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diff --git a/old/7aca310.txt b/old/7aca310.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..06a29cb --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7aca310.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6575 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Adela Cathcart, Vol. 3, by George MacDonald +#36 in our series by George MacDonald + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Adela Cathcart, Vol. 3 + +Author: George MacDonald + +Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8943] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on August 28, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADELA CATHCART, VOL. 3 *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charles Bidwell and Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +ADELA CATHCART + +Volume Three + +By George MacDonald + + +CONTENTS OF THE THIRD VOLUME. + + +CHAPTER + +I. MY UNCLE PETER.--CONTINUED + +II. THE GIANT'S HEART + +III. A CHILD'S HOLIDAY + +IV. INTERRUPTION + +V. PERCY + +VI. THE CRUEL PAINTER + +VII. THE CASTLE + +VIII. WHAT NEXT? + +XI. GENERALSHIP + +X. AN UNFORESEEN FORESIGHT + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +MY UNCLE PETER.--CONTINUED. + + +"It was resolved that on the same evening, Chrissy should tell my uncle +her story. We went out for a walk together; and though she was not afraid +to go, the least thing startled her. A voice behind her would make her +turn pale and look hurriedly round. Then she would smile again, even +before the colour had had time to come back to her cheeks, and say--'What +a goose I am! But it is no wonder.' I could see too that she looked down +at her nice clothes now and then with satisfaction. She does not like me +to say so, but she does not deny it either, for Chrissy can't tell a story +even about her own feelings. My uncle had given us five pounds each to +spend, and that was jolly. We bought each other such a lot of things, +besides some for other people. And then we came home and had dinner +_tete-a-tete_ in my uncle's dining-room; after which we went up to my +uncle's room, and sat over the fire in the twilight till his afternoon-nap +was over, and he was ready for his tea. This was ready for him by the time +he awoke. Chrissy got up on the bed beside him; I got up at the foot of +the bed, facing her, and we had the tea-tray and plenty of _etceteras_ +between us. + +"'Oh! I _am_ happy!' said Chrissy, and began to cry. + +"'So am I, my darling!' rejoined Uncle Peter, and followed her example. + +"'So am I,' said I, 'but I don't mean to cry about it.' And then I did. + +"We all had one cup of tea, and some bread and butter in silence after +this. But when Chrissy had poured out the second cup for Uncle Peter, she +began of her own accord to tell us her story. + +"'It was very foggy when we came out of school that afternoon, as you may +remember, dear uncle.' + +"'Indeed I do,' answered Uncle Peter with a sigh. + +"'I was coming along the way home with Bessie--you know Bessie, uncle--and +we stopped to look in at a bookseller's window where the gas was lighted. +It was full of Christmas things already. One of them I thought very +pretty, and I was standing staring at it, when all at once I saw that a +big drabby woman had poked herself in between Bessie and me. She was +staring in at the window too. She was so nasty that I moved away a little +from her, but I wanted to have one more look at the picture. The woman +came close to me. I moved again. Again she pushed up to me. I looked in +her face, for I was rather cross by this time. A horrid feeling, I cannot +tell you what it was like, came over me as soon as I saw her. I know how +it was now, but I did not know then why I was frightened. I think she saw +I was frightened; for she instantly walked against me, and shoved and +hustled me round the corner--it was a corner-shop--and before I knew, I +was in another street. It was dark and narrow. Just at the moment a man +came from the opposite side and joined the woman. Then they caught hold of +my hands, and before my fright would let me speak, I was deep into the +narrow lane, for they ran with me as fast as they could. Then I began to +scream, but they said such horrid words that I was forced to hold my +tongue; and in a minute more they had me inside a dreadful house, where +the plaster was dropping away from the walls, and the skeleton-ribs of the +house were looking through. I was nearly dead with terror and disgust. I +don't think it was a bit less dreadful to me from having dim recollections +of having known such places well enough at one time of my life. I think +that only made me the more frightened, because so the place seemed to have +a claim upon me. What if I ought to be there after all, and these dreadful +creatures were my father and mother! + +"'I thought they were going to beat me at once, when the woman, whom I +suspected to be my aunt, began to take off my frock. I was dreadfully +frightened, but I could not cry. However it was only my clothes that they +wanted. But I cannot tell you how frightful it was. They took almost +everything I had on, and it was only when I began to scream in despair-- +sit still, Charlie, it's all over now--that they stopped, with a nod to +each other, as much as to say--'we can get the rest afterwards.' Then they +put a filthy frock on me; brought me some dry bread to eat; locked the +door, and left me. It was nearly dark now. There was no fire. And all my +warm clothes were gone.--Do sit still, Charlie.--I was dreadfully cold. +There was a wretched-looking bed in one corner, but I think I would have +died of cold rather than get into it. And the air in the place was +frightful. How long I sat there in the dark, I don't know.' + +"'What did you do all the time?' said I. + +"'There was only one thing to be done, Charlie. I think that is a foolish +question to ask.' + +"'Well, what _did_ you do, Chrissy?' + +"'Said my prayers, Charlie.' + +"'And then?' + +"'Said them again.' + +"'And nothing else?' + +"'Yes; I tried to get out of the window, but that was of no use; for I +could not open it. And it was one story high at least.' + +"'And what did you do next?' + +"'Said over all my hymns.' + +"'And then--what _did_ you do next?' + +"'Why do you ask me so many times?' + +"'Because I want to know.' + +"'Well, I will tell you.--I left my prayers alone; and I began at the +beginning, and I told God the whole story, as if He had known nothing +about it, from the very beginning when Uncle Peter found me on the +crossing, down to the minute when I was talking there to Him in the dark.' + +"'Ah! my dear,' said my uncle, with faltering voice, 'you felt better +after that, I daresay. And here was I in despair about you, and thought He +did not care for any of us. I was very naughty, indeed.' + +"'And what next?' I said. + +"'By and by I heard a noise of quarrelling in the street, which came +nearer and nearer. The door was burst open by some one falling against it. +Blundering steps came up the stairs. The two who had robbed me, evidently +tipsy, were trying to unlock the door. At length they succeeded, and +tumbled into the room.' + +"'Where is the unnatural wretch,' said the woman, 'who ran away and left +her own mother in poverty and sickness?'-- + +"'Oh! uncle, can it be that she is my mother?' said Chrissy, interrupting +herself. + +"'I don't think she is,' answered Uncle Peter. 'She only wanted to vex +you, my lamb. But it doesn't matter whether she is or not.' + +"'Doesn't it, uncle?--I am ashamed of her.' + +"'But you are God's child. And He can't be ashamed of you. For He gave you +the mother you had, whoever she was, and never asked you which you would +have. So you need not mind. We ought always to like best to be just what +God has made us.' + +"'I am sure of that, uncle.--Well, she began groping about to find me, for +it was very dark. I sat quite still, except for trembling all over, till I +felt her hands on me, when I jumped up, and she fell on the floor. She +began swearing dreadfully, but did not try to get up. I crept away to +another corner. I heard the man snoring, and the woman breathing loud. +Then I felt my way to the door, but, to my horror, found the man lying +across it on the floor, so that I could not open it. Then I believe I +cried for the first time. I was nearly frozen to death, and there was all +the long night to bear yet. How I got through it, I cannot tell. It did go +away. Perhaps God destroyed some of it for me. But when the light began to +come through the window, and show me all the filth of the place, the man +and the woman lying on the floor, the woman with her head cut and covered +with blood, I began to feel that the darkness had been my friend. I felt +this yet more when I saw the state of my own dress, which I had forgotten +in the dark. I felt as if I had done some shameful thing, and wanted to +follow the darkness, and hide in the skirts of it. It was an old gown of +some woollen stuff, but it was impossible to tell what, it was so dirty +and worn. I was ashamed that even those drunken creatures should wake and +see me in it. But the light would come, and it came and came, until at +last it waked them up, and the first words were so dreadful! They +quarrelled and swore at each other and at me, until I almost thought there +couldn't be a God who would let that go on so, and never stop it. But I +suppose He wants them to stop, and doesn't care to stop it Himself, for He +could easily do that of course, if He liked.' + +"'Just right, my darling!' said Uncle Peter with emotion. + +"Chrissy saw that my uncle was too much excited by her story although he +tried not to show it, and with a wisdom which I have since learned to +appreciate, cut it short. + +"'They did not treat me cruelly, though, the worst was, that they gave me +next to nothing to eat. Perhaps they wanted to make me thin and wretched +looking, and I believe they succeeded.--Charlie, you'll turn over the +cream, if you don't sit still.--Three days passed this way. I have thought +all over it, and I think they were a little puzzled how to get rid of me. +They had no doubt watched me for a long time, and now they had got my +clothes, they were afraid.--At last one night they took me out. My aunt, +if aunt she is, was respectably dressed--that is, comparatively, and the +man had a great-coat on, which covered his dirty clothes. They helped me +into a cart which stood at the door, and drove off. I resolved to watch +the way we went. But we took so many turnings through narrow streets +before we came out in a main road, that I soon found it was all one mass +of confusion in my head; and it was too dark to read any of the names of +the streets, for the man kept as much in the middle of the road as +possible. We drove some miles, I should think, before we stopped at the +gate of a small house with a big porch, which stood alone. My aunt got out +and went up to the house, and was admitted. After a few minutes, she +returned, and making me get out, she led me up to the house, where an +elderly lady stood, holding the door half open. When we reached it, my +aunt gave me a sort of shove in, saying to the lady, 'There she is.' Then +she said to me: 'Come now be a good girl and don't tell lies,' and turning +hastily, ran down the steps, and got into the cart at the gate, which +drove off at once the way we had come. The lady looked at me from head to +foot sternly but kindly too, I thought, and so glad was I to find myself +clear of those dreadful creatures, that I burst out crying. She instantly +began to read me a lecture on the privilege of being placed with Christian +people, who would instruct me how my soul might be saved, and teach me to +lead an honest and virtuous life. I tried to say that I had led an honest +life. But as often as I opened my mouth to tell anything about myself +or my uncle, or, indeed, to say anything at all, I was stopped by her +saying--'Now don't tell lies. Whatever you do, don't tell lies.' This shut +me up quite. I could not speak when I knew she would not believe me. But I +did not cry, I only felt my face get very hot, and somehow my back-bone +grew longer, though I felt my eyes fixed on the ground. + +"'But,' she went on, 'you must change you dress. I will show you the way +to your room, and you will find a print gown there, which I hope you will +keep clean. And above all things don't tell lies.' + +"Here Chrissy burst out laughing, as if it was such fun to be accused of +lying; but presently her eyes filled, and she made haste to go on. + +"'You may be sure I made haste to put on the nice clean frock, and, to my +delight, found other clean things for me as well. I declare I felt like a +princess for a whole day after, notwithstanding the occupation. For I soon +found that I had been made over to Mrs. Sprinx, as a servant of all work. +I think she must have paid these people for the chance of reclaiming one +whom they had represented as at least a great liar. Whether my wages were +to be paid to them, or even what they were to be, I never heard. I made up +my mind at once that the best thing would be to do the work without +grumbling, and do it as well as I could, for that would be doing no harm +to anyone, but the contrary, while it would give me the better chance of +making my escape. But though I was determined to get away the first +opportunity, and was miserable when I thought how anxious you would all be +about me, yet I confess it was such a relief to be clean and in +respectable company, that I caught myself singing once or twice the very +first day. But the old lady soon stopped that. She was about in the +kitchen the greater part of the day till almost dinner-time, and taught me +how to cook and save my soul both at once.' + +"'Indeed,' interrupted Uncle Peter, 'I have read receipts for the +salvation of the soul that sounded very much as if they came out of a +cookery-book.' And the wrinkles of his laugh went up into his night-cap. +Neither Chrissy nor I understood this at the time, but I have often +thought of it since. + +"Chrissy went on: + +"'I had finished washing up my dinner-things, and sat down for a few +minutes, for I was tired. I was staring into the fire, and thinking and +thinking how I should get away, and what I should do when I got out of the +house, and feeling as if the man and the woman were always prowling about +it, and watching me through the window, when suddenly I saw a little boy +in a corner of the kitchen, staring at me with great brown eyes. He was a +little boy, perhaps about six years old, with a pale face, and very +earnest look. I did not speak to him, but waited to see what he would do. +A few minutes passed, and I forgot him. But as I was wiping my eyes, which +would get wet sometimes, notwithstanding my good-fortune, he came up to +me, and said in a timid whisper, + +"'Are you a princess?' + +"'What makes you think that?' I said. + +"'You have got such white hands,' he answered. + +"'No, I am not a princess,' I said. + +"'Aren't you Cinderella?' + +"'No, my darling,' I replied; 'but something like her; for they have +stolen me away from home and brought me here. I wish I could get away.' + +"'And here I confess I burst into a down right fit of crying. + +"'Don't cry,' said the little fellow, stroking my cheek. 'I will let you +out some time. Shall you be able to find your way home all by yourself?' + +"'Yes I think so,' I answered; but at the same time, I felt very doubtful +about it, because I always fancied those people watching, me. But before +either of us spoke again, in came Mrs. Sprinx. + +"'You naughty boy! What business have you to make the servant neglect her +work?' + +"'For I was still sitting by the fire, and my arm was round the dear +little fellow, and his head was leaning on my shoulder. + +"'She's not a servant, auntie!' cried he, indignantly. 'She's a real +princess, though of course she won't own to it.' + +"'What lies you have been telling the boy! You ought to be ashamed of +yourself. Come along directly. Get the tea at once, Jane.' + +"'My little friend went with his aunt, and I rose and got the tea. But I +felt much lighter-hearted since I had the sympathy of the little boy to +comfort me. Only I was afraid they would make him hate me. But, although I +saw very little of him the rest of the time, I knew they had not succeeded +in doing so; for as often as he could, he would come sliding up to me, +saying 'How do you do, princess?'and then run away, afraid of being seen +and scolded. + +"'I was getting very desperate about making my escape, for there was a +high wall about the place, and the gate was always locked at night. When +Christmas-Eve came, I was nearly crazy with thinking that to-morrow was +uncle's birthday; and that I should not be with him. But that very night, +after I had gone to my room, the door opened, and in came little Eddie in +his nightgown, his eyes looking very bright and black over it. + +"'There, princess!' said he, 'there is the key of the gate. Run.' + +"'I took him in my arms and kissed him, unable to speak. He struggled to +get free, and ran to the door. There he turned and said: + +"'You will come back and see me some day--will you not?' + +"'That I will,' I answered. + +"'That you shall,' said Uncle Peter. + +"'I hid the key, and went to bed, where I lay trembling. As soon as I was +sure they must be asleep, I rose and dressed. I had no bonnet or shawl but +those I had come in; and though they disgusted me, I thought it better to +put them on. But I dared not unlock the street-door for fear of making a +noise. So I crept out of the kitchen-window, and then I got out at the +gate all safe. No one was in sight. So I locked it again, and threw the +key over. But what a time of fear and wandering about I had in the +darkness, before I dared to ask any one the way. It was a bright, clear +night; and I walked very quietly till I came upon a great wide common. The +sky, and the stars, and the wideness frightened me, and made me gasp at +first. I felt as if I should fall away from everything into nothing. And +it was so lonely! But then I thought of God, and in a moment I knew that +what I had thought loneliness was really the presence of God. And then I +grew brave again, and walked on. When the morning dawned, I met a +bricklayer going to his work; and found that I had been wandering away +from London all the time; but I did not mind that. Now I turned my face +towards it, though not the way I had come. But I soon got dreadfully tired +and faint, and once I think I fainted quite. I went up to a house, and +asked for a piece of bread, and they gave it to me, and I felt much better +after eating it. But I had to rest so often, and got so tired, and my feet +got so sore, that--you know how late it was before I got home to my +darling uncle.' + +"'And me too!' I expostulated. + +"'And you, too, Charlie,' she answered; and we all cried over again. + +"'This shan't happen any more!' said my uncle. + +"After tea was over, he asked for writing things, and wrote a note, which +he sent off. + +"The next morning, about eleven, as I was looking out of the window, I saw +a carriage drive up and stop at our door. + +"'What a pretty little brougham!' I cried. 'And such a jolly horse! Look +here, Chrissy!' + +"Presently Uncle Peter's bell rang, and Miss Chrissy was sent for. She +came down again radiant with pleasure. + +"'What do you think, Charlie! That carriage is mine--all my own. And I am +to go to school in it always. Do come and have a ride in it.' + +"You may be sure I was delighted to do so. + +"'Where shall we go?' I said. + +"'Let us ask uncle if we may go and see the little darling who set me +free.' + +"His consent was soon obtained, and away we went. It was a long drive, but +we enjoyed it beyond everything. When we reached the house, we were shown +into the drawing-room. + +"There was Mrs. Sprinx and little Eddie. The lady stared; but the child +knew Cinderella at once, and flew into her arms. + +"'I knew you were a princess!' he cried. 'There, auntie!' + +"But Mrs. Sprinx had put on an injured look, and her hands shook very +much. + +"'Really, Miss Belper, if that is your name, you have behaved in a most +unaccountable way. Why did you not tell me, instead of stealing the key of +the gate, and breaking the kitchen window? A most improper way for a young +lady to behave--to run out of the house at midnight!' + +"'You forget, madam,' replied Chrissy, with more dignity than I had ever +seen her assume, 'that as soon as ever I attempted to open my mouth, you +told me not to tell lies. You believed the wicked people who brought me +here rather than myself. However, as you will not be friendly, I think we +had better go. Come, Charlie?' + +"'Don't go, princess,' pleaded little Eddie. + +"'But I must, for your auntie does not like me,' said Chrissy. + +"'I am sure I always meant to do my duty by you. And I will do so still.-- +Beware, my dear young woman, of the deceitfulness of riches. Your carriage +won't save your soul!' + +"Chrissy was on the point of saying something rude, as she confessed when +we got out; but she did not. She made her bow, turned and walked away. I +followed, and poor Eddie would have done so too, but was laid hold of by +his aunt. I confess this was not quite proper behaviour on Chrissy's part; +but I never discovered that till she made me see it. She was very sorry +afterwards, and my uncle feared the brougham had begun to hurt her +already, as she told me. For she had narrated the whole story to him, and +his look first let her see that she had been wrong. My uncle went with her +afterwards to see Mrs. Sprinx, and thank her for having done her best; and +to take Eddie such presents as my uncle only knew how to buy for children. +When he went to school, I know he sent him a gold watch. From that time +till now that she is my wife, Chrissy has had no more such adventures; and +if Uncle Peter did not die on Christmas-day, it did not matter much, for +Christmas-day makes all the days of the year as sacred as itself." + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE GIANT'S HEART. + + +When Harry had finished reading, the colonel gallantly declared that the +story was the best they had had. Mrs. Armstrong received this as a joke, +and begged him not to be so unsparing. + +"Ah! Mrs. Armstrong," returned he laughing, "you are not old enough yet, +to know the truth from a joke. Don't you agree with me about the story, +Mrs. Cathcart?" + +"I think it is very pretty and romantic. Such men as Uncle Peter are not +very common in the world. The story is not too true to Nature." + +This she said in a tone intended to indicate superior acquaintance with +the world and its nature. I fear Mrs. Cathcart and some others whom I +could name, mean by _Nature_ something very bad indeed, which yet an +artist is bound to be loyal to. The colonel however seemed to be of a +different opinion. + +"If there never was such a man as Uncle Peter," said he, "there ought to +have been; and it is all the more reason for putting him into a story that +he is not to be found in the world." + +"Bravo!" cried I. "You have answered a great question in a few words." + +"I don't know," rejoined our host. "Have I? It seems to me as plain as the +catechism." + +I thought he might have found a more apt simile, but I held my peace. + +Next morning, I walked out in the snow. Since the storm of that terrible +night, it had fallen again quietly and plentifully; and now in the +sunlight, the world--houses and trees, ponds and rivers--was like a +creation, more than blocked out, but far from finished--in marble. + +"And this," I said to myself, as I regarded the wondrous loveliness with +which the snow had at once clothed and disfigured the bare branches of the +trees, "this is what has come of the chaos of falling flakes! To this +repose of beauty has that storm settled and sunk! Will it not be so with +our mental storms as well?" + +But here the figure displeased me; for those were not the true right +shapes of the things; and the truth does not stick to things, but shows +itself out of them. + +"This lovely show," I said, "is the result of a busy fancy. This white +world is the creation of a poet such as Shelley, in whom the fancy was too +much for the intellect. Fancy settles upon anything; half destroys its +form, half beautifies it with something that is not its own. But the true +creative imagination, the form-seer, and the form-bestower, falls like the +rain in the spring night, vanishing amid the roots of the trees; not +settling upon them in clouds of wintry white, but breaking forth from them +in clouds of summer green." + +And then my thoughts very naturally went from Nature to my niece; and I +asked myself whether within the last few days I had not seen upon her +countenance the expression of a mental spring-time. For the mind has its +seasons four, with many changes, as well as the world, only that the +cycles are generally longer: they can hardly be more mingled than as here +in our climate. + +Let me confess, now that the subject of the confession no longer exists, +that there had been something about Adela that, pet-child of mine as she +was, had troubled me. In all her behaviour, so far as I had had any +opportunity of judging, she had been as good as my desires at least. +But there was a want in her face, a certain flatness of expression which +I did not like. I love the common with all my heart, but I hate the +common-place; and, foolish old bachelor that I am, the common-place in a +woman troubles me, annoys me, makes me miserable. Well, it was something +of the common-place in Adela's expression that had troubled me. Her eyes +were clear, with lovely long dark lashes, but somehow the light in them +had been always the same; and occasionally when I talked to her of the +things I most wished her to care about, there was such an immobile +condition of the features, associated with such a ready assent in words, +that I felt her notion of what I meant must be something very different +indeed from what I did mean. Her face looked as if it were made of +something too thick for the inward light to shine through--wax, and not +living muscle and skin. The fact was, the light within had not been +kindled, else that face of hers would have been ready enough to let it +shine out. Hitherto she had not seemed to me to belong at all to that +company that praises God with sweet looks, as Thomas Hood describes Ruth +as doing. What was wanting I had found it difficult to define. Her soul +was asleep. She was dreaming a child's dreams, instead of seeing a woman's +realities--realities that awake the swift play of feature, as the wind of +God arouses the expression of a still landscape. So there seemed after all +a gulf between her and me. She did not see what I saw, feel what I felt, +seek what I sought. Occasionally even, the delicate young girl, pure and +bright as the snow that hung on the boughs around me, would shock the +wizened old bachelor with her worldliness--a worldliness that lay only in +the use of current worldly phrases of selfish contentment, or selfish +care. Ah! how little do young beauties understand of the pitiful emotions +which they sometimes rouse in the breasts of men whom they suppose to be +absorbed in admiration of them! But for faith that these girls are God's +work and only half made yet, one would turn from them with sadness, almost +painful dislike, and take refuge with some noble-faced grandmother, or +withered old maid, whose features tell of sorrow and patience. And the +beauty would think with herself that such a middle-aged gentleman did not +admire pretty girls, and was severe and unkind and puritanical; whereas it +was the lack of beauty that made him turn away; the disappointment of a +face--dull, that ought to be radiant; or the presence of only that sort of +beauty, which in middle age, except the deeper nature should meantime come +into play, would be worse than common-place--would be mingled with the +trail of more or less guilty sensuality. Many a woman at forty is +repulsive, whom common men found at twenty irresistibly attractive; and +many a woman at seventy is lovely to the eyes of the man who would have +been compelled to allow that she was decidedly plain at seventeen. + +"Maidens' bairns are aye weel guided," says the Scotch proverb; and the +same may be said of bachelors' wives. So I will cease the strain, and +return to Adela, the change in whom first roused it. + +Of late, I had seen a glimmer of something in her countenance which I had +never seen before--a something which, the first time I perceived it, made +me say to her, in my own hearing only: "Ah, my dear, we shall understand +each other by and by!" And now and then the light in her eye would be +dimmed as by the fore-shadowing of a tear, when there was no immediate and +visible cause to account for it; and--which was very strange--I could not +help fancying she began to be a little shy of her old uncle.--Could it be +that she was afraid of his insight reaching to her heart, and reading +there more than she was yet willing to confess to herself?--But whatever +the cause of the change might be, there was certainly a responsiveness in +her, a readiness to meet every utterance, and take it home, by which the +vanity of the old bachelor would have been flattered to the full, had not +his heart come first, and forestalled the delight. + +So absorbed was I in considering these things, that the time passed like +one of my thoughts; and before I knew I found myself on the verge of the +perilous moor over which Harry had ridden in the teeth and heart of the +storm. How smooth yet cruel it looked in its thick covering of snow! There +was heather beneath, within which lay millions of purple bells, ready to +rush out at the call of summer, and ring peals of merry gladness, making +the desolate place not only blossom but rejoice as the rose. And there +were cold wells of brown water beneath that snow, of depth unknown, which +nourished nothing but the green grass that hid the cold glare of their +presence from the eyes of the else warefully affrighted traveller. And I +thought of Adela when I thought of the heather; and of some other woman +whom I had known, when I thought of the wells. + +When I came home, I told Adela where I had been, and what a desolate place +it was. And the flush that rose on her pale cheek was just like the light +of the sunset which I had left shining over the whiteness of that snowy +region. And I said to myself: "It _is_ so. And I trust it may be well." + +As I walked home, I had bethought myself of a story which I had brought +down with me in the hope of a chance of reading it, but which Adela's +illness had put out of my mind; for it was only a child's story; and +although I hoped older people might find something in it, it would have +been absurd to read it without the presence of little children. So I said +to Adela: + +"Don't you know any little children in Purleybridge, Adela?" + +"Oh! yes; plenty." + +"Couldn't you ask some of them one night, and I would tell them a story. I +think at this season they should have a share in what is going, and I have +got one I think they would like." + +"I shall be delighted. I will speak to papa about it at once. But next +time--." + +"Yes, I know. Next time Harry Armstrong was going to read; but to tell you +the truth, Adela, I doubt if he will be ready. I know he is dreadfully +busy just now, and I believe he will be thankful to have a reprieve for a +day or two, and his story, which I expect will be a good one, will be all +the better for it." + +"Then I will speak to papa about it the moment he comes in; and you will +tell Mr. Henry. And mind, uncle, you take the change upon your own +shoulders." + +"Trust me, my dear," I said, as I left the room. + +As I had anticipated, Harry was grateful. Everything was arranged. So the +next evening but one, we had a merry pretty company of boys and girls, +none older, or at least looking older, than twelve. It did my heart good +to see how Adela made herself at home with them, and talked to them as if +she were one of themselves. By the time tea was over, I had made friends +with them all, which was a stroke in its way nearly equal to Chaucer's, +who made friends with all the nine and twenty Canterbury pilgrims before +the sun was down. And the way I did was this. I began with the one next +me, asking her the question: + +"Do you like fairy-stories?" + +"Yes, I do," answered she, heartily. + +"Did you ever hear of the princess with the blue foot?" + +"No. Will you tell me, please?" + +Then I turned to the one on my other side, and asked her: + +"Did you ever hear of the giant that was all skin--not skin and bone, you +know, but all skin?" + +"No-o" she answered, and her round blue eyes got rounder and bluer. + +The next was a boy. I asked him: + +"Did you ever hear of Don Worm of Wakemup?" + +"No. Do please tell us about it." + +And so I asked them, round the room. And by that time all eyes were fixed +upon me. Then I said: + +"You see I cannot tell you all these stories to-night. But would you all +like one of some sort?" + +A chorus of _I should_ filled the room. + +"What shall it be about, then?" + +"A wicked fairy." + +"No; that's stupid. I'm tired of wicked fairies," said a scornful little +girl. + +"A good giant, then," said a priggish imp, with a face as round as the +late plum-pudding. + +"I am afraid I could not tell you a story about a _good_ giant; for +unfortunately all the good giants I ever heard of were very stupid; so +stupid that a story would not make itself about them; so stupid, indeed, +that they were always made game of by creatures not half so big or half so +good; and I don't like such stories. Shall I tell you about the wicked +giant that grew little children in his garden instead of radishes, and +then carried them about in his waistcoat pocket, and ate one as often as +he remembered he had got some?" + +"Yes, yes; please do." + +"He used to catch little children and plant them in his garden, where you +might see them in rows, with their heads only above ground, rolling their +eyes about, and growing awfully fast. He liked greedy boys best--boys that +ate plum-pudding till they felt as if their belts were too tight." + +Here the fat-faced boy stuck both his hands inside his belt. + +"Because he was so fond of radishes," I went on, "he lived just on the +borders of Giantland, where it touched on the country of common people. +Now, everything in Giantland was so big, that the common people saw only a +mass of awful mountains and clouds; and no living man had ever come from +it, as far as anybody knew, to tell what he had seen in it. + +"Somewhere near these borders, on the other side, by the edge of a great +forest, lived a labourer with his wife and a great many children. One day +Tricksey-Wee, as they called her, teased her brother Buffy-Bob, till he +could not bear it any longer, and gave her a box on the ear. Tricksey-Wee +cried; and Buffy-Bob was so sorry and ashamed of himself, that he cried +too, and ran off into the wood. He was so long gone, that Tricksey-Wee +began to be frightened, for she was very fond of her brother; and she was +so sorry that she had first teased him, and then cried, that at last she +ran into the wood to look for him, though there was more chance of losing +herself than of finding him. And, indeed, so it seemed likely to turn out; +for, running on without looking, she at length found herself in a valley +she knew nothing about. And no wonder; for what she thought was a valley +with round, rocky sides, was no other than the space between two of the +roots of a great tree that grew on the borders of Giantland. She climbed +over the side of it, and right up to what she took for a black, round- +topped mountain, far away; but she soon discovered that it was close to +her, and was a hollow place so great that she could not tell what it was +hollowed out of. Staring at it, she found that it was a doorway; and, +going nearer and staring harder, she saw the door, far in, with a knocker +of iron upon it, a great many yards above her head, and as large as the +anchor of a big ship. Now, nobody had ever been unkind to Tricksey-Wee, +and therefore she was not afraid of anybody. For Buffy-Bob's box on the +ear she did not think worth considering. So, spying a little hole at the +bottom of the door, which had been nibbled by some giant mouse, she crept +through it, and found herself in an enormous hall, as big as if the late +Mr. Martin, R.A., had been the architect. She could not have seen the +other end of it at all, except for the great fire that was burning there, +diminished to a spark in the distance. Towards this fire she ran as fast +as she could, and was not far from it when something fell before her with +a great clatter, over which she tumbled, and went rolling on the floor. +She was not much hurt, however, and got up in a moment. Then she saw that +she had fallen over something not unlike a great iron bucket. When she +examined it more closely, she discovered that it was a thimble; and +looking up to see who had dropped it, beheld a huge face, with spectacles +as big as the round windows in a church, bending over her, and looking +everywhere for the thimble. Tricksey-Wee immediately laid hold of it in +both her arms, and lifted it about an inch nearer to the nose of the +peering giantess. This movement made the old lady see where it was, and, +her finger popping into it, it vanished from the eyes of Tricksey-Wee, +buried in the folds of a white stocking, like a cloud in the sky, which +Mrs. Giant was busy darning. For it was Saturday night, and her husband +would wear nothing but white stockings on Sunday." + +"But how could he be so particular about white stockings on Sunday, and +eat little children?" asked one of the group. + +"Why, to be sure," I answered, "he did eat little children, but only +_very_ little ones; and if ever it crossed his mind that it was wrong to +do so, he always said to himself that he wore whiter stockings on Sunday +than any other giant in all Giantland. + +"At that instant, Tricksey-Wee heard a sound like the wind in a tree full +of leaves, and could not think what it could be; till, looking up, she +found that it was the giantess whispering to her; and when she tried very +hard, she could hear what she said well enough. + +"'Run away, dear little girl,' she said, 'as fast as you can; for my +husband will be home in a few minutes.' + +"'But I've never been naughty to your husband,' said Tricksey-Wee, looking +up in the giantess's face. + +"'That doesn't matter. You had better go. He is fond of little children, +particularly little girls!' + +"'Oh! Then he won't hurt me.' + +"'I am not sure of that. He is so fond of them that he eats them up; and I +am afraid he couldn't help hurting you a little. He's a very good man +though.' + +"'Oh! then--' began Tricksey-Wee, feeling rather frightened; but before +she could finish her sentence, she heard the sound of footsteps very far +apart and very heavy. The next moment, who should come running towards +her, full speed, and as pale as death, but Buffy-Bob! She held out her +arms, and he ran into them. But when she tried to kiss him, she only +kissed the back of his head; for his white face and round eyes were turned +to the door. + +"'Run, children; run and hide,' said the giantess. + +"'Come, Buffy,' said Tricksey; 'yonder's a great brake; we'll hide in it.' + +"The brake was a big broom; and they had just got into the bristles of it, +when they heard the door open with a sound of thunder; and in stalked the +giant. You would have thought you saw the whole earth through the door +when he opened it, so wide was it; and, when he closed it, it was like +nightfall. + +"'Where is that little boy?' he cried, with a voice like the bellowing of +cannon. 'He looked a very nice boy, indeed. I am almost sure he crept +through the mouse hole at the bottom of the door. Where is he, my dear?' + +"'I don't know,' answered the giantess. + +"'But you know it is wicked to tell lies; don't you, dear?' retorted the +giant. + +"'Now, you ridiculous old Thunderthump!' said his wife, with a smile as +broad as the sea in the sun; 'how can I mend your white stockings, and +look after little boys? You have got plenty to last you over Sunday, I am +sure. Just look what good little boys they are!' + +"Tricksey-Wee and Buffy-Bob peered through the bristles, and discovered a +row of little boys, about a dozen, with very fat faces and goggle eyes, +sitting before the fire, and looking stupidly into it. Thunderthump +intended the most of these for seed, and was feeding them well before +planting them. Now and then, however, he could not keep his teeth off +them, and would eat one by the bye, without salt." + + * * * * * + +"Now, you know that's all nonsense; for little children don't grow in +gardens, I know. _You_ may believe in the radish beds: _I_ don't," said +one pert little puss. + +"I never said I did," replied I. "If the giant did, that's enough for my +story. I told you the good giants are very stupid; so you may think what +the bad ones are. Indeed, the giant never really tried the plan. No doubt +he did plant the children, but he always pulled them up and ate them +before they had a chance of increasing. + +"He strode up to the wretched children. Now, what made them very wretched +indeed was, that they knew if they could only keep from eating, and grow +thin, the giant would dislike them, and turn them out to find their way +home; but notwithstanding this, so greedy were they, that they ate as much +as ever they could hold. The giantess, who fed them, comforted herself +with thinking that they were not real boys and girls, but only little pigs +pretending to be boys and girls. + +"'Now tell me the truth,' cried the giant, bending his face down over +them. They shook with terror, and every one hoped it was somebody else the +giant liked best. 'Where is the little boy that ran into the hall just +now? Whoever tells me a lie shall be instantly boiled.' + +"'He's in the broom,' cried one dough-faced boy. 'He's in there, and a +little girl with him.' + +"'The naughty children,' cried the giant, 'to hide from _me_!' And he made +a stride towards the broom. + +"'Catch hold of the bristles, Bobby. Get right into a tuft, and hold on,' +cried Tricksey-Wee, just in time. + +"The giant caught up the broom, and seeing nothing under it, set it down +again with a bang that threw them both on the floor. He then made two +strides to the boys, caught the dough-faced one by the neck, took the lid +off a great pot that was boiling on the fire, popped him in as if he had +been a trussed chicken, put the lid on again, and saying, 'There boys! See +what comes of lying!' asked no more questions; for, as he always kept his +word, he was afraid he might have to do the same to them all; and he did +not like boiled boys. He like to eat them crisp, as radishes, whether +forked or not, ought to be eaten. He then sat down, and asked his wife if +his supper was ready. She looked into the pot, and, throwing the boy out +with the ladle, as if he had been a black-beetle that had tumbled in and +had had the worst of it, answered that she thought it was. Whereupon he +rose to help her; and, taking the pot from the fire, poured the whole +contents, bubbling and splashing into a dish like a vat. Then they say +down to supper. The children in the broom could not see what they had; but +it seemed to agree with them; for the giant talked like thunder, and the +giantess answered like the sea, and they grew chattier and chattier. At +length the giant said: + +"'I don't feel quite comfortable about that heart of mine.' And as he +spoke, instead of laying his hand on his bosom, he waved it away towards +the corner where the children were peeping from the broom-bristles, like +frightened little mice. + +"'Well, you know, my darling Thunderthump,' answered his wife, 'I always +thought it ought to be nearer home. But you know best, of course.' + +"'Ha! ha! You don't know where it is, wife. I moved it a month ago.' + +"'What a man you are, Thunderthump! You trust any creature alive rather +than your wife.' + +"Here the giantess gave a sob which sounded exactly like a wave going flop +into the mouth of a cave up to the roof. + +"'Where have you got it now?' she resumed, checking her emotion. + +"'Well, Doodlem, I don't mind telling _you_,' said the giant, soothingly. +'The great she-eagle has got it for a nest-egg. She sits on it night and +day, and thinks she will bring the greatest eagle out of it that ever +sharpened his beak on the rocks of Mount Skycrack. I can warrant no one +else will touch it while she has got it. But she is rather capricious, and +I confess I am not easy about it; for the least scratch of one of her +claws would do for me at once. And she _has_ claws.'" + + * * * * * + +"What funny things you do make up!" said a boy. "How could the giant's +heart be in an eagle's nest, and the giant himself alive and well without +it?" + +"Whatever you may think of it, Master Fred, I assure you I did not make it +up. If it ever was made up, no one can tell who did it; for it was written +in the chronicles of Giantland long before one of us was born. It was +quite common," said I, in an injured tone, "for a giant to put his heart +out to nurse, because he did not like the trouble and responsibility of +doing it himself. It was, I confess, a dangerous sort of thing to do.--But +do you want any more of my story or not?" + +"Oh! yes, please," cried Frederick, very heartily. + +"Then don't you find any more fault with it, or I will stop." + +Master Fred was straightway silent, and I went on. + + * * * * * + +"All this time Buffy-Bob and Tricksey-Wee were listening with long ears. +_They_ did not dispute about the giant's heart, and impossibility, and all +that; for they were better educated than Master Fred, and knew all about +it. 'Oh!' thought Tricksey-Wee, 'if I could but find the giant's cruel +heart, wouldn't I give it a squeeze!' + +"The giant and giantess went on talking for a long time. The giantess kept +advising the giant to hide his heart somewhere in the house; but he seemed +afraid of the advantage it would give her over him. + +"'You could hide it at the bottom of the flour-barrel,' said she. + +"'That would make me feel chokey,' answered he. + +"'Well, in the coal-cellar, or in the dust-hole. That's the place! No one +would think of looking for your heart in the dust-hole.' + +"'Worse and worse!' cried the giant. + +"'Well, the water-butt?' said she. + +"'No, no; it would grow spongy there,' said he. + +"'Well, what will you do with it?' + +"'I will leave it a month longer where it is, and then I will give it to +the Queen of the Kangaroos, and she will carry it in her pouch for me. It +is best to change, you know, and then my enemies can't find it. But, dear +Doodlem, it's a fretting care to have a heart of one's own to look after. +The responsibility is too much for me. If it were not for a bite of a +radish now and then, I never could bear it.' + +"Here the giant looked lovingly towards the row of little boys by the +fire, all of whom were nodding, or asleep on the floor. + +"'Why don't you trust it to me, dear Thunderthump?' said his wife. 'I +would take the best possible care of it.' + +"'I don't doubt it, my love. But the responsibility would be too much for +you. You would no longer be my darling, light-hearted, airy, laughing +Doodlem. It would transform you into a heavy, oppressed woman, weary of +life--as I am.' + +"The giant closed his eyes and pretended to go to sleep. His wife got his +stockings, and went on with her darning. Soon, the giant's pretence became +reality, and the giantess began to nod over her work. + +"'Now, Buffy,' whispered Tricksey-Wee, 'now's our time. I think it's +moonlight, and we had better be off. There's a door with a hole for the +cat just behind us.' + +"'All right!' said Bob; 'I'm ready.' + +"So they got out of the broom-brake, and crept to the door. But, to their +great disappointment, when they got through it, they found themselves in a +sort of shed. It was full of tubs and things, and, though it was built of +wood only, they could not find a crack. + +"'Let us try this hole,' said Tricksey; for the giant and giantess were +sleeping behind them, and they dared not go back. + +"'All right,' said Bob. He seldom said anything else than _All right_. + +"Now this hole was in a mound that came in through the wall of the shed +and went along the floor for some distance. They crawled into it, and +found it very dark. But groping their way along, they soon came to a small +crack, through which they saw grass, pale in the moonshine. As they crept +on, they found the hole began to get wider and lead upwards. + +"'What is that noise of rushing?' said Buffy-Bob. + +"'I can't tell,' replied Tricksey; 'for, you see, I don't know what we are +in.' + +"The fact was, they were creeping along a channel in the heart of a giant +tree; and the noise they heard was the noise of the sap rushing along in +its wooden pipes. When they laid their ears to the wall, they heard it +gurgling along with a pleasant noise. + +"'It sounds kind and good,' said Tricksey. 'It is water running. Now it +must be running from somewhere to somewhere. I think we had better go on, +and we shall come somewhere.' + +"It was now rather difficult to go on, for they had to climb as if they +were climbing a hill; and now the passage was wide. Nearly worn out, they +saw light overhead at last, and creeping through a crack into the open +air, found themselves on the fork of a huge tree. A great, broad, uneven +space lay around them, out of which spread boughs in every direction, the +smallest of them as big as the biggest tree in the country of common +people. Overhead were leaves enough to supply all the trees they had ever +seen. Not much moonlight could come through, but the leaves would glimmer +white in the wind at times. The tree was full of giant birds. Every now +and then, one would sweep through, with a great noise. But, except an +occasional chirp, sounding like a shrill pipe in a great organ, they made +no noise. All at once an owl began to hoot. He thought he was singing. As +soon as he began, other birds replied, making rare game of him. To their +astonishment, the children found they could understand every word they +sang. And what they said was something like this: + + "'I will sing a song. + I'm the owl.' + 'Sing a song, you sing-song + Ugly fowl! + What will you sing about, + Now the light is out?' + + "'Sing about the night; + I'm the owl.' + 'You could not see for the light, + Stupid fowl.' + 'Oh! the moon! and the dew! + And the shadows!--tu-whoo!' + +"The owl spread out his silent, soft, sly wings, and lighting between +Tricksey-Wee and Buffy-Bob, nearly smothered them, closing up one under +each wing. It was like being buried in a down bed. But the owl did not +like anything between his sides and his wings, so he opened his wings +again, and the children made haste to get out. Tricksey-Wee immediately +went in front of the bird, and looking up into his huge face, which was as +round as the eyes of the giantess's spectacles, and much bigger, dropped a +pretty courtesy, and said: + +"'Please, Mr. Owl, I want to whisper to you.' + +"'Very well, small child,' answered the owl, looking important, and +stooping his ear towards her. 'What is it?' + +"'Please tell me where the eagle lives that sits on the giant's heart.' + +"'Oh, you naughty child! That's a secret. For shame!' + +"And with a great hiss that terrified them, the owl flew into the tree. +All birds are fond of secrets; but not many of them can keep them so well +as the owl. + +"So the children went on because they did not know what else to do. They +found the way very rough and difficult, the tree was so full of humps and +hollows. Now and then they plashed into a pool of rain; now and then they +came upon twigs growing out of the trunk where they had no business, and +they were as large as full-grown poplars. Sometimes they came upon great +cushions of soft moss, and on one of them they lay down and rested. But +they had not lain long before they spied a large nightingale sitting on a +branch, with its bright eyes looking up at the moon. In a moment more he +began to sing, and the birds about him began to reply, but in a very +different tone from that in which they had replied to the owl. Oh, the +birds did call the nightingale such pretty names! The nightingale sang, +and the birds replied like this:-- + + "I will sing a song. + I'm the nightingale.' + 'Sing a song, long, long, + Little Neverfail! + What will you sing about, + Light in or light out?' + + 'Sing about the light + Gone away; + Down, away, and out of sight-- + Poor lost day! + Mourning for the day dead, + O'er his dim bed.' + +"The nightingale sang so sweetly, that the children would have fallen +asleep but for fear of losing any of the song. When the nightingale +stopped they got up and wandered on. They did not know where they were +going, but they thought it best to keep going on, because then they might +come upon something or other. They were very sorry they forgot to ask the +nightingale about the eagle's nest, but his music had put everything else +out of their heads. They resolved, however, not to forget the next time +they had a chance. They went on and on, till they were both tired, and +Tricksey-Wee said at last, trying to laugh, + +"'I declare my legs feel just like a Dutch doll's.' + +"'Then here's the place to go to bed in,' said Buffy-Bob. + +"They stood at the edge of a last year's nest, and looked down with +delight into the round, mossy cave. Then they crept gently in, and, lying +down in each other's arms, found it so deep, and warm, and comfortable, +and soft, that they were soon fast asleep. + +"Now close beside them, in a hollow, was another nest, in which lay a lark +and his wife; and the children were awakened very early in the morning, by +a dispute between Mr. and Mrs. Lark. + +"'Let me up,' said the lark. + +"'It is not time,' said the lark's wife. + +"'It is,' said the lark, rather rudely. 'The darkness is quite thin. I can +almost see my own beak.' + +"'Nonsense!' said the lark's wife. 'You know you came home yesterday +morning quite worn out--you had to fly so very high before you saw him. I +am sure he would not mind if you took it a little easier. Do be quiet and +go to sleep again.' + +"'That's not it at all,' said the lark. 'He doesn't want me. I want him. +Let me up, I say.' + +"He began to sing; and Tricksey-Wee and Buffy-Bob, having now learned the +way, answered him:-- + + "'I will sing a song, + I'm the Lark.' + 'Sing, sing, Throat-strong, + Little Kill-the-dark. + What will you sing about, + Now the night is out?' + + "'I can only call; + I can't think. + Let me up--that's all. + Let me drink! + Thirsting all the long night + For a drink of light.' + +"By this time the lark was standing on the edge of his nest and looking at +the children. + +"'Poor little things! You can't fly,' said the lark. + +"'No; but we can look up,' said Tricksey. + +"'Ah! you don't know what it is to see the very first of the sun.' + +"'But we know what it is to wait till he comes. He's no worse for your +seeing him first, is he?' + +"'Oh! no, certainly not,' answered the lark, with condescension; and then, +bursting into his _jubilate_, he sprung aloft, clapping his wings like a +clock running down. + +"'Tell us where--' began Buffy-Bob. + +"But the lark was out of sight. His song was all that was left of him. +That was everywhere, and he was nowhere. + +"'Selfish bird!' said Buffy. 'It's all very well for larks to go hunting +the sun, but they have no business to despise their neighbours, for all +that.' + +"'Can I be of any use to you?' said a sweet bird-voice out of the nest. +This was the lark's wife, who staid at home with the young larks while her +husband went to church. + +"'Oh! thank you. If you please,' answered Tricksey-Wee. + +"And up popped a pretty brown head; and then up came a brown feathery +body; and last of all came the slender legs on to the edge of the nest. +There she turned, and, looking down into the nest, from which came a whole +litany of chirpings for breakfast, said, 'Lie still, little ones.' Then +she turned to the children. 'My husband is King of the Larks,' she said. + +"Buffy-Bob took off his cap, and Tricksey-Wee courtesied very low. + +"'Oh, it's not me,' said the bird, looking very shy. 'I am only his wife. +It's my husband.'And she looked up after him into the sky, whence his song +was still falling like a shower of musical hailstones. Perhaps she could +see him. + +"'He's a splendid bird,' said Buffy-Bob; 'only you know he _will_ get up a +little too early.' + +"'Oh, no! he doesn't. It's only his way, you know. But tell me what I can +do for you.' + +"'Tell us, please, Lady Lark, where the she-eagle lives that sits on Giant +Thunderthump's heart.' + +"'Oh! that is a secret.' + +"'Did you promise not to tell?' + +"'No; but larks ought to be discreet. They see more than other birds.' + +"'But you don't fly up high like your husband, do you?' + +"'Not often. But it's no matter. I come to know things for all that.' + +"'Do tell me, and I will sing you a song,' said Tricksey-Wee. + +"'Can you sing too?' + +"'Yes. And I will sing you a song I learned the other day about a lark and +his wife.' + +"'Please do,' said the lark's wife. 'Be quiet, children, and listen.' + +"Tricksey-Wee was very glad she happened to know a song which would please +the lark's wife, at least, whatever the lark himself might have thought of +it, if he had heard it. So she sang: + + "'Good morrow, my lord!' in the sky alone, + Sang the lark, as the sun ascended his throne. + 'Shine on me, my lord; I only am come, + Of all your servants, to welcome you home. + I have flown for an hour, right up, I swear, + To catch the first shine of your golden hair!' + + 'Must I thank you, then,' said the king, 'Sir Lark, + For flying so high, and hating the dark? + You ask a full cup for half a thirst: + Half is love of me, and half love to be first. + There's many a bird that makes no haste, + But waits till I come. That's as much to my taste.' + + And the king hid his head in a turban of cloud; + And the lark stopped singing, quite vexed and cowed. + But he flew up higher, and thought, 'Anon, + The wrath of the king will be over and gone; + And his crown, shining out of the cloudy fold, + Will change my brown feathers to a glory of gold.' + + So he flew, with the strength of a lark he flew. + But, as he rose, the cloud rose too; + And not a gleam of the golden hair + Came through the depth of the misty air; + Till, weary with flying, with sighing sore, + The strong sun-seeker could do no more. + + His wings had had no chrism of gold; + And his feathers felt withered and worn and old; + And he sank, and quivered, and dropped like a stone. + And there on his nest, where he left her, alone, + Sat his little wife on her little eggs, + Keeping them warm with wings and legs. + + Did I say alone? Ah, no such thing! + Full in her face was shining the king. + 'Welcome, Sir Lark! You look tired,' said he. + 'Up is not always the best way to me. + While you have been singing so high and away, + I've been shining to your little wife all day.' + + He had set his crown all about the nest, + And out of the midst shone her little brown breast; + And so glorious was she in russet gold, + That for wonder and awe Sir Lark grew cold. + He popped his head under her wing, and lay + As still as a stone, till the king was away. + +"As soon as Tricksey-Wee had finished her song, the lark's wife began a +low, sweet, modest little song of her own; and after she had piped away +for two or three minutes, she said: + +"'You dear children, what can I do for you?' + +"'Tell us where the she-eagle lives, please,' said Tricksey-Wee. + +"'Well, I don't think there can be much harm in telling such wise, good +children,' said Lady Lark; 'I am sure you don't want to do any mischief.' + +"'Oh, no; quite the contrary,' said Buffy-Bob. + +"'Then I'll tell you. She lives on the very topmost peak of Mount Skycrack; +and the only way to get up is, to climb on the spiders' webs that cover it +from top to bottom.' + +"'That's rather serious,' said Tricksey-Wee. + +"'But you don't want to go up, you foolish little thing. You can't go. And +what do you want to go up for?' + +"'That is a secret,' said Tricksey-Wee. + +"'Well, it's no business of mine,' rejoined Lady Lark, a little offended, +and quite vexed that she had told them. So she flew away to find some +breakfast for her little ones, who by this time were chirping very +impatiently. The children looked at each other, joined hands, and walked +off. + +"In a minute more the sun was up, and they soon reached the outside of the +tree. The bark was so knobby and rough, and full of twigs, that they +managed to get down, though not without great difficulty. Then, far away +to the north, they saw a huge peak, like the spire of a church, going +right up into the sky. They thought this must be Mount Skycrack, and +turned their faces towards it. As they went on, they saw a giant or two, +now and then, striding about the fields or through the woods, but they +kept out of their way. Nor were they in much danger; for it was only one +or two of the border giants that were so very fond of children. At last +they came to the foot of Mount Skycrack. It stood in a plain alone, and +shot right up, I don't know how many thousand feet, into the air, a long, +narrow, spearlike mountain. The whole face of it, from top to bottom, was +covered with a network of spiders' webs, with threads of various sizes, +from that of silk to that of whipcord. The webs shook, and quivered, and +waved in the sun, glittering like silver. All about ran huge, greedy +spiders, catching huge, silly flies, and devouring them. + +"Here they sat down to consider what could be done. The spiders did not +heed them, but ate away at the flies. At the foot of the mountain, and all +round it, was a ring of water, not very broad, but very deep. Now, as they +sat watching, one of the spiders, whose web was woven across this water, +somehow or other lost his hold, and fell on his back. Tricksey-Wee and +Buffy-Bob ran to his assistance, and laying hold each of one of his legs, +succeeded, with the help of the other legs, which struggled spiderfully, +in getting him out upon dry land. As soon as he had shaken himself, and +dried himself a little, the spider turned to the children, saying, + +"'And now, what can I do for you?' + +"'Tell us, please,' said they, 'how we can get up the mountain to the +she-eagle's nest.' + +"'Nothing is easier,' answered the spider. 'Just run up there, and tell +them all I sent you, and nobody will mind you.' + +"'But we haven't got claws like you, Mr. Spider,' said Buffy. + +"'Ah! no more you have, poor unprovided creatures! Still, I think we can +manage it. Come home with me.' + +"'You won't eat us, will you?' said Buffy. + +"'My dear child,' answered the spider, in a tone of injured dignity, 'I +eat nothing but what is mischievous or useless. You have helped me, and +now I will help you.' + +"The children rose at once, and, climbing as well as they could, reached +the spider's nest in the centre of the web. They did not find it very +difficult; for whenever too great a gap came, the spider spinning a +strong cord stretched it just where they would have chosen to put their +feet next. He left them in his nest, after bringing them two enormous +honey-bags, taken from bees that he had caught. Presently about six of the +wisest of the spiders came back with him. It was rather horrible to look +up and see them all round the mouth of the nest, looking down on them in +contemplation, as if wondering whether they would be nice eating. At +length one of them said: + +"'Tell us truly what you want with the eagle, and we will try to help +you.' + +"Then Tricksey-Wee told them that there was a giant on the borders who +treated little children no better than radishes, and that they had +narrowly escaped being eaten by him; that they had found out that the +great she-eagle of Mount Skycrack was at present sitting on his heart; and +that, if they could only get hold of the heart, they would soon teach the +giant better behaviour. + +"'But,' said their host, 'if you get at the heart of the giant, you +will find it as large as one of your elephants. What can you do with it?' + +"'The least scratch will kill it,' answered Buffy-Bob. + +"'Ah! but you might do better than that,' said the spider.--'Now we have +resolved to help you. Here is a little bag of spider-juice. The giants +cannot bear spiders, and this juice is dreadful poison to them. We are all +ready to go up with you, and drive the eagle away. Then you must put the +heart into this other bag, and bring it down with you; for then the giant +will be in your power.' + +"'But how can we do that?' said Buffy. 'The bag is not much bigger than a +pudding-bag.' + +"'But it is as large as you will find convenient to carry.' + +"'Yes; but what are we to do with the heart?' + +"'Put it into the bag, to be sure. Only, first, you must squeeze a drop +out of the other bag upon it. You will see what will happen.' + +"'Very well; we will,' said Tricksey-Wee. 'And now, if you please, how +shall we go?' + +"'Oh, that's our business,' said the first spider. 'You come with me, and +my grandfather will take your brother. Get up.' + +"So Tricksey-Wee mounted on the narrow part of the spider's back, and held +fast. And Buffy-Bob got on the grandfather's back. And up they scrambled, +over one web after another, up and up. And every spider followed; so that, +when Tricksey-Wee looked back, she saw a whole army of spiders scrambling +after them. + +"'What can we want with so many?' she thought; but she said nothing. + +"The moon was now up, and it was a splendid sight below and around them. +All Giantland was spread out under them, with its great hills, lakes, +trees, and animals. And all above them was the clear heaven, and Mount +Skycrack rising into it, with its endless ladders of spiderwebs, +glittering like cords made of moonbeams. And up the moonbeams went, +crawling, and scrambling, and racing, a huge army of huge spiders. + +"At length they reached all but the very summit, where they stopped. +Tricksey-Wee and Buffy-Bob could see above them a great globe of feathers, +that finished off the mountain like an ornamental knob. + +"'How shall we drive her off?' said Buffy. + +"'We'll soon manage that,' said the grandfather spider. 'Come on, you, +down there.' + +"Up rushed the whole army, past the children, over the edge of the nest, +on to the she-eagle, and buried themselves in her feathers. In a moment +she became very restless, and went picking about with her beak. All at +once she spread out her wings, with a sound like a whirlwind, and flew off +to bathe in the sea; and then the spiders began to drop from her in all +directions on their gossamer wings. The children had to hold fast to keep +the wind of the eagle's flight from blowing them off. As soon as it was +over, they looked into the nest, and there lay the giant's heart--an awful +and ugly thing. + +"'Make haste, child!' said Tricksey's spider. So Tricksey took her bag, +and squeezed a drop out of it upon the heart. She thought she heard the +giant give a far-off roar of pain, and she nearly fell from her seat with +terror. The heart instantly began to shrink. It shrunk and shrivelled till +it was nearly gone; and Buffy-Bob caught it up and put it into the bag. +Then the two spiders turned and went down again as fast as they could. +Before they got to the bottom, they heard the shrieks of the she-eagle +over the loss of her egg; but the spiders told them not to be alarmed, for +her eyes were too big to see them. By the time they reached the foot of +the mountain, all the spiders had got home, and were busy again catching +flies, as if nothing had happened. So the children, after renewed thanks +to their friends, set off, carrying the giant's heart with them. + +"'If you should find it at all troublesome, just give it a little more +spider-juice directly,' said the grandfather, as they took their leave. + +"Now, the giant had given an awful roar of pain, the moment they anointed +his heart, and had fallen down in a fit, in which he lay so long that all +the boys might have escaped if they had not been so fat. One did--and got +home in safety. For days the giant was unable to speak. The first words he +uttered were, + +"'Oh, my heart! my heart!' + +"'Your heart is safe enough, dear Thunderthump,' said his wife. 'Really a +man of your size ought not to be so nervous and apprehensive. I am ashamed +of you.' + +"'You have no heart, Doodlem,' answered he. 'I assure you that this moment +mine is in the greatest danger. It has fallen into the hands of foes, +though who they are I cannot tell.' + +"Here he fainted again; for Tricksey-Wee, finding the heart begin to swell +a little, had given it the least touch of spider-juice. + +"Again he recovered, and said: + +"'Dear Doodlem, my heart is coming back to me. It is coming nearer and +nearer.' + +"After lying silent for a few hours, he exclaimed: + +"'It is in the house, I know!' And he jumped up and walked about, looking +in every corner. + +"Just then, Tricksey-Wee and Buffy-Bob came out of the hole in the +tree-root, and through the cat-hole in the door, and walked boldly towards +the giant. Both kept their eyes busy watching him. Led by the love of his +own heart, the giant soon spied them, and staggered furiously towards +them. + +"'I will eat you, you vermin!' he cried. 'Give me my heart.' + +"Tricksey gave the heart a sharp pinch; when down fell the giant on his +knees, blubbering, and crying, and begging for his heart. + +"'You shall have it, if you behave yourself properly,' said Tricksey. + +"'What do you want me to do?' asked he, whimpering. + +"'To take all those boys and girls, and carry them home at once.' + +"'I'm not able; I'm too ill.' + +"'Take them up directly.' + +"'I can't, till you give me my heart.' + +"'Very well!' said Tricksey; and she gave the heart another pinch. + +"The giant jumped to his feet, and catching up all the children, thrust +some into his waistcoat pockets, some into his breast-pocket, put two or +three into his hat, and took a bundle of them under each arm. Then he +staggered to the door. All this time poor Doodlem was sitting in her +armchair, crying, and mending a white stocking. + +"The giant led the way to the borders. He could not go fast, so that Buffy +and Tricksey managed to keep up with him. When they reached the borders, +they thought it would be safer to let the children find their own way +home. So they told him to set them down. He obeyed. + +"'Have you put them all down, Mr. Thunderthump?' asked. Tricksey-Wee. + +"'Yes,' said the giant. + +"'That's a lie!' squeaked a little voice; and out came a head from his +waistcoat-pocket. + +"Tricksey-Wee pinched the heart till the giant roared with pain. + +"'You're not a gentleman. You tell stories,' she said. + +"'He was the thinnest of the lot,' said Thunderthump, crying. + +"'Are you all there now, children?' asked Tricksey. + +"'Yes, ma'am,' said they, after counting themselves very carefully, and +with some difficulty; for they were all stupid children. + +"'Now,' said Tricksey-Wee to the giant, 'will you promise to carry off no +more children, and never to eat a child again all you life?' + +"'Yes, yes! I promise,' answered Thunderthump, sobbing. + +"'And you will never cross the borders of Giantland?' + +"'Never.' + +"'And you shall never again wear white stockings on a Sunday, all your +life long.--Do you promise?' + +"The giant hesitated at this, and began to expostulate; but Tricksey-Wee, +believing it would be good for his morals, insisted; and the giant +promised. + +"Then she required of him, that, when she gave him back his heart, he +should give it to his wife to take care of for him for ever after. The +poor giant feel on his knees and began again to beg. But Tricksey-Wee +giving the heart a slight pinch, he bawled out: + +"'Yes, yes! Doodlem shall have it, I swear. Only she must not put it in +the flour-barrel, or in the dust-hole.' + +"'Certainly not. Make your own bargain with her.--And you promise not to +interfere with my brother and me, or to take any revenge for what we have +done?' + +"'Yes, yes, my dear children; I promise everything. Do, pray, make haste +and give me back my poor heart.' + +"'Wait there, then, till I bring it to you.' + +"'Yes, yes. Only make haste, for I feel very faint.' + +"Tricksey-Wee began to undo the mouth of the bag. But Buffy-Bob, who had +got very knowing on his travels, took out his knife with the pretence of +cutting the string; but, in reality, to be prepared for any emergency. + +"No sooner was the heart out of the bag, than it expanded to the size of +a bullock; and the giant, with a yell of rage and vengeance, rushed on +the two children, who had stepped sideways from the terrible heart. But +Buffy-Bob was too quick for Thunderthump. He sprang to the heart, and +buried his knife in it, up to the hilt. A fountain of blood spouted from +it; and with a dreadful groan, the giant fell dead at the feet of little +Tricksey-Wee, who could not help being sorry for him after all." + + * * * * * + +"Silly thing!" said a little wisehead. + +"What a horrid story!" said one small girl with great eyes, who sat +staring into the fire. + +"I don't think it at all a nice story for supper, with those horrid +spiders, too," said an older girl. + +"Well, let us have a game and forget it," I said. + +"No; that we shan't, I am sure," said one. + +"I will tell our Amy. Won't it be fun?" + +"She'll scream," said another. + +"I'll tell her all the more." + +"No, no; you mustn't be unkind," said I; "else you will never help little +children against wicked giants. The giants will eat you too, then." + +"Oh! I know what you mean. You can't frighten me." + +This was said by one of the elder girls, who promised fair to reach before +long the summit of uncompromising womanhood. She made me feel very small +with my moralizing; so I dropt it. On the whole I was rather disappointed +with the effect of my story. Perhaps the disappointment was no more than I +deserved; but I did not like to think I had failed with children. + +Nor did I think so any longer after a darling little blue-eyed girl, who +had sat next me at tea, came to me to say good night, and, reaching up, +put her arms round my neck and kissed me, and then whispered very gently: + +"Thank you, dear Mr. Smith. I will be good. It was a very nice story. If I +was a man, I would kill all the wicked people in the world. But I am only +a little girl, you know; so I can only be good." + +The darling did not know how much more one good woman can do to kill evil +than all the swords of the world in the hands of righteous heroes. + + + +CHAPTER III. + +A CHILD'S HOLIDAY. + + +When the next evening of our assembly came, I could see on Adela's face a +look of subdued expectation, and I knew now to what to attribute it: Harry +was going to read. There was a restlessness in her eyelids--they were +always rising, and falling as suddenly. But when the time drew near, they +grew more still; only her colour went and came a little. By the time we +were all seated, she was as quiet as death. Harry pulled out a manuscript. + +"Have you any objection to a ballad-story?" he asked of the company +generally. + +"Certainly not," was the common reply; though Ralph stared a little, and +his wife looked at him. I believe the reason was, that they had never +known Harry write poetry before. But as soon as he had uttered the title-- +"_The Two Gordons_"-- + +"You young rascal!" cried his brother. "Am I to keep you in material for +ever? Are you going to pluck my wings till they are as bare as an egg? +Really, ladies and gentlemen," he continued, in pretended anger, while +Harry was keeping down a laugh of keen enjoyment, "it is too bad of that +scapegrace brother of mine! Of course you are all welcome to anything I +have got; but he has no right to escape from his responsibilities on that +account. It is rude to us all. I know he can write if he likes." + +"Why, Ralph, you would be glad of such a brother to steal your sermons +from, if you had been up all night as I was. Of course I did not mean to +claim any more credit than that of unearthing some of your shy verses.-- +May I read them or not?" + +"Oh! of course. But it is lucky I came prepared for some escapade of the +sort, and brought a manuscript of proper weight and length in my pocket." + +Suddenly Harry's face changed from a laughing to a grave one. I saw how it +was. He had glanced at Adela, and her look of unmistakeable disappointment +was reflected in his face. But there was a glimmer of pleasure in his +eyes, notwithstanding; and I fancied I could see that the pleasure would +have been more marked, had he not feared that he had placed himself at a +disadvantage with her, namely, that she would suppose him incapable of +producing a story. However, it was only for a moment that this change of +feeling stopped him. With a gesture of some haste he re-opened the +manuscript, which he had rolled up as if to protect it from the +indignation of his brother, and read the following ballad: + + _"The Two Gordons._ + + I + +"There was John Gordon, and Archibold, + And an earl's twin sons were they. +When they were one and twenty years old, + They fell out on their birth-day. + +"'Turn,' said Archibold, 'brother sly! + Turn now, false and fell; +Or down thou goest, as black as a lie, + To the father of lies in hell.' + +"'Why this to me, brother Archie, I pray? + What ill have I done to thee?' +'Smooth-faced hound, thou shall rue the day + Thou gettest an answer of me. + +"'For mine will be louder than Lady Janet's, + And spoken in broad daylight-- +And the wall to scale is my iron mail, + Not her castle wall at night.' + +"'I clomb the wall of her castle tall, + In the moon and the roaring wind; +It was dark and still in her bower until + The morning looked in behind.' + +"'Turn therefore, John Gordon, false brother; + For either thou or I, +On a hard wet bed--wet, cold, and red, + For evermore shall lie.' + +"'Oh, Archibold, Janet is my true love; + Would I had told it thee!' +'I hate thee the worse. Turn, or I'll curse + The night that got thee and me.' + +"Their swords they drew, and the sparks they flew, + As if hammers did anvils beat; +And the red blood ran, till the ground began + To plash beneath their feet. + +"'Oh, Archie! thou hast given me a cold supper, + A supper of steel, I trow; +But reach me one grasp of a brother's hand, + And turn me, before you go.' + +"But he turned himself on his gold-spurred heel, + And away, with a speechless frown; +And up in the oak, with a greedy croak, + The carrion-crow claimed his own. + + II + +"The sun looked over a cloud of gold; + Lady Margaret looked over the wall. +Over the bridge rode Archibold; + Behind him his merry men all. + +"He leads his band to the holy land. + They follow with merry din. +A white Christ's cross is on his back; + In his breast a darksome sin. + +"And the white cross burned him like the fire, + That he could nor eat nor rest; +It burned in and in, to get at the sin, + That lay cowering in his breast. + +"A mile from the shore of the Dead Sea, + The army lay one night. +Lord Archibold rose; and out he goes, + Walking in the moonlight. + +"He came to the shore of the old salt sea-- + Yellow sands with frost-like tinge; +The bones of the dead on the edge of its bed, + Lay lapped in its oozy fringe. + +"He sat him down on a half-sunk stone, + And he sighed so dreary and deep: +'The devil may take my soul when I wake, + If he'd only let me sleep!' + +"Out from the bones and the slime and the stones, + Came a voice like a raven's croak: +'Was it thou, Lord Archibold Gordon?' it said, + 'Was it thou those words that spoke?' + +"'I'll say them again,' quoth Archibold, + 'Be thou ghost or fiend of the deep.' +'Lord Archibold heed how thou may'st speed, + If thou sell me thy soul for sleep.' + +"Lord Archibold laughed with a loud _ha! ha!_-- + The Dead Sea curdled to hear: +'Thou would'st have the worst of the bargain curst-- + It has every fault but fear.' + +"'Done, Lord Archibold?' 'Lord Belzebub, done!' + His laugh came back in a moan. +The salt glittered on, and the white moon shone, + And Lord Archibold was alone. + +"And back he went to his glimmering tent; + And down in his cloak he lay; +And sound he slept; and a pale-faced man + Watched by his bed till day. + +"And if ever he turned or moaned in his sleep, + Or his brow began to lower, +Oh! gentle and clear, in the sleeper's ear, + He would whisper words of power; + +"Till his lips would quiver, and sighs of bliss + From sorrow's bosom would break; +And the tear, soft and slow, would gather and flow; + And yet he would not wake. + +"Every night the pale-faced man + Sat by his bed, I say; +And in mail rust-brown, with his visor down, + Rode beside him in battle-fray. + +"But well I wot that it was not + The devil that took his part; +But his twin-brother John, he thought dead and gone, + Who followed to ease his heart. + + III + +"Home came Lord Archibold, weary wight, + Home to his own countree; +And he cried, when his castle came in sight, + 'Now Christ me save and see!' + +"And the man in rust-brown, with his visor down, + Had gone, he knew not where. +And he lighted down, and into the hall, + And his mother met him there. + +"But dull was her eye, though her mien was high; + And she spoke like Eve to Cain: +'Lord Archibold Gordon, answer me true, + Or I'll never speak again. + +"'Where is thy brother, Lord Archibold? + He was flesh and blood of thine. +Has thy brother's keeper laid him cold, + Where the warm sun cannot shine?' + +"Lord Archibold could not speak a word, + For his heart was almost broke. +He turned to go. The carrion-crow + At the window gave a croak. + +"'Now where art thou going, Lord Archie?' she said, + 'With thy lips so white and thin?' +'Mother, good-bye; I am going to lie + In the earth with my brother-twin.' + +"Lady Margaret sank on her couch. 'Alas! + I shall lose them both to-day.' +Lord Archibold strode along the road, + To the field of the Brothers' Fray. + +"He came to the spot where they had fought. + 'My God!' he cried in fright, +'They have left him there, till his bones are bare; + Through the plates they glimmer white.' + +"For his brother's armour lay there, dank, + And worn with frost and dew. +Had the long, long grass that grew so rank, + Grown the very armour through? + +"'O brother, brother!' cried the Earl, + With a loud, heart-broken wail, +'I would put my soul into thy bones, + To see thee alive and hale.' + +"'Ha! ha!' said a voice from out the helm-- + 'Twas the voice of the Dead Sea shore-- +And the joints did close, and the armour rose, + And clattered and grass uptore-- + +"'Thou canst put no soul into his bones, + Thy brother alive to set; +For the sleep was thine, and thy soul is mine, + And, Lord Archibold, well-met!' + +"'Two words to that!' said the fearless Earl; + 'The sleep was none of thine; +For I dreamed of my brother all the night-- + His soul brought the sleep to mine. + +"'But I care not a crack for a soul so black, + And thou may'st have it yet: +I would let it burn to eternity, + My brother alive to set.' + +"The demon lifted his beaver up, + Crusted with blood and mould; +And, lo! John Gordon looked out of the helm, + And smiled upon Archibold. + +"'Thy soul is mine, brother Archie,' he said, + 'And I yield it thee none the worse; +No devil came near thee, Archie, lad, + But a brother to be thy nurse.' + +"Lord Archibold fell upon his knee, + On the blood-fed, bright green sod: +'The soul that my brother gives back to me, + Is thine for ever, O God!'" + + +"Now for a piece of good, honest prose!" said the curate, the moment Harry +had finished, without allowing room for any remarks. "That is, if the +ladies and gentlemen will allow me to read once more." + +Of course, all assented heartily. + +"It is nothing of a story, but I think it is something of a picture, drawn +principally from experiences of my own childhood, which I told you was +spent chiefly in the north of Scotland. The one great joy of the year, +although some years went without it altogether, was the summer visit paid +to the shores of the Moray Firth. My story is merely a record of some of +the impressions left on myself by such a visit, although the boy is +certainly not a portrait of myself; and if it has no result, no end, +reaching beyond childhood into what is commonly called life, I presume it +is not of a peculiar or solitary character in that respect; for surely +many that we count finished stories--life-histories--must look very +different to the angels; and if they haven't to be written over again, at +least they have to be carried on a few aeons further. + +"A CHILD'S HOLIDAY. + +"Before the door of a substantial farm-house in the north of Scotland, +stands a vehicle of somewhat singular construction. When analysed, +however, its composition proves to be simple enough. It is a common +agricultural cart, over which, by means of a few iron rods bent across, a +semi-cylindrical covering of white canvas has been stretched. It is thus +transformed from a hay or harvest cart into a family carriage, of +comfortable dimensions, though somewhat slow of progress. The lack of +springs is supplied by thick layers of straw, while sacks stuffed with the +same material are placed around for seats. Various articles are being +stowed away under the bags, and in the corners among the straw, by +children with bright expectant faces; the said articles having been in +process of collection and arrangement for a month or six weeks previous, +in anticipation of the journey which now lies, in all its length and +brightness, the length and brightness of a long northern summer's day, +before them. + +"At last, all their private mysteries of provisions, playthings, and +books, having found places of safety more or less accessible on demand, +every motion of the horse, every shake and rattle of the covered cart, +makes them only more impatient to proceed; which desire is at length +gratified by their moving on at a funeral pace through the open gate. +They are followed by another cart loaded with the luggage necessary for a +six-week's sojourn at one of the fishing villages on the coast, about +twenty miles distant from their home. Their father and mother are to +follow in the gig, at a later hour in the day, expecting to overtake them +about half-way on the road.--Through the neighbouring village they pass, +out upon the lonely highway. + +"Some seeds are borne to the place of their destiny by their own wings and +the wings of the wind, some by the wings of birds, some by simple +gravitation. The seed of my story, namely, the covered cart, sent forth to +find the soil for its coming growth, is dragged by a stout horse to the +sea-shore; and as it oscillates from side to side like a balloon trying to +walk, I shall say something of its internal constitution, and principally +of its germ; for, regarded as the seed of my story, a pale boy of thirteen +is the germ of the cart. First, though he will be of little use to us +afterwards, comes a great strong boy of sixteen, who considerably despises +this mode of locomotion, believing himself quite capable of driving his +mother in the gig, whereas he is only destined to occupy her place in the +evening, and return with his father. Then comes the said germ, a boy whom +repeated attacks of illness have blanched, and who looks as if the +thinness of its earthly garment made his soul tremble with the proximity +of the ungenial world. Then follows a pretty blonde, with smooth hair, and +smooth cheeks, and bright blue eyes, the embodiment of home pleasures and +love; whose chief enjoyment, and earthly destiny indeed, so far as yet +revealed, consist in administering to the cupidities of her younger +brother, a very ogre of gingerbread men, and Silenus of bottled milk. This +milk, by the way, is expected, from former experience, to afford +considerable pleasure at the close of the journey, in the shape of one or +two pellets of butter in each bottle; the novelty of the phenomenon, and +not any scarcity of the article, constituting the ground of interest. A +baby on the lap of a rosy country-girl, and the servant in his blue Sunday +coat, who sits outside the cover on the edge of the cart, but looks in +occasionally to show some attention to the young woman, complete the +contents of the vehicle. + +"Herbert Netherby, though, as I have said, only thirteen years of age, had +already attained a degree of mental development sufficient for +characterization. Disease had favoured the almost unhealthy predominance +of the mental over the bodily powers of the child; so that, although the +constitution which at one time was supposed to have entirely given way, +had for the last few years been gradually gaining strength, he was still +to be seen far oftener walking about with his hands in his pockets, and +his gaze bent on the ground, or turned up to the clouds, than joining in +any of the boyish sports of those of his own age. A nervous dread of +ridicule would deter him from taking his part, even when for a moment the +fountain of youthfulness gushed forth, and impelled him to find rest in +activity. So the impulse would pass away, and he would relapse into his +former quiescence. But this partial isolation ministered to the growth of +a love of Nature which, although its roots were coeval with his being, +might not have so soon appeared above ground, but for this lack of human +companionship. Thus the boy became one of Nature's favourites, and enjoyed +more than a common share of her teaching. + +"But he loved her most in her stranger moods. The gathering of a blue +cloud, on a sultry summer afternoon, he watched with intense hope, in +expectation of a thunder-storm; and a windy night, after harvest, when the +trees moaned and tossed their arms about, and the wind ran hither and +hither over the desolate fields of stubble, made the child's heart dance +within him, and sent him out careering through the deepening darkness. To +meet him then, you would not have known him for the sedate, actionless +boy, whom you had seen in the morning looking listlessly on while his +schoolfellows played. But of all his loves for the shows of Nature, none +was so strong as his love for water--common to childhood, with its mills +of rushes, its dams, its bridges, its aqueducts; only in Herbert, it was +more a quiet, delighted contemplation. Weakness prevented his joining his +companions in the river; but the sight of their motions in the mystery of +the water, as they floated half-idealized in the clear depth, or glided +along by graceful propulsion, gave him as much real enjoyment as they +received themselves. For it was water itself that delighted him, whether +in rest or motion; whether rippling over many stones, like the first +half-articulate sounds of a child's speech, mingled with a strange musical +tremble and cadence which the heart only, and not the ear, could detect; +or lying in deep still pools, from the bottom of which gleamed up bright +green stones, or yet brighter water-plants, cool in their little grotto, +with water for an atmosphere and a firmament, through which the sun-rays +came, washed of their burning heat, but undimmed of their splendour. He +would lie for an hour by the side of a hill-streamlet; he would stand +gazing into a muddy pool, left on the road by last night's rain. Once, in +such a brown-yellow pool, he beheld a glory--the sun, encircled with a +halo vast and wide, varied like the ring of opal colours seen about the +moon when she floats through white clouds, only larger and brighter than +that. Looking up, he could see nothing but a chaos of black clouds, +brilliant towards the sun: the colours he could not see, except in the +muddy water. + +"In autumn the rains would come down for days, and the river grow stormy, +forget its clearness, and spread out like a lake over the meadows; and +that was delightful indeed. But greater yet was the delight when the +foot-bridge was carried away; for then they had to cross the stream in a +boat. He longed for water where it could not be; would fain have seen it +running through the grass in front of his father's house; and had a waking +vision of a stream with wooden shores that babbled through his bedroom. So +it may be fancied with what delight he overheard the parental decision +that they should spend some weeks by the shores of the great world--water, +the father and the grave of rivers. + +"After many vain outlooks, and fruitless inquiries of their driver, a +sudden turn in the road brought them in sight of the sea between the +hills; itself resembling a low blue hill, covered with white stones. +Indeed, the little girl only doubted whether those were white stones or +sheep scattered all over it. They lost sight of it; saw it again; and +hailed it with greater rapture than at first. + +"The sun was more than halfway down when they arrived. They had secured a +little cottage, almost on the brow of the high shore, which in most places +went down perpendicularly to the beach or sands, and in some right into +deep water; but opposite the cottage, declined with a sloping, grassy +descent. A winding track led down to the village, which nestled in a +hollow, with steep footpaths radiating from it. In front of it, lower +still, lay the narrow beach, narrow even at low water, for the steep, +rocky shore went steep and rocky down into the abyss. A thousand +fantastic rocks stood between land and water; amidst which, at half-tide, +were many little rocky arbours, with floors of sunny sand, and three or +four feet of water. Here you might bathe, or sit on the ledges with your +feet in the water, medicated with the restless glitter and bewilderment of +a half-dissolved sunbeam. + +"A promontory, curving out into the sea, on the right, formed a bay and +natural harbour, from which, towards the setting sun, many fishing-boats +were diverging into the wide sea, as the children, stiff and weary, were +getting out of the cart. Herbert's fatigue was soon forgotten in watching +their brown-dyed sails, glowing almost red in the sunset, as they went out +far into the dark, hunters of the deep, to spend the night on the waters. + +"From the windows, the children could not see the shore, with all its +burst of beauties struck out from the meeting of things unlike; for it lay +far down, and the brow of the hill rose between it and them; only they +knew that below the waves were breaking on the rocks, and they heard the +gush and roar filling all the air. The room in which Herbert slept was a +little attic, with a window towards the sea. After gazing with unutterable +delight on the boundless water, which lay like a condensed sky in the grey +light of the sleeping day (for there is no night at this season in the +North), till he saw it even when his eyelids closed from weariness, he lay +down, and the monotonous lullaby of the sea mingled with his dreams. + +"Next morning he was wakened by the challenging and replying of the +sentinel-cocks, whose crowing sounded to him more clear and musical than +that of any of the cocks at home. He jumped out of bed. It was a sunny +morning, and his soul felt like a flake of sunshine, as he looked out of +his window on the radiant sea, green and flashing, its clear surface here +and there torn by the wind into spots of opaque white. So happy did he +feel, that he might have been one who had slept through death and the +judgment, and had awaked, a child, still in the kingdom of God, under the +new heavens and upon the new earth. + +"After breakfast, they all went down with their mother to the sea-shore. +As they went, the last of the boats which had gone out the night before, +were returning laden, like bees. The sea had been bountiful. Everything +shone with gladness. But as Herbert drew nearer, he felt a kind of dread +at the recklessness of the waves. On they hurried, assailed the rocks, +devoured the sands, cast themselves in wild abandonment on whatever +opposed them. He feared at first to go near, for they were unsympathizing, +caring not for his love or his joy, and would sweep him away like one of +those floating sea-weeds. 'If they are such in their play,' thought he, +'what must they be in their anger!' But ere long he was playing with the +sea as with a tame tiger, chasing the retreating waters till they rallied +and he, in his turn, had to flee from their pursuit. Wearied at length, he +left his brother and sister building castles of wet sand, and wandered +along the shore. + +"Everywhere about lay shallow lakes of salt water, so shallow that they +were invisible, except when a puff of wind blew a thousand ripples into +the sun; whereupon they flashed as if a precipitous rain of stormy light +had rushed down upon them. Lifting his eyes from one of these films of +water, Herbert saw on the opposite side, stooping to pick up some treasure +of the sea, a little girl, apparently about nine years of age. When she +raised herself and saw Herbert, she moved slowly away with a quiet grace, +that strangely contrasted with her tattered garments. She was ragged like +the sea-shore, or the bunch of dripping sea-weed that she carried in her +hand; she was bare from foot to knee, and passed over the wet sand with a +gleam; the wind had been at more trouble with her hair than any loving +hand; it was black, lusterless, and tangled. The sight of rags was always +enough to move Herbert's sympathies, and he wished to speak to the little +girl, and give her something. But when he had followed her a short +distance, all at once, and without having looked round, she began to glide +away from him with a wave-like motion, dancing and leaping; till a clear +pool in the hollow of a tabular rock imbedded in the sand, arrested her +progress. Here she stood like a statue, gazing into its depth; then, with +a dart like a kingfisher, plunged half into it, caught something at which +her head and curved neck showed that she looked with satisfaction--and +again, before Herbert could come near her, was skimming along the uneven +shore. He followed, as a boy follows a lapwing; but she, like the lapwing, +gradually increased the distance between them, till he gave up the pursuit +with some disappointment, and returned to his brother and sister. More +ambitious than they, he proceeded to construct--chiefly for the sake of +the moat he intended to draw around it--a sand-castle of considerable +pretensions; but the advancing tide drove him from his stronghold before +he had begun to dig the projected fosse. + +"As they returned home, they passed a group of fishermen in their long +boots and flapped sou'-westers, looking somewhat anxiously seaward. Much +to Herbert's delight, they predicted a stiff gale, and probably a storm. A +low bank of cloud had gathered along the horizon, and the wind had already +freshened; the white spots were thicker on the waves, and the sound of +their trampling on the shore grew louder. + +"After dinner, they sat at the window of their little parlour, looking out +over the sea, which grew darker and more sullen, ever as the afternoon +declined. The cloudy bank had risen and walled out the sun; but a narrow +space of blue on the horizon looked like the rent whence the wind rushed +forth on the sea, and with the feet of its stormy horses tore up the blue +surface, and scattered the ocean-dust in clouds. As evening drew on, +Herbert could keep in the house no longer. He wandered away on the +heights, keeping from the brow of the cliffs; now and then stooping and +struggling with a stormier eddy; till, descending into a little hollow, he +sunk below the plane of the tempest, and stood in the glow of a sudden +calm, hearing the tumult all round him, but himself in peace. Looking up, +he could see nothing but the sides of the hollow with the sky resting on +them, till, turning towards the sea, he saw, at some distance, a point of +the cliff rising abruptly into the air. At the same moment, the sun looked +out from a crack in the clouds, on the very horizon; and as Herbert could +not see the sunset, the peculiar radiance illuminated the more strangely +the dark vault of earth and cloudy sky. Suddenly, to his astonishment, it +was concentrated on the form of the little ragged girl. She stood on the +summit of the peak before him. The light was a crown, not to her head +only, but to her whole person; as if she herself were the crown set on the +brows of the majestic shore. Disappearing as suddenly, it left her +standing on the peak, dark and stormy; every tress, if tresses they could +be called, of her windy hair, every tatter of her scanty garments, seeming +individually to protest, 'The wind is my playmate; let me go!' If +Aphrodite was born of the sunny sea, this child was the offspring of the +windy shore; as if the mind of the place had developed for itself a +consciousness, and this was its embodiment. She bore a strange affinity to +the rocks, and the sea-weed, and the pools, and the wide, wild ocean; and +Herbert would scarcely have been shocked to see her cast herself from the +cliff into the waves, which now dashed half-way up its height. By the time +he had got out of the hollow, she had vanished, and where she had gone he +could not conjecture. He half feared she had fallen over the precipice; +and several times that night, as the vapour of dreams gathered around him, +he started from his half-sleep in terror at seeing the little genius of +the storm fall from her rock-pedestal into the thundering waves as its +foot. + +"Next day the wind continuing off the sea, with vapour and rain, the +children were compelled to remain within doors, and betake themselves to +books and playthings. But Herbert's chief resource lay in watching the sea +and the low grey sky, between which was no distinguishable horizon. The +wind still increased, and before the afternoon it blew a thorough storm, +wind and waves raging together on the rocky shore. The fishermen had +secured their boats, drawing them up high on the land; but what vessels +might be labouring under the low misty pall no one could tell. Many +anxious fears were expressed for some known to be at sea; and many tales +of shipwreck were told that night in the storm-shaken cottages. + +"The day was closing in, darkened the sooner by the mist, when Herbert, +standing at the window, now rather weary, saw the little girl dart past +like a petrel. He snatched up his cap and rushed from the house, buttoning +his jacket to defend him from the weather. The little fellow, though so +quiet among other boys, was a lover of the storm as much as the girl was, +and would have preferred its buffeting, so long as his strength lasted, to +the warmest nook by the fireside; and now he could not resist the +temptation to follow her. As soon as he was clear of the garden, he saw +her stopping to gaze down on the sea--starting again along the heights-- +blown out of her course--and regaining it by struggling up in the teeth of +the storm. He at once hastened in pursuit, trying as much as possible to +keep out of her sight, and was gradually lessening the distance between +them, when, on crossing the hollow already mentioned, he saw her on the +edge of the cliff, close to the pinnacle on which she had stood the night +before; where after standing for a moment, she sank downwards and +vanished, but whether into earth or air, he could not tell. He approached +the place. A blast of more than ordinary violence fought against him, as +if determined to preserve the secret of its favourite's refuge. But he +persisted, and gained the spot. + +"He then found that the real edge of the precipice was several yards +farther off, the ground sloping away from where he stood. At his feet, in +the slope, was an almost perpendicular opening. He hesitated a little; +but, sure that the child was a real human child and no phantom, he did not +hesitate long. He entered and found it lead spirally downwards. Descending +with some difficulty, for the passage was narrow, he arrived at a small +chamber, into one corner of which the stone shaft, containing the stair, +projected half its round. The chamber looked as if it had been hollowed +out of the rock. A narrow window, little more than a loop-hole through the +thick wall, admitted the roar of the waves and a dim grey light. This +light was just sufficient to show him the child in the farthest corner of +the chamber, bending forward with her hands between her knees, in a +posture that indicated fear. The little playfellow of the winds was not +sure of him. At the first word he spoke, a sea-bird, which had made its +home in the apartment, startled by the sound of his voice, dashed through +the window, with a sudden clang of wings, into the great misty void +without; and Herbert looking out after it, almost forgot the presence of +the little girl in the awe and delight of the spectacle before him. It was +now much darker, and the fog had settled down more closely on the face of +the deep; but just below him he could see the surface of the ocean, whose +mad waves appeared to rush bellowing out of the unseen on to the shore of +the visible. When, after some effort, he succeeded in leaning out of the +window, he could see the shore beneath him; for he was on its extreme +verge, and the spray now and then dashed through the loop-hole into the +chamber. He was still gazing and absorbed, when a sweet timid voice, that +yet partook undefinably of the wildness of a sea-breeze, startled him out +of his contemplation. + +"'Did my mother send you to me?' said the voice. + +"He looked down. Close beside him stood the child, gazing earnestly up +into his face through the twilight from the window. + +"'Where does your mother live?' asked Herbert. + +"'All out there,' the child answered, pointing to the window. + +"While he was thinking what she could mean, she continued: + +"'Mother is angry to-night; but when the sun comes out, and those nasty +clouds are driven away, she will laugh again. Mother does not like black +clouds and fogs; they spoil her house.' + +"Still perplexed as to the child's meaning, Herbert asked, + +"'Does your mother love you?' + +"'Yes, except when she is angry. She does not love me to-night; but +to-morrow, perhaps, she will be all over laughs to me; and that makes me +run to her; and she will smile to me all day, till night comes and she +goes to sleep, and leaves me alone; for I hear her sleeping, but I cannot +go to sleep with her.'" + +Here the curate interrupted his reading to remark, that he feared he had +spoiled the pathos of the child's words, by translating them into English; +but that they must gain more, for the occasion, by being made intelligible +to his audience, than they could lose by the change from their original +form. + +"Herbert's sympathies had by this time made him suspect that the child +must be talking of the sea, which somehow she had come to regard as her +mother. He asked, + +"'Where does your father live, then?' + +"'I have not any father,' she answered. 'I had one, but mother took him.' + +"Several other questions Herbert put; but still the child's notions ran in +the same channel. They were wild notions, but uttered with confidence as +if they were the most ordinary facts. It seemed that whatever her +imagination suggested, bore to her the impress of self-evident truth; and +that she knew no higher reality. + +"By this time it was almost dark. + +"'I must go home,' said Herbert. + +"'I will go with you,' responded the girl. + +"She ran along beside him, but in the discursive manner natural to her; +till, coming to one of the paths descending towards the shore, she darted +down, without saying good-night even. + +"Next day, the storm having abated, and the sun shining out, they were +standing on the beach, near a fisherman, who like them was gazing +seawards, when the child went skimming past along the shore. Mrs. Netherby +asked the fisherman about her, and learned the secret of the sea's +motherhood. She had been washed ashore from the wreck of a vessel; and was +found on the beach, tied to a spar. All besides had perished. From the +fragment they judged it to have been a Dutch vessel. Some one had said in +her hearing--'Poor child! the sea is her mother;' and her imagination had +cherished the idea. A fisherman, who had no family, had taken her to his +house and loved her dearly. But he lost his wife shortly after; and a year +or two ago, the sea had taken him, the only father she knew. All, however, +were kind to her. She was welcome wherever she chose to go and share with +the family. But no one knew today where she would be to-morrow, where she +would have her next meal, or where she would sleep. She was wild, +impulsive, affectionate. The simple people of the village believed her to +be of foreign birth and high descent, while reverence for her lonely +conditions made them treat her with affection as well as deference; so +that the forsaken child, regarded as subject to no law, was as happy in +her freedom and confidence as any wild winged thing of the land or sea. +The summer loved her; the winter strengthened her. Her first baptism in +the salt waters had made her a free creature of the earth and skies; had +fortified her, Achilles-like, against all hardship, cold, and nakedness +to come; had delivered her from the bonds of habit and custom, and shown +in her what earth and air of themselves can do, to make the lowest, most +undeveloped life, a divine gift. + +"The following morning, the sea was smooth and clear. So was the sky. +Looking down from their cottage, the sea appeared to Herbert to slope +steeply up to the horizon, so that the shore lay like a deep narrow valley +between him and it. Far down, at the low pier, he saw a little boat +belonging to a retired ship-captain. The oars were on board; and the owner +and some one with him were walking towards the boat. Now the captain had +promised to take him with him some day. + +"He was half-way down the road a moment after the words of permission had +left his mother's lips, and was waiting at the boat when the two men came +up. They readily agreed to let him go with them. They were going to row to +a village on the opposite side of the bay, and return in the evening. +Herbert was speechless with delight. They got in, the boat heaving beneath +them, unmoored and pushed off. This suspension between sea and sky was a +new sensation to Herbert; for when he looked down, his eye did not repose +on the surface, but penetrated far into a clear green abyss, where the +power of vision seemed rather to vanish than be arrested. When he looked +up, the shore was behind them; and he knew, for the first time, what it +was to look at the land as he had looked at the sea; to regard the land, +in its turn, as a _phenomenon_--observing it apart from himself. + +"Running along the shore like a little bird, he saw the child of the sea; +and, further to the right, the peak on which she had stood in the sunset, +and into whose mysterious chamber she had led him. The captain here put a +pocket-telescope into his hand; and with this annihilator of space he made +new discoveries. He saw a little window in the cliff, doubtless the same +from which he had looked out on the dim sea; and then perceived that the +front of the cliff, in that part, was no rock, but a wall, regularly and +strongly built. It was evidently the remains of an old fortress. The front +foundation had been laid in the rocks of the shore; the cliff had then +been faced up with masonry; and behind chambers had been cut in the rock; +into one of which Herbert had descended a ruined spiral stair. The castle +itself, which had stood on the top, had mouldered away, leaving only a +rugged and broken surface. + +"By this time they were near the opposite shore, and Herbert looked up +with dread at the great cliffs that rose perpendicularly out of the water, +which heaved slowly and heavily, with an appearance of immense depth, +against them. Their black jagged sides had huge holes, into which the sea +rushed--far into the dark--with a muffled roar; and large protuberances of +rock, bare and threatening. Numberless shadows lay on their faces; and +here and there from their tops trickled little steams, plashing into the +waves at their feet. Passing through a natural arch in a rock, lofty and +narrow, called the Devil's Bridge, and turning a little promontory, they +were soon aground on the beach. + +"When the captain had finished his business, they had some dinner at the +inn; and while the two men drank their grog, Herbert was a delighted +listener to many a sea story, old and new. How the boy longed to be a +sailor, and live always on the great waters! The blocks and cordage of the +fast-rooted flagstaff before the inn, assumed an almost magic interest to +him, as the two sailors went on with their tales of winds and rocks, and +narrow escapes and shipwrecks. And how proud he was of the friendship of +these old seafarers! + +"At length it was time to return home. As they rowed slowly along, the sun +was going down in the west, and their shadows were flung far on the waves, +which gleamed and glistened in the rich calm light. Land and sea were +bathed in the blessing of heaven; its glory was on the rocks, and on the +shore, and in the depth of the heaving sea. Under the boat, wherever it +went, shone a paler green. The only sounds were of the oars in the +row-locks, of the drip from their blades as they rose and made curves in +the air, and the low plash with which they dipped again into the sea; +while the water in the wake of the boat hastened to compose itself again +to that sleep from which it had been unwillingly roused by the passing +keel. The boy's heart was full. Often in after years he longed for the +wings of a dove that he might fly to that boat (still floating in the calm +sea of his memory), and there lie until his spirit had had rest enough. + +"The next time that Herbert approached the little girl, she waited his +coming; and while they talked, Mrs. Netherby joined them with her Effie. +Presently the gaze of the sea-child was fixed upon little Effie, to the +all but total neglect of the others. The result of this contemplation was +visible the next day. Mrs. Netherby having invited her to come and see +them, the following morning, as they were seated at breakfast, the door of +the room opened, without any prefatory tap, and in peeped with wild +confidence the smiling face of the untamed Undine. It was at once evident +that civilization had laid a finger upon her, and that a new womanly +impulse had been awakened. For there she stood, gazing at Effie, and with +both hands smoothing down her own hair, which she had managed, after a +fashion, to part in the middle, and had plentifully wetted with sea-water. +In her run up the height, it had begun to dry, and little spangles of salt +were visible all over it. She could not alter her dress, whose many +slashes showed little lining except her skin; but she had done all she +could to approximate her appearance to that of Effie, whom she seemed to +regard as a little divinity. + +"Mrs. Netherby's heart was drawn towards the motherless child, and she +clothed her from head to foot; though how far this was a benefit as +regarded cold and heat, is a question. Herbert began to teach her to read; +in which her progress was just like her bodily movements over the earth's +surface; now a dead pause, and now the flight of a bird. Now and then she +would suddenly start up, heedless where her book might happen to fall, and +rush out along the heights; returning next day, or the same afternoon, +and, without any apology, resuming her studies. + +"This holiday was to Herbert one of those seasons which tinge the whole of +the future life. It was a storehouse of sights and sounds and images of +thought; a tiring-room, wherein to clothe the ideas that came forth to act +their parts upon the stage of reason. Often at night, just ere the sleep +that wipes out the day from the overfilled and blotted tablets of the +brain, enwrapped him in its cool, grave-like garments, a vision of the +darkened sea, spotted and spangled with pools of unutterable light, would +rise before him unbidden, in that infinite space for creation which lies +dark and waiting under the closed eyelids. The darkened sea might be but +the out-thrown image of his own overshadowed soul; and the spots of light +the visual form of his hopes. So clearly would these be present to him +sometimes, that when he opened his eyes and gazed into the darkness of his +room, he would see the bright spaces shining before him still. Then he +would fall asleep and dream on about the sea--watching a little cutter +perhaps, as 'she leaned to the lee, and girdled the wave,' flinging the +frolic-some waters from her bows, and parting a path for herself between. +Or he would be seated with the helm in his hand, and all the force and the +joy wherewith she dashed headlong on the rising waves, and half pierced +them and half drove them under her triumphant keel, would be issuing from +his will and his triumph. + +"Surely even for the sad despairing waves there is some hope, out in that +boundless room which borders on the sky, and upon which, even in the +gloomiest hour of tempest, falls sometimes from heaven a glory intense. + +"So when the time came that the lover of waters must return, he went back +enriched with new visions of them in their great home and motherland, he +had seen them still and silent as a soul in holy trance; he had seen them +raving in a fury of livid green, swarming with 'white-mouthed waves;' he +had seen them lying in one narrow ridge of unbroken blue, where the eye, +finding no marks to measure the distance withal, saw miles as furlongs; +and he had seen sweeps and shadows innumerable stretched along its calm +expanse, so dividing it into regions, and graduating the distance, that +the eye seemed to wander on and on from sea to sea, and the ships to float +in oceans beyond oceans of infinite reach. O lonely space! awful indeed +wert thou, did no one love us! But he had yet to receive one more vision +of the waters, and that was to be in a dream. With this dream I will close +the story of his holiday; for it went with him ever after, breaking forth +from the dream-home, and encompassing his waking thoughts with an +atmosphere of courage and hope, when his heart was ready to sink in a +world which was not the world the boy had thought to enter, when he ran to +welcome his fate. + +"On their last Sunday, Herbert went with his mother to the evening service +in a little chapel in the midst of the fishermen's cottages. It was a +curious little place, with galleries round, that nearly met in the middle, +and a high pulpit with a great sounding-board over it, from which came the +voice of an earnest little Methodist, magnified by his position into a +mighty prophet. The good man was preaching on the parable of _the sheep +and the goats;_ and, in his earnestness for his own theology and the souls +of his hearers, was not content that the Lord should say these things in +his own way, but he must say them in his too. And a terrible utterance it +was! Looking about, unconsciously seeking some relief from the +accumulation of horrors with which the preacher was threatening the goats +of his congregation, Herbert spied, in the very front of one of the side +galleries, his little pupil, white with terror, and staring with round +unwinking eyes full in the face of the prophet of fear. Never after could +he read the parable without seeing the blanched face of the child, and +feeling a renewal of that evening's sadness over the fate of the poor +goats which afterwards grew into the question--'Doth God care for oxen, +and not for goats?' He never saw the child again; for they left the next +day, and she did not come to bid them good-by. + +"As he went home from the chapel, her face of terror haunted him. + +"That night he fell asleep, as usual, with the sound of the waves in his +soul. And as he slept he dreamed.--He stood, as he thought, upon the +cliff, within which lay the remnants of the old castle. The sun was slowly +sinking down the western sky, and a great glory lay upon the sea. Close to +the shore beneath, by the side of some low rocks, floated a little boat. +He thought how delightful it would be to lie in the boat in the sunlight, +and let it die away upon his bosom. He scrambled down the rocks, stepped +on board, and laid himself in the boat, with his face turned towards the +sinking sun. Lower and lower the sun sank, seeming to draw the heavens +after him, like a net. At length he plunged beneath the waves; but as his +last rays disappeared on the horizon, lo! a new splendour burst upon the +astonished boy. The whole waters were illuminated from beneath, with the +permeating glories of the buried radiance. In rainbow circles, and +intermingling, fluctuating sweeps of colours, the sea lay like an intense +opal, molten with the fire of its own hues. The sky gave back the +effulgence with a less deep but more heavenly loveliness. + +"But betwixt the sea and the sky, just over the grave of the down-gone +sun, a dark spot appeared, parting the earth and the heaven where they had +mingled in embraces of light. And the dark spot grew and spread, and a +cold breath came softly over the face of the shining waters; and the +colours paled away; and as the blossom-sea withered and grew grey below, +the clouds withered and darkened above. The sea began to swell and moan +and look up, like the soul of a man whose joy is going down in darkness; +and a horror came over the heart of the sleeper, and in his dream he +lifted up his head, meaning to rise and hasten to his home. But, behold, +the shore was far away, and the great castle-cliff had sunk to a low +ridge! With a cry, he sank back on the bosom of the careless sea. + +"The boat began to rise and fall on the waking waves. Then a great blast +of wind laid hold of it, and whirled it about. Once more he looked up, and +saw that the tops of the waves were torn away, and that 'the white water +was coming out of the black.' Higher and higher rose the billows; louder +and louder roared the wind across their jagged furrows, tearing awful +descants from their bursting chords, and tossing the little boat like a +leaf in the lone desert of storms; now holding it perched on the very +crest of a wave, in the mad eye of the tempest, while the chaotic waters +danced, raving about, in hopeless confusion; now letting it sink in the +hollow of the waves, and lifting above it cold glittering walls of water, +that becalmed it as in a sheltered vale, while the hurricane roaring +above, flung arches of writhing waters across from billow to billow +overhead, and threatened to close, as in a transparent tomb, boat and boy. +At length, when the boat rose once more, unwilling, to the awful ridge, +jagged and white, a yet fiercer blast tore it from the top of the wave. +The dreamer found himself choking in the waters, and soon lost all +consciousness of the buffeting waves or the shrieking winds. + +"When the dreamer again awoke, he felt that he was carried along through +the storm above the waves; for they reached him only in bursts of spray, +though the wind raged around him more fiercely than ever. He opened his +eyes and looked downwards. Beneath him seethed and boiled the tumultuous +billows, their wreathy tops torn from them, and shot, in long vanishing +sheets of spray, over the distracted wilderness. Such was the turmoil +beneath, that he had to close his eyes again to feel that he was moving +onwards. + +"The next time he opened them, it was to look up. And lo! a shadowy face +bent over him, whence love unutterable was falling in floods, from eyes +deep, and dark, and still, as the heavens that are above the clouds, Great +waves of hair streamed back from a noble head, and floated on the tides of +the tempest. The face was like his mother's and like his father's, and +like a face that he had seen somewhere in a picture, but far more +beautiful and strong and loving than all. With a sudden glory of gladness, +in which the spouting pinnacles of the fathomless pyramids of wandering +waters dwindled into the confusion of a few troubled water-drops, he knew, +he knew that the Lord was carrying his lamb in his bosom. Around him were +the everlasting arms, and above him the lamps that light heaven and earth, +the eyes that watch and are not weary. And now he felt the arms in which +he lay, and he nestled close to that true, wise bosom, which has room in +it for all, and where none will strive. + +"Over the waters went the Master, now crossing the calm hollows, now +climbing the rising wave, now shrouded in the upper ocean of drifting +spray, that wrapped him around with whirling force, and anon calmly +descending the gliding slope into the glassy trough below. Sometimes, when +he looked up, the dreamer could see nothing but the clouds driving across +the heavens, whence now and then a star, in a little well of blue, looked +down upon him; but anon he knew that the driving clouds were his drifting +hair, and that the stars in the blue wells of heaven were his love-lighted +eyes. Over the sea he strode, and the floods lifted up their heads in +vain. The billows would gather and burst around and over them; but a +moment more, and the billows were beneath his feet, and on they were +going, safe and sure. + +"Long time the journey endured; and the dream faded and again revived. It +was as if he had slept, and again awaked; for he lay in soft grass on a +mountain-side, and the form of a mighty man lay outstretched beside him, +who was weary with a great weariness. + +"Below, the sea howled and beat against the base of the mountain; but it +was far below. Again the Lord arose, and lifted him up, and bore him +onwards. Up to the mountain-top they went, through the keen, cold air, and +over the fields of snow and ice. On the peak the Master paused and looked +down. + +"In a vast amphitheatre below, was gathered a multitude that no man could +number. They crowded on all sides beyond the reach of the sight, rising up +the slopes of the surrounding mountains, till they could no longer be +distinguished; grouped and massed upon height above height; filling the +hollows, and plains, and platforms all about. But every eye looked towards +the lowest centre of the mountain-amphitheatre, where a little vacant spot +awaited the presence of some form, which should be the heart of all the +throng. Down towards this centre the Lord bore him. Entering the holy +circle, he set him gently down, and then looked all around, as if +searching earnestly for some one he could not see. + +"And not finding whom he sought, he walked across the open space. A path +was instantly divided for him through the dense multitude surrounding it. +Along this lane of men and women and children, he went; and Herbert ran, +following close at his feet; for now all the universe seemed empty save +where he was. And he was not rebuked, but suffered to follow. And although +the Lord walked fast and far, the feet following him were not weary, but +grew in speed and in power. Through the great crowd and beyond it, never +looking back, up and over the brow of the mountain they went, and leaving +behind them the gathered universe of men, descended into a pale night. +Hither and hither went the Master, searching up and down the gloomy +valley; now looking behind a great rock, and now through a thicket of +brushwood; now entering a dark cave, and now ascending a height and gazing +all around; till at last, on a bare plain, seated on a grey stone, with +her hands in her lap, they found the little orphan child who had called +the sea her mother. + +"As he drew near to her, the Lord called out, 'My poor little lamb, I have +found you at last!' But she did not seem to hear or understand what he +said; for she fell on her knees, and held up her clasped hands, and cried, +'Do not be angry with me. I am a goat; and I ran away because I was +afraid. Do not burn me.' But all the answer the Lord made was to stoop, +and lift her, and hold her to his breast. And she was an orphan no more. + +"So he turned and went back over hill and over dale, and Herbert followed, +rejoicing that the lost lamb was found. + +"As he followed, he spied in a crevice of a rock, close by his path, a +lovely primrose. He stooped to pluck it. And ere he began again to follow, +a cock crew shrill and loud; and he knew it was the cock that rebuked +Peter; and he trembled and stood up. The Master had vanished. He, too, +fell a-weeping bitterly. And again the cock crew; and he opened his eyes, +and knew that he had dreamed. His mother stood by his bedside, comforting +the weeper with kisses. And he cried to her-- + +"'O mother! surely he would not come over the sea to find me in the storm, +and then leave me because I stopped to pluck a flower!'" + + * * * * * + +"Too long, I am afraid," said the curate, the moment he had finished his +paper, looking at his watch. + +"We have not thought so, I am sure," said Adela, courteously. The ladies +rose to go. + +"Who is to read next?" said the schoolmaster. + +"Why, of course," said the curate, indignantly, "it ought to be my +brother, but there is no depending on him." + +"If this frost lasts, I will positively read next time," said the doctor. +"But, you know, Ralph, it will be better for you to bring something else +with you, lest I should fail again." + +"Cool!" said the curate. "I think it is time we dropped it." + +"No, please don't," said Harry, with a little anxiety in his tone. "I +really want to read my story." + +"It looks like it, doesn't it?" + +"Now, Ralph, a clergyman should never be sarcastic. Be as indignant as you +please--but--sarcastic--never. It is very easy for you, who know just what +you have to do, and have besides whole volumes in that rickety old desk of +yours, to keep such an appointment as this. Mine is produced for the +occasion, _bona fide_; and I cannot tell what may be required of me from +one hour to another." + +He went up to Adela. + +"I am very sorry to have failed again," he said. + +"But you won't next time, will you?" + +"I will not, if I can help it." + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +INTERRUPTION. + + +But it was Adela herself who failed next time. I had seen her during the +reading draw her shawl about her as if she were cold. She seemed quite +well when the friends left, but she had caught a chill; and before the +morning she was quite feverish, and unable to leave her bed. + +"You see, Colonel," said Mrs. Cathcart at breakfast, "that this doctor of +yours is doing the child harm instead of good. He has been suppressing +instead of curing the complaint; and now she is worse than ever." + +"When the devil--" I began to remark in reply. + +"Mr. Smith!" exclaimed Mrs. Cathcart. + +"Allow me, madam, to finish my sentence before you make up your mind to be +shocked.--When the devil goes out of a man, or a woman either, he gives a +terrible wrench by way of farewell. Now, as the prophet Job teaches us, +all disease is from the devil; and--" + +"The prophet Job!--Mr. Smith?" + +"Well, the old Arab Scheik, if you like that epithet better." + +"Really, Mr. Smith!" + +"Well, I don't mind what you call him. I only mean to say that a disease +sometimes goes out with a kind of flare, like a candle--or like the poor +life itself. I believe, if this is an intermittent fever--as, from your +description, I expect it will prove to be--it will be the best thing for +her." + +"Well, we shall see what Dr. Wade will say." + +"Dr. Wade?" I exclaimed. + +"Of course, my brother will not think of trusting such a serious case to +an inexperienced young man like Mr. Armstrong." + +"It seems to me," I replied, "that for some time the case has ceased to be +a serious one. You must allow that Adela is better." + +"Seemed to be better, Mr. Smith. But it was all excitement, and here is +the consequence. I, as far as I have any influence, decidedly object to +Mr. Armstrong having anything more to do with the case." + +"Perhaps you are right, Jane," said the colonel. "I fear you are. But how +can I ask Dr. Wade to resume his attendance?" + +Always nervous about Adela, his sister-in-law had at length succeeded in +frightening him. + +"Leave that to me," she said; "I will manage him." + +"Pooh!" said I, rudely. "He will jump at it. It will be a grand triumph +for him. I only want you to mind what you are about. You know Adela does +not like Dr. Wade." + +"And she does like _Doctor_ Armstrong?" said Mrs. Cathcart, stuffing each +word with significance. + +"Yes," I answered, boldly. "Who would not prefer the one to the other?" + +But her arrow had struck. The colonel rose, and saying only, "Well, Jane, +I leave the affair in your hands," walked out of the room. I was coward +enough to follow him. Had it been of any use, coward as I was, I would +have remained. + +But Mrs. Cathcart, if she had not reckoned without her host, had, at +least, reckoned without her hostess. She wrote instantly to Dr. Wade, in +terms of which it is enough to say that they were successful, for they +brought the doctor at once. I saw him pass through the hall, looking +awfully stiff, important, and condescending. Beeves, who had opened +the door to him, gave me a very queer look as he showed him into the +drawing-room, ringing, at the same time, for Adela's maid. + +Now Mrs. Cathcart had not expected that the doctor would arrive so soon, +and had, as yet, been unable to make up her mind how to communicate to the +patient the news of the change in the physical ministry. So when the maid +brought the message, all that her cunning could provide her with at the +moment was the pretence, that he had called so opportunely by chance. + +"Ask him to walk up," she said, after just one moment's hesitation. + +Adela heard the direction her aunt gave, through the cold shiver which was +then obliterating rather than engrossing her attention, and concluded that +they had sent for Mr. Armstrong. But Mrs. Cathcart, turning towards her, +said-- + +"Adela, my love, Dr. Wade had just called; and I have asked him to step up +stairs." + +The patient started up. + +"Aunt, what do you mean? If that old wife comes into this room, I will +make him glad to go out of it!" + +You see she was feverish, poor child, else I am sure she could not have +been so rude to her aunt. But before Mrs. Cathcart could reply, in came +Dr. Wade. He walked right up to the bed, after a stately obeisance to the +lady attendant. + +"I am sorry to find you so ill, Miss Cathcart." + +"I am perfectly well, Dr. Wade. I am sorry you have had the trouble of +walking up stairs." + +As she said this, she rang the bell at the head of her bed. Her maid, who +had been listening at the door, entered at once.--I had all this from +Adela herself afterwards. + +"Emma, bring me my desk. Dr. Wade, there must be some mistake. It was my +aunt, Mrs. Cathcart, who sent for you. Had she given me the opportunity, I +would have begged that the interview might take place in her room instead +of mine." + +Dr. Wade retreated towards the fireplace, where Mrs. Cathcart stood, quite +aware that she had got herself into a mess of no ordinary complication. +Yet she persisted in her cunning. She lifted her finger to her forehead. + +"Ah?" said Dr. Wade. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Cathcart. + +"Wandering?" + +"Dreadfully." + +After some more whispering, the doctor sat down to write a prescription. +But meantime, Adela was busy writing another. What she wrote was precisely +to this effect-- + +"Dear Mr. Armstrong, + +"I have caught a bad cold, and my aunt has let loose Dr. Wade upon me. +Please come directly, if you will save me from ever so much nasty +medicine, at the least. My aunt is not my mother, thank heaven! though she +would gladly usurp that relationship. + +"Yours most truly, + +"Adela Cathcart." + +She folded and sealed the note--sealed it carefully--and gave it to Emma, +who vanished with it, followed instantly by Mrs. Cathcart. As to what took +place outside the door--shall I confess it?--Beeves is my informant. + +"Where are you going, Emma? Emma, come here directly," said Mrs. Cathcart. + +Emma obeyed. + +"I am going a message for mis'ess." + +"Who is that note for?" + +"I didn't ask. John can read well enough." + +"Show it me." + +Emma, I presume, closed both lips and hand very tight. "I command you." + +"Miss Cathcart pays me my wages, ma'am," said Emma, and turning, sped +down-stairs like a carrier-pigeon. + +In the hall she met Beeves, and told him the story. + +"There she comes!" cried he. "Give me the letter. I'll take it myself." + +"You're not going without your hat, surely, Mr. Beeves," said Emma. + +"Bless me! It's down-stairs. There's master's old one! He'll never want it +again. And if he does, it'll be none the worse." + +And he was out of the door in a moment. Beeves's alarm, however, as to +Mrs. Cathcart's approach, was a false one. She returned into the sick +chamber, with a face fiery red, and found Dr. Wade just finishing an +elaborate prescription. + +"There!" said he, rising. "Send for that at once, and let it be taken +directly. Good morning." + +He left the room instantly, making signs that he was afraid of exciting +his patient, as she did not appear to approve of his presence. + +"What is the prescription?" said Adela, quite quietly, as Mrs. Cathcart +approached the bed, apparently trying to decipher it. + +"I am glad to see you so much calmer, my dear. You must not excite +yourself. The prescription?--I cannot make it out. Doctors do write so +badly. I suppose they consider it professional." + +"They consider a good many things professional which are only stupid. Let +me see it." + +Mrs. Cathcart, thrown off her guard, gave it to her. Adela tore it in +fragments, and threw it in a little storm on the floor. + +"Adela!" screamed Mrs. Cathcart. "What is to be done?" + +"Pay Dr. Wade his fee, and tell him I shall never be too ill to refuse his +medicines. Now, aunt! You find I am determined.--I declare you make me +behave so ill that I am ashamed of myself." + +Here the poor impertinent child crept under the clothes, and fell +a-weeping bitterly. Mrs. Cathcart had sense enough to see that nothing +could be done, and retired to her room. Getting weary of her own society +after a few moments of solitude, she proceeded to go down-stairs. But +half-way down, she was met full in the face by Harry Armstrong ascending +two steps at a time. He had already met Dr. Wade, as he came out of the +dining-room, where he had been having an interview with the colonel. Harry +had turned, and held out his hand with a "How do you do, Dr. Wade?" But +that gentleman had bowed with the utmost stiffness, and kept his hand at +home. + +"So it is to be open war and mutual slander, is it, Dr. Wade?" said Harry. +"In that case, I want to know how you come to interfere with my patient. I +have had no dismissal, which punctilio I took care to know was observed in +your case." + +"Sir, I was sent for," said Dr. Wade, haughtily. + +"I have in my pocket a note from the lady of this house, requesting my +immediate attendance. If you have received a request to the same purport +from a visitor, you obey it at your own risk. Good morning." + +Then Harry walked quietly up the first half of the stair, while Beeves +hastened to open the door to the crest-fallen Dr. Wade; but by the time he +met Mrs. Cathcart, his rate of ascent had considerably increased. As soon +as she saw him, however, without paying any attention to the usual +formality of a greeting, she turned and re-entered her niece's room. Her +eyes were flashing, and her face spotted red and white with helpless rage. +But she would not abandon the field. Harry bowed to her, and passed on to +the bed, where he was greeted with a smile. + +"There's not much the matter, I hope?" he said, returning the smile. + +"It may suit you to make light of my niece's illness, Mr. Armstrong; but I +beg to inform you that her father thought it serious enough to send for +Dr. Wade. He has been here already, and your attendance is quite +superfluous." + +"No doubt; no doubt. But as I am here, I may as well prescribe." + +"Dr. Wade has already prescribed." + +"And I have taken his prescription, have I not, aunt?--and destroyed it, +Mr. Armstrong, instead of my own chance." + +"Of what?" said Mrs. Cathcart, with vulgar significance. + +"Of getting rid of two officious old women at once," said Adela--in a +rage, I fear I must confess, as the only excuse for impertinence. + +"Come, come," said Harry, "this won't do. I cannot have my patient excited +in this way. Miss Cathcart, may I ring for your maid?" + +For answer, Adela rang the bell herself. Her aunt was pretending to look +out of the window. + +"Will you go and ask your master," said Harry, when Emma made her +appearance, "to be so kind as come here for a moment?" + +The poor colonel--an excellent soldier, a severe master, with the highest +notions of authority and obedience, found himself degraded by his own +conduct, as other autocrats have proved before, into a temporizing +incapable. It was the more humiliating that he was quite aware in his own +honest heart that it was jealousy of Harry that had brought him into this +painful position. But he obeyed the summons at once; for wherever there +was anything unpleasant to be done, there, with him, duty assumed the +sterner command. As soon as he entered the room, Harry, without giving +time for anyone else to determine the course of the conference, said: + +"There has been some mistake, Colonel Cathcart, between Dr. Wade and +myself, which has already done Miss Cathcart no good. As I find her very +feverish, though not by any means alarmingly ill, I must, as her medical +attendant, insist that _no_ one come into her room but yourself or her +maid." + +Every one present perfectly understood this; and however, in other +circumstances, the colonel might have resented the tone of authority with +which Harry spoke, he was compelled, for his daughter's sake, to yield; +and he afterwards justified Harry entirely. Mrs. Cathcart walked out of +the room with her neck invisible from behind. The colonel sat down by the +fire. Harry wrote his prescription on the half sheet from which Dr. Wade +had torn his; and then saying that he would call in the evening, took his +leave of the colonel, and bowed to his patient, receiving a glance of +acknowledgment which could not fail to generate the feeling that there was +a secret understanding between them, and that he had done just what she +wanted. He mounted his roan horse, called Rhubarb, with a certain elation +of being, which he tried to hide from everyone but himself. + +When doctors forget that their patients are more like musical instruments +than machines, they will soon need to be reminded that they are men and +women, and not dogs or horses. Yet, alas for the poor dogs and horses that +fall into the hands of a man without a human sympathy even with them! I, +John Smith, bless you, my doctor-friends, that ye are not doctors merely, +but good and loving men; and, in virtue thereof, so much the more--so +exceedingly the more _Therapeutae_. + +I need not follow the course of the fever. Each day the arrival of the +cold fit was longer delayed, and the violence of both diminished, until +they disappeared altogether. But a day or two before this happy result was +completed, Adela had been allowed to go down to the drawing-room, and had +delighted her father with her cheerfulness and hopefulness. It really +seemed as if the ague had carried off the last remnants of the illness +under which she had been so long labouring. But then, you can never put +anything to the _experimentum crucis_; and there were other causes at work +for Adela's cure, which were perhaps more powerful than even the ague. +However this may have been, she got almost quite well in a very short +space of time; and with her father's consent, issued invitations to +another meeting of the story-club. They were at once satisfactorily +responded to. + + + +CHAPTER V. + +PERCY. + + +By this time Percy had returned to London. His mother remained; but the +terms understood between her niece and herself were those of icy +politeness and reserve. I learned afterwards that something of an +understanding had also been arrived at between Percy and Harry; ever since +learning the particulars of which, I have liked the young rascal a great +deal better. So I will trouble my reader to take an interest in my report +of the affair. + +Percy met Harry at the gate, after one of his professional visits, and +accosted him thus: + +"Mr. Armstrong, my mother says you have been rude to her." + +"I am not in the least aware of it, Mr. Percy." + +"Oh! I don't care much. She is provoking. Besides, she can take care of +herself. That's not it." + +"What is it, then?" + +"What do you mean about Adela?" + +"I have said nothing more than that she has had a sharp attack of +intermittent fever, which is going off." + +"Come, come--you know what I mean." + +"I may suspect, but I don't choose to answer hints, the meaning of which I +_only_ suspect. I might make a fool of myself." + +"Well, I'll be plain. Are you in love with her?" + +"Suppose I were, you are not the first to whom I should think it necessary +to confess." + +"Well, are you paying your addresses to her?" + +"I am sorry I cannot consent to make my answers as frank as your +questions. You have the advantage of me in straightforwardness, I confess. +Only you have got sun and wind of me both." + +"Come, come--I hate dodging." + +"I daresay you do. But just let me shift round a bit, and see what you +will do then.--Are _you in love with Miss Cathcart?" + +"Yes." + +"Upon my word, I shouldn't have thought it. Here have we been all +positively conspiring to do her good, and you have been paying ten times +the attention to the dogs and horses that you have paid to her." + +"By Jove! it's quite true. But I couldn't somehow." + +"Then she hasn't encouraged you?" + +"By Jupiter! you are frank enough now.--No, damn it--not a bit.--But she +used to like me, and she would again, if you would let her alone." + +"Now, Mr. Percy, I'll tell you what.--I don't believe you are a bit in +love with her." + +"She's devilish pretty." + +"Well?" + +"And I declare I think she got prettier and prettier every day till this +cursed ague took her.--Your fault too, my mother says." + +"We'll leave your mother out of the question now, if you please. Do you +know what made her look prettier and prettier--for you are quite right +about that?" + +"No. I suppose you were giving her arsenic." + +"No. I was giving her the true _elixir vitae_, unknown even to the +Rosicrucians." + +Percy stared. + +"I will explain myself. Her friend, Mr. Smith--" + +"Old fogie!" + +"Old bachelor--yes.--Mr. Smith and I agreed that she was dying of ennui; +and so we got up this story-club, and got my brother and the rest to bear +a hand in it. It did her all the good the most sanguine of us could have +hoped for." + +"I thought it horrid slow." + +"I am surprised at that, for you were generally asleep." + +"I was forced, in self-defence. I couldn't smoke." + +"It gave her something to think about." + +"So it seems." + +"Now, Mr. Percy, how could you think you had the smallest chance with her, +when here was the first one and then another turning each the flash of his +own mental prism upon her weary eyes, and healing them with light; while +you would not take the smallest trouble to gratify her, or even to show +yourself to anything like advantage?--My dear fellow, what a fool you +are!" + +"Mr. Armstrong!" + +"Come, come--you began with frankness, and I've only gone on with it. You +are a good-hearted fellow, and ought to be made something of." + +"At all events, you make something of yourself, to talk of your own +productions as the elixir _vitae_." + +"You forget that I am in disgrace as well as yourself on that score; for I +have not read a word of my own since the club began." + +"Then how the devil should I be worse off than you?" + +"I didn't say you were. I only said you did your best to place yourself at +a disadvantage. I at least took a part in the affair, although a very +humble one. But depend upon it, a girl like Miss Cathcart thinks more of +mental gifts, than of any outward advantages which a man may possess; and +in the company of those who _think_, a fellow's good looks don't go for +much. She could not help measuring you by those other men--and women too. +But you may console yourself with the reflection that there are plenty of +girls, and pretty ones too, of a very different way of judging; and for my +part you are welcome to the pick of them." + +"You mean to say that I sha'n't have Addie?" + +"Not in the least. But, come now--do you think yourself worthy of a girl +like that?" + +"No. Do you?" + +"No. But I should not feel such a hypocrite if she thought me worthy, as +to give her up on that ground." + +"Then what _do_ you mean?" + +"To win her, if I can." + +"Whew!" + +"But if you are a gentleman, you will let me say so myself, and not betray +my secret." + +"Damned if I do! Good luck to you! There's my hand. I believe you're a +good fellow after all. I wish I had seen you ride to hounds. They tell me +it's a sight." + +"Thank you heartily. But what are you going to do?" + +"Go back to the sweet-flowing Thames, and the dreams of the desk." + +"Well--be a man as well as a gentleman. Don't be a fool." + +"Hang it all! I believe it was her money, after all, I was in love with. +Good-bye!" + +But the poor fellow looked grave enough as he went away. And I trust that, +before long, he, too, began to reap some of the good corn that grows on +the wintry fields of disappointment.--I have my eye upon him; but it is +little an _old fogie_ like me can do with a fellow like Percy. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE CRUEL PAINTER. + + +Now to return to the Story-Club. + +On the night appointed, we met. And to the delight of all the rest of us, +Harry arrived with a look that satisfied us that he was to be no defaulter +this time. The look was one of almost nervous uneasiness. Of course this +sprung from anxiety to please Adela--at least, so I interpreted it. She +occupied her old place on the couch; we all arranged ourselves nearly as +before; and the fire was burning very bright. Before he began, however, +Harry, turning to our host, said: + +"May I arrange the scene as I please, for the right effect of my story?" + +"Certainly," answered the colonel. + +Harry rose, and extinguished the lamp. + +"But, my dear sir," said the colonel, "how can you read now?" + +"Perfectly, by the firelight," answered Harry. + +He then went to the windows, and drawing aside the curtains, drew up the +blinds. + +It was full high moon, and the light so clear that, notwithstanding the +brightness of the fire, each window seemed to lie in ghostly shimmer on +the floor. Not a breath of wind was abroad. The whole country being +covered with snow, the air was filled with a snowy light. On one side rose +the high roof of another part of the house, on which the snow was lying +thick and smooth, undisturbed save by the footprints, visible in the moon, +of a large black cat, which had now paused in the middle of it, and was +looking round suspiciously towards the source of the light which had +surprised him in his midnight walk. + +"Now," said Harry, returning to his seat, and putting on an air of +confidence to conceal the lack of it, "let any one who has nerves retire +at once, both for his own sake and that of the company! This is just such +a night as I wanted to read my story in--snow--stillness--moonlight +outside, and nothing but firelight inside. Mind, Ralph, you keep up the +fire, for the room will be more ready to get cold now the coverings are +off the windows.--You will say at once if you feel it cold, Miss +Cathcart?" + +Adela promised; and Harry, who had his manuscript gummed together in a +continuous roll, so that he might not have to turn over any leaves, began +at once: + +"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, immortalized 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 realizing 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 unrealized 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 philosophizing 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 re-burying 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, loveless +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 misshapen 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 cellar-stairs. 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 tranquilizing 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!'" + + * * * * * + +No one had interrupted Harry. His brother had put a shovelful of coals on +the fire, to keep up the flame; but not a word had been spoken. The cold +moon had shone in at the windows all the time, her light made yet colder +by the snowy sheen from the face of the earth; and any horror that the +story could generate had had full freedom to operate on the minds of the +listeners. + +"Well, I'm glad its over, for my part," said Mrs. Bloomfield. "It made my +flesh creep." + +"I do not see any good in founding a story upon a superstition. One knows +it is false, all the time," said Mrs. Cathcart. + +"But," said Harry, "all that I have related might have taken place; for +the story is not founded on the superstition itself, but on the belief of +the people of the time in the superstition. I have merely used this belief +to give the general tone to the story, and sometimes the particular +occasion for events in it, the vampire being a terrible fact to those +times." + +"You write," said the curate, "as if you quoted occasionally from some +authority." + +"The story of John Kuntz, as well as that of the shoemaker, is told by +Henry More in his _Antidote against Atheism_. He believed the whole +affair. His authority is Martin Weinrich, a Silesian doctor. I have only +taken the liberty of shifting the scene of the _post-mortem_ exploits of +Kuntz from a town of Silesia to Prague." + +"Well, Harry," said his sister-in-law, "if your object was to frighten us, +I confess that I for one was tolerably uncomfortable. But I don't know +that that is a very high aim in story-telling." + +"If that were all--certainly not," replied Harry, glancing towards Adela, +who had not spoken. Nor did she speak yet. But her expression showed +plainly enough that it was not the horror of the story that had taken +chief hold of her mind. Her face was full of suppressed light, and she was +evidently satisfied--or shall I call it _gratified_?--as well as delighted +with the tale. Something or other in it had touched her not only deeply, +but nearly. + +Nothing was said about another meeting--perhaps because, from Adela's +illness, the order had been interrupted, and the present had required a +special summons. + +The ladies had gone up stairs to put on their bonnets. I had crossed into +the library, which was on the same floor with the drawing-room, to find +out if I was right in supposing I had seen some volumes of Henry More's +works on the shelves--certainly the colonel could never have bought them. +Our host, the curate and the schoolmaster had followed me. Harry had +remained behind in the drawing-room. Thinking of something I wanted to say +to him before he went, I left the gentlemen looking over the book-shelves, +and went to cross again to the drawing-room. But when I reached the door, +there stood at the top of the stair, Adela and Harry. She had evidently +just said something warm about the story. I could almost read what she had +said still lingering on her face, which was turned up a good deal to look +into his, so near each other were they standing. Hers had a rosy flush as +of sunset over it, while his glowed like the sun rising in a mist. +Evidently the pleasures of giving and receiving were in this case nearly +equal. But they were not of long duration; for the moment I appeared, they +bade each other a hurried good night, and parted. I, thinking it better to +pretermit my speech to Harry, retreated into the library, and was glad to +think that no one had seen that conference but myself. Such a conjunction +of planets prefigured, however, not merely warm spring weather, but sultry +gloom, and thunderous clouds to follow; and although I was delighted with +my astronomical observation, I could not help growing anxious about the +omen. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE CASTLE. + + +The next day, as I passed the school-house on my way to call on the +curate, I heard such an uproar that I stopped involuntarily to listen. I +soon satisfied myself that it was only the usual water-spout occasioned on +the ocean of boyhood by the vacuum of the master. As soon as I entered the +curate's study, there stood the missing master, hat in hand. He had not +sat down, and would not, hearing all the time, no doubt, in his soul, the +far confusion of his forsaken realm. He had but that moment entered. + +"You come just in the right time, Smith," said the curate.--We had already +dropped unnecessary prefixes.--"Here is Mr. Bloomfield come to ask us to +spend a final evening with him and Mrs. Bloomfield. And in the name of the +whole company, I have taken upon me to assure him that it will give us +pleasure. Am I not right?" + +"Undoubtedly," I replied. "What evening have you fixed upon, Mr. +Bloomfield?" + +"This day week," he answered. "Shall I tell you why I put it off so long?" + +"If you please." + +"I heard your brother, Mr. Armstrong, say that you were very fond of +parables. Now I have always had a leaning that way myself; and for years I +have had one in particular glimmering before my mental sight. The ambition +seized me, to write it out for one of our meetings, and so submit it to +your judgment; for, Mr. Armstrong, I am so delighted with your sermons and +opinions generally, that I long to let you know that I am not only +friendly, but capable of sympathizing with you. But it is only in the +rough yet, and I want to have plenty of time to act the dutiful bear to my +offspring, and lick it into thorough shape. So if you will come this day +week, Mrs. Bloomfield and I will be delighted to entertain you in our +humble fashion. But, bless me! the boys will be all in a heap of confusion +worse confounded before I get back to them. I have no business to be away +from them at this hour. Good morning, gentlemen." + +And off ran the worthy Neptune, to quell, by the vision of his returning +head, the rebellious waves of boyish impulse. + +"That man will be a great comfort to you, Armstrong," I said. + +"I know he will. He is a far-seeing, and what is better, a far-feeling +man." + +"There is true wealth in him, it seems to me, although it may be of narrow +reach in expression," said I. + +"I think so, quite. He seems to me to be one of those who have never grown +robust because they have laboured in-doors instead of going out to work in +the open air. There is a shrinking delicacy about him when with those whom +he doesn't feel to be of his own kind, which makes him show to a +disadvantage. But you should see him amongst his boys to do him justice." + +We were interrupted by the entrance of Mrs. Armstrong, who came, after +their simple fashion, to tell her husband that dinner was ready. I took my +leave. + +In the evening, Mrs. Bloomfield called to invite Adela and the colonel; +and the affair was settled for that day week. + +"You're much better, my dear, are you not?" said the worthy woman to my +niece. + +"Indeed I am, Mrs. Bloomfield. I could not have believed it possible that +I should be so much better in so short a time--and at this season of the +year too." + +"Mr. Armstrong is a very clever young man, I think; though I can't say I +quite relished that extraordinary story of his." + +"I suppose he is clever," replied Adela, something demurely as I thought. +"I must say I liked the story." + +"Ah, well! Young people, you know, Mr. Smith--But, bless me! I'm sure I +beg your pardon. I had forgotten you weren't a married man. Of course +you're one of the young people too, Mr. Smith." + +"I don't think there's much of youth to choose between you and me, Mrs. +Bloomfield," said I, "if I may venture to say so. But I fear I do belong +to the young people, if a liking for extravagant stories, so long as they +mean well, you know--is to be the test of the classification. I fear I +have a depraved taste, that way. I don't mean in this particular instance, +though, Adela." + +"I hope not," answered Adela, with a blushing smile, which I, at least, +could read, having had not merely the key to it, but the open door and +window as well, ever since I had seen the two standing together at the top +of the stair. + +That night the weather broke. A slow thaw set in; and before many days +were over, islands of green began to appear amid the "wan water" of the +snow--to use a phrase common in Scotch ballads, though with a different +application. The graves in the churchyard lifted up their green altars of +earth, as the first whereon to return thanks for the prophecy of spring; +which, surely, if it has force and truth anywhere, speaks loudest to us in +the churchyard. And on Sunday the sun broke out and shone on the green +hillocks, just as good old Mr. Venables was reading the words, "I will not +leave you comfortless--I will come to you." + +And the ice vanished from the river, and the dark stream flowed, somewhat +sullen, but yet glad at heart, on through the low meadows bordered with +pollards, which, poor things, maltreated and mutilated, yet did the best +they could, and went on growing wildly in all insane shapes--pitifully +mingling formality and grotesqueness. + +And the next day the hounds met at Castle Irksham. And that day Colonel +Cathcart would ride with them. + +For the good man had gathered spirit just as the light grew upon his +daughter's face. And he was merry like a boy now that the first breath of +spring--for so it seemed, although no doubt plenty of wintriness remained +and would yet show itself--had loosened the hard hold of the frost, which +is the death of Nature. The frost is hard upon old people; and the spring +is so much the more genial and blessed in its sweet influences on them. Do +we grow old that, in our weakness and loss of physical self-assertion, we +may learn the benignities of the universe--only to be learned first +through the feeling of their want?--I do not envy the man who laughs the +east wind to scorn. He can never know the balmy power of its sister of the +west, which is the breath of the Lord, the symbol of the one _genial_ +strength at the root of all life, resurrection, and growth--commonly +called the Spirit of God.--Who has not seen, as the infirmities of age +grow upon old men, the haughty, self-reliant spirit that had neglected, if +not despised the gentle ministrations of love, grow as it were a little +scared, and begin to look about for some kindness; begin to return the +warm pressure of the hand, and to submit to be waited upon by the anxiety +of love? Not in weakness alone comes the second childhood upon men, but +often in childlikeness; for in old age as in nature, to quote the song of +the curate, + + Old Autumn's fingers + Paint in hues of Spring. + +The necessities of the old man prefigure and forerun the dawn of the +immortal childhood. For is not our necessity towards God our highest +blessedness--the fair cloud that hangs over the summit of existence? Thank +God, he has made his children so noble and high that they cannot do +without Him! I believe we are sent into this world just to find this out. + +But to leave my reflections and return to my story--such as it is. The +colonel mounted me on an old horse of his, "whom," to quote from Sir +Philip Sidney's _Arcadia_, "though he was near twenty years old, he +preferred for a piece of sure service, before a great number of younger." +Now the piece of sure service, in the present instance, was to take care +of old John Smith, who was only a middling horseman, though his friend, +the colonel, would say that he rode pretty well for a lad. The old horse, +in fact, knew not only what he could do, but what I could do, for our +powers were about equal. He looked well about for the gaps and the +narrow places. From weakness in his forelegs, he had become a capital +buck-jumper, as I think Cathcart called him, always alighting over a hedge +on his hind legs, instead of his fore ones, which was as much easier for +John Smith as for Hop o' my Thumb--that was the name of the old horse, he +being sixteen hands, at least. But I beg my reader's pardon for troubling +him with all this about my horse, for, assuredly, neither he nor I will +perform any deed of prowess in his presence. But I have the weakness of +garrulity in regard to a predilection from the indulgence of which +circumstances have debarred me. + +At nine o'clock my friend and I started upon hacks for the meet. Now, I am +not going to describe the "harrow and weal away!" with which the soul of +poor Reynard is hunted out of the world--if, indeed, such a clever wretch +can have a soul. I daresay--I hope, at least, that the argument of the +fox-hunter is analogically just, who, being expostulated with on the +cruelty of fox-hunting, replied--"Well, you know, the hounds like it; and +the horses like it; and there's no doubt the men like it--and who knows +whether the fox doesn't like it too?" But I would not have introduced the +subject except for the sake of what my reader will find in the course of a +page or two, and which assuredly is not fox-hunting. + +We soon found. But just before, a sudden heavy noise, coming apparently +from a considerable distance, made one or two of the company say, with +passing curiosity: "What is that?" It was instantly forgotten, however, as +soon as the fox broke cover. He pointed towards Purley-bridge. We had +followed for some distance, circumstances permitting Hop o' my Thumb to +keep in the wake of his master, when the colonel, drawing rein, allowed +me--I ought to say _us_, for the old horse had quite as much voice in the +matter as I had--to come up with him. + +"The cunning old dog!" said he. "He has run straight for the deepest +cutting in the railway. They'll all be pounded presently! They don't know +this part so well as I do. I know every field and gate in it. I used to go +larking over it all when I was only a cub myself. Confound it! I'm not up +to much to-day. I suppose I'm getting old, you know; or I'd strike off +here at right angles to the left, and make for the bridge at Crumple's +Corner. I should lose the hounds though, I fear. I wonder what his +lordship will do." + +All the time my old friend was talking, we were following the rest of the +field, whom, sure enough, as soon as we got into the next inclosure, we +saw drawing up one after another on the top of the railway cutting, which +ran like the river of death between them and the fox-hunter's paradise. +But at the moment we entered this field, whom should we see approaching us +at right angles, from the direction of Purleybridge, but Harry Armstrong, +mounted on _the_ mare! I rode towards him. + +"Trapped, you see," said I. "Are you after the fox--or some nobler game?" + +"I was going my rounds," answered Harry, "when I caught sight of the +hounds. I have no very pressing case to day, so I turned a few yards out +of the road to see a bit of the sport. Confound these railways!" + +At the moment--and all this passed, as the story-teller is so often +compelled to remind his reader, in far less time than it takes to tell-- +over the hedge on the opposite side from where Harry had entered the +field, blundered a country fellow, on a great, heavy, but spirited horse, +and ploughed his way up the soft furrow to where we stood. + +"Doctor!" he cried, half-breathless with haste and exertion--"Doctor!" + +"Well?" answered Henry, alert. + +"There's a awful accident at Grubblebon Quarry, sir. Powder blowed up. +Legs and arms! Good God! sir, make haste." + +"Well," said Harry, whose compressed lips alone gave sign of his being +ready for action, "ride to the town, and tell my housekeeper to give you +bandages and wadding and oil, and splints, and whatever she knows to be +needful. Are there many hurt?" + +"Half a dozen alive, sir." + +"Then you'd better let the other doctors know as well. And just tell my +man to saddle Jilter and take him to by brother, the curate. He had better +come out at once. Ride now." + +"I _will_, sir," said the man, and was over the hedge in another minute. + +But not before Harry was over the railway. For he rode gently towards it, +as if nothing particular was to be done, and chose as the best spot one +close to where several of the gentlemen stood, disputing for a moment as +to which was the best way to get across. Now on the top of the cutting +there was a rail, and between the rail and the edge of the cutting a space +of about four feet. Harry trotted his mare gently up to the rail, and went +over. Nor was the mutual confidence of mare and master misplaced from +either side. She lighted and stood stock still within a foot of the slope, +so powerful was she to stop herself. An uproar of cries arose among the +men. I heard the old soldier's voice above them all. + +"Damn you, Armstrong, you fool!" he cried; "you'll break your neck, and +serve you right too!" + +I don't know a stronger proof that the classical hell has little hold on +the faith of the Saxons, than that good-hearted and true men will not +unfrequently damn their friends when they are most anxious to save them. +But before the words were half out of the colonel's mouth, Harry was +half-way down the cutting. He had gone straight at it like a cat, and it +was of course the only way. I had galloped to the edge after him, and now +saw him, or rather her, descending by a succession of rebounds--not +bounds--a succession, in fact, of short falls upon the fore-legs, while +Harry's head was nearly touching her rump. Arrived at the bottom, she gave +two bounds across the rails, and the same moment was straining right up +the opposite bank in a fierce agony of effort, Harry hanging upon her +neck. Now the mighty play of her magnificent hind quarters came into +operation. I could see, plainly enough across the gulf, the alternate +knotting and loosening of the thick muscles as, step by step, she tore her +way up the grassy slope. It was a terrible trial of muscle and wind, and +very few horses could have stood it. As she neared the top, her pace grew +slower and slower, and the exertion more and more severe. If she had given +in, she would have rolled to the bottom, but nothing was less in her +thoughts. Her master never spurred or urged her, except it may have been +by whispering in her ear, to which his mouth was near enough: he knew she +needed no excitement to that effort. At length the final heave of her +rump, as it came up to a level with her withers, told the breathless +spectators that the attempt was a success, when a loud "Hurrah for the +doctor and his mare!" burst from their lips. The doctor, however, only +waved his hand in acknowledgment, for he had all to do yet. Fortunately +there was space enough between the edge and the fence on that side to +allow of his giving his mare a quarter of a circle of a gallop before +bringing her up to the rail, else in her fatigue she might have failed to +top it. Over she went and away, with her tail streaming out behind her, as +if she had done nothing worth thinking about, once it was done. One more +cheer for the doctor--but no one dared to follow him. They scattered in +different directions to find a less perilous crossing. I stuck by my +leader. + +"By Jove! Cathcart," said Lord Irksham, as they parted, "that doctor of +yours is a hero. He ought to have been bred a soldier." + +"He's better employed, my lord," bawled the old colonel; for they were now +a good many yards asunder, making for different points in the hedge. From +this answer, I hoped well for the doctor. At all events, the colonel +admired his manliness more than ever, and that was a great thing. For me, +I could hardly keep down the expression of an excitement which I did not +wish to show. It was a great relief to me when the _hurrah!_ arose, and I +could let myself off in that way. I told you, kind reader, I was only an +old boy. But, as the Arabs always give God thanks when they see a +beautiful woman, and quite right too! so, in my heart, I praised God who +had made a mare with such muscles, and a man with such a heart. And I said +to myself, "A fine muscle is a fine thing; but the finest muscle of all, +keeping the others going too, is the heart itself. That is the true +Christian muscle. And the real muscular Christianity is that which pours +in a life-giving torrent from the devotion of the heart, receiving only +that it may give." + +But I fancy I hear my reader saying, + +"Mr. Smith, you've forgotten the fox. What a sportsman you make!" + +Well, I had forgotten the fox. But then we didn't kill him or find another +that day. So you won't care for the rest of the run. + +I was tired enough by the time we got back to Purleybridge. I went early +to bed. + +The next morning, the colonel, the moment we met at the breakfast table, +said to me, + +"You did not hear, Smith, what that young rascal of a doctor said to Lord +Irksham last night?" + +"No, what was it?" + +"It seems they met again towards evening, and his lordship said to him: +'You hare-brained young devil!'--you know his lordship's rough way," +interposed the colonel, forgetting how roundly he had sworn at Harry +himself, "'by the time you're my age, you'll be more careful of the few +brains you'll have left.' To which expostulated Master Harry replied: 'If +your lordship had been my age, and would have done it yourself to kill a +fox: when I am your lordship's age, I hope I shall have the grace left to +do as much to save a man.' Whereupon his lordship rejoined, holding out +his hand, 'By Jove! sir, you are an honour to your profession. Come and +dine with me on Monday.' And what do you think the idiot did?--Backed out +of it, and wouldn't go, because he thought his lordship condescending, and +he didn't want his patronage. But his lordship's not a bit like that, you +know." + +"Then if he isn't, he'll like Harry all the better for declining, and will +probably send him a proper invitation." + +And sure enough, I was right; and Harry did dine at Castle Irksham on +Monday. + +Adela's eyes showed clearly enough that her ears were devouring every word +we had said; and the glow on her face could not be mistaken by me at +least, though to another it might well appear only the sign of such an +enthusiasm as one would like every girl to feel in the presence of noble +conduct of any kind. She had heard the whole story last night you may be +sure; and I do not doubt that the unrestrained admiration shown by her +father for the doctor's conduct, was a light in her heart which sleep +itself could not extinguish, and which went shining on in her dreams. +Admiration of the beloved is dear to a woman. You see I like to show that +although I _am_ an old bachelor, I know something about _them_. + +I met Harry that morning; that is, I contrived to meet him. + +"Well, how are you to-day, Harry?" I said. + +"All right, thank you." + +"Were there many hurt at the quarry?" + +"Oh! it wasn't so very bad, I'm happy to say." + +"You did splendidly yesterday." + +"Oh, nonsense! It was my mare. It wasn't me. I had nothing to do with it." + +"Well! well! you have my full permission to say so, and to think so, too." + +"Well! well! say no more about it." + +So it was long before the subject was again alluded to by me. But it will +be long, too, before it is forgotten in that county. + +And so the evening came when we were to meet--for the last time as the +Story-telling club--at the schoolmaster's house. It was now past the time +I had set myself for returning to London, and although my plans were never +of a very unalterable complexion, seeing I had the faculty of being able +to write wherever I was, and never admitted chairs and tables, and certain +rows of bookshelves, to form part of my mental organism, without which the +rest of the mechanism would be thrown out of gear, I had yet reasons for +wishing to be in London; and I intended to take my departure on the day +but one after the final meeting.--I may just remark, that before this time +one or two families had returned to Purleybridge, and others were free +from their Christmas engagements, who would have been much pleased to join +our club; but, considering its ephemeral nature, and seeing it had been +formed only for what we hoped was a passing necessity, we felt that the +introduction of new blood, although essential for the long life of +anything constituted for long life, would only hasten the decay of its +butterfly constitution. So we had kept our meetings entirely to ourselves. + +We all arrived about the same time, and found our host and hostess full of +quiet cordiality, to which their homeliness lent an additional charm. The +relation of host and guest is weakened by every addition to a company, and +in a large assembly all but disappears. Indeed, the tendency of the +present age is to blot from the story of every-day life all reminders of +the ordinary human relations, as commonplace and insignificant, and to +mingle all society in one concourse of atoms, in which the only +distinctions shall be those of _rank_; whereas the sole power to keep +social intercourse from growing stale is the recognition of the immortal +and true in all the simple human relations. Then we look upon all men with +reverence, and find ourselves safe and at home in the midst of divine +intents, which may be violated and striven with, but can never be escaped, +because the will of God is the very life and well-being of his creatures. + +Mrs. Bloomfield looked very nice in her black silk dress, and collar and +cuffs of old lace, as she presided at the tea-table, and made us all feel +that it was a pleasure to her to serve us. + +After repeated apologies, and confessions of failure, our host then read +the following _parable_, as he called it, though I daresay it would be +more correct to call it an _allegory_. But as that word has so many +wearisome associations, I, too, intend, whether right or wrong, to call it +a parable. So, then, it shall be: + +"THE CASTLE: A PARABLE. + +"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 night-sky. 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 recognized 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 unsympathizing +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." + + * * * * * + +"Thank you, heartily," said the curate. "I will choose another time to +tell you how much I have enjoyed your parable, which is altogether to my +mind, and far beyond anything I could do." + +Mr. Bloomfield returned no answer, but his countenance showed that he was +far from hearing this praise unmoved. The faces of the rest showed that +they too had listened with pleasure; and Adela's face shone as if she had +received more than delight--hope, namely, and onward impulse. The colonel +alone--I forgot to say that Mrs. Cathcart had a headache, and did not +come--seemed to have been left behind. + +"I am a stupid old fellow, I believe," said he; "but to tell the truth, I +did not know what to make of it. It seemed all the time to be telling me +in one breath something I knew and something I didn't and couldn't know. I +wish I could express what I mean, but it puzzled me too much for that; +although every now and then it sounded very beautiful indeed." + +"I will try and tell you what it said to me, sometime, papa," said Adela. + +"Thank you, my child; I should much like to understand it. I believe I +have done my duty by my king and country, but a man has to learn a good +deal after all that is over and done with; and I suppose it is never too +late to begin, Mr. Armstrong?" + +"On the contrary, I not merely believe that no future time can be so good +as the present, but I am inclined to assert that no past time could have +been so good as the present. This seems to be a paradox, but I think I +could explain it very easily. I find, however, that the ladies are looking +as if they wanted to go home, and I am quite ready, Mrs. Armstrong. But +while the ladies put their bonnets on, just let Smith see your schoolroom, +Mr. Bloomfield. As an inhabitant of Purleybridge, I already begin to be +proud of it." + +The ladies did go to put on their bonnets. I followed Mr. Bloomfield and +the colonel into the schoolroom, and the curate followed me. But after we +had looked about us and remarked on the things about for five minutes, +finding I had left my handkerchief in the drawing-room, I went back to +fetch it. The door was open, and I saw Adela--no bonnet on her head yet-- +standing face to face with Harry. They were alone. I hesitated for a +moment what I should do, and while I hesitated, I could not help seeing +the arm of the doctor curved and half-outstretched, as if it would gladly +have folded about her, and his face droop and droop, till it could not +have been more than half a foot from hers. Now, as far as my seeing this +was concerned, there was no harm done. But behind me came the curate and +the schoolmaster, and they had eyes in their heads, at least equal to +mine. Well, no great harm yet. And just far enough down the stair to see +into the drawing-room, appeared their wives, who could not fail to see the +unconscious pair, at least as well as we men below. Still there was no +great harm done, for Mrs. Cathcart was at home, as I have said. But, +_horresco referens!_ excuse the recondite quotation--at the same moment +the form of the colonel appeared, looking over the heads of all before him +right in at the drawing-room door, and full at the young sinners, who had +heard no sound along the matted passage. + +"Here's a go!" said I to myself--not aloud, observe, for it was slang. + +For just think of a man like Harry caught thus in a perfect trap of +converging looks. + +As if from a sudden feeling of hostile presence, he glanced round--and +stood erect. The poor fellow's face at once flushed as red as shame could +make it, but he neither lost his self-possession, nor sought to escape +under cover of a useless pretence. He turned to the colonel. + +"Colonel Cathcart," he said, "I will choose a more suitable time to make +my apology. I wish you good night." + +He bowed to us all, not choosing to risk a refusal of his hand by the +colonel, and went quickly out of the house. + +The colonel stood for some moments, which felt to me like minutes, as if +he had just mounted guard at the drawing-room door. His face was perfectly +expressionless. We men felt very much like stale oysters, and would rather +have skipped that same portion of our inevitable existence. What the +ladies felt, I do not pretend, being an old bachelor, to divine. + +Adela, pale as death, fled up the stair. The only thing left for the rest +of us was, to act as much as possible as if nothing were the matter, and +get out of the way before the poor girl came down again. As soon as I got +home, I went to my own room, and thus avoided the _tete-a-tete_ with my +host which generally closed our evenings. + +The colonel went up to his daughter's room, and remained there for nearly +an hour. Adela was not at the breakfast-table the next morning. Her father +looked very gloomy, and Mrs. Cathcart grimly satisfied, with _I told you +so_ written on her face as plainly as I have now written it on the paper. +How she came to know anything about it, I can only conjecture. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +WHAT NEXT? + + +Harry called early, and was informed that the colonel was not at home. + +"Something's the matter, Mr. Armstrong," said Beeves. "Master's not at +home to you to-day, he says, nor any other day till he countermands the +order--that was the word, sir. I'm sure I am very sorry, sir." + +"So am I," said Harry. "How's your mistress?" + +"Haven't seen her to-day, sir. Emma says she's poorly. But she is down. +Emma looks as if she knew something and wouldn't tell it. I'll get it out +of her though, sir. We'll be having that old Wade coming about the house +again, I'm afeard, sir. _He's_ no good." + +"At all events you will let your master know that I have called," said +Harry, as he turned disconsolately, to take his departure. + +"That I will, sir. And I'll be sure he hears me. He's rather deaf, +sometimes, you know, sir." + +"Thank you, Beeves. Good morning." + +Now what could have been Harry's intention in calling upon the colonel? +Why, as he had said himself, to make an apology. But what kind of apology +could he make? Clearly there was only one that would satisfy all parties-- +and that must be in the form of a request to be allowed to pay his +addresses--(that used to be the phrase in my time--I don't know the young +ladies' slang for it now-a-days)--to Adela. Did I say--_satisfy all +parties_? This was just the one form affairs might take, which would least +of all satisfy the colonel. I believe, with all his rigid proprieties, he +would have preferred the confession that the doctor had so far forgotten +himself as to attempt to snatch a kiss--a theft of which I cannot imagine +a gentleman guilty, least of all a doctor from his patient; which relation +no doubt the colonel persisted in regarding as the sole possible and +everlastingly permanent one between Adela and Harry. The former was, +however, the only apology Harry could make; and evidently the colonel +expected it when he refused to see him. + +But why should he refuse to see him?--The doctor was not on an equality +with the colonel. Well, to borrow a form from the Shorter Catechism: +wherein consisted the difference between the colonel and the doctor?--The +difference between the colonel and the doctor consisted chiefly in this, +that whereas the colonel lived by the wits of his ancestors, Harry lived +by his own, and therefore was not so respectable as the colonel. Or in +other words: the colonel inherited a good estate, with the ordinary +quantity of brains; while Harry inherited a good education and an +extraordinary quantity of brains. So of course it was very presumptuous in +Harry to aspire to the hand of Miss Cathcart. + +In the forenoon the curate called upon me, and was shown into the library +where I was. + +"What's that scapegrace brother of mine been doing, Smith?" he asked, the +moment he entered. + +"Wanting to marry Adela," I replied. + +"What has he done?" + +"Called this morning." + +"And seen Colonel Cathcart?" + +"No." + +"Not at home?" + +"In a social sense, not at home; in a moral sense, very far from at home; +in a natural sense, seated in his own arm-chair, with his own work on the +Peninsular War open on the table before him." + +"Wouldn't see him?" + +"No." + +"What's he to do then?" + +"I think we had better leave that to him. Harry is not the man I take him +for if he doesn't know his own way better than you or I can tell him." + +"You're right, Smith. How's Miss Cathcart?" + +"I have never seen her so well. Certainly she did not come down to +breakfast, but I believe that was merely from shyness. She appeared in the +dining-room directly after, and although it was evident she had been +crying, her step was as light and her colour as fresh as her lover even +could wish to see them." + +"Then she is not without hope in the matter?" + +"If she loves him, and I think she does, she is not without hope. But I do +not think the fact of her looking well would be sufficient to prove that. +For some mental troubles will favour the return of bodily health. They +will at least give one an interest in life." + +"Then you think her father has given in a little about it?" + +"I don't believe it.--If her illness and she were both of an ordinary +kind, she would gain her point now by taking to her bed. But from what I +know of Adela she would scorn and resist that." + +"Well, we must let matters take their course. Harry is worthy of the best +wife in Christendom." + +"I believe it. And more, if Adela will make that best wife, I think he +will have the best wife. But we must have patience." + +Next morning, a letter arrived from Harry to the colonel. I have seen it, +and it was to this effect: + +"My dear Sir,--As you will not see me, I am forced to write to you. Let my +earnest entreaty to be allowed to address your daughter, cover, if it +cannot make up for, my inadvertence of the other evening. I am very sorry +I have offended you. If you will receive me, I trust you will not find it +hard to forget. Yours, &c." + +To this the colonel replied: + +"Sir,--It is at least useless, if not worse, to apply for an _ex post +facto_ permission. What I might have answered, had the courtesies of +society been observed, it may be easy for me to determine, but it is +useless now to repeat. Allow me to say that I consider such behaviour of a +medical practitioner towards a young lady, his patient, altogether +unworthy of a gentleman, as every member of a learned profession is +supposed to be. I have the honour, &c." + +I returned the curate's call, and while we were sitting in his study, in +walked Harry with a rather rueful countenance. + +"What do you say to that, Ralph?" said he, handing his brother the letter. + +"Cool," replied Ralph. "But Harry, my boy, you have given him quite the +upper hand of you. How could you be so foolish as kiss the girl there and +then?" + +"I didn't," said Harry. + +"But you did just as bad. You were going to do it." + +"I don't think I was. But somehow those great eyes of hers kept pulling +and pulling my head, so that I don't know what I was going to do. I +remember nothing but her eyes. Suddenly a scared look in them startled me, +and I saw it all. Mr. Smith, was it so very dishonourable of me?" + +"You are the best judge of that yourself, Harry," I answered. "Just let me +look at the note." + +I read it, folded it up carefully, and returning it, said: + +"He's given you a good hold of him there. It is really too bad of +Cathcart, being a downright good fellow, to forget that he ran away with +Miss Selby, old Sir George, the baronet's daughter. Neither of them ever +repented it; though he was only Captain Cathcart then, in a regiment of +foot, too, and was not even next heir to the property he has now." + +"Hurrah!" cried Harry. + +"Stop, stop. That doesn't make it a bit better," said his brother. "I +suppose you mean to argue with him on that ground, do you?" + +"No, I don't. I'm not such a fool. But if I _should_ be forced to run away +with her, _he_ can't complain, you know." + +"No, no, Harry, my boy," said I. "That won't do. It would break the old +man's heart. You must have patience for a while." + +"Yes, yes. I know what I mean to do." + +"What?" + +"When I've made up my mind, I never ask advice. It only bewilders a +fellow." + +"Quite right, Hal," said his brother. "Only don't do anything foolish." + +"I won't do anything she doesn't like." + +"No, nor anything you won't like yourself afterwards," I ventured to say. + +"I hope not," returned he, gravely, as he walked out, too much absorbed to +bid either of us _good morning_. + +It was now more than time that I should return to town; but I could not +leave affairs in this unsatisfactory state. I therefore lingered on to see +what would come next. + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +GENERALSHIP. + + +The next day Harry called again. + +"Master 'aint countermanded the order, Doctor. He 'aint at home--not a bit +of it. He 'aint been out of the house since that night." + +"Well, is Miss Cathcart at home?" + +"She's said nothing to the contrairy, sir. I believe she _is_ at home. I +know she's out in the garding--on the terridge." + +And old Beeves held the door wide open, as if to say--"Don't stop to ask +any questions, but step into the garden." Which Harry did. + +There was a high gravel terrace along one end of it, always dry and sunny +when there was any sun going; and there she was, over-looked by the +windows of her papa's room. + +Now I do not know anything that passed upon that terrace. How should I +know? Neither of them was likely to tell old Smith. And I wonder at the +clumsiness of novelists in pretending to reveal all that _he_ said, and +all that _she_ answered. But if I were such a clumsy novelist, I should +like to invent it all, and see if I couldn't make you believe every word +of it. + +This is what I would invent. + +The moment Adela caught sight of Harry, she cast one frightened glance up +to her father's windows, and stood waiting. He lifted his hat; and held +out his hand. She took it. Neither spoke. They turned together and walked +along the terrace. + +"I am very sorry," said Harry at last. + +"Are you? What for?" + +"Because I got you into a scrape." + +"Oh! I don't care." + +"Don't you?" + +"No; not a bit." + +"I didn't mean it." + +"What didn't you mean?" + +"It did look like it, I know." + +"Look like what?" + +"Adela, you'll drive me crazy. It was all your fault." + +"So I told papa, and he was angrier than ever." + +"You angel! It wasn't your fault. It was your eyes. I couldn't help it. +Adela, I love you dreadfully." + +"I'm _so_ glad." + +She gave a sigh as of relief. + +"Why?" + +"Because I wished you would. But I don't deserve it. A great clever man +like you love a useless girl like me! I _am_ so glad!" + +"But your papa?" + +"I'm so happy, I can't think about him steadily just yet." + +"Adela, I love you--so dearly! Only I am too old for you." + +"Old! how old are you?" + +"Nearly thirty." + +"And I'm only one-and-twenty. You're worth one and a half of me--yes +twenty of me." + +And so their lips played with the ripples of love, while their hearts were +heaving with the ground swell of its tempest. + +Now what I do know about is this: + +The colonel came down-stairs in his dressing-gown and slippers, and found +Beeves flattening his nose against the glass of the garden-door. + +"Beeves!" said the colonel. + +"Sir!" said Beeves, darting around and confronting his master with a face +purple and pale from the sense of utter unpreparedness. + +"Beeves, where is your mistress?" + +"My mistress, sir? I beg your pardon, sir, I'm sure, sir! How should I +know, sir? I 'aint let her out. Shall I run up-stairs and see if she is in +her room?" + +"Open the door." + +Beeves laid violent hold upon the handle of the door, and pulled and +twisted, but always took care to pull before he twisted. + +"I declare if that stupid Ann 'aint been and locked it. It aint nice in +the garden to-day, sir--leastways without goloshes," added he, looking +down at his master's slippers. + +Now the colonel understood Beeves, and Beeves knew that he understood him. +But Beeves knew likewise that the colonel would not give in to the +possibility of his servant's taking such liberties with him. + +"Never mind," said the colonel; "I will go the other way." + +The moment he was out of sight, Beeves opened the garden-door, and began +gesticulating like a madman, fully persuaded that the doctor would make +his escape. But so far from being prepared to run away, Harry had come +there with the express intention of forcing a conference. So that when the +colonel made his appearance on the terrace, the culprits walked slowly +towards him. He went to meet them with long military strides, and was the +first to speak. + +"Mr. Armstrong, to what am I to attribute this intrusion?" + +"Chiefly to the desire of seeing you, Colonel Cathcart." + +"And I find you with my daughter!--Adela, go in-doors," + +Adela withdrew at once. + +"You denied yourself, and I inquired for Miss Cathcart." + +"You will oblige me by not calling again." + +"Surely I have committed no fault beyond forgiveness." + +"You have taken advantage of your admission into my family to entrap the +affections of my daughter." + +"Colonel Cathcart, as far as my conscience tells me, I have not behaved +unworthily." + +"Sir, is it not unworthy of a gentleman to use such professional +advantages to gain the favour of one who--you will excuse me for reminding +you of what you will not allow me to forget--is as much above him in +social position, as inferior to him in years and experience." + +"Is it always unworthy in a gentleman to aspire to a lady above him in +social position, Colonel Cathcart?" + +The honesty of the colonel checked all reply to this home-thrust. + +Harry resumed: + +"At least I am able to maintain my wife in what may be considered +comfort." + +"Your wife!" exclaimed the colonel, his anger blazing out at the word. "If +you use that expression with any prospective reference to Miss Cathcart, I +am master enough in my own family to insure you full possession of the +presumption. I wish you good morning." + +The angry man of war turned on his slippered heel, and was striding away. + +"One word, I beg," said Harry. + +The colonel had too much courtesy in his nature not to stop and turn half +towards the speaker. + +"I beg to assure you," said Harry, "that I shall continue to cherish the +hope that after-thoughts will present my conduct, as well as myself, in a +more favourable light to Colonel Cathcart." + +And he lifted his hat, and walked away by the gate. + +"By Jove!" said the colonel, to himself, notwithstanding the rage he was +in, "the fellow can express himself like a gentleman, anyhow." + +And so he went back to his room, where I heard him pacing about for hours. +I believe he found that his better self was not to be so easily put down +as he had supposed; and that that better self sided with Adela and Harry. + + + +CHAPTER X. + +AN UNFORESEEN FORESIGHT. + + +What else is a Providence? + +Harry went about his work as usual, only with a graver face. + +Adela looked very sad, but without any of her old helpless and hopeless +air. Her health was quite established; and she now returned all the +attention her father had paid to her.--Fortunately Mrs. Cathcart had gone +home. + +"Cunning puss!" some of my readers may say; "she was trying to coax the +old man out of his resolution." But such a notion would be quite unjust to +my niece. She was more in danger of going to the other extreme, to avoid +hypocrisy. But she had the divine gift of knowing what any one she loved +was feeling and thinking; and she knew that her father was suffering, and +all about it. The old man's pace grew heavier; the lines about his mouth +grew deeper; he sat at table without speaking; he ate very little, and +drank more wine. Adela's eyes followed his every action. I could see that +sometimes she was ready to rise and throw her arms about him. Often I saw +in her lovely eyes that peculiar clearness of the atmosphere which +indicates the nearness of rain. And once or twice she rose and left the +room, as if to save her from an otherwise unavoidable exposure of her +feelings. + +The gloom fell upon the servants too. Beeves waited in a leaden-handed +way, that showed he was determined to do his duty, although it should +bring small pleasure with it. He took every opportunity of unburdening his +bosom to me. + +"It's just like when mis'ess died," said he. "The very cocks walk about +the yard as if they had hearse-plumes in their tails. Everybody looks +ready to hang hisself, except you, Mr. Smith. And that's a comfort." + +The fact was, that I had very little doubt as to how it would all end. But +I would not interfere; for I saw that it would be much better for the +colonel's heart and conscience to right themselves, than that he should be +persuaded to anything, it was very hard for him. He had led his regiment +to victory and glory; he had charged and captured many a gun; he had +driven the enemy out of many a boldly defended entrenchment; and was it +not hard that he could not drive the _eidolon_ of a country surgeon out of +the bosom of his little girl? (It was hard that he could not; but it would +have been a deal harder if he could). He had nursed and loved, and petted +and spoiled her. And she _would_ care for a man whom he disliked! + +But here the old man was mistaken. He did not dislike Harry Armstrong. +He admired and honoured him. He almost loved him for his gallant devotion +to his duty. He would have been proud of him for a son--but not for a +son-in-law. He would not have minded adopting him, or doing anything _but_ +giving him Adela. There was a great deal of pride left in the old soldier, +and that must be taken out of him. We shall all have to thank God for the +whip of scorpions which, if needful, will do its part to drive us into the +kingdom of heaven. + +"How happy the dear old man will be," I said to myself, "when he just +yields this last castle of selfishness, and walks unhoused into the new +childhood, of which God takes care!" + +And this end came sooner than I had looked for it. + +I had made up my mind that it would be better for me to go. + +When I told Adela that I must go, she gave me a look in which lay the +whole story in light and in tears. I answered with a pressure of her hand +and an old uncle's kiss. But no word was spoken on the subject. + +I had a final cigar with the curate, and another with the schoolmaster; +bade them and their wives good-bye; told them all would come right if we +only had patience, and then went to Harry. But he was in the country, and +I thought I should not see him again. + +With the assistance of good Beeves, I got my portmanteau packed that +night. I was going to start about ten o'clock next morning. It was long +before I got to sleep, and I heard the step of the colonel, whose room was +below mine on the drawing-room floor, going up and down, up and down, all +the time, till slumber came at last, and muffled me up.--We met at +breakfast, a party lugubrious enough. Beeves waited like a mute; the +colonel ate his breakfast like an offended parent; Adela trifled with hers +like one who had other things to think about; and I ate mine like a +parting guest who was being anything but sped. When the postbag was +brought in, the colonel unlocked it mechanically; distributed the letters; +opened one with indifference, read a few lines, and with a groan fell back +in his chair. We started up, and laid him on the sofa. With the privilege +of an old friend, I glanced at the letter, and found that a certain +speculation in which the colonel had ventured largely, had utterly failed. +I told Adela enough to satisfy her as to the nature of the misfortune. We +feared apoplexy, but before we could send for any medical man, he opened +his eyes, and called Adela. He clasped her to his bosom, and then tried to +rise; but fell back helpless. + +"Shall we send for Dr. Wade?" said Adela, trembling and pale as death. + +"Dr. Wade!" faltered the old man, with a perceptible accent of scorn. + +"Which shall we send for?" I said. + +"How can you ask?" he answered, feebly. "Harry Armstrong, of course." + +The blood rushed into Adela's white face, and Beeves rushed out of the +room. In a quarter of an hour, Harry was with us. Adela had retired. He +made a few inquiries, administered some medicine he had brought with him, +and, giving orders that he should not be disturbed for a couple of hours, +left him with the injunction to keep perfectly quiet. + +"Take my traps up to my room again, Beeves: and tell the coach-man he +won't be wanted this morning." + +"Thank you, sir," said Beeves. "I don't know what we should do without +you, sir." + +When Harry returned, we carried the colonel up to his own room, and Beeves +got him to bed. I said something about a nurse, but Harry said there was +no one so fit to nurse him as Adela. The poor man had never been ill +before; and I daresay he would have been very rebellious, had he not had a +great trouble at his heart to quiet him. He was as submissive as could be +desired. + +I felt sure he would be better as soon as he had told Adela. I gave Harry +a hint of the matter, and he looked very much as if he would shout "Oh, +jolly!" but he did not. + +Towards the evening, the colonel called his daughter to his bedside, and +said, + +"Addie, darling, I have hurt you dreadfully." + +"Oh, no! dear papa; you have not. And it is so easy to put it all right, +you know," she added, turning her head away a little. + +"No, my child," he said in a tone full of self-reproach, "nobody can put +it right. I have made us both beggars, Addie, my love." + +"Well, dearest papa, you can bear a little poverty surely?" + +"It's not of myself I am thinking, my darling. Don't do me that injustice, +or I shall behave like a fool. It's only you I am thinking of." + +"Oh, is that all, papa? Do you know that, if it were not for your sake, I +could sing a song about it!" + +"Ah! you don't know what you make so light of. Poverty is not so easy to +endure." + +"Papa," said Adela, solemnly, "if you knew how awful things looked to me +a little while ago--but it's all gone now!--the whole earth black and +frozen to the heart, with no God in it, and nothing worth living for--you +would not wonder that I take the prospect of poverty with absolute +indifference--yes, if you will believe me, with something of a strange +excitement. There will be something to battle with and beat." + +And she stretched out a strong, beautiful white arm--from which the loose +open sleeve fell back, as if with that weapon of might she would strike +poverty to the earth; but it was only to adjust the pillow, which had +slipped sideways from the loved head. + +"But Mr. Armstrong will not want to marry you now, Addie." + +"Oh, won't he?" thought Adela; or at least I think she thought so. But she +said, rather demurely, and very shyly: + +"But that won't be any worse than it was before; for you know you would +never have let me marry him anyhow." + +"Oh! yes, I would, in time, Adela. I am not such a brute as you take me +for." + +"Oh! you dear darling papa!" cried the poor child, and burst into tears, +with her head on her father's bosom. And he began comforting her so +sweetly, that you would have thought she had lost everything, and he was +going to give her all back again. + +"Papa! papa!" she cried, "I will work for you; I will be your servant; I +will love you and love you to all eternity. I won't leave you. I won't +indeed. What _does_ it matter for the money!" + +At this moment the doctor entered. + +"Ah!" he said, "this won't do at all. I thought you would have made a +better nurse, Miss Adela. There you are, both crying together!" + +"Indeed, Mr. Henry," said Adela, rather comically, "it's not my fault. He +would cry." + +And as she spoke she wiped away her own tears. + +"But he's looking much better, after all," said Harry. "Allow me to feel +your pulse." + +The patient was pronounced much better; fresh orders were given; and Harry +took his leave. + +But Adela felt vexed. She did not consider that he knew nothing of what +had passed between her father and her. To the warm fire-side of her +knowledge, he came in wintry and cold. Of course it would never do for the +doctor to aggravate his patient's symptoms by making love to his daughter; +but ought he not to have seen that it was all right between them now?--How +often we feel and act as if our mood were the atmosphere of the world! It +may be a cold frost within us, when our friend is in the glow of a summer +sunset: and we call him unsympathetic and unfeeling. If we let him know +the state of our world, we should see the rosehues fade from his, and our +friend put off his singing robes, and sit down with us in sackcloth and +ashes, to share our temptation and grief. + +"You see I cannot offer you to him now, Adela," said her father. + +"No, papa." + +But I knew that all had come right, although I saw from Adela's manner +that she was not happy about it. + +So things went on for a week, during which the colonel was slowly mending. +I used to read him to sleep. Adela would sit by the fire, or by the +bedside, and go and come while I was reading. + +One afternoon, in the twilight, Harry entered. We greeted; and then, +turning to the bed, I discovered that my friend was asleep. We drew +towards the fire, and sat down. Adela had gone out of the room a few +minutes before. + +"He is such a manageable patient!" I said. + +"Noble old fellow!" returned the doctor. "I wish he would like me, and +then all would be well." + +"He doesn't dislike you personally," I said. + +"I hope not. I can understand his displeasure perfectly, and repugnance +too. But I assure you, Mr. Smith, I did not lay myself out to gain her +affections. I was caught myself before I knew. And I believe she liked me +too before she knew." + +"I fear their means will be very limited after this." + +"For his sake I am very sorry to hear it; but for my own, I cannot help +thinking it the luckiest thing that could have happened." + +"I am not so sure of that. It might increase the difficulty." + +At this moment I thought I heard the handle of the door move, but there +was a screen between us and it. I went on. + +"That is, if you still want to marry her, you know." + +"Marry her!" he said. "If she were a beggar-maid, I would be proud as King +Cophetua to marry her to-morrow." + +There was a rustle in the twilight, and a motion of its gloom. With a +quick gliding, Adela drew near, knelt beside Harry, and hid her eyes on +his knee. I thought it better to go. + +Was this unmaidenly of her? + +I say "No, for she knew that he loved her." + +As I left the room, I heard the colonel call-- + +"Adela." + +And when I returned, I found them both standing by the bedside, and the +old man holding a hand of each. + +"Now, John Smith," I said to myself, "you may go when you please." + +Before we, that is, I and my reader, part, however, my reader may be +inclined to address me thus: + +"Pray, Mr. Smith, do you think it was your wonderful prescription of +story-telling, that wrought Miss Cathcart's cure?" + +"How can I tell?" I answer. "Probably it had its share. But there were +other things to take into the account. If you went on to ask me whether it +was not Harry's prescriptions; or whether it was not the curate's sermons; +or whether it was not her falling in love with the doctor; or whether even +her father's illness and the loss of their property had not something to +do with it; or whether it was not the doctor's falling in love with her; +or that the cold weather suited her; I should reply in the same way to +every one of the interrogatories." + +But I retort another question: + +"Did you ever know anything whatever resulting from the operation of one +separable cause?" + +In regard to any good attempt I have ever made in my life, I am content to +know that the end has been gained. Whether _I_ have succeeded or not is of +no consequence, if I have tried well.--In the present case, Adela +recovered; and my own conviction is, that the cure was effected mainly +from within. Except in physics, we can put nothing to the _experimentum +crucis_, and must be content with conjecture and probability. + +The night before I left, I had a strange dream. I stood in a lonely +cemetery in a pine-forest. Dark trees that never shed their foliage rose +all around--strange trees that mourn for ever, because they never die. The +dream light that has no visible source, because it is in the soul that +dreams, showed all in a dim blue-grey dawn, that never grew clearer. The +night wind was the only power abroad save myself. It went with slow +intermitting, sigh-like gusts, through the tops of the dreaming trees; for +the trees seemed, in the midst of my dream, to have dreams of their own. + +Now this burial-place was mine. I had tended it for years. In it lay all +the men and women whom I had honoured and loved. + +And I was a great sculptor. And over every grave I had placed a marble +altar, and upon every altar the marble bust of the man or woman who lay +beneath; each in the supreme beauty which all the defects of birth and of +time and of incompleteness, could not hide from the eye of the prophetic +sculptor. Each was like a half-risen glorified form of the being who had +there descended into the realms of Hades. And through these glimmering +rows of the dead I walked in the dream-light; and from one to another I +went in the glory of having known and loved them; now weeping sad tears +over the loss of the beautiful; now rejoicing in the strength of the +mighty; now exulting in the love and truth which would yet dawn upon me +when I too should go down beneath the visible, and emerge in the realms of +the actual and the unseen? All the time I was sensible of a wondrous +elevation of being, a glory of life and feeling hitherto unknown to me. + +I had entered the secret places of my own hidden world by the gate of +sleep, and walked about them in my dream. + +Gradually I became aware that a foreign sound was mingling with the +sighing of the tree-tops overhead. It grew and grew, till I recognized the +sound of wheels--not of heavenly chariots, but of earthly motion and +business. I heard them stop at the lofty gates of my holy place, and by +twoes and threes, or in solitary singleness, came people into my garden of +the dead. And who should they be but the buried ones?--all those whose +marble busts stood in ghostly silence, within the shadows of the +everlasting pines? And they talked and laughed and jested. And my +city of the dead melted away. And lo! we stood in the midst of a great +market-place; and I knew it to be the market-place in which the children +had sat who said to the other children: + +"We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, +and ye have not lamented." + +And to my misery, I saw that the faces of my fathers and brothers, my +mothers and sisters, had not grown nobler in the country of the dead, in +which I had thought them safe and shining. Cares, as of this world, had so +settled upon them, that I could hardly recognize the old likeness; and the +dim forms of the ideal glory which I had reproduced in my marble busts, +had vanished altogether. Ah me! my world of the dead! my city of +treasures, hid away under the locks and bars of the unchangeable! Was +there then no world of realities?--only a Vanity Fair after all? The +glorious women went sweeping about, smiling and talking, and buying and +adorning, but they were glorious no longer; for they had common thoughts, +and common beauties, and common language and aims and hopes; and +everything was common about them. And ever and anon, with a kind of +shiver, as if to keep alive my misery by the sight of my own dreams, the +marble busts would glimmer out, faintly visible amidst the fair, as if +about to reappear, and, dispossessing the vacuity of folly, assert the +noble and the true, and give me back my dead to love and worship once +more, in the loneliness of the pine-forest. Side by side with a greedy +human face, would shimmer out for a moment the ghostly marble face; and +the contrast all but drove me mad with perplexity and misery. + +"Alas!" I cried, "where is my future? Where is my beautiful death?" + +All at once I saw the face of a man who went round and round the skirts of +the market, and looked earnestly in amongst the busy idlers. He was head +and shoulders taller than any there; and his face was a pale face, with an +infinite future in it, visible in all its grief. I made my way through the +crowd, which regarded me with a look which I could not understand, and +came to the stranger. I threw myself at his feet and sobbed: "I have lost +them all. I will follow thee." He took me by the hand, and led me back. We +walked up and down the fair together. And as we walked, the tumult +lessened, and lessened. They made a path for us to go, and all eyes were +turned upon my guide. The tumult sank, and all was still. Men and women +stood in silent rows. My guide looked upon them all, on the right and on +the left. And they all looked on him till their eyes filled with tears. +And the old faces of my friends grew slowly out of the worldly faces, +until at length they were such as I had known of yore. + +Suddenly they all fell upon their knees, and their faces changed into the +likeness of my marble faces. Then my guide waved his hand--and lo! we were +in the midst of my garden of the dead; and the wind was like the sound of +a going in the tops of the pine trees; and my white marbles glimmered +glorified on the altars of the tombs. And the dream vanished, and I came +awake. + +And I will not say here whose face the face of my guide was like. + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Adela Cathcart, Vol. 3, by George MacDonald + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADELA CATHCART, VOL. 3 *** + +This file should be named 7aca310.txt or 7aca310.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7aca311.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7aca310a.txt + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charles Bidwell and Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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