his
+persecution by the children. They were to him what the bull-dog was to
+her--the constant source of irritation and annoyance. They could hardly
+hurt him, nor did he appear to dread other injury from them than insult,
+to which, fool though he was, he was keenly alive. Human gadflies that
+they were! they sometimes stung him beyond endurance, and he would curse
+them in the impotence of his anger. Once or twice Elsie had been so far
+carried beyond her constitutional timidity, by sympathy for the distress
+of her friend, that she had gone out and talked to the boys--even
+scolded them, so that they slunk away ashamed, and began to stand as
+much in dread of her as of the clutches of their prey. So she, gentle
+and timid to excess, acquired among them the reputation of a termagant.
+Popular opinion among children, as among men, is of ten just, but as
+often very unjust; for the same manifestations may proceed from opposite
+principles; and, therefore, as indices to character, may mislead as
+often as enlighten.
+
+Next door to the house in which Elsie resided, dwelt a tradesman and his
+wife, who kept an indefinite sort of shop, in which various kinds of
+goods were exposed for sale. Their youngest son was about the same age
+as Elsie; and while they were rather more than children, and less than
+young people, he spent many of his evenings with her, somewhat to the
+loss of position in his classes at the parish school. They were, indeed,
+much attached to each other; and, peculiarly constituted as Elsie was,
+one may imagine what kind of heavenly messenger a companion stronger
+than herself must have been to her. In fact, if she could have framed
+the undefinable need of her childlike nature into an articulate prayer,
+it would have been--"Give me some one to love me stronger than I." Any
+love was helpful, yes, in its degree, saving to her poor troubled soul;
+but the hope, as they grew older together, that the powerful, yet
+tender-hearted youth, really loved her, and would one day make her his
+wife, was like the opening of heavenly eyes of life and love in the
+hitherto blank and deathlike face of her existence. But nothing had been
+said of love, although they met and parted like lovers.
+
+Doubtless, if the circles of their thought and feeling had continued as
+now to intersect each other, there would have been no interruption to
+their affection; but the time at length arrived when the old couple,
+seeing the rest of their family comfortably settled in life, resolved to
+make a gentleman of the youngest; and so sent him from school to
+college. The facilities existing in Scotland for providing a
+professional training enabled them to educate him as a surgeon. He
+parted from Elsie with some regret; but, far less dependent on her than
+she was on him, and full of the prospects of the future, he felt none of
+that sinking at the heart which seemed to lay her whole nature open to a
+fresh inroad of all the terrors and sorrows of her peculiar existence.
+No correspondence took place between them. New pursuits and relations,
+and the development of his tastes and judgments, entirely altered the
+position of poor Elsie in his memory. Having been, during their
+intercourse, far less of a man than she of a woman, he had no definite
+idea of the place he had occupied in her regard; and in his mind she
+receded into the background of the past, without his having any idea
+that she would suffer thereby, or that he was unjust towards her; while,
+in her thoughts, his image stood in the highest and clearest relief. It
+was the centre-point from which and towards which all lines radiated and
+converged; and although she could not but be doubtful about the future,
+yet there was much hope mingled with her doubts.
+
+But when, at the close of two years, he visited his native village, and
+she saw before her, instead of the homely youth who had left her that
+winter evening, one who, to her inexperienced eyes, appeared a finished
+gentleman, her heart sank within her, as if she had found Nature herself
+false in her ripening processes, destroying the beautiful promise of a
+former year by changing instead of developing her creations. He spoke
+kindly to her, but not cordially. To her ear the voice seemed to come
+from a great distance out of the past; and while she looked upon him,
+that optical change passed over her vision, which all have experienced
+after gazing abstractedly on any object for a time: his form grew very
+small, and receded to an immeasurable distance; till, her imagination
+mingling with the twilight haze of her senses, she seemed to see him
+standing far off on a hill, with the bright horizon of sunset for a
+background to his clearly defined figure.
+
+She knew no more till she found herself in bed in the dark; and the
+first message that reached her from the outer world was the infernal
+growl of the bull-dog from the room below. Next day she saw her lover
+walking with two ladies, who would have thought it some degree of
+condescension to speak to her; and he passed the house without once
+looking towards it.
+
+One who is sufficiently possessed by the demon of nervousness to be glad
+of the magnetic influences of a friend's company in a public promenade,
+or of a horse beneath him in passing through a churchyard, will have
+some faint idea of how utterly exposed and defenceless poor Elsie now
+felt on the crowded thoroughfare of life. And so the insensibility which
+had overtaken her, was not the ordinary swoon with which Nature relieves
+the overstrained nerves, but the return of the epileptic fits of her
+early childhood; and if the condition of the poor girl had been pitiable
+before, it was tenfold more so now. Yet she did not complain, but bore
+all in silence, though it was evident that her health was giving way.
+But now, help came to her from a strange quarter; though many might not
+be willing to accord the name of help to that which rather hastened than
+retarded the progress of her decline.
+
+She had gone to spend a few of the summer days with a relative in the
+country, some miles from her home, if home it could be called. One
+evening, towards sunset, she went out for a solitary walk. Passing from
+the little garden gate, she went along a bare country road for some
+distance, and then, turning aside by a footpath through a thicket of low
+trees, she came out in a lonely little churchyard on the hillside.
+Hardly knowing whether or not she had intended to go there, she seated
+herself on a mound covered with long grass, one of many. Before her
+stood the ruins of an old church which was taking centuries to crumble.
+Little remained but the gable wall, immensely thick, and covered with
+ancient ivy. The rays of the setting sun fell on a mound at its foot,
+not green like the rest, but of a rich red-brown in the rosy sunset, and
+evidently but newly heaped up. Her eyes, too, rested upon it. Slowly the
+sun sank below the near horizon.
+
+As the last brilliant point disappeared, the ivy darkened, and a wind
+arose and shook all its leaves, making them look cold and troubled; and
+to Elsie's ear came a low faint sound, as from a far-off bell. But close
+beside her--and she started and shivered at the sound--rose a deep,
+monotonous, almost sepulchral voice, "_Come hame, come hame! The wow,
+the wow_!"
+
+At once she understood the whole. She sat in the churchyard of the
+ancient parish church of Ruthven; and when she lifted up her eyes, there
+she saw, in the half-ruined belfry, the old bell, all but hidden with
+ivy, which the passing wind had roused to utter one sleepy tone; and
+there beside her, stood the fool with the bell on his arm; and to him
+and to her the _wow o' Rivven_ said, "_Come hame, come hame_!" Ah, what
+did she want in the whole universe of God but a home? And though the
+ground beneath was hard, and the sky overhead far and boundless, and the
+hillside lonely and companionless, yet somewhere within the visible and
+beyond these the outer surface of creation, there might be a home for
+her; as round the wintry house the snows lie heaped up cold and white
+and dreary all the long _forenight_, while within, beyond the closed
+shutters, and giving no glimmer through the thick stone wall, the fires
+are blazing joyously, and the voice and laughter of young unfrozen
+children are heard, and nothing belongs to winter but the grey hairs on
+the heads of the parents, within whose warm hearts childlike voices are
+heard, and childlike thoughts move to and fro. The kernel of winter
+itself is spring, or a sleeping summer.
+
+It was no wonder that the fool, cast out of the earth on a far more
+desolate spot than this, should seek to return within her bosom at this
+place of open doors, and should call it _home_. For surely the surface
+of the earth had no home for him. The mound at the foot of the gable
+contained the body of one who had shown him kindness. He had followed
+the funeral that afternoon from the town, and had remained behind with
+the bell. Indeed it was his custom, though Elsie had not known it, to
+follow every funeral going to this, his favourite churchyard of Ruthven;
+and, possibly in imitation of its booming, for it was still tolled at
+the funerals, he had given the old bell the name of _the wow_, and had
+translated its monotonous clangour into the articulate sounds--_come
+hame, come hame_. What precise meaning he attached to the words, it is
+impossible to say; but it was evident that the place possessed a strange
+attraction for him, drawing him towards it by the cords of some
+spiritual magnetism. It is possible that in the mind of the idiot there
+may have been some feeling about this churchyard and bell, which, in the
+mind of another, would have become a grand poetic thought; a feeling as
+if the ghostly old bell hung at the church door of the invisible world,
+and ever and anon rung out joyous notes (though they sounded sad in the
+ears of the living), calling to the children of the unseen to _come
+home, come home_. She sat for some time in silence; for the bell did not
+ring again, and the fool spoke no more; till the dews began to fall,
+when she rose and went home, followed by her companion, who passed the
+night in the barn. From that hour Elsie was furnished with a visual
+image of the rest she sought; an image which, mingling with deeper and
+holier thoughts, became, like the bow set in the cloud, the earthly
+pledge and sign of the fulfilment of heavenly hopes. Often when the
+wintry fog of cold discomfort and homelessness filled her soul, all at
+once the picture of the little churchyard--with the old gable and
+belfry, and the slanting sunlight steeping down to the very roots of the
+long grass on the graves--arose in the darkened chamber (_camera
+obscura,_) of her soul; and again she heard the faint Aeolian sound of
+the bell, and the voice of the prophet-fool who interpreted the oracle;
+and the inward weariness was soothed by the promise of a long sleep. Who
+can tell how many have been counted fools simply because they were
+prophets; or how much of the madness in the world may be the utterance
+of thoughts true and just, but belonging to a region differing from ours
+in its nature and scenery!
+
+But to Elsie looking out of her window came the mocking tones of the
+idle boys who had chosen as the vehicle of their scorn the very words
+which showed the relation of the fool to the eternal, and revealed in
+him an element higher far than any yet developed in them. They turned
+his glory into shame, like the enemies of David when they mocked the
+would-be king. And the best in a man is often that which is most
+condemned by those who have not attained to his goodness. The words,
+however, even as repeated by the boys, had not solely awakened
+indignation at the persecution of the old man: they had likewise
+comforted her with the thought of the refuge that awaited both him and
+her.
+
+But the same evening a worse trial was in store for her. Again she sat
+near the window, oppressed by the consciousness that her brother had
+come in. He had gone upstairs, and his dog had remained at the door,
+exchanging surly compliments with some of his own kind, when the fool
+came strolling past, and, I do not know from what cause, the dog flew at
+him. Elsie heard his cry and looked up. Her fear of the brute vanished
+in a moment before her sympathy for her friend. She darted from the
+house, and rushed towards the dog to drag him off the defenceless idiot,
+calling him by his name in a tone of anger and dislike. He left the
+fool, and, springing at Elsie, seized her by the arm above the elbow
+with such a grip that, in the midst of her agony, she fancied she heard
+the bone crack. But she uttered no cry, for the most apprehensive are
+sometimes the most courageous. Just then, however, her former lover was
+coming along the street, and, catching a glimpse of what had happened,
+was on the spot in an instant, took the dog by the throat with a gripe
+not inferior to his own, and having thus compelled him to relax his
+hold, dashed him on the ground with a force that almost stunned him, and
+then with a superadded kick sent him away limping and howling; whereupon
+the fool, attacking him furiously with a stick, would certainly have
+finished him, had not his master descried his plight and come to his
+rescue.
+
+Meantime the young surgeon had carried Elsie into the house; for, as
+soon as she was rescued from the dog, she had fallen down in one of her
+fits, which were becoming more and more frequent of themselves, and
+little needed such a shock as this to increase their violence. He was
+dressing her arm when she began to recover; and when she opened her
+eyes, in a state of half-consciousness, he first object she beheld was
+his face bending over her. Recalling nothing of what had occurred, it
+seemed to her, in the dreamy condition in which the fit had left her,
+the same face, unchanged, which had once shone in upon her tardy
+springtime, and promised to ripen it into summer. She forgot it had
+departed and left her in the wintry cold. And so she uttered wild words
+of love and trust; and the youth, while stung with remorse at his own
+neglect, was astonished to perceive the poetic forms of beauty in which
+the soul of the uneducated maiden burst into flower. But as her senses
+recovered themselves, the face gradually changed to her, as if the slow
+alteration of two years had been phantasmagorically compressed into a
+few moments; and the glow departed from the maiden's thoughts and words,
+and her soul found itself at the narrow window of the present, from
+which she could behold but a dreary country.--From the street came the
+iambic cry of the fool, _"Come hame, come hame."_
+
+Tycho Brahe, I think, is said to have kept a fool, who frequently sat at
+his feet in his study, and to whose mutterings he used to listen in the
+pauses of his own thought. The shining soul of the astronomer drew forth
+the rainbow of harmony from the misty spray of words ascending ever from
+the dark gulf into which the thoughts of the idiot were ever falling. He
+beheld curious concurrences of words therein; and could read strange
+meanings from them--sometimes even received wondrous hints for the
+direction of celestial inquiry, from what, to any other, and it may be
+to the fool himself, was but a ceaseless and aimless babble. Such power
+lieth in words. It is not then to be wondered at, that the sounds I have
+mentioned should fall on the ears of Elsie, at such a moment, as a
+message from God Himself. This then--all this dreariness--was but a
+passing show like the rest, and there lay somewhere for her a reality--a
+home. The tears burst up from her oppressed heart. She received the
+message, and prepared to go home. From that time her strength gradually
+sank, but her spirits as steadily rose.
+
+The strength of the fool, too, began to fail, for he was old. He bore
+all the signs of age, even to the grey hairs, which betokened no wisdom.
+But one cannot say what wisdom might be in him, or how far he had fought
+his own battle, and been victorious. Whether any notion of a continuance
+of life and thought dwelt in his brain, it is impossible to tell; but he
+seemed to have the idea that this was not his home; and those who saw
+him gradually approaching his end, might well anticipate for him a
+higher life in the world to come. He had passed through this world
+without ever awaking to such a consciousness of being as is common to
+mankind. He had spent his years like a weary dream through a long
+night--a strange, dismal, unkindly dream; and now the morning was at
+hand. Often in his dream had he listened with sleepy senses to the
+ringing of the bell, but that bell would awake him at last. He was like
+a seed buried too deep in the soil, to which the light has never
+penetrated, and which, therefore, has never forced its way upwards to
+the open air, ever experienced the resurrection of the dead. But seeds
+will grow ages after they have fallen into the earth; and, indeed, with
+many kinds, and within some limits, the older the seed before it
+germinates, the more plentiful the fruit. And may it not be believed of
+many human beings, that, the Great Husbandman having sown them like
+seeds in the soil of human affairs, there they lie buried a life long;
+and only after the upturning of the soil by death reach a position in
+which the awakening of their aspiration and the consequent growth become
+possible. Surely He has made nothing in vain.
+
+A violent cold and cough brought him at last near to his end, and
+hearing that he was ill, Elsie ventured one bright spring day to go to
+see him. When she entered the miserable room where he lay, he held out
+his hand to her with something like a smile, and muttered feebly and
+painfully, "I'm gaein' to the wow, nae to come back again." Elsie could
+not restrain her tears; while the old man, looking fixedly at her,
+though with meaningless eyes, muttered, for the last time, "_Come hame!
+come hame!_" and sank into a lethargy, from which nothing could rouse
+him, till, next morning, he was waked by friendly death from the long
+sleep of this world's night. They bore him to his favourite churchyard,
+and buried him within the site of the old church, below his loved bell,
+which had ever been to him as the cuckoo-note of a coming spring. Thus
+he at length obeyed its summons, and went home.
+
+Elsie lingered till the first summer days lay warm on the land. Several
+kind hearts in the village, hearing of her illness, visited her and
+ministered to her. Wondering at her sweetness and patience, they
+regretted they had not known her before. How much consolation might not
+their kindness have imparted, and how much might not their sympathy have
+strengthened her on her painful road! But they could not long have
+delayed her going home. Nor, mentally constituted as she was, would this
+have been at all to be desired. Indeed it was chiefly the expectation of
+departure that quieted and soothed her tremulous nature. It is true that
+a deep spring of hope and faith kept singing on in her heart, but this
+alone, without the anticipation of speedy release, could only have kept
+her mind at peace. It could not have reached, at least for a long time,
+the border land between body and mind, in which her disease lay.
+
+One still night of summer, the nurse who watched by her bedside heard
+her murmur through her sleep, "I hear it: _come hame--come hame_. I'm
+comin', I'm comin'--I'm gaein' hame to the wow, nae to come back." She
+awoke at the sound of her own words, and begged the nurse to convey to
+her brother her last request, that she might be buried by the side of
+the fool, within the old church of Ruthven. Then she turned her face to
+the wall, and in the morning was found quiet and cold. She must have
+died within a few minutes after her last words. She was buried according
+to her request; and thus she too went home.
+
+Side by side rest the aged fool and the young maiden; for the bell
+called them, and they obeyed; and surely they found the fire burning
+bright, and heard friendly voices, and felt sweet lips on theirs, in the
+home to which they went. Surely both intellect and love were waiting
+them there.
+
+Still the old bell hangs in the old gable; and whenever another is borne
+to the old churchyard, it keeps calling to those who are left behind,
+with the same sad, but friendly and unchanging voice--_"Come hame! come
+hame! come hame!"_
+
+"Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself:
+for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy
+mourning shall be ended."--ISA. LX 20.
+
+
+
+
+THE BROKEN SWORDS
+
+
+
+
+The eyes of three, two sisters and a brother, gazed for the last time on
+a great pale-golden star, that followed the sun down the steep west. It
+went down to arise again; and the brother about to depart might return,
+but more than the usual doubt hung upon his future. For between the
+white dresses of the sisters, shone his scarlet coat and golden
+sword-knot, which he had put on for the first time, more to gratify
+their pride than his own vanity. The brightening moon, as if prophetic
+of a future memory, had already begun to dim the scarlet and the gold,
+and to give them a pale, ghostly hue. In her thoughtful light the whole
+group seemed more like a meeting in the land of shadows, than a parting
+in the substantial earth. But which should be called the land of
+realities?--the region where appearance, and space, and time drive
+between, and stop the flowing currents of the soul's speech? or that
+region where heart meets heart, and appearance has become the slave to
+utterance, and space and time are forgotten?
+
+Through the quiet air came the far-off rush of water, and the near cry
+of the land-rail. Now and then a chilly wind blew unheeded through the
+startled and jostling leaves that shaded the ivy-seat. Else, there was
+calm everywhere, rendered yet deeper and more intense by the dusky
+sorrow that filled their hearts. For, far away, hundreds of miles beyond
+the hearing of their ears, roared the great war-guns; next week their
+brother must sail with his regiment to join the army; and tomorrow he
+must leave his home.
+
+The sisters looked on him tenderly, with vague fears about his fate. Yet
+little they divined it. That the face they loved might lie pale and
+bloody, in a heap of slain, was the worst image of it that arose before
+them; but this, had they seen the future, they would, in ignorance of
+the further future, have infinitely preferred to that which awaited him.
+And even while they looked on him, a dim feeling of the unsuitableness
+of his lot filled their minds. For, indeed, to all judgments it must
+have seemed unsuitable that the home-boy, the loved of his mother, the
+pet of his sisters, who was happy womanlike (as Coleridge says), if he
+possessed the signs of love, having never yet sought for its
+proofs--that he should be sent amongst soldiers, to command and be
+commanded; to kill, or perhaps to be himself crushed out of the fair
+earth in the uproar that brings back for the moment the reign of Night
+and Chaos. No wonder that to his sisters it seemed strange and sad. Yet
+such was their own position in the battle of life, in which their father
+had died with doubtful conquest, that when their old military uncle sent
+the boy an ensign's commission, they did not dream of refusing the only
+path open, as they thought, to an honourable profession, even though it
+might lead to the trench-grave. They heard it as the voice of destiny,
+wept, and yielded.
+
+If they had possessed a deeper insight into his character, they would
+have discovered yet further reason to doubt the fitness of the
+profession chosen for him; and if they had ever seen him at school, it
+is possible the doubt of fitness might have strengthened into a
+certainty of incongruity. His comparative inactivity amongst his
+schoolfellows, though occasioned by no dulness of intellect, might have
+suggested the necessity of a quiet life, if inclination and liking had
+been the arbiters in the choice. Nor was this inactivity the result of
+defective animal spirits either, for sometimes his mirth and boyish
+frolic were unbounded; but it seemed to proceed from an over-activity of
+the inward life, absorbing, and in some measure checking, the outward
+manifestation. He had so much to do in his own hidden kingdom, that he
+had not time to take his place in the polity and strife of the
+commonwealth around him. Hence, while other boys were acting, he was
+thinking. In this point of difference, he felt keenly the superiority of
+many of his companions; for another boy would have the obstacle
+overcome, or the adversary subdued, while he was meditating on the
+propriety, or on the means, of effecting the desired end. He envied
+their promptitude, while they never saw reason to envy his wisdom; for
+his conscience, tender and not strong, frequently transformed slowness
+of determination into irresolution: while a delicacy of the sympathetic
+nerves tended to distract him from any predetermined course, by the
+diversity of their vibrations, responsive to influences from all
+quarters, and destructive to unity of purpose.
+
+Of such a one, the _a priori_ judgment would be, that he ought to be
+left to meditate and grow for some time, before being called upon to
+produce the fruits of action. But add to these mental conditions a vivid
+imagination, and a high sense of honour, nourished in childhood by the
+reading of the old knightly romances, and then put the youth in a
+position in which action is imperative, and you have elements of strife
+sufficient to reduce that fair kingdom of his to utter anarchy and
+madness. Yet so little, do we know ourselves, and so different are the
+symbols with which the imagination works its algebra, from the realities
+which those symbols represent, that as yet the youth felt no uneasiness,
+but contemplated his new calling with a glad enthusiasm and some vanity;
+for all his prospect lay in the glow of the scarlet and the gold. Nor
+did this excitement receive any check till the day before his departure,
+on which day I have introduced him to my readers, when, accidently
+taking up a newspaper of a week old, his eye fell on these
+words--"_Already crying women are to be met in the streets_." With this
+cloud afar on his horizon, which, though no bigger than a man's hand,
+yet cast a perceptible shadow over his mind, he departed next morning.
+The coach carried him beyond the consecrated circle of home laws and
+impulses, out into the great tumult, above which rises ever and anon the
+cry of Cain, "Am I my brother's keeper?"
+
+Every tragedy of higher order, constructed in Christian times, will
+correspond more or less to the grand drama of the Bible; wherein the
+first act opens with a brilliant sunset vision of Paradise, in which
+childish sense and need are served with all the profusion of the
+indulgent nurse. But the glory fades off into grey and black, and night
+settles down upon the heart which, rightly uncontent with the childish,
+and not having yet learned the childlike, seeks knowledge and manhood as
+a thing denied by the Maker, and yet to be gained by the creature; so
+sets forth alone to climb the heavens, and instead of climbing, falls
+into the abyss. Then follows the long dismal night of feverish efforts
+and delirious visions, or, it may be, helpless despair; till at length a
+deeper stratum of the soul is heaved to the surface; and amid the first
+dawn of morning, the youth says within him, "I have sinned against my
+_Maker_--I will arise and go to my _Father_." More or less, I say, will
+Christian tragedy correspond to this--a fall and a rising again; not a
+rising only, but a victory; not a victory merely, but a triumph. Such,
+in its way and degree, is my story. I have shown, in one passing scene,
+the home paradise; now I have to show a scene of a far differing nature.
+
+The young ensign was lying in his tent, weary, but wakeful. All day long
+the cannon had been bellowing against the walls of the city, which now
+lay with wide, gaping breach, ready for the morrow's storm, but covered
+yet with the friendly darkness. His regiment was ordered to be ready
+with the earliest dawn to march up to the breach. That day, for the
+first time, there had been blood on his sword--there the sword lay, a
+spot on the chased hilt still. He had cut down one of the enemy in a
+skirmish with a sally party of the besieged and the look of the man as
+he fell, haunted him. He felt, for the time, that he dared not pray to
+the Father, for the blood of a brother had rushed forth at the stroke of
+his arm, and there was one fewer of living souls on the earth because he
+lived thereon. And to-morrow he must lead a troop of men up to that poor
+disabled town, and turn them loose upon it, not knowing what might
+follow in the triumph of enraged and victorious foes, who for weeks had
+been subjected, by the constancy of the place, to the greatest
+privations. It was true the general had issued his commands against all
+disorder and pillage; but if the soldiers once yielded to temptation,
+what might not be done before the officers could reclaim them! All the
+wretched tales he had read of the sack of cities rushed back on his
+memory. He shuddered as he lay. Then his conscience began to speak, and
+to ask what right he had to be there.--Was the war a just one?--He could
+not tell; for this was a bad time for settling nice questions. But there
+he was, right or wrong, fighting and shedding blood on God's earth,
+beneath God's heaven.
+
+Over and over he turned the question in his mind; again and again the
+spouting blood of his foe, and the death-look in his eye, rose before
+him; and the youth who at school could never fight with a companion
+because he was not sure that he was in the right, was alone in the midst
+of undoubting men of war, amongst whom he was driven helplessly along,
+upon the waves of a terrible necessity. What wonder that in the midst of
+these perplexities his courage should fail him! What wonder that the
+consciousness of fainting should increase the faintness! or that the
+dread of fear and its consequences should hasten and invigorate its
+attacks! To crown all, when he dropped into a troubled slumber at
+length, he found himself hurried, as on a storm of fire, through the
+streets of the captured town, from all the windows of which looked forth
+familiar faces, old and young, but distorted from the memory of his
+boyhood by fear and wild despair. On one spot lay the body of his
+father, with his face to the earth; and he woke at the cry of horror and
+rage that burst from his own lips, as he saw the rough, bloody hand of a
+soldier twisted in the loose hair of his elder sister, and the younger
+fainting in the arms of a scoundrel belonging to his own regiment. He
+slept no more. As the grey morning broke, the troops appointed for the
+attack assembled without sound of trumpet or drum, and were silently
+formed in fitting order. The young ensign was in his place, weary and
+wretched after his miserable night. Before him he saw a great,
+broad-shouldered lieutenant, whose brawny hand seemed almost too large
+for his sword-hilt, and in any one of whose limbs played more animal
+life than in the whole body of the pale youth. The firm-set lips of this
+officer, and the fire of his eye, showed a concentrated resolution,
+which, by the contrast, increased the misery of the ensign, and seemed,
+as if the stronger absorbed the weaker, to draw out from him the last
+fibres of self-possession: the sight of unattainable determination,
+while it increased the feeling of the arduousness of that which required
+such determination, threw him into the great gulf which lay between him
+and it. In this disorder of his nervous and mental condition, with a
+doubting conscience and a shrinking heart, is it any wonder that the
+terrors which lay before him at the gap in those bristling walls, should
+draw near, and, making sudden inroad upon his soul, overwhelm the
+government of a will worn out by the tortures of an unassured spirit?
+What share fear contributed to unman him, it was impossible for him, in
+the dark, confused conflict of differing emotions, to determine; but
+doubtless a natural shrinking from danger, there being no excitement to
+deaden its influence, and no hope of victory to encourage to the
+struggle, seeing victory was dreadful to him as defeat, had its part in
+the sad result. Many men who have courage, are dependent on ignorance
+and a low state of the moral feeling for that courage; and a further
+progress towards the development of the higher nature would, for a time
+at least, entirely overthrow it. Nor could such loss of courage be
+rightly designated by the name of cowardice. But, alas! the colonel
+happened to fix his eyes upon him as he passed along the file; and this
+completed his confusion. He betrayed such evident symptoms of
+perturbation, that that officer ordered him under arrest; and the result
+was, that, chiefly for the sake of example to the army, he was, upon
+trial by court-martial, expelled from the service, and had his sword
+broken over his head. Alas for the delicate minded youth! Alas for the
+home-darling!
+
+Long after, he found at the bottom of his chest the pieces of the broken
+sword, and remembered that, at the time, he had lifted them from the
+ground and carried them away. But he could not recall under what impulse
+he had done so. Perhaps the agony he suffered, passing the bounds of
+mortal endurance, had opened for him a vista into the eternal, and had
+shown him, if not the injustice of the sentence passed upon him, yet his
+freedom from blame, or, endowing him with dim prophetic vision, had
+given him the assurance that some day the stain would be wiped from his
+soul, and leave him standing clear before the tribunal of his own
+honour. Some feeling like this, I say, may have caused him, with a
+passing gleam of indignant protest, to lift the fragments from the
+earth, and carry them away; even as the friends of a so-called traitor
+may bear away his mutilated body from the wheel. But if such was the
+case, the vision was soon overwhelmed and forgotten in the succeeding
+anguish. He could not see that, in mercy to his doubting spirit, the
+question which had agitated his mind almost to madness, and which no
+results of the impending conflict could have settled for him, was thus
+quietly set aside for the time; nor that, painful as was the dark,
+dreadful existence that he was now to pass in self-torment and moaning,
+it would go by, and leave his spirit clearer far, than if, in his
+apprehension, it had been stained with further blood-guiltiness, instead
+of the loss of honour. Years after, when he accidentally learned that on
+that very morning the whole of his company, with parts of several more,
+had, or ever they began to mount the breach, been blown to pieces by the
+explosion of a mine, he cried aloud in bitterness, "Would God that my
+fear had not been discovered before I reached that spot!" But surely it
+is better to pass into the next region of life having reaped some
+assurance, some firmness of character, determination of effort, and
+consciousness of the worth of life, in the present world; so approaching
+the future steadily and faithfully, and if in much darkness and
+ignorance, yet not in the oscillations of moral uncertainty.
+
+Close upon the catastrophe followed a torpor, which lasted he did not
+know how long, and which wrapped in a thick fog all the succeeding
+events. For some time he can hardly be said to have had any conscious
+history. He awoke to life and torture when half-way across the sea
+towards his native country, where was no home any longer for him. To
+this point, and no farther, could his thoughts return in after years.
+But the misery which he then endured is hardly to be understood, save by
+those of like delicate temperament with himself. All day long he sat
+silent in his cabin; nor could any effort of the captain, or others on
+board, induce him to go on deck till night came on, when, under the
+starlight, he ventured into the open air. The sky soothed him then, he
+knew not how. For the face of nature is the face of God, and must bear
+expressions that can influence, though unconsciously to them, the most
+ignorant and hopeless of His children. Often did he watch the clouds in
+hope of a storm, his spirit rising and falling as the sky darkened or
+cleared; he longed, in the necessary selfishness of such suffering, for
+a tumult of waters to swallow the vessel; and only the recollection of
+how many lives were involved in its safety besides his own, prevented
+him from praying to God for lightning and tempest, borne on which he
+might dash into the haven of the other world. One night, following a
+sultry calm day, he thought that Mercy had heard his unuttered prayer.
+The air and sea were intense darkness, till a light as intense for one
+moment annihilated it, and the succeeding darkness seemed shattered with
+the sharp reports of the thunder that cracked without reverberation. He
+who had shrunk from battle with his fellow-men, rushed to the mainmast,
+threw himself on his knees, and stretched forth his arms in speechless
+energy of supplication; but the storm passed away overhead, and left him
+kneeling still by the uninjured mast. At length the vessel reached her
+port. He hurried on shore to bury himself in the most secret place he
+could find. _Out of sight_ was his first, his only thought. Return to
+his mother he would not, he could not; and, indeed, his friends never
+learned his fate, until it had carried him far beyond their reach.
+
+For several weeks he lurked about like a malefactor, in low
+lodging-houses in narrow streets of the seaport to which the vessel had
+borne him, heeding no one, and but little shocked at the strange society
+and conversation with which, though only in bodily presence, he had to
+mingle. These formed the subjects of reflection in after times; and he
+came to the conclusion that, though much evil and much misery exist,
+sufficient to move prayers and tears in those who love their kind, yet
+there is less of both than those looking down from a more elevated
+social position upon the weltering heap of humanity, are ready to
+imagine; especially if they regard it likewise from the pedestal of
+self-congratulation on which a meagre type of religion has elevated
+them. But at length his little stock of money was nearly expended, and
+there was nothing that he could do, or learn to do, in this seaport. He
+felt impelled to seek manual labour, partly because he thought it more
+likely he could obtain that sort of employment, without a request for
+reference as to his character, which would lead to inquiry about his
+previous history; and partly, perhaps, from an instinctive feeling that
+hard bodily labour would tend to lessen his inward suffering.
+
+He left the town, therefore, at nightfall of a July day, carrying a
+little bundle of linen, and the remains of his money, somewhat augmented
+by the sale of various articles of clothing and convenience, which his
+change of life rendered superfluous and unsuitable. He directed his
+course northwards, travelling principally by night--so painfully did he
+shrink from the gaze even of foot-farers like himself; and sleeping
+during the day in some hidden nook of wood or thicket, or under the
+shadow of a great tree in a solitary field. So fine was the season, that
+for three successive weeks he was able to travel thus without
+inconvenience, lying down when the sun grew hot in the forenoon, and
+generally waking when the first faint stars were hesitating in the great
+darkening heavens that covered and shielded him. For above every cloud,
+above every storm, rise up, calm, clear, divine, the deep infinite
+skies; they embrace the tempest even as the sunshine; by their
+permission it exists within their boundless peace: therefore it cannot
+hurt, and must pass away, while there they stand as ever, domed up
+eternally, lasting, strong, and pure.
+
+Several times he attempted to get agricultural employment; but the
+whiteness of his hands and the tone of his voice not merely suggested
+unfitness for labour, but generated suspicion as to the character of one
+who had evidently dropped from a rank so much higher, and was seeking
+admittance within the natural masonic boundaries and secrets and
+privileges of another. Disheartened somewhat, but hopeful, he journeyed
+on. I say hopeful; for the blessed power of life in the universe in
+fresh air and sunshine absorbed by active exercise, in winds, yea in
+rain, though it fell but seldom, had begun to work its natural healing,
+soothing effect, upon his perturbed spirit. And there was room for hope
+in his new endeavour. As his bodily strength increased, and his health,
+considerably impaired by inward suffering, improved, the trouble of his
+soul became more endurable--and in some measure to endure is to conquer
+and destroy. In proportion as the mind grows in the strength of
+patience, the disturber of its peace sickens and fades away. At length,
+one day, a widow lady in a village through which his road led him, gave
+him a day's work in her garden. He laboured hard and well,
+notwithstanding his soon-blistered hands, received his wages thankfully,
+and found a resting-place for the night on the low part of a haystack
+from which the upper portion had been cut away. Here he ate his supper
+of bread and cheese, pleased to have found such comfortable quarters,
+and soon fell fast asleep.
+
+When he awoke, the whole heavens and earth seemed to give a full denial
+to sin and sorrow. The sun was just mounting over the horizon, looking
+up the clear cloud-mottled sky. From millions of water-drops hanging on
+the bending stalks of grass, sparkled his rays in varied refraction,
+transformed here to a gorgeous burning ruby, there to an emerald, green
+as the grass, and yonder to a flashing, sunny topaz. The chanting
+priest-lark had gone up from the low earth, as soon as the heavenly
+light had begun to enwrap and illumine the folds of its tabernacle; and
+had entered the high heavens with his offering, whence, unseen, he now
+dropped on the earth the sprinkled sounds of his overflowing
+blessedness. The poor youth rose but to kneel, and cry, from a bursting
+heart, "Hast Thou not, O Father, some care for me? Canst Thou not
+restore my lost honour? Can anything befall Thy children for which Thou
+hast no help? Surely, if the face of Thy world lie not, joy and not
+grief is at the heart of the universe. Is there none for me?"
+
+The highest poetic feeling of which we are now conscious, springs not
+from the beholding of perfected beauty, but from the mute sympathy which
+the creation with all its children manifests with us in the groaning and
+travailing which look for the sonship. Because of our need and
+aspiration, the snowdrop gives birth in our hearts to a loftier
+spiritual and poetic feeling, than the rose most complete in form,
+colour, and odour. The rose is of Paradise--the snowdrop is of the
+striving, hoping, longing Earth. Perhaps our highest poetry is the
+expression of our aspirations in the sympathetic forms of visible
+nature. Nor is this merely a longing for a restored Paradise; for even
+in the ordinary history of men, no man or woman that has fallen, can be
+restored to the position formerly held. Such must rise to a yet higher
+place, whence they can behold their former standing far beneath their
+feet. They must be restored by the attainment of something better than
+they ever possessed before, or not at all. If the law be a weariness, we
+must escape it by taking refuge with the spirit, for not otherwise can
+we fulfil the law than by being above the law. To escape the overhanging
+rocks of Sinai, we must climb to its secret top.
+
+  "Is thy strait horizon dreary?
+  Is thy foolish fancy chill?
+  Change the feet that have grown weary
+  For the wings that never will."
+
+Thus, like one of the wandering knights searching the wide earth for the
+Sangreal, did he wander on, searching for his lost honour, or rather
+(for that he counted gone for ever) seeking unconsciously for the peace
+of mind which had departed from him, and taken with it, not the joy
+merely, but almost the possibility, of existence.
+
+At last, when his little store was all but exhausted, he was employed by
+a market gardener, in the neighbourhood of a large country town, to work
+in his garden, and sometimes take his vegetables to market. With him he
+continued for a few weeks, and wished for no change; until, one day
+driving his cart through the town, he saw approaching him an elderly
+gentleman, whom he knew at once, by his gait and carriage, to be a
+military man. Now he had never seen his uncle the retired officer, but
+it struck him that this might be he; and under the tyranny of his
+passion for concealment, he fancied that, if it were he, he might
+recognise him by some family likeness--not considering the improbability
+of his looking at him. This fancy, with the painful effect which the
+sight of an officer, even in plain clothes, had upon him, recalling the
+torture of that frightful day, so overcame him, that he found himself at
+the other end of an alley before he recollected that he had the horse
+and cart in charge. This increased his difficulty; for now he dared not
+return, lest his inquiries after the vehicle, if the horse had strayed
+from the direct line, should attract attention, and cause interrogations
+which he would be unable to answer. The fatal want of self-possession
+seemed again to ruin him. He forsook the town by the nearest way, struck
+across the country to another line of road, and before he was missed,
+was miles away, still in a northerly direction.
+
+But although he thus shunned the face of man, especially of any one who
+reminded him of the past, the loss of his reputation in their eyes was
+not the cause of his inward grief. That would have been comparatively
+powerless to disturb him, had he not lost his own respect. He quailed
+before his own thoughts; he was dishonoured in his own eyes. His
+perplexity had not yet sufficiently cleared away to allow him to see the
+extenuating circumstances of the case; not to say the fact that the
+peculiar mental condition in which he was at the time, removed the case
+quite out of the class of ordinary instances of cowardice. He condemned
+himself more severely than any of his judges would have dared;
+remembering that portion of his mental sensations which had savoured of
+fear, and forgetting the causes which had produced it. He judged himself
+a man stained with the foulest blot that could cleave to a soldier's
+name, a blot which nothing but death, not even death, could efface. But,
+inwardly condemned and outwardly degraded, his dread of recognition was
+intense; and feeling that he was in more danger of being discovered
+where the population was sparser, he resolved to hide himself once more
+in the midst of poverty; and, with this view, found his way to one of
+the largest of the manufacturing towns.
+
+He reached it during the strike of a great part of the workmen; so that,
+though he found some difficulty in procuring employment, as might be
+expected from his ignorance of machine-labour, he yet was sooner
+successful than he would otherwise have been. Possessed of a natural
+aptitude for mechanical operations, he soon became a tolerable workman;
+and he found that his previous education assisted to the fitting
+execution of those operations even which were most purely mechanical.
+
+He found also, at first, that the unrelaxing attention requisite for the
+mastering of the many niceties of his work, of necessity drew his mind
+somewhat from its brooding over his misfortune, hitherto almost
+ceaseless. Every now and then, however, a pang would shoot suddenly to
+his heart, and turn his face pale, even before his consciousness had
+time to inquire what was the matter. So by degrees, as attention became
+less necessary, and the nervo-mechanical action of his system increased
+with use, his thoughts again returned to their old misery. He would wake
+at night in his poor room, with the feeling that a ghostly nightmare sat
+on his soul; that a want--a loss--miserable, fearful--was present; that
+something of his heart was gone from him; and through the darkness he
+would hear the snap of the breaking sword, and lie for a moment
+overwhelmed beneath the assurance of the incredible fact. Could it be
+true that _he_ was a coward? that _his_ honour was gone, and in its
+place a stain? that _he_ was a thing for men--and worse, for women--to
+point the finger at, laughing bitter laughter? Never lover or husband
+could have mourned with the same desolation over the departure of the
+loved; the girl alone, weeping scorching tears over _her_ degradation,
+could resemble him in his agony, as he lay on his bed, and wept and
+moaned.
+
+His sufferings had returned with the greater weight, that he was no
+longer upheld by the "divine air" and the open heavens, whose sunlight
+now only reached him late in an afternoon, as he stood at his loom,
+through windows so coated with dust that they looked like frosted glass;
+showing, as it passed through the air to fall on the dirty floor, how
+the breath of life was thick with dust of iron and wood, and films of
+cotton; amidst which his senses were now too much dulled by custom to
+detect the exhalations from greasy wheels and overtasked human-kind. Nor
+could he find comfort in the society of his fellow-labourers. True, it
+was a kind of comfort to have those near him who could not know of his
+grief; but there was so little in common between them, that any
+interchange of thought was impossible. At least, so it seemed to him.
+Yet sometimes his longing for human companionship would drive him out
+of his dreary room at night, and send him wandering through the lower
+part of the town, where he would gaze wistfully on the miserable faces
+that passed him, as if looking for some one--some angel, even there--to
+speak goodwill to his hungry heart.
+
+Once he entered one of those gin-palaces, which, like the golden gates
+of hell, entice the miserable to worse misery, and seated himself close
+to a half-tipsy, good-natured wretch, who made room for him on a bench
+by the wall. He was comforted even by this proximity to one who would
+not repel him. But soon the paintings of warlike action--of knights, and
+horses, and mighty deeds done with battle-axe, and broad-sword, which
+adorned the--panels all round, drove him forth even from this heaven of
+the damned; yet not before the impious thought had arisen in his heart,
+that the brilliantly painted and sculptural roof, with the gilded
+vine-leaves and bunches of grapes trained up the windows, all lighted
+with the great shining chandeliers, was only a microcosmic repetition of
+the bright heavens and the glowing earth, that overhung and surrounded
+the misery of man. But the memory of how kindly they had comforted and
+elevated him, at one period of his painful history, not only banished
+the wicked thought, but brought him more quiet, in the resurrection of a
+past blessing, than he had known for some time. The period, however, was
+now at hand when a new grief, followed by a new and more elevated
+activity, was to do its part towards the closing up of the fountain of
+bitterness.
+
+Amongst his fellow-labourers, he had for a short time taken some
+interest in observing a young woman, who had lately joined them. There
+was nothing remarkable about her, except what at first sight seemed a
+remarkable plainness. A slight scar over one of her rather prominent
+eyebrows, increased this impression of plainness. But the first day had
+not passed, before he began to see that there was something not
+altogether common in those deep eyes; and the plain look vanished before
+a closer observation, which also discovered, in the forehead and the
+lines of the mouth, traces of sorrow or other suffering. There was an
+expression, too, in the whole face, of fixedness of purpose, without any
+hardness of determination. Her countenance altogether seemed the index
+to an interesting mental history. Signs of mental trouble were always an
+attraction to him; in this case so great, that he overcame his shyness,
+and spoke to her one evening as they left the works. He often walked
+home with her after that; as, indeed, was natural, seeing that she
+occupied an attic in the same poor lodging-house in which he lived
+himself. The street did not bear the best character; nor, indeed, would
+the occupations of all the inmates of the house have stood
+investigation; but so retiring and quiet was this girl, and so seldom
+did she go abroad after work hours, that he had not discovered till then
+that she lived in the same street, not to say the same house with
+himself.
+
+He soon learned her history--a very common one as outward events, but
+not surely insignificant because common. Her father and mother were both
+dead, and hence she had to find her livelihood alone, and amidst
+associations which were always disagreeable, and sometimes painful. Her
+quick womanly instinct must have discovered that he too had a history;
+for though, his mental prostration favouring the operation of outward
+influences, he had greatly approximated in appearance to those amongst
+whom he laboured, there were yet signs, besides the educated accent of
+his speech, which would have distinguished him to an observer; but she
+put no questions to him, nor made any approach towards seeking a return
+of the confidence she reposed in him. It was a sensible alleviation to
+his sufferings to hear her kind voice, and look in her gentle face, as
+they walked home together; and at length the expectation of this
+pleasure began to present itself, in the midst of the busy, dreary
+work-hours, as the shadow of a heaven to close up the dismal,
+uninteresting day.
+
+But one morning he missed her from her place, and a keener pain passed
+through him than he had felt of late; for he knew that the Plague was
+abroad, feeding in the low stagnant places of human abode; and he had
+but too much reason to dread that she might be now struggling in its
+grasp. He seized the first opportunity of slipping out and hurrying
+home. He sprang upstairs to her room. He found the door locked, but
+heard a faint moaning within. To avoid disturbing her, while determined
+to gain an entrance, he went down for the key of his own door, with
+which he succeeded in unlocking hers, and so crossed her threshold for
+the first time. There she lay on her bed, tossing in pain, and beginning
+to be delirious. Careless of his own life, and feeling that he could not
+die better than in helping the only friend he had; certain, likewise, of
+the difficulty of finding a nurse for one in this disease and of her
+station in life; and sure, likewise, that there could be no question of
+propriety, either in the circumstances with which they were surrounded,
+nor in this case of terrible fever almost as hopeless for her as
+dangerous to him, he instantly began the duties of a nurse, and returned
+no more to his employment. He had a little money in his possession, for
+he could not, in the way in which he lived, spend all his wages; so he
+proceeded to make her as comfortable as he could, with all the pent-up
+tenderness of a loving heart finding an outlet at length. When a boy at
+home, he had often taken the place of nurse, and he felt quite capable
+of performing its duties. Nor was his boyhood far behind yet, although
+the trials he had come through made it appear an age since he had lost
+his light heart. So he never left her bedside, except to procure what
+was necessary for her. She was too ill to oppose any of his measures, or
+to seek to prohibit his presence. Indeed, by the time he had returned
+with the first medicine, she was insensible; and she continued so
+through the whole of the following week, during which time he was
+constantly with her.
+
+That action produces feeling is as often true as its converse; and it is
+not surprising that, while he smoothed the pillow for her head, he
+should have made a nest in his heart for the helpless girl. Slowly and
+unconsciously he learned to love her. The chasm between his early
+associations and the circumstances in which he found her, vanished as he
+drew near to the simple, essential womanhood. His heart saw hers and
+loved it; and he knew that, the centre once gained, he could, as from
+the fountain of life, as from the innermost secret of the holy place,
+the hidden germ of power and possibility, transform the outer intellect
+and outermost manners as he pleased. With what a thrill of joy, a
+feeling for a long time unknown to him, and till now never known in this
+form or with this intensity, the thought arose in his heart that here
+lay one who some day would love him; that he should have a place of
+refuge and rest; one to lie in his bosom and not despise him! "For,"
+said he to himself, "I will call forth her soul from where it sleeps,
+like an unawakened echo, in an unknown cave; and like a child, of whom I
+once dreamed, that was mine, and to my delight turned in fear from all
+besides, and clung to me, this soul of hers will run with bewildered,
+half-sleeping eyes, and tottering steps, but with a cry of joy on its
+lips, to me as the life-giver. She will cling to me and worship me. Then
+will I tell her, for she must know all, that I am low and contemptible;
+that I am an outcast from the world, and that if she receive me, she
+will be to me as God. And I will fall down at her feet and pray her for
+comfort, for life, for restoration to myself; and she will throw herself
+beside me, and weep and love me, I know. And we will go through life
+together, working hard, but for each other; and when we die, she shall
+lead me into paradise as the prize her angel-hand found cast on a desert
+shore, from the storm of winds and waves which I was too weak to
+resist--and raised, and tended, and saved." Often did such thoughts as
+these pass through his mind while watching by her bed; alternated,
+checked, and sometimes destroyed, by the fears which attended her
+precarious condition, but returning with every apparent betterment or
+hopeful symptom.
+
+I will not stop to decide the nice question, how far the intention was
+right, of causing her to love him before she knew his story. If in the
+whole matter there was too much thought of self, my only apology is the
+sequel. One day, the ninth from the commencement of her illness, a
+letter arrived, addressed to her; which he, thinking he might prevent
+some inconvenience thereby, opened and read, in the confidence of that
+love which already made her and all belonging to her appear his own. It
+was from a soldier--_her lover_. It was plain that they had been
+betrothed before he left for the continent a year ago; but this was the
+first letter which he had written to her. It breathed changeless love,
+and hope, and confidence in her. He was so fascinated that he read it
+through without pause.
+
+Laying it down, he sat pale, motionless, almost inanimate. From the
+hard-won sunny heights, he was once more cast down into the shadow of
+death. The second storm of his life began, howling and raging, with yet
+more awful lulls between. "Is she not _mine_?" he said, in agony. "Do I
+not feel that she is mine? Who will watch over her as I? Who will kiss
+her soul to life as I? Shall she be torn away from me, when my soul
+seems to have dwelt with hers for ever in an eternal house? But have I
+not a right to her? Have I not given my life for hers? Is he not a
+soldier, and are there not many chances that he may never return? And it
+may be that, although they were engaged in word, soul has never touched
+soul with them; their love has never reached that point where it passes
+from the mortal to the immortal, the indissoluble: and so, in a sense,
+she may be yet free. Will he do for her what I will do? Shall this
+precious heart of hers, in which I see the buds of so many beauties, be
+left to wither and die?"
+
+But here the voice within him cried out, "Art thou the disposer of
+destinies? Wilt thou, in a universe where the visible God hath died for
+the Truth's sake, do evil that a good, which He might neglect or
+overlook, may be gained? Leave thou her to Him, and do thou right." And
+he said within himself, "Now is the real trial for my life! Shall I
+conquer or no?" And his heart awoke and cried, "I will. God forgive me
+for wronging the poor soldier! A brave man, brave at least, is better
+for her than I."
+
+A great strength arose within him, and lifted him up to depart. "Surely
+I may kiss her once," he said. For the crisis was over, and she slept.
+He stooped towards her face, but before he had reached her lips he saw
+her eyelids tremble; and he who had longed for the opening of those
+eyes, as of the gates of heaven, that she might love him, stricken now
+with fear lest she should love him, fled from her, before the eyelids
+that hid such strife and such victory from the unconscious maiden had
+time to unclose. But it was agony--quietly to pack up his bundle of
+linen in the room below, when he knew she was lying awake above, with
+her dear, pale face, and living eyes! What remained of his money, except
+a few shillings, he put up in a scrap of paper, and went out with his
+bundle in his hand, first to seek a nurse for his friend, and then to go
+he knew not whither. He met the factory people with whom he had worked,
+going to dinner, and amongst them a girl who had herself but lately
+recovered from the fever, and was yet hardly able for work. She was the
+only friend the sick girl had seemed to have amongst the women at the
+factory, and she was easily persuaded to go and take charge of her. He
+put the money in her hand, begging her to use it for the invalid, and
+promising to send the equivalent of her wages for the time he thought
+she would have to wait on her. This he easily did by the sale of a ring,
+which, besides his mother's watch, was the only article of value he had
+retained. He begged her likewise not to mention his name in the matter;
+and was foolish enough to expect that she would entirely keep the
+promise she had made him.
+
+Wandering along the street, purposeless now and bereft, he spied a
+recruiting party at the door of a public-house; and on coming nearer,
+found, by one of those strange coincidences which do occur in life, and
+which have possibly their root in a hidden and wondrous law, that it was
+a party, perhaps a remnant, of the very regiment in which he had himself
+served, and in which his misfortune had befallen him. Almost
+simultaneously with the shock which the sight of the well-known number
+on the soldiers' knapsacks gave him, arose in his mind the romantic,
+ideal thought, of enlisting in the ranks of this same regiment, and
+recovering, as a private soldier and unknown, that honour which as
+officer he had lost. To this determination, the new necessity in which
+he now stood for action and change of life, doubtless contributed,
+though unconsciously. He offered himself to the sergeant; and,
+notwithstanding that his dress indicated a mode of life unsuitable as
+the antecedent to a soldier's, his appearance, and the necessity for
+recruits combined, led to his easy acceptance.
+
+The English armies were employed in expelling the enemy from an invaded
+and helpless country. Whatever might be the political motives which had
+induced the Government to this measure, the young man was now able to
+feel that he could go and fight, individually and for his part, in the
+cause of liberty. He was free to possess his own motives for joining in
+the execution of the schemes of those who commanded his commanders.
+
+With a heavy heart, but with more of inward hope and strength than he
+had ever known before, he marched with his comrades to the seaport and
+embarked. It seemed to him that because he had done right in his last
+trial, here was a new glorious chance held out to his hand. True, it was
+a terrible change to pass from a woman in whom he had hoped to find
+healing, into the society of rough men, to march with them,
+"_mitgleichem Tritt und Schritt_," up to the bristling bayonets or the
+horrid vacancy of the cannon mouth. But it was the only cure for the
+evil that consumed his life.
+
+He reached the army in safety, and gave himself, with religious
+assiduity, to the smallest duties of his new position. No one had a
+brighter polish on his arms, or whiter belts than he. In the necessary
+movements, he soon became precise to a degree that attracted the
+attention of his officers; while his character was remarkable for all
+the virtues belonging to a perfect soldier.
+
+One day, as he stood sentry, he saw the eyes of his colonel intently
+fixed on him. He felt his lip quiver, but he compressed and stilled it,
+and tried to look as unconscious as he could; which effort was assisted
+by the formal bearing required by his position. Now the colonel, such
+had been the losses of the regiment, had been promoted from a
+lieutenancy in the same, and had belonged to it at the time of the
+ensign's degradation. Indeed, had not the changes in the regiment been
+so great, he could hardly have escaped so long without discovery. But
+the poor fellow would have felt that his name was already free of
+reproach, if he had seen what followed on the close inspection which had
+awakened his apprehensions, and which, in fact, had convinced the
+colonel of his identity with the disgraced ensign. With a hasty and less
+soldierly step than usual the colonel entered his tent, threw himself on
+his bed and wept like a child. When he rose he was overheard to say
+these words--and these only escaped his lips: "He is nobler than I."
+
+But this officer showed himself worthy of commanding such men as this
+private; for right nobly did he understand and meet his feelings. He
+uttered no word of the discovery he had made, till years afterwards; but
+it soon began to be remarked that whenever anything arduous, or in any
+manner distinguished, had to be done, this man was sure to be of the
+party appointed. In short, as often as he could, the colonel "set him in
+the forefront of the battle." Passing through all with wonderful escape,
+he was soon as much noticed for his reckless bravery, as hitherto for
+his precision in the discharge of duties bringing only commendation and
+not honour. But his final lustration was at hand.
+
+A great part of the army was hastening, by forced marches, to raise the
+siege of a town which was already on the point of falling into the hands
+of the enemy. Forming one of a reconnoitring party, which preceded the
+main body at some considerable distance, he and his companions came
+suddenly upon one of the enemy's outposts, occupying a high, and on one
+side precipitous rock, a short way from the town, which it commanded.
+Retreat was impossible, for they were already discovered, and the
+bullets were falling amongst them like the first of a hail-storm. The
+only possibility of escape remaining for them was a nearly hopeless
+improbability. It lay in forcing the post on this steep rock; which if
+they could do before assistance came to the enemy, they might, perhaps,
+be able to hold out, by means of its defences, till the arrival of the
+army. Their position was at once understood by all; and, by a sudden,
+simultaneous impulse, they found themselves halfway up the steep ascent,
+and in the struggle of a close conflict, without being aware of any
+order to that effect from their officer. But their courage was of no
+avail; the advantages of the place were too great; and in a few minutes
+the whole party was cut to pieces, or stretched helpless on the rock.
+Our youth had fallen amongst the foremost; for a musket ball had grazed
+his skull, and laid him insensible.
+
+But consciousness slowly returned, and he succeeded at last in raising
+himself and looking around him. The place was deserted. A few of his
+friends, alive, but grievously wounded, lay near him. The rest were
+dead. It appeared that, learning the proximity of the English forces
+from this rencontre with part of their advanced guard, and dreading lest
+the town, which was on the point of surrendering, should after all be
+snatched from their grasp, the commander of the enemy's forces had
+ordered an immediate and general assault; and had for this purpose
+recalled from their outposts the whole of his troops thus stationed,
+that he might make the attempt with the utmost strength he could
+accumulate.
+
+As the youth's power of vision returned, he perceived, from the height
+where he lay, that the town was already in the hands of the enemy.
+But looking down into the level space immediately below him, he started
+to his feet at once; for a girl, bare-headed, was fleeing towards the
+rock, pursued by several soldiers. "Aha!" said he, divining her
+purpose--the soldiers behind and the rock before her--"I will help you
+to die!" And he stooped and wrenched from the dead fingers of a sergeant
+the sword which they clenched by the bloody hilt. A new throb of life
+pulsed through him to his very finger-tips; and on the brink of the
+unseen world he stood, with the blood rushing through his veins in a
+wild dance of excitement. One who lay near him wounded, but recovered
+afterwards, said that he looked like one inspired. With a keen eye he
+watched the chase. The girl drew nigh; and rushed up the path near which
+he was standing. Close on her footsteps came the soldiers, the distance
+gradually lessening between them.
+
+Not many paces higher up, was a narrower part of the ascent, where the
+path was confined by great stones, or pieces of rock. Here had been the
+chief defence in the preceding assault, and in it lay many bodies of his
+friends. Thither he went and took his stand.
+
+On the girl came, over the dead, with rigid hands and flying feet, the
+bloodless skin drawn tight on her features, and her eyes awfully large
+and wild. She did not see him though she bounded past so near that her
+hair flew in his eyes. "Never mind!" said he, "we shall meet soon." And
+he stepped into the narrow path just in time to face her
+pursuers--between her and them. Like the red lightning the bloody sword
+fell, and a man beneath it. Cling! clang! went the echoes in the
+rocks--and another man was down; for, in his excitement, he was a
+destroying angel to the breathless pursuers. His stature rose, his chest
+dilated; and as the third foe fell dead, the girl was safe; for her body
+lay a broken, empty, but undesecrated temple, at the foot of the rock.
+That moment his sword flew in shivers from his grasp. The next instant
+he fell, pierced to the heart; and his spirit rose triumphant, free,
+strong, and calm, above the stormy world, which at length lay vanquished
+beneath him.
+
+
+
+
+THE GRAY WOLF
+
+
+
+
+One evening-twilight in spring, a young English student, who had
+wandered northwards as far as the outlying fragments of Scotland called
+the Orkney and Shetland Islands, found himself on a small island of the
+latter group, caught in a storm of wind and hail, which had come on
+suddenly. It was in vain to look about for any shelter; for not only did
+the storm entirely obscure the landscape, but there was nothing around
+him save a desert moss.
+
+At length, however, as he walked on for mere walking's sake, he found
+himself on the verge of a cliff, and saw, over the brow of it, a few
+feet below him, a ledge of rock, where he might find some shelter from
+the blast, which blew from behind. Letting himself down by his hands, he
+alighted upon something that crunched beneath his tread, and found the
+bones of many small animals scattered about in front of a little cave in
+the rock, offering the refuge he sought. He went in, and sat upon a
+stone. The storm increased in violence, and as the darkness grew he
+became uneasy, for he did not relish the thought of spending the night
+in the cave. He had parted from his companions on the opposite side of
+the island, and it added to his uneasiness that they must be full of
+apprehension about him. At last there came a lull in the storm, and the
+same instant he heard a footfall, stealthy and light as that of a wild
+beast, upon the bones at the mouth of the cave. He started up in some
+fear, though the least thought might have satisfied him that there could
+be no very dangerous animals upon the island. Before he had time to
+think, however, the face of a woman appeared in the opening. Eagerly the
+wanderer spoke. She started at the sound of his voice. He could not see
+her well, because she was turned towards the darkness of the cave.
+
+"Will you tell me how to find my way across the moor to Shielness?" he
+asked.
+
+"You cannot find it to-night," she answered, in a sweet tone, and with a
+smile that bewitched him, revealing the whitest of teeth.
+
+"What am I to do, then?"
+
+"My mother will give you shelter, but that is all she has to offer."
+
+"And that is far more than I expected a minute ago," he replied. "I
+shall be most grateful."
+
+She turned in silence and left the cave. The youth followed.
+
+She was barefooted, and her pretty brown feet went catlike over the
+sharp stones, as she led the way down a rocky path to the shore. Her
+garments were scanty and torn, and her hair blew tangled in the wind.
+She seemed about five and twenty, lithe and small. Her long fingers kept
+clutching and pulling nervously at her skirts as she went. Her face was
+very gray in complexion, and very worn, but delicately formed, and
+smooth-skinned. Her thin nostrils were tremulous as eyelids, and her
+lips, whose curves were faultless, had no colour to give sign of
+indwelling blood. What her eyes were like he could not see, for she had
+never lifted the delicate films of her eyelids.
+
+At the foot of the cliff, they came upon a little hut leaning against
+it, and having for its inner apartment a natural hollow within. Smoke
+was spreading over the face of the rock, and the grateful odour of food
+gave hope to the hungry student. His guide opened the door of the
+cottage; he followed her in, and saw a woman bending over a fire in the
+middle of the floor. On the fire lay a large fish broiling. The daughter
+spoke a few words, and the mother turned and welcomed the stranger. She
+had an old and very wrinkled, but honest face, and looked troubled. She
+dusted the only chair in the cottage, and placed it for him by the side
+of the fire, opposite the one window, whence he saw a little patch of
+yellow sand over which the spent waves spread themselves out listlessly.
+Under this window there was a bench, upon which the daughter threw
+herself in an unusual posture, resting her chin upon her hand. A moment
+after, the youth caught the first glimpse of her blue eyes. They were
+fixed upon him with a strange look of greed, amounting to craving, but,
+as if aware that they belied or betrayed her, she dropped them
+instantly. The moment she veiled them, her face, notwithstanding its
+colourless complexion, was almost beautiful.
+
+When the fish was ready, the old woman wiped the deal table, steadied it
+upon the uneven floor, and covered it with a piece of fine table-linen.
+She then laid the fish on a wooden platter, and invited the guest to
+help himself. Seeing no other provision, he pulled from his pocket a
+hunting knife, and divided a portion from the fish, offering it to the
+mother first.
+
+"Come, my lamb," said the old woman; and the daughter approached the
+table. But her nostrils and mouth quivered with disgust.
+
+The next moment she turned and hurried from the hut.
+
+"She doesn't like fish," said the old woman, "and I haven't anything
+else to give her."
+
+"She does not seem in good health," he rejoined.
+
+The woman answered only with a sigh, and they ate their fish with the
+help of a little rye bread. As they finished their supper, the youth
+heard the sound as of the pattering of a dog's feet upon the sand close
+to the door; but ere he had time to look out of the window, the door
+opened, and the young woman entered. She looked better, perhaps from
+having just washed her face. She drew a stool to the corner of the fire
+opposite him. But as she sat down, to his bewilderment, and even horror,
+the student spied a single drop of blood on her white skin within her
+torn dress. The woman brought out a jar of whisky, put a rusty old
+kettle on the fire, and took her place in front of it. As soon as the
+water boiled, she proceeded to make some toddy in a wooden bowl.
+
+Meantime the youth could not take his eyes off the young woman, so that
+at length he found himself fascinated, or rather bewitched. She kept her
+eyes for the most part veiled with the loveliest eyelids fringed with
+darkest lashes, and he gazed entranced; for the red glow of the little
+oil-lamp covered all the strangeness of her complexion. But as soon as
+he met a stolen glance out of those eyes unveiled, his soul shuddered
+within him. Lovely face and craving eyes alternated fascination and
+repulsion.
+
+The mother placed the bowl in his hands. He drank sparingly, and passed
+it to the girl. She lifted it to her lips, and as she tasted--only
+tasted it--looked at him. He thought the drink must have been drugged
+and have affected his brain. Her hair smoothed itself back, and drew her
+forehead backwards with it; while the lower part of her face projected
+towards the bowl, revealing, ere she sipped, her dazzling teeth in
+strange prominence. But the same moment the vision vanished; she
+returned the vessel to her mother, and rising, hurried out of the
+cottage.
+
+Then the old woman pointed to a bed of heather in one corner with a
+murmured apology; and the student, wearied both with the fatigues of the
+day and the strangeness of the night, threw himself upon it, wrapped in
+his cloak. The moment he lay down, the storm began afresh, and the wind
+blew so keenly through the crannies of the hut, that it was only by
+drawing his cloak over his head that he could protect himself from its
+currents. Unable to sleep, he lay listening to the uproar which grew in
+violence, till the spray was dashing against the window. At length the
+door opened, and the young woman came in, made up the fire, drew the
+bench before it, and lay down in the same strange posture, with her chin
+propped on her hand and elbow, and her face turned towards the youth. He
+moved a little; she dropped her head, and lay on her face, with her arms
+crossed beneath her forehead. The mother had disappeared.
+
+Drowsiness crept over him. A movement of the bench roused him, and he
+fancied he saw some four-footed creature as tall as a large dog trot
+quietly out of the door. He was sure he felt a rush of cold wind. Gazing
+fixedly through the darkness, he thought he saw the eyes of the damsel
+encountering his, but a glow from the falling together of the remnants
+of the fire revealed clearly enough that the bench was vacant. Wondering
+what could have made her go out in such a storm, he fell fast asleep.
+
+In the middle of the night he felt a pain in his shoulder, came broad
+awake, and saw the gleaming eyes and grinning teeth of some animal close
+to his face. Its claws were in his shoulder, and its mouth in the act of
+seeking his throat. Before it had fixed its fangs, however, he had its
+throat in one hand, and sought his knife with the other. A terrible
+struggle followed; but regardless of the tearing claws, he found and
+opened his knife. He had made one futile stab, and was drawing it for a
+surer, when, with a spring of the whole body, and one wildly contorted
+effort, the creature twisted its neck from his hold, and with something
+betwixt a scream and a howl, darted from him. Again he heard the door
+open; again the wind blew in upon him, and it continued blowing; a sheet
+of spray dashed across the floor, and over his face. He sprung from his
+couch and bounded to the door.
+
+It was a wild night--dark, but for the flash of whiteness from the waves
+as they broke within a few yards of the cottage; the wind was raving,
+and the rain pouring down the air. A gruesome sound as of mingled
+weeping and howling came from somewhere in the dark. He turned again
+into the hut and closed the door, but could find no way of securing it.
+
+The lamp was nearly out, and he could not be certain whether the form of
+the young woman was upon the bench or not. Overcoming a strong
+repugnance, he approached it, and put out his hands--there was nothing
+there. He sat down and waited for the daylight: he dared not sleep any
+more.
+
+When the day dawned at length, he went out yet again, and looked around.
+The morning was dim and gusty and gray. The wind had fallen, but the
+waves were tossing wildly. He wandered up and down the little strand,
+longing for more light.
+
+At length he heard a movement in the cottage. By and by the voice of the
+old woman called to him from the door.
+
+"You're up early, sir. I doubt you didn't sleep well."
+
+"Not very well," he answered. "But where is your daughter?"
+
+"She's not awake yet," said the mother. "I'm afraid I have but a poor
+breakfast for you. But you'll take a dram and a bit of fish. It's all
+I've got."
+
+Unwilling to hurt her, though hardly in good appetite, he sat down at
+the table. While they were eating, the daughter came in, but turned her
+face away and went to the farther end of the hut. When she came forward
+after a minute or two, the youth saw that her hair was drenched, and her
+face whiter than before. She looked ill and faint, and when she raised
+her eyes, all their fierceness had vanished, and sadness had taken its
+place. Her neck was now covered with a cotton handkerchief. She was
+modestly attentive to him, and no longer shunned his gaze. He was
+gradually yielding to the temptation of braving another night in the
+hut, and seeing what would follow, when the old woman spoke.
+
+"The weather will be broken all day, sir," she said. "You had better be
+going, or your friends will leave without you."
+
+Ere he could answer, he saw such a beseeching glance on the face of the
+girl, that he hesitated, confused. Glancing at the mother, he saw the
+flash of wrath in her face. She rose and approached her daughter, with
+her hand lifted to strike her. The young woman stooped her head with a
+cry. He darted round the table to interpose between them. But the mother
+had caught hold of her; the handkerchief had fallen from her neck; and
+the youth saw five blue bruises on her lovely throat--the marks of the
+four fingers and the thumb of a left hand. With a cry of horror he
+darted from the house, but as he reached the door he turned. His hostess
+was lying motionless on the floor, and a huge gray wolf came bounding
+after him.
+
+There was no weapon at hand; and if there had been, his inborn chivalry
+would never have allowed him to harm a woman even under the guise of a
+wolf. Instinctively, he set himself firm, leaning a little forward, with
+half outstretched arms, and hands curved ready to clutch again at the
+throat upon which he had left those pitiful marks. But the creature as
+she sprung eluded his grasp, and just as he expected to feel her fangs,
+he found a woman weeping on his bosom, with her arms around his neck.
+The next instant, the gray wolf broke from him, and bounded howling up
+the cliff. Recovering himself as he best might, the youth followed, for
+it was the only way to the moor above, across which he must now make his
+way to find his companions.
+
+All at once he heard the sound of a crunching of bones--not as if a
+creature was eating them, but as if they were ground by the teeth of
+rage and disappointment; looking up, he saw close above him the mouth of
+the little cavern in which he had taken refuge the day before. Summoning
+all his resolution, he passed it slowly and softly. From within came the
+sounds of a mingled moaning and growling.
+
+Having reached the top, he ran at full speed for some distance across
+the moor before venturing to look behind him. When at length he did so,
+he saw, against the sky, the girl standing on the edge of the cliff,
+wringing her hands. One solitary wail crossed the space between. She
+made no attempt to follow him, and he reached the opposite shore in
+safety.
+
+
+
+
+UNCLE CORNELIUS HIS STORY
+
+
+
+
+
+It was a dull evening in November. A drizzling mist had been falling all
+day about the old farm. Harry Heywood and his two sisters sat in the
+house-place, expecting a visit from their uncle, Cornelius Heywood. This
+uncle lived alone, occupying the first floor above a chemist's shop in
+the town, and had just enough of money over to buy books that nobody
+seemed ever to have heard of but himself; for he was a student in all
+those regions of speculation in which anything to be called knowledge is
+impossible.
+
+"What a dreary night!" said Kate. "I wish uncle would come and tell us a
+story."
+
+"A cheerful wish," said Harry. "Uncle Cornie is a lively
+companion--isn't he? He cant even blunder through a Joe Miller without
+tacking a moral to it, and then trying to persuade you that the joke of
+it depends on the moral."
+
+"Here he comes!" said Kate, as three distinct blows with the knob of his
+walking-stick announced the arrival of Uncle Cornelius. She ran to the
+door to open it.
+
+The air had been very still all day, but as he entered he seemed to have
+brought the wind with him, for the first moan of it pressed against
+rather than shook the casement of the low-ceiled room.
+
+Uncle Cornelius was very tall, and very thin, and very pale, with large
+gray eyes that looked greatly larger because he wore spectacles of the
+most delicate hair-steel, with the largest pebble-eyes that ever were
+seen. He gave them a kindly greeting, but too much in earnest even in
+shaking hands to smile over it. He sat down in the arm-chair by the
+chimney corner.
+
+I have been particular in my description of him, in order that my reader
+may give due weight to his words. I am such a believer in words, that I
+believe everything depends on who says them. Uncle Cornelius Heywood's
+story told word for word by Uncle Timothy Warren, would not have been
+the same story at all. Not one of the listeners would have believed a
+syllable of it from the lips of round-bodied, red-faced, small-eyed,
+little Uncle Tim; whereas from Uncle Cornie--disbelieve one of his
+stories if you could!
+
+One word more concerning him. His interest in everything conjectured or
+believed relative to the awful borderland of this world and the next,
+was only equalled by his disgust at the vulgar, unimaginative forms
+which curiosity about such subjects has assumed in the present day. With
+a yearning after the unseen like that of a child for the lifting of the
+curtain of a theatre, he declared that, rather than accept such a
+spirit-world as the would-be seers of the nineteenth century thought or
+pretended to reveal,--the prophets of a pauperised, workhouse
+immortality, invented by a poverty-stricken soul, and a sense so greedy
+that it would gorge on carrion,--he would rejoice to believe that a man
+had just as much of a soul as the cabbage of Iamblichus, namely, an
+aerial double of his body.
+
+"I'm so glad you're come, uncle!" said Kate. "Why wouldn't you come to
+dinner? We have been so gloomy!"
+
+"Well, Katey, you know I don't admire eating. I never could bear to see
+a cow tearing up the grass with her long tongue." As he spoke he looked
+very much like a cow. He had a way of opening his jaws while he kept his
+lips closely pressed together, that made his cheeks fall in, and his
+face look awfully long and dismal. "I consider eating," he went on,
+"such an animal exercise that it ought always to be performed in
+private. You never saw me dine, Kate."
+
+"Never, uncle; but I have seen you drink;--nothing but water, I must
+confess."
+
+"Yes that is another affair. According to one eyewitness that is no more
+than the disembodied can do. I must confess, however, that, although
+well attested, the story is to me scarcely credible. Fancy a glass of
+Bavarian beer lifted into the air without a visible hand, turned upside
+down, and set empty on the table!--and no splash on the floor or
+anywhere else!"
+
+A solitary gleam of humour shone through the great eyes of the
+spectacles as he spoke.
+
+"Oh, uncle! how can you believe such nonsense!" said Janet.
+
+"I did not say I believed it--did I? But why not? The story has at least
+a touch of imagination in it."
+
+"That is a strange reason for believing a thing, uncle," said Harry.
+
+"You might have a worse, Harry. I grant it is not sufficient; but it is
+better than that commonplace aspect which is the ground of most faith. I
+believe I did say that the story puzzled me."
+
+"But how can you give it any quarter at all, uncle?"
+
+"It does me no harm. There it is--between the boards of an old German
+book. There let it remain."
+
+"Well, you will never persuade me to believe such things," said Janet.
+
+"Wait till I ask you, Janet," returned her uncle, gravely. "I have not
+the slightest desire to convince you. How did we get into this
+unprofitable current of talk? We will change it at once. How are
+consols, Harry?"
+
+"Oh, uncle!" said Kate, "we were longing for a story, and just as I
+thought you were coming to one, off you go to consols!"
+
+"I thought a ghost story at least was coming," said Janet.
+
+"You did your best to stop it, Janet," said Harry.
+
+Janet began an angry retort, but Cornelius interrupted her. "You never
+heard me tell a ghost story, Janet."
+
+"You have just told one about a drinking ghost, uncle," said Janet--in
+such a tone that Cornelius replied--
+
+"Well, take that for your story, and let us talk of something else."
+
+Janet apparently saw that she had been rude, and said as sweetly as she
+might--"Ah! but you didn't make that one, uncle. You got it out of a
+German book."
+
+"Make it!--Make a ghost story!" repeated Cornelius. "No; that I never
+did."
+
+"Such things are not to be trifled with, are they?" said Janet.
+
+"I at least have no inclination to trifle with them."
+
+"But, really and truly, uncle," persisted Janet, "you don't believe in
+such things?"
+
+"Why should I either believe or disbelieve in them? They are not
+essential to salvation, I presume."
+
+"You must do the one or the other, I suppose."
+
+"I beg your pardon. You suppose wrong. It would take twice the proof I
+have ever had to make me believe in them; and exactly your prejudice,
+and allow me to say ignorance, to make me disbelieve in them. Neither is
+within my reach. I postpone judgment. But you, young people, of course,
+are wiser, and know all about the question."
+
+"Oh, uncle! I'm so sorry!" said Kate. "I'm sure I did not mean to vex
+you."
+
+"Not at all, not at all, my dear.--It wasn't you."
+
+"Do you know," Kate went on, anxious to prevent anything unpleasant, for
+there was something very black perched on Janet's forehead, "I have
+taken to reading about that kind of thing."
+
+"I beg you will give it up at once. You will bewilder your brains till
+you are ready to believe anything, if only it be absurd enough. Nay, you
+may come to find the element of vulgarity essential to belief. I should
+be sorry to the heart to believe concerning a horse or dog what they
+tell you nowadays about Shakespeare and Burns. What have you been
+reading, my girl?"
+
+"Don't be alarmed, uncle. Only some Highland legends, which are too
+absurd either for my belief or for your theories."
+
+"I don't know that, Kate."
+
+"Why, what could you do with such shapeless creatures as haunt their
+fords and pools for instance? They are as featureless as the faces of
+the mountains."
+
+"And so much the more terrible."
+
+"But that does not make it easier to believe in them," said Harry.
+
+"I only said," returned his uncle, "that their shapelessness adds to
+their horror."
+
+"But you allowed--almost, at least, uncle," said Kate, "that you could
+find a place in your theories even for those shapeless creatures."
+
+Cornelius sat silent for a moment; then, having first doubled the length
+of his face, and restored it to its natural condition, said
+thoughtfully, "I suspect, Katey, if you were to come upon an
+ichthyosaurus or a pterodactyl asleep in the shubbery, you would hardly
+expect your report of it to be believed all at once either by Harry or
+Janet."
+
+"I suppose not, uncle. But I can't see what--"
+
+"Of course such a thing could not happen here and now. But there was a
+time when and a place where such a thing may have happened. Indeed, in
+my time, a traveller or two have got pretty soundly disbelieved for
+reporting what they saw,--the last of an expiring race, which had
+strayed over the natural verge of its history, coming to life in some
+neglected swamp, itself a remnant of the slime of Chaos."
+
+"I never heard you talk like that before, uncle," said Harry. "If you go
+on like that, you'll land me in a swamp, I'm afraid."
+
+"I wasn't talking to you at all, Harry. Kate challenged me to find a
+place for kelpies, and such like, in the theories she does me the honour
+of supposing I cultivate."
+
+"Then you think, uncle, that all these stories are only legends which,
+if you could follow them up, would lead you back to some one of the
+awful monsters that have since quite disappeared from the earth."
+
+"It is possible those stories may be such legends; but that was not what
+I intended to lead you to. I gave you that only as something like what I
+am going to say now. What if,--mind, I only suggest it,--what if the
+direful creatures, whose report lingers in these tales, should have an
+origin far older still? What if they were the remnants of a vanishing
+period of the earth's history long antecedent to the birth of mastodon
+and iguanodon; a stage, namely, when the world, as we call it, had not
+yet become quite visible, was not yet so far finished as to part from
+the invisible world that was its mother, and which, on its part, had not
+then become quite invisible--was only almost such; and when, as a
+credible consequence, strange shapes of those now invisible regions,
+Gorgons and Chimaeras dire, might be expected to gloom out occasionally
+from the awful Fauna of an ever-generating world upon that one which was
+being born of it. Hence, the life-periods of a world being long and
+slow, some of these huge, unformed bulks of half-created matter might,
+somehow, like the megatherium of later times,--a baby creation to
+them,--roll at age-long intervals, clothed in a mighty terror of
+shapelessness into the half-recognition of human beings, whose
+consternation at the uncertain vision were barrier enough to prevent all
+further knowledge of its substance."
+
+"I begin to have some notion of your meaning, uncle," said Kate.
+
+"But then," said Janet, "all that must be over by this time. That world
+has been invisible now for many years."
+
+"Ever since you were born, I suppose, Janet. The changes of a world are
+not to be measured by the changes of its generations."
+
+"Oh, but, uncle, there can't be any such things. You know that as well
+as I do."
+
+"Yes, just as well, and no better."
+
+"There can't be any ghosts now. Nobody believes such things."
+
+"Oh, as to ghosts, that is quite another thing. I did not know you were
+talking with reference to them. It is no wonder if one can get nothing
+sensible out of you, Janet, when your discrimination is no greater than
+to lump everything marvellous, kelpies, ghosts, vampires, doubles,
+witches, fairies, nightmares, and I don't know what all, under the one
+head of ghosts; and we haven't been saying a word about them. If one
+were to disprove to you the existence of the afreets of Eastern tales,
+you would consider the whole argument concerning the reappearance of the
+departed upset. I congratulate you on your powers of analysis and
+induction, Miss Janet. But it matters very little whether we believe in
+ghosts, as you say, or not, provided we believe that we are ghosts--that
+within this body, which so many people are ready to consider their own
+very selves, their lies a ghostly embryo, at least, which has an inner
+side to it God only can see, which says I concerning itself, and which
+will soon have to know whether or not it can appear to those whom it has
+left behind, and thus solve the question of ghosts for itself, at
+least."
+
+"Then you do believe in ghosts, uncle?" said Janet, in a tone that
+certainly was not respectful.
+
+"Surely I said nothing of the sort, Janet. The man most convinced that
+he had himself had such an interview as you hint at, would find--ought
+to find it impossible to convince any one else of it."
+
+"You are quite out of my depth, uncle," said Harry. "Surely any honest
+man ought to be believed?"
+
+"Honesty is not all, by any means, that is necessary to being believed.
+It is impossible to convey a conviction of anything. All you can do is
+to convey a conviction that you are convinced. Of course, what satisfied
+you might satisfy another; but, till you can present him with the
+sources of your conviction, you cannot present him with the
+conviction--and perhaps not even then."
+
+"You can tell him all about, it, can't you?"
+
+"Is telling a man about a ghost, affording him the source of your
+conviction? Is it the same as a ghost appearing to him? Really,
+Harry!--You cannot even convey the impression a dream has made upon
+you."
+
+"But isn't that just because it is only a dream?"
+
+"Not at all. The impression may be deeper and clearer on your mind than
+any fact of the next morning will make. You will forget the next day
+altogether, but the impression of the dream will remain through all the
+following whirl and storm of what you call facts. Now a conviction may
+be likened to a deep impression on the judgment or the reason, or both.
+No one can feel it but the person who is convinced. It cannot be
+conveyed."
+
+"I fancy that is just what those who believe in spirit-rapping would
+say."
+
+"There are the true and false of convictions, as of everything else. I
+mean that a man may take that for a conviction in his own mind which is
+not a conviction, but only resembles one. But those to whom you refer
+profess to appeal to facts. It is on the ground of those facts, and with
+the more earnestness the more reason they can give for receiving them as
+facts, that I refuse all their deductions with abhorrence. I mean that,
+if what they say is true, the thinker must reject with contempt the
+claim to anything like revelation therein."
+
+"Then you do not believe in ghosts, after all?" said Kate, in a tone of
+surprise.
+
+"I did not say so, my dear. Will you be reasonable, or will you not?"
+
+"Dear uncle, do tell us what you really think."
+
+"I have been telling you what I think ever since I came, Katey; and you
+won't take in a word I say."
+
+"I have been taking in every word, uncle, and trying hard to understand
+it as well.--Did you ever see a ghost, uncle?"
+
+Cornelius Heywood was silent. He shut his lips and opened his jaws till
+his cheeks almost met in the vacuum. A strange expression crossed the
+strange countenance, and the great eyes of his spectacles looked as if,
+at the very moment, they were seeing something no other spectacles could
+see. Then his jaws closed with a snap, his countenance brightened, a
+flash of humour came through the goggle eyes of pebble, and, at length,
+he actually smiled as he said--"Really, Katey, you must take me for a
+simpleton!"
+
+"How, uncle?"
+
+"To think, if I had ever seen a ghost, I would confess the fact before a
+set of creatures like you--all spinning your webs like so many spiders
+to catch and devour old Daddy Longlegs."
+
+By this time Harry had grown quite grave. "Indeed, I am very sorry,
+uncle," he said, "if I have deserved such a rebuke."
+
+"No, no, my boy," said Cornelius; "I did not mean it more than half. If
+I had meant it, I would not have said it. If you really would like--"
+Here he paused.
+
+"Indeed we should, uncle," said Kate, earnestly. "You should have heard
+what we were saying just before you came in."
+
+"All you were saying, Katey?"
+
+"Yes," answered Kate, thoughtfully. "The worst we said was that you
+could not tell a story without--well, we did say tacking a moral to it."
+
+"Well, well! I mustn't push it. A man has no right to know what people
+say about him. It unfits him for occupying his real position amongst
+them. He, least of all, has anything to do with it. If his friends won't
+defend him, he can't defend himself. Besides, what people say is so
+often untrue!--I don't mean to others, but to themselves. Their hearts
+are more honest than their mouths. But Janet doesn't want a strange
+story, I am sure."
+
+Janet certainly was not one to have chosen for a listener to such a
+tale. Her eyes were so small that no satisfaction could possibly come of
+it. "Oh! I don't mind, uncle," she said, with half-affected
+indifference, as she searched in her box for silk to mend her gloves.
+
+"You are not very encouraging, I must say," returned her uncle, making
+another cow-face.
+
+"I will go away, if you like," said Janet, pretending to rise.
+
+"No, never mind," said her uncle hastily. "If you don't want me to tell
+it, I want you to hear it; and, before I have done, that may have come
+to the same thing perhaps."
+
+"Then you really are going to tell us a ghost story!" said Kate, drawing
+her chair nearer to her uncle's; and then, finding this did not satisfy
+her sense of propinquity to the source of the expected pleasure, drawing
+a stool from the corner, and seating herself almost on the hearth-rug at
+his knee.
+
+"I did not say so," returned Cornelius, once more. "I said I would tell
+you a strange story. You may call it a ghost story if you like; I do not
+pretend to determine what it is. I confess it will look like one,
+though."
+
+After so many delays, Uncle Cornelius now plunged almost hurriedly into
+his narration.
+
+"In the year 1820," he said, "in the month of August, I fell in love."
+Here the girls glanced at each other. The idea of Uncle Cornie in love,
+and in the very same century in which they were now listening to the
+confession, was too astonishing to pass without ocular remark; but, if
+he observed it, he took no notice of it; he did not even pause. "In the
+month of September, I was refused. Consequently, in the month of
+October, I was ready to fall in love again. Take particular care of
+yourself, Harry, for a whole month, at least, after your first
+disappointment; for you will never be more likely to do a foolish thing.
+Please yourself after the second. If you are silly then, you may take
+what you get, for you will deserve it--except it be good fortune."
+
+"Did you do a foolish thing then, uncle?" asked Harry, demurely.
+
+"I did, as you will see; for I fell in love again."
+
+"I don't see anything so very foolish in that."
+
+"I have repented it since, though. Don't interrupt me again, please. In
+the middle of October, then, in the year 1820, in the evening, I was
+walking across Russell Square, on my way home from the British Museum,
+where I had been reading all day. You see I have a full intention of
+being precise, Janet."
+
+"I'm sure I don't know why you make the remark to me, uncle," said
+Janet, with an involuntary toss of her head. Her uncle only went on with
+his narrative.
+
+"I begin at the very beginning of my story," he said; "for I want to be
+particular as to everything that can appear to have had anything to do
+with what came afterwards. I had been reading, I say, all the morning in
+the British Museum; and, as I walked, I took off my spectacles to ease
+my eyes. I need not tell you that I am short-sighted now, for that you
+know well enough. But I must tell you that I was short-sighted then, and
+helpless enough without my spectacles, although I was not quite so much
+so as I am now;--for I find it all nonsense about short-sighted eyes
+improving with age. Well, I was walking along the south side of Russell
+Square, with my spectacles in my hand, and feeling a little bewildered
+in consequence--for it was quite the dusk of the evening, and
+short-sighted people require more light than others. I was feeling, in
+fact, almost blind. I had got more than half-way to the other side,
+when, from the crossing that cuts off the corner in the direction of
+Montagu Place, just as I was about to turn towards it, an old lady
+stepped upon the kerbstone of the pavement, looked at me for a moment,
+and passed--an occurrence not very remarkable, certainly. But the lady
+was remarkable, and so was her dress. I am not good at observing, and I
+am still worse at describing dress, therefore I can only say that hers
+reminded me of an old picture--that is, I had never seen anything like
+it, except in old pictures. She had no bonnet, and looked as if she had
+walked straight out of an ancient drawing-room in her evening attire. Of
+her face I shall say nothing now. The next instant I met a man on the
+crossing, who stopped and addressed me. So short-sighted was I that,
+although I recognised his voice as one I ought to know, I could not
+identify him until I had put on my spectacles, which I did instinctively
+in the act of returning his greeting. At the same moment I glanced over
+my shoulder after the old lady. She was nowhere to be seen.
+
+"'What are you looking at?' asked James Hetheridge.
+
+"'I was looking after that old lady,' I answered, 'but I can't see her.'
+
+"'What old lady?' said Hetheridge, with just a touch of impatience.
+
+"'You must have seen her,' I returned. 'You were not more than three
+yards behind her.'
+
+"'Where is she then?'
+
+"'She must have gone down one of the areas, I think. But she looked a
+lady, though an old-fashioned one.'
+
+"'Have you been dining?' asked James, in a tone of doubtful inquiry.
+
+"'No,' I replied, not suspecting the insinuation; 'I have only just come
+from the Museum.'
+
+"'Then I advise you to call on your medical man before you go home.'
+
+"'Medical man!' I returned; 'I have no medical man. What do you mean? I
+never was better in my life.'
+
+"'I mean that there was no old lady. It was an illusion, and that
+indicates something wrong. Besides, you did not know me when I spoke to
+you.'
+
+"'That is nothing," I returned. 'I had just taken off my spectacles, and
+without them I shouldn't know my own father.'
+
+"'How was it you saw the old lady, then?'
+
+"The affair was growing serious under my friend's cross-questioning. I
+did not at all like the idea of his supposing me subject to
+hallucinations. So I answered, with a laugh, 'Ah! to be sure, that
+explains it. I am so blind without my spectacles, that I shouldn't know
+an old lady from a big dog.'
+
+"'There was no big dog,' said Hetheridge, shaking his head, as the fact
+for the first time dawned upon me that, although I had seen the old lady
+clearly enough to make a sketch of her, even to the features of her
+care-worn, eager old face, I had not been able to recognise the
+well-known countenance of James Hetheridge.
+
+"'That's what comes of reading till the optic nerve is weakened," he
+went on. 'You will cause yourself serious injury if you do not pull up
+in time. I'll tell you what; I'm going home next week--will you go with
+me?'
+
+"'You are very kind,' I answered, not altogether rejecting the proposal,
+for I felt that a little change to the country would be pleasant, and I
+was quite my own master. For I had unfortunately means equal to my
+wants, and had no occasion to follow any profession--not a very
+desirable thing for a young man, I can tell you, Master Harry. I need
+not keep you over the commonplaces of pressing and yielding. It is
+enough to say that he pressed and that I yielded. The day was fixed for
+our departure together; but something or other, I forget what, occurred,
+to make him advance the date, and it was resolved that I should follow
+later in the month.
+
+"It was a drizzly afternoon in the beginning of the last week of October
+when I left the town of Bradford in a post-chaise to drive to Lewton
+Grange, the property of my friend's father. I had hardly left the town,
+and the twilight had only begun to deepen, when, glancing from one of
+the windows of the chaise, I fancied I saw, between me and the hedge,
+the dim figure of a horse keeping pace with us. I thought, in the first
+interval of unreason, that it was a shadow from my own horse, but
+reminded myself the next moment that there could be no shadow where
+there was no light. When I looked again, I was at the first glance
+convinced that my eyes had deceived me. At the second, I believed once
+more that a shadowy something, with the movements of a horse in harness,
+was keeping pace with us. I turned away again with some discomfort, and
+not till we had reached an open moorland road, whence a little watery
+light was visible on the horizon, could I summon up courage enough to
+look out once more. Certainly then there was nothing to be seen, and I
+persuaded myself that it had been all a fancy, and lighted a cigar. With
+my feet on the cushions before me, I had soon lifted myself on the
+clouds of tobacco far above all the terrors of the night, and believed
+them banished for ever. But, my cigar coming to an end just as we turned
+into the avenue that led up to the Grange, I found myself once more
+glancing nervously out of the window. The moment the trees were about
+me, there was, if not a shadowy horse out there by the side of the
+chaise, yet certainly more than half that conviction in here in my
+consciousness. When I saw my friend, however, standing on the doorstep,
+dark against the glow of the hall fire, I forgot all about it; and I
+need not add that I did not make it a subject of conversation when I
+entered, for I was well aware that it was essential to a man's
+reputation that his senses should be accurate, though his heart might
+without prejudice swarm with shadows, and his judgment be a very stable
+of hobbies.
+
+"I was kindly received. Mrs. Hetheridge had been dead for some years,
+and Laetitia, the eldest of the family, was at the head of the
+household. She had two sisters, little more than girls. The father was a
+burly, yet gentlemanlike Yorkshire squire, who ate well, drank well,
+looked radiant, and hunted twice a week. In this pastime his son joined
+him when in the humour, which happened scarcely so often. I, who had
+never crossed a horse in my life, took his apology for not being able to
+mount me very coolly, assuring him that I would rather loiter about with
+a book than be in at the death of the best-hunted fox in Yorkshire.
+
+"I very soon found myself at home with the Hetheridges; and very soon
+again I began to find myself not so much at home; for Miss
+Hetheridge--Laetitia as I soon ventured to call her--was fascinating. I
+have told you, Katey, that there was an empty place in my heart. Look to
+the door then, Katey. That was what made me so ready to fall in love
+with Laetitia. Her figure was graceful, and I think, even now, her face
+would have been beautiful but for a certain contraction of the skin over
+the nostrils, suggesting an invisible thumb and forefinger pinching
+them, which repelled me, although I did not then know what it indicated.
+I had not been with her one evening before the impression it made on me
+had vanished, and that so entirely that I could hardly recall the
+perception of the peculiarity which had occasioned it. Her observation
+was remarkably keen, and her judgment generally correct. She had great
+confidence in it herself; nor was she devoid of sympathy with some of
+the forms of human imagination, only they never seemed to possess for
+her any relation to practical life. That was to be ordered by the
+judgment alone. I do not mean she ever said so. I am only giving the
+conclusions I came to afterwards. It is not necessary that you should
+have any more thorough acquaintance with her mental character. One point
+in her moral nature, of special consequence to my narrative, will show
+itself by and by.
+
+"I did all I could to make myself agreeable to her, and the more I
+succeeded the more delightful she became in my eyes. We walked in the
+garden and grounds together; we read, or rather I read and she
+listened;--read poetry, Katey--sometimes till we could not read any more
+for certain haziness and huskiness which look now, I am afraid,
+considerably more absurd than they really were, or even ought to look.
+In short, I considered myself thoroughly in love with her."
+
+"And wasn't she in love with you, uncle?"
+
+"Don't interrupt me, child. I don't know. I hoped so then. I hope the
+contrary now. She liked me I am sure. That is not much to say. Liking is
+very pleasant and very cheap. Love is as rare as a star."
+
+"I thought the stars were anything but rare, uncle."
+
+"That's because you never went out to find one for yourself, Katey. They
+would prove a few miles apart then."
+
+"But it would be big enough when I did find it."
+
+"Right, my dear. That is the way with love.--Laetitia was a good
+housekeeper. Everything was punctual as clockwork. I use the word
+advisedly. If her father, who was punctual to one date,--the
+dinner-hour,--made any remark to the contrary as he took up the
+carving-knife, Laetitia would instantly send one of her sisters to
+question the old clock in the hall, and report the time to half a
+minute. It was sure to be found that, if there was a mistake, the
+mistake was in the clock. But although it was certainly a virtue to have
+her household in such perfect order, it was not a virtue to be impatient
+with every infringement of its rules on the part of others. She was very
+severe, for instance, upon her two younger sisters if, the moment after
+the second bell had rung, they were not seated at the dinner-table,
+washed and aproned. Order was a very idol with her. Hence the house was
+too tidy for any sense of comfort. If you left an open book on the
+table, you would, on returning to the room a moment after, find it put
+aside. What the furniture of the drawing-room was like, I never saw; for
+not even on Christmas Day, which was the last day I spent there, was it
+uncovered. Everything in it was kept in bibs and pinafores. Even the
+carpet was covered with a cold and slippery sheet of brown holland. Mr.
+Hetheridge never entered that room, and therein was wise. James
+remonstrated once. She answered him quite kindly, even playfully, but no
+change followed. What was worse, she made very wretched tea. Her father
+never took tea; neither did James. I was rather fond of it, but I soon
+gave it up. Everything her father partook of was first-rate. Everything
+else was somewhat poverty-stricken. My pleasure in Laetitia's society
+prevented me from making practical deductions from such trifles."
+
+"I shouldn't have thought you knew anything about eating, uncle," said
+Janet.
+
+"The less a man eats, the more he likes to have it good, Janet. In
+short,--there can be no harm in saying it now,--Laetitia was so far from
+being like the name of her baptism,--and most names are so good that
+they are worth thinking about; no children are named after bad
+ideas,--Laetitia was so far unlike hers as to be stingy--an abominable
+fault. But, I repeat, the notion of such a fact was far from me then.
+And now for my story.
+
+"The first of November was a very lovely day, quite one of the 'halcyon
+days' of 'St. Martin's summer.' I was sitting in a little arbour I had
+just discovered, with a book in my hand,--not reading, however, but
+day-dreaming,--when, lifting my eyes from the ground, I was startled to
+see, through a thin shrub in front of the arbour, what seemed the form
+of an old lady seated, apparently reading from a book on her knee. The
+sight instantly recalled the old lady of Russell Square. I started to my
+feet, and then, clear of the intervening bush, saw only a great stone
+such as abounded on the moors in the neighbourhood, with a lump of
+quartz set on the top of it. Some childish taste had put it there for an
+ornament. Smiling at my own folly, I sat down again, and reopened my
+book. After reading for a while, I glanced up again, and once more
+started to my feet, overcome by the fancy that there verily sat the old
+lady reading. You will say it indicated an excited condition of the
+brain. Possibly; but I was, as far as I can recall, quite collected and
+reasonable. I was almost vexed this second time, and sat down once more
+to my book. Still, every time I looked up, I was startled afresh. I
+doubt, however, if the trifle is worth mentioning, or has any
+significance even in relation to what followed.
+
+"After dinner I strolled out by myself, leaving father and son over
+their claret. I did not drink wine; and from the lawn I could see the
+windows of the library, whither Laetitia commonly retired from the
+dinner-table. It was a very lovely soft night. There was no moon, but
+the stars looked wider awake than usual. Dew was falling, but the grass
+was not yet wet, and I wandered about on it for half an hour. The
+stillness was somehow strange. It had a wonderful feeling in it as if
+something were expected--as if the quietness were the mould in which
+some event or other was about to be cast.
+
+"Even then I was a reader of certain sorts of recondite lore. Suddenly I
+remembered that this was the eve of All Souls. This was the night on
+which the dead came out of their graves to visit their old homes. 'Poor
+dead!' I thought with myself; 'have you any place to call a home now? If
+you have, surely you will not wander back here, where all that you
+called home has either vanished or given itself to others, to be their
+home now and yours no more! What an awful doom the old fancy has
+allotted you! To dwell in your graves all the year, and creep out, this
+one night, to enter at the midnight door, left open for welcome! A poor
+welcome truly!--just an open door, a clean-swept floor, and a fire to
+warm your rain-sodden limbs! The household asleep, and the house-place
+swarming with the ghosts of ancient times,--the miser, the spendthrift,
+the profligate, the coquette,--for the good ghosts sleep, and are
+troubled with no waking like yours! Not one man, sleepless like
+yourselves, to question you, and be answered after the fashion of the
+old nursery rhyme--
+
+  "'What makes your eyes so holed?'
+  'I've lain so long among the mould.'
+  'What makes your feet so broad?'
+  'I've walked more than ever I rode!'
+
+"'Yet who can tell?' I went on to myself. 'It may be your hell to return
+thus. It may be that only on this one night of all the year you can show
+yourselves to him who can see you, but that the place where you were
+wicked is the Hades to which you are doomed for ages.' I thought and
+thought till I began to feel the air alive about me, and was enveloped
+in the vapours that dim the eyes of those who strain them for one peep
+through the dull mica windows that will not open on the world of ghosts.
+At length I cast my fancies away, and fled from them to the library,
+where the bodily presence of Laetitia made the world of ghosts appear
+shadowy indeed.
+
+"'What a reality there is about a bodily presence!' I said to myself, as
+I took my chamber-candle in my hand. 'But what is there more real in a
+body?' I said again, as I crossed the hall. 'Surely nothing,' I went on,
+as I ascended the broad staircase to my room. 'The body must vanish. If
+there be a spirit, that will remain. A body can but vanish. A ghost can
+appear.'
+
+"I woke in the morning with a sense of such discomfort as made me spring
+out of bed at once. My foot lighted upon my spectacles. How they came to
+be on the floor I could not tell, for I never took them off when I went
+to bed. When I lifted them I found they were in two pieces; the bridge
+was broken. This was awkward. I was so utterly helpless without them!
+Indeed, before I could lay my hand on my hair-brush I had to peer
+through one eye of the parted pair. When I looked at my watch after I
+was dressed, I found I had risen an hour earlier than usual. I groped my
+way downstairs to spend the hour before breakfast in the library.
+
+"No sooner was I seated with a book than I heard the voice of Laetitia
+scolding the butler, in no very gentle tones, for leaving the garden
+door open all night. The moment I heard this, the strange occurrences I
+am about to relate began to dawn upon my memory. The door had been open
+the night long between All Saints and All Souls. In the middle of that
+night I awoke suddenly. I knew it was not the morning by the sensations
+I had, for the night feels altogether different from the morning. It was
+quite dark. My heart was beating violently, and I either hardly could or
+hardly dared breathe. A nameless terror was upon me, and my sense of
+hearing was, apparently by the force of its expectation, unnaturally
+roused and keen. There it was--a slight noise in the room!--slight, but
+clear, and with an unknown significance about it! It was awful to think
+it would come again. I do believe it was only one of those creaks in the
+timbers which announce the torpid, age-long, sinking flow of every house
+back to the dust--a motion to which the flow of the glacier is as a
+torrent, but which is no less inevitable and sure. Day and night it
+ceases not; but only in the night, when house and heart are still, do we
+hear it. No wonder it should sound fearful! for are we not the immortal
+dwellers in ever-crumbling clay? The clay is so near us, and yet not of
+us, that its every movement starts a fresh dismay. For what will its
+final ruin disclose? When it falls from about us, where shall we find
+that we have existed all the time?
+
+"My skin tingled with the bursting of the moisture from its pores.
+Something was in the room beside me. A confused, indescribable sense of
+utter loneliness, and yet awful presence, was upon me, mingled with a
+dreary, hopeless desolation, as of burnt-out love and aimless life. All
+at once I found myself sitting up. The terror that a cold hand might be
+laid upon me, or a cold breath blow on me, or a corpse-like face bend
+down through the darkness over me, had broken my bonds!--I would meet
+half-way whatever might be approaching. The moment that my will burst
+into action the terror began to ebb.
+
+"The room in which I slept was a large one, perfectly dreary with
+tidiness. I did not know till afterwards that it was Laetitia's room,
+which she had given up to me rather than prepare another. The furniture,
+all but one article, was modern and commonplace. I could not help
+remarking to myself afterwards how utterly void the room was of the
+nameless charm of feminine occupancy. I had seen nothing to wake a
+suspicion of its being a lady's room. The article I have excepted was an
+ancient bureau, elaborate and ornate, which stood on one side of the
+large bow window. The very morning before, I had seen a bunch of keys
+hanging from the upper part of it, and had peeped in. Finding however,
+that the pigeon-holes were full of papers, I closed it at once. I should
+have been glad to use it, but clearly it was not for me. At that bureau
+the figure of a woman was now seated in the posture of one writing. A
+strange dim light was around her, but whence it proceeded I never
+thought of inquiring. As if I, too, had stepped over the bourne, and was
+a ghost myself, all fear was now gone. I got out of bed, and softly
+crossed the room to where she was seated. 'If she should be beautiful!'
+I thought--for I had often dreamed of a beautiful ghost that made love
+to me. The figure did not move. She was looking at a faded brown paper.
+'Some old love-letter,' I thought, and stepped nearer. So cool was I
+now, that I actually peeped over her shoulder. With mingled surprise and
+dismay I found that the dim page over which she bent was that of an old
+account-book. Ancient household records, in rusty ink, held up to the
+glimpses of the waning moon, which shone through the parting in the
+curtains, their entries of shillings and pence!--Of pounds there was not
+one. No doubt pounds and farthings are much the same in the world of
+thought--the true spirit-world; but in the ghost-world this eagerness
+over shillings and pence must mean something awful! I To think that
+coins which had since been worn smooth in other pockets and purses,
+which had gone back to the Mint, and been melted down, to come out again
+and yet again with the heads of new kings and queens,--that dinners,
+eaten by men and women and children whose bodies had since been eaten by
+the worms,--that polish for the floors, inches of whose thickness had
+since been worn away,--that the hundred nameless trifles of a life
+utterly vanished, should be perplexing, annoying, and worst of all,
+interesting the soul of a ghost who had been in Hades for centuries! The
+writing was very old-fashioned, and the words were contracted. I could
+read nothing but the moneys and one single entry--'Corinths, Vs.'
+
+"Currants for a Christmas pudding, most likely!--Ah, poor lady! the
+pudding and not the Christmas was her care; not the delight of the
+children over it, but the beggarly pence which it cost. And she cannot
+get it out of her head, although her brain was 'powdered all as thin as
+flour' ages ago in the mortar of Death. 'Alas, poor ghost!' It needs no
+treasured hoard left behind, no floor stained with the blood of the
+murdered child, no wickedly hidden parchment of landed rights! An old
+account-book is enough for the hell of the housekeeping gentlewoman!
+
+"She never lifted her face, or seemed to know that I stood behind her. I
+left her, and went into the bow window, where I could see her face. I
+was right. It was the same old lady I had met in Russell Square, walking
+in front of James Hetheridge. Her withered lips went moving as if they
+would have uttered words had the breath been commissioned thither; her
+brow was contracted over her thin nose; and once and again her shining
+forefinger went up to her temple as if she were pondering some deep
+problem of humanity. How long I stood gazing at her I do not know, but
+at last I withdrew to my bed, and left her struggling to solve that
+which she could never solve thus. It was the symbolic problem of her own
+life, and she had failed to read it. I remember nothing more. She may be
+sitting there still, solving at the insolvable.
+
+"I should have felt no inclination, with the broad sun of the squire's
+face, the keen eyes of James, and the beauty of Laetitia before me at
+the breakfast table, to say a word about what I had seen, even if I had
+not been afraid of the doubt concerning my sanity which the story would
+certainly awaken. What with the memories of the night and the want of my
+spectacles, I passed a very dreary day, dreading the return of the
+night, for, cool as I had been in her presence, I could not regard the
+possible reappearance of the ghost with equanimity. But when the night
+did come, I slept soundly till the morning.
+
+"The next day, not being able to read with comfort, I went wandering
+about the place, and at length began to fit the outside and inside of
+the house together. It was a large and rambling edifice, parts of it
+very old, parts comparatively modern. I first found my own window, which
+looked out of the back. Below this window, on one side, there was a
+door. I wondered whither it led, but found it locked. At the moment
+James approached from the stables. 'Where does this door lead?' I asked
+him. 'I will get the key,' he answered. 'It is rather a queer old place.
+We used to like it when we were children.' 'There's a stair, you see,'
+he said, as he threw the door open. 'It leads up over the kitchen.' I
+followed him up the stair. 'There's a door into your room,' he said,
+'but it's always locked now.--And here's Grannie's room, as they call
+it, though why, I have not the least idea,' he added, as he pushed open
+the door of an old-fashioned parlour, smelling very musty. A few old
+books lay on a side table. A china bowl stood beside them, with some
+shrivelled, scentless rose-leaves in the bottom of it. The cloth that
+covered the table was riddled by moths, and the spider-legged chairs
+were covered with dust.
+
+"A conviction seized me that the old bureau must have belonged to this
+room, and I soon found the place where I judged it must have stood. But
+the same moment I caught sight of a portrait on the wall above the spot
+I had fixed upon. 'By Jove!' I cried, involuntarily, 'that's the very
+old lady I met in Russell Square!'
+
+"'Nonsense!' said James. 'Old-fashioned ladies are like babies--they all
+look the same. That's a very old portrait.'
+
+"'So I see,' I answered. 'It is like a Zucchero.'
+
+"'I don't know whose it is," he answered hurriedly, and I thought he
+looked a little queer.
+
+"'Is she one of the family?' I asked.
+
+"'They say so; but who or what she was, I don't know. You must ask
+Letty," he answered.
+
+"'The more I look at it,' I said, 'the more I am convinced it is the
+same old lady.'
+
+"'Well,' he returned with a laugh, 'my old nurse used to say she was
+rather restless. But it's all nonsense.'
+
+"'That bureau in my room looks about the same date as this furniture,' I
+remarked.
+
+"'It used to stand just there,' he answered, pointing to the space under
+the picture. 'Well I remember with what awe we used to regard it; for
+they said the old lady kept her accounts at it still. We never dared
+touch the bundles of yellow papers in the pigeon-holes. I remember
+thinking Letty a very heroine once when she touched one of them with the
+tip of her forefinger. She had got yet more courageous by the time she
+had it moved into her own room.'
+
+"'Then that is your sister's room I am occupying?' I said.
+
+"'Yes.'
+
+"'I am ashamed of keeping her out of it.'
+
+"'Oh! she'll do well enough.'
+
+"'If I were she though,' I added, 'I would send that bureau back to its
+own place.'
+
+"'What do you mean, Heywood? Do you believe every old wife's tale that
+ever was told?'
+
+"'She may get a fright some day--that's all!' I replied.
+
+"He smiled with such an evident mixture of pity and contempt that for
+the moment I almost disliked him; and feeling certain that Laetitia
+would receive any such hint in a somewhat similar manner, I did not feel
+inclined to offer her any advice with regard to the bureau.
+
+"Little occurred during the rest of my visit worthy of remark. Somehow
+or other I did not make much progress with Laetitia. I believe I had
+begun to see into her character a little, and therefore did not get
+deeper in love as the days went on. I know I became less absorbed in her
+society, although I was still anxious to make myself agreeable to
+her--or perhaps, more properly, to give her a favourable impression of
+me. I do not know whether she perceived any difference in my behaviour,
+but I remember that I began again to remark the pinched look of her
+nose, and to be a little annoyed with her for always putting aside my
+book. At the same time, I daresay I was provoking, for I never was given
+to tidiness myself.
+
+"At length Christmas Day arrived. After breakfast, the squire, James,
+and the two girls arranged to walk to church. Laetitia was not in the
+room at the moment. I excused myself on the ground of a headache, for I
+had had a bad night. When they left, I went up to my room, threw myself
+on the bed, and was soon fast asleep.
+
+"How long I slept I do not know, but I woke again with that
+indescribable yet well-known sense of not being alone. The feeling was
+scarcely less terrible in the daylight than it had been in the darkness.
+With the same sudden effort as before, I sat up in the bed. There was
+the figure at the open bureau, in precisely the same position as on the
+former occasion. But I could not see it so distinctly. I rose as gently
+as I could, and approached it, after the first physical terror. I am not
+a coward. Just as I got near enough to see the account book open on the
+folding cover of the bureau, she started up, and, turning, revealed the
+face of Laetitia. She blushed crimson.
+
+"'I beg your pardon, Mr. Heywood,' she said in great confusion; 'I
+thought you had gone to church with the rest.'
+
+"'I had lain down with a headache, and gone to sleep,' I replied.
+'But,--forgive me, Miss Hetheridge,' I added, for my mind was full of
+the dreadful coincidence,--'don't you think you would have been better
+at church than balancing your accounts on Christmas Day?'
+
+"'The better day the better deed,' she said, with a somewhat offended
+air, and turned to walk from the room.
+
+"'Excuse me, Laetitia,' I resumed, very seriously, 'but I want to tell
+you something.'
+
+"She looked conscious. It never crossed me, that perhaps she fancied I
+was going to make a confession. Far other things were then in my mind.
+For I thought how awful it was, if she too, like the ancestral ghost,
+should have to do an age-long penance of haunting that bureau and those
+horrid figures, and I had suddenly resolved to tell her the whole story.
+She listened with varying complexion and face half turned aside. When I
+had ended, which I fear I did with something of a personal appeal, she
+lifted her head and looked me in the face, with just a slight curl on
+her thin lip, and answered me. 'If I had wanted a sermon, Mr. Heywood, I
+should have gone to church for it. As for the ghost, I am sorry for
+you.' So saying she walked out of the room.
+
+"The rest of the day I did not find very merry. I pleaded my headache as
+an excuse for going to bed early. How I hated the room now! Next
+morning, immediately after breakfast, I took my leave of Lewton Grange."
+
+"And lost a good wife, perhaps, for the sake of a ghost, uncle!" said
+Janet.
+
+"If I lost a wife at all, it was a stingy one. I should have been
+ashamed of her all my life long."
+
+"Better than a spendthrift," said Janet.
+
+"How do you know that?" returned her uncle. "All the difference I see
+is, that the extravagant ruins the rich, and the stingy robs the poor."
+
+"But perhaps she repented, uncle," said Kate.
+
+"I don't think she did, Katey. Look here."
+
+Uncle Cornelius drew from the breast pocket of his coat a black-edged
+letter.
+
+"I have kept up my friendship with her brother," he said. "All he knows
+about the matter is, that either we had a quarrel, or she refused
+me;--he is not sure which. I must say for Laetitia, that she was no
+tattler. Well, here's a letter I had from James this very morning. I
+will read it to you.
+
+"'MY DEAR MR. HEYWOOD,--We have had a terrible \shock this morning.
+Letty did not come down to breakfast, and Lizzie went to see if she was
+ill. We heard her scream, and, rushing up, there was poor Letty, sitting
+at the old bureau, quite dead. She had fallen forward on the desk, and
+her housekeeping-book was crumpled up under her. She had been so all
+night long, we suppose, for she was not undressed, and was quite cold.
+The doctors say it was disease of the heart.'
+
+"There!" said Uncle Cornie, folding up the letter.
+
+"Do you think the ghost had anything to do with it, uncle?" asked Kate,
+almost under her breath.
+
+"How should I know, my dear? Possibly."
+
+"It's very sad," said Janet; "but I don't see the good of it all. If the
+ghost had come to tell that she had hidden away money in some secret
+place in the old bureau, one would see why she had been permitted to
+come back. But what was the good of those accounts after they were over
+and done with? I don't believe in the ghost."
+
+"Ah, Janet, Janet! but those wretched accounts were not over and done
+with, you see. That is the misery of it."
+
+Uncle Cornelius rose without another word, bade them good-night, and
+walked out into the wind.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Portent and Other Stories, by George MacDonald
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