diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:16:07 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:16:07 -0700 |
| commit | 3e9f296dcd3b2314f1115229368502b504a5d5ae (patch) | |
| tree | 2096bfb29b8f20bf32fb285e49101d3e75bf0012 /old | |
Diffstat (limited to 'old')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/rddsk10.txt | 803 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/rddsk10.zip | bin | 0 -> 15474 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/rddsk10h.htm | 911 |
3 files changed, 1714 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/rddsk10.txt b/old/rddsk10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d83bd3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/rddsk10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,803 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext of To Be Read At Dusk by Charles Dickens +#28 in our series by Charles Dickens + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +To be Read at Dusk + +by Charles Dickens + +May, 1997 [Etext #924] + + +Project Gutenberg Etext of To Be Read at Dusk by Charles Dickens +*****This file should be named rddsk10.txt or rddsk10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, rddsk11.txt. +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, rddsk10a.txt. + + +Scanned and proofed by David Price +ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, for time for better editing. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-two text +files per month: or 400 more Etexts in 1996 for a total of 800. +If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the +total should reach 80 billion Etexts. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by the December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only 10% of the present number of computer users. 2001 +should have at least twice as many computer users as that, so it +will require us reaching less than 5% of the users in 2001. + + +We need your donations more than ever! + + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie- +Mellon University). + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails try our Executive Director: +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +We would prefer to send you this information by email +(Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail). + +****** +If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please +FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives: +[Mac users, do NOT point and click. . .type] + +ftp uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd etext/etext90 through /etext96 +or cd etext/articles [get suggest gut for more information] +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET INDEX?00.GUT +for a list of books +and +GET NEW GUT for general information +and +MGET GUT* for newsletters. + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + + + + + + +To Be Read Be Dusk by Charles Dickens +Scanned and proofed by David Price +ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + +TO BE READ AT DUSK + + + + +One, two, three, four, five. There were five of them. + +Five couriers, sitting on a bench outside the convent on the summit +of the Great St. Bernard in Switzerland, looking at the remote +heights, stained by the setting sun as if a mighty quantity of red +wine had been broached upon the mountain top, and had not yet had +time to sink into the snow. + +This is not my simile. It was made for the occasion by the +stoutest courier, who was a German. None of the others took any +more notice of it than they took of me, sitting on another bench on +the other side of the convent door, smoking my cigar, like them, +and - also like them - looking at the reddened snow, and at the +lonely shed hard by, where the bodies of belated travellers, dug +out of it, slowly wither away, knowing no corruption in that cold +region. + +The wine upon the mountain top soaked in as we looked; the mountain +became white; the sky, a very dark blue; the wind rose; and the air +turned piercing cold. The five couriers buttoned their rough +coats. There being no safer man to imitate in all such proceedings +than a courier, I buttoned mine. + +The mountain in the sunset had stopped the five couriers in a +conversation. It is a sublime sight, likely to stop conversation. +The mountain being now out of the sunset, they resumed. Not that I +had heard any part of their previous discourse; for indeed, I had +not then broken away from the American gentleman, in the +travellers' parlour of the convent, who, sitting with his face to +the fire, had undertaken to realise to me the whole progress of +events which had led to the accumulation by the Honourable Ananias +Dodger of one of the largest acquisitions of dollars ever made in +our country. + +'My God!' said the Swiss courier, speaking in French, which I do +not hold (as some authors appear to do) to be such an all- +sufficient excuse for a naughty word, that I have only to write it +in that language to make it innocent; 'if you talk of ghosts - ' + +'But I DON'T talk of ghosts,' said the German. + +'Of what then?' asked the Swiss. + +'If I knew of what then,' said the German, 'I should probably know +a great deal more.' + +It was a good answer, I thought, and it made me curious. So, I +moved my position to that corner of my bench which was nearest to +them, and leaning my back against the convent wall, heard +perfectly, without appearing to attend. + +'Thunder and lightning!' said the German, warming, 'when a certain +man is coming to see you, unexpectedly; and, without his own +knowledge, sends some invisible messenger, to put the idea of him +into your head all day, what do you call that? When you walk along +a crowded street - at Frankfort, Milan, London, Paris - and think +that a passing stranger is like your friend Heinrich, and then that +another passing stranger is like your friend Heinrich, and so begin +to have a strange foreknowledge that presently you'll meet your +friend Heinrich - which you do, though you believed him at Trieste +- what do you call THAT?' + +'It's not uncommon, either,' murmured the Swiss and the other +three. + +'Uncommon!' said the German. 'It's as common as cherries in the +Black Forest. It's as common as maccaroni at Naples. And Naples +reminds me! When the old Marchesa Senzanima shrieks at a card- +party on the Chiaja - as I heard and saw her, for it happened in a +Bavarian family of mine, and I was overlooking the service that +evening - I say, when the old Marchesa starts up at the card-table, +white through her rouge, and cries, "My sister in Spain is dead! I +felt her cold touch on my back!" - and when that sister IS dead at +the moment - what do you call that?' + +'Or when the blood of San Gennaro liquefies at the request of the +clergy - as all the world knows that it does regularly once a-year, +in my native city,' said the Neapolitan courier after a pause, with +a comical look, 'what do you call that?' + +'THAT!' cried the German. 'Well, I think I know a name for that.' + +'Miracle?' said the Neapolitan, with the same sly face. + +The German merely smoked and laughed; and they all smoked and +laughed. + +'Bah!' said the German, presently. 'I speak of things that really +do happen. When I want to see the conjurer, I pay to see a +professed one, and have my money's worth. Very strange things do +happen without ghosts. Ghosts! Giovanni Baptista, tell your story +of the English bride. There's no ghost in that, but something full +as strange. Will any man tell me what?' + +As there was a silence among them, I glanced around. He whom I +took to be Baptista was lighting a fresh cigar. He presently went +on to speak. He was a Genoese, as I judged. + +'The story of the English bride?' said he. 'Basta! one ought not +to call so slight a thing a story. Well, it's all one. But it's +true. Observe me well, gentlemen, it's true. That which glitters +is not always gold; but what I am going to tell, is true.' + +He repeated this more than once. + + +Ten years ago, I took my credentials to an English gentleman at +Long's Hotel, in Bond Street, London, who was about to travel - it +might be for one year, it might be for two. He approved of them; +likewise of me. He was pleased to make inquiry. The testimony +that he received was favourable. He engaged me by the six months, +and my entertainment was generous. + +He was young, handsome, very happy. He was enamoured of a fair +young English lady, with a sufficient fortune, and they were going +to be married. It was the wedding-trip, in short, that we were +going to take. For three months' rest in the hot weather (it was +early summer then) he had hired an old place on the Riviera, at an +easy distance from my city, Genoa, on the road to Nice. Did I know +that place? Yes; I told him I knew it well. It was an old palace +with great gardens. It was a little bare, and it was a little dark +and gloomy, being close surrounded by trees; but it was spacious, +ancient, grand, and on the seashore. He said it had been so +described to him exactly, and he was well pleased that I knew it. +For its being a little bare of furniture, all such places were. +For its being a little gloomy, he had hired it principally for the +gardens, and he and my mistress would pass the summer weather in +their shade. + +'So all goes well, Baptista?' said he. + +'Indubitably, signore; very well.' + +We had a travelling chariot for our journey, newly built for us, +and in all respects complete. All we had was complete; we wanted +for nothing. The marriage took place. They were happy. I was +happy, seeing all so bright, being so well situated, going to my +own city, teaching my language in the rumble to the maid, la bella +Carolina, whose heart was gay with laughter: who was young and +rosy. + +The time flew. But I observed - listen to this, I pray! (and here +the courier dropped his voice) - I observed my mistress sometimes +brooding in a manner very strange; in a frightened manner; in an +unhappy manner; with a cloudy, uncertain alarm upon her. I think +that I began to notice this when I was walking up hills by the +carriage side, and master had gone on in front. At any rate, I +remember that it impressed itself upon my mind one evening in the +South of France, when she called to me to call master back; and +when he came back, and walked for a long way, talking encouragingly +and affectionately to her, with his hand upon the open window, and +hers in it. Now and then, he laughed in a merry way, as if he were +bantering her out of something. By-and-by, she laughed, and then +all went well again. + +It was curious. I asked la bella Carolina, the pretty little one, +Was mistress unwell? - No. - Out of spirits? - No. - Fearful of bad +roads, or brigands? - No. And what made it more mysterious was, +the pretty little one would not look at me in giving answer, but +WOULD look at the view. + +But, one day she told me the secret. + +'If you must know,' said Carolina, 'I find, from what I have +overheard, that mistress is haunted.' + +'How haunted?' + +'By a dream.' + +'What dream?' + +'By a dream of a face. For three nights before her marriage, she +saw a face in a dream - always the same face, and only One.' + +'A terrible face?' + +'No. The face of a dark, remarkable-looking man, in black, with +black hair and a grey moustache - a handsome man except for a +reserved and secret air. Not a face she ever saw, or at all like a +face she ever saw. Doing nothing in the dream but looking at her +fixedly, out of darkness.' + +'Does the dream come back?' + +'Never. The recollection of it is all her trouble.' + +'And why does it trouble her?' + +Carolina shook her head. + +'That's master's question,' said la bella. 'She don't know. She +wonders why, herself. But I heard her tell him, only last night, +that if she was to find a picture of that face in our Italian house +(which she is afraid she will) she did not know how she could ever +bear it.' + +Upon my word I was fearful after this (said the Genoese courier) of +our coming to the old palazzo, lest some such ill-starred picture +should happen to be there. I knew there were many there; and, as +we got nearer and nearer to the place, I wished the whole gallery +in the crater of Vesuvius. To mend the matter, it was a stormy +dismal evening when we, at last, approached that part of the +Riviera. It thundered; and the thunder of my city and its +environs, rolling among the high hills, is very loud. The lizards +ran in and out of the chinks in the broken stone wall of the +garden, as if they were frightened; the frogs bubbled and croaked +their loudest; the sea-wind moaned, and the wet trees dripped; and +the lightning - body of San Lorenzo, how it lightened! + +We all know what an old palace in or near Genoa is - how time and +the sea air have blotted it - how the drapery painted on the outer +walls has peeled off in great flakes of plaster - how the lower +windows are darkened with rusty bars of iron - how the courtyard is +overgrown with grass - how the outer buildings are dilapidated - +how the whole pile seems devoted to ruin. Our palazzo was one of +the true kind. It had been shut up close for months. Months? - +years! - it had an earthy smell, like a tomb. The scent of the +orange trees on the broad back terrace, and of the lemons ripening +on the wall, and of some shrubs that grew around a broken fountain, +had got into the house somehow, and had never been able to get out +again. There was, in every room, an aged smell, grown faint with +confinement. It pined in all the cupboards and drawers. In the +little rooms of communication between great rooms, it was stifling. +If you turned a picture - to come back to the pictures - there it +still was, clinging to the wall behind the frame, like a sort of +bat. + +The lattice-blinds were close shut, all over the house. There were +two ugly, grey old women in the house, to take care of it; one of +them with a spindle, who stood winding and mumbling in the doorway, +and who would as soon have let in the devil as the air. Master, +mistress, la bella Carolina, and I, went all through the palazzo. +I went first, though I have named myself last, opening the windows +and the lattice-blinds, and shaking down on myself splashes of +rain, and scraps of mortar, and now and then a dozing mosquito, or +a monstrous, fat, blotchy, Genoese spider. + +When I had let the evening light into a room, master, mistress, and +la bella Carolina, entered. Then, we looked round at all the +pictures, and I went forward again into another room. Mistress +secretly had great fear of meeting with the likeness of that face - +we all had; but there was no such thing. The Madonna and Bambino, +San Francisco, San Sebastiano, Venus, Santa Caterina, Angels, +Brigands, Friars, Temples at Sunset, Battles, White Horses, +Forests, Apostles, Doges, all my old acquaintances many times +repeated? - yes. Dark, handsome man in black, reserved and secret, +with black hair and grey moustache, looking fixedly at mistress out +of darkness? - no. + +At last we got through all the rooms and all the pictures, and came +out into the gardens. They were pretty well kept, being rented by +a gardener, and were large and shady. In one place there was a +rustic theatre, open to the sky; the stage a green slope; the +coulisses, three entrances upon a side, sweet-smelling leafy +screens. Mistress moved her bright eyes, even there, as if she +looked to see the face come in upon the scene; but all was well. + +'Now, Clara,' master said, in a low voice, 'you see that it is +nothing? You are happy.' + +Mistress was much encouraged. She soon accustomed herself to that +grim palazzo, and would sing, and play the harp, and copy the old +pictures, and stroll with master under the green trees and vines +all day. She was beautiful. He was happy. He would laugh and say +to me, mounting his horse for his morning ride before the heat: + +'All goes well, Baptista!' + +'Yes, signore, thank God, very well.' + +We kept no company. I took la bella to the Duomo and Annunciata, +to the Cafe, to the Opera, to the village Festa, to the Public +Garden, to the Day Theatre, to the Marionetti. The pretty little +one was charmed with all she saw. She learnt Italian - heavens! +miraculously! Was mistress quite forgetful of that dream? I asked +Carolina sometimes. Nearly, said la bella - almost. It was +wearing out. + +One day master received a letter, and called me. + +'Baptista!' + +'Signore!' + +'A gentleman who is presented to me will dine here to-day. He is +called the Signor Dellombra. Let me dine like a prince.' + +It was an odd name. I did not know that name. But, there had been +many noblemen and gentlemen pursued by Austria on political +suspicions, lately, and some names had changed. Perhaps this was +one. Altro! Dellombra was as good a name to me as another. + +When the Signor Dellombra came to dinner (said the Genoese courier +in the low voice, into which he had subsided once before), I showed +him into the reception-room, the great sala of the old palazzo. +Master received him with cordiality, and presented him to mistress. +As she rose, her face changed, she gave a cry, and fell upon the +marble floor. + +Then, I turned my head to the Signor Dellombra, and saw that he was +dressed in black, and had a reserved and secret air, and was a +dark, remarkable-looking man, with black hair and a grey moustache. + +Master raised mistress in his arms, and carried her to her own +room, where I sent la bella Carolina straight. La bella told me +afterwards that mistress was nearly terrified to death, and that +she wandered in her mind about her dream, all night. + +Master was vexed and anxious - almost angry, and yet full of +solicitude. The Signor Dellombra was a courtly gentleman, and +spoke with great respect and sympathy of mistress's being so ill. +The African wind had been blowing for some days (they had told him +at his hotel of the Maltese Cross), and he knew that it was often +hurtful. He hoped the beautiful lady would recover soon. He +begged permission to retire, and to renew his visit when he should +have the happiness of hearing that she was better. Master would +not allow of this, and they dined alone. + +He withdrew early. Next day he called at the gate, on horse-back, +to inquire for mistress. He did so two or three times in that +week. + +What I observed myself, and what la bella Carolina told me, united +to explain to me that master had now set his mind on curing +mistress of her fanciful terror. He was all kindness, but he was +sensible and firm. He reasoned with her, that to encourage such +fancies was to invite melancholy, if not madness. That it rested +with herself to be herself. That if she once resisted her strange +weakness, so successfully as to receive the Signor Dellombra as an +English lady would receive any other guest, it was for ever +conquered. To make an end, the signore came again, and mistress +received him without marked distress (though with constraint and +apprehension still), and the evening passed serenely. Master was +so delighted with this change, and so anxious to confirm it, that +the Signor Dellombra became a constant guest. He was accomplished +in pictures, books, and music; and his society, in any grim +palazzo, would have been welcome. + +I used to notice, many times, that mistress was not quite +recovered. She would cast down her eyes and droop her head, before +the Signor Dellombra, or would look at him with a terrified and +fascinated glance, as if his presence had some evil influence or +power upon her. Turning from her to him, I used to see him in the +shaded gardens, or the large half-lighted sala, looking, as I might +say, 'fixedly upon her out of darkness.' But, truly, I had not +forgotten la bella Carolina's words describing the face in the +dream. + +After his second visit I heard master say: + +'Now, see, my dear Clara, it's over! Dellombra has come and gone, +and your apprehension is broken like glass.' + +'Will he - will he ever come again?' asked mistress. + +'Again? Why, surely, over and over again! Are you cold?' (she +shivered). + +'No, dear - but - he terrifies me: are you sure that he need come +again?' + +'The surer for the question, Clara!' replied master, cheerfully. + +But, he was very hopeful of her complete recovery now, and grew +more and more so every day. She was beautiful. He was happy. + +'All goes well, Baptista?' he would say to me again. + +'Yes, signore, thank God; very well.' + +We were all (said the Genoese courier, constraining himself to +speak a little louder), we were all at Rome for the Carnival. I +had been out, all day, with a Sicilian, a friend of mine, and a +courier, who was there with an English family. As I returned at +night to our hotel, I met the little Carolina, who never stirred +from home alone, running distractedly along the Corso. + +'Carolina! What's the matter?' + +'O Baptista! O, for the Lord's sake! where is my mistress?' + +'Mistress, Carolina?' + +'Gone since morning - told me, when master went out on his day's +journey, not to call her, for she was tired with not resting in the +night (having been in pain), and would lie in bed until the +evening; then get up refreshed. She is gone! - she is gone! +Master has come back, broken down the door, and she is gone! My +beautiful, my good, my innocent mistress!' + +The pretty little one so cried, and raved, and tore herself that I +could not have held her, but for her swooning on my arm as if she +had been shot. Master came up - in manner, face, or voice, no more +the master that I knew, than I was he. He took me (I laid the +little one upon her bed in the hotel, and left her with the +chamber-women), in a carriage, furiously through the darkness, +across the desolate Campagna. When it was day, and we stopped at a +miserable post-house, all the horses had been hired twelve hours +ago, and sent away in different directions. Mark me! by the Signor +Dellombra, who had passed there in a carriage, with a frightened +English lady crouching in one corner. + +I never heard (said the Genoese courier, drawing a long breath) +that she was ever traced beyond that spot. All I know is, that she +vanished into infamous oblivion, with the dreaded face beside her +that she had seen in her dream. + +'What do you call THAT?' said the German courier, triumphantly. +'Ghosts! There are no ghosts THERE! What do you call this, that I +am going to tell you? Ghosts! There are no ghosts HERE!' + + +I took an engagement once (pursued the German courier) with an +English gentleman, elderly and a bachelor, to travel through my +country, my Fatherland. He was a merchant who traded with my +country and knew the language, but who had never been there since +he was a boy - as I judge, some sixty years before. + +His name was James, and he had a twin-brother John, also a +bachelor. Between these brothers there was a great affection. +They were in business together, at Goodman's Fields, but they did +not live together. Mr. James dwelt in Poland Street, turning out +of Oxford Street, London; Mr. John resided by Epping Forest. + +Mr. James and I were to start for Germany in about a week. The +exact day depended on business. Mr. John came to Poland Street +(where I was staying in the house), to pass that week with Mr. +James. But, he said to his brother on the second day, 'I don't +feel very well, James. There's not much the matter with me; but I +think I am a little gouty. I'll go home and put myself under the +care of my old housekeeper, who understands my ways. If I get +quite better, I'll come back and see you before you go. If I don't +feel well enough to resume my visit where I leave it off, why YOU +will come and see me before you go.' Mr. James, of course, said he +would, and they shook hands - both hands, as they always did - and +Mr. John ordered out his old-fashioned chariot and rumbled home. + +It was on the second night after that - that is to say, the fourth +in the week - when I was awoke out of my sound sleep by Mr. James +coming into my bedroom in his flannel-gown, with a lighted candle. +He sat upon the side of my bed, and looking at me, said: + +'Wilhelm, I have reason to think I have got some strange illness +upon me.' + +I then perceived that there was a very unusual expression in his +face. + +'Wilhelm,' said he, 'I am not afraid or ashamed to tell you what I +might be afraid or ashamed to tell another man. You come from a +sensible country, where mysterious things are inquired into and are +not settled to have been weighed and measured - or to have been +unweighable and unmeasurable - or in either case to have been +completely disposed of, for all time - ever so many years ago. I +have just now seen the phantom of my brother.' + +I confess (said the German courier) that it gave me a little +tingling of the blood to hear it. + +'I have just now seen,' Mr. James repeated, looking full at me, +that I might see how collected he was, 'the phantom of my brother +John. I was sitting up in bed, unable to sleep, when it came into +my room, in a white dress, and regarding me earnestly, passed up to +the end of the room, glanced at some papers on my writing-desk, +turned, and, still looking earnestly at me as it passed the bed, +went out at the door. Now, I am not in the least mad, and am not +in the least disposed to invest that phantom with any external +existence out of myself. I think it is a warning to me that I am +ill; and I think I had better be bled.' + +I got out of bed directly (said the German courier) and began to +get on my clothes, begging him not to be alarmed, and telling him +that I would go myself to the doctor. I was just ready, when we +heard a loud knocking and ringing at the street door. My room +being an attic at the back, and Mr. James's being the second-floor +room in the front, we went down to his room, and put up the window, +to see what was the matter. + +'Is that Mr. James?' said a man below, falling back to the opposite +side of the way to look up. + +'It is,' said Mr. James, 'and you are my brother's man, Robert.' + +'Yes, Sir. I am sorry to say, Sir, that Mr. John is ill. He is +very bad, Sir. It is even feared that he may be lying at the point +of death. He wants to see you, Sir. I have a chaise here. Pray +come to him. Pray lose no time.' + +Mr. James and I looked at one another. 'Wilhelm,' said he, 'this +is strange. I wish you to come with me!' I helped him to dress, +partly there and partly in the chaise; and no grass grew under the +horses' iron shoes between Poland Street and the Forest. + +Now, mind! (said the German courier) I went with Mr. James into his +brother's room, and I saw and heard myself what follows. + +His brother lay upon his bed, at the upper end of a long bed- +chamber. His old housekeeper was there, and others were there: I +think three others were there, if not four, and they had been with +him since early in the afternoon. He was in white, like the figure +- necessarily so, because he had his night-dress on. He looked +like the figure - necessarily so, because he looked earnestly at +his brother when he saw him come into the room. + +But, when his brother reached the bed-side, he slowly raised +himself in bed, and looking full upon him, said these words: + +'JAMES, YOU HAVE SEEN ME BEFORE, TO-NIGHT - AND YOU KNOW IT!' + +And so died! + + +I waited, when the German courier ceased, to hear something said of +this strange story. The silence was unbroken. I looked round, and +the five couriers were gone: so noiselessly that the ghostly +mountain might have absorbed them into its eternal snows. By this +time, I was by no means in a mood to sit alone in that awful scene, +with the chill air coming solemnly upon me - or, if I may tell the +truth, to sit alone anywhere. So I went back into the convent- +parlour, and, finding the American gentleman still disposed to +relate the biography of the Honourable Ananias Dodger, heard it all +out. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of To Be Read At Dusk, by Charles Dickens + diff --git a/old/rddsk10.zip b/old/rddsk10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffaa57a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/rddsk10.zip diff --git a/old/rddsk10h.htm b/old/rddsk10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3755712 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/rddsk10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,911 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML><HEAD> +<TITLE>The Project Gutenberg eBook of To be Read at Dusk, by Charles Dickens</TITLE> +<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +<!-- +DIV.book { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; text-align: justify; } +P { text-indent: 2em; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; } +P.pg { text-indent: 0em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; } +--> +</STYLE> +</HEAD> +<BODY> +<center><h1>The Project Gutenberg EBook of<br><a href="#title"><i>To be Read at Dusk</i></a><br>by Charles Dickens</h1> +<h2>(#28 in our series of stories by Charles Dickens)</h2></center> +<DIV align="justify"> +<p class="pg"><br> +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. +<p class="pg"> +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. +<p class="pg"> +Please read the <a href="#legal">“legal small print,”</a> and <a href="#footer">other information</a> 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. +<p class="pg"> +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** +<p class="pg"> +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** +<p class="pg"> +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** +<p class="pg"> +Title: To be Read at Dusk +<p class="pg"> +Author: Charles Dickens +<p class="pg"> +Release Date: May, 1997 [EBook #924] +<br>[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +<br>[This HTML edition was first posted on April 15, 2003] +<p class="pg"> +Edition: 10 +<p class="pg"> +Language: English +<p class="pg"> +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 +<p class="pg"> +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, TO BE READ AT DUSK *** +<p class="pg"><br><br> +This eBook was converted to HTML, with additional editing, by Jose Menendez +from the text edition produced by David Price. +<br><br><br></DIV> +<DIV class="book"> +<a name="title"></a><hr size="3" noshade> +<center> +<h1>TO BE READ AT DUSK</h1><br><h3>BY</h3><br><h2>CHARLES DICKENS</h2></center> +<hr size="3" noshade> +<p><br> +<big><big>O</big></big>NE, two, three, four, five. There were five of them. +<p> +Five couriers, sitting on a bench outside the convent on the summit +of the Great St. Bernard in Switzerland, looking at the remote +heights, stained by the setting sun as if a mighty quantity of red +wine had been broached upon the mountain top, and had not yet had +time to sink into the snow. +<p> +This is not my simile. It was made for the occasion by the +stoutest courier, who was a German. None of the others took any +more notice of it than they took of me, sitting on another bench on +the other side of the convent door, smoking my cigar, like them, +and—also like them—looking at the reddened snow, and at the +lonely shed hard by, where the bodies of belated travellers, dug +out of it, slowly wither away, knowing no corruption in that cold +region. +<p> +The wine upon the mountain top soaked in as we looked; the mountain +became white; the sky, a very dark blue; the wind rose; and the air +turned piercing cold. The five couriers buttoned their rough +coats. There being no safer man to imitate in all such proceedings +than a courier, I buttoned mine. +<p> +The mountain in the sunset had stopped the five couriers in a +conversation. It is a sublime sight, likely to stop conversation. +The mountain being now out of the sunset, they resumed. Not that I +had heard any part of their previous discourse; for indeed, I had +not then broken away from the American gentleman, in the +travellers’ parlour of the convent, who, sitting with his face to +the fire, had undertaken to realise to me the whole progress of +events which had led to the accumulation by the Honourable Ananias +Dodger of one of the largest acquisitions of dollars ever made in +our country. +<p> +‘My God!’ said the Swiss courier, speaking in French, which I do +not hold (as some authors appear to do) to be such an all-sufficient +excuse for a naughty word, that I have only to write it +in that language to make it innocent; ‘if you talk of ghosts—’ +<p> +‘But I <i>don’t</i> talk of ghosts,’ said the German. +<p> +‘Of what then?’ asked the Swiss. +<p> +‘If I knew of what then,’ said the German, ‘I should probably know +a great deal more.’ +<p> +It was a good answer, I thought, and it made me curious. So, I +moved my position to that corner of my bench which was nearest to +them, and leaning my back against the convent wall, heard +perfectly, without appearing to attend. +<p> +‘Thunder and lightning!’ said the German, warming, ‘when a certain +man is coming to see you, unexpectedly; and, without his own +knowledge, sends some invisible messenger, to put the idea of him +into your head all day, what do you call that? When you walk along +a crowded street—at Frankfort, Milan, London, Paris—and think +that a passing stranger is like your friend Heinrich, and then that +another passing stranger is like your friend Heinrich, and so begin +to have a strange foreknowledge that presently you’ll meet your +friend Heinrich—which you do, though you believed him at +Trieste—what do you call <i>that?</i>’ +<p> +‘It’s not uncommon, either,’ murmured the Swiss and the other +three. +<p> +‘Uncommon!’ said the German. ‘It’s as common as cherries in the +Black Forest. It’s as common as maccaroni at Naples. And Naples +reminds me! When the old Marchesa Senzanima shrieks at a card-party +on the Chiaja—as I heard and saw her, for it happened in a +Bavarian family of mine, and I was overlooking the service that +evening—I say, when the old Marchesa starts up at the card-table, +white through her rouge, and cries, “My sister in Spain is dead! I +felt her cold touch on my back!”—and when that sister <i>is</i> dead at +the moment—what do you call that?’ +<p> +‘Or when the blood of San Gennaro liquefies at the request of the +clergy—as all the world knows that it does regularly once a-year, +in my native city,’ said the Neapolitan courier after a pause, with +a comical look, ‘what do you call that?’ +<p> +‘<i>That!</i>’ cried the German. ‘Well, I think I know a name for that.’ +<p> +‘Miracle?’ said the Neapolitan, with the same sly face. +<p> +The German merely smoked and laughed; and they all smoked and +laughed. +<p> +‘Bah!’ said the German, presently. ‘I speak of things that really +do happen. When I want to see the conjurer, I pay to see a +professed one, and have my money’s worth. Very strange things do +happen without ghosts. Ghosts! Giovanni Baptista, tell your story +of the English bride. There’s no ghost in that, but something full +as strange. Will any man tell me what?’ +<p> +As there was a silence among them, I glanced around. He whom I +took to be Baptista was lighting a fresh cigar. He presently went +on to speak. He was a Genoese, as I judged. +<p> +‘The story of the English bride?’ said he. ‘Basta! one ought not +to call so slight a thing a story. Well, it’s all one. But it’s +true. Observe me well, gentlemen, it’s true. That which glitters +is not always gold; but what I am going to tell, is true.’ +<p> +He repeated this more than once. + +<br><br><p> +Ten years ago, I took my credentials to an English gentleman at +Long’s Hotel, in Bond Street, London, who was about to travel—it +might be for one year, it might be for two. He approved of them; +likewise of me. He was pleased to make inquiry. The testimony +that he received was favourable. He engaged me by the six months, +and my entertainment was generous. +<p> +He was young, handsome, very happy. He was enamoured of a fair +young English lady, with a sufficient fortune, and they were going +to be married. It was the wedding-trip, in short, that we were +going to take. For three months’ rest in the hot weather (it was +early summer then) he had hired an old place on the Riviera, at an +easy distance from my city, Genoa, on the road to Nice. Did I know +that place? Yes; I told him I knew it well. It was an old palace +with great gardens. It was a little bare, and it was a little dark +and gloomy, being close surrounded by trees; but it was spacious, +ancient, grand, and on the seashore. He said it had been so +described to him exactly, and he was well pleased that I knew it. +For its being a little bare of furniture, all such places were. +For its being a little gloomy, he had hired it principally for the +gardens, and he and my mistress would pass the summer weather in +their shade. +<p> +‘So all goes well, Baptista?’ said he. +<p> +‘Indubitably, signore; very well.’ +<p> +We had a travelling chariot for our journey, newly built for us, +and in all respects complete. All we had was complete; we wanted +for nothing. The marriage took place. They were happy. <i>I</i> was +happy, seeing all so bright, being so well situated, going to my +own city, teaching my language in the rumble to the maid, la bella +Carolina, whose heart was gay with laughter: who was young and +rosy. +<p> +The time flew. But I observed—listen to this, I pray! (and here +the courier dropped his voice)—I observed my mistress sometimes +brooding in a manner very strange; in a frightened manner; in an +unhappy manner; with a cloudy, uncertain alarm upon her. I think +that I began to notice this when I was walking up hills by the +carriage side, and master had gone on in front. At any rate, I +remember that it impressed itself upon my mind one evening in the +South of France, when she called to me to call master back; and +when he came back, and walked for a long way, talking encouragingly +and affectionately to her, with his hand upon the open window, and +hers in it. Now and then, he laughed in a merry way, as if he were +bantering her out of something. By-and-by, she laughed, and then +all went well again. +<p> +It was curious. I asked la bella Carolina, the pretty little one, +Was mistress unwell?—No.—Out of spirits?—No.—Fearful of bad +roads, or brigands?—No. And what made it more mysterious was, +the pretty little one would not look at me in giving answer, but +<i>would</i> look at the view. +<p> +But, one day she told me the secret. +<p> +‘If you must know,’ said Carolina, ‘I find, from what I have +overheard, that mistress is haunted.’ +<p> +‘How haunted?’ +<p> +‘By a dream.’ +<p> +‘What dream?’ +<p> +‘By a dream of a face. For three nights before her marriage, she +saw a face in a dream—always the same face, and only One.’ +<p> +‘A terrible face?’ +<p> +‘No. The face of a dark, remarkable-looking man, in black, with +black hair and a grey moustache—a handsome man except for a +reserved and secret air. Not a face she ever saw, or at all like a +face she ever saw. Doing nothing in the dream but looking at her +fixedly, out of darkness.’ +<p> +‘Does the dream come back?’ +<p> +‘Never. The recollection of it is all her trouble.’ +<p> +‘And why does it trouble her?’ +<p> +Carolina shook her head. +<p> +‘That’s master’s question,’ said la bella. ‘She don’t know. She +wonders why, herself. But I heard her tell him, only last night, +that if she was to find a picture of that face in our Italian house +(which she is afraid she will) she did not know how she could ever +bear it.’ +<p> +Upon my word I was fearful after this (said the Genoese courier) of +our coming to the old palazzo, lest some such ill-starred picture +should happen to be there. I knew there were many there; and, as +we got nearer and nearer to the place, I wished the whole gallery +in the crater of Vesuvius. To mend the matter, it was a stormy +dismal evening when we, at last, approached that part of the +Riviera. It thundered; and the thunder of my city and its +environs, rolling among the high hills, is very loud. The lizards +ran in and out of the chinks in the broken stone wall of the +garden, as if they were frightened; the frogs bubbled and croaked +their loudest; the sea-wind moaned, and the wet trees dripped; and +the lightning—body of San Lorenzo, how it lightened! +<p> +We all know what an old palace in or near Genoa is—how time and +the sea air have blotted it—how the drapery painted on the outer +walls has peeled off in great flakes of plaster—how the lower +windows are darkened with rusty bars of iron—how the courtyard is +overgrown with grass—how the outer buildings are dilapidated—how +the whole pile seems devoted to ruin. Our palazzo was one of +the true kind. It had been shut up close for months. Months?—years!—it +had an earthy smell, like a tomb. The scent of the +orange trees on the broad back terrace, and of the lemons ripening +on the wall, and of some shrubs that grew around a broken fountain, +had got into the house somehow, and had never been able to get out +again. There was, in every room, an aged smell, grown faint with +confinement. It pined in all the cupboards and drawers. In the +little rooms of communication between great rooms, it was stifling. +If you turned a picture—to come back to the pictures—there it +still was, clinging to the wall behind the frame, like a sort of +bat. +<p> +The lattice-blinds were close shut, all over the house. There were +two ugly, grey old women in the house, to take care of it; one of +them with a spindle, who stood winding and mumbling in the doorway, +and who would as soon have let in the devil as the air. Master, +mistress, la bella Carolina, and I, went all through the palazzo. +I went first, though I have named myself last, opening the windows +and the lattice-blinds, and shaking down on myself splashes of +rain, and scraps of mortar, and now and then a dozing mosquito, or +a monstrous, fat, blotchy, Genoese spider. +<p> +When I had let the evening light into a room, master, mistress, and +la bella Carolina, entered. Then, we looked round at all the +pictures, and I went forward again into another room. Mistress +secretly had great fear of meeting with the likeness of that face—we +all had; but there was no such thing. The Madonna and Bambino, +San Francisco, San Sebastiano, Venus, Santa Caterina, Angels, +Brigands, Friars, Temples at Sunset, Battles, White Horses, +Forests, Apostles, Doges, all my old acquaintances many times +repeated?—yes. Dark, handsome man in black, reserved and secret, +with black hair and grey moustache, looking fixedly at mistress out +of darkness?—no. +<p> +At last we got through all the rooms and all the pictures, and came +out into the gardens. They were pretty well kept, being rented by +a gardener, and were large and shady. In one place there was a +rustic theatre, open to the sky; the stage a green slope; the +coulisses, three entrances upon a side, sweet-smelling leafy +screens. Mistress moved her bright eyes, even there, as if she +looked to see the face come in upon the scene; but all was well. +<p> +‘Now, Clara,’ master said, in a low voice, ‘you see that it is +nothing? You are happy.’ +<p> +Mistress was much encouraged. She soon accustomed herself to that +grim palazzo, and would sing, and play the harp, and copy the old +pictures, and stroll with master under the green trees and vines +all day. She was beautiful. He was happy. He would laugh and say +to me, mounting his horse for his morning ride before the heat: +<p> +‘All goes well, Baptista!’ +<p> +‘Yes, signore, thank God, very well.’ +<p> +We kept no company. I took la bella to the Duomo and Annunciata, +to the Café, to the Opera, to the village Festa, to the Public +Garden, to the Day Theatre, to the Marionetti. The pretty little +one was charmed with all she saw. She learnt Italian—heavens! +miraculously! Was mistress quite forgetful of that dream? I asked +Carolina sometimes. Nearly, said la bella—almost. It was +wearing out. +<p> +One day master received a letter, and called me. +<p> +‘Baptista!’ +<p> +‘Signore!’ +<p> +‘A gentleman who is presented to me will dine here to-day. He is +called the Signor Dellombra. Let me dine like a prince.’ +<p> +It was an odd name. I did not know that name. But, there had been +many noblemen and gentlemen pursued by Austria on political +suspicions, lately, and some names had changed. Perhaps this was +one. Altro! Dellombra was as good a name to me as another. +<p> +When the Signor Dellombra came to dinner (said the Genoese courier +in the low voice, into which he had subsided once before), I showed +him into the reception-room, the great sala of the old palazzo. +Master received him with cordiality, and presented him to mistress. +As she rose, her face changed, she gave a cry, and fell upon the +marble floor. +<p> +Then, I turned my head to the Signor Dellombra, and saw that he was +dressed in black, and had a reserved and secret air, and was a +dark, remarkable-looking man, with black hair and a grey moustache. +<p> +Master raised mistress in his arms, and carried her to her own +room, where I sent la bella Carolina straight. La bella told me +afterwards that mistress was nearly terrified to death, and that +she wandered in her mind about her dream, all night. +<p> +Master was vexed and anxious—almost angry, and yet full of +solicitude. The Signor Dellombra was a courtly gentleman, and +spoke with great respect and sympathy of mistress’s being so ill. +The African wind had been blowing for some days (they had told him +at his hotel of the Maltese Cross), and he knew that it was often +hurtful. He hoped the beautiful lady would recover soon. He +begged permission to retire, and to renew his visit when he should +have the happiness of hearing that she was better. Master would +not allow of this, and they dined alone. +<p> +He withdrew early. Next day he called at the gate, on horseback, +to inquire for mistress. He did so two or three times in that +week. +<p> +What I observed myself, and what la bella Carolina told me, united +to explain to me that master had now set his mind on curing +mistress of her fanciful terror. He was all kindness, but he was +sensible and firm. He reasoned with her, that to encourage such +fancies was to invite melancholy, if not madness. That it rested +with herself to be herself. That if she once resisted her strange +weakness, so successfully as to receive the Signor Dellombra as an +English lady would receive any other guest, it was for ever +conquered. To make an end, the signore came again, and mistress +received him without marked distress (though with constraint and +apprehension still), and the evening passed serenely. Master was +so delighted with this change, and so anxious to confirm it, that +the Signor Dellombra became a constant guest. He was accomplished +in pictures, books, and music; and his society, in any grim +palazzo, would have been welcome. +<p> +I used to notice, many times, that mistress was not quite +recovered. She would cast down her eyes and droop her head, before +the Signor Dellombra, or would look at him with a terrified and +fascinated glance, as if his presence had some evil influence or +power upon her. Turning from her to him, I used to see him in the +shaded gardens, or the large half-lighted sala, looking, as I might +say, ‘fixedly upon her out of darkness.’ But, truly, I had not +forgotten la bella Carolina’s words describing the face in the +dream. +<p> +After his second visit I heard master say: +<p> +‘Now, see, my dear Clara, it’s over! Dellombra has come and gone, +and your apprehension is broken like glass.’ +<p> +‘Will he—will he ever come again?’ asked mistress. +<p> +‘Again? Why, surely, over and over again! Are you cold?’ (she +shivered). +<p> +‘No, dear—but—he terrifies me: are you sure that he need come +again?’ +<p> +‘The surer for the question, Clara!’ replied master, cheerfully. +<p> +But, he was very hopeful of her complete recovery now, and grew +more and more so every day. She was beautiful. He was happy. +<p> +‘All goes well, Baptista?’ he would say to me again. +<p> +‘Yes, signore, thank God; very well.’ +<p> +We were all (said the Genoese courier, constraining himself to +speak a little louder), we were all at Rome for the Carnival. I +had been out, all day, with a Sicilian, a friend of mine, and a +courier, who was there with an English family. As I returned at +night to our hotel, I met the little Carolina, who never stirred +from home alone, running distractedly along the Corso. +<p> +‘Carolina! What’s the matter?’ +<p> +‘O Baptista! O, for the Lord’s sake! where is my mistress?’ +<p> +‘Mistress, Carolina?’ +<p> +‘Gone since morning—told me, when master went out on his day’s +journey, not to call her, for she was tired with not resting in the +night (having been in pain), and would lie in bed until the +evening; then get up refreshed. She is gone!—she is gone! +Master has come back, broken down the door, and she is gone! My +beautiful, my good, my innocent mistress!’ +<p> +The pretty little one so cried, and raved, and tore herself that I +could not have held her, but for her swooning on my arm as if she +had been shot. Master came up—in manner, face, or voice, no more +the master that I knew, than I was he. He took me (I laid the +little one upon her bed in the hotel, and left her with the +chamber-women), in a carriage, furiously through the darkness, +across the desolate Campagna. When it was day, and we stopped at a +miserable post-house, all the horses had been hired twelve hours +ago, and sent away in different directions. Mark me! by the Signor +Dellombra, who had passed there in a carriage, with a frightened +English lady crouching in one corner. +<p> +I never heard (said the Genoese courier, drawing a long breath) +that she was ever traced beyond that spot. All I know is, that she +vanished into infamous oblivion, with the dreaded face beside her +that she had seen in her dream. + +<br><br><p> +‘What do you call <i>that?</i>’ said the German courier, triumphantly. +‘Ghosts! There are no ghosts <i>there!</i> What do you call this, that I +am going to tell you? Ghosts! There are no ghosts <i>here!</i>’ + +<br><br><p> +<i>I</i> took an engagement once (pursued the German courier) with an +English gentleman, elderly and a bachelor, to travel through my +country, my Fatherland. He was a merchant who traded with my +country and knew the language, but who had never been there since +he was a boy—as I judge, some sixty years before. +<p> +His name was James, and he had a twin-brother John, also a +bachelor. Between these brothers there was a great affection. +They were in business together, at Goodman’s Fields, but they did +not live together. Mr. James dwelt in Poland Street, turning out +of Oxford Street, London; Mr. John resided by Epping Forest. +<p> +Mr. James and I were to start for Germany in about a week. The +exact day depended on business. Mr. John came to Poland Street +(where I was staying in the house), to pass that week with Mr. +James. But, he said to his brother on the second day, ‘I don’t +feel very well, James. There’s not much the matter with me; but I +think I am a little gouty. I’ll go home and put myself under the +care of my old housekeeper, who understands my ways. If I get +quite better, I’ll come back and see you before you go. If I don’t +feel well enough to resume my visit where I leave it off, why <i>you</i> +will come and see <i>me</i> before you go.’ Mr. James, of course, said he +would, and they shook hands—both hands, as they always did—and +Mr. John ordered out his old-fashioned chariot and rumbled home. +<p> +It was on the second night after that—that is to say, the fourth +in the week—when I was awoke out of my sound sleep by Mr. James +coming into my bedroom in his flannel-gown, with a lighted candle. +He sat upon the side of my bed, and looking at me, said: +<p> +‘Wilhelm, I have reason to think I have got some strange illness +upon me.’ +<p> +I then perceived that there was a very unusual expression in his +face. +<p> +‘Wilhelm,’ said he, ‘I am not afraid or ashamed to tell you what I +might be afraid or ashamed to tell another man. You come from a +sensible country, where mysterious things are inquired into and are +not settled to have been weighed and measured—or to have been +unweighable and unmeasurable—or in either case to have been +completely disposed of, for all time—ever so many years ago. I +have just now seen the phantom of my brother.’ +<p> +I confess (said the German courier) that it gave me a little +tingling of the blood to hear it. +<p> +‘I have just now seen,’ Mr. James repeated, looking full at me, +that I might see how collected he was, ‘the phantom of my brother +John. I was sitting up in bed, unable to sleep, when it came into +my room, in a white dress, and regarding me earnestly, passed up to +the end of the room, glanced at some papers on my writing-desk, +turned, and, still looking earnestly at me as it passed the bed, +went out at the door. Now, I am not in the least mad, and am not +in the least disposed to invest that phantom with any external +existence out of myself. I think it is a warning to me that I am +ill; and I think I had better be bled.’ +<p> +I got out of bed directly (said the German courier) and began to +get on my clothes, begging him not to be alarmed, and telling him +that I would go myself to the doctor. I was just ready, when we +heard a loud knocking and ringing at the street door. My room +being an attic at the back, and Mr. James’s being the second-floor +room in the front, we went down to his room, and put up the window, +to see what was the matter. +<p> +‘Is that Mr. James?’ said a man below, falling back to the opposite +side of the way to look up. +<p> +‘It is,’ said Mr. James, ‘and you are my brother’s man, Robert.’ +<p> +‘Yes, Sir. I am sorry to say, Sir, that Mr. John is ill. He is +very bad, Sir. It is even feared that he may be lying at the point +of death. He wants to see you, Sir. I have a chaise here. Pray +come to him. Pray lose no time.’ +<p> +Mr. James and I looked at one another. ‘Wilhelm,’ said he, ‘this +is strange. I wish you to come with me!’ I helped him to dress, +partly there and partly in the chaise; and no grass grew under the +horses’ iron shoes between Poland Street and the Forest. +<p> +Now, mind! (said the German courier) I went with Mr. James into his +brother’s room, and I saw and heard myself what follows. +<p> +His brother lay upon his bed, at the upper end of a long bed-chamber. +His old housekeeper was there, and others were there: I +think three others were there, if not four, and they had been with +him since early in the afternoon. He was in white, like the +figure—necessarily so, because he had his night-dress on. He looked +like the figure—necessarily so, because he looked earnestly at +his brother when he saw him come into the room. +<p> +But, when his brother reached the bed-side, he slowly raised +himself in bed, and looking full upon him, said these words: +<p> +‘J<small>AMES, YOU HAVE SEEN ME BEFORE, TO-NIGHT—AND YOU KNOW IT</small>!’ +<p> +And so died! + +<br><br><p> +I waited, when the German courier ceased, to hear something said of +this strange story. The silence was unbroken. I looked round, and +the five couriers were gone: so noiselessly that the ghostly +mountain might have absorbed them into its eternal snows. By this +time, I was by no means in a mood to sit alone in that awful scene, +with the chill air coming solemnly upon me—or, if I may tell the +truth, to sit alone anywhere. So I went back into the convent-parlour, +and, finding the American gentleman still disposed to relate the +biography of the Honourable Ananias Dodger, heard it all out. +<br><br><hr size="3" noshade></DIV> +<br><DIV align="justify"> +<a name="footer">*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, TO BE READ AT DUSK ***</a> +<p class="pg"> +This file should be named rddsk10h.htm or rddsk10h.zip<br> +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, rddsk11h.htm<br> +VERSIONS based on separate sources get a new LETTER, rddsk10a.htm +<p class="pg"> +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. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. +<p class="pg"> +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. +<p class="pg"> +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. +<p class="pg"> +Most people start at our Web sites at:<br> +<a href="http://gutenberg.net">http://gutenberg.net</a> or<br> +<a href="http://promo.net/pg">http://promo.net/pg</a> +<p class="pg"> +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). +<p class="pg"><br> +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. +<p class="pg"> +<a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04">http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04</a> or<br> +<a href="ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04">ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04</a> +<p class="pg"> +Or /etext03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 91 or 90 +<p class="pg"> +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. +<p class="pg"><br> +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) +<p class="pg"> +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1–2% of the world’s population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year’s end. +<p class="pg"> +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. +<p class="pg"> +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): +<br><br> +<table width="375" cellpadding="0" summary="eBooks released"> +<col align="right" width="100"> +<col align="center" width="100"> +<col align="left" width="175"> +<tr><th>eBooks<th>Year<th>Month</tr> +<tr><td>1<td>1971<td>July</tr> +<tr><td>10<td>1991<td>January</tr> +<tr><td>100<td>1994<td>January</tr> +<tr><td>1000<td>1997<td>August</tr> +<tr><td>1500<td>1998<td>October</tr> +<tr><td>2000<td>1999<td>December</tr> +<tr><td>2500<td>2000<td>December</tr> +<tr><td>3000<td>2001<td>November</tr> +<tr><td>4000<td>2001<td>October/November</tr> +<tr><td>6000<td>2002<td>December*</tr> +<tr><td>9000<td>2003<td>November*</tr> +<tr><td>10000<td>2004<td>January*</tr> +</table> +<p class="pg"><br> +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. +<p class="pg"> +We need your donations more than ever! +<p class="pg"> +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. +<p class="pg"> +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. +<p class="pg"> +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. +<p class="pg"> +In answer to various questions we have received on this: +<p class="pg"> +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. +<p class="pg"> +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. +<p class="pg"> +International donations are accepted, but we don’t know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don’t have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. +<p class="pg"> +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: +<p class="pg"> +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation<br> +PMB 113<br> +1739 University Ave.<br> +Oxford, MS 38655–4109<br> +<p class="pg"> +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. +<p class="pg"> +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64–622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. +<p class="pg"> +We need your donations more than ever! +<p class="pg"> +You can get up to date donation information online at: +<p class="pg"> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html">http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html</a> +<p class="pg"><br> +*** +<p class="pg"> +If you can’t reach Project Gutenberg,<br> +you can always email directly to: +<p class="pg"> +Michael S. Hart <a href="mailto:hart@pobox.com">hart@pobox.com</a> +<p class="pg"> +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. +<p class="pg"> +We would prefer to send you information by email. +<p class="pg"><br> +<a name="legal">**The Legal Small Print**</a> +<p class="pg"><br> +(Three Pages) +<p class="pg"> +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***<br> +Why is this “Small Print!” statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what’s wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this “Small Print!” statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. +<p class="pg"> +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK<br> +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG–tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this “Small Print!” statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. +<p class="pg"> +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG–TM EBOOKS<br> +This PROJECT GUTENBERG–tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG–tm eBooks, +is a “public domain” work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the “Project”). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the “PROJECT GUTENBERG” trademark. +<p class="pg"> +Please do not use the “PROJECT GUTENBERG” trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. +<p class="pg"> +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project’s eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain “Defects”. Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. +<p class="pg"> +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES<br> +But for the “Right of Replacement or Refund” described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG–tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. +<p class="pg"> +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. +<p class="pg"> +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU “AS-IS”. NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. +<p class="pg"> +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. +<p class="pg"> +INDEMNITY<br> +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. +<p class="pg"> +DISTRIBUTION UNDER “PROJECT GUTENBERG–tm”<br> +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +“Small Print!” and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: +<table width="90%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4" summary="legal fine print"> +<tr><td width="5%"> </td><td width="5%"> </td><td width="80%"> </td></tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td align="right">[1]</td> +<td colspan="2"><DIV align="justify">Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this +requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the +eBook or this “small print!” statement. You may however, +if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable +binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, +including any form resulting from conversion by word +processing or hypertext software, but only so long as +*EITHER*:</DIV></td></tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td colspan="2" align="right">[*]</td> +<td><DIV align="justify">The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and +does *not* contain characters other than those +intended by the author of the work, although tilde +(~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may +be used to convey punctuation intended by the +author, and additional characters may be used to +indicate hypertext links; OR</DIV></td></tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td colspan="2" align="right">[*]</td> +<td><DIV align="justify">The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at +no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent +form by the program that displays the eBook (as is +the case, for instance, with most word processors); +OR</DIV></td></tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td colspan="2" align="right">[*]</td> +<td><DIV align="justify">You provide, or agree to also provide on request at +no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the +eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC +or other equivalent proprietary form).</DIV></td></tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td align="right">[2]</td> +<td colspan="2"><DIV align="justify">Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this +“Small Print!” statement.</DIV></td></tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td align="right">[3]</td> +<td colspan="2"><DIV align="justify">Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the +gross profits you derive calculated using the method you +already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you +don’t derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are +payable to “Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation” +the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were +legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent +periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to +let us know your plans and to work out the details.</DIV></td></tr> +</table> +<p class="pg"><br> +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON’T HAVE TO?<br> +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. +<p class="pg"> +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the:<br> +“Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.” +<p class="pg"> +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:<br> +<a href="mailto:hart@pobox.com">hart@pobox.com</a> +<p class="pg"> +[Portions of this eBook’s header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] +<p class="pg"> +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* +</DIV></BODY></HTML>
\ No newline at end of file |