,,the ,,yellow ,,book ,an ,illustrated ,quarterly ,volume ,,ii ,july #ahid ,illustration3 ,magazine ,cover ,london3 ,elkin ,mathews ,john ,lane ,boston3 ,copeland ,day ,price #e_/- ,net ,contents ,literature ,i4 ,the ,gospel of ,content ,by ,frederick ,greenwood ,page #aa ,,ii4 ,poor ,cousin ,louis ,ella ,d',arcy #cd ,,iii4 ,the ,composer of ,carmen ,charles ,willeby #fc ,,iv4 ,thirty ,bob a ,week ,john ,davidson #ii ,v4 ,a ,responsibility ,henry ,harland #ajc ,,vi4 ,a ,song ,dollie ,radford #aaf ,,vii4 ,passed ,charlotte ,m4 ,mew #aba ,,viii4 ,sat est ,scripsisse ,austin ,dobson #adb ,,ix4 ,three ,stories ,v41 ,o41 ,c4,s4 #add ,x4 ,in a ,gallery ,katharine de ,mattos #agg ,,xi4 ,the ,yellow ,book1 ,philip ,gilbert ,hamerton1 criticised ,,ll4,d4 #agi ,,xii4 ,dreams ,ronald ,campbell ,macfie #aie ,,xiii4 ,madame ,rjane ,dauphin ,meunier #aig ,,xiv4 ,the ,roman ,road ,kenneth ,grahame #baa ,,xv4 ,betrothed ,norman ,gale #bbg ,,xvi4 ,thy ,heart's ,desire ,netta ,syrett #bbh ,,xvii4 ,reticence in ,literature ,hubert ,crackanthorpe #bei ,,xviii4 ,my ,study ,alfred ,hayes #bge ,,xix4 ,a ,letter to the ,editor ,max ,beerbohm #bha ,,xx4 ,an ,epigram ,william ,watson #bhi ,,xxi4 ,the ,coxon ,fund ,henry ,james #bij ,art ,i4 ,the ,renaissance of ,by ,walter ,crane ,page #g ,venus ,,ii4 ,the ,lamplighter ,a4 ,s4 ,hartrick #fj ,,iii4 ,the ,comedy-,ballet ,,iv4 of ,v4 ,marionettes ,,vi4 ,garons de ,caf ,aubrey ,beardsley #he ,,vii4 ,the ,slippers of ,cinderella ,,viii4 ,portrait of ,madame ,rjane ,,ix4 ,a ,landscape ,alfred ,thornton #aag ,x4 ,portrait of ,himself ,,xi4 ,a ,lady ,p4 ,wilson ,steer #aga ,,xii4 ,a ,gentleman ,,xiii4 ,portrait of ,henry ,john ,s4 ,sargent1 ,a4,r4,a4 #aia ,james ,,xiv4 ,a ,girl ,resting ,sydney ,adamson #bjg ,,xv4 ,the ,old ,bedford ,music ,hall ,,xvi4 ,portrait of ,aubrey ,walter ,sickert #bbj ,beardsley ,,xvii4 ,ada ,lundberg ,,xviii4 ,an ,idyll ,w4 ,brown ,mac ,dougal #bef ,,xix4 ,the ,old ,man's ,garden ,e4 ,j4 ,sullivan #bgj ,,xx4 ,the ,quick and the ,dead ,,xxi4 ,a ,reminiscence of ,francis ,forster #bgh ,the ,transgressor ,,xxii4 ,a ,study ,bernhard ,sickert #bhe ,,xxiii4 ,for the ,backs of ,playing ,by ,aymer ,vallance #cfa ,cards ,the ,yellow ,book ,volume ,,ii ,july1 #ahid ,the ,editor of ,,the ,,yellow ,,book can in no case hold himself responsible for rejected manuscripts2 when1 however1 they are accompanied by stamped addressed envelopes1 every effort will be made to secure their prompt return4 ,the ,yellow ,book ,an ,illustrated ,quarterly ,volume ,,ii ,july1 #ahid ,illustration3 sketch of a woman in a park ,london3 ,elkin ,mathews ,john ,lane ,boston3 ,copeland ,day ,agents for the ,colonies3 ,robt4 ,a4 ,thompson ,co4 ,the ,renaissance of ,venus ,by ,walter ,crane ,by kind permission of ,g4 ,f4 ,watts1 ,esq41 ,r4,a4 ,illustration3 ,the ,renaissance of ,venus ,the ,gospel of ,content ,by ,frederick ,greenwood ,i ,how it was that ,i1 being so young a man and not a very tactful one1 was sent on such an errand is more than ,i should be able to explain4 ,but many years ago some one came to me with a request that ,i should go that evening to a certain street at ,king's ,cross1 where would be found a poor lady in great distress2 that ,i should take a small sum of money which was given to me for the purpose in a little packet which disguised all appearance of coin1 present it to her as a parcel which ,i had been desired to deliver1 and ask if there were any particular service that could be done for her4 ,for my own information ,i was told that she was a beautiful ,russian whose husband had barely contrived to get her out of the country1 with her child1 before his own arrest for some deep political offence of which she was more than cognisant1 and that now she was living in desperate ignorance of his fate4 ,moreover1 she was penniless and companionless1 though not quite without friends2 for some there were who knew of her husband and had a little help for her1 though they were almost as poor as herself4 ,but none of these dare approach her1 so fearful was she of the danger of their doing so1 either to themselves or her husband or her child1 and so ignorant of the perfect freedom that political exiles could count upon in ,england4 ,then1 said ,i1 what expectation is there that she will admit me1 an absolute stranger to her1 who may be employed by the police for anything she knows to the contrary8 ,the answer was3 ,of course that has been thought of4 ,but you have only to send up your name1 which1 in the certainty that you would have no objection1 has been communicated to her already4 ,her own name1 in ,england1 is ,madame ,vernet4 ,it was a ,saturday evening in ,november1 the air thick with darkness and a drizzling rain1 the streets black and shining where lamplight fell upon the mud on the paths and the pools in the roadway1 when ,i found my way to ,king's ,cross on this small errand of kindness4 ,king's ,cross is a most unlovely purlieu at its best1 which must be in the first dawn of a summer day1 when the innocence of morning smiles along its squalid streets1 and the people of the place1 who cannot be so wretched as they look1 are shut within their poor and furtive homes4 ,on a foul ,november night nothing can be more miserable1 more melancholy4 ,one or two great thoroughfares were crowded with foot-passengers who bustled here and there about their ,saturday marketings1 under the light that flared from the shops and the stalls that lined the roadway4 ,spreading on every hand from these thoroughfares1 with their noisy trafficking so dreadfully eager and small1 was a maze of streets built to be respectable but now run down into the forlorn poverty which is all for concealment without any rational hope of success4 ,it was to one of these that ,i was directed--a narrow silent little street of three-storey houses1 with two families at least in every one of them4 ,arrived at ,no4 #ag1 ,i was admitted by a child after long delay1 and by her conducted to a room at the top of the house4 ,no voice responded to the knock at the room door1 and none to the announcement of the visitor's name2 but before ,i entered ,i was aware of a sound which1 though it was only what may be heard in the grill-room of any coffee-house at luncheon time1 made me feel very guilty and ashamed4 ,for the last ten minutes ,i had been gradually sinking under the fear of intrusion--of intrusion upon grief1 and not less upon the wretched little secrets of poverty which pride is so fain to conceal2 and now these splutterings of a frying-pan foundered me quite4 ,what worse intrusion could there be than to come prying in upon the cooking of some poor little meal8 ,too much embarrassed to make the right apology 7which1 to be right1 would have been without any embarrassment at all7 ,i entered the room1 in which everything could be seen in one straightforward glance3 the little square table in the centre1 with its old green cover and the squat lamp on it1 the two chairs1 the dingy half carpet1 the bed wherein a child lay asleep in a lovely flush of colour1 and the pale woman with a still face1 and with the eyes that are said to resemble agates1 standing before the hearth4 ,under the dark cloud of her hair she looked the very picture of ,suffering--,suffering too proud to complain and too tired to speak4 ,beautiful as the lines of her face were1 it was white as ashes and spoke their meaning2 but nothing had yet tamed the upspringing nobility of her tall1 slight1 and yet imperious form4 ,receiving me with the very least appearance of curiosity or any other kind of interest1 but yet with something of proud constraint 7which ,i attributed too much1 perhaps1 to the untimely frying-pan71 she waved her hand toward the farther chair of the two1 and asked to be excused from giving me her attention for a moment4 ,by that she evidently meant that otherwise her supper would be spoiled4 ,it is not everything that can be left to cook unattended2 and since this poor little supper was a piece of fish scarce bigger than her hand1 it was all the more likely to spoil and the less could be spared in damage4 ,so ,i quietly took my seat in a position which more naturally commanded the view out of window than of the cooking operations1 and waited to be again addressed4 ,on the mantel-board a noisy little ,american clock ticked as if its mission was to hurry time rather than to measure it1 the frying-pan fizzed and bubbled without any abatement of its usual habit or any sense of compunction1 now and then the child tossed upon the bed from one pretty attitude to another2 and that was all that could be heard1 for ,madame ,vernet's movements were as silent as the movements of a shadow4 ,in almost any part of that small room she could be seen without direct looking2 but at a moment when she seemed struck into a yet deeper silence1 and because of it1 ,i ventured to turn upon her more than half an eye4 ,standing rigidly still1 she was staring at the door in an intensity of listening that transfigured her4 ,but the door was closed1 and ,i with the best of hearing directed to the same place could detect no new sound3 indeed1 ,i dare swear that there was none4 ,it was merely accidental that just at this moment the child1 with another toss of the lovely black head1 opened her eyes wide2 but it deepened the impressiveness of the scene when her mother1 seeing the little one awake1 placed a finger on her own lips as she advanced nearer to the door4 ,the gesture was for silence1 and it was obeyed as if in understood fear4 ,but still there was nothing to be heard without1 unless it were a push of soft drizzle against the window-panes4 ,and this ,madame ,vernet herself seemed to think when1 after a little while1 she turned back to the fire--her eyes mere agates again which had been all ablaze4 ,stooping to the fender1 she had now got her fish into one warm plate1 and had covered it with another1 and had placed it on the broad old-fashioned hob of the grate to keep hot 7as ,i surmised7 while she spoke with and got rid of me1 when knocking was heard at the outer door1 a pair of hasty feet came bounding up the stair1 careless of noise1 and in flashed a splendid radiant creature of a man in a thin summer coat1 and literally drenched to the skin4 ,it was ,monsieur ,vernet1 whose real name ended in ieff4 ,by daring ingenuity1 by a long chain of connivance yet more hazardous1 by courage1 effrontery1 and one or two miraculous strokes of good fortune1 he had escaped from the fortress to which he had been conveyed in secret and without the least spark of hope that he would ever be released4 ,for many months no one but himself and his jailers knew whether he was alive or dead3 his friends inclined to think him the one thing or the other according to the brightness or the gloominess of the hour4 ,smuggled into ,germany1 and running thence into ,belgium1 he had landed in ,england the night before2 and walking the whole distance to ,london1 with an interval of four hours' sleep in a cartshed1 he contrived to bring home nearly all of the four shillings with which he started4 ,but these particulars1 it will be understood1 ,i did not learn till afterwards4 ,for that evening my visit was at an end from the moment 7the first of his appearance7 when ,vernet seized his wife in his arms with a partial resemblance to murder4 ,unobserved1 ,i placed my small packet on the table behind the lamp1 and then slipped out2 but not without a last view of that affecting domestic interior1 which showed me those two people in a relaxed embrace while they made me a courteous salute in response to another which was all awkwardness1 their little daughter standing up on the bed in her night-gown1 patiently yet eagerly waiting to be noticed by her father4 ,in all likelihood she had not to wait long4 ,this was the beginning of my acquaintance with a man who had a greater number of positive ideas than any one else that ever ,i have known1 with wonderful intrepidity and skill in expounding or defending them4 ,however fine the faculties of some other ,russians whom ,i have encountered1 they seemed to move in a heavily obstructive atmosphere2 ,vernet appeared to be oppressed by none4 ,his resolutions were as prompt as his thought2 whatever resource he could command in any difficulty1 whether the least or the greatest1 presented itself to his mind instantly1 with the occasion for it2 and every movement of his body had the same quickness and precision4 ,his pride1 his pride of aristocracy1 could tower to extraordinary heights2 his sensibility to personal slights and indignities was so trenchant that ,i have seen him white and quivering with rage when he thought himself rudely jostled by a fellow-passenger in a crowded street4 ,and yet any comrade in conspiracy was his familiar if he only brought daring enough into the common business2 and wife1 child1 fortune1 the exchange of ease for the most desperate misery1 all were put at stake for the sake of the ,people and at the call of their sorrows and oppressions4 ,and of one sort of pride he had no sense whatever--fine gentleman as he was1 and used from his birth to every refinement of service and luxury3 no degree of poverty1 nor any blameless shift for relieving it1 touched him as humiliating4 ,privation1 whether for others or himself1 angered him2 the contrast between slothful wealth and toiling misery enraged him2 but he had no conception of want and its wretched little expedients as mortifying4 ,for example4 ,it was in ,november1 that dreary and inclement month1 when he began life anew in ,england with a capital of three shillings and sevenpence4 ,it was a bleak afternoon in ,december1 sleet lightly falling as the dusk came on and melting as it fell1 when ,i found him gathering into a little basket what looked in the half-darkness like monstrous large snails4 ,with as much indifference as if he were offering me a new kind of cigarette1 ,vernet put one of these things into my hand1 and ,i saw that it was a beautifully-made miniature sailor's hat4 ,the strands of which it was built were just like twisted brown straw to the eye1 though they were of the smallness of packthread2 and a neat band of ribbon proportionately slender made all complete4 ,but what were they for8 ,how were they made8 ,the answer was that the design was to sell them1 and that they were made of the cords--more artistically twisted and more neatly waxed than usual--that shoemakers use in sewing4 ,as for the bands1 ,madame ,vernet had amongst her treasures a cap which her little daughter had worn in her babyhood2 and this cap had close frills of lace1 and the frills were inter-studded with tiny loops of ribbon--a fashion of that time4 ,there were dozens of these tiny loops1 and everyone of them made a band for ,vernet's little toy hats4 ,perhaps in tenderness for the mother's feelings1 he would not let her turn the ribbons to their new use1 but had applied them himself2 and having spent the whole of a foodless day in the manufacture of these little articles1 he was now about to go and sell them4 ,he had selected his pitch in a flaring bustling street a mile away2 and he asked me 7,i must lose no time1 he said7 to accompany him in that direction4 ,i did so1 with a cold and heavy stone in my breast which ,i am sure had no counterpart in his own4 ,as he marched on1 in his light and firm soldierly way1 he was loud in praise of ,english liberty3 at such a moment that was his theme4 ,arrived near his pitch1 he bade me good-night with no abatement of the high and easy air that was natural to him2 and though ,i instantly turned back of course1 ,i knew that at a few paces farther the violently proud man moved off the pathway into the gutter1 and stood there till eleven o'clock2 for not before then did he sell the last of his little penny hats4 ,another man1 equally proud1 might have done the same thing in ,vernet's situation1 but not with ,vernet's absolute indifference to everything but the coldness of the night and the too-great stress of physical want4 ,but this ,russian revolutionist was far too capable and versatile a man to lie long in low water4 ,he had a genius for industrial chemistry which soon got him employment and from the sufficiently comfortable made him prosperous by rapid stages4 ,but what of that8 ,before long another wave of political disturbance rose in ,europe2 ,russia1 ,italy1 ,france1 'twas all one to ,vernet when his sympathies were roused2 and after one or two temporary disappearances he was again lost altogether4 ,there was no news of him for months2 and then his wife1 who all this while had been sinking back into the pallid speechless deadness of the ,king's ,cross days1 suddenly disappeared too4 ,,ii ,for more than thirty years--a period of enormous change in all that men do or think--no word of ,vernet came to my knowledge4 ,but though quite passed away he was never forgotten long1 and it was with an inrush of satisfaction that1 a year or two ago1 ,i received this letter from him3 444 ,i have been reading the ---- ,review1 and it determines me to solicit a pleasure which ,i have been at full-cock to ask for many times since ,i returned to ,england in #ahhg4 ,let us meet4 ,i have something to say to you4 ,but let us not meet in this horrifically large and noisy town4 ,you know ,richmond8 ,you know the ,star and ,garter ,hotel there8 ,choose a day when you will go to find me in that hotel4 ,it shall be in a quiet room looking over the trees and the river1 and there we will dine and sit and talk over our dear tobacco in a right place4 ,to say one word of the past1 that you may know and then forget4 ,marie is gone--gone twelve years since2 and my daughter1 gone4 ,i do not speak of them4 ,and do not you expect to find in me any more the ,vernet of old days4 ,nor was he4 ,the splendidly robust and soldierly figure of thirty-five had changed into a thin1 fine-featured old man1 above all things gentle1 thoughtful1 considerate4 ,except that there was no suggestion of a second and an inner self in him1 he might have been an ecclesiastic2 as it was1 he looked rather as if he had been all his life a recluse student of books and state affairs4 ,it was a good little dinner in a bright room overlooking the garden2 and it was served so early that the declining sunshine of a ,june day shone through our claret-glasses when coffee was brought in4 ,our first talk was of matters of the least importance--our own changing fortunes over a period of prodigious change for the whole world4 ,from that personal theme to the greater mutations that affect all mankind was a quick transition2 and we had not long been launched on this line of talk before ,i found that in very truth nothing had changed more than ,vernet himself4 ,it was the story of ,ignatius ,loyola over again1 in little and with a difference4 ,yes1 said he1 my mind filling with unspoken wonder at this during a brief pause in the conversation1 ,yes1 prison did me good4 ,not in the rough way you think1 perhaps1 as of taking nonsense out of a man with a stick1 but as solitude4 ,strict ,catholics go into retreat once a year1 and it does them good as ,catholics3 whether otherwise ,i do not know1 but it is possible4 ,you have a wild philosopher whom ,i love2 and wild philosophers are much the best4 ,in them there is more philosophic sport1 more surprise1 more shock2 and it is shock that crystallises4 ,they startle the breath into our own unborn thoughts--thoughts formed in the mind1 you know1 but without any ninth month for them3 they wait for some outer voice to make them alive4 ,well1 once upon a time ,i heard this philosopher1 your ,mr4 ,ruskin1 say that only the most noble1 most virtuous1 most beautiful young men should be allowed to go to the war2 the others1 never4 ,and he maintained it--ah6 in language from some divine madhouse in heaven4 ,but as to that1 it is a great objection that your army is already small4 ,yet of this ,i am nearly sure2 it is the wrong men who go to gaol4 ,the rogues and thieves should give place to honest men--honest reflective men4 ,every advantage of that conclusive solitude is lost on blackguard persons and is mostly turned to harm4 ,for them prescribe one1 two1 three applications of your cat-o'-nine tails---- ,there is knout like it6 said ,i1 intending a severity of retort which ,i hoped would not be quite lost in the pun4 ----and then a piece of bread1 a shilling1 and dismissal to the most devout repentance that brutish crime is ever acquainted with1 repentance in stripes4 ,imprisonment is wasted on persons of so inferior character4 ,waste it not1 and you will have accommodation for wise men to learn the monk's lesson 7did you ever think it all foolishness87 that a little imperious hardship1 a time of seclusion with only themselves to talk to themselves1 is most improving4 ,for statesmen and reformers it should be an obligation4 ,and according to your experience what is the general course of the improvement8 ,in what direction does it run8 ,at best8 ,in sum total8 ,you know me that ,i am no monk nor lover of monks1 but ,i say to you what the monk would say were he still a man and intelligent4 ,the chief good is rising above petty irritation1 petty contentiousness2 it is patience with ills that must last long2 it is choosing to build out the east wind instead of running at it with a sword4 ,and1 if ,i remember aright1 you never had that sword out of your hand4 ,from twenty years old to fifty1 never out of my hand4 ,but there were excuses--no1 but more than excuses2 remember that that was another time4 ,now how different it is1 and what satisfaction to have lived to see the change6 ,and what is the change you are thinking of6 ,one that ,i have read of--only he must not flatter himself that he alone could find it out--in some ,review articles of an old friend of ,vernet's whose portrait is before me now4 ,and then1 a little to my distress1 but more to my pleasure1 he quoted from two or three forgotten papers of mine on the later developments of social humanity1 the evolution of goodness in the relations of men to each other1 the new1 great and rapid extension of brotherly kindness2 observations and theories which were welcomed as novel when they were afterwards taken up and enlarged upon by ,mr4 ,kidd in his book on ,social ,evolution4 ,for an ancient conspirator and man of the barricades1 continued ,vernet1 by this time pacing the room in the dusk which he would not allow to be disturbed1 for a blood-and-iron man who put all his hopes of a better day for his poor devils of fellow-creatures on the smashing of forms and institutions and the substitution of others1 ,i am rather a surprising convert1 don't you think8 ,but who could know in those days what was going on in the common stock of mind by--what shall we call it8 ,before your ,darwin brought out his explaining word 'evolution' ,i should have said that the change came about by a sort of mental chemistry2 that it was due to a kind of chemical ferment in the mind1 unsuspected till it showed entirely new growths and developments4 ,and even now1 you know1 ,i am not quite comfortable with 'evolution' as the word for this sudden spiritual advance into what you call common kindness and more learned persons call 'altruism4' ,it does not satisfy me1 'evolution4' ,but you can say why it doesn't1 perhaps4 ,nothing1 more1 ,i suppose1 than the familiar association of 'evolution' with slow degrees and gradual processes4 ,evolution seems to speak the natural coming-out of certain developments from certain organisms under certain conditions4 ,the change comes1 and you see it coming2 and you can look back and trace its advance4 ,but here8 ,the human mind has been the same for ages2 subject to the same teaching2 open to the same persuasions and dissuasions2 as quick to see and as keen to think as it is now2 and all the while it has been staring on the same cruel scenes of misery and privation3 no1 but very often worse4 ,and then1 presto6 there comes a sudden growth of fraternal sentiment all over this field of the human mind2 and such a growth that if it goes on1 if it goes on straight and well1 it will transform the whole world4 ,transform its economies8--it will change its very aspect4 ,towns1 streets1 houses will show the difference2 while as to man himself1 it will make him another being4 ,for this is neither a physical nor a mere intellectual advance4 ,as for that1 indeed1 perhaps the intellectual advance hasn't very much farther to go on its own lines1 which are independent of morality1 or of goodness as ,i prefer to say3 the simple word6 ,well1 do you care if evolution has pretty nearly done with intellect8 ,would you mind if intellect never made a greater shine8 ,will your heart break if it never ascends to a higher plane than it has reached already8 ,not a bit2 if1 in time1 nobody is without a good working share of what intellect there is amongst us4 ,no1 not a bit6 ,enough of intellect for the good and happiness of mankind if we evolve no more of it4 ,but this is another thing6 ,this is a spiritual evolution1 spiritual advance and development--a very different thing6 ,mark you1 too1 that it is not shown in a few amongst millions1 but is common1 general4 ,and though1 as you have said1 it may perish at its beginnings1 trampled out by war1 the terrible war to come may absolutely confirm it4 ,for my part1 ,i don't despair of its surviving and spreading even from the battle-field4 ,it is your own word that not only has the growth of common kindness been more urgent1 rapid and general this last hundred years than was ever witnessed before in the whole long history of the world1 but it has come out as strongly in making war as in making peace4 ,it is seen in extending to foes a benevolence which not long ago would have been thought ludicrous and even unnatural4 ,why1 then1 if that's so1 the feeling may be furthered and intensified by the very horrors of the next great war1 such horrors as there must be2 and--,god knows6 ,god knows6--but from this beginning the spiritual nature of man may be destined to rise as far above the rudimentary thing it is yet 7,i think of a staggering blind puppy7 as ,king ,solomon's wits were above an ,eskimo's4 ,still the same enthusiast1 ,i said to myself1 though with so great a difference4 ,but what struck me most was the reverence with which he said ,god knows6 ,for the coolest ,encyclopedist could not have denied the existence of ,god with a more settled air than did the ,vernet of old days4 ,and yet1 so he went on1 were the human race to become all-righteous in a fortnight1 and to push out angels' wings from its shoulders1 every one6 every one6 all together on ,christmas ,day1 it would still be the ,darwinian process4 ,yes1 we must stick to it1 that it is evolution1 ,i suppose1 and ,i'm sure it contents me well enough4 ,what matter for the process6 ,and yet do you know what ,i think8 ,lights had now been brought in by the waiter--a waiter who really could not understand why not4 ,but we sat by the open window looking out upon the deepening darkness of the garden1 beyond which the river shone as if by some pale effulgence of its own1 or perhaps by a little store of light saved up from the liberal sunshine of the day4 ,do you know what ,i think8 said ,vernet1 with the look of a man who is about to confess a weakness of which he is ashamed4 ,i sometimes think that if ,i were of the orthodox ,i should draw an argument for supernatural religion1 against your strict materialists1 from this sudden change of heart in ,christian countries4 ,for that is what it is4 ,it is a change of heart2 or1 if you like to have it so1 of spirit2 and the remarkable thing is that it is nothing else4 ,whether it lasts or not1 this awakening of brotherliness cannot be completely understood unless that is understood4 ,what else has changed1 these hundred years8 ,there is no fresh discovery of human suffering1 no new knowledge of the desperate poverty and toil of so many of our fellow-creatures3 nor can we see better with our eyes1 or understand better what we hear and see4 ,this that we are talking about is a heart-growth1 which1 as we know1 can make the lowliest peasant divine2 not a mind-growth1 which can be splendid in the coldest and most devilish man4 ,well1 then1 were ,i of the orthodox ,i should say this4 ,when1 after many generations1 ,i see a traceless movement of the spirit of man like the one we are speaking of--a movement which1 if it gains in strength and goes on to its natural end1 will transfigure human society and make it infinitely more like heaven--,i think the divine influence upon the development of man as a spirit may be direct and continuous2 or1 it would be better to say1 not without repetition4 ,vernet had to be reminded that the intellectual development of man had also shown itself in sudden starts and rushes toward perfection--now in one land1 now in another2 and never with an appearance of gradual progress1 as might be expected from the nature of things4 ,and therefore nothing in the spiritual advance which is declared by the sudden efflorescence of altruism dissociates it from the common theory of evolution4 ,this he was forced to admit4 ,i know1 he replied2 and as to intellectual development showing itself by starts and rushes1 it is very obvious4 ,but though he made the admission1 ,i could see that he preferred belief in direct influence from above4 ,and this was ,vernet6--a most unexpected example of that ,return to ,religion which was not so manifest when we talked together as it is to-day4 ,you see1 ,i am a soldier1 he resumed1 and a soldier born and bred does not know how to get on very long without feeling the presence of a ,general1 a ,commander4 ,that ,i find as ,i grow old2 my youth would have been ashamed to acknowledge the sentiment4 ,and for its own sake1 ,i hope that ,science is becoming an old gentleman too1 and willing to see its youthful confidence in the destruction of religious belief quite upset4 ,for upset it certainly will be1 and very much by its own hands4 ,most of the new professors were sure that the religious idea was to perish at last in the light of scientific inquiry4 ,none of them seemed to suspect what ,i remember to have read in a fantastic magazine article two or three years ago1 that unbelief in the existence of a providential ,god1 the dissolution of that belief1 would not retard but probably draw on more quickly the greater and yet unfulfilled triumphs of ,christ on earth4 ,are you surprised at that8 ,certainly it is not the general idea of what unbelief is capable of4 ',and what1' says some one in the story1 'what are those greater triumphs8' ,to which the answer is3 ',the extension of charity1 the diffusion of brotherly love1 greed suppressed1 luxury shameful1 service and self-sacrifice a common law'--something like what we see already between mother and child1 it was said4 ,now what do you think of that as a consequence of settled unbelief8 ,as for ,belief1 we must allow that that has not done much to bring on the greater triumphs of ,christianity4 ,and how is ,unbelief to do this mighty work8 said ,i4 ,you would like to know6 ,why1 in a most natural way1 and not at all mysterious4 ,but if you ask in how long a time----6 ,well1 it is thus1 as ,i understand4 ,what the destruction of religious faith might have made of the world centuries ago we cannot tell2 nothing much worse1 perhaps1 than it was under ,belief1 for belief can exist with little change of heart4 ,but these are new times4 ,unbelief cannot annihilate the common feeling of humanity4 ,on the contrary1 we see that it is just when ,science breaks religion down into agnosticism that a new day of tenderness for suffering begins1 and poverty looks for the first time like a wrong4 ,and why8 ,to answer that question we should remember what centuries of belief taught us as to the place of man on earth in the plan of the ,creator4 ,this world1 it was 'a scene of probation4' ,the mystery of pain and suffering1 the burdens of life apportioned so unequally1 the wicked prosperous1 goodness wretched1 innocent weakness trodden down or used up in starving toil--all this was explained by the scheme of probation4 ,it was only for this life2 and every hour of it we were under the eyes of a heavenly ,father who knows all and weighs all2 and there will be a future of redress that will leave no misery unreckoned1 no weakness unconsidered1 no wrong uncompensated that was patiently borne4 ,don't you remember8 ,and how comfortable the doctrine was6 ,how entirely it soothed our uneasiness when1 sitting in warmth and plenty1 we thought of the thousands of poor wretches outside6 ,and it was a comfort for the poor wretches too1 who believed most when they were most miserable or foully wronged that in ,his own good time ,god would requite or would avenge4 ,very well4 ,but now1 says my magazine sermoniser1 suppose this idea of a heavenly ,father a mistake and probation a fairy tale2 suppose that there is no ,divine scheme of redress beyond the grave3 how do we mortals stand to each other then8 ,how do we stand to each other in a world empty of all promise beyond it8 ,what is to become of our scene-of-probation complacency1 we who are happy and fortunate in the midst of so much wrong8 ,and if we do not busy ourselves with a new dispensation on their behalf1 what hope or consolation is there for the multitude of our fellow-creatures who are born to unmerited misery in the only world there is for any of us8 ,it is clear that if we must give up the ,divine scheme of redress as a dream1 redress is an obligation returned upon ourselves4 ,all will not be well in another world3 all must be put right in this world or nowhere and never4 ,dispossessed of ,god and a future life1 mankind is reduced to the condition of the wild creatures1 each with a natural right to ravage for its own good4 ,if in such conditions there is a duty of forbearance from ravaging1 there is a duty of helpful surrender too2 and unbelief must teach both duties1 unless it would import upon earth the hell it denies4 ',unbelief is a call to bring in the justice1 the compassion1 the oneness of brotherhood that can never make a heaven for us elsewhere4' ,so the thing goes on2 the end of the argument being that in this way unbelief itself may turn to the service of ,heaven and do the work of the believer's ,god4 ,more than that3 in the doing of it the spiritual nature of man must be exalted1 step by step4 ,that may be its way of perfection4 ,on that path it will rise higher and higher into ,divine illuminations which have touched it but very feebly as yet1 even after countless ages of existence4 ,do you recognise these speculations8 said ,vernet1 after a silence4 ,i recognised them well enough1 without at all anticipating that so much of them would presently re-appear in the formal theory of more than one social philosopher4 ,there was a piano in the little room we dined in4 ,for a minute or two ,vernet1 standing with his cigar between his lips1 went lightly over the keys4 ,the movement1 though extremely quick1 was wonderfully soft1 so that he had not to raise his voice in saying3 ,i have an innocent little speculation of my own4 ,how long will it be before this spiritual perfectioning is pretty near accomplishment8 ,two thousand years8 ,one thousand years8 ,twenty generations at the least6 ,ah1 that is the despair of us poor wretches of to-day and to-morrow4 ,well1 when the time comes ,i fancy that an entirely new literature will have a new language4 ,there will certainly be a new literature if ever spiritual progress equals intellectual progress4 ,the dawning of conceptions as yet undreamt of1 enlightenments higher than any yet attained to1 may be looked for1 ,i suppose1 as in the natural order of things2 and even without extraordinary revelations to the spirit1 the spiritual advance must have an enormous effect in disabusing1 informing and inspiring mental faculty such as we know it now4 ,and meanwhile8 ,meanwhile words are all that we speak with1 and how weak are words8 ,already there are heights and depths of feeling which they are hardly more adequate to express than the dumbness of the dog can express his love for his master4 ,yet there is a language that speaks to the deeper thought and finer spirit in us as words do not--moving them profoundly though they have no power of articulate response4 ,they heave and struggle to reply1 till our breasts are actually conscious of pain sometimes2 but--no articulate answer4 ,do you recognise----8 ,i pointed to the piano with the finger of interrogation4 ,yes1 said ,vernet1 with a delicate sweep of the keyboard1 it is this6 ,it is music2 music1 which is felt to be the most subtle1 most appealing1 most various of tongues even while we know that we are never more than half awake to its pregnant meanings1 and have not learnt to think of it as becoming the last perfection of speech4 ,but that may be its appointed destiny4 ,no1 ,i don't think so only because music itself is a thing of late1 speedy and splendid development1 coming just before the later diffusion of spiritual growth4 ,yet there is something in that1 something which an evolutionist would think apposite and to be expected4 ,there is more1 however1 in what music is--a voice always understood to have powerful innumerable meanings appealing to we know not what in us1 we hardly know how2 and more1 again1 in its being an exquisite voice which can make no use of reason1 nor reason of it2 nor calculation1 nor barter1 nor anything but emotion and thought4 ,the language we are using now1 we two1 is animal language by direct pedigree1 which is worth observation don't you think8 ,and1 for another thing1 when it began it had very small likelihood of ever developing into what it has become under the constant addition of man's business in the world and the accretive demands of reason and speculation4 ,and the poets have made it very beautiful no doubt2 yes1 and when it is most beautiful it is most musical1 please observe3 most beautiful1 and at the same time most meaning4 ,well1 then6 ,a new nature1 new needs4 ,what do you think8 ,what do you say against music being wrought into another language for mankind1 as it nears the height of its spiritual growth8 ,i say it is a pretty fancy1 and quite within reasonable speculation4 ,but yet not of the profoundest consequence1 added ,vernet1 coming from the piano and resuming his seat by the window4 ,no2 but what is of consequence is the cruel tedium of these evolutionary processes4 ,a thousand years1 and how much movement8 ,remember the sudden starts towards perfection1 and that the farther we advance the more we may be able to help4 ,well1 but that is the very thing ,i meant to say4 ,help is not only desirable1 it is imperatively called for4 ,for an unfortunate offensive movement rises against this better one1 which will be checked1 or perhaps thrown back altogether1 unless the stupid reformers who confront the new spirit of kindness with the highwayman's demand are brought to reason4 ,what ,i most willingly yield to friend and brother ,i do not choose to yield to an insulting thief2 rather will ,i break his head in the cause of divine ,civility4 ,robbery is no way of righteousness1 and your gallant reformers who think it a fine heroic means of bringing on a better time for humanity should be taught that some devil has put the wrong plan into their heads4 ,it is his way of continuing under new conditions the old conflict of evil and good4 ,but taught6 ,how should these so-earnest ones be taught8 ,ah1 how6 ,then leave the reformers2 and while they inculcate their mistaken ,gospel of ,rancour1 let every wise man preach the ,gospel of ,content4 ,content--with things as they are8 ,why1 no1 my friend2 for that would be preaching content with universal uncontent1 which of course cannot last into a reign of wisdom and peace4 ,but if you ask me whether ,i mean content with a very very little of this world's goods1 or even contentment in poverty1 ,i say yes4 ,there will be no better day till that gospel has found general acceptance1 and has been taken into the common habitudes of life4 ,the end may be distant enough2 but it is your own opinion that the time is already ripe for the preacher1 and if he were no ,peter the ,hermit but only another1 another---- ,father ,mathew1 inspired with more saintly fervour---- ,who knows how far he might carry the divine light to which so many hearts are awakening in secret8 ,this first ,christianity1 it was but 'the false dawn4' ,yes1 we may think so4 ,here there was a pause for a few moments1 and then ,i put in a word to the effect that it would be difficult to commend a gospel of content to ,poverty4 ,but1 said ,vernet1 it will be addressed more to the rich and well-to-do1 as you call them1 bidding them be content with enough4 ,not forbidding them to strive for more than enough--that would never do4 ,the good of mankind demands that all its energies should be maintained1 but not that its energies should be meanly employed in grubbing for the luxury that is no enjoyment but only a show1 or that palls as soon as it is once enjoyed1 and then is no more felt as luxury than the labourer's second pair of boots or the mechanic's third shirt a week4 ,for the men of thousands per annum the ,gospel of ,content would be the wise1 wise1 wise old injunction to plain living and high thinking1 only with one addition both beautiful and wise3 kind thinking1 and the high and the kind thinking made good in deed4 ,and it would work1 this gospel2 we may be sure of it already4 ,for luxury has became common2 it is being found out4 ,where there was one person at the beginning of the century who had daily experience of its fatiguing disappointments1 now there are fifty4 ,like everything else1 it loses distinction by coming abundantly into all sorts of hands2 and meanwhile other and nobler kinds of distinction have multiplied and have gained acknowledgment4 ,and from losing distinction--this you must have observed--luxury is becoming vulgar2 and ,i don't know why the time should be so very far off when it will be accounted shameful4 ,certain it is that year by year a greater number of minds1 and such as mostly determine the currents of social sentiment1 think luxury low2 without going deeper than the mere look of it1 perhaps4 ,these are hopeful signs4 ,here is good encouragement to stand out and preach a gospel of content which would be an education in simplicity1 dignity1 happiness1 and yet more an education of heart and spirit4 ,for nothing that a man can do in this world works so powerfully for his own spiritual good as the habit of sacrifice to kindness4 ,it is so like a miracle that it is1 ,i am sure1 the one way--the one way appointed by the laws of our spiritual growth4 ,yes1 and what about preaching the gospel of content to ,poverty8 ,well1 there we must be careful to discriminate--careful to disentangle poverty from some other things which are the same thing in the common idea4 ,say but this1 that there must be no content with squalor1 none with any sort of uncleanness1 and poverty takes its own separate place and its own unsmirched aspect4 ,an honourable poverty1 clear of squalor1 any man should be able to endure with a tranquil mind4 ,to attain to that tranquillity is to attain to nobleness2 and persistence in it1 though effort fail and desert go quite without reward1 ennobles4 ,contentment in poverty does not mean crouching to it or under it4 ,contentment is not cowardice1 but fortitude4 ,there is no truer assertion of manliness1 and none with more grace and sweetness4 ,before it can have an established place in the breast of any man1 envy must depart from it--envy1 jealousy1 greed1 readiness to take half-honest gains1 a horde of small ignoble sentiments not only disturbing but poisonous to the ground they grow in4 ,ah1 believe me6 if a man had eloquence enough1 fire enough1 and that command of sympathy that your ,gordon seems to have had 7not to speak of a man like ,mahomet or to touch on more sacred names71 he might do wonders for mankind in a single generation by preaching to rich and poor the several doctrines of the ,gospel of ,content4 ,a curse on the mean strivings1 stealings1 and hoardings that survive from our animal ancestry1 and another curse 7by your permission7 on the gaudy vanities that we have set up for objects in life since we became reasoning creatures4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in effect1 here the conversation ended4 ,more was said1 but nothing worth recalling4 ,drifting back to less serious talk1 we gossiped till midnight1 and then parted with the heartiest desire 7,i speak for myself7 of meeting soon again4 ,but on our way back to town ,vernet recurred for a moment to the subject of his discourse1 saying3 ,i don't make out exactly what you think now of the prospect we were talking of4 ,my answer pleased him4 ,i incline to think1 said ,i1 what ,i have long thought3 that if there is any such future for us1 and ,i believe there is1 we of the older ,european nations will be nowhere when it comes4 ,in existence--yes1 perhaps2 but gone down4 ,you see we are becoming greybeards already2 while you in ,russia are boys1 with every mark of boyhood on you4 ,you1 you are a new race--the only new race in the world2 and it is plain that you swarm with ideas of precisely the kind that1 when you come to maturity1 may re-invigorate the world4 ,but first1 who knows what deadly wars8 ,he pressed his hand upon my knee in a way that spoke a great deal4 ,we parted1 and two months afterwards the ,vernet whose real name ended in ieff was happed in lead4 ,poor ,cousin ,louis ,by ,ella ,d',arcy ,there stands in the ,islands a house known as ,les ,calais4 ,it has stood there already some three hundred years1 and to judge from its stout walls and weather-tight appearance1 promises to stand some three hundred more4 ,built of brown home-quarried stone1 with solid stone chimney-stacks and roof of red tiles1 its door is set in the centre beneath a semi-circular arch of dressed granite1 on the keystone of which is deeply cut the date of construction3 ,j ,v ,n ,i #a #f #j #c ,above the date straggle the letters1 ,l ,g ,m ,m1 initials of the forgotten names of the builder of the house and of the woman he married4 ,in the summer weather of #afjc that inscription was cut1 and the man and woman doubtless read it with pride and pleasure as they stood looking up at their fine new homestead4 ,they believed it would carry their names down to posterity when they themselves should be gone2 yet there stand the initials to-day1 while the personalities they represent are as lost to memory as are the builders' graves4 ,at the moment when this little sketch opens1 ,les ,calais had belonged for three generations to the family of ,renouf 7pronounced ,rennuf71 and it is with the closing days of ,mr4 ,louis ,renouf that it purposes to deal4 ,but first to complete the description of the house1 which is typical of the ,islands3 hundreds of such homesteads placed singly1 or in groups--then sharing in one common name--may be found there in a day's walk1 although it must be added that a day's walk almost suffices to explore any one of the ,islands from end to end4 ,les ,calais shares its name with none4 ,it stands alone1 completely hidden1 save at one point only1 by its ancient elms4 ,on either side of the doorway are two windows1 each of twelve small panes1 and there is a row of five similar windows above4 ,around the back and sides of the house cluster all sorts of outbuildings1 necessary dependencies of a time when men made their own cider and candles1 baked their own bread1 cut and stacked their own wood1 and dried the dung of their herds for extra winter fuel4 ,beyond these lie its vegetable and fruit gardens1 which again are surrounded on every side by its many rich verges of pasture land4 ,would you find ,les ,calais1 take the high road from ,jacques-le-,port to the village of ,st4 ,gilles1 then keep to the left of the schools along a narrow lane cut between high hedges4 ,it is a cart track only1 as the deep sun-baked ruts testify1 leading direct from ,st4 ,gilles to ,vauvert1 and1 likely enough1 during the whole of that distance you will not meet with a solitary person4 ,you will see nothing but the green running hedgerows on either hand1 the blue-domed sky above1 from whence the lark1 a black pin-point in the blue1 flings down a gush of song2 while the thrush you have disturbed lunching off that succulent snail1 takes short ground flights before you1 at every pause turning back an ireful eye to judge how much farther you intend to pursue him4 ,he is happy if you branch off midway to the left down the lane leading straight to ,les ,calais4 ,a gable end of the house faces this lane1 and its one window in the days of ,louis ,renouf looked down upon a dilapidated farm- and stable-yard1 the gate of which1 turned back upon its hinges1 stood wide open to the world4 ,within might be seen granaries empty of grain1 stables where no horses fed1 a long cow-house crumbling into ruin1 and the broken stone sections of a cider trough dismantled more than half a century back4 ,cushions of emerald moss studded the thatches1 and lilliputian forests of grass blades sprang thick between the cobble stones4 ,the place might have been mistaken for some deserted grange1 but for the contradiction conveyed in a bright pewter full-bellied water-can standing near the well1 in a pile of firewood1 with chopper still stuck in the topmost billet1 and in a tatterdemalion troop of barn-door fowl lagging meditatively across the yard4 ,on a certain day1 when summer warmth and unbroken silence brooded over all1 and the broad sunshine blent the yellows1 reds1 and greys of tile and stone1 the greens of grass and foliage1 into one harmonious whole1 a visitor entered the open gate4 ,this was a tall1 large young woman1 with a fair1 smooth1 thirty-year-old face4 ,dressed in what was obviously her ,sunday best1 although it was neither ,sunday nor even market-day1 she wore a bonnet diademed with gas-green lilies of the valley1 a netted black mantilla1 and a velvet-trimmed violet silk gown1 which she carefully lifted out of dust's way1 thus displaying a stiffly starched petticoat and kid spring-side boots4 ,such attire1 unbeautiful in itself and incongruous with its surroundings1 jarred harshly with the picturesque note of the scene4 ,from being a subject to perpetuate on canvas1 it shrunk1 as it were1 to the background of a cheap photograph1 or the stage adjuncts to the heroine of a farce4 ,the silence too was shattered as the new comer's foot fell upon the stones4 ,an unseen dog began to mouth a joyous welcome1 and the fowls1 lifting their thin1 apprehensive faces towards her1 flopped into a clumsy run as though their last hour were visible4 ,the visitor meanwhile turned familiar steps to a door in the wall on the left1 and raising the latch1 entered the flower garden of ,les ,calais4 ,this garden1 lying to the south1 consisted then1 and perhaps does still1 of two square grass-plots with a broad gravel path running round them and up to the centre of the house4 ,in marked contrast with the neglect of the farmyard was this exquisitely kept garden1 brilliant and fragrant with flowers4 ,from a raised bed in the centre of each plot standard rose-trees shed out gorgeous perfume from chalices of every shade of loveliness1 and thousands of white pinks justled shoulder to shoulder in narrow bands cut within the borders of the grass4 ,busy over these1 his back towards her1 was an elderly man1 braces hanging1 in coloured cotton shirt4 ,good afternoon1 ,tourtel1 cried the lady1 advancing4 ,thus addressed1 he straightened himself slowly and turned round4 ,leaning on his hoe1 he shaded his eyes with his hand4 ,eh den6 it's you1 ,missis ,pedvinn1 said he2 but we didn't expec' you till to-morrow8 ,no1 it's true1 said ,mrs4 ,poidevin1 that ,i wrote ,i would come ,saturday1 but ,pedvinn expects some friends by the ,english boat1 and wants me to receive them4 ,yet as they may be staying the week1 ,i did not like to put poor ,cousin ,louis off so long without a visit1 so thought ,i had better come up to-day4 ,almost unconsciously1 her phrases assumed apologetic form4 ,she had an uneasy feeling ,tourtel's wife might resent her unexpected advent2 although why ,mrs4 ,tourtel should object1 or why she herself should stand in any awe of the ,tourtels1 she could net have explained4 ,tourtel was but gardener1 the wife housekeeper and nurse1 to her cousin ,louis ,renouf1 master of ,les ,calais4 ,i sha'n't inconvenience ,mrs4 ,tourtel1 ,i hope8 ,of course ,i shouldn't think of staying tea if she is busy2 ,i'll just sit an hour with ,cousin ,louis1 and catch the six o'clock omnibus home from ,vauvert4 ,tourtel stood looking at her with wooden countenance1 in which two small shifting eyes alone gave signs of life4 ,eh1 but you won't be no inconvenience to de ole woman1 ma'am1 said he suddenly1 in so loud a voice that ,mrs4 ,poidevin jumped2 only de apple-gche1 dat she was gain' to bake agen your visit1 won't be ready1 dat's all4 ,he turned1 and stared up at the front of the house2 ,mrs4 ,poidevin1 for no reason at all1 did so too4 ,door and windows were open wide4 ,in the upper storey1 the white roller-blinds were let down against the sun1 and on the broad sills of the parlour windows were nosegays placed in blue china jars4 ,a white trellis-work criss-crossed over the faade1 for the support of climbing rose and purple clematis which hung out a curtain of blossom almost concealing the masonry behind4 ,the whole place breathed of peace and beauty1 and ,louisa ,poidevin was lapped round with that pleasant sense of well-being which it was her chief desire in life never to lose4 ,though poor ,cousin ,louis--feeble1 childish1 solitary--was so much to be pitied1 at least in his comfortable home and his worthy ,tourtels he found compensation4 ,an instant after ,tourtel had spoken1 a woman passed across the wide hall4 ,she had on a blue linen skirt1 white stockings1 and shoes of grey list4 ,the strings of a large1 bibbed1 lilac apron drew the folds of a flowered bed-jacket about her ample waist2 and her thick yellow-grey hair1 worn without a cap1 was arranged smoothly on either side of a narrow head4 ,she just glanced out1 and ,mrs4 ,poidevin was on the point of calling to her1 when ,tourtel fell into a torrent of words about his flowers4 ,he had so much to say on the subject of horticulture2 was so anxious for her to examine the freesia bulbs lying in the tool-house1 just separated from the spring plants2 he denounced so fiercely the grinding policy of ,brehault the middleman1 who purchased his garden stuff to resell it at ,covent ,garden--my good6 on dem freesias ,i didn't make not two doubles a bunch6--that for a long quarter of an hour all memory of her cousin was driven from ,mrs4 ,poidevin's brain4 ,then a voice said at her elbow1 ,mr4 ,rennuf is quite ready to see you1 ma'am1 and there stood ,tourtel's wife1 with pale composed face1 square shoulders and hips1 and feet that moved noiselessly in her list slippers4 ,ah1 ,mrs4 ,tourtel1 how do you do8 said the visitor2 a question which in the ,islands is no mere formula1 but demands and obtains a detailed answer1 after which the questioner's own health is politely inquired into4 ,not until this ceremony had been scrupulously accomplished1 and the two women were on their way to the house1 did ,mrs4 ,poidevin beg to know how things were going with her poor cousin4 ,there lay something at variance between the ruthless1 calculating spirit which looked forth from the housekeeper's cold eye1 and the extreme suavity of her manner of speech4 ,eh1 my good6 but much de same1 ma'am1 in his health1 an' more fancies dan ever in his head4 ,first one ting an' den anudder1 an' always tinking dat everybody is robbin' him4 ,you rem-ember de larse time you was here1 an' ,mister ,rennuf was abed8 ,well1 den1 after you was gone1 if he didn't deck-clare you had taken some of de fedders of his bed away wid you4 ,yes1 my good6 he tought you had cut a hole in de tick1 as you sat dere beside him an' emptied de fedders away into your pocket4 ,mrs4 ,poidevin was much interested4 ,dear me1 is it possible8444 ,but it's quite a mania with him4 ,i remember now1 on that very day he complained to me ,tourtel was wearing his shirts1 and wanted me to go in with him to ,lepage's to order some new ones4 ,eh6 but what would ,tourtel want wid fine white shirts like dem8 said the wife placidly4 ,but ,mr4 ,louis have such dozens an' dozens of 'em dat dey gets hidden away in de presses1 an' he tinks dem stolen4 ,they reached the house4 ,the interior is quite as characteristic of the ,islands as is the outside4 ,two steps take you down into the hall1 crossing the further end of which is the staircase with its balustrade of carved black oak4 ,instead of the mean painted sticks1 known technically as raisers1 and connected together at the top by a vulgar mahogany hand-rail--a fundamental article of faith with the modern builder--these old ,island balustrades are formed of wooden panels1 fretted out into scrolls1 representing flower1 or leaf1 or curious beaked and winged creatures1 which go curving1 creeping1 and ramping along in the direction of the stairs4 ,in every house you will find the detail different1 while each resembles all as a whole4 ,for in the old days the workman1 were he never so humble1 recognised the possession of an individual mind1 as well as of two eyes and two hands1 and he translated fearlessly this individuality of his into his work4 ,every house built in those days and existing down to these1 is not only a confession1 in some sort1 of the tastes1 the habits1 the character1 of the man who planned it1 but preserves a record likewise of every one of the subordinate minds employed in the various parts4 ,off the hall of ,les ,calais are two rooms on the left and one on the right4 ,the solidity of early seventeenth-century walls is shown in the embrasure depth 7measuring fully three feet7 of windows and doors4 ,up to fifty years ago all the windows had leaded casements1 as had every similar ,island dwelling-house4 ,to-day1 to the artist's regret1 you will hardly find one4 ,the showy taste of the ,second ,empire spread from ,paris even to these remote parts1 and plate-glass1 or at least oblong panes1 everywhere replaced the medival style4 ,in #ahed1 ,louis ,renouf1 just three and thirty1 was about to bring his bride1 ,miss ,marie ,mauger1 home to the old house4 ,in her honour it was done up throughout1 and the diamonded casements were replaced by guillotine windows1 six panes to each sash4 ,the best parlour then became a drawing-room2 its raftered ceiling was whitewashed1 and its great centre-beam of oak infamously papered to match the walls4 ,the newly married couple were not in a position to refurnish in approved ,second ,empire fashion4 ,the gilt and marble1 the console tables and mirrors1 the impossibly curved sofas and chairs1 were for the moment beyond them2 the wife promised herself to acquire these later on4 ,but later on came a brood of sickly children 7only one of whom reached manhood72 to the consequent expenses ,les ,calais owed the preservation of its inlaid wardrobes1 its four-post bedsteads with slender fluted columns1 and its ,chippendale parlour chairs1 the backs of which simulate a delicious intricacy of twisted ribbons4 ,as a little girl1 ,louisa ,poidevin had often amused herself studying these convolutions1 and seeking to puzzle out among the rippling ribbons some beginning or some end2 but as she grew up1 even the simplest problem lost interest for her1 and the sight of the old ,chippendale chairs standing along the walls of the large parlour scarcely stirred her bovine mind now to so much as reminiscence4 ,it was the door of this large parlour that the housekeeper opened as she announced1 ,here is ,mrs4 ,pedvinn come to see you1 sir1 and followed the visitor in4 ,sitting in a capacious berceuse1 stuffed and chintz-covered1 was the shrunken figure of a more than seventy-year-old man4 ,he was wrapped in a worn grey dressing-gown1 with a black velvet skull-cap1 napless at the seams1 covering his spiritless hair1 and he looked out upon his narrow world from dim eyes set in cavernous orbits4 ,in their expression was something of the questioning timidity of a child1 contrasting curiously with the querulousness of old age1 shown in the thin sucked-in lips1 now and again twitched by a movement in unison with the twitching of the withered hands spread out upon his knees4 ,the sunshine1 slanting through the low windows1 bathed hands and knees1 lean shanks and slippered feet1 in mote-flecked streams of gold4 ,it bathed anew rafters and ceiling-beam1 as it had done at the same hour and season these last three hundred years2 it played over the worm-eaten furniture1 and lent transitory colour to the faded samplers on the walls1 bringing into prominence one particular sampler1 which depicted in silks ,adam and ,eve seated beneath the fatal tree1 and recorded the fact that ,marie ,hoched was seventeen in #ahjh and put her trust in ,god2 and the same ray kissed the check of that very ,marie's son1 who at the time her girlish fingers pricked the canvas belonged to the enviable myriads of the unthought-of and the unborn4 ,why1 how cold you are1 ,cousin ,louis1 said ,mrs4 ,poidevin1 taking his passive hand between her two warm ones1 and feeling a chill strike from it through the violet kid gloves2 and in spite of all this sunshine too6 ,ah1 ,i'm not always in the sunshine1 said the old man2 not always1 not always in the sunshine4 ,she was not sure that he recognised her1 yet he kept hold of her hand and would not let it go4 ,no2 you are not always in de sunshine1 because de sunshine is not always here1 observed ,mrs4 ,tourtel in a reasonable voice1 and with a side glance for the visitor4 ,and ,i am not always here either1 he murmured1 half to himself4 ,he took a firmer hold of his cousin's hand1 and seemed to gain courage from the comfortable touch1 for his thin voice changed from complaint to command4 ,you can go1 ,mrs4 ,tourtel1 he said2 we don't require you here4 ,we want to talk4 ,you can go and set the tea-things in the next room4 ,my cousin will stay and drink tea with me4 ,why1 my cert'nly6 of course ,mrs4 ,pedvinn will stay tea4 ,p'r'aps you'd like to put your bonnet off in the bedroom1 first1 ma'am8 ,no1 no1 he interposed testily1 she can lay it off here4 ,no need for you to take her upstairs4 ,servant and master exchanged a mute look2 for the moment his old eyes were lighted up with the unforeseeing1 unveiled triumph of a child2 then they fell before hers4 ,she turned1 leaving the room with noiseless tread2 although a large-built1 ponderous woman1 she walked with the softness of a cat4 ,sit down here close beside me1 said ,louis ,renouf to his cousin1 ,i've something to tell you1 something very important to tell you4 ,he lowered his voice mysteriously1 and glanced with apprehension at window and door1 squeezing tight her hand4 ,i'm being robbed1 my dear1 robbed of everything ,i possess4 ,mrs4 ,poidevin1 already prepared for such a statement1 answered complacently1 ,oh1 it must be your fancy1 ,cousin ,louis4 ,mrs4 ,tourtel takes too good care of you for that4 ,my dear1 he whispered1 silver1 linen1 everything is going2 even my fine white shirts from the shelves of the wardrobe4 ,yet everything belongs to poor ,john1 who is in ,australia1 and who never writes to his father now4 ,his last letter is ten years old--ten years old1 my dear1 and ,i don't need to read it over1 for ,i know it by heart4 ,tears of weakness gathered in his eyes1 and began to trickle over on to his check4 ,oh1 ,cousin ,john will write soon1 ,i'm sure1 said ,mrs4 ,poidevin1 with easy optimism2 ,i shouldn't wonder if he has made a fortune1 and is on his way home to you at this moment4 ,ah1 he will never make a fortune1 my dear1 he was always too fond of change4 ,he had excellent capabilities1 ,louisa1 but he was too fond of change4444 ,and yet ,i often sit and pretend to myself he has made money1 and is as proud to be with his poor old father as he used to be when quite a little lad4 ,i plan out all we should do1 and all he would say1 and just how he would look 444 but that's only my make-believe2 ,john will never make money1 never4 ,but ,i'd be glad if he would come back to the old home1 though it were without a penny4 ,for if he don't come soon1 he'll find no home1 and no welcome4444 ,i raised all the money ,i could when he went away1 and now1 as you know1 my dear1 the house and land go to you and ,pedvinn4444 ,but ,i'd like my poor boy to have the silver and linen1 and his mother's furniture and needlework to remember us by4 ,yes1 cousin1 and he will have them some day1 but not for a great while yet1 ,i hope4 ,louis ,renouf shook his head1 with the immovable obstinacy of the very old or the very young4 ,louisa1 mark my words1 he will get nothing1 nothing4 ,everything is going4 ,they'll make away with the chairs and the tables next1 with the very bed ,i lie on4 ,oh1 ,cousin ,louis1 you mustn't think such things1 said ,mrs4 ,poidevin serenely2 had not the poor old man accused her to the ,tourtels of filching his mattress feathers8 ,ah1 you don't believe me1 my dear1 said he1 with a resignation which was pathetic2 but you'll remember my words when ,i am gone4 ,six dozen rat-tailed silver forks1 with silver candlesticks1 and tray1 and snuffers4 ,besides odd pieces1 and piles and piles of linen4 ,your cousin ,marie was a notable housekeeper1 and everything she bought was of the very best4 ,the large table-cloths were five guineas apiece1 my dear1 ,british money--five guineas apiece4 ,louisa listened with perfect calmness and scant attention4 ,circumstances too comfortable1 and a too abundant diet1 had gradually undermined with her all perceptive and reflective powers4 ,though1 of course1 had the household effects been coming to her as well as the land1 she would have felt more interest in them2 but it is only human nature to contemplate the possible losses of others with equanimity4 ,they must be handsome cloths1 cousin1 she said pleasantly2 ,i'm sure ,pedvinn would never allow me half so much for mine4 ,at this moment there appeared1 framed in the open window1 the hideous vision of an animated gargoyle1 with elf-locks of flaming red1 and an intense malignancy of expression4 ,with a finger dragging down the under eyelid of either eye1 so that the eyeball seemed to bulge out--with a finger pulling back either corner of the wide mouth1 so that it seemed to touch the ear--this repulsive apparition leered at the old man in blood-curdling fashion4 ,then catching sight of ,mrs4 ,poidevin1 who sat dumfounded1 and with her heart in her mouth1 as she afterwards expressed it1 the fingers dropped from the face1 the features sprang back into position1 and the gargoyle resolved itself into a buxom red-haired girl1 who1 bursting into a laugh1 impudently stuck her tongue out at them before skipping away4 ,the old man had cowered down in his chair with his hands over his eyes2 now he looked up4 ,i thought it was the old ,judy1 he said1 the old ,judy she is always telling me about4 ,but it's only ,margot4 ,and who is ,margot1 cousin8 inquired ,louisa1 still shaken from the surprise4 ,she helps in the kitchen4 ,but ,i don't like her4 ,she pulls faces at me1 and jumps out upon me from behind doors4 ,and when the wind blows and the windows rattle she tells me about the old ,judy from ,jethou1 who is sailing over the sea on a broomstick1 to come and beat me to death4 ,do you know1 my dear1 he said piteously1 you'll think ,i'm very silly1 but ,i'm afraid up here by myself all alone8 ,do not leave me1 ,louisa2 stay with me1 or take me back to town with you4 ,pedvinn would let me have a room in your house1 ,i'm sure8 ,and you wouldn't find me much trouble1 and of course ,i would bring my own bed linen1 you know4 ,you had best take your tea first1 sir1 said ,mrs4 ,tourtel from outside the window2 she held scissors in her hand1 and was busy trimming the roses4 ,she offered no excuse for eavesdropping4 ,the meal was set out1 ,island fashion1 with abundant cakes and sweets4 ,louisa saw in the silver tea-set another proof1 if need be1 of her cousin's unfounded suspicions4 ,mrs4 ,tourtel stood in the background1 waiting4 ,renouf desired her to pack his things2 he was going into town4 ,to be sure1 sir1 she said civilly1 and remained where she stood4 ,he brought a clenched hand down upon the table1 so that the china rattled4 ,are you master here1 or am ,i8 he cried2 ,i am going down to my cousin ,pedvinn's4 ,to-morrow ,i shall send my notary to put seals on everything1 and to take an inventory4 ,for the future ,i shall live in town4 ,his senility had suddenly left him2 he spoke with firmness2 it was a flash-up of almost extinct fires4 ,louisa was astounded4 ,mrs4 ,tourtel looked at him steadily4 ,through the partition wall1 ,tourtel in the kitchen heard the raised voice1 and followed his curiosity into the parlour4 ,margot followed him4 ,seen near1 and with her features at rest1 she appeared a plump touzle-headed girl1 in whose low forehead and loose-lipped mouth1 crassness1 cruelty1 and sensuality were unmistakably expressed4 ,yet freckled cheek1 rounded chin1 and bare red mottled arms1 presented the beautiful curves of youth1 and there was a certain sort of attractiveness about her not to be gainsaid4 ,since my servants refuse to pack what ,i require1 said ,renouf with dignity1 ,i will do it myself4 ,come with me1 ,louisa4 ,at a sign from the housekeeper1 ,tourtel and ,margot made way4 ,mrs4 ,poidevin would have followed her cousin1 as the easiest thing to do--although she was confused by the old man's outbreak1 and incapable of deciding what course she should take--when the deep vindictive baying of the dog ushered a new personage upon the scene4 ,this was an individual who made his appearance from the kitchen regions--a tall thin man of about thirty years of age1 with a pallid skin1 a dark eye and a heavy moustache4 ,his shabby black coat and tie1 with the cords and gaiters that clothed his legs1 suggested a combination of sportsman and family practitioner4 ,he wore a bowler hat1 and was pulling off tan driving gloves as he advanced4 ,ah my good6 ,doctor ,owen1 but dat's you8 said ,mrs4 ,tourtel4 ,but we wants you here badly4 ,your patient is in one of his tantrums1 and no one can't do nuddin wid him4 ,he says he shall go right away into town4 ,wants to make up again wid ,doctor ,lelever for sure4 ,the new comer and ,mrs4 ,poidevin were examining each other with the curiosity one feels on first meeting a person long known by reputation or by sight4 ,but now she turned to the housekeeper in surprise4 ,has my cousin quarrelled with his old friend ,doctor ,lelever8 she asked4 ,i've heard nothing of that4 ,ah1 dis long time4 ,he tought ,doctor ,lelever made too little of his megrims4 ,he won't have nobody but ,dr4 ,owen now4 ,p'r'aps you know ,doctor ,owen1 ma'am8 ,mrs4 ,pedvinn1 ,doctor2 de master's cousin1 come up to visit him4 ,renouf was heard moving about overhead2 opening presses1 dragging boxes4 ,owen hung up his hat1 putting his gloves inside it4 ,he rubbed his lean discoloured hands lightly together1 as a fly cleans its forelegs4 ,shall ,i just step up to him8 he said4 ,it may calm him1 and distract his thoughts4 ,with soft nimbleness1 in a moment he was upstairs4 ,so that's ,doctor ,owen8 observed ,mrs4 ,poidevin with interest4 ,a splendid-looking gentleman6 ,he must be very clever1 ,i'm sure4 ,is he beginning to get a good practice yet8 ,ah1 bah1 our people1 as you know1 ma'am1 dey don't like no strangers1 specially no ,englishmen4 ,he was very glad when ,mr4 ,renouf sent for him4444 ',twas through ,margot there4 ,she got took bad one ,saturday coming back from market from de heat or de squidge 7crowd71 and ,doctor ,owen he overtook her on the road in his gig1 and druv her home4 ,den de master1 he must have a talk with him1 and so de next time he fancy hisself ill1 he send for ,doctor ,owen1 and since den he don't care for ,dr4 ,lelever no more at all4 ,i ought to be getting off1 remarked ,mrs4 ,poidevin1 remembering the hour at which the omnibus left ,vauvert2 had ,i better go up and bid cousin ,louis good-bye8 ,mrs4 ,tourtel thought ,margot should go and ask the ,doctor's opinion first1 but as ,margot had already vanished1 she went herself4 ,there was a longish pause1 during which ,mrs4 ,poidevin looked uneasily at ,tourtel2 he with restless furtive eyes at her4 ,then the housekeeper reappeared1 noiseless1 cool1 determined as ever4 ,mr4 ,rennuf is quiet now1 she said2 de ,doctor have given him a soothing draught1 and will stay to see how it acts4 ,he tinks you'd better slip quietly away4 ,on this1 ,louisa ,poidevin left ,les ,calais2 but in spite of her easy superficiality1 her unreasoning optimism1 she took with her a sense of oppression4 ,cousin ,louis's appeal rang in her ears3 ,do not leave me2 stay with me1 or take me back with you4 ,i am afraid up here1 quite alone4 ,and after all1 though his fears were but the folly of old age1 why1 she asked herself1 should he not come and stay with them in town if he wished to do so8 ,she resolved to talk it over with ,pedvinn2 she thought she would arrange for him the little west room1 being the furthest from the nurseries2 and in planning out such vastly important trifles as to which easy-chair and which bedroom candlestick she would devote to his use1 she forgot the old man himself and recovered her usual stolid jocundity4 ,when ,owen had entered the bedroom1 he had found ,renouf standing over an open portmanteau1 into which he was placing hurriedly whatever caught his eye or took his fancy1 from the surrounding tables4 ,his hand trembled from eagerness1 his pale old face was flushed with excitement and hope4 ,owen1 going straight up to him1 put his two hands on his shoulders1 and without uttering a word1 gently forced him backwards into a chair4 ,then he sat down in front of him1 so close that their knees touched1 and fixing his strong eyes on ,renouf's wavering ones1 and stroking with his finger-tips the muscles behind the ears1 he threw him immediately into an hypnotic trance4 ,you want to stay here1 don't you8 said ,owen emphatically4 ,i want to stay here1 repeated the old man through grey lips4 ,his face was become the colour of ashes1 his hands were cold to the sight4 ,you want your cousin to go away and not disturb you any more8 ,answer--answer me4 ,i want my cousin to go away1 ,renouf murmured1 but in his staring1 fading eye were traces of the struggle tearing him within4 ,owen pressed down the eyelids1 made another pass before the face1 and rose on his long legs with a sardonic grin4 ,margot1 leaning across a corner of the bed1 had watched him with breathless interest4 ,i b'lieve you're de ,evil ,one himself1 she said admiringly4 ,owen pinched her smooth chin between his tobacco-stained thumb and fingers4 ,pooh6 nothing but a trick ,i learned in ,paris1 said he2 it's very convenient to be able to put a person to sleep now and again4 ,could you put any one to sleep8 ,any one ,i wanted to4 ,do it to me then1 she begged him4 ,what use1 my girl8 ,don't you do all ,i wish without8 ,she grimaced1 and picked at the bed-quilt laughing1 then rose and stood in front of him1 her round red arms clasped behind her head4 ,but he only glanced at her with professional interest4 ,you should get married1 my dear1 without delay4 ,pierre would be ready enough1 no doubt8--,bah6 ,pierre or annuder--if ,i brought a weddin' portion4 ,you don't tink to provide me wid one1 ,i s'pose8--,you know that ,i can't4 ,but why don't you get it from the ,tourtels8 ,you've earned it before this1 ,i dare swear4 ,it was now that the housekeeper came up1 and took down to ,louisa ,poidevin the message given above4 ,but first she was detained by ,owen1 to assist him in getting his patient into bed4 ,the old man woke up during the process1 very peevish1 very determined to get to town4 ,well1 you can't go till to-morrow den1 said ,mrs4 ,tourtel2 your cousin has gone home1 an' now you've got to go to sleep1 so be quiet4 ,she dropped all semblance of respect in her tones4 ,come1 lie down6 she said sharply1 or ,i'll send ,margot to tickle your feet4 ,he shivered and whimpered into silence beneath the clothes4 ,margot tells him 'bout witches1 an ogres1 an scrapels her fingures 'long de wall1 till he tinks dere goin' to fly 'way wid him1 she explained to ,owen in an aside4 ,oh1 ,i know ,margot1 he answered laconically1 and thought1 ,may ,i never lie helpless within reach of such fingers as hers4 ,he took a step and stumbled over a portmanteau lying open at his feet4 ,put your mischievous paws to some use1 he told the girl1 and clear these things away from the floor2 then remembering his rival ,le ,livre2 if the old fool had really got away to town1 it would have been a nice day's work for us all1 he added4 ,downstairs he joined the ,tourtels in the kitchen1 a room situated behind the living-room on the left1 with low green glass windows1 rafters and woodwork smoke-browned with the fires of a dozen generations4 ,in the wooden racks over by the chimney hung flitches of home-cured bacon1 and the kettle was suspended by three chains over the centre of the wide hearth1 where glowed and crackled an armful of sticks4 ,so dark was the room1 in spite of the daylight outside1 that two candles were set in the centre of the table1 enclosing in their circles of yellow light the pale face and silver hair of the housekeeper1 and ,tourtel's rugged head and weather-beaten countenance4 ,he had glasses ready1 and a bottle of the cheap brandy for which the ,island is famous4 ,you'll take a drop of something1 eh1 ,doctor8 he said as ,owen seated himself on the joncire1 a padded settle--green baize covered1 to replace the primitive rushes--fitted on one side of the hearth4 ,he stretched his long legs into the light1 and for a moment considered moodily the old gaiters and cobbled boots4 ,you've seen to the horse8 he asked ,tourtel4 ,my cert'nly2 he's in de stable dis hour back1 an' ,i've given him a feed4 ,i tought maybe you'd make a night of it8 ,i may as well for all the work ,i have to do1 said ,owen with sourness2 a damned little ,island this for doctors4 ,nothing ever the matter with anyone except the 'creeps1' and those who have it spend their last penny in making it worse4 ,dere's as much illness here as anywhere1 said ,tourtel1 defending the reputation of his native soil1 if once you gets among de right class1 among de people as has de time an' de money to make dereselves ill4 ,but if you go foolin' roun' wid de paysans1 what can you expec'8 ,we workin' folks can't afford to lay up an' buy ourselves doctors' stuff4 ,and how am ,i to get among the right class8 retorted ,owen1 sucking the ends of his moustache into his mouth and chewing them savagely4 ,a more confounded set of stuck-up1 beggarly aristocrats ,i never met than your people here4 ,his discontented eye rested on ,mrs4 ,tourtel4 ,that ,mrs4 ,pedvinn is the wife of ,pedvinn the ,jurat1 ,i suppose8--,yes1 de ,pedvinns of ,rohais4 ,good people1 said ,owen thoughtfully2 in with the de ,cterelles1 and the ,dadderney 7d',aldenois7 set4 ,are there children8--,tree4 ,he took a drink of the spirit and water2 his bad temper passed4 ,margot came in from upstairs4 ,de marster sleeps as dough he'd never wake again1 she announced1 flinging herself into the chair nearest ,owen4 ,it's 'bout time he did1 ,tourtel growled4 ,i should have thought it more to your interest to keep him alive8 ,owen inquired4 ,a good place1 surely8 ,a good place if you like to call it so1 the wife answered him2 but what1 if he go to town1 as he say to-night8 and what1 if he send de notary1 to put de scells here8--den he take up again wid ,dr4 ,lelever1 dat's certain4 ,and ,tourtel added in his surly key1 ,anyway1 ,i've been workin' here dese tirty years now1 an' dat's 'bout enough4 ,in fact1 when the orange is sucked1 you throw away the peel8 ,but are you quite sure it is sucked dry8 ,de house an' de lan' go to de ,pedvinns1 an' all de money die too1 for de little he had left when young ,john went 'crost de seas1 he sunk in a 'nuity4 ,dere's nuddin' but de lining1 an' plate1 an' such like1 as goes to de son4 ,and what he finds of that1 ,i expect1 will scarcely add to his impedimenta8 said ,owen grinning4 ,he thought1 ,the old man is well known in the island1 the name of his medical attendant would get mentioned in the papers at least2 just as well ,le ,livre should not have the advertisement4 ,besides1 there were the ,poidevins4 ,you might say a good word for me to ,mrs4 ,pedvinn1 he said aloud1 ,i live nearer to ,rohais than ,lelever does1 and with young children she might be glad to have some one at hand4 ,you may be sure you won't never find me ungrateful1 sir1 answered the housekeeper2 and ,owen1 shading his eyes with his hand1 sat pondering over the use of this word ungrateful1 with its faint yet perceptible emphasis4 ,margot1 meanwhile1 laid the supper2 the remains of a rabbit-pie1 a big pinclos or spider crab1 with thin1 red knotted legs1 spreading far over the edges of the dish1 the apple-gche1 hot from the oven1 cider1 and the now half-empty bottle of brandy4 ,the four sat down and fell to4 ,margot was in boisterous spirits2 everything she said or did was meant to attract ,owen's attention4 ,her cheeks flamed with excitement2 she wanted his eyes to be perpetually upon her4 ,but ,owen's interest in her had long ceased4 ,to-night1 while eating heartily1 he was absorbed in his ruling passion3 to get on in the world1 to make money1 to be admitted into ,island society4 ,behind the pallid1 impenetrable mask1 which always enraged yet intimidated ,margot1 he plotted incessantly1 schemed1 combined1 weighed this and that1 studied his prospects from every point of view4 ,supper over1 he lighted his meerschaum2 ,tourtel produced a short clay1 and the bottle was passed between them4 ,the women left them together1 and for ten1 twenty minutes1 there was complete silence in the room4 ,tourtel let his pipe go out1 and rapped it down brusquely upon the table4 ,it must come to an end1 he said1 with suppressed ferocity2 are we eider to spen' de whole of our lives here1 or else be turned off at de eleventh hour after sufferin' all de heat an' burden of de day8 ,its onreasonable4 ,an' dere's de cottage at ,cottu standin' empty1 an' me havin' to pay a man to look after de tomato houses1 when ,i could get fifty per cent4 more by lookin' after dem myself4444 ,an' what profit is such a sickly1 shiftless life as dat8 ,my good6 dere's not a man1 woman1 or chile in de ,islan's as will shed a tear when he goes1 an' dere's some1 ,i tells you1 as have suffered from his whimsies dese tirty years1 as will rejoice4 ,why1 his wife was dead already when we come here1 an' his on'y son1 a dirty1 drunken1 lazy vaurien too1 has never been near him for fifteen years1 nor written neider4 ,dead most likely1 in foreign parts4444 ,an' what's he want to stay for1 contraryin' an' thwartin' dem as have sweated an' laboured1 an' now1 please de good ,god1 wan's to sit 'neath de shadow of dere own fig-tree for de short time dat remains to dem8444 ,an' what do we get for stayin'8 ,forty pound1 ,island money1 between de two of us1 an' de little ,i makes from de flowers1 an' poultry1 an' such like4 ,an' what do we do for it8 ,bake1 an' wash1 an' clean1 an' cook1 an' keep de garden in order1 an' nuss him in all his tantrums4444 ,if we was even on his testament1 ,i'd say nuddin4 ,but everything goes to ,pedvinns1 an' de son ,john1 and de little bit of income dies wid him4 ,i tell you 'tis 'bout time dis came to an end4 ,owen recognised that ,destiny asked no sin more heinous from him than silence1 perhaps concealment2 the chestnuts would reach him without risk of burning his hand4 ,it's time1 said he1 ,i thought of going home4 ,get your lantern1 and ,i'll help you with the trap4 ,but first1 ,i'll just run up and have another look at ,mr4 ,rennuf4 ,for the last time the five personages of this obscure little tragedy found themselves together in the bedroom1 now lighted by a small lamp which stood on the wash-hand-stand4 ,owen1 who had to stoop to enter the door1 could have touched the low-pitched ceiling with his hand4 ,the bed1 with its slender pillars1 supporting a canopy of faded damask1 took up the greater part of the room4 ,there was a fluted headpiece of the damask1 and long curtains of the same material1 looped up1 on either side of the pillows4 ,sunken in these lay the head of the old man1 crowned with a cotton nightcap1 the eyes closed1 the skin drawn tight over the skull1 the outline of the attenuated form indistinguishable beneath the clothes4 ,the arms lay outside the counterpane1 straight down on either side2 and the mechanical playing movement of the fingers showed he was not asleep4 ,margot and ,mrs4 ,tourtel watched him from the bed's foot4 ,their gigantic shadows thrown forward by the lamp1 stretched up the opposite wall1 and covered half the ceiling4 ,the old-fashioned mahogany furniture1 with its fillets of paler wood1 drawn in ovals1 upon the doors of the presses1 their centrepieces of fruit and flowers1 shone out here and there with reflected light2 and the looking-glass1 swung on corkscrew mahogany pillars between the damask window curtains1 gleamed lake-like amidst the gloom4 ,owen and ,tourtel joined the women at the bedfoot2 though each was absorbed entirely in his own egotisms1 all were animated by the same secret desire4 ,yet1 to the feeling heart1 there was something unspeakably pleading in the sight of the old man lying there1 in his helplessness1 in the very room1 on the very bed1 which had seen his wedding-night fifty years before2 where as a much-wished-for and welcomed infant1 he had opened his eyes to the light more than seventy years since4 ,he had been helpless then as now1 but then the child had been held to loving hearts1 loving fingers had tended him1 a young and loving mother lay beside him1 the circumference of all his tiny world1 as he was the core and centre of all of hers4 ,and from being that exquisite1 well-beloved little child1 he had passed thoughtlessly1 hopefully1 despairfully1 wearily1 through all the stages of life1 until he had come to this--a poor1 old1 feeble1 helpless1 worn-out man1 lying there where he had been born1 but with all those who had loved him carried long ago to the grave3 with the few who might have protected him still1 his son1 his cousin1 his old friend ,le ,livre1 as powerless to save him as the silent dead4 ,renouf opened his eyes1 looked in turn at the four faces before him1 and read as much pity in them as in masks of stone4 ,he turned himself to the pillow again and to his miserable thoughts4 ,owen took out his watch1 went round to count the pulse1 and in the hush the tick of the big silver timepiece could be heard4 ,there is extreme weakness1 came his quiet verdict4 ,sinking8 whispered ,tourtel loudly4 ,no2 care and constant nourishment are all that are required2 strong beef-tea1 port wine jelly1 cream beaten up with a little brandy at short intervals1 every hour say4 ,and of course no excitement2 nothing to irritate1 or alarm him 7,owen's eye met ,margot's72 absolute quiet and rest4 ,he came back to the foot of the bed and spoke in a lower tone4 ,it's just one of the usual cases of senile decay1 said he1 which ,i observe every one comes to here in the ,islands 7unless he has previously killed himself by drink71 the results of breeding in4 ,but ,mr4 ,renouf may last months1 years longer4 ,in fact1 if you follow out my directions there is every probability that he will4 ,tourtel and his wife shifted their gaze from ,owen to look into each other's eyes2 ,margot's loose mouth lapsed into a smile4 ,owen felt cold water running down his back4 ,the atmosphere of the room seemed to stifle him2 reminiscences of his student days crowded on him3 the horror of an unperverted mind1 at its first spectacle of cruelty1 again seized hold of him1 as though no twelve callous years were wedged in between4 ,at all costs he must get out into the open air4 ,he turned to go4 ,louis ,renouf opened his eyes1 followed the form making its way to the door1 and understood4 ,you won't leave me1 doctor8 surely you won't leave me8 came the last words of piercing entreaty4 ,the man felt his nerve going all to pieces4 ,come1 come1 my good sir1 do you think ,i am going to stay here all night8 he answered brutally4444 ,outside the door1 ,tourtel touched his sleeve4 ,and suppose your directions are not carried out8 said he in his thick whisper4 ,owen gave no spoken answer1 but ,tourtel was satisfied4 ,i'll come an' put the horse in1 he said1 leading the way through the kitchen to the stables4 ,owen drove off with a parting curse and cut with the whip because the horse slipped upon the stones4 ,a long ray of light from ,tourtel's lantern followed him down the lane4 ,when he turned out on to the high road to ,st4 ,gilles1 he reined in a moment1 to look back at ,les ,calais4 ,this is the one point from which a portion of the house is visible1 and he could see the lighted window of the old man's bedroom plainly through the trees4 ,what was happening there8 he asked himself2 and the ,tourtel's cupidity and callousness1 ,margot's coarse cruel tricks1 rose before him with appalling distinctness4 ,yet the price was in his hand1 the first step of the ladder gained2 he saw himself to-morrow1 perhaps in the drawing-room of ,rohais1 paying the necessary visit of intimation and condolence4 ,he felt he had already won ,mrs4 ,poidevin's favour4 ,among women1 always poor physiognomists1 he knew he passed for a handsome man2 among the ,islanders1 the assurance of his address would pass for good breeding2 all he had lacked hitherto was the opportunity to shine4 ,this his acquaintance with ,mrs4 ,poidevin would secure him4 ,and he had trampled on his conscience so often before1 it had now little elasticity left4 ,just an extra glass of brandy to-morrow1 and to-day would be as securely laid as those other episodes of his past4 ,while he watched1 some one shifted the lamp 444 a woman's shadow was thrown upon the white blind 444 it wavered1 grew monstrous1 and spread1 until the whole window was shrouded in gloom4444 ,owen put the horse into a gallop 444 and from up at ,les ,calais1 the long-drawn melancholy howling of the dog filled with forebodings the silent night4 ,the ,lamplighter ,by ,a4 ,s4 ,hartrick ,illustration3 ,the ,lamplighter ,the ,composer of ,carmen ,by ,charles ,willeby ,what little has been written about poor ,bizet is not the sort to satisfy4 ,the men who have told of him cannot have written with their best pen4 ,even those who1 one can see1 have started well1 albeit impelled rather than inspired by a profound admiration for the artist and the man1 have fallen all too short of the mark1 and ultimately drifted into the dullest of all dull things--the compilation of mere dates and doings4 ,i know of no pamphlet devoted to him in this country4 ,he was much misunderstood in life2 he has been1 ,i think1 as much sinned against in death4 ,the symbol of posthumous appreciation which asserts itself to the visitor to ,pre ,lachaise1 is exponential of compliment only when reckoned by avoirdupois4 ,neglected in life1 they have in death weighed him down with an edifice that would have been obnoxious to every instinct in his sprightly soul--a memorial befitting perhaps to such an one as ,johannes ,brahms1 but repugnant as a memento of the spirit that created ,carmen4 ,it is an emblem of ,french formalism in its most determined aspect4 ,and in truth--as ,sainte-,beuve said of the ,abb ,galiani--they owed to him an honourable1 choice1 and purely delicate burial2 urna brevis1 a little urn which should not be larger than he4 ,the previous inappreciation of his genius has given place to posthumous laudation1 zealous indeed1 but so indiscriminating as to be vulgar4 ,like many another man1 he had to take a thrashing from life2 and although he stood up to it unflinchingly1 it was only in his death certificate that he acquired passport to fame4 ,just eighteen years before it was that ,bizet had written from ,rome3 ,we are indeed sad1 for there come to us the tidings of the death of ,lon ,benouville4 ,really1 one works oneself half crazy to gain this ,prix de ,rome2 then comes the huge struggle for position2 and after all1 perchance to end by dying at thirty-eight6 ,truly1 the picture is the reverse of encouraging4 ,here was his own destiny1 nu comme la main1 save that the fates begrudged him even the thirty-eight years of his brother artist--called him when he could not but contrast ,the petty done--the undone vast4 ,but his early life was not unhappy4 ,he had no pitiful struggle with poverty in childhood1 at all events4 ,some tell us he was precocious--terribly so2 but ,i had rather take my cue from his own words1 ,je ne me suis donn qu' contre-coeur la musique1 than dwell upon his precocity1 real or fictional4 ,it was only hereditarily consistent that he should have a musical organisation4 ,his father was a teacher of music1 not without repute2 his mother was a sister of ,franois ,delsarte1 who1 although unknown to ,grove1 has two columns and more devoted to him by ,fetis1 by whom he is described as an artiste un peu trange1 quoique d'un mrite incontestable1 dou de facults trs diverses et de toutes les qualits ncessaires l'enseignement4 ,what there was of music in their son the parents sought to encourage assiduously1 and ,bizet himself has shown us in his work1 more clearly than aught else could1 that the true dramatic sense was innate in him4 ,and that he loved his literature too1 was well proved by a glance at the little appartement in the ,rue de ,douai1 which he continued to occupy until well-nigh the end4 ,in #ahdi--;he was just over his tenth year--,delsarte took him to ,marmontel of the ,conservatoire4 ,without being in any sense of the word a prodigy1 says the old pianoforte master1 he played his ,mozart with an unusual amount of taste4 ,from the moment ,i heard him ,i recognised his individuality1 and ,i made it my object to preserve it4 ,then ,zimmerman1 with whom l'enseignement was a disease1 heard of him and sought him for pupil4 ,but ,zimmerman seems to have tired of him as he tired of so many and ended by passing him on to ,gounod4 ,from entry to exit--an interval of eight years--,bizet's academic career was a series of premiers et deuximes prix4 ,they were to him but so many stepping-stones to the coveted ,grand ,prix de ,rome4 ,he longed to secure this--to fly the crowded town and seek the secluded shelter of the ,villa ,medici4 ,and in the end he had his way4 ,in effect1 he commenced to live only after he had taken up his abode on the little ,pincian ,hill4 ,even there life was a trifle close to him1 and some time passed before he really fixed his focus4 ,in ,italy1 more than in any other part of the world1 the life of the present rests upon the strata of successive past lives4 ,and although ,bizet was no student1 carrying in his knapsack a superfluity of culture1 this place appealed to him from the moment that he came to it1 and the memory of it lingered long in after days4 ,the villa itself was a revelation to him4 ,the masterpiece of ,renaissance faade over which the artist would seem to have exhausted a veritable mine of ,greek and ,roman bas-reliefs2 the garden with its lawns surrounded by hedges breast-high1 trimmed to the evenness of a stone-wall2 the green alleys overshadowed by ilex trees2 the marble statues looking forlornly regretful at ,time's defacing treatment2 the terrace with its oaks gnarled and twisted with age2 the fountains2 the roses2 the flower-beds2 and in the distance1 over the dumb ,campagna-sea1 the hills melting into light under the evening sky--all these made an intaglio upon him such as was not readily to be effaced1 and which he learned to love4 ,perhaps because1 after all1 ,italy is even more the land of beauty than of what is venerable in art1 he did not feel the want of what ,mr4 ,symonds calls the mythopoeic sense4 ,it is a land ever young1 in spite of age4 ,its monuments1 assertive as they are1 so blend with the landscape1 are so in harmony with the surroundings1 that the yawning gulf of years that would separate us from them is made to vanish1 and they come to live with us4 ,and the place was teeming with tradition4 ,from the time1 #aedj1 when it had been designed by ,hannibal ,lippi for ,cardinal ,ricci1 passing thence into the hands of ,alexandro de' ,medici1 and later into those of ,leo ,,xi41 it had been the home of art2 and then1 on its acquisition by the ,french ,academy in #ahjd1 it became the home of artists4 ,here had lived and worked and dreamed ,david1 ,ingres1 ,delaroche1 ,vernet1 ,hrold1 ,benoist1 ,halvy1 ,berlioz1 ,thomas1 ,gounod1 and the minor host of them4 ,in truth the list awed ,bizet not a little1 and had he needed an incentive here it was4 ,for the rest1 he was supremely content4 ,as a pensionnaire of the ,academy he had two hundred francs a month1 and he apportioned them in this wise3 ,nourriture1 #ge;fr42 vin1 #be;fr42 retenue1 #be;fr42 location de piano1 #ae;fr42 blanchissage1 #e;fr42 bois1 chandelles1 timbre-poste1 c41 #aj;fr42 gants1 #e;fr42 perte sur le change de la monnaie1 #e;fr4 ,even then he wrote3 ,i have more than thirty francs pour faire le grand garon4 ,in another letter he says3 ,i seem to cling to ,rome more than ever4 ,the longer ,i know it1 the more ,i love it4 ,everything is so beautiful4 ,each street--even the filthiest of them--has its own charm for me4 ,and perhaps what is most astonishing of all1 is that those very things which startled me most on my arrival1 have now become a part of and necessary to my very existence--the madonnas with their little lamps at every corner2 the linen hanging out to dry from the windows2 the very refuse of the streets2 the beggars--all these things really divert me1 and ,i should cry out if so much as a dung-heap were removed4444 ,more too1 every day1 do ,i pity those imbeciles who have not been more fully able to appreciate their good fortune in being pensionnaires of the ,academy4 ,but then one cannot help observing that they are the very ones who have achieved nothing4 ,halvy1 ,thomas1 ,gounod1 ,berlioz1 ,mass--they all loved and adored their ,rome4 ,then on the last day of the same year3 ,i seem to incline more definitely towards the theatre1 for ,i feel a certain sense of drama1 which1 if ,i possessed it1 ,i knew not of till now4 ,so ,i hope for the best4 ,but that is not all4 ,hitherto ,i have vacillated between ,mozart and ,beethoven1 between ,rossini and ,meyerbeer1 and suddenly ,i know upon what1 upon whom to fix my faith4 ,to me there are two distinct kinds of genius3 the inspirational and the purely rational1 ,i mean the genius of nature and the genius of erudition2 and whilst ,i have an immense admiration for the second1 ,i cannot deny that the first has all my sympathies4 ,so1 mon cher1 ,i have the courage to prefer1 and to say ,i prefer1 ,raphael to ,michael ,angelo1 ,mozart to ,beethoven1 ,rossini to ,meyerbeer1 which is1 ,i suppose1 much the same as saying that if ,i had heard ,rubini ,i would have preferred him to ,duprez4 ,do not think for a moment that ,i place one above the other--that would be absurd4 ,all ,i maintain is that the matter is one of taste1 and that the one exercises upon my nature a stronger influence than does the other4 ,when ,i hear the ',symphonie ,hroque1' or the fourth act of the ',huguenots1' ,i am spell-bound1 aghast as it were2 ,i have not eyes1 ears1 intelligence1 enough even to admire4 ,but when ,i see ',l'cole ,d',athnes1' or ',la ,vierge de ,foligno1' when ,i hear ',les ,noces de ,figaro1' or the second act of ',guillaume ,tell1' ,i am completely happy2 ,i experience a sense of comfort1 a complete satisfaction3 in effect1 ,i forget everything4 ,this1 then1 is what ,rome did for ,bizet2 but1 be it said1 for ,bizet trs jeune encore4 ,for a time the result is patent in his work1 but afterwards there comes1 although no revulsion1 a distinct variation of feeling1 which has in it something of compromise4 ,the genius innate in him was inspirational before it was--if it ever was--erudite4 ,even in his later days there was for him no cowering before his culture4 ,in #ahfg he wrote in the ,revue ,nationale--the only critique1 by the way1 he ever wrote--under the pseudonym of ,gaston de ,betzi3 ,the artist has no name1 no nationality4 ,he is inspired or he is not4 ,he has genius or he has not4 ,if he has1 we welcome him2 if he has not1 we can at most respect him1 if we do not pity and forget him4 ,he was the same in all things3 ,i have no comrades1 he said1 only friends4 ,and there is one sentence that he wrote from ,rome that might well be held up to the gamins of the ,french ,conservatoire4 ,je ne veux rien faire de chic2 je veux avoir des ides avant de commencer un morceau4 ,in ,august of his second year ,bizet left ,rome on a visit to ,naples4 ,he carried a letter to ,mercadente4 ,on his return good news and bad awaited him4 ,ernest ,guiraud1 his good friend and quondam fellow-student in the class of ,marmontel1 has just been proclaimed ,prix de ,rome4 ,and this at the very moment ,bizet was to leave the ,villa2 for the ,academy would have it that their musical pensionnaires should pass the third year in ,germany4 ,the prospect was entirely repugnant to ,bizet4 ,so he went to work against it1 directing his energies in the first place against ,schnetz1 the dear old director as they called him4 ,schnetz1 owning to a soft spot for his young pensionnaire1 was overcome1 and through him ,i fancy the powers that were in ,paris4 ,however1 ,bizet was permitted to remain in his beloved ,rome4 ,delighted1 he wrote off to ,marmontel3 ,i am daily expecting ,guiraud1 and words cannot express how glad ,i shall be to see him4 ,would you believe it1 it is two years since ,i have spoken with an intelligent musician8 ,my colleague ,z---- bores me frightfully4 ,he speaks to me of ,donizetti1 of ,fesca even1 and ,i reply to him with ,mozart1 ,mendelssohn1 and ,gounod4 ,this last year spent with ,guiraud was perhaps the happiest of his life4 ,at the close of it the two set off together on a ramble through the land1 with fancy for their only guide4 ,they had got so far as ,venice when news of his mother's dangerous illness called ,bizet to her side4 ,he arrived in time to say farewell1 and he never returned to ,italy4 ,of work done at the ,villa1 ,vasco de ,gama is the only tangible sample2 but ,i have not wasted my time1 he wrote1 ,i have read a good many volumes of history1 and ever so much more literature of all kinds4 ,i have travelled1 ,i have learned something of the history of art1 and ,i really am a bit of a connoisseur in painting and sculpture4 ,all ,i want now1 on my return1 are trois jolis actes for the ,thtre ,lyrique4 ,and shortly we find him in full swing with ,les ,pcheurs des ,perles4 ,it was produced on the #cjth ,september of #ahfc1 and had some eighteen representations4 ,la ,jolie ,fille de ,perth1 which followed it four years later1 had1 ,i think1 twenty-one4 ,in between these two works1 we are told1 ,bizet1 in a fit of violent admiration for ,verdi1 strove to emulate him in an opera entitled ,ivan le ,terrible4 ,it is said to have been completed and handed to the management of the ,thtre ,lyrique4 ,then ,bizet1 recognising as suddenly that he had made a mistake1 withdrew the score and burned it4 ,m4 ,charles ,pigot1 who is chiefly responsible for this story1 goes on to say that the libretto was the work of ,,mm4 ,louis ,gallet and ,edouard ,blau4 ,but in that he is not correct1 for ,gallet himself tells us that he knew ,bizet only ever so slightly at the time1 and that neither to him nor to ,blau is due a single line of this ,ivan4 ,then there were ,griselidis1 of which1 in a letter dated ,february of #ahga1 ,bizet speaks as trs avance2 ,clarisse ,harlowe2 and the ,calendal of ,m4 ,sardou1 to each of which he referred in the same year as peine commence4 ,there was also an opera in one act written by ,m4 ,carvalho1 and actually put into rehearsal at the ,opra ,comique4 ,but none of these saw the light1 and ,i have little doubt they all met their fate on a certain eventful day1 shortly before he died1 when ,bizet remorselessly destroyed a whole pile of manuscript4 ,and in truth these early works had little value of themselves4 ,they were but so many rungs of the ladder by which he climbed to the heights of ,djamileh1 of ,l',arlsienne1 and of ,carmen4 ,no musician ever took longer to know himself than did ,georges ,bizet4 ,his period of hesitation1 of vacillation1 was unduly protracted4 ,for why1 it is hard to tell2 but one cannot help feeling that the terrible lutte pour la vie had a deal to do with it4 ,those early years in ,paris were very hard ones4 ,believe me1 he wrote from le ,vsinet 7always a favourite spot with him71 believe me1 it is exasperating to have one's work interrupted for days to write solos de piston4 ,but what would you8 ,i must live4 ,i have just rushed off at a gallop half-a-dozen melodies for ,heugel4 ,i trust you may like them4 ,at least ,i have carefully chosen the verses4 444 ,my opera and my symphony are both of them en train4 ,but when1 oh when1 shall ,i finish them8 ,yet ,i do nothing but work1 and ,i come only once a week to ,paris4 ,here ,i am well out of the way of all flaneurs1 raseurs1 diseurs de riens1 du monde enfin1 hlas4 ,then a few days later3 ,i am completely prostrate with fatigue4 ,i can do nothing4 ,i have even been obliged to give up orchestrating my symphony2 and now ,i feel it will be too late for this winter4 ,i am going to lie down1 for ,i have not slept for three nights1 and all seems so dark to me4 ,to-morrow1 too1 ,i have la musique gaie to write4 ,just then time was pressing him hard4 ,he was under contract to produce ,la ,jolie ,fille de ,perth by the end of the year1 and he was already well into ,october4 ,it became a matter of fifteen and sixteen hours work a day2 for there were lessons to be given1 proofs to be corrected1 piano transcriptions to be made1 and the rest4 ,and1 truth to tell1 he was terribly lacking in method4 ,he was choke-full of ideas1 he was indeed borne along by a very torrent of them2 and if only he could have stopped to collect himself it would have been well for him4 ,but no2 before he realised it1 ,la ,jolie ,fille was finished and in rehearsal4 ,then for the time he was able to put enough distance between himself and his work to value it4 ,and it seems to have pleased him4 ,the final rehearsal1 he writes to ,galabert 7by this time his confidant in most things71 has produced a great effect4 ,the piece is really highly interesting1 the interpretation is excellent1 and the costumes are splendid4 ,the scenery is new and the orchestra and the artists are full of enthusiasm4 ,but more than all this1 cher ami1 the score of ',la ,jolie ,fille' is une bonne chose4 ,the orchestra lends to all a colour and relief for which1 ,i confess1 ,i never dared to hope4 ,i think ,i have arrived this time4 ,now1 il faut monter1 monter1 monter1 toujours4 ,shortly after this he married ,genevive ,halvy1 the daughter of the composer of ,la ,juive1 and lived almost exclusively at le ,vsinet4 ,there1 at #h1 ,rue des ,cultures1 a rustic place enough1 one might find ,georges ,bizet1 seated in his favourite corner of the lovely garden1 en chapeau de canotier1 smoking his pipe and chatting to his friends4 ,it had been the home of ,jacques ,halvy1 and ,bizet had been wont to do his courting there4 ,now the old man was no more1 and in the long summer days1 the daughter and the son--for ,halvy had been as a father to ,bizet--missed sorely the familiar figure hard at work with rake or hoe at his beloved flower-beds4 ,they were the passion of his later days1 and they well repaid his care4 ,even in the middle of a lesson--and he taught up to well-nigh the last weeks of his life--would he rush out to uproot a noxious weed that might chance to catch his eye4 ,how well ,i remember my first day there1 says ,louis ,gallet4 ,the war was not long finished1 and the traces of it were with us yet4 ,true1 ,paris had resumed her lovely girdle of green2 but beneath this verdure reflected in the tardy waters of the ,seine1 there was enough still to tell the terrible tale of ruin4 ,one could not go to ,pecq or le ,vsinet without some difficulty4 ,bizet1 to save me trouble1 had taken care to meet me at ,rueil1 whence we made for the little place where he was staying for the summer4 ,the day was lovely1 and ',djamileh' made great strides as we talked and paced the pretty garden walks4 ,this habit of discussing while walking1 what was uppermost in his mind1 was always1 to me1 a powerful characteristic of ,georges ,bizet4 ,i do not remember any important discussion between us that did not take place during a stroll1 or at all events whilst walking1 if only to and from his study4 ,we talked long that afternoon--of the influence of ,wagner on the future of musical art1 of the reception in store for ',djamileh1' both by the public and by the ,opra ,comique itself4 ,this latter1 indeed1 was no light matter4 ,the ,direction was then undertaken by two parties3 that of ,du ,locle1 tending towards advancement in every form2 that of ,de ,leuven1 clinging with all the force of tradition to the past4 ,then in the evening nothing would do but ,bizet should see me well on my way to ,paris4 ,the bridges were not yet restored4 ,so we set off on foot1 in company with ,madame ,bizet1 to find the ferry-boat4 ,how delicious was that walk by the little islets in the cool of the twilight2 along the towing-path so narrow and overrun with growth that we were obliged to proceed in ,indian file4 ,and how merry we were1 until perchance we stumbled on the fragment of a shell lying hidden in the grass1 or came face to face with some majestic tree1 still smarting from its wounds1 when there would rise before us in all its vividness the terrible scene so recently enacted on that spot4 ,then we talked of the war and all its sorrows2 and we tried to descry there on the right1 in the shade of ,mount ,valerien1 the spot where ,henri ,regnault fell4 ,at length we found the ferry1 and reached the other bank4 ,there at the end of the path we could see the lights of the station2 so we separated4 ,and although ,i made many after visits1 none remained so firmly fixed in my memory1 or left me so happy an impression as did this1 my first to ,bizet's summer home4 ,during the siege itself1 he had been forced to remain in ,paris4 ,but it was much against his will1 and he seems to have chafed sorely at it4 ,yet it is difficult to picture ,bizet bellicose4 ,dear friend1 he writes to ,guiraud1 who was stationed at some outpost1 the description you give of the palace you are living in makes us all believe that luck is with you4 ,but every day we think of the cold1 the damp1 the ice1 the ,prussians1 and all the other horrors that surround you4 ,as for me1 ,i continue to reproach myself with my inaction1 for in truth my conscience is anything but at rest2 but you know well what keeps me here4 ,we really cannot be said to eat any longer4 ,suzanne has just brought in some horse bones1 which ,i believe are to form our meal4 ,genevive dreams nightly of chickens and lobsters4 ,not till the following year1 during the days of the ,commune1 do we find him at le ,vsinet4 ,then he writes 7also to ,guiraud73 ,here we are without half our things1 without our books1 without anything in fact1 and absolutely there are no means of getting into ,paris4444 ,so1 dear friend1 if you have any news1 do1 ,i pray you1 let us have it4 ,i read the ,versailles papers1 but they tell their wretched readers 7and expect them to believe it7 that ,france is 'trs tranquille1' ,paris alone excepted 7sic74 ,the day before yesterday was anything but tranquil4 ,for twelve hours there was nothing but a continuous cannonade4444 ,but we are safe enough1 for although the ,prussian patrols continue to increase in number we are not inconvenienced by them1 and they will not1 in all probability1 occupy le ,vsinet4 ,but it seems quite impossible to say how all this is going to end4 ,i am absolutely discouraged1 and what is more1 ,i fear1 dear friend1 there is worse trouble ahead of us4 ,i am off now to the village to look at a piano2 ,i must work and try to forget it all4 ,he finished ,djamileh at le ,vsinet4 ,it was produced at the ,opra ,comique in ,may of #ahgb4 ,gallet tells us that he did not write the book specially for ,bizet4 ,under the title of ,namouna1 it had been given by ,m4 du ,locle to ,jules ,duprato1 a musician and a prix de ,rome4 ,but ,duprato paressait agrablement1 and never got much further with it than the composition of a certain air de danse to the verses commencing3 ,indolente1 grave et lente1 which are to be found also in ,bizet's score4 ,then there came a time when the ,opra ,comique1 truly one of the most good-natured of institutions in its own peculiar way1 so far belied its reputation as to tire of this idling on the part of ,m4 ,duprato4 ,so the work passed on to ,bizet4 ,he suggested change of title1 and ,namouna became ,djamileh4 ,but it remained nevertheless the poem of ,musset4 ,je vous dirais qu' ,hassan racheta ,namouna 99 99 99 99 99 ,qu'on reconnut trop tard cette tte adore ,et cette douce nuit qu'elle avait espre ,que pour prix de ses maux le ciel la lui donna4 ,je vous dirais surtout qu' ,hassan dans cette affaire ,sentit que tt ou tard la femme avait son tour ,et que l'amour de soi ne vaut pas l'autre amour4 ,there you have the whole story4 ,it is but an tat d'me--a little love scene1 simple enough in a way1 yet so delicate and so full of colour4 ,it was a matter of atmosphere1 not of structure1 a masterpiece of style rather than of situation2 and from its first rehearsal as an opera it was doomed4 ,in truth1 these rehearsals were amusing4 ,there was old ,avocat--they used to call him ,victor--the typical rgisseur of tradition2 a man who could tell of the premires of ,pr-aux-,clercs and ,la ,dame ,blanche1 and1 what is more1 expected to be asked to tell of them4 ,from his corner in the wings he listened to the music of this ,djamileh1 his face expressive of a pity far too keen for words4 ,but it was a matter of minutes only before his pity turned to rage1 and eventually he stumped off to his sanctum1 banging his door behind him with a vehemence that augured badly for poor ,bizet4 ,as for ,de ,leuven1 his co-director3 had he not written4 ,postillon de ,lonjumeau8 and was it not the most successful work of ,boiledieu's successor8 ,the fact had altered his whole life4 ,ever after1 all he sought in opera was some similarity with ,le ,postillon4 ,and there was nothing of ,adam in this music1 still less anything of ,de ,leuven in the poem4 ,that was sufficient for him4 ,allons1 said he one day to ,gallet1 who arrived at rehearsal just as ,djamileh was about to sing her lamento3 allons1 vous arrivez pour le ,de ,profundis4 ,as for the public1 they understood it not at all1 this charming miniature4 ,c'est indigne1 cried one2 c'est odieux1 from another2 c'est trs drle1 said a third4 ,quelle cacophonie1 quelle audace1 c'est se moquer du monde4 ,voil1 o mne le culte de ,wagner la folie4 ,ni tonalit1 ni mesure1 ni rythme2 ce n'est plus de la musique1 and the rest4 ,the press itself was no better1 no whit more rational4 ,yet this ,djamileh was rich in premonition of those very qualities that go to make ,carmen the immortal work it is4 ,it so glows with true ,oriental colour1 is so saturate with the true ,eastern spirit1 as to make us wonder for the moment--as did ,mr4 ,henry ,james about ,thophile ,gautier--whether the natural attitude of the man was not to recline in the perfumed dusk of a ,turkish divan1 puffing a chibouque4 ,here the tints are stronger1 mellower1 and more carefully laid on than in ,les ,pcheurs des ,perles4 ,there is1 too1 all the bizarrerie1 as well as all the sensuousness of the ,east4 ,yet there is no obliteration of the human element for sake of the picturesque4 ,wagnerism was the cry raised against it on all sides2 yet1 if it be anything but ,bizet1 it is surely ,schumann4 ,it was1 in effect1 all too good for the public--too fine for their vulgar gaze1 their indiscriminating comment4 ,and ,reyer1 farseeing amongst his fellows1 spoke truth when he said in the ,dbats3 ,i feel sure that if ,m4 ,bizet knows that his work has been appreciated by a small number of musicians--being cognoscenti--he will be more proud of that fact than he would be of a popular success4 ',djamileh1' whatever be its fortunes1 heralds a new epoch in the career of this young master4 ,then came ,l',arlsienne1 as all the world knows1 a dismal failure enough4 ,it was to ,bizet a true labour of love4 ,from the day that ,carvalho came to him proposing that he should add des mlodrames to this tale of fair ,provence1 to the day of its production some four months later1 he was absorbed in it4 ,the score as it now stands represents about half the music that he wrote4 ,the prelude to the third act of ,carmen1 and the chorus1 ,quant aux douaniers1 both belonged originally to ,l',arlsienne1 ,the rest was blue pencilled at rehearsal4 ,and of all the care he lavished on it1 perhaps the finest1 certainly the fondest1 was given to his orchestra4 ,every instrument is ministered to with loving care4 ,luckily for him1 fortunately too for us1 he knew not then what sort of lot awaited this scrupulous score of his4 ,he knew he wrote for ,carvalho--for the ,vaudeville2 but that was all4 ,and they gave him twenty-five musicians--a couple of flutes and an oboe 7this latter to do duty too for the cor-anglais72 one clarinet1 a couple of bassoons1 a saxophone1 two horns1 a kettle-drum1 seven violins1 one solitary alto1 five celli1 two bass1 and his choice of one other4 ,the poor fellow chose a piano2 but they never saw the irony of it4 ,all credit to his little band1 they did their best4 ,but the most that they could do was to cull the tunes from out his score4 ,the consolation that we have is1 that1 so far as the piece as a piece is concerned1 no orchestra in the world could have saved it4 ,it was doomed to failure for all sorts of reasons4 ,daudet himself goes very near the mark when he says that it was unreasonable to suppose that in the middle of the boulevard1 in that coquettish corner of the ,chausse d',antin1 right in the pathway of the fashions1 the whims of the hour1 the flashing and changing vortex of all ,paris1 people could be interested in this drama of love taking place in the farmyard in the plain of ,camargue1 full of the odour of well-plenished granaries and lavender in flower4 ,it was a splendid failure2 clothed in the prettiest music possible1 with costumes of silk and velvet in the centre of comic opera scenery4 ,then he goes on to tell us3 ,i came away discouraged and sickened1 the silly laughter with which the emotional scenes were greeted still ringing in my ears2 and without attempting to defend myself in the papers1 where on all sides the attack was led against this play1 wanting in surprises--this painting in three acts of manners and events of which ,i alone could appreciate the absolute fidelity4 ,i resolved to write no more plays1 and heaped one upon the other all the hostile notices as a rampart around my determination4 ,at this time ,bizet seems to have come a good deal into contact with ,jean ,baptiste ,faure4 ,they met frequently at the ,opra4 ,you really must do something more for ,bizet1 said the baritone to ,louis ,gallet4 ,put your heads together1 you and ,blau1 and write something that shall be bien pour moi4 ,lorenzaccio1 perhaps the strongest of ,de ,musset's dramatic efforts1 first came up4 ,but ,faure was not at all in touch with it4 ,the rle of ,brutus--fawning ,judas that he is--revolted him4 ,he had no fancy to distort as menteur triple tage2 so the subject was put by4 ,then came ,bizet one morning with an old issue of ,le ,journal pour tous in his pocket4 ,here is the very thing for us3 ',le ,jeunesse du ,cid' of ,guilhem de ,castro2 not1 mark you1 the ,cid of ,corneille alone1 but the inceptive ,cid in all the glory of its pristine colour--the ,cid1 ,don ,rodrigue de ,bivar1 in the words of ,sainte-,beuve 'the immortal flower of honour and of love4' ,the scne du mendiant held ,bizet completely4 ,it was to him simple1 touching1 and great4 ,it showed ,don ,rodrigue in a new light4 ,those--and there were many of them--who had already cast their choice upon this legend1 had recognised--but recognised merely--in their hero1 the son prepared to sacrifice his love for filial duty1 and to yield his life for love4 ,but they had not seen in him the ,christian1 the true and godly soul1 the ,good ,samaritan that ,de ,castro represents4 ,the scene of ,rodrigue with the leper1 disdained and done away with by ,corneille1 with which ,de ,castro too was so reproached1 was full of attraction for ,bizet4 ,his whole interest centred round it4 ,he was impatient and hungered to get at it2 and ,carmen1 on which he was already well at work1 was even laid aside the while4 ,faure1 too1 had expressed a sound approval and a hearty interest1 and this alone meant much4 ,so ,bizet once again was full of hope4 ,there follows a long and detailed correspondence on the subject with ,gallet1 with which ,i have not space to deal2 but it shows up splendidly the extreme nicety of the musician's dramatic sense4 ,in the summer of #ahgc ,don ,rodrigue was really finished1 and one evening ,bizet called his friends to come and listen4 ,around the piano were ,edouard ,blau1 ,louis ,gallet1 and ,jean ,faure4 ,bizet had his score before him--to common gaze a skeleton thing enough1 for of accompaniment there was but little4 ,but to its creator it was well alive1 and he sang--in the poorest possible voice1 it is true--the whole thing through from beginning to end4 ,chorus1 soprano1 tenor1 bass1 yea1 even the choicer bits for orchestra--all came alike to him2 all were infused with life from the spirit that created them4 ,it was long past midnight when he ceased1 and then they sat and talked till dawn4 ,all were enthusiastic1 and in the opinion of ,faure 7given three years later7 this score was more than the equal of ,carmen4 ,his word is all we have for it1 but it carries with it something of conviction4 ,he was no bad judge of a work4 ,anyway1 no sooner had he heard it than he set about securing its speedy production at the ,opra4 ,and he succeeded in so far that it was put down early on the list4 ,but ,fate had yet to be reckoned with4 ,she was not thus to be baulked of her prey3 she had dogged the footsteps of poor ,bizet far too zealously for that2 and on the #bhth ,october 7less than a week after he had put finis to his work71 she stepped in4 ,on that day the ,opra was burned down4 ,as for the score1 it was laid aside1 and of its ultimate lot we are in ignorance4 ,inquiry on the part of ,gallet seems to have elicited nothing more definite than a courteous letter from ,m4 ,ludovic ,halvy1 to the effect that he was quite free to dispose of the book to another composer4 ,it was ,george's favourite1 wrote his brother-in-law1 and he had great hopes for it2 but it was not to be4 ,perhaps of all his powers ,bizet's greatest was that of recuperation4 ,it would be wrong to say he did not know defeat2 he knew it all too well1 but he never let it get the better of him4 ,he was never without his irons upon the fire1 never without a project to fall back upon4 ,and perhaps it is not too much to say that he had no life outside his art4 ,this too may in truth be told of him3 that in all the struggle and the scramble1 in all his fight with fortune1 it was the sweeter qualities of his nature that came uppermost4 ,his strength of purpose stood on a sound basis--a basis of confidence in1 though not arrogance of1 his own power4 ,where he was most handicapped was in carrying on his artistic progress coram populo4 ,had it been as gradual as most men's--had it been but the acquiring of an ordinary experience--all might have been well2 he would probably have been accorded his niche and would have occupied it4 ,but he progressed by leaps and bounds1 and even then his ideal kept steadily miles ahead of his achievement4 ,it was for long a very will-o'-the-wisp for him4 ,now and again he caught it1 and it is at such moments that we have him at his best2 but he can be said only to have captured it completely--so far as we are in a position to tell--in ,l',arlsienne and certain parts of ,carmen4 ,his faculty of self-criticism was developed in such an extraordinary degree as to baulk him4 ,he loved this ,don ,rodrigue and thought it was his masterwork1 and that too at the time when ,carmen must have been well forward4 ,we know then that the loss is not a small one4 ,it had not been alone the fate of the ,opra ,house that had stood in the way4 ,that institution had in course taken up its quarters at the ,salle ,ventadour1 and once installed there had proceeded with the rpertoire4 ,but ,bizet's ,rodrigue1 although well backed by ,faur1 was pushed aside for others4 ,the three names that it bore were all too impotent2 and when a new work was announced1 it was ,l',esclave of ,membre that was seen to grace the bills1 and not ,don ,rodrigue4 ,poor ,bizet1 disappointed and sore at heart1 vanished to hide himself once more by his beloved ,seine4 ,this time it was to ,bougival he went4 ,m4 ,massenet had recently produced his ,marie ,madeleine and1 curiously enough1 it had been successful4 ,this seems to have spurred ,bizet on to emulation4 ,with his usual happy knack of hitting on a subject1 he wrote off to ,gallet1 requesting him to do a book with ,genevive de ,paris--the holy ,genevive of legendary lore--for heroine4 ,and ,gallet1 accommodating creature that he was1 forthwith proceeded to construct his tableaux4 ,together they went off to ,lamoureux and read the synopsis to him4 ,he approved it heartily1 and ,bizet got to work4 ,carmen was then finished and was undergoing the usual stage of adjournment sine die4 ,three times it had been put into rehearsal1 only to be withdrawn for apparently no reason1 and poor ,bizet was wearying of opera and its ways4 ,this sacred work was relief to him4 ,but hardly had he settled down to it when up came ,carmen once again1 this time in good earnest4 ,he was forced to leave ,genevive and come to ,paris for rehearsals4 ,it was much against his inclination that he did so1 for his health was failing fast4 ,for long he had suffered from an abscess which had made his life a burden to him4 ,nor had his terrible industry been without its effect upon his physique4 ,he did not know it1 but he had sacrificed to his work the very things he had worked for4 ,he felt exhausted1 enfeebled1 shattered4 ,probably the excitement of rehearsing ,carmen kept him up the while2 but it had its after-effect1 and the strain proved all the more disastrous4 ,a profound melancholy1 too1 had come over him2 and do what he would he could not beat it off4 ,a young singer 7some aspirant for lyric fame7 came one day to sing to him4 ,ich grlle nicht and ,aus der ,heimath were chosen4 ,quel chef d'oeuvre1 said he1 mais quelle dsolation1 c'est vous donner la nostalgie de la mort4 ,then he sat down to the piano and played the ,marche ,funbre of ,chopin4 ,that was the frame of mind he was in4 ,in his gayer moments he would often long for ,italy4 ,he had never forgotten the happy days passed there with ,guiraud4 ,i dreamed last night 7he is writing to ,guiraud7 that we were all at ,naples1 installed in a most lovely villa1 and living under a government purely artistic4 ,the ,senate was made up by ,beethoven1 ,michael ,angelo1 ,shakespeare1 ,giorgione1 e tutti quanti4 ,the ,national ,guard was no more4 ,in place of it there was a huge orchestra of which ,litolff was the conductor4 ,all suffrage was denied to idiots1 humbugs1 schemers1 and ignoramuses--that is to say1 suffrage was cut down to the smallest proportions imaginable4 ,genevive was a little too amiable for ,goethe1 but despite this trifling circumstance the awakening was terribly bitter4 ,carmen was produced at last1 on the #crd of ,march in that year 7#ahge74 ,the ,habanera--of which1 by the way1 he wrote for ,mme4 ,galli-,mari no less than thirteen versions before he came across1 in an old book1 the one we know--the prelude to the second act1 the toreador song1 and the quintett were encored4 ,the rest fell absolutely flat4 ,the blow was a terrific one to ,bizet4 ,he had dreamed of such a different lot for ,carmen4 ,arm in arm with ,guiraud he left the theatre1 and together they paced the streets of ,paris until dawn4 ,small wonder he felt bitter2 and in vain the kindly ,guiraud did his best to comfort him4 ,had not ,don ,juan1 he argued1 been accorded a reception no whit better when it was produced in ,vienna8 and had not poor ,mozart said ,i have written ',don ,juan' for myself and two of my friends8 ,but he found no consolation in the fact4 ,the press1 too1 cut him to the quick4 ,this ,carmen1 said they1 was immoral1 banale2 it was all head and no heart2 the composer had made up his mind to show how learned he was1 with the result that he was only dull and obscure4 ,then again1 the gipsy girl whose liaisons formed the subject of the story was at best an odious creature2 the actress's gestures were the very incarnation of vice1 there was something licentious even in the tones of her voice2 the composer evidently belonged to the school of civet sans livre2 there was no unity of style2 it was not dramatic1 and could never live2 in a word1 there was no health in it4 ,even ,du ,locle--who of all men should have supported it--played him false4 ,a minister of the ,government wrote personally to the director for a box for his family4 ,du ,locle replied with an invitation to the rehearsal1 adding that he had rather that the minister came himself before he brought his daughters4 ,prostrate with it all1 poor ,bizet returned to ,bougival4 ,when forced to give up ,genevive1 he had written to ,gallet3 ,i shall give the whole of ,may1 ,june1 and ,july to it4 ,and now ,may was already come1 and he was in his bed4 ,angine colossale1 were the words he sent to ,guiraud1 who was to have been with him the following ,sunday4 ,do not come as we arranged2 imagine1 if you can1 a double pedal1 ,a flat1 ,e flat1 straight through your head from left to right4 ,this is how ,i am just now4 ,he never wrote more than a few pages of ,genevive4 ,he got worse and worse4 ,but even so1 the end came all too suddenly1 and on the night of the #bnd of ,june he died--died as nearly as possible at the exact moment when ,galli-,mari at the ,opra ,comique was singing her song of fate in the card scene of the third act of his ,carmen4 ,the coincidence was true enough4 ,that night it was with difficulty that she sung her song4 ,her nervousness1 from some cause or another1 was so great that it was with the utmost effort she pronounced the words3 ,la carte impitoyable2 rptera la mort2 encore1 toujours la mort4 ,on finishing the scene1 she fainted at the wings4 ,next morning came the news of ,bizet's death4 ,and some friends said--because it was not meet for them to see the body--that the poor fellow had killed himself4 ,small wonder if it were so6 ,six ,drawings ,by ,aubrey ,beardsley ,i4 ,,ii4 ,,iii4 ,the ,comedy-,ballet of ,marionnettes1 as performed by the troupe of the ,thtre-,impossible1 posed in three drawings ,,iv4 ,garons de ,caf ,v4 ,the ,slippers of ,cinderella ,for you must have all heard of the ,princess ,cinderella with her slim feet and shining slippers4 ,she was beloved by ,prince ----1 who married her1 but she died soon afterwards1 poisoned 7according to ,dr4 ,gerschovius7 by her elder sister ,arabella1 with powdered glass4 ,it was ground ,i suspect from those very slippers she danced in at the famous ball4 ,for the slippers of ,cinderella have never been found since4 ,they are not at ,cluny4 ,,hector ,,sandus ,,vi4 ,portrait of ,madame ,rjane ,illustration3 ,first ,comedy-,ballet ,illustration3 ,second ,comedy ,ballet ,illustration3 ,third ,comedy ,ballet ,illustration3 ,garons de ,caf ,illustration3 ,the ,slippers of ,cinderella ,illustration3 ,portrait of ,madame ,rjane ,thirty ,bob a ,week ,by ,john ,davidson ,i couldn't touch a stop and turn a screw1 ,and set the blooming world a-work for me1 ,like such as cut their teeth--,i hope1 like you-- ,on the handle of a skeleton gold key4 ,i cut mine on leek1 which ,i eat it every week3 ,i'm a clerk at thirty bob1 as you can see4 ,but ,i don't allow it's luck and all a toss2 ,there's no such thing as being starred and crossed2 ,it's just the power of some to be a boss1 ,and the bally power of others to be bossed3 ,i face the music1 sir2 you bet ,i ain't a cur6 ,strike me lucky if ,i don't believe ,i'm lost6 ,for like a mole ,i journey in the dark1 ,a-travelling along the underground ,from my ,pillar'd ,halls and broad suburban ,park ,to come the daily dull official round2 ,and home again at night with my pipe all alight ,a-scheming how to count ten bob a pound4 ,and it's often very cold and very wet2 ,and my missis stitches towels for a hunks2 ,and the ,pillar'd ,halls is half of it to let-- ,three rooms about the size of travelling trunks4 ,and we cough1 the wife and ,i1 to dislocate a sigh1 ,when the noisy little kids are in their bunks4 ,but you'll never hear her do a growl1 or whine1 ,for she's made of flint and roses very odd2 ,and ,i've got to cut my meaning rather fine ,or ,i'd blubber1 for ,i'm made of greens and sod3 ,so p'rhaps we are in hell for all that ,i can tell1 ,and lost and damned and served up hot to ,god4 ,i ain't blaspheming1 ,mr4 ,silvertongue2 ,i'm saying things a bit beyond your art3 ,of all the rummy starts you ever sprung ,thirty bob a week's the rummiest start6 ,with your science and your books and your the'ries about spooks1 ,did you ever hear of looking in your heart8 ,i didn't mean your pocket1 ,mr42 no6 ,i mean that having children and a wife ,with thirty bob on which to come and go ,isn't dancing to the tabor and the fife2 ,when it doesn't make you drink1 by ,heaven1 it makes you think1 ,and notice curious items about life6 ,i step into my heart and there ,i meet ,a god-almighty devil singing small1 ,who would like to shout and whistle in the street1 ,and squelch the passers flat against the wall2 ,if the whole world was a cake he had the power to take1 ,he would take it1 ask for more1 and eat it all4 ,and ,i meet a sort of simpleton beside-- ,the kind that life is always giving beans2 ,with thirty bob a week to keep a bride ,he fell in love and married in his teens2 ,at thirty bob he stuck1 but he knows it isn't luck2 ,he knows the seas are deeper than tureens4 ,and the god-almighty devil and the fool ,that meet me in the ,high ,street on the strike1 ,when ,i walk about my heart a-gathering wool1 ,are my good and evil angels if you like2 ,and both of them together in every kind of weather ,ride me like a double-seated bike4 ,that's rough a bit and needs its meaning curled2 ,but ,i have a high old hot un in my mind1 ,a most engrugious notion of the world ,that leaves your lightning 'rithmetic behind3 ,i give it at a glance when ,i say ,there ain't no chance1 ,nor nothing of the lucky-lottery kind4 ,and it's this way that ,i make it out to be3 ,no fathers1 mothers1 countries1 climates--none6-- ,not ,adam was responsible for me2 ,nor society1 nor systems1 nary one6 ,a little sleeping seed1 ,i woke--,i did indeed-- ,a million years before the blooming sun4 ,i woke because ,i thought the time had come2 ,beyond my will there was no other cause3 ,and everywhere ,i found myself at home ,because ,i chose to be the thing ,i was2 ,and in whatever shape1 of mollusc1 or of ape1 ,i always went according to the laws4 ,i was the love that chose my mother out2 ,i joined two lives and from the union burst2 ,my weakness and my strength without a doubt ,are mine alone for ever from the first4 ,it's just the very same with a difference in the name ,as ,thy will be done4 ,you say it if you durst6 ,they say it daily up and down the land ,as easy as you take a drink1 it's true2 ,but the difficultest go to understand1 ,and the difficultest job a man can do1 ,is to come it brave and meek with thirty bob a week1 ,and feel that that's the proper thing for you4 ,it's a naked child against a hungry wolf2 ,it's playing bowls upon a splitting wreck2 ,it's walking on a string across a gulf ,with millstones fore-and-aft about your neck3 ,but the thing is daily done by many and many a one4444 ,and we fall1 face forward1 fighting1 on the deck4 ,a ,responsibility ,by ,henry ,harland ,it has been an episode like a ,german sentence1 with its predicate at the end4 ,trifling incidents occurred at haphazard1 as it seemed1 and ,i never guessed they were by way of making sense4 ,then1 this morning1 somewhat of the suddenest1 came the verb and the full stop4 ,yesterday ,i should have said there was nothing to tell2 to-day there is too much4 ,the announcement of his death has caused me to review our relations1 with the result of discovering my own part to have been that of an accessory before the fact4 ,i did not kill him 7though1 even there1 ,i'm not sure ,i didn't lend a hand71 but ,i might have saved his life4 ,it is certain that he made me signals of distress--faint1 shy1 tentative1 but unmistakable--and that ,i pretended not to understand3 just barely dipped my colours1 and kept my course4 ,oh1 if ,i had dreamed that his distress was extreme--that he was on the point of foundering and going down6 ,however1 that doesn't exonerate me3 ,i ought to have turned aside to find out4 ,it was a case of criminal negligence4 ,that he1 poor man1 probably never blamed me1 only adds to the burden on my conscience4 ,he had got past blaming people1 ,i dare say1 and doubtless merely lumped me with the rest--with the sum-total of things that made life unsupportable4 ,yet1 for a moment1 when we first met1 his face showed a distinct glimmering of hope2 so perhaps there was a distinct disappointment4 ,he must have had so many disappointments1 before it came to--what it came to2 but it wouldn't have come to that if he had got hardened to them4 ,possibly they had lost their outlines1 and merged into one dull general disappointment that was too hard to bear4 ,i wonder whether the ,priest and the ,levite were smitten with remorse after they had passed on4 ,unfortunately1 in this instance1 no ,good ,samaritan followed4 ,the bottom of our long table d'hte was held by a ,frenchman1 a ,normand1 a giant1 but a pallid and rather flabby giant1 whose name1 if he had another than ,monsieur1 ,i never heard4 ,he professed to be a painter1 used to sketch birds and profiles on the back of his menu-card between the courses1 wore shamelessly the multi-coloured rosette of a foreign order in his buttonhole1 and talked with a good deal of physiognomy4 ,i had the corner seat at his right1 and was flanked in turn by ,miss ,etta ,j4 ,hicks1 a bouncing young person from ,chicago1 beyond whom1 like rabbits in a company of foxes1 cowered ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,jordan ,p4 ,hicks1 two broken-spirited ,american parents4 ,at ,monsieur's left1 and facing me1 sat ,colonel ,escott1 very red and cheerful2 then a young man who called the ,colonel ,cornel1 and came from ,dublin1 proclaiming himself a barr'ster1 and giving his name as ,flarty1 though on his card it was written ,flaherty2 and then ,sir ,richard ,maistre4 ,after him1 a diminishing perspective of busy diners--for purposes of conversation1 so far as we were concerned1 inhabitants of the ,fourth ,dimension4 ,of our immediate constellation ,sir ,richard ,maistre was the only member on whom the eye was tempted to linger4 ,the others were obvious--simple equations1 soluble in the head4 ,but he called for slate and pencil1 offered materials for doubt and speculation1 though it would not have been easy to tell wherein they lay4 ,what displayed itself to a cursory inspection was quite unremarkable3 simply a decent-looking young ,englishman1 of medium stature1 with square-cut plain features1 reddish-brown hair1 grey eyes1 and clothes and manners of the usual pattern4 ,yet1 showing through this ordinary surface1 there was something cryptic4 ,for me1 at any rate1 it required a constant effort not to stare at him4 ,i felt it from the beginning1 and ,i felt it till the end3 a teasing curiosity1 a sort of magnetism that drew my eyes in his direction4 ,i was always on my guard to resist it1 and that was really the inception of my neglect of him4 ,from ,i don't know what stupid motive of pride1 ,i was anxious that he shouldn't discern the interest he had excited in me2 so ,i paid less ostensible attention to him than to the others1 who excited none at all4 ,i tried to appear unconscious of him as a detached personality1 to treat him as merely a part of the group as a whole4 ,then ,i improved such occasions as presented themselves to steal glances at him1 to study him la drobe--groping after the quality1 whatever it was1 that made him a puzzle--seeking to formulate1 to classify him4 ,already1 at the end of my first dinner1 he had singled himself out and left an impression4 ,i went into the smoking-room1 and began to wonder1 over a cup of coffee and a cigarette1 who he was4 ,i had not heard his voice2 he hadn't talked much1 and his few observations had been murmured into the ears of his next neighbours4 ,all the same1 he had left an impression1 and ,i found myself wondering who he was1 the young man with the square-cut features and the reddish-brown hair4 ,i have said that his features were square-cut and plain1 but they were small and carefully finished1 and as far as possible from being common4 ,and his grey eyes1 though not conspicuous for size or beauty1 had a character1 an expression4 ,they said something1 something ,i couldn't perfectly translate1 something shrewd1 humorous1 even perhaps a little caustic1 and yet sad2 not violently1 not rebelliously sad 7,i should never have dreamed that it was a sadness which would drive him to desperate remedies71 but rather resignedly1 submissively sad1 as if he had made up his mind to put the best face on a sorry business4 ,this was carried out by a certain abruptness1 a slight lack of suavity1 in his movements1 in his manner of turning his head1 of using his hands4 ,it hinted a degree of determination which1 in the circumstances1 seemed superfluous4 ,he had unfolded his napkin and attacked his dinner with an air of resolution1 like a man with a task before him1 who mutters1 ,well1 it's got to be done1 and ,i'll do it4 ,at a hazard1 he was two- or three-and-thirty1 but below his neck he looked older4 ,he was dressed like everybody1 but his costume had1 somehow1 an effect of soberness beyond his years4 ,it was decidedly not smart1 and smartness was the dominant note at the ,htel d',angleterre4 ,i was still more or less vaguely ruminating him1 in a corner of the smoking-room1 on that first evening1 when ,i became aware that he was standing near me4 ,as ,i looked up1 our eyes met1 and for the fraction of a second fixed each other4 ,it was barely the fraction of a second1 but it was time enough for the transmission of a message4 ,i knew as certainly as if he had said so that he wanted to speak1 to break the ice1 to scrape an acquaintance2 ,i knew that he had approached me and was loitering in my neighbourhood for that specific purpose4 ,i don't know1 ,i have studied the psychology of the moment in vain to understand1 why ,i felt a perverse impulse to put him off4 ,i was interested in him1 ,i was curious about him2 and there he stood1 testifying that the interest was reciprocal1 ready to make the advances1 only waiting for a glance or a motion of encouragement2 and ,i deliberately secluded myself behind my coffee-cup and my cigarette smoke4 ,i suppose it was the working of some obscure mannish vanity--of what in a woman would have defined itself as coyness and coquetry4 ,if he wanted to speak--well1 let him speak2 ,i wouldn't help him4 ,i could realise the processes of his mind even more clearly than those of my own--his desire1 his hesitancy4 ,he was too timid to leap the barriers2 ,i must open a gate for him4 ,he hovered near me for a minute longer1 and then drifted away4 ,i felt his disappointment1 his spiritual shrug of the shoulders2 and ,i perceived rather suddenly that ,i was disappointed myself4 ,i must have been hoping all along that he would speak quand mme1 and now ,i was moved to run after him1 to call him back4 ,that1 however1 would imply a consciousness of guilt1 an admission that my attitude had been intentional2 so ,i kept my seat1 making a mental rendezvous with him for the morrow4 ,between my ,irish vis--vis ,flaherty and myself there existed no such strain4 ,he presently sauntered up to me1 and dropped into conversation as easily as if we had been old friends4 ,well1 and are you here for your health or your entertainment8 he began4 ,but ,i don't need to ask that of a man who's drinking black coffee and smoking tobacco at this hour of the night4 ,i'm the only invalid at our end of the table1 and ,i'm no better than an amateur meself4 ,it's a barrister's throat ,i have--,i caught it waiting for briefs in me chambers at ,doblin4 ,we chatted together for a half-hour or so1 and before we parted he had given me a good deal of general information--about the town1 the natives1 the visitors1 the sands1 the golf-links1 the hunting1 and1 with the rest1 about our neighbours at table4 ,did ye notice the pink-faced bald little man at me right8 ,that's ,cornel ,escott1 ,c4,b41 retired4 ,he takes a sea-bath every morning1 to live up to the letters2 and faith1 it's an act of heroism1 no less1 in weather the like of this4 ,three weeks have ,i been here1 and but wan day of sunshine1 and the mercury never above fifty4 ,the other fellow1 him at me left1 is what you'd be slow to suspect by the look of him1 ,i'll go bail2 and that's a bar'net1 ,sir ,richard ,maistre1 with a place in ,hampshire1 and ten thousand a year if he's a penny4 ,the young lady beside yourself rejoices in the euphonious name of ,hicks1 and trains her ,popper and ,mommer behind her like slaves in a ,roman triumph4 ,they're ,americans1 if you must have the truth1 though ,i oughtn't to tell it on them1 for ,i'm an ,irishman myself1 and its not for the pot to be bearing tales of the kettle4 ,however1 their tongues bewray them2 so ,i've violated no confidence4 ,the knowledge that my young man was a baronet with a place in ,hampshire somewhat disenchanted me4 ,a baronet with a place in ,hampshire left too little to the imagination4 ,the description seemed to curtail his potentialities1 to prescribe his orbit1 to connote turnip-fields1 house-parties1 and a whole system of ,british commonplace4 ,yet1 when1 the next day at luncheon1 ,i again had him before me in the flesh1 my interest revived4 ,its lapse had been due to an association of ideas which ,i now recognised as unscientific4 ,a baronet with twenty places in ,hampshire would remain at the end of them all a human being2 and no human being could be finished off in a formula of half a dozen words4 ,sir ,richard ,maistre1 anyhow1 couldn't be4 ,he was enigmatic1 and his effect upon me was enigmatic too4 ,why did ,i feel that tantalising inclination to stare at him1 coupled with that reluctance frankly to engage in talk with him8 ,why did he attack his luncheon with that appearance of grim resolution8 ,for a minute1 after he had taken his seat1 he eyed his knife1 fork1 and napkin1 as a labourer might a load that he had to lift1 measuring the difficulties he must cope with2 then he gave his head a resolute nod1 and set to work4 ,to-day1 as yesterday1 he said very little1 murmured an occasional remark into the ear of ,flaherty1 accompanying it usually with a sudden short smile3 but he listened to everything1 and did so with apparent appreciation4 ,our proceedings were opened by ,miss ,hicks1 who asked ,colonel ,escott1 ,well1 ,colonel1 have you had your bath this morning8 ,the ,colonel chuckled1 and answered1 ,oh1 yes--yes1 yes--couldn't forego my bath1 you know--couldn't possibly forego my bath4 ,and what was the temperature of the water8 she continued4 ,fifty-two--fifty-two--three degrees warmer than the air--three degrees1 responded the ,colonel1 still chuckling1 as if the whole affair had been extremely funny4 ,and you1 ,mr4 ,flaherty1 ,i suppose you've been to ,bayonne8 ,no1 ,i've broken me habit1 and not left the hotel4 ,subsequent experience taught me that these were conventional modes by which the conversation was launched every day1 like the preliminary moves in chess4 ,we had another ritual for dinner3 ,miss ,hicks then inquired if the ,colonel had taken his ride1 and ,flaherty played his game of golf4 ,the next inevitable step was common to both meals4 ,colonel ,escott would pour himself a glass of the vin ordinaire1 a jug of which was set by every plate1 and holding it up to the light1 exclaim with simulated gusto1 ,ah6 ,fine old wine6 ,remarkably full rich flavour6 ,at this pleasantry we would all gently laugh2 and the word was free4 ,sir ,richard1 as ,i have said1 appeared to be an attentive and appreciative listener1 not above smiling at our mildest sallies2 but watching him out of the corner of an eye1 ,i noticed that my own observations seemed to strike him with peculiar force--which led me to talk at him4 ,why not to him1 with him8 ,the interest was reciprocal2 he would have liked a dialogue2 he would have welcomed a chance to commence one2 and ,i could at any instant have given him such a chance4 ,i talked at him1 it is true2 but ,i talked with ,flaherty or ,miss ,hicks1 or to the company at large4 ,of his separate identity he had no reason to believe me conscious4 ,from a mixture of motives1 in which ,i'm not sure that a certain heathenish enjoyment of his embarrassment didn't count for something1 ,i was determined that if he wanted to know me he must come the whole distance2 ,i wouldn't meet him halfway4 ,of course ,i had no idea that it could be a matter of the faintest real importance to the man4 ,i judged his feelings by my own2 and though ,i was interested in him1 ,i shall have conveyed an altogether exaggerated notion of my interest if you fancy it kept me awake at night4 ,how was ,i to guess that his case was more serious--that he was not simply desirous of a little amusing talk1 but starving1 starving for a little human sympathy1 a little brotherly love and comradeship8--that he was in an abnormally sensitive condition of mind1 where mere negative unresponsiveness could hurt him like a slight or a rebuff8 ,in the course of the week ,i ran over to ,pau1 to pass a day with the ,winchfields1 who had a villa there4 ,when ,i came back ,i brought with me all that they 7who knew everybody7 could tell about ,sir ,richard ,maistre4 ,he was intelligent and amiable1 but the shyest of shy men4 ,he avoided general society1 frightened away perhaps by the ,british ,mamma1 and spent a good part of each year abroad1 wandering rather listlessly from town to town4 ,though young and rich1 he was neither fast nor ambitious3 the ,members' entrance to the ,house of ,commons1 the stage-doors of the music halls1 were equally without glamour for him2 and if he was a ,justice of the ,peace and a ,deputy ,lieutenant1 he had become so through the tacit operation of his stake in the country4 ,he had chambers in ,st4 ,james's ,street1 was a member of the ,travellers ,club1 and played the violin--for an amateur rather well4 ,his brother1 ,mortimer ,maistre1 was in diplomacy--at ,rio ,janeiro or somewhere4 ,his sister had married an ,australian1 and lived in ,melbourne4 ,at the ,htel d',angleterre ,i found his shyness was mistaken for indifference4 ,he was civil to everybody1 but intimate with none4 ,he attached himself to no party1 paired off with no individuals4 ,he sought nobody4 ,on the other hand1 the persons who went out of their way to seek him1 came back1 as they felt1 repulsed4 ,he had been polite but languid4 ,these1 however1 were not the sort of persons he would be likely to care for4 ,there prevailed a general conception of him as cold1 unsociable4 ,he certainly walked about a good deal alone--you met him on the sands1 on the cliffs1 in the stiff little streets1 rambling aimlessly1 seldom with a companion4 ,but to me it was patent that he played the solitary from necessity1 not from choice--from the necessity of his temperament4 ,a companion was precisely that which above all things his heart coveted2 only he didn't know how to set about annexing one4 ,if he sought nobody1 it was because he didn't know how4 ,this was a part of what his eyes said2 they bespoke his desire1 his perplexity1 his lack of nerve4 ,of the people who put themselves out to seek him1 there was ,miss ,hicks2 there were a family from ,leeds1 named ,bunn1 a father1 mother1 son1 and two redoubtable daughters1 who drank champagne with every meal1 dressed in the height of fashion1 said their say at the tops of their voices1 and were understood to be auctioneers2 a family from ,bayswater named ,krausskopf4 ,i was among those whom he had marked as men he would like to fraternise with4 ,as often as our paths crossed1 his eyes told me that he longed to stop and speak1 and continue the promenade abreast4 ,i was under the control of a demon of mischief2 ,i took a malicious pleasure in eluding and baffling him--in passing on with a nod4 ,it had become a kind of game2 ,i was curious to see whether he would ever develop sufficient hardihood to take the bull by the horns4 ,after all1 from a conventional point of view1 my conduct was quite justifiable4 ,i always meant to do better by him next time1 and then ,i always deferred it to the next4 ,but from a conventional point of view my conduct was quite unassailable4 ,i said this to myself when ,i had momentary qualms of conscience4 ,now1 rather late in the day1 it strikes me that the conventional point of view should have been re-adjusted to the special case4 ,i should have allowed for his personal equation4 ,my cousin ,wilford came to ,biarritz about this time1 stopping for a week1 on his way home from a tour in ,spain4 ,i couldn't find a room for him at the ,htel d',angleterre1 so he put up at a rival hostelry over the way2 but he dined with me on the evening of his arrival1 a place being made for him between mine and ,monsieur's4 ,he hadn't been at the table five minutes before the rumour went abroad who he was--somebody had recognised him4 ,then those who were within reach of his voice listened with all their ears--,colonel ,escott1 ,flaherty1 ,maistre1 and ,miss ,hicks1 of course1 who even called him by name3 ,oh1 ,mr4 ,wilford4 ,now1 ,mr4 ,wilford1 c4 ,after dinner1 in the smoking-room1 a cluster of people hung round us2 men with whom ,i had no acquaintance came merrily up and asked to be introduced4 ,colonel ,escott and ,flaherty joined us4 ,at the outskirts of the group ,i beheld ,sir ,richard ,maistre4 ,his eyes 7without his realising it perhaps7 begged me to invite him1 to present him1 and ,i affected not to understand6 ,this is one of the little things ,i find hardest to forgive myself4 ,my whole behaviour towards the young man is now a subject of self-reproach3 if it had been different1 who knows that the tragedy of yesterday would ever have happened8 ,if ,i had answered his timid overtures1 walked with him1 talked with him1 cultivated his friendship1 given him mine1 established a kindly human relation with him1 ,i can't help feeling that he might not have got to such a desperate pass1 that ,i might have cheered him1 helped him1 saved him4 ,i feel it especially when ,i think of ,wilford4 ,his eyes attested so much2 he would have enjoyed meeting him so keenly4 ,no doubt he was already fond of the man1 had loved him through his books1 like so many others4 ,if ,i had introduced him8 ,if we had taken him with us the next morning1 on our excursion to ,cambo8 ,included him occasionally in our smokes and parleys8 ,wilford left for ,england without dining again at the ,htel d',angleterre4 ,we were busy doing the country1 and never chanced to be at ,biarritz at the dinner-hour4 ,during that week ,i scarcely saw ,sir ,richard ,maistre4 ,another little circumstance that rankles especially now would have been ridiculous1 except for the way things have ended4 ,it isn't easy to tell--it was so petty1 and ,i am so ashamed4 ,colonel ,escott had been abusing ,london1 describing it as the least beautiful of the capitals of ,europe1 comparing it unfavourably to ,paris1 ,vienna1 and ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,i took up the cudgels in its defence1 mentioned its atmosphere1 its tone2 ,paris1 ,vienna1 ,st4 ,petersburg were lyric1 ,london was epic2 and so forth and so forth4 ,then1 shifting from the sthetic to the utilitarian1 ,i argued that of all great towns it was the healthiest1 its death-rate was lowest4 ,sir ,richard ,maistre had followed my dissertation attentively1 and with a countenance that signified approval2 and when1 with my reference to the death-rate1 ,i paused1 he suddenly burned his ships4 ,he looked me full in the eye1 and said1 ,thirty-seven1 ,i believe8 ,his heightened colour1 a nervous movement of the lip1 betrayed the effort it had cost him2 but at last he had done it--screwed his courage to the sticking-place1 and spoken4 ,and ,i--,i can never forget it--,i grow hot when ,i think of it--but ,i was possessed by a devil4 ,his eyes hung on my face1 awaiting my response1 pleading for a cue4 ,go on1 they urged4 ,i have taken the first1 the difficult step--make the next smoother for me4 ,and ,i--,i answered lackadaisically1 with just a casual glance at him1 ,i don't know the figures1 and absorbed myself in my viands4 ,two or three days later his place was filled by a stranger1 and ,flaherty told me that he had left for the ,riviera4 ,all this happened last ,march at ,biarritz4 ,i never saw him again till three weeks ago4 ,it was one of those frightfully hot afternoons in ,july2 ,i had come out of my club1 and was walking up ,st4 ,james's ,street1 towards ,piccadilly2 he was moving in an opposite sense2 and thus we approached each other4 ,he didn't see me1 however1 till we had drawn rather near to a conjunction3 then he gave a little start of recognition1 his eyes brightened1 his pace slackened1 his right hand prepared to advance itself--and ,i bowed slightly1 and pursued my way6 ,don't ask why ,i did it4 ,it is enough to confess it1 without having to explain it4 ,i glanced backwards1 by and by1 over my shoulder4 ,he was standing where ,i had met him1 half turned round1 and looking after me4 ,but when he saw that ,i was observing him1 he hastily shifted about1 and continued his descent of the street4 ,that was only three weeks ago4 ,only three weeks ago ,i still had it in my power to act4 ,i am sure--,i don't know why ,i am sure1 but ,i am sure--that ,i could have deterred him4 ,for all that one can gather from the brief note he left behind1 it seems he had no special1 definite motive2 he had met with no losses1 got into no scrape2 he was simply tired and sick of life and of himself4 ,i have no friends1 he wrote4 ,nobody will care4 ,people don't like me2 people avoid me4 ,i have wondered why2 ,i have tried to watch myself1 and discover2 ,i have tried to be decent4 ,i suppose it must be that ,i emit a repellent fluid2 ,i suppose ,i am a 'bad sort4' ,he had a morbid notion that people didn't like him1 that people avoided him6 ,oh1 to be sure1 there were the ,bunns and the ,krausskopfs and their ilk1 plentiful enough3 but he understood what it was that attracted them4 ,other people1 the people he could have liked1 kept their distance--were civil1 indeed1 but reserved4 ,he wanted bread1 and they gave him a stone4 ,it never struck him1 ,i suppose1 that they attributed the reserve to him4 ,but ,i--,i knew that his reserve was only an effect of his shyness2 ,i knew that he wanted bread3 and that knowledge constituted my moral responsibility4 ,i didn't know that his need was extreme2 but ,i have tried in vain to absolve myself with the reflection4 ,i ought to have made inquiries4 ,when ,i think of that afternoon in ,st4 ,james's ,street--only three weeks ago--,i feel like an assassin4 ,the vision of him1 as he stopped and looked after me--,i can't banish it4 ,why didn't some good spirit move me to turn back and overtake him8 ,it is so hard for the mind to reconcile itself to the irretrievable4 ,i can't shake off a sense that there is something to be done4 ,i can't realise that it is too late4 ,song ,by ,dollie ,radford ,i could not through the burning day ,in hope prevail1 ,beside my task ,i could not stay ,if love should fail4 ,nor underneath the evening sky1 ,when labours cease1 ,fold both my tired hands and lie ,at last in peace4 ,ah6 what to me in death or life ,could then avail8 ,i dare not ask for rest or strife ,if love should fail4 ,a ,landscape ,by ,alfred ,thornton ,illustration3 ,a ,landscape ,passed ,by ,charlotte ,m4 ,mew ,like souls that meeting pass1 ,and passing never meet again4 ,let those who have missed a romantic view of ,london in its poorest quarters--and there will romance be found--wait for a sunset in early winter4 ,they may turn ,north or ,south1 towards ,islington or ,westminster1 and encounter some fine pictures and more than one aspect of unique beauty4 ,this hour of pink twilight has its monopoly of effects4 ,some of them may never be reached again4 ,on such an evening in mid-,december1 ,i put down my sewing and left tame glories of fire-light 7discoverers of false charm7 to welcome1 as youth may1 the contrast of keen air outdoors to the glow within4 ,my aim was the perfection of a latent appetite1 for ,i had no mind to content myself with an apology for hunger1 consequent on a warmly passive afternoon4 ,the splendid cold of fierce frost set my spirit dancing4 ,the road rung hard underfoot1 and through the lonely squares woke sharp echoes from behind4 ,this stinging air assailed my cheeks with vigorous severity4 ,it stirred my blood grandly1 and brought thought back to me from the warm embers just forsaken1 with an immeasurable sense of gain4 ,but after the first delirium of enchanting motion1 destination became a question4 ,the dim trees behind the dingy enclosures were beginning to be succeeded by rows of flaring gas jets1 displaying shops of new aspect and evil smell4 ,then the heavy walls of a partially demolished prison reared themselves darkly against the pale sky4 ,by this landmark ,i recalled--alas that it should be possible--a church in the district1 newly built by an infallible architect1 which ,i had been directed to seek at leisure4 ,i did so now4 ,a row of cramped houses1 with the unpardonable bow window1 projecting squalor into prominence1 came into view4 ,robbing these even of light1 the portentous walls stood a silent curse before them4 ,i think they were blasting the hopes of the sad dwellers beneath them--if hope they had--to despair4 ,through spattered panes faces of diseased and dirty children leered into the street4 ,one room1 as ,i passed1 seemed full of them4 ,the window was open2 their wails and maddening requirements sent out the mother's cry4 ,it was thrown back to her1 mingled with her children's screams1 from the pitiless prison walls4 ,these shelters struck my thought as travesties--perhaps they were not--of the grand place called home4 ,leaving them ,i sought the essential of which they were bereft4 ,what withheld from them1 as poverty and sin could not1 a title to the sacred name8 ,an answer came1 but interpretation was delayed4 ,theirs was not the desolation of something lost1 but of something that had never been4 ,i thrust off speculation gladly here1 and fronted ,nature free4 ,suddenly ,i emerged from the intolerable shadow of the brickwork1 breathing easily once more4 ,before me lay a roomy space1 nearly square1 bounded by three-storey dwellings1 and transformed1 as if by quick mechanism1 with colours of sunset4 ,red and golden spots wavered in the panes of the low scattered houses round the bewildering expanse4 ,overhead a faint crimson sky was hung with violet clouds1 obscured by the smoke and nearing dusk4 ,in the centre1 but towards the left1 stood an old stone pump1 and some few feet above it irregular lamps looked down4 ,they were planted on a square of paving railed in by broken iron fences1 whose paint1 now discoloured1 had once been white4 ,narrow streets cut in five directions from the open roadway4 ,their lines of light sank dimly into distance1 mocking the stars' entrance into the fading sky4 ,everything was transfigured in the illuminated twilight4 ,as ,i stood1 the dying sun caught the rough edges of a girl's uncovered hair1 and hung a faint nimbus round her poor desecrated face4 ,the soft circle1 as she glanced toward me1 lent it the semblance of one of those mystically pictured faces of some medival saint4 ,a stillness stole on1 and about the square dim figures hurried along1 leaving me stationary in existence 7,i was thinking fancifully71 when my medival saint demanded who ,i was a-shoving of8 and dismissed me1 not unkindly1 on my way4 ,hawkers in a neighbouring alley were calling1 and the monotonous ting-ting of the muffin-bell made an audible background to the picture4 ,i left it1 and then the glamour was already passing4 ,in a little while darkness possessing it1 the place would reassume its aspect of sordid gloom4 ,there is a street not far from there1 bearing a name that quickens life within one1 by the vision it summons of a most peaceful country1 where the broad roads are but pathways through green meadows1 and your footstep keeps the time to a gentle music of pure streams4 ,there the scent of roses1 and the first pushing buds of spring1 mark the seasons1 and the birds call out faithfully the time and manner of the day4 ,here ,easter is heralded by the advent in some squalid mart of air-balls on ,good ,friday2 early summer and late may be known by observation of that unromantic yet authentic calendar in which alley-tors1 tip-cat1 whip- and peg-tops1 hoops and suckers1 in their courses mark the flight of time4 ,perhaps attracted by the incongruity1 ,i took this way4 ,in such a thoroughfare it is remarkable that satisfied as are its public with transient substitutes for literature1 they require permanent types 7the term is so far misused it may hardly be further outraged7 of ,art4 ,pictures1 so-called1 are the sole departure from necessity and popular finery which the prominent wares display4 ,the window exhibiting these aspirations was scarcely more inviting than the fishmonger's next door1 but less odoriferous1 and ,i stopped to see what the ill-reflecting lights would show4 ,there was a typical selection4 ,prominently1 a large chromo of a girl at prayer4 ,her eyes turned upwards1 presumably to heaven1 left the gazer in no state to dwell on the elaborately bared breasts below4 ,these might rival1 does wax-work attempt such beauties1 any similar attraction of ,marylebone's extensive show4 ,this personification of pseudo-purity was sensually diverting1 and consequently marketable4 ,my mind seized the ideal of such a picture1 and turned from this prostitution of it sickly away4 ,hurriedly ,i proceeded1 and did not stop again until ,i had passed the low gateway of the place ,i sought4 ,its forbidding exterior was hidden in the deep twilight and invited no consideration4 ,i entered and swung back the inner door4 ,it was papered with memorial cards1 recommending to mercy the unprotesting spirits of the dead4 ,my prayers were requested for the repose of the soul of the ,architect of that church1 who passed away in the ,true ,faith--,december1--#ahhg4 ,accepting the assertion1 ,i counted him beyond them1 and mentally entrusted mine to the priest for those who were still groping for it in the gloom4 ,within the building1 darkness again forbade examination4 ,a few lamps hanging before the altar struggled with obscurity4 ,i tried to identify some ugly details with the great man's complacent eccentricity1 and failing1 turned toward the street again4 ,nearly an hour's walk lay between me and my home4 ,this fact and the atmosphere of stuffy sanctity about the place1 set me longing for space again1 and woke a fine scorn for aught but air and sky4 ,my appetite1 too1 was now an hour ahead of opportunity4 ,i sent back a final glance into the darkness as my hand prepared to strike the door4 ,there was no motion at the moment1 and it was silent2 but the magnetism of human presence reached me where ,i stood4 ,i hesitated1 and in a few moments found what sought me on a chair in the far corner1 flung face downwards across the seat4 ,the attitude arrested me4 ,i went forward4 ,the lines of the figure spoke unquestionable despair4 ,does speech convey intensity of anguish8 ,its supreme expression is in form4 ,here was human agony set forth in meagre lines1 voiceless1 but articulate to the soul4 ,at first the forcible portrayal of it assailed me with the importunate strength of beauty4 ,then the ,thing stretched there in the obdurate darkness grew personal and banished delight4 ,neither sympathy nor its vulgar substitute1 curiosity1 induced my action as ,i drew near4 ,i was eager indeed to be gone4 ,i wanted to ignore the almost indistinguishable being4 ,my will cried3 ,forsake it6--but ,i found myself powerless to obey4 ,perhaps it would have conquered had not the girl swiftly raised herself in quest of me4 ,i stood still4 ,her eyes met mine4 ,a wildly tossed spirit looked from those ill-lighted windows1 beckoning me on4 ,mine pressed towards it1 but whether my limbs actually moved ,i do not know1 for the imperious summons robbed me of any consciousness save that of necessity to comply4 ,did she reach me1 or was our advance mutual8 ,it cannot be told4 ,i suppose we neither know4 ,but we met1 and her hand1 grasping mine1 imperatively dragged me into the cold and noisy street4 ,we went rapidly in and out of the flaring booths1 hustling little staggering children in our unpitying speed1 ,i listening dreamily to the concert of hoarse yells and haggling whines which struck against the silence of our flight4 ,on and on she took me1 breathless and without explanation4 ,we said nothing4 ,i had no care or impulse to ask our goal4 ,the fierce pressure of my hand was not relaxed a breathing space2 it would have borne me against resistance could ,i have offered any1 but ,i was capable of none4 ,the streets seemed to rush past us1 peopled with despair4 ,weirdly lighted faces sent blank negations to a spirit of question which finally began to stir in me4 ,here1 ,i thought once vaguely1 was the everlasting ,no6 ,we must have journeyed thus for more than half an hour and walked far4 ,i did not detect it4 ,in the eternity of supreme moments time is not4 ,thought1 too1 fears to be obtrusive and stands aside4 ,we gained a door at last1 down some blind alley out of the deafening thoroughfare4 ,she threw herself against it and pulled me up the unlighted stairs4 ,they shook now and then with the violence of our ascent2 with my free hand ,i tried to help myself up by the broad and greasy balustrade4 ,there was little sound in the house4 ,a light shone under the first door we passed1 but all was quietness within4 ,at the very top1 from the dense blackness of the passage1 my guide thrust me suddenly into a dazzling room4 ,my eyes rejected its array of brilliant light4 ,on a small chest of drawers three candles were guttering1 two more stood flaring in the high window ledge1 and a lamp upon a table by the bed rendered these minor illuminations unnecessary by its diffusive glare4 ,there were even some small ,christmas candles dropping coloured grease down the wooden mantel-piece1 and ,i noticed a fire had been made1 built entirely of wood4 ,there were bits of an inlaid workbox or desk1 and a chair-rung1 lying half burnt in the grate4 ,some peremptory demand for light had been1 these signs denoted1 unscrupulously met4 ,a woman lay upon the bed1 half clothed1 asleep4 ,as the door slammed behind me the flames wavered and my companion released my hand4 ,she stood beside me1 shuddering violently1 but without utterance4 ,i looked around4 ,everywhere proofs of recent energy were visible4 ,the bright panes reflecting back the low burnt candles1 the wretched but shining furniture1 and some odd bits of painted china1 set before the spluttering lights upon the drawers1 bore witness to a provincial intolerance of grime4 ,the boards were bare1 and marks of extreme poverty distinguished the whole room4 ,the destitution of her surroundings accorded ill with the girl's spotless person and well-tended hands1 which were hanging tremulously down4 ,subsequently ,i realised that these deserted beings must have first fronted the world from a sumptuous stage4 ,the details in proof of it ,i need not cite4 ,it must have been so4 ,my previous apathy gave place to an exaggerated observation4 ,even some pieces of a torn letter1 dropped off the quilt1 ,i noticed1 were of fine texture1 and inscribed by a man's hand4 ,one fragment bore an elaborate device in colours4 ,it may have been a club crest or coat-of-arms4 ,i was trying to decide which1 when the girl at length gave a cry of exhaustion or relief1 at the same time falling into a similar attitude to that she had taken in the dim church4 ,her entire frame became shaken with tearless agony or terror4 ,it was sickening to watch4 ,she began partly to call or moan1 begging me1 since ,i was beside her1 wildly1 and then with heart-breaking weariness1 to stop1 to stay4 ,she half rose and claimed me with distracted grace4 ,all her movements were noticeably fine4 ,i pass no judgment on her features2 suffering for the time assumed them1 and they made no insistence of individual claim4 ,i tried to raise her1 and kneeling1 pulled her reluctantly towards me4 ,the proximity was distasteful4 ,an alien presence has ever repelled me4 ,i should have pitied the girl keenly perhaps a few more feet away4 ,she clung to me with ebbing force4 ,her heart throbbed painfully close to mine1 and when ,i meet now in the dark streets others who have been robbed1 as she has been1 of their great possession1 ,i have to remember that4 ,the magnetism of our meeting was already passing2 and1 reason asserting itself1 ,i reviewed the incident dispassionately1 as she lay like a broken piece of mechanism in my arms4 ,her dark hair had come unfastened and fell about my shoulder4 ,a faint white streak of it stole through the brown4 ,a gleam of moonlight strays thus through a dusky room4 ,i remember noticing1 as it was swept with her involuntary motions across my face1 a faint fragrance which kept recurring like a subtle and seductive sprite1 hiding itself with fairy cunning in the tangled maze4 ,the poor girl's mind was clearly travelling a devious way4 ,broken and incoherent exclamations told of a recently wrung promise1 made to whom1 or of what nature1 it was not my business to conjecture or inquire4 ,i record the passage of a few minutes4 ,at the first opportunity ,i sought the slumberer on the bed4 ,she slept well3 hers was a long rest2 there might be no awakening from it1 for she was dead4 ,schooled in one short hour to all surprises1 the knowledge made me simply richer by a fact4 ,nothing about the sternly set face invited horror4 ,it had been1 and was yet1 a strong and1 if beauty be not confined to youth and colour1 a beautiful face4 ,perhaps this quiet sharer of the convulsively broken silence was thirty years old4 ,death had set a firmness about the finely controlled features that might have shown her younger4 ,the actual years are of little matter2 existence1 as we reckon time1 must have lasted long4 ,it was not death1 but life that had planted the look of disillusion there4 ,and romance being over1 all good-byes to youth are said4 ,by the bedside1 on a roughly constructed table1 was a dearly bought bunch of violets4 ,they were set in a blue bordered tea-cup1 and hung over in wistful challenge of their own diviner hue4 ,they were foreign1 and their scent probably unnatural1 but it stole very sweetly round the room4 ,a book lay face downwards beside them--alas for parochial energies1 not of a religious type--and the torn fragments of the destroyed letter had fallen on the black binding4 ,a passionate movement of the girl's breast against mine directed my glance elsewhere4 ,she was shivering1 and her arms about my neck were stiffly cold4 ,the possibility that she was starving missed my mind4 ,it would have found my heart4 ,i wondered if she slept1 and dared not stir1 though ,i was by this time cramped and chilled4 ,the vehemence of her agitation ended1 she breathed gently1 and slipped finally to the floor4 ,i began to face the need of action and recalled the chances of the night4 ,when and how ,i might get home was a necessary question1 and ,i listened vainly for a friendly step outside4 ,none since we left it had climbed the last flight of stairs4 ,i could hear a momentary vibration of men's voices in the room below4 ,was it possible to leave these suddenly discovered children of peace and tumult8 ,was it possible to stay8 ,this was ,saturday1 and two days later ,i was bound for ,scotland2 a practical recollection of empty trunks was not lost in my survey of the situation4 ,then how1 if ,i decided not to forsake the poor child1 now certainly sleeping in my arms1 were my anxious friends to learn my whereabouts1 and understand the eccentricity of the scheme8 ,indisputably1 ,i determined1 something must be done for the half-frantic wanderer who was pressing a tiring weight against me4 ,and there should be some kind hand to cover the cold limbs and close the wide eyes of the breathless sleeper1 waiting a comrade's sanction to fitting rest4 ,conclusion was hastening to impatient thought1 when my eyes let fall a fatal glance upon the dead girl's face4 ,i do not think it had changed its first aspect of dignified repose1 and yet now it woke in me a sensation of cold dread4 ,the dark eyes unwillingly open reached mine in an insistent stare4 ,one hand lying out upon the coverlid1 ,i could never again mistake for that of temporarily suspended life4 ,my watch ticked loudly1 but ,i dared not examine it1 nor could ,i wrench my sight from the figure on the bed4 ,for the first time the empty shell of being assailed my senses4 ,i watched feverishly1 knowing well the madness of the action1 for a hint of breathing1 almost stopping my own4 ,to-day1 as memory summons it1 ,i cannot dwell without reluctance on this hour of my realisation of the thing called ,death4 ,a hundred fancies1 clothed in mad intolerable terrors1 possessed me1 and had not my lips refused it outlet1 ,i should have set free a cry1 as the spent child beside me had doubtless longed to do1 and failed1 ere1 desperate1 she fled4 ,my gaze was chained2 it could not get free4 ,as the shapes of monsters of ever varying and increasing dreadfulness flit through one's dreams1 the images of those ,i loved crept round me1 with stark yet well-known features1 their limbs borrowing death's rigid outline1 as they mocked my recognition of them with soundless semblances of mirth4 ,they began to wind their arms about me in fierce embraces of burning and supernatural life4 ,gradually the contact froze4 ,they bound me in an icy prison4 ,their hold relaxed4 ,these creatures of my heart were restless4 ,the horribly familiar company began to dance at intervals in and out a ring of white gigantic bedsteads1 set on end like tombstones1 each of which framed a huge and fearful travesty of the sad set face that was all the while seeking vainly a pitiless stranger's care4 ,they vanished4 ,my heart went home4 ,the dear place was desolate4 ,no echo of its many voices on the threshold or stair4 ,my footsteps made no sound as ,i went rapidly up to a well-known room4 ,here ,i besought the mirror for the reassurance of my own reflection4 ,it denied me human portraiture and threw back cold glare4 ,as ,i opened mechanically a treasured book1 ,i noticed the leaves were blank1 not even blurred by spot or line2 and then ,i shivered--it was deadly cold4 ,the fire that but an hour or two ago it seemed ,i had forsaken for the winter twilight1 glowed with slow derision at my efforts to rekindle heat4 ,my hands plunged savagely into its red embers1 but ,i drew them out quickly1 unscathed and clean4 ,the things by which ,i had touched life were nothing4 ,here1 as ,i called the dearest names1 their echoes came back again with the sound of an unlearned language4 ,i did not recognise1 and yet ,i framed them4 ,what was had never been6 ,my spirit summoned the being who claimed mine4 ,he came1 stretching out arms of deathless welcome4 ,as he reached me my heart took flight4 ,i called aloud to it1 but my cries were lost in awful laughter that broke to my bewildered fancy from the hideously familiar shapes which had returned and now encircled the grand form of him ,i loved4 ,but ,i had never known him4 ,i beat my breast to wake there the wonted pain of tingling joy4 ,i called past experience with unavailing importunity to bear witness the man was wildly dear to me4 ,he was not4 ,he left me with bent head a stranger1 whom ,i would not if ,i could recall4 ,for one brief second1 reason found me4 ,i struggled to shake off the phantoms of despair4 ,i tried to grasp while it yet lingered the teaching of this never-to-be-forgotten front of death4 ,the homeless house with its indefensible bow window stood out from beneath the prison walls again4 ,what had this to do with it8 ,i questioned4 ,and the answer it had evoked replied1 ,not the desolation of something lost1 but of something that had never been4 ,the half-clad girl of the wretched picture-shop came into view with waxen hands and senseless symbolism4 ,i had grown calmer1 but her doll-like lips hissed out the same half-meaningless but pregnant words4 ,then the nights of a short life when ,i could pray1 years back in magical childhood1 sought me4 ,they found me past them--without the power4 ,truly the body had been for me the manifestation of the thing called soul4 ,here was my embodiment bereft4 ,my face was stiff with drying tears4 ,sickly ,i longed to beg of an unknown ,god a miracle4 ,would ,he but touch the passive body and breathe into it the breath even of transitory life4 ,i craved but a fleeting proof of its ever possible existence4 ,for to me it was not1 would never be1 and had never been4 ,the partially relinquished horror was renewing dominance4 ,speech of any incoherence or futility would have brought mental power of resistance4 ,my mind was fast losing landmarks amid the continued quiet of the living and the awful stillness of the dead4 ,there was no sound1 even of savage guidance1 ,i should not then have welcomed with glad response4 ,the realm of ,silence1 says one of the world's great teachers1 is large enough beyond the grave4 ,i seemed to have passed life's portal1 and my soul's small strength was beating back the noiseless gate4 ,in my extremity1 ,i cried1 ,o ,god6 for man's most bloody warshout1 or ,thy whisper6 ,it was useless4 ,not one dweller in the crowded tenements broke his slumber or relaxed his labour in answer to the involuntary prayer4 ,and may the ',day of ,account of ,words' take note of this6 ,then1 says the old fable1 shall the soul of the departed be weighed against an image of ,truth4 ,i tried to construct in imagination the form of the dumb deity who should bear down the balances for me4 ,soundlessness was turning fear to madness4 ,i could neither quit nor longer bear company the grim ,presence in that room4 ,but the supreme moment was very near4 ,long since1 the four low candles had burned out1 and now the lamp was struggling fitfully to keep alight4 ,the flame could last but a few moments4 ,i saw it1 and did not face the possibility of darkness4 ,the sleeping girl1 ,i concluded rapidly1 had used all available weapons of defiant light4 ,as yet1 since my entrance1 ,i had hardly stirred1 steadily supporting the burden on my breast4 ,now1 without remembrance of it1 ,i started up to escape4 ,the violent suddenness of the action woke my companion4 ,she staggered blindly to her feet and confronted me as ,i gained the door4 ,scarcely able to stand1 and dashing the dimness from her eyes1 she clutched a corner of the drawers behind her for support4 ,her head thrown back1 and her dark hair hanging round it1 crowned a grandly tragic form4 ,this was no poor pleader1 and ,i was unarmed for fight4 ,she seized my throbbing arm and cried in a whisper1 low and hoarse1 but strongly audible3 ,for ,god's sake1 stay here with me4 ,my lips moved vainly4 ,i shook my head4 ,for ,god in heaven's sake--she repeated1 swaying1 and turning her burning1 reddened eyes on mine--don't leave me now4 ,i stood irresolute1 half stunned4 ,stepping back1 she stooped and began piecing together the dismembered letter on the bed4 ,a mute protest arrested her from a cold sister's face4 ,she swept the action from her1 crying1 ,no6 and bending forward suddenly1 gripped me with fierce force4 ,here6 ,here6 she prayed1 dragging me passionately back into the room4 ,the piteous need and wild entreaty--no1 the vision of dire anguish--was breaking my purpose of flight4 ,a fragrance that was to haunt me stole between us4 ,the poor little violets put in their plea4 ,i moved to stay4 ,then a smile--the splendour of it may never be reached again--touched her pale lips and broke through them1 transforming1 with divine radiance1 her young and blurred and never-to-be-forgotten face4 ,it wavered1 or was it the last uncertain flicker of the lamp that made me fancy it8 ,the exquisite moment was barely over when darkness came4 ,then light indeed forsook me4 ,almost ignorant of my own intention1 ,i resisted the now trembling figure1 indistinguishable in the gloom1 but it still clung4 ,i thrust it off me with unnatural vigour4 ,she fell heavily to the ground4 ,without a pause of thought ,i stumbled down the horrible unlighted stairs4 ,a few steps before ,i reached the bottom my foot struck a splint off the thin edge of one of the rotten treads4 ,i slipped1 and heard a door above open and then shut4 ,no other sound4 ,at length ,i was at the door4 ,it was ajar4 ,i opened it and looked out4 ,since ,i passed through it first the place had become quite deserted4 ,the inhabitants were1 ,i suppose1 all occupied elsewhere at such an hour on their holiday night4 ,the lamps1 if there were any1 had not been lit4 ,the outlook was dense blackness4 ,here too the hideous dark pursued me and silence held its sway4 ,even the children were screaming in more enticing haunts of gaudy squalor4 ,some1 whose good angels perhaps had not forgotten them1 had put themselves to sleep4 ,not many hours ago their shrieks were deafening4 ,were these too in conspiracy against me8 ,i remembered vaguely hustling some of them with unmeant harshness in my hurried progress from the ,church4 ,dumb the whole place seemed2 and it was1 but for the dim stars aloft1 quite dark4 ,i dared not venture across the threshold1 bound by pitiable cowardice to the spot4 ,alas for the unconscious girl upstairs4 ,a murmur from within the house might have sent me back to her4 ,certainly it would have sent me1 rather than forth into the empty street4 ,the faintest indication of humanity had recalled me4 ,i waited the summons of a sound4 ,it came4 ,but from the deserted1 yet not so shamefully deserted1 street4 ,a man staggering home by aid of friendly railings1 set up a drunken song4 ,at the first note ,i rushed towards him1 pushing past him in wild departure1 and on till ,i reached the noisome and flaring thoroughfare1 a haven where sweet safety smiled4 ,here ,i breathed joy1 and sped away without memory of the two lifeless beings lying alone in that shrouded chamber of desolation1 and with no instinct to return4 ,my sole impulse was flight2 and the way1 unmarked in the earlier evening1 was unknown4 ,it took me some minutes to find a cab2 but the incongruous vehicle1 rudely dispersing the haggling traders in the roadway1 came at last1 and carried me from the distorted crowd of faces and the claims of pity to peace4 ,i lay back shivering1 and the wind crept through the rattling glass in front of me4 ,i did not note the incalculable turnings that took me home4 ,my account of the night's adventure was abridged and unsensational4 ,i was pressed neither for detail nor comment1 but accorded a somewhat humorous welcome which bade me say farewell to dying horror1 and even let me mount boldly to the once death-haunted room4 ,upon its threshold ,i stood and looked in1 half believing possible the greeting pictured there under the dead girl's influence1 and ,i could not enter4 ,again ,i fled1 this time to kindly light1 and heard my brothers laughing noisily with a friend in the bright hall4 ,a waltz struck up in the room above as ,i reached them4 ,i joined the impromptu dance1 and whirled the remainder of that evening gladly away4 ,physically wearied1 ,i slept4 ,my slumber had no break in it4 ,i woke only to the exquisite joys of morning1 and lay watching the early shadows creep into the room4 ,presently the sun rose4 ,his first smile greeted me from the glass before my bed4 ,i sprang up disdainful of that majestic reflection1 and flung the window wide to meet him face to face4 ,his splendour fell too on one who had trusted me1 but ,i forgot it4 ,not many days later the same sunlight that turned my life to laughter shone on the saddest scene of mortal ending1 and1 for one ,i had forsaken1 lit the ways of death4 ,i never dreamed it might4 ,for the next morning the tragedy of the past night was a distant one1 no longer intolerable4 ,at twelve o'clock1 conscience suggested a search4 ,i acquiesced1 but did not move4 ,at half-past1 it insisted on one1 and ,i obeyed4 ,i set forth with a determination of success and no clue to promise it4 ,at four o'clock1 ,i admitted the task hopeless and abandoned it4 ,duty could ask no more of me1 ,i decided1 not wholly dissatisfied that failure forbade more difficult demands4 ,as ,i passed it on my way home1 some dramatic instinct impelled me to re-enter the unsightly church4 ,i must almost have expected to see the same prostrate figure1 for my eyes instantly sought the corner it had occupied4 ,the winter twilight showed it empty4 ,a service was about to begin4 ,one little lad in violet skirt and goffered linen was struggling to light the benediction tapers1 and a troop of school children pushed past me as ,i stood facing the altar and blocking their way4 ,a grey-clad sister of mercy was arresting each tiny figure1 bidding it pause beside me1 and with two firm hands on either shoulder1 compelling a ludicrous curtsey1 and at the same time whispering the injunction to each hurried little personage1-- always make a reverence to the altar4 ,ada1 come back6 and behold another unwilling bob6 ,perhaps the good woman saw her ,master's face behind the tinsel trappings and flaring lights4 ,but she forgot ,his words4 ,the saying to these little ones that has rung through centuries commanded liberty and not allegiance4 ,i stood aside till they had shuffled into seats1 and finally kneeling stayed till the brief spectacle of the afternoon was over4 ,towards its close ,i looked away from the mumbling priest1 whose attention1 divided between inconvenient millinery and the holiest mysteries1 was distracting mine4 ,two girls holding each other's hands came in and stood in deep shadow behind the farthest rows of high-backed chairs by the door4 ,the younger rolled her head from side to side2 her shifting eyes and ceaseless imbecile grimaces chilled my blood4 ,the other1 who stood praying1 turned suddenly 7the place but for the flaring altar lights was dark7 and kissed the dreadful creature by her side4 ,i shuddered1 and yet her face wore no look of loathing nor of pity4 ,the expression was a divine one of habitual love4 ,she wiped the idiot's lips and stroked the shaking hand in hers1 to quiet the sad hysterical caresses she would not check4 ,it was a page of gospel which the old man with his back to it might never read4 ,a sublime and ghastly scene4 ,up in the little gallery the grey-habited nuns were singing a long ,latin hymn of many verses1 with the refrain ,oh6 ,sacred ,heart6 ,i buried my face till the last vibrating chord of the accompaniment was struck4 ,the organist ventured a plagal cadence4 ,it evoked no amen4 ,i whispered one1 and an accidentally touched note shrieked disapproval4 ,i repeated it4 ,then ,i spit upon the bloodless cheek of duty1 and renewed my quest4 ,this time it was for the satisfaction of my own tingling soul4 ,i retook my unknown way4 ,the streets were almost empty and thinly strewn with snow4 ,it was still falling4 ,i shrank from marring the spotless page that seemed outspread to challenge and exhibit the defiling print of man4 ,the quiet of the muffled streets soothed me4 ,the neighbourhood seemed lulled into unwonted rest4 ,black little figures lurched out of the white alleys in twos and threes4 ,but their childish utterances sounded less shrill than usual1 and sooner died away4 ,now in desperate earnest ,i spared neither myself nor the incredulous and dishevelled people whose aid ,i sought4 ,fate deals honestly with all4 ,she will not compromise though she may delay4 ,hunger and weariness at length sent me home1 with an assortment of embellished negatives ringing in my failing ears4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i had almost forgotten my strange experience1 when1 some months afterwards1 in late spring1 the wraith of that winter meeting appeared to me4 ,it was past six o'clock1 and ,i had reached1 ignorant of the ill-chosen hour1 a notorious thoroughfare in the western part of this glorious and guilty city4 ,the place presented to my unfamiliar eyes a remarkable sight4 ,brilliantly lit windows1 exhibiting dazzling wares1 threw into prominence the human mart4 ,this was thronged4 ,i pressed into the crowd4 ,its steady and opposite progress neither repelled nor sanctioned my admittance4 ,however1 ,i had determined on a purchase1 and was not to be baulked by the unforeseen4 ,i made it1 and stood for a moment at the shop-door preparing to break again through the rapidly thickening throng4 ,up and down1 decked in frigid allurement1 paced the insatiate daughters of an everlasting king4 ,what fair messengers1 with streaming eyes and impotently craving arms1 did they send afar off ere they thus increased their perfumes and debased themselves even unto hell8 ,this was my question4 ,i asked not who forsook them1 speaking in farewell the hideous ,english of their fate4 ,i watched coldly1 yet not inapprehensive or a certain grandeur in the scene4 ,it was ,virtue's very splendid ,dance of ,death4 ,a sickening confusion of odours assailed my senses2 each essence a vile enticement1 outraging ,nature by a perversion of her own pure spell4 ,a timidly protesting fragrance stole strangely by4 ,i started at its approach4 ,it summoned a stinging memory4 ,i stepped forward to escape it1 but stopped1 confronted by the being who had shared1 by the flickering lamplight and in the presence of that silent witness1 the poor little violet's prayer4 ,the man beside her was decorated with a bunch of sister flowers to those which had taken part against him1 months ago1 in vain4 ,he could have borne no better badge of victory4 ,he was looking at some extravagant trifle in the window next the entry ,i had just crossed4 ,they spoke1 comparing it with a silver case he turned over in his hand4 ,in the centre ,i noticed a tiny enamelled shield4 ,the detail seemed familiar1 but beyond identity4 ,they entered the shop4 ,i stood motionless1 challenging memory1 till it produced from some dim corner of my brain a hoarded ,no4 ,the device now headed a poor strip of paper on a dead girl's bed4 ,i saw a figure set by death1 facing starvation1 and with ruin in torn fragments in her hand4 ,but what place in the scene had ,i8 ,a brief discussion next me made swift answer4 ,they were once more beside me4 ,the man was speaking3 his companion raised her face2 ,i recognised its outline1--its true aspect ,i shall not know4 ,four months since it wore the mask of sorrow2 it was now but one of the pages of man's immortal book4 ,i was conscious of the matchless motions which in the dim church had first attracted me4 ,she was clothed1 save for a large scarf of vehemently brilliant crimson1 entirely in dull vermilion4 ,the two shades might serve as symbols of divine and earthly passion4 ,yet does one ask the martyr's colour1 you name it ',red' 7and briefly thus her garment73 no distinctive hue4 ,the murderer and the prelate too may wear such robes of office4 ,both are empowered to bless and ban4 ,my mood was reckless4 ,i held my hands out1 craving mercy4 ,it was my bitter lot to beg4 ,my warring nature became unanimously suppliant1 heedless of the debt this soul might owe me--of the throes to which ,i left it1 and of the discreditable marks of mine it bore4 ,failure to exact regard ,i did not entertain4 ,i waited1 with exhaustless fortitude1 the response to my appeal4 ,whence it came ,i know not4 ,the man and woman met my gaze with a void incorporate stare4 ,the two faces were merged into one avenging visage--so it seemed4 ,i was excited4 ,as they turned towards the carriage waiting them1 ,i heard a laugh1 mounting to a cry4 ,it rang me to an outraged ,temple4 ,sabbath bells peal sweeter calls1 as once this might have done4 ,i knew my part then in the despoiled body1 with its soul's tapers long blown out4 ,wheels hastened to assail that sound1 but it clanged all4 ,did it proceed from some defeated angel8 or the woman's mouth8 or mine8 ,god knows6 ,sat est scripsisse ,by ,austin ,dobson ,to ,e4 ,g41 with a ,volume of ,essays ,when you and ,i have wandered beyond the reach of call1 ,and all our works immortal are scattered on the ,stall1 ,it may be some new ,reader1 in that remoter age1 ,will find this present volume1 and listless turn the page4 ,for him ,i write these ,verses4 ,and ,sir 7,i say to him71 ,this little ,book you see here--this masterpiece of ,whim1 ,of ,wisdom1 ,learning1 ,fancy 7if you will1 please1 attend71 ,was written by its ,author1 who gave it to his ,friend4 ,for they had worked together1 been ,comrades at the ,pen2 ,they had their points at issue1 they differed now and then2 ,but both loved ,song and ,letters1 and each had close at heart ,the dreams1 the aspirations1 the 'dear delays' of ,art4 ,and much they talk'd of ,metre1 and more they talked of ,style1 ,of ,form and 'lucid ,order1' of labour of the ,file2 ,and he who wrote the writing1 as sheet by sheet was penned1 7,this all was long ago1 ,sir67 would read it to his ,friend4 ,they knew not1 nor cared greatly1 if they were spark or star1 ,they knew to move is somewhat1 although the goal be far2 ,and larger light or lesser1 this thing at least is clear1-- ,they served the ,muses truly1 their service was sincere4 ,this tattered page you see1 ,sir1 is all that now remains 7,yes1 fourpence is the lowest67 of all those pleasant pains2 ,and as for him that read it1 and as for him that wrote1-- ,no ,golden ,book enrolls them among its ',names of ,note4' ,and yet they had their office4 ,though they to-day are passed1 ,they marched in that procession where is no first or last2 ,though cold is now their hoping1 though they no more aspire1 ,they1 too1 had once their ardour3--they handed on the fire4 ,three ,stories ,by ,v41 ,o41 ,c4,s4 ,i--,honi soit qui mal y pense ,by ,c4 ,s4 ,but ,i'm not very tall1 am ,i8 said the little book-keeper1 coming close to the counter so as to prevent me from seeing that she was standing on tiptoe4 ,a p'tite woman1 said ,i1 goes straight to my heart4 ,the book-keeper blushed and looked down1 and began fingering a bunch of keys with one hand4 ,how is the cold8 ,i asked4 ,you don't seem to cough so much to-day4 ,it always gets bad again at night1 she answered1 still looking down and playing with her keys4 ,i reached over to them1 and she moved her hand quickly away and clasped it tightly with the other4 ,i picked up the keys3--,store-room1 ,cellar1 ,commercial ,room1 ,office1 said ,i1 reading off the names on the labels--why1 you seem to keep not only the books1 but everything else as well4 ,she turned away to measure out some whisky at the other window1 and then came back and held out her hand for the keys4 ,what a pretty ring1 ,i said2 ,i wonder ,i haven't noticed it before4 ,you can't have had it on lately4 ,she looked at me fearfully and again covered her hand4 ,please give me my keys4 ,yes1 if ,i may look at the ring4 ,the little book-keeper turned away1 and slipping quietly on to her chair1 burst into tears4 ,i pushed open the door of the office and walked in4 ,what is it8 ,i whispered1 bending over her and gently smoothing her hair4 ,i--,i hate him6 she sobbed4 ,him8--,him8 ,yes1--the--the ring man4 ,i felt for the little hand among the folds of the inky table-cloth1 and stooped and kissed her forehead4 ,forgive me1 dearest---- ,go away1 she sobbed1 go away4 ,i wish ,i had never seen you4 ,it was all my fault3 ,i left off wearing the ring on purpose1 but he's coming here to-day----and--and we are so many at home--and have so little money---- ,and as ,i went upstairs to pack ,i could see the little brown head bent low over the inky table-cloth4 ,,ii--,a ,purple ,patch ,by ,o4 ,i ,it was nearly half-past four4 ,janet was sitting in the drawing-room reading a novel and waiting for tea4 ,she was in one of those pleasing moods when the ordinary happy circumstances of life do not pass unnoticed as inevitable4 ,she was pleased to be living at home with her father and sister1 pleased that her father was a flourishing doctor1 and that she could sit idle in the drawing-room1 pleased at the pretty furniture1 at the flowers which she had bought in the morning4 ,she seldom felt so4 ,generally these things did not enter her head as a joy in themselves2 and this mood never came upon her when1 according to elderly advice1 it would have been useful4 ,in no trouble1 great or small1 could she gain comfort from remembering that she lived comfortably2 but sometimes without any reason1 as now1 she felt glad at her position4 ,when the parlour-maid came in and brought the lamp1 ,janet watched her movements pleasurably4 ,she noticed all the ways of a maid in an orderly house3 how she placed the lighted lamp on the table at her side1 then went to the windows and let down the blinds and drew the curtains1 then pulled a small table forward1 spread a blue-edged cloth on it1 and walked out quietly1 pushing her cuffs up a little4 ,she was pleased too with her novel1 ,miss ,braddon's ,asphodel4 ,for some time she had enjoyed reading superior books4 ,she knew that ,asphodel was bad1 and saw its inferiority to the books which she had lately read2 but that did not prevent her pleasure at being back with ,miss ,braddon4 ,the maid came in and set the glass-tray on the table which she had just covered1 took a box of matches from her apron pocket1 lit the wick of the silver spirit-stove and left the room4 ,janet watched the whole proceeding with pleasure1 sitting still in the arm-chair4 ,three soft raps on the gong and ,gertrude appeared4 ,she made the tea1 and they talked4 ,when they had finished1 ,gertrude sat at her desk and began to write a letter1 and still talking1 ,janet gradually let herself into her novel once more4 ,there was plenty of the story left1 she would read right on till dinner4 ,they had finished talking for some minutes when they heard a ring4 ,oh1 ,gerty1 suppose this is a visitor6 ,janet said1 looking up from her book4 ,gertrude listened4 ,janet prayed all the time that it might not be a visitor1 and she gave a low groan as she heard heavy steps upon the stairs4 ,gertrude's desk was just opposite the door1 and directly the maid opened it she saw that the visitor was an awkward young man who never had anything to say4 ,she exchanged a glance with ,janet1 then ,janet saw the maid who announced1 ,mr4 ,huddleston4 ,and then she saw ,mr4 ,huddleston4 ,she laid her book down open on the table behind her1 and rose to shake hands with him4 ,janet had one conversation with ,mr4 ,huddleston--music3 they were very slightly acquainted1 and they never got beyond that subject4 ,she smiled at the inevitableness of her question as she asked3 ,were you at the ,saturday ,afternoon ,concert8 ,when they had talked for ten minutes with some difficulty1 ,gertrude1 who had finished her letter1 left the room3 she was engaged to be married1 and was therefore free to do anything she liked4 ,after a visit of half an hour ,huddleston went4 ,janet rang the bell1 and felt a little guilty as she took up the open book directly her visitor had gone4 ,she did not know quite why1 but she was dissatisfied4 ,however1 in a moment or two she was deep in the excitement of ,asphodel4 ,she read on for a couple of hours1 and then she heard the carriage drive up to the door4 ,she heard her father come into the house and go to his consulting-room1 then walk upstairs to his bedroom1 and she knew that in a few minutes he would be down in the drawing-room to talk for a quarter of an hour before dinner4 ,when she heard him on the landing1 she put away her book2 ,gertrude met him just at the door2 they both came in together1 and then they all three chatted4 ,but instead of feeling in a contented mood1 because she had read comfortably1 as she had intended all the afternoon1 ,janet was dissatisfied1 as if the afternoon had slipped by without being enjoyed1 wasted over the exciting novel4 ,and towards the end of dinner her thoughts fell back on an old trouble which had been dully threatening her4 ,gertrude was her father's favourite2 gay and pretty1 she had never been difficult4 ,janet was more silent1 could not amuse her father and make him laugh1 and he was not fond of her4 ,she would find still more difficulty when ,gertrude was married1 and she was left alone with him4 ,his health was failing1 and he was growing very cantankerous4 ,she dreaded the prospect1 and already the doctor was moaning to ,gerty about her leaving1 and she was making him laugh for the last time over the very cause of his dejection4 ,not that he would have retarded her marriage by a day2 he was extremely proud of her engagement to the son of the great ,lady ,beamish4 ,that thought had been an undercurrent of trouble ever since ,gertrude's engagement1 and she wondered how she could have forgotten it for a whole afternoon4 ,now she was as fully miserable as she had been content four hours before1 and her trouble at the moment mingled with her unsatisfactory recollection of the afternoon1 her annoyance at ,mr4 ,huddleston's interruption1 and the novel which she had taken up directly he had left the room4 ,,ii ,a year after ,gertrude's marriage ,dr4 ,worgan gave up his work and decided at last to carry out a cherished plan4 ,one of his oldest friends was going to ,algiers with his wife and daughter4 ,the doctor was a great favourite with them2 he decided to sell his house in ,london1 and join the party in their travels4 ,the project had been discussed for a long time1 and ,janet foresaw an opportunity of going her own way4 ,she was sure that her father did not want her4 ,she had hinted at her wish to stay in ,england and work for herself2 but she did not insist or trouble her father1 and as he did not oppose her she imagined that the affair was understood4 ,when the time for his departure drew close1 ,janet said something about her arrangements which raised a long discussion4 ,dr4 ,worgan expressed great astonishment at her resolution1 and declared that she had not been open with him4 ,janet could not understand his sudden opposition2 perhaps she had not been explicit enough2 but surely they both knew what they were about1 and it was obviously better that they should part4 ,they were in the drawing-room4 ,dr4 ,worgan felt aggrieved that the affair should be taken so completely out of his hands2 he had been reproaching her1 and arguing for some time4 ,janet's tone vexed him4 ,she was calm1 disinclined to argue1 behaving as if the arrangement were quite decided3 he would have been better pleased if she had cried or lost her temper4 ,it's very easy to say that2 but1 after all1 you're not independent4 ,you say you want to get work as a governess2 but that's only an excuse for not going away with me4 ,you never let me do anything for you4 ,i don't ask you to4 ,i never demand anything of you4 ,i'm not a tyrant2 but that's no reason why you should want to desert me2 you're the last person ,i have4 ,janet hated arguments and talk about affairs which were obviously settled4 ,they had talked for almost an hour1 they could neither of them gain anything from the conversation1 and yet her father seemed to delight in prolonging it4 ,she did not wish to defend her course4 ,she would willingly have allowed her father to put her in the wrong1 if only he had left her alone to do what both of them wanted4 ,you want to pose as a kind of martyr1 ,i suppose4 ,your father hasn't treated you well1 he only loved your sister2 you've a grievance against him4 ,no1 indeed2 you know it's not so4 ,the impossibility of answering such charges1 all the unnecessary fatigue1 had brought her very near crying3 she felt the lump in her throat1 the aching in her breast4 ,be a governess8 ,why1 she would willingly be a factory girl1 working her life out for a few shillings a week1 if only she could be left alone to be straightforward4 ,the picture of the girls with shawl and basket leaving the factory came before her eyes4 ,she really envied them1 and pictured herself walking home to her lonely garret1 forgotten and in peace4 ,but that's how our relations and friends will look upon your conduct4 ,oh no1 she answered1 trying to smile and say something amusing after the manner of ,gertrude2 they will only shake their heads at their daughters and say1 ',there goes another rebel who isn't content to be beautiful1 innocent1 and protected4' ,but ,janet's attempts to be amusing were not successful with her father4 ,they won't at all4 ,they'll say1 ',at any rate her father is well off enough to give her enough to live upon1 and not make her work as a governess4' ,we know that's got nothing to do with it4 ,if ,i were dependent1 ,i should feel ,i'd less right to choose---- ,but you're mistaken2 that's not honesty1 but egoism1 on your part4 ,janet had nothing to answer2 there was a pause1 as if her father wished her to argue the point4 ,she thought1 perhaps1 she had better say something1 else she would show too plainly that she saw he was in the wrong2 but she said nothing1 and he went on3 ,and what will people say at the idea of your being a governess8 ,practically a servant in a stranger's house1 with a pretence of equality1 but less pay than a good cook4 ,what will all our friends say8 ,janet did not wish to say to herself in so many words that her father was a snob4 ,if he had left her alone1 she would have been satisfied with the unacknowledged feeling that he attached importance to certain things4 ,surely people of understanding know there's no harm in being a governess1 and ,i'm quite willing to be ignored by anyone who can't see that4 ,these were the first words she spoke with any warmth4 ,selfishness again4 ,it's not only your concern3 what will your sister think and feel about it8 ,gerty is sensible enough to think as ,i do2 besides1 she is very happy1 and so has no right to dictate to other people about their affairs2 indeed1 she won't trouble about it--why should she8 ,i'm not part of her4 ,you're unjust to ,gertrude3 your sister is too sweet and modest to wish to dictate to any one4 ,exactly4 ,janet could not help saying this one word1 and yet she knew that it would irritate her father still more4 ,and who would take you as a governess8 ,you don't find it easy to live even with your own people1 and ,i don't know what you can teach4 ,perhaps you will reproach me as ,laura did her mother1 and say it was my fault you didn't go to ,girton8 ,oh1 ,i think ,i can manage4 ,my music is not much1 ,i know2 but ,i think it's good enough to be useful4 ,are you going to say that ,i was wrong in not encouraging you to train for a professional musician8 ,i hadn't the faintest notion of reproaching you for anything3 it was only modesty4 ,she knew that having passed the period when she might have cried1 she was being fatigued into the flippant stage1 and her father hated that above everything4 ,now you're beginning to sneer in your superior way1 ,dr4 ,worgan said1 walking up the room1 talking to me as if ,i were an idiot---- ,he was interrupted by the maid who came in to ask ,janet whether she could put out the light in the hall4 ,janet looked questioningly at her father1 who had faced round when he heard the door open1 and he said yes4 ,and1 ,callant1 ,janet cried after her1 and then went on in a lower tone as she reappeared1 we shall want breakfast at eight to-morrow2 ,dr4 ,worgan is going out early4 ,the door was shut once more4 ,her father seemed vexed at the interruption so welcome to her4 ,well1 ,i never could persuade you in anything2 but ,i resent the way in which you look on my advice as if it were selfish--,i'm only anxious for your own welfare4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in bed ,janet lay awake thinking over the conversation4 ,she had an instinctive dislike to judging any one1 especially her father4 ,why couldn't people who understood each other remain satisfied with their tacit understanding1 and each go his own way without pretence8 ,she was sure her father did not really want her1 he was only opposing her desertion to justify himself in his own eyes1 trying to persuade himself that he did love her4 ,if he had just let things take their natural course and made no objections against his better judgment1 she would not have criticised him2 she had never felt aggrieved at his preference for ,gertrude3 it so happened that she was not sympathetic to him1 and they both knew it4 ,over and over again as she lay in bed1 she argued out all these points with herself4 ,if he had said1 ,you're a good girl1 you're doing the right thing2 ,i admire you1 though we're not sympathetic1 his humanity would have given her deep pleasure1 and they might have felt more loving towards each other than ever before4 ,perhaps that was too much to expect2 but at any rate he might have left her alone4 ,anything rather than all this pretence1 which forced her to criticise him and defend herself4 ,but perhaps she had not given him a chance8 ,she knew that every movement and look of hers irritated him3 if only she could have not been herself1 he might have been generous4 ,but then1 as if to make up for this thought1 she said aloud to herself3 ,generosity1 logic1 and an objection to unnecessary talking are manly qualities4 ,and then she repented for becoming bitter4 ,but why must all the hateful things in life be defined and printed on one's mind in so many words8 ,i could face difficulties quite well without being forced to set all the unpleasantnesses in life clearly out4 ,and this makes me bitter4 ,she was terribly afraid of becoming bitter4 ,bitterness was for the failures1 and why should she own to being a failure2 surely she was not aiming very high8 ,she was oppressed by the horrible fear of becoming old-maidish and narrow4 ,perhaps she would change gradually without being able to prevent1 without even noticing the change4 ,every now and then she spoke her thoughts aloud4 ,i can't have taking ways3 some people think ,i'm superior and crushing1 father says ,i'm selfish2 and yet she could not think of any great pleasures which she had longed for and claimed4 ,gerty had never hidden her wishes or sacrificed anything to others1 and she always got everything she fancied2 yet she was not selfish4 ,then the old utter dejection came over her as she thought of her life2 if no one should love her1 and she should grow old and fixed in desolation8 ,this was no sorrow at an unfortunate circumstance1 but a dejection so far-reaching that its existence seemed to her more real than her own2 it must have existed in the world before she was born1 it must have been since the beginning4 ,the smaller clouds which had darkened her day were forced aside1 and the whole heaven was black with this great hopelessness4 ,if any sorrow had struck her1 death1 disgrace1 crime1 that would have been a laughing matter compared with this4 ,perhaps life would be better when she was a governess2 she would be doing something1 moulding her own life1 ill-treated with actual wrongs perhaps4 ,in the darkness of her heaven there came a little patch of blue sky1 the hopefulness which was always there behind the cloud1 and she fell asleep1 dreamily looking forward to a struggle1 to real life with possibilities--dim pictures4 ,,iii ,a month afterwards1 on a bitterly cold ,february day1 ,janet was wandering miserably about the house4 ,she was to start in a few days for ,bristol1 where she had got a place as governess to two little girls1 the daughters of a widower1 a house-master at the school4 ,her father had left the day before4 ,janet could not help crying as she sat desolately in her cold bedroom trying to concern herself with packing and the arrangements for her journey4 ,she was to dine that evening with ,lady ,beamish1 to meet ,gerty and her husband and say good-bye4 ,she did not want to go a bit1 she would rather have stayed at home and been miserable by herself4 ,she had1 as usual1 asked nothing of any of her friends2 she felt extraordinarily alone1 and she grew terrified when she asked herself what connected her with the world at all1 how was she going to live and why8 ,what hold had she on life8 ,she might go on as a governess all her life and who would care8 ,what reason had she to suppose that anything would justify her living8 ,from afar the struggle had looked attractive1 there was something fine and strong in it2 that would be life indeed when she would have to depend entirely upon herself and work her way2 but now that the time was close at hand1 the struggle only looked very bitter and prosaic4 ,in her imagination beforehand she had always looked on at herself admiringly as governess and been strengthened by the picture4 ,now she was acting to no gallery4 ,whatever strength and virtue there was in her dealing met no one's approval2 and all she had before her in the immediate future was a horrible sense of loneliness1 a dreaded visit1 two more days to be occupied with details of packing1 a cab to the station1 the dull east wind1 the journey1 the leave-taking all the more exquisitely painful because she felt that no one cared4 ,the sense of being neglected gave her physical pain all over her body until her finger-tips ached4 ,how is it possible1 she thought1 that a human being in the world for only a few years can be so hopeless and alone8 ,in the cab on her way to ,lady ,beamish she began to think at once of the evening before her4 ,she tried to comfort herself with the idea of seeing ,gerty1 sweet ,gerty1 who charmed every one1 and what close friends they had been6 ,but the thought of ,lady ,beamish disturbed and frightened her4 ,lady ,beamish was a very handsome woman of sixty1 with gorgeous black hair showing no thread of white4 ,she had been a great beauty1 and a beauty about whom no one could tell any stories2 she had married a very brilliant and successful man1 and seconded him most ably during his lifetime4 ,those who disliked her declared she was fickle1 and set too much value on her social position4 ,janet had always fancied that she objected from the beginning to her second son's engagement to ,gertrude2 but there was no understanding her1 and if ,janet had been asked to point to some one who was radically unsimple1 she would at once have thought of ,lady ,beamish4 ,she had been told of many charming things which she had done1 and she had heard her say the sweetest things2 but then suddenly she was stiff and unforgiving4 ,there was no doubt about her cleverness and insight2 many of her actions showed complete disregard of convention1 and yet1 whenever ,janet had seen her1 she had always been lifted up on a safe height by her own high birth1 her dead husband's distinctions1 her imposing appearance1 and hedged round by all the social duties which she performed so well4 ,janet saw that ,lady ,beamish's invitation was kind2 but she was the last person with whom she would have chosen to spend that evening4 ,but here she was at the door1 there was no escape4 ,lady ,beamish was alone in the drawing-room4 ,i'm very sorry1 ,i'm afraid ,i've brought you here on false pretences4 ,i've just had a telegram from ,gertrude to say that ,charlie has a cold4 ,i suppose she's afraid it may be influenza1 and so she's staying at home to look after him4 ,and ,harry has gone to the play1 so we shall be quite alone4 ,janet's heart sank4 ,gerty had been the one consoling circumstance about that evening2 besides1 ,lady ,beamish would never have asked her if ,gerty had not been coming4 ,how would she manage with ,lady ,beamish all alone8 ,she made up her mind to go as soon after dinner as she could4 ,they talked about ,gertrude2 that was a good subject for ,janet1 and she clung to it2 she was delighted to hear ,lady ,beamish praise her warmly4 ,as they sat down to dinner ,lady ,beamish said3 ,you're not looking well1 ,janet8 ,i'm rather tired1 she answered lightly2 ,i've been troubled lately1 the weight of the world----but ,i'm quite well4 ,lady ,beamish made no answer4 ,janet could not tell why she had felt an impulse to speak the truth1 perhaps just because she was afraid of her1 and gave up the task of feeling easy as hopeless4 ,they talked of ,gertrude again4 ,dinner was quickly finished4 ,instead of going back into the drawing-room1 ,lady ,beamish took her upstairs into her own room4 ,i'm sorry you have troubles which are making you thin and pale4 ,at your age life ought to be bright and full of romance3 you ought to have no troubles at all4 ,i heard that you weren't going to travel with your father1 but begin work on your own account3 it seems to me you're quite right1 and ,i admire your courage4 ,janet was surprised that ,lady ,beamish should show so much interest4 ,my courage somehow doesn't make me feel cheerful1 ,janet answered1 laughing1 and ,i can't see anything hopeful in the future to look forward to---- ,why am ,i saying all this to her8 she wondered4 ,no8 ,and the consciousness of doing right as an upholding power--that is generally a fallacy4 ,i think you are certainly right there4 ,janet looked at ,lady ,beamish1 astonished and comforted to hear these words from the lips of an old experienced woman4 ,i am grateful to you for saying that6 ,it must be a hard wrench to begin a new kind of life4 ,it's not the work or even the change which ,i mind2 if only there were some assurance in life1 something certain and hopeful3 ,i feel so miserably alone1 acting on my own responsibility in the only way possible1 and yet for no reason---- ,my poor girl---- and she stretched out her arms4 ,janet rose from her chair and took both her hands and sat down on the footstool at her feet4 ,she looked up at her handsome face2 it seemed divine to her lighted by that smile1 and the wrinkles infinitely touching and beautiful4 ,there was an intimate air about the room4 ,you've decided to go away to ,bristol8 ,i thought ,i'd be thorough3 ,i might stay in ,london and get work2 a friend of mine is editor of a lady's paper1 and ,i suppose she could give me something to do2 and there are other things ,i could do2 but that doesn't seem to me thorough enough---- ,the superiority of the older experienced women made the girl feel weak4 ,she would have a joy in confessing herself4 ,i suppose it was chiefly ,gerty's marriage which set me thinking ,i'd better change4 ,until then ,i'd lived contentedly enough4 ,i'm easily occupied1 and ,i felt no necessity to work4 ,but when ,i was left alone with father1 ,i began gradually to feel as if ,i couldn't go on living so1 as if ,i hadn't the right2 nothing ,i ever did pleased him4 ,and then ,i wondered what ,i was waiting for---- ,she looked up at ,lady ,beamish and saw her fine features set attentively to her story2 she could tell everything to such a face--all these things of which she had never spoken to anyone4 ,she looked away again4 ,was ,i waiting to get married8 ,that idea tortured me4 ,why should ideas come and trouble us when they're untrue and bear no likeness to our character8 ,she turned her head once more to glance at the face above her4 ,i looked into myself4 ,was it true of me that my only outlook in life was a man1 that that was the only aim of my life8 ,it wasn't necessary to answer the question1 for it flashed into my mind with bitter truth that if ,i'd been playing that game1 ,i'd been singularly unsuccessful1 so ,i needn't trouble about the question---- ,astonished at herself1 she moved her hand up1 and ,lady ,beamish stretched out hers1 and held the girl's hand upon her lap4 ,then1 half ashamed of her frankness1 she went on quickly and in a more ordinary tone3 ,oh1 that and everything else--,i was afraid of growing bitter1 ,when my father threw up his work and decided to go to ,algiers with his old friends1 that seemed a good opportunity2 ,i would do something for myself1 you're justified if you work4 ,it seemed hopeful then2 but now the prospect is as hopeless and desolate as before4 ,janet saw the tears collecting in ,lady ,beamish's eyes1 and her underlip beginning to quiver4 ,lady ,beamish dared not kiss the girl for fear of breaking into tears3 she stood up and went towards the fire1 and trying to conquer her tears said3 ,seeing you in trouble makes all my old wounds break out afresh4 ,janet gazed in wonder at her1 feeling greatly comforted4 ,lady ,beamish put her hand on the girl's head as she sat before her and said smiling3 ,it's strange how one sorrow brings up another1 and if you cry you can't tell for what exactly you're crying4 ,as ,i hear you talk of loneliness1 ,i'm reminded of my own loneliness1 so different from yours4 ,as long as my own great friend was living1 there was no possibility of loneliness2 ,i was proud1 ,i could have faced the whole world4 ,but since he died1 every year has made me feel the want of a sister or brother1 some one of my own generation4 ,i don't suppose you can understand what ,i mean4 ,you say3 ',you have sons1 and many friends who love and respect you'2 that's true1 and1 indeed1 without my sons ,i should not live2 but they've all got past me1 even ,harry1 the youngest4 ,i can do nothing more for them1 and as years go by ,i grow less able to do anything for anybody2 my energy leaves me1 and ,i sit still and see the world in front of me1 see men and women whom ,i admire1 whose conduct ,i commend inwardly1 but that is all4 ,my heart aches sometimes for a companion of my own age who would sit still with me1 who understands my ideas1 who has no new object in view1 who has done life and has been left behind too---- ,extremes meet1 she broke off4 ,i wish to comfort you1 who are looking hopelessly forward1 and all ,i can do is to show you an old woman's sorrow4 ,but wait1 she went on1 sitting down1 let us be practical2 you needn't go back to-night1 ,i'll tell some one to fetch your things4 ,and will you let me try and help you8 ,i don't know whether ,i can2 but may ,i try8 ,won't you stay a bit here with me8 ,you would then have time to think over your plans2 it would do no harm1 at any rate4 ,or1 if you would prefer living alone1 would you let me help you8 ,sometimes it's easier to be indebted to strangers4 ,don't answer now1 you know my offer is sincere1 coming at this time2 you can think it over4 ,she left her place and met the servant at the door1 to give her the order for the fetching of ,janet's things4 ,she came back and stood with her hands behind her1 facing ,janet1 who looked up to her from her stool1 adoring her as if she were a goddess4 ,there's only one thing to do in life1 to try and help those whom we can help2 but it's very difficult to help you young people1 she said1 drying her eyes2 you generally want something we cannot give you4 ,you comforted me more than ,i can say4 ,i never dreamed of the possibility of such comfort as you're giving me4 ,still standing facing ,janet1 she suddenly began3 ,i knew a girl a long time ago2 she was the most exquisite creature ,i've ever seen4 ,she was lovely as only a ,jewess can be lovely3 by her side ,english beauties looked ridiculous1 as if their features had been thrown together by mistake a few days ago2 this girl's beauty was eternal1 ,i don't know how else to describe her superiority4 ,there was a harmony about her figure--not as we have pretty figures--but every movement seemed to be the expression of a magnificent nature4 ,she had that strange look in her face which some ,jews have1 a something half humorous half pitiful about the eyebrows2 it was so remarkable in a young girl1 as if an endless experience of the world had been born in her--not that she was tired or blas2 she wasn't at all one of those young people who have seen the vanity of everything1 she was full of enthusiasm1 fascinatingly fresh2 she was so capable and sensitive that nothing could be foreign or incomprehensible to her4 ,i never saw anyone so unerring2 ,i would have wagered the world that she could never be wrong in feeling4 ,i never saw her misunderstand any one1 except on purpose4 ,janet was rapt in attention1 loving to hear this beauty's praises in the mouth of ,lady ,beamish4 ,she kept her gaze fixed on the face1 which now was turned towards her1 now towards the fire4 ,at the time ,i remember some man was writing in the paper about the inferiority of women1 and as a proof he said quite truly that there were no women artists except actresses4 ,he happened to mention one or two well-known living artists whom ,i knew personally2 they weren't to be compared with this girl1 and they would have been the first to say so themselves4 ,she had no need to write her novels and symphonies2 she lived them4 ,one would have said a person most wonderfully fitted for life4 ,oh1 ,i could go on praising her for ever2 except once1 ,i never fell so completely in love as ,i did with her4 ,to see her dance and romp--,i hadn't realised before how a great nature can show itself in everything a person does4 ,it is a joy to think of her4 ,one day she came to me1 it was twenty years ago1 ,i was a little over forty1 she was just nineteen4 ,she had fallen in love with a boy of her own age1 and was in terrible difficulties with herself4 ,i suppose it would have been more fitting if ,i'd given her advice2 but ,i was so full of pity at the sight of this exquisite nature in torments that ,i could only try and comfort her and tell her above all things she mustn't be oppressed by any sense of her own wickedness2 we all had difficulties of the same kind1 and we couldn't expect to do more than just get along somehow as well as we could4 ,i was angry with ,fate that such a harmonious being had been made to jar with so heavy a strain4 ,she had been free1 and now she was to be confounded and brought to doubt4 ,i don't think ,i can express it in words2 but ,i feel as if ,i really understood why she killed herself a few days later4 ,she had come among us1 a wonder1 ignoring the littlenesses of life1 or else making them worthy by the spirit in which she treated them1 and the first strain of this dragging ordinary affliction bewildered her4 ,whether a little more experience would have saved her1 or whether it was a superior flash of insight which prompted her to end her life--at any rate it wasn't merely unreturned love which oppressed her4 ,and what was the man like8 ,he was quite a boy1 and never knew she was in love with him2 in fact ,i can't tell how far she did love him4 ,the older ,i grow the more certain ,i feel that this actual love wasn't deep2 but it was the sudden revelation of a whole mystery1 a new set of difficulties1 which confounded an understanding so far-reaching and superior4 ,i remember her room distinctly2 she was unlike most women in this respect1 she had no desire to furnish her own room and be surrounded by pretty things of her own choice4 ,she left the room just as it was when the family took the furnished house1 with its very common ugly furniture1 vile pictures on the walls1 and things under glasses4 ,she carried so much beauty with her1 she didn't think her room worth troubling about4 ,i always imagine that her room has never been entered or changed since her death3 nothing stirs there1 except in the summer a band of small flies dance their mazy quadrille at the centre of the ceiling4 ,i remember how she used to lie on the sofa and wonder at them with her half-laughing1 half-pathetic eyes4 ,and what did her people think6 ,her family adored her3 they were nice people1 very ordinary---- ,there was a knock at the door and ,henry appeared1 red-checked and smelling of the cold street4 ,janet rose from her stool to shake hands with him3 his entrance was an unpleasant interruption2 she thought that his mother too must feel something of the sort1 although he was the one thing in the world she loved most4 ,how was your play1 ,harry8 ,oh1 simply wonderful4 ,was the house pretty full8 ,not very1 though people were fairly enthusiastic2 but there was a fool of a girl sitting in front of us1 ,i could have kicked her1 she would go all laughing4 ,perhaps she thought you were foolish for not laughing6 ,but such a sloppy-looking person had no right to laugh4 ,opinions differ about personal appearance4 ,well1 at any rate she had a dirty dress on2 the swan's-down round her cloak was perfectly black4 ,ah1 now your attack becomes more telling6 ,lady ,beamish had not changed her position4 ,when ,henry left1 ,janet feared she might want to stop their confidential talk2 but she showed no signs of wishing to go to bed4 ,i wish boys would remain boys1 and not grow older2 they never grow into such nice men1 they don't fulfil their promise4 ,she sat down once more1 and went on to tell ,janet another story1 a love story4 ,when ,janet1 happy as she had not been for months1 kissed her and said good-night1 she told her how glad she was that no one else had been with her that evening4 ,janet went to bed1 feeling that the world was possible once more4 ,her mind was relieved of a great weight1 she was wonderfully light-hearted1 now that she rested weakly upon another's generosity1 and was released from her egotistical hopelessness4 ,she no longer had a great trouble which engrossed her thoughts1 her mind was free to travel over the comforting circumstances of that evening3 the intimate room1 ,lady ,beamish's face with the tears gathering in her eyes1 the confession she had made of her own loneliness1 her offer of help which had made the world human again1 her story and ,henry's interruption1 and the funny little argument between the mother and the son whom she adored2 and after that1 ,lady ,beamish had still stayed talking1 and had dropped into telling of love as willingly as any school-girl1 only everything came with such sweet force from the woman with all that experience of life4 ,every point in the evening with ,lady ,beamish had gone to give her a deep-felt happiness2 hopes sprang up in her mind1 and she soon fell asleep filled with wonder and pity1 thinking of the lovely ,jewess whom ,lady ,beamish had known and admired so long ago1 when ,janet herself was only five or six years old4 ,the older woman lay awake many hours thinking over her own life1 and the sorrows of this poor girl4 99 99 99 99 99 ,janet did not take ,lady ,beamish's offer1 but went to ,bristol1 upheld by the idea that her friend respected her all the more for keeping to her plans4 ,the first night at ,bristol1 in the room which was to be hers1 she took out the old letter of invitation for that evening1 and before she went to bed she kissed the signature ,clara ,beamish--the christian name seemed to bring them close together4 ,when she had overcome the strangeness of her surroundings1 life was once more what it had always been2 there was no particular struggle1 no particular hopefulness4 ,she was cheerful for no reason on ,monday1 less cheerful for no reason on ,wednesday4 ,the correspondence with ,lady ,beamish1 which she had hoped would keep up their friendship1 dropped almost immediately2 the two letters she received from her were stiff1 far off4 ,janet heard of her now and then1 generally as performing some social duty4 ,they met too a few times1 but almost as strangers4 ,but ,janet always remembered that she had gained the commendation of the wonderful woman1 and that she approved of her2 and she never forgot that evening1 and the picture of ,clara ,beamish1 exquisitely sympathetic1 adorable4 ,it stood out as a bright spot in life1 nothing could change its value and reality4 ,,iii--,sancta ,maria ,by ,v4 ,the fire had grown black and smoky1 and the room felt cold4 ,it was about four o'clock on a dark day in ,november4 ,black snow-fraught clouds had covered the sky since the dawn4 ,they seemed to be saving up their wrath for the storm to come4 ,a woman sat close to the fire with a child in her arms4 ,from time to time she shuddered involuntarily4 ,it was miserably cold4 ,in the corner of the room a man lay huddled up in a confusion of rags and covers4 ,he moaned from time to time4 ,suddenly the fire leaped into a yellow flame1 which lit up the room and revealed all its nakedness and filth4 ,the floor was bare1 and there were lumps of mud here and there on the boards1 left by the tramp of heavy boots4 ,there was a strip of paper that had come unfastened from the wall1 and hung over in a large curve4 ,it was black and foul1 but here and there could be seen faintly a pattern of pink roses twined in and out of a trellis4 ,there was no furniture in the room but the chair on which the woman sat4 ,by the sick man's side was a white earthenware bowl1 full of a mixture that gave out a strong pungent smell which pervaded the room4 ,on the floor by the fireside was a black straw hat with a green feather and a rubbed velvet bow in it4 ,the woman's face was white1 and the small eyes were full of an intense despair4 ,as the flame shot up feebly and flickered about she looked for something to keep alive the little bit of coal4 ,she glanced at the heap in the corner which had become quiet1 then1 turning round1 caught sight of the hat on the floor4 ,she looked at it steadily for a minute between the flickers of the flame1 then stooped down and picked it up4 ,carefully detaching the trimming from the hat1 she laid it on the chair4 ,then she tore the bits of straw and lay them across each other over the little piece of coal4 ,the fire blazed brightly for a few minutes after the straw had caught4 ,it covered the room with a fierce light and the woman looked afraid that the sick man might be disturbed4 ,but he was quiet as before4 ,almost mechanically she pulled a little piece of the burning straw from the fire and1 shading it with her hand1 stole softly to the other end of the room after depositing the child on the chair4 ,she looked for some minutes at the figure stretched before her4 ,he lay with his face to the wall4 ,he was a long thin man1 and it seemed to her as she looked that his length was almost abnormal4 ,holding the light that was fast burning to the end away from her1 she stooped down and laid her finger lightly on his forehead4 ,the surface of his skin was cold as ice4 ,she knew that he was dead4 ,but she did not cry out4 ,the eyes were filled with a look of bitter disappointment1 and she dropped the bit of burning straw1 and then1 moving suddenly from her stooping posture1 crushed out the little smouldering heap with her heel4 ,she looked about the room for something2 then repeating a prayer to herself hurriedly1 hastened to the child who had woke up and was crying and kicking the bars of the wooden chair4 ,there was something in the contrast between the stillness of the figure in the corner and the noise made by the child that made the woman shiver4 ,she took up the child in her arms1 comforted him1 and sat down before the fire4 ,she was thinking deeply4 ,so poor6 ,scarcely enough to keep herself and the child till the end of the week1 and then the figure in the corner6 ,for some time she puzzled and puzzled4 ,the burning straw had settled into a little glowing heap4 ,she rose and went to a little box on the mantel-piece1 and1 opening it1 counted the few coins in it4 ,then she seemed to reckon for a few moments1 and a look of determination came into her face4 ,she put the child down again and went to the other end of the room4 ,she stood a moment over the prostrate figure1 and then stooped down and took off an old rag of a shawl and a little child's coat which lay over the dead man's feet4 ,she paused a moment4 ,again she stooped down and stripped the figure of all its coverings1 until nothing was left but the dull white nightshirt that the man wore4 ,she put the bundle which she had collected in a little heap on the other side of the room4 ,then she came back1 and with an almost superhuman effort reared the figure into an upright position against the wall4 ,she looked round for a moment1 gathered up the little bundle1 and stole softly from the room4 ,a few hours later she came back4 ,there was a gas lamp outside the window1 and by the light of it she saw the child sitting at the feet of the figure1 staring up at it stupidly4 99 99 99 99 99 ,four days passed by1 and still the figure stood against the wall4 ,the woman had grown very white and haggard4 ,she had only bought food enough for the child1 and had scarce touched a morsel herself4 ,it was ,saturday4 ,she was expecting a few pence for some matches which she had sold during the week4 ,she was not allowed to take her money immediately1 but had to hand it over to the owner of the matches1 who had told her that if she had sold a certain quantity by the end of the week she should be paid a small percentage4 ,so she went out on this ,saturday and managed to get rid of the requisite number1 and carrying the money as usual to the owner1 received a few pence commission4 ,there was an eager look in her pale face as she hurried home and hastened to the box on the mantel-shelf4 ,she emptied its contents into her hand1 quickly counted up the total of her fortune1 and then crept out again4 ,it was snowing heavily1 but she did not mind4 ,the soft flakes fell on her weary face1 and she liked their warm touch4 ,she hurried along until she came to a tiny grocer's shop4 ,the red spot on her checks deepened as she asked the shopkeeper for twelve candles--,tall ones1 please1 she said in a whisper4 ,she pushed the money on to the counter and ran away home with her parcel4 ,then she went up to the figure against the wall1 and gently placed it on the ground1 away from the wall4 ,she opened the parcel and carefully stood up the twelve candles in a little avenue1 six each side of the dead man4 ,with a feverous excitement in her eyes she pulled a match from her pocket and lit them4 ,they burned steadily and brightly1 casting a yellow light over the cold naked room1 and over the blackened face of the dead man4 ,the child that was rolling on the floor at the other end of the room uttered a coo of joy at the bright lights1 and stretched out his tiny hands towards them4 ,and the face of the mother was filled with a divine pleasure4 ,the articles of her faith had been fulfilled4 ,three ,pictures ,by ,p4 ,wilson ,steer ,i4 ,portrait of ,himself ,,ii4 ,a ,lady ,,iii4 ,a ,gentleman ,illustration3 ,portrait of ,himself ,illustrations3 ,a ,lady1 and ,a ,gentleman ,in a ,gallery ,portrait of a ,lady 7,unknown7 ,by ,katharine de ,mattos ,veiled eyes1 yet quick to meet one glance ,not his1 not yours1 but mine1 ,lips that are fain to stir and breathe ,dead joys 7not love nor wine73 ',tis not in you the secret lurks ,that makes men pause and pass6 ,did unseen magic flow from you ,long since to madden hearts1 ,and those who loathed remain to pray ,and work their dolorous parts-- ,to seek your riddle1 dread or sweet1 ,and find it in the grave8 ,till some one painted you one day1 ,perchance to ease his soul1 ,and set you here to weave your spells ,while time and silence roll2 ,and you were hungry for the hour ,when one should understand8 ,your jewelled fingers writhe and gleam ,from out your sombre vest2 ,am ,i the first of those who gaze1 ,who may their meaning guess1 ,yet dare not whisper lest the words ,pale even painted cheeks8 ,the ,yellow ,book ,a ,criticism of ,volume ,i ,by ,philip ,gilbert ,hamerton1 ,,ll4,d4 ,i--,the ,literature ,the ,editor and ,publishers of ,,the ,,yellow ,,book1 who seem to know the value of originality in all things1 have conceived the entirely novel idea of publishing in the current number of their quarterly1 a review in two parts of the number immediately preceding it1 one part to deal with the literature1 and another to criticise the illustrations4 ,i notice that on the cover of ,,the ,,yellow ,,book the literary contributions are described simply as ,letterpress4 ,this seems rather unfortunate1 because letterpress is usually understood to mean an inferior kind of writing1 which is merely an accompaniment to something else1 such as engravings1 or even maps4 ,now1 in ,,the ,,yellow ,,book the principle seems to be that one kind of contribution should not be made subordinate to another2 the drawings and the writings are1 in fact1 independent4 ,certainly the writings are composed without the slightest pre-occupation concerning the work of the graphic artists1 and the draughtsmen do not illustrate the inventions of the scribes4 ,this independence of the two arts is favourable to excellence in both1 besides making the business of the ,editor much easier1 and giving him more liberty of choice4 ,the literary contributions include poetry1 fiction1 short dramatic scenes1 and one or two essays4 ,the ,editor evidently attaches much greater importance to creative than to critical literature1 in which he is unquestionably right1 provided only that the work which claims to be creative is inspired by a true genius for invention4 ,the admission of poetry in more than usual quantity does not surprise us1 when we reflect that ,,the ,,yellow ,,book is issued by a publishing house which has done more than any other for the encouragement of modern verse4 ,it is the custom to profess contempt for minor poets1 and all versifiers of our time except ,tennyson and ,swinburne are classed as minor poets by critics who shrink from the effort of reading metrical compositions4 ,the truth is that poetry and painting are much more nearly on a level in this respect than people are willing to admit4 ,many a painter and many a poet has delicate perceptions and a cultivated taste without the gigantic creative force that is necessary to greatness in his art4 ,mr4 ,le ,gallienne's ,tree-,worship is full of the sylvan sense1 the delight in that forest life which we can scarcely help believing to be conscious4 ,it contains some perfect stanzas and some magnificent verses4 ,as a stanza nothing can be more perfect than the fourth on page #eh1 and the fourth on the preceding page begins with a rarely powerful line4 ,the only weak points in the poem are a few places in which even poetic truth has not been perfectly observed4 ,for example1 in the first line on page #eh1 the heart of the tree is spoken of as being remarkable for its softness1 a new and unexpected characteristic in heart of oak4 ,on the following page the tree is described as a green and welcome coast to the sea of air4 ,no single tree has extent enough to be a coast of the air-ocean2 at most it is but a tiny green islet therein4 ,in the last stanza but one ,mr4 ,le ,gallienne speaks of the roar of sap4 ,this conveys the idea of a noisy torrent1 whereas the marvel of sap is that it is steadily forced upwards through a mass of wood by a quietly powerful pressure4 ,i dislike the fallacious theology of the last stanza as being neither scientific nor poetical4 ,mr4 ,benson's little poem1 ,greek3 ,daimonizomenos1 is lightly and cleverly versified1 and tells the story of a change of temper1 almost of nature1 in very few words4 ,the note of ,mr4 ,watson's two sonnets is profoundly serious1 even solemn1 and the workmanship firm and strong2 the reader may observe1 in the second sonnet1 the careful preparation for the last line and the force with which it strikes upon the ear4 ,surely there is nothing frivolous or fugitive in such poetry as this6 ,i regret the publication of ,stella ,maris by ,mr4 ,arthur ,symons2 the choice of the title is in itself offensive4 ,it is taken from one of the most beautiful hymns to the ,holy ,virgin 7,ave1 maris stella671 and applied to a ,london street-walker1 as a star in the dark sea of urban life4 ,we know that the younger poets make art independent of morals1 and certainly the two have no necessary connection2 but why should poetic art be employed to celebrate common fornication8 ,rossetti's ,jenny set the example1 diffusely enough4 ,the two poems by ,mr4 ,edmund ,gosse1 ,alere ,flammam and ,a ,dream of ,november1 have each the great quality of perfect unity4 ,the first is simpler and less fanciful than the second4 ,both in thought and execution it reminds me strongly of ,matthew ,arnold4 ,whether there has been any conscious imitation or not1 ,alere ,flammam is pervaded by what is best in the classical spirit4 ,mr4 ,john ,davidson's two songs are sketches in town and country1 impressionist sketches well done in a laconic and suggestive fashion4 ,mr4 ,davidson has a good right to maledict ,elkin ,mathews ,john ,lane for having revived the detestable old custom of printing catchwords at the lower corner of the page4 ,the reader has just received the full impression of the ,london scene1 when he is disturbed by the isolated word ,foxes1 which destroys the impression and puzzles him4 ,london streets are not1 surely1 very favourable to foxes6 ,he then turns the page and finds that the word is the first in the rural poem which follows4 ,how ,tennyson would have growled if the printer had put the name of some intrusive beast at the foot of one of his poems6 ,even in prose the custom is still intolerable2 it makes one read the word twice over as thus 7pp4 #aei1 #fj71 ,why doesn't the wretched publisher publisher bring it out6 ,we find some further poetry in ,mr4 ,richard ,garnett's translations from ,luigi ,tansillo4 ,not having access just now to the original ,italian1 ,i cannot answer for their fidelity1 but they are worth reading1 even in ,english1 and soundly versified4 ,it is high time to speak of the prose4 ,the essays are ,a ,defence of ,cosmetics1 by ,mr4 ,max ,beerbohm1 and ,reticence in ,literature1 by ,mr4 ,arthur ,waugh4 ,i notice that a critic in the ,new ,york ,nation says that the ,whistlerian affectations of ,mr4 ,beerbohm are particularly intolerable4 ,i understood his essay to be merely a jeu d'esprit1 and found that it amused me1 though the tastes and opinions ingeniously expressed in it are precisely the opposite of my own4 ,mr4 ,beerbohm is 7or pretends to be7 entirely on the side of artifice against nature4 ,the difficulty is to determine what is nature4 ,the easiest and most natural manners of a perfect ,english lady are the result of art1 and of a more advanced art than that indicated by more ceremonious manners4 ,mr4 ,beerbohm says that women in the time of ,dickens appear to have been utterly natural in their conduct1 flighty1 gushing1 blushing1 fainting1 giggling1 and shaking their curls4 ,much of that conduct may have been as artificial as the curls themselves1 and assumed only to attract attention4 ,ladies used to faint on the slightest pretext1 not because it was natural but because it was the fashion2 when it ceased to be the fashion they abandoned the practice4 ,mr4 ,waugh's essay on ,reticence in ,literature is written more seriously1 and is not intended to amuse4 ,he defends the principle of reticence1 but the only sanction that he finds for it is a temporary authority imposed by the changing taste of the age4 ,we are consequently never sure of any permanent law that will enforce any reticence whatever4 ,a good proof of the extreme laxity of the present taste is that ,mr4 ,waugh himself has been able to print at length three of the most grossly sensual stanzas in ,mr4 ,swinburne's ,dolores4 ,reticence1 however1 is not concerned only with sexual matters4 ,there is1 for instance1 a flagrant want of reticence in the lower political press of ,france and ,america1 and the same violent kind of writing1 often going as far beyond truth as beyond decency1 is beginning to be imitated in ,england4 ,one rule holds good universally2 all high art is reticent1 e4g41 in ,dante's admirable way of telling the story of ,francesca through her own lips4 ,mr4 ,henry ,james1 in ,the ,death of the ,lion1 shows his usual elegance of style1 and a kind of humour which1 though light enough on the surface1 has its profound pathos4 ,it is absolutely essential1 in a short story1 to be able to characterise people and things in a very few words4 ,mr4 ,james has this talent1 as for example in his description of the ducal seat at ,bigwood3 very grand and frigid1 all marble and precedence4 ,we know ,bigwood1 after that1 as if we had been there and have no desire to go4 ,so of the ,princess3 ,she has been told everything in the world and has never perceived anything1 and the echoes of her education1 etc41 p4 #db4 ,the moral of the story is the vanity and shallowness of the world's professed admiration for men of letters1 and the evil1 to them1 or going out of their way to suck the sugar-plums of praise4 ,the next story1 ,irremediable1 shows the consequences of marrying a vulgar and ignorant girl in the hope of improving her1 the difficulty being that she declines to be improved4 ,the situation is powerfully described1 especially the last scene in the repulsive1 disorderly little home4 ,the most effective touch reveals ,willoughby's constant vexation because his vulgar wife never did any one mortal thing efficiently or well1 just the opposite of the constant pleasure that clever active women give us by their neat and rapid skill4 ,the ,dedication1 by ,mr4 ,fred ,simpson1 is a dramatic representation of the conflict between ambition and love--not that the love on the man's side is very earnest1 or the conflict in his mind very painful1 as ambition wins the day only too easily when ,lucy is thrown over4 ,the ,fool's ,hour1 by ,mr4 ,hobbes and ,mr4 ,george ,moore1 is a slight little drama founded on the idea that youth must amuse itself in its own way1 and cannot be always tied to its mamma's apron-strings4 ,it is rather ,french than ,english in the assumption that youth must of necessity resort to theatres and actresses4 ,of the two sketches by ,mr4 ,harland1 that on white mice is clever as a supposed reminiscence of early boyhood1 but rather long for its subject1 the other1 ,a ,broken ,looking-,glass1 is a powerful little picture of the dismal end of an old bachelor who confesses to himself that his life has been a failure1 equally on the sides of ambition and enjoyment4 ,one of my friends tells me that it is impossible for a bachelor to be happy1 yet he may invest money in the ,funds6 ,in ,mr4 ,crackanthorpe's ,modern ,melodrama1 he describes for us the first sensations of a girl when she sees death in the near future4 ,it is pathetic1 tragical1 life-like in language1 with the defects of character and style that belong to a close representation of nature4 ,a ,lost ,masterpiece1 by ,george ,egerton1 is not so interesting as the author's ,keynotes1 though it shows the same qualities of style4 ,the subject is too unfruitful1 merely a literary disappointment1 because a bright idea has been chased away4 ,a ,sentimental ,cellar1 by ,mr4 ,george ,saintsbury1 written in imitation of the essayists of the eighteenth century1 associates the wines in a cellar with the loves and friendships of their owner4 ,to others the vinous treasures would be good wine and nothing more2 to their present owner they are a casket of magic liquors1 a museum in which he lives over again the vanished life of the past4 ,the true ,french bookless bourgeois often calls his cellar his bibliothque1 meaning that he values its lore as preferable to that of scholarship2 but ,mr4 ,saintsbury's ,falernianus associates his wines with sentiment rather than with knowledge4 ,on the whole1 the literature in the first number of ,,the ,,yellow ,,book is adequately representative of the modern ,english literary mind1 both in the observation of reality and in style4 ,it is1 as ,i say1 really literature and not letterpress4 ,i rather regret1 for my own part1 the general brevity of the pieces which restricts them to the limits of the sketch1 especially as the stories cannot be continued after the too long interval of three months4 ,as to this1 the publishers know their own business best1 and are probably aware that the attention of the general public1 though easily attracted1 is even more easily fatigued4 ,,ii--,the ,illustrations ,on being asked to undertake the second part of this critical article1 ,i accepted because one has so rarely an opportunity of saying anything about works of art to which the reader can quite easily refer4 ,to review an exhibition of pictures in ,london or ,paris is satisfactory only when the writer imagines himself to be addressing readers who have visited it1 and are likely to visit it again4 ,when an illustration appears in one of the art periodicals1 it may be accompanied by a note that adds something to its interest1 but no one expects such a note to be really critical4 ,in the present instance1 on the contrary1 we are asked to say what we think1 without reserve1 and as we have had nothing to do with the choice of the contributors1 and have not any interest in the sale of the periodical1 there is no reason why we should not4 ,to begin with the cover4 ,the publishers decided not to have any ornament beyond the decorative element in the figure design which is to be changed for every new number4 ,what is permanent in the design remains1 therefore1 of an extreme simplicity and does not attract attention4 ,the yellow colour adopted is glaring1 and from the sthetic point of view not so good as a quiet mixed tint might have been2 however1 it gives a title to the publication and associates itself so perfectly with the title that it has a sufficient raison d'tre1 whilst it contrasts most effectively with black4 ,though white is lighter than any yellow1 it has not the same active and stimulating quality4 ,the drawing of the masquers is merely one of ,mr4 ,aubrey ,beardsley's fancies and has no particular signification4 ,we see a plump and merry lady laughing boisterously whilst she seems to be followed by a man who gazes intently upon the beauties of her shoulder4 ,it is not to be classed amongst the finest of ,mr4 ,beardsley's designs1 but it shows some of his qualities1 especially his extreme economy of means4 ,so does the smaller drawing on the back or the volume1 which is a fair example of his ready and various invention4 ,see how the candle-flame is blown a little to one side1 how the candle gutters on that side1 and how the smoke is affected by the gust of air4 ,observe1 too1 the contrasts between the faces1 not that they are attractive faces4 ,there seems to be a peculiar tendency in ,mr4 ,beardsley's mind to the representation of types without intellect and without morals4 ,some of the most dreadful faces in all art are to be found in the illustrations 7full of exquisite ornamental invention7 to ,mr4 ,oscar ,wilde's ,salome4 ,we have two unpleasant ones here in l'ducation ,sentimentale4 ,there is distinctly a sort of corruption in ,mr4 ,beardsley's art so far as its human element is concerned1 but not at all in its artistic qualities1 which show the perfection of discipline1 of self-control1 and of thoughtful deliberation at the very moment of invention4 ,certainly he is a man of genius1 and perhaps1 as he is still very young1 we may hope that when he has expressed his present mood completely1 he may turn his thoughts into another channel and see a better side of human life4 ,there is1 of course1 nothing to be said against the lady who is touching the piano on the title-page of ,,the ,,yellow ,,book1 nor against the portrait of ,mrs4 ,patrick ,campbell opposite page #abf1 except that she reminds one of a giraffe4 ,it is curious how the idea of extraordinary height is conveyed in this drawing without a single object for comparison4 ,i notice in ,mr4 ,beardsley's work a persistent tendency to elongation2 for instance1 in the keys of the piano on the title-page which in their perspective look fifteen inches long4 ,he has a habit1 too1 of making faces small and head-dresses enormous4 ,the rarity of beauty in his faces seems in contradiction with his exquisite sense of beauty in curving lines1 and the singular grace as well as rich invention of his ornaments4 ,he can1 however1 refuse himself the pleasure of such invention when he wants to produce a discouraging effect upon the mind4 ,see1 for instance1 the oppressive plainness of the architecture in the background to the dismal ,night ,piece4 ,it is well known that the ,president of the ,royal ,academy1 unlike most ,english painters1 is in the habit of making studies4 ,in his case these studies are uniformly in black and white chalk on brown paper4 ,two of them are reproduced in ,,the ,,yellow ,,book1 one being for drapery1 and the other for the nude form moving in a joyous dance with a light indication of drapery that conceals nothing4 ,the latter is a rapid sketch of an intention and is full of life both in attitude and execution1 the other is still and statuesque4 ,sir ,frederic is a model to all artists in one very rare virtue1 that of submitting himself patiently1 in his age1 to the same discipline which strengthened him in youth4 ,i find a curious and remarkable drawing by ,mr4 ,pennell of that strangely romantic place ,le ,puy en ,velay1 whose rocks are crowned with towers or colossal statues1 whilst houses cluster at their feet4 ,the subject is dealt with rather in the spirit of ,drer1 but with a more supple and more modern kind of skill4 ,it is topography1 though probably with considerable artistic liberty4 ,i notice one of ,drer's licences in tonic relations4 ,the sky1 though the sun is setting 7or rising7 is made darker than the hills against it1 and darker even than the two remoter masses of rock which come between us and the distance4 ,the trees1 too1 are shaded capriciously1 some poplars in the middle distance being quite dark whilst nearer trees are left without shade or local colour4 ,in a word1 the tonality is simply arbitrary1 and in this kind of drawing it matters very little4 ,mr4 ,pennell has given us a delightful bit of artistic topography showing the strange beauty of a place that he always loves and remembers4 ,mr4 ,sickert contributed two drawings4 ,the ,old ,oxford ,music ,hall has some very good qualities1 especially the most important quality of all1 that of making us feel as if we were there4 ,the singer on the stage 7whose attitude has been very closely observed7 is strongly lighted by convergent rays4 ,according to my recollection the rays themselves are much more visible in reality than they are here1 but it is possible that the artist may have intentionally subdued their brightness in order to enhance that of the figure itself4 ,the musicians and others are good1 except that they are too small1 if the singing girl 7considering her distance7 is to be taken as the standard of comparison4 ,the pen-sketch of ,a ,lady ,reading is not so satisfactory4 ,i know1 of course1 that it is offered only as a very slight and rapid sketch1 and that it is impossible1 even for a ,rembrandt1 to draw accurately in a hurry1 but there is a formlessness in some important parts of this sketch 7the hands1 for instance7 which makes it almost without interest for me4 ,it is essentially painter's pen work1 and does not show any special mastery of pen and ink4 ,the very definite pen-drawing by ,mr4 ,housman called ,the ,reflected ,faun is open to the objection that the reflections in the water are drawn with the same hardness as the birds and faun in the air4 ,the plain truth is that the style adopted1 which in its own way is as legitimate as any other1 does not permit the artist to represent the natural appearance of water4 ,this kind of pen-drawing is founded on early wood-engraving which filled the whole space with decorative work1 even to the four corners4 ,mr4 ,rothenstein is a modern of the moderns4 ,his two slight portrait-sketches are natural and easy1 and there is much life in the ,portrait of a ,gentleman4 ,the ,portrait of a ,lady1 by ,mr4 ,furse1 is of a much higher order4 ,it has a noble gravity1 and it shows a severity of taste not common in the portraiture of our time2 it is essentially a distinguished work4 ,mr4 ,nettleship gives us an ideal portrait of ,minos1 not in his earthly life1 as king of ,crete1 but in his infernal capacity as supreme judge of the dead4 ,the face is certainly awful enough and implacable3 ,stavvi ,mins orribilmente1 e ringhia3 ,esamina le colpe nell'entrata2 ,giudica e manda1 secondo ch'avvinghia4 ,the book-plate designed by ,mr4 ,beardsley for ,dr4 ,propert has the usual qualities of the inventor4 ,it seems to tell a tale of hopeless love4 ,the other book-plate1 by ,mr4 ,anning ,bell1 is remarkable for its pretty and ingenious employment of heraldry which so easily becomes mechanical when the draughtsman is not an artist4 ,on the whole1 these illustrations decidedly pre-suppose real artistic culture in the public4 ,they do not condescend in any way to what might be guessed at as the popular taste4 ,i notice that the ,editor and ,publishers have a tendency to look to young men of ability for assistance in their enterprise1 though they accept the criticism of those who now belong to a preceding generation4 ,portrait of ,henry ,james ,by ,john ,s4 ,sargent1 ,a4,r4,a4 ,illustration3 ,portrait of ,henry ,james ,dreams ,by ,ronald ,campbell ,macfie ,in the first dream that comes with the first sleep ,i run1 ,i run1 ,i am gathered to thy heart ,unworthy6 yea1 ,so high thou art above me ,i hardly dare to love thee1 ,but kneel and lay ,all homage and all worship at thy feet1 ,o lady sweet6 ,yet dreams are strong3 ,their wordless wish suffices ,to win them ,paradises ,of sun and song4 ,delight our waking life can never know ,the dreams bestow4 ,and in a dream1 ,dupe of its bold beguiling1 ,i watch thy blue eyes smiling2 ,i see them gleam ,with love the waking moments have forbidden1 ,and veiled and hidden4 ,o brave deceit6 ,in dreams thy glad eyes glisten1 ,in dreams ,i lie and listen ,thy bosom beat1 ,hiving hot lips among thy temple-hair1 ,o lady fair6 ,and tho' ,i live1 ,dreaming in such fair fashion1 ,i think1 in thy compassion1 ,thou wilt forgive1 ,since ,i but dream1 and since my heart will ache ,when ,i awake4 ,madame ,rjane ,by ,dauphin ,meunier ,a fabulous being1 in an everyday human form2 a face1 not beautiful1 scarcely even pretty1 which looks upon the world with an air at once ironical and sympathetic2 a brow that grows broader or narrower according to the capricious invasions of her aureole of hair2 an odd little nose1 perked heavenward2 two roguish eyes1 now blue1 now black2 the rude accents of a street-girl1 suddenly changing to the well-bred murmuring of a great lady2 abrupt1 abundant gestures1 eloquently finishing half-spoken sentences2 a supple neck--a slender1 opulent figure--a dainty foot1 that scarcely touches the earth and yet can fly amazingly near the ceiling2 lips1 nervous1 sensuous1 trembling1 curling2 a frock1 simple or sumptuous1 bought at a bargain or created by a ,court-dressmaker1 which expresses1 moulds1 completes1 and sometimes almost unveils the marvellous creature it envelops2 a gay1 a grave demeanour2 grace1 wit1 sweetness1 tartness2 frivolity and earnestness1 tenderness and indifference2 beauty without beauty1 immorality without evil3 a nothing capable of everything3 such is ,woman at ,paris3 such is the ,parisienne3 and ,madame ,rjane is the ,parisienne1 is all ,parisiennes1 incarnated4 ,what though our ,parisienne be the daughter of a hall-porter1 what though she be a maid-servant1 a courtesan1 or an arch-duchess1 she goes everywhere1 she is the equal of every one1 she knows or divines everything4 ,no need for her to learn good manners1 nor bad ones3 she's born with both4 ,according to the time or place1 she will talk to you of politics1 of art1 of literature--of dress1 trade1 cookery--of finance1 of socialism1 of luxury1 of starvation--with the patness1 the sure touch1 the absolute sincerity1 of one who has seen all1 experienced all1 understood all4 ,she's as sentimental as a song1 wily as a diplomate1 gay as folly1 or serious as a novel by ,zola4 ,what has she read8 ,where was she educated8 ,who cares8 ,her book of life is ,paris2 she knows her ,paris by heart2 and whoso knows ,paris can dispense with further knowledge4 ,she adores originality and novelty1 but she can herself transmute the commonplace into the original1 the old into the new4 ,whatever she touches forthwith reflects her own animation1 her mobility1 her elusive charm4 ,flowers have no loveliness until she has grouped them2 colours are colourless unless they suit her complexion4 ,delicately fingering this or that silken fabric1 she decrees which shall remain in the darkness of the shops1 which shall become the fashion of the hour4 ,she crowns the poet1 sits to the painter1 inspires the sculptor1 lends her voice to the musician2 and not one of these artists can pretend to talent1 if it be her whim to deny it him4 ,she awards fame and wealth1 success and failure1 according to her pleasure4 ,madame ,rjane--the ,parisienne3 they are interchangeable terms4 ,whatever rle she plays absorbs the attention of all ,paris4 ,hearken1 then1 good ,french ,provincials1 who would learn the language of the ,boulevards in a single lesson2 hearken1 also1 ye children of other lands who are eager for our pleasures1 and curious about our tastes and manners2 hearken all people1 men and women1 who care1 for once in a way1 to behold what of all ,parisian things is most essentially ,parisian3--,go and see ,rjane4 ,don't go to the ,opra1 where the music is ,german2 nor to the ,opra-,comique1 where it is ,italian2 nor yet to the ,comdie-,franaise1 where the sublime is made ridiculous1 and the heroes and heroines of ,racine take on the attitudes of bull-fighters and cigarette-makers2 nor to the ,odon1 nor to the ,palais-,royal1 nor here1 nor there1 nor elsewhere3 go and see ,rjane4 ,be she at ,london1 ,chicago1 ,brussels1 ,st4 ,petersburg--,rjane is ,paris4 ,she carries the soul of ,paris with her1 wheresoever she listeth4 ,a ,parisienne1 she was born in ,paris2 an actress1 she is the daughter of an actor1 and the niece of ,madame ,aptal-,arnault1 sometime pensionnaire of the ,comdie-,franaise4 ,is it a sufficient pedigree8 ,her very name is suggestive2 it seems to share in the odd turn of her wit1 the sauciness of her face1 the tang of her voice2 for ,rjane's real name is ,rju4 ,doesn't it sound like a nick-name1 especially invented for this child of the greenroom8 ,rjane calls up to us the fanciful actress--fanciful1 but studious1 conscientious1 impassioned for her art2 ,madame ,rjane has rather a grand air2 but ,rju makes such a funny face at her4 ,i picture to myself the little ,rju1 scarcely out of her cradle1 but already cunningly mischievous1 fired with an immense curiosity about the world behind the scenes1 and dreaming of herself as leading lady4 ,she hears of nothing1 she talks of nothing1 but the ,theatre4 ,and presently her inevitable calling1 her manifest destiny1 takes its first step towards realisation4 ,she is admitted into the class of ,regnier1 the famous socitaire of the ,thtre-,franais4 ,thenceforth the pupil makes steady progress4 ,in #ahgc1 at the age of fifteen1 she obtains an honourable mention for comedy at the ,conservatoire2 the following year she divides a second prize with ,mademoiselle ,samary4 ,but what am ,i saying8 ,only a second prize8 ,let us see4 ,to-day1 as then1 though twenty years have passed1 there is no possibility of success1 no chance of getting an engagement1 for a pupil on leaving the ,conservatoire1 unless a certain all-powerful critic1 supreme judge1 arbiter beyond appeal1 sees fit to pronounce a decision confirming the verdict of the ,examining ,jury4 ,this extraordinary man holds the future of each candidate in the palm of his fat and heavy hand4 ,fame and fortune are contained in his inkstand1 and determined by his articles4 ,he is both ,pope and ,king4 ,the ,jury proposes1 he disposes4 ,the ,jury reigns1 he governs4 ,he smiles or frowns1 the ,jury bows its head4 ,the pupils tremble before their ,masters2 the ,masters tremble before this monstrous ,fetich1--for the ,public thinks with him and by him1 and sees only through his spectacles2 and no star can shine till his short sight has discovered it4 ,this puissant astronomer is ,monsieur ,francisque ,sarcey4 ,against his opinion the newspapers can raise no voice1 for he alone edits them all4 ,he writes thirty articles a day1 each of which is thirty times reprinted1 thrice thirty times quoted from4 ,he is1 as it were1 the ,press in person4 ,and presently the momentous hour arrived when the delicate and sprightly pupil of ,regnier was to appear before this enormous and somnolent mass1 and to thrill it with pleasure4 ,for ,monsieur ,sarcey smiled upon and applauded ,rjane's dbut at the ,conservatoire4 ,he consecrated to her as many as fifty lines of intelligent criticism2 and ,i pray ,heaven they may be remembered to his credit on the ,day of ,judgment4 ,here they are1 in that twopenny-halfpenny style of his1 so dear to the readers of ,le ,temps4 ,i own that1 for my part1 ,i should have willingly awarded to the latter 7,mademoiselle ,rjane7 a first prize4 ,it seems to me that she deserved it4 ,but the ,jury is frequently influenced by extrinsic and private motives1 into which it is not permitted to pry4 ,a first prize carries with it the right of entrance into the ,comdie ,franaise2 and the ,jury did not think ,mademoiselle ,rjane1 with her little wide-awake face1 suited to the vast frame of the ,house of ,molire4 ,that is well enough2 but the second prize1 which it awarded her1 authorises the ,director of the ,odon to receive her into his ,company2 and that perspective alone ought to have sufficed to dissuade the ,jury from the course it took4444 ,every one knows that at present the ,odon is1 for a beginner1 a most indifferent school4444 ,instead of shoving its promising pupils into it by the shoulders1 the ,conservatoire should forbid them to approach it1 lest they should be lost there4 ,what will ,mademoiselle ,rjane do at the ,odon8 ,show her legs in ,la ,jeunesse de ,louis ,,xiv41 which is to be revived at the opening of the season6 ,a pretty state of things4 ,she must either go to the ,vaudeville or to the ,gymnase4 ,it is there that she will form herself2 it is there that she will learn her trade1 show what she is capable of1 and prepare herself for the ,comdie ,franaise1 if she is ever to enter it4444 ,she recited a fragment from ,les ,trois ,sultanes4444 ,i was delighted by her choice4 ,the ,trois ,sultanes is so little known nowadays4444 ,what wit there is in her look1 her smile6 ,with her small eyes1 shrewd and piercing1 with her little face thrust forward1 she has so knowing an air1 one is inclined to smile at the mere sight of her4 ,does she perhaps show a little too much assurance8 ,what of it8 ',tis the result of excessive timidity4 ,but she laughs with such good grace1 she has so fresh and true a voice1 she articulates so clearly1 she seems so happy to be alive and to have talent1 that involuntarily one thinks of ,chnier's line3 ,sa bienvenue au jour lui rit dans tous les yeux4 444 ,i shall be surprised if she does not make her way4 ,praised be ,sarcey6 ,that was better than a second prize for ,rjane4 ,the ,oracle gave her the first1 without dividing it4 ,she got an immediate engagement2 and in ,march1 #ahge1 appeared on that stage where to-day she reigns supreme1 the ,vaudeville1 to which she brought back the vaudeville that was no longer played there4 ,she began by alienating the heart of ,alphonse ,daudet1 who1 while recognising her clever delivery1 found fault with her unemotional gaiety2 but1 in compensation1 another authoritative critic1 ,auguste ,vitu1 wrote1 after the performance of ,pierre3 ,mademoiselle ,rjane showed herself full of grace and feeling4 ,she rendered ,gabrielle's despair with a naturalness1 a brilliancy1 a spontaneity1 which won a most striking success4 ,shall ,i follow her through each of her creations1 from her dbut in ,la ,revue des ,deux-,mondes1 up to her supreme triumph in ,madame ,sans-,gne8 ,shall ,i show her as the sly soubrette in ,fanny ,lear8 as the woman in love1 whose ignorance divines all things1 in ,madame ,lili8 as the comical ,marquise de ,menu-,castel in ,le ,verglas8 ,shall ,i tell of her first crowning success1 when she played ,gabrielle in ,pierre8 ,shall ,i recall her stormy interpretation of ,madame de ,librac1 in ,le ,club8 and her dramatic conception of the part of ,ida8--which quite reversed the previous judgments of her critics1 wringing praise from her enemy ,daudet1 and censure from her faithful admirer ,vitu4 ,the natural order of things1 however1 was re-established by her performance of ,les ,tapageurs2 again ,daudet found her cold and lacking in tenderness2 and ,vitu again applauded4 ,her successes at the ,vaudeville extend from #ahge to #ahhb2 and towards the end of that period1 ,rjane1 always rising higher in her art1 created ,anita in ,l',aurole and the ,baronne d',oria in ,odette4 ,next1 forgetting her own traditions1 she appeared at the ,thtre des ,panoramas1 and at the ,ambigu1 where she gave a splendid interpretation of ,madame ,czambre in ,richepin's ,la ,giu2 and at ,les ,varits as ,adrienne in ,ma ,camarade4 ,now fickle1 now constant to her first love1 she alternated between the ,varits and the ,vaudeville2 took an engagement at the ,odon2 assisted at the birth and death of the ,grand-,thtre2 and just lately the ,vaudeville has won her back once more4 ,amidst these perambulations1 ,rjane played the diva in ,clara ,soleil4 ,the following year she had to take two different parts in the same play1 those of ,gabrielle and ,clicquette in ,les ,demoiselles ,clochart4 ,gabrielle is a cold and positive character2 ,clicquette a gay and mischievous one4 ,rjane kept them perfectly distinct1 and without the smallest apparent effort4 ,in #ahhg1 she telephoned in ,all-,all1 and represented so clearly1 by means of clever mimicry1 the absurd answers of the apparatus1 that from the gallery to the stalls the theatre was one roar of laughter and applause2 ,i fancy the salvoes and broadsides must still sometimes echo in her delicate ears4 ,rjane's part in ,m4 de ,morat should not be forgotten2 nor above all1 the inimitable perfection of her play in ,dcor 7#ahhh74 ,sarcey's exultation knew no bounds when1 in #ahij1 she again appeared in this rle4 ,time1 that had metamorphosed the lissom critic of #ahge into a round and inert mass of solid flesh1 cruel ,father ,time1 gave back to ,sarcey1 for this occasion only1 a flash of youthful fire1 which stirred his wits to warmth and animation4 ,he shouted out hardly articulate praise2 he literally rolled in his stall with pleasure2 his bald head blushed like an aurora borealis4 ,look at her6 he cried1 see her malicious smiles1 her feline graces1 listen to her reserved and biting diction2 she is the very essence of the ,parisienne6 ,what an ovation she received6 ,how they applauded her6 and how she played6 ,from ,m4 ,sarcey the laugh spreads2 it thaws the scepticism of ,m4 ,jules ,lematre1 engulfs the timidity of the public1 becomes unanimous and universal1 and is no longer to be silenced4 ,in #ahhh1 ,m4 ,edmond de ,goncourt entrusted ,rjane with the part of ,germinie ,lacerteux4 ,on the first night1 a furious battle against the author was waged in the house4 ,rjane secured the victory sans peur et sans reproches4 ,everything in her inspires the certitude of success2 her voice aims at the heart1 her gestures knock at it4 ,rjane confides all to the hazard of the dice2 her sudden attacks are of the most dare-devil nature2 and no matter how risky1 how dangerous1 how extravagant the jump1 she never loses her footing2 her play is always correct1 her handling sure1 her coolness imperturbable4 ,it was impossible to watch her precipitate herself down the staircase in ,la ,glu without a tremble4 ,and fifteen years before ,yvette ,guilbert1 it was ,rjane who first had the audacity to sing with a voice that was no voice1 making wit and gesture more than cover the deficiency4 ,in ,ma ,cousine1 ,rjane introduced on the boards of ,les ,varits a bit of dancing such as one sees at the ,elyse-,montmartre2 she seized on and imitated the grotesque effrontery of ,mademoiselle ,grille-d',egout1 and her little arched foot flying upwards1 brushed a kiss upon the forehead of her model2 for ,rjane the grand cart may be fatal1 perhaps1 but it is neither difficult nor terrifying4 ,once more delighting us with ,marquise in #ahhi2 playing with such child-like grace the ,candidate in ,brevet ,suprieur in #ahia2 immediately afterwards she took a part in ,amoureuse at the ,odon4 ,the subject is equivocal1 the dialogue smutty4 ,rjane extenuated nothing2 on the contrary1 accentuated things1 and yet knew always how to win her pardon4 ,now1 it so happened that in #ahhb1 after having personified the ,moulin-,rouge in ,les ,varits de ,paris1 ,rjane was married on the stage1 in ,la ,nuit de ,noces de ,p4 ,l4 ,m41 to ,p4 ,l4 ,moriseau4 ,on the anniversary day1 ten years later1 her marriage took place in good earnest1 before a real ,m4 le ,maire1 and according to all legal formalities1 with ,m4 ,porel1 a sometime actor1 an ex-director of the ,odon1 then director of the ,grand-,thtre1 and co-director to-day of the ,vaudeville4444 ,but to return to her art4 ,just as the first dressmakers of ,paris measure ,rjane's fine figure for the costumes of her various rles1 so the best writers of the ,french ,academy now make plays to her measure4 ,they take the size of her temperament1 the height of her talent1 the breadth of her play2 they consider her taste1 they flatter her mood2 they clothe her with the richest draperies she can covet4 ,their imagination1 their fancy1 their cleverness1 are all put at her service4 ,the leaders in this industry have hitherto been ,messrs4 ,meilhac and ,halvy1 but now ,m4 ,victorien ,sardou is ruining them4 ,madame ,sans-,gne is certainly1 of all the rles ,rjane has played1 that best suited to bring out her manifold resources4 ,it is not merely that ,rjane plays the washerwoman1 become a great lady1 without blemish or omission2 she is ,madame ,sans-,gne herself1 with no overloading1 nothing forced1 nothing caricatured4 ,it is portraiture2 history4 ,many a time has ,rjane appeared in cap1 cotton frock1 and white apron2 many a time in robes of state1 glittering with diamonds2 she has worn the buskin or the sock1 demeaned herself like a gutter heroine1 or dropped the stately curtsey of the high-born lady4 ,but never1 except in ,madame ,sans-,gne1 has she been able to bring all her rles into one focus1 exhibit her whole wardrobe1 and yet remain one and the same person1 compress into one evening the whole of her life4 ,the seekers after strange novelties1 the fanatics for the mists of the far north1 the vague1 the irresolute1 the restless1 will not easily forget the ,ibsenish mask worn by ,rjane in ,nora of ,the ,doll's ,house2 although most of us1 loving ,rjane for herself1 probably prefer to this vacillating creation1 the firm drawing1 the clear design1 the strong1 yet supple lines of ,madame ,sans-,gne4 ,why has ,rjane no engagement at the ,comdie-,franaise8 ,whom does one go to applaud on this stage1 called the first in ,france1 and from which ,rjane1 ,sarah ,bernhardt1 and ,coquelin the elder1 all are absent8 ,i will explain the matter in two words4 ,the house of ,molire1 for many years now1 has belonged to ,molire no more4 ,were ,molire to come to life again1 neither he nor ,rjane would go to eat their hearts out1 with inaction and dulness1 beneath the wings of ,m4 ,jules ,claretie--although he is1 of course1 a very estimable gentleman4 ,were ,rjane unmarried1 ,molire to-day would enter into partnership with her1 because she is in herself the entire ,comdie-,franaise4 ,i have already said she is married to ,m4 ,porel1 director of the ,vaudeville1 where she reigns as ,queen4 ,i am quite unable to see any reason why she should soon desert such a fortunate conjugal domicile4 ,notwithstanding the dryness and the rapidity of this enumeration of ,rjane's rles1 ,i hope to have given some general idea of the marvellous diversity and flexibility of her dramatic spirit and temperament2 it seems to me that the most searching criticism of her various creations1 would not greatly enhance the accuracy of the picture4 ,this is why ,i make no attempt to describe her in some three or four parts of an entirely different character4 ,besides1 ,i should have to draw on hearsay2 and ,i desire to trust only to my own eyes1 my own heart4 ,needless to say1 ,i have not had the good luck to see ,madame ,rjane in each of her characterisations since her first appearance4 ,her youthful air has never changed2 but ,i have only had the opportunity of admiring it during the last few years4 ,i confidently maintain1 however1 that she could not have been more charming in #ahge than she is to-day1 with the devil in her body1 heaven in her eyes4 ,a ,girl ,resting ,by ,sydney ,adamson ,illustration3 ,a ,girl ,resting ,the ,roman ,road ,by ,kenneth ,grahame ,all the roads of our neighbourhood were cheerful and friendly1 having each of them pleasant qualities of its own2 but this one seemed different from the others in its masterful suggestion of a serious purpose1 speeding you along with a strange uplifting of the heart4 ,the others tempted chiefly with their treasures of hedge and ditch2 the rapt surprise of the first lords-and-ladies1 the rustle of a field-mouse1 splash of a frog2 while cool noses of brother-beasts were pushed at you through gate or gap4 ,a loiterer you had need to be1 did you choose one of them2 so many were the tiny hands thrust out to detain you1 from this side and that4 ,but this other was of a sterner sort1 and even in its shedding off of bank and hedgerow as it marched straight and full for the open downs1 it seemed to declare its contempt for adventitious trappings to catch the shallow-pated4 ,when the sense of injustice or disappointment was heavy on me1 and things were very black within1 as on this particular day1 the road of character was my choice for that solitary ramble when ,i turned my back for an afternoon on a world that had unaccountably declared itself against me4 ,the ,knight's ,road we children had named it1 from a sort of feeling that1 if from any quarter at all1 it would be down this track we might some day see ,lancelot and his peers come pacing on their great war-horses2 supposing that any of the stout band still survived1 in nooks and unexplored places4 ,grown-up people sometimes spoke of it as the ,pilgrim's ,way2 but ,i didn't know much about pilgrims--except ,walter in the ,horselburg story4 ,him ,i sometimes saw1 breaking with haggard eyes out of yonder copse1 and calling to the pilgrims as they hurried along on their desperate march to the ,holy ,city1 where peace and pardon were awaiting them4 ,all roads lead to ,rome1 ,i had once heard somebody say2 and ,i had taken the remark very seriously1 of course1 and puzzled over it many days4 ,there must have been some mistake1 ,i concluded at last2 but of one road at least ,i intuitively felt it to be true4 ,and my belief was clinched by something that fell from ,miss ,smedley during a history-lesson1 about a strange road that ran right down the middle of ,england till it reached the coast1 and then began again in ,france1 just opposite1 and so on undeviating1 through city and vineyard1 right from the misty ,highlands to the ,eternal ,city4 ,uncorroborated1 any statement of ,miss ,smedley's usually fell on incredulous ears2 but here1 with the road itself in evidence1 she seemed1 once in a way1 to have strayed into truth4 ,rome6 ,it was fascinating to think that it lay at the other end of this white ribbon that rolled itself off from my feet over the distant downs4 ,i was not quite so uninstructed as to imagine ,i could reach it that afternoon2 but some day1 ,i thought1 if things went on being as unpleasant as they were now--some day1 when ,aunt ,eliza had gone on a visit--we would see4 ,i tried to imagine what it would be like when ,i got there4 ,the ,coliseum ,i knew1 of course1 from a woodcut in the history-book3 so to begin with ,i plumped that down in the middle4 ,the rest had to be patched up from the little grey market-town where twice a year we went to have our hair cut2 hence1 in the result1 ,vespasian's amphitheatre was approached by muddy little streets1 wherein the ,red ,lion and the ,blue ,boar1 with ,somebody's ,entire along their front1 and ,commercial ,room on their windows2 the doctor's house1 of substantial red-brick2 and the faade of the new ,wesleyan chapel1 which we thought very fine1 were the chief architectural ornaments3 while the ,roman populace pottered about in smocks and corduroys1 twisting the tails of ,roman calves and inviting each other to beer in musical ,wessex4 ,from ,rome ,i drifted on to other cities1 dimly heard of--,damascus1 ,brighton1 7,aunt ,eliza's ideal71 ,athens1 and ,glasgow1 whose glories the gardener sang2 but there was a certain sameness in my conception of all of them3 that ,wesleyan chapel would keep cropping up everywhere4 ,it was easier to go a-building among those dream-cities where no limitations were imposed1 and one was sole architect1 with a free hand4 ,down a delectable street of cloud-built palaces ,i was mentally pacing1 when ,i happened upon the ,artist4 ,he was seated at work by the roadside1 at a point whence the cool large spaces of the downs1 juniper-studded1 swept grandly westwards4 ,his attributes proclaimed him of the artist tribe3 besides1 he wore knickerbockers like myself4 ,i knew ,i was not to bother him with questions1 nor look over his shoulder and breathe in his ear--they didn't like it1 this genus irritabile2 but there was nothing about staring in my code of instructions1 the point having somehow been overlooked3 so1 squatting down on the grass1 ,i devoted myself to a passionate absorbing of every detail4 ,at the end of five minutes there was not a button on him that ,i could not have passed an examination in2 and the wearer himself of that home-spun suit was probably less familiar with its pattern and texture than ,i was4 ,once he looked up1 nodded1 half held out his tobacco pouch1 mechanically as it were1 then1 returning it to his pocket1 resumed his work1 and ,i my mental photography4 ,after another five minutes or so had passed he remarked1 without looking my way3 ,fine afternoon we're having3 going far to-day8 ,no1 ,i'm not going any farther than this1 ,i replied3 ,i was thinking of going on to ,rome3 but ,i've put it off4 ,pleasant place1 ,rome1 he murmured3 you'll like it4 ,it was some minutes later that he added3 ,but ,i wouldn't go just now1 if ,i were you3 too jolly hot4 ,you haven't been to ,rome1 have you8 ,i inquired4 ,rather1 he replied briefly3 ,i live there4 ,this was too much1 and my jaw dropped as ,i struggled to grasp the fact that ,i was sitting there talking to a fellow who lived in ,rome4 ,speech was out of the question3 besides ,i had other things to do4 ,ten solid minutes had ,i already spent in an examination of him as a mere stranger and artist2 and now the whole thing had to be done over again1 from the changed point of view4 ,so ,i began afresh1 at the crown of his soft hat1 and worked down to his solid ,british shoes1 this time investing everything with the new ,roman halo2 and at last ,i managed to get out3 ,but you don't really live there1 do you8 never doubting the fact1 but wanting to hear it repeated4 ,well1 he said1 good-naturedly overlooking the slight rudeness of my query1 ,i live there as much as ,i live anywhere4 ,about half the year sometimes4 ,i've got a sort of a shanty there4 ,you must come and see it some day4 ,but do you live anywhere else as well8 ,i went on1 feeling the forbidden tide of questions surging up within me4 ,o yes1 all over the place1 was his vague reply4 ,and ,i've got a diggings somewhere off ,piccadilly4 ,where's that8 ,i inquired4 ,where's what8 said he4 ,oh1 ,piccadilly6 ,it's in ,london4 ,have you a large garden8 ,i asked2 and how many pigs have you got8 ,i've no garden at all1 he replied sadly1 and they don't allow me to keep pigs1 though ,i'd like to1 awfully4 ,it's very hard4 ,but what do you do all day1 then1 ,i cried1 and where do you go and play1 without any garden1 or pigs1 or things8 ,when ,i want to play1 he said gravely1 ,i have to go and play in the street2 but it's poor fun1 ,i grant you4 ,there's a goat1 though1 not far off1 and sometimes ,i talk to him when ,i'm feeling lonely2 but he's very proud4 ,goats are proud1 ,i admitted4 ,there's one lives near here1 and if you say anything to him at all1 he hits you in the wind with his head4 ,you know what it feels like when a fellow hits you in the wind8 ,i do1 well1 he replied1 in a tone of proper melancholy1 and painted on4 ,and have you been to any other places1 ,i began again presently1 besides ,rome and ,piccy-what's-his-name8 ,heaps1 he said4 ,i'm a sort of ,ulysses--seen men and cities1 you know4 ,in fact1 about the only place ,i never got to was the ,fortunate ,island4 ,i began to like this man4 ,he answered your questions briefly and to the point1 and never tried to be funny4 ,i felt ,i could be confidential with him4 ,wouldn't you like1 ,i inquired1 to find a city without any people in it at all8 ,he looked puzzled4 ,i'm afraid ,i don't quite understand1 said he4 ,i mean1 ,i went on eagerly1 a city where you walk in at the gates1 and the shops are all full of beautiful things1 and the houses furnished as grand as can be1 and there isn't anybody there whatever6 ,and you go into the shops1 and take anything you want--chocolates and magic-lanterns and injirubber balls--and there's nothing to pay2 and you choose your own house and live there and do just as you like1 and never go to bed unless you want to6 ,the artist laid down his brush4 ,that would be a nice city1 he said4 ,better than ,rome4 ,you can't do that sort of thing in ,rome--or in ,piccadilly either4 ,but ,i fear it's one of the places ,i've never been to4 ,and you'd ask your friends1 ,i went on1 warming to my subject2 only those whoyou really like1 of course2 and they'd each have a house to themselves--there'd be lots of houses1 and no relations at all1 unless they promised they'd be pleasant1 and if they weren't they'd have to go4 ,so you wouldn't have any relations8 said the artist4 ,well1 perhaps you're right4 ,we have tastes in common1 ,i see4 ,i'd have ,harold1 ,i said reflectively1 and ,charlotte4 ,they'd like it awfully4 ,the others are getting too old4 ,oh6 and ,martha--,i'd have ,martha to cook and wash up and do things4 ,you'd like ,martha4 ,she's ever so much nicer than ,aunt ,eliza4 ,she's my idea of a real lady4 ,then ,i'm sure ,i should like her1 he replied heartily1 and when ,i come to--what do you call this city of yours8 ,nephelo--something1 did you say6 ,i--,i don't know1 ,i replied timidly4 ,i'm afraid it hasn't got a name--yet4 ,the artist gazed out over the downs4 ',the poet says dear city of ,cecrops2' he said softly to himself1 'and wilt not thou say1 dear city of ,zeus8' ,that's from ,marcus ,aurelius1 he went on1 turning again to his work4 ,you don't know him1 ,i suppose2 you will some day4 ,who's he8 ,i inquired4 ,oh1 just another fellow who lived in ,rome1 he replied1 dabbing away4 ,o dear6 ,i cried1 disconsolately4 ,what a lot of people seem to live at ,rome1 and ,i've never even been there6 ,but ,i think ,i'd like my city best4 ,and so would ,i1 he replied with unction4 ,but ,marcus ,aurelius wouldn't1 you know4 ,then we won't invite him1 ,i said3 will we8 ,i won't if you won't1 said he4 ,and that point being settled1 we were silent for a while4 ,do you know1 he said presently1 ,i've met one or two fellows from time to time1 who have been to a city like yours--perhaps it was the same one4 ,they won't talk much about it--only broken hints1 now and then2 but they've been there sure enough4 ,they don't seem to care about anything in particular--and everything's the same to them1 rough or smooth2 and sooner or later they slip off and disappear2 and you never see them again4 ,gone back1 ,i suppose4 ,of course1 said ,i4 ,don't see what they ever came away for2 ,i wouldn't4 ,to be told you've broken things when you haven't1 and stopped having tea with the servants in the kitchen1 and not allowed to have a dog to sleep with you4 ,but ,i've known people1 too1 who've gone there4 ,the artist stared1 but without incivility4 ,well1 there's ,lancelot1 ,i went on4 ,the book says he died1 but it never seemed to read right1 somehow4 ,he just went away1 like ,arthur4 ,and ,crusoe1 when he got tired of wearing clothes and being respectable4 ,and all the nice men in the stories who don't marry the ,princess1 'cos only one man ever gets married in a book1 you know4 ,they'll be there6 ,and the men who fail1 he said1 who try like the rest1 and toil1 and eat their hearts out1 and somehow miss--or break down or get bowled over in the mle--and get no ,princess1 nor even a second-class kingdom--some of them'll be there1 ,i hope8 ,yes1 if you like1 ,i replied1 not quite understanding him2 if they're friends of yours1 we'll ask 'em1 of course4 ,what a time we shall have6 said the artist reflectively2 and how shocked old ,marcus ,aurelius will be6 ,the shadows had lengthened uncannily1 a tide of golden haze began to flood the grey-green surface of the downs1 and the artist put his traps together1 preparatory to a move4 ,i felt very low3 we would have to part1 it seemed1 just as we were getting on so well together4 ,then he stood up1 and he was very straight and tall1 and the sunset was in his hair and beard as he stood there1 high over me4 ,he took my hand like an equal4 ,i've enjoyed our conversation very much1 he said4 ,that was an interesting subject you started1 and we haven't half exhausted it4 ,we shall meet again1 ,i hope8 ,of course we shall1 ,i replied1 surprised that there should be any doubt about it4 ,in ,rome perhaps8 said he4 ,yes1 in ,rome1 ,i answered2 or ,piccy-the-other-place1 or somewhere4 ,or else1 said he1 in that other city--when we've found the way there4 ,and ,i'll look out for you1 and you'll sing out as soon as you see me4 ,and we'll go down the street arm-in-arm1 and into all the shops1 and then ,i'll choose my house1 and you'll choose your house1 and we'll live there like princes and good fellows4 ,oh1 but you'll stay in my house1 won't you8 ,i cried2 ,i wouldn't ask everybody2 but ,i'll ask you4 ,he affected to consider a moment2 then ,right6 he said3 ,i believe you mean it1 and ,i will come and stay with you4 ,i won't go to anybody else1 if they ask me ever so much4 ,and ,i'll stay quite a long time1 too1 and ,i won't be any trouble4 ,upon this compact we parted1 and ,i went down-heartedly from the man who understood me1 back to the house where ,i never could do anything right4 ,how was it that everything seemed natural and sensible to him1 which these uncles1 vicars1 and other grown-up men took for the merest tomfoolery8 ,well1 he would explain this1 and many another thing1 when we met again4 ,the ,knight's ,road6 ,how it always brought consolation6 ,was he possibly one of those vanished knights ,i had been looking for so long8 ,perhaps he would be in armour next time--why not8 ,he would look well in armour1 ,i thought4 ,and ,i would take care to get there first1 and see the sunlight flash and play on his helmet and shield1 as he rode up the ,high ,street of the ,golden ,city4 ,meantime1 there only remained the finding it1--an easy matter4 ,three ,pictures ,by ,walter ,sickert ,i4 ,the ,old ,bedford ,music ,hall ,,ii4 ,portrait of ,aubrey ,beardsley ,,iii4 ,ada ,lundberg ,illustration3 ,the ,old ,bedford ,music ,hall ,illustration3 ,portrait of ,aubrey ,beardsley ,illustration3 ,ada ,lundberg ,betrothed ,by ,norman ,gale ,she is mine in the day1 ,she is mine in the dusk2 ,she is virgin as dawn1 ,and as fragrant as musk4 ,and the wood on the hill ,is the home where we meet-- ,o1 the coming of eve1 ,it is marvellous sweet6 ,to my satisfied heart ,she has flown like a dove2 ,all her kisses are taught ,by the wisdom of love4 ,and whatever my grief ,there is healing1 and rest1 ,on the pear-blossom slope ,of her beautiful breast4 ,thy ,heart's ,desire ,by ,netta ,syrett ,i ,the tents were pitched in a little plain surrounded by hills4 ,right and left there were stretches of tender vivid green where the young corn was springing2 further still1 on either hand1 the plain was yellow with mustard-flower2 but in the immediate foreground it was bare and stony4 ,a few thorny bushes pushed their straggling way through the dry soil1 ineffectively as far as the grace of the landscape was concerned1 for they merely served to emphasise the barren aridness of the land that stretched before the tents1 sloping gradually to the distant hills4 ,the hills were uninteresting enough in themselves2 they had no grandeur of outline1 no picturesqueness even1 though at morning and evening the sun1 like a great magician1 clothed them with beauty at a touch4 ,they had begun to change1 to soften1 to blush rose-red in the evening light1 when a woman came to the entrance of the largest of the tents and looked towards them4 ,she leant against the support on one side of the canvas flap1 and putting back her head1 rested that too against it1 while her eyes wandered over the plain and over the distant hills4 ,she was bareheaded1 for the covering of the tent projected a few feet to form an awning overhead4 ,the gentle breeze which had risen with sundown1 stirred the soft brown tendrils of hair on her temples1 and fluttered her pink cotton gown a little4 ,she stood very still1 with her arms hanging and her hands clasped loosely in front of her4 ,there was about her whole attitude an air of studied quiet which in some vague fashion the slight clasp of her hands accentuated4 ,her face1 with its tightly1 almost rigidly closed lips1 would have been quite in keeping with the impression of conscious calm which her entire presence suggested1 had it not been that when she raised her eyes a strange contradiction to this idea was afforded4 ,they were large grey eyes1 unusually bright and rather startling in effect1 for they seemed the only live thing about her4 ,gleaming from her still set face1 there was something almost alarming in their brilliancy4 ,they softened with a sudden glow of pleasure as they rested on the translucent green of the wheat fields under the broad generous sunlight1 and then wandered to where the pure vivid yellow of the mustard-flower spread in waves to the base of the hills1 now mystically veiled in radiance4 ,she stood motionless watching their melting elusive changes from palpitating rose to the transparent purple of amethyst4 ,the stillness of evening was broken by the monotonous1 not unmusical creaking of a ,persian wheel at some little distance to the left of the tent4 ,the well stood in a little grove of trees3 between their branches she could see1 when she turned her head1 the coloured saris of the village women1 where they stood in groups chattering as they drew the water1 and the little naked brown babies that toddled beside them or sprawled on the hard ground beneath the trees4 ,from the village of flat-roofed mud-houses under the low hill at the back of the tents1 other women were crossing the plain towards the well1 their terra-cotta water-jars poised easily on their heads1 casting long shadows on the sun-baked ground as they came4 ,presently1 in the distance1 from the direction of the sunlit hills opposite1 a little group of men came into sight4 ,far off1 the mustard-coloured jackets and the red turbans of the orderlies made vivid splashes of colour on the dull plain4 ,as they came nearer1 the guns slung across their shoulders1 the cases of mathematical instruments1 the hammers and other heavy baggage they carried for the ,sahib1 became visible4 ,a little in front1 at walking pace1 rode the ,sahib himself1 making notes as he came in a book he held before him4 ,the girl at the tent-entrance watched the advance of the little company indifferently1 it seemed2 except for a slight tightening of the muscles about her mouth1 her face remained unchanged4 ,while he was still some little distance away1 the man with the note-book raised his head and smiled awkwardly as he saw her standing there4 ,awkwardness1 perhaps1 best describes the whole man4 ,he was badly put together1 loose-jointed1 ungainly4 ,the fact that he was tall profited him nothing1 for it merely emphasised the extreme ungracefulness of his figure4 ,his long pale face was made paler by a shock of coarse1 tow-coloured hair2 his eyes even looked colourless1 though they were certainly the least uninteresting feature of his face1 for they were not devoid of expression4 ,he had a way of slouching when he moved that singularly intensified the general uncouthness of his appearance4 ,are you very tired8 asked his wife gently when he had dismounted close to the tent4 ,the question would have been an unnecessary one had it been put to her instead of to her husband1 for her voice had that peculiar flat toneless sound for which extreme weariness is answerable4 ,well1 no1 my dear1 not very1 he replied1 drawling out the words with an exasperating air of delivering a final verdict1 after deep reflection on the subject4 ,the girl glanced once more at the fading colours on the hills4 ,come in and rest1 she said1 moving aside a little to let him pass4 ,she stood lingering a moment after he had entered the tent1 as though unwilling to leave the outer air2 and before she turned to follow him she drew a deep breath1 and her hand went for one swift second to her throat as though she felt stifled4 99 99 99 99 99 ,later on that evening she sat in her tent sewing by the light of the lamp that stood on her little table4 ,opposite to her1 her husband stretched his ungainly length in a deck-chair1 and turned over a pile of official notes4 ,every now and then her eyes wandered from the gay silks of the table-cover she was embroidering to the canvas walls which bounded the narrow space into which their few household goods were crowded4 ,outside there was a deep hush4 ,the silence of the vast empty plain seemed to work its way slowly1 steadily in1 towards the little patch of light set in its midst4 ,the girl felt it in every nerve2 it was as though some soft-footed1 noiseless1 shapeless creature1 whose presence she only dimly divined1 was approaching nearer--nearer4 ,the heavy outer stillness was in some way made more terrifying by the rustle of the papers her husband was reading1 by the creaking of his chair as he moved1 and by the little fidgeting grunts and half exclamations which from time to time broke from him4 ,his wife's hand shook at every unintelligible mutter from him1 and the slight habitual contraction between her eyes deepened4 ,all at once she threw her work down on to the table4 ,for ,heaven's sake----please1 ,john1 talk6 she cried4 ,her eyes1 for the moment's space in which they met the startled ones of her husband1 had a wild hunted look1 but it was gone almost before his slow brain had time to note that it had been there--and was vaguely disturbing4 ,she laughed a little1 unsteadily4 ,did ,i startle you8 ,i'm sorry4 ,i---- she laughed again4 ,i believe ,i'm a little nervous4 ,when one is all day alone---- ,she paused without finishing the sentence4 ,the man's face changed suddenly4 ,a wave of tenderness swept over it1 and at the same time an expression of half-incredulous delight shone in his pale eyes4 ,poor little girl1 are you really lonely8 he said4 ,even the real feeling in his tone failed to rob his voice of its peculiarly irritating grating quality4 ,he rose awkwardly and moved to his wife's side4 ,involuntarily she shrank a little1 and the hand which he had stretched out to touch her hair sank to his side4 ,she recovered herself immediately and turned her face up to his1 though she did not raise her eyes2 but he did not kiss her4 ,instead1 he stood in an embarrassed fashion a moment by her side1 and then went back to his seat4 ,there was silence again for some time4 ,the man lay back in his chair1 gazing at his big clumsy shoes1 as though he hoped for some inspiration from that quarter1 while his wife worked with nervous haste4 ,don't let me keep you from reading1 ,john1 she said1 and her voice had regained its usual gentle tone4 ,no1 my dear2 ,i'm just thinking of something to say to you1 but ,i don't seem---- ,she smiled a little4 ,in spite of herself1 her lip curled faintly4 ,don't worry about it--it was stupid of me to expect it4 ,i mean---- she added hastily1 immediately repenting the sarcasm4 ,she glanced furtively at him1 but his face was quite unmoved4 ,evidently he had not noticed it1 and she smiled faintly again4 ,oh1 ,kathie1 ,i knew there was something ,i'd forgotten to tell you1 my dear2 there's a man coming down here4 ,i don't know whether---- ,she looked up sharply4 ,a man coming here8 ,what for8 she interrupted breathlessly4 ,sent to help me about this oil-boring business1 my dear4 ,he had lighted his pipe1 and was smoking placidly1 taking long whiffs between his words4 ,well8 impatiently questioned his wife1 fixing her bright eyes on his face4 ,well--that's all1 my dear4 ,she checked an exclamation4 ,but don't you know anything about him--his name8 where he comes from8 what he is like8 ,she was leaning forward against the table1 her needle with a long end of yellow silk drawn halfway through her work1 held in her upraised hand1 her whole attitude one of quivering excitement and expectancy4 ,the man took his pipe from his mouth deliberately1 with a look of slow wonder4 ,why ,kathie1 you seem quite anxious4 ,i didn't know you'd be so interested1 my dear4 ,well1--another long pull at his pipe--his name's ,brook--,brookfield1 ,i think4 ,he paused again4 ,this pipe don't draw well a bit2 there's something wrong with it1 ,i shouldn't wonder1 he added1 taking it out and examining the bowl as though struck with the brilliance of the idea4 ,the woman opposite put down her work and clenched her hands under the table4 ,go on1 ,john1 she said presently in a tense vibrating voice--his name is ,brookfield4 ,well1 where does he come from8 ,straight from home1 my dear1 ,i believe4 ,he fumbled in his pocket1 and after some time extricated a pencil with which he began to poke the tobacco in the bowl in an ineffectual aimless fashion1 becoming completely engrossed in the occupation apparently4 ,there was another long pause4 ,the woman went on working1 or feigning to work1 for her hands were trembling a good deal4 ,after some moments she raised her head again4 ,john1 will you mind attending to me one moment1 and answering these questions as quickly as you can8 ,the emphasis on the last word was so faint as to be almost as imperceptible as the touch of exasperated contempt which she could not absolutely banish from her tone4 ,her husband1 looking up1 met her clear bright gaze and reddened like a schoolboy4 ,whereabouts 'from home' does he come8 she asked in a studiedly gentle fashion4 ,well1 from ,london1 ,i think1 he replied1 almost briskly for him1 though he stammered and tripped over the words4 ,he's a ,university chap2 ,i used to hear he was clever--,i don't know about that1 ,i'm sure2 he used to chaff me1 ,i remember1 but---- ,chaff you8 ,you have met him then8 ,yes1 my dear--he was fast relapsing into his slow drawl again--that is1 ,i went to school with him1 but it's a long time ago4 ,brookfield--yes1 that must be his name4 ,she waited a moment1 then ,when is he coming8 she inquired abruptly4 ,let me see--to-day's---- ,monday1 the word came swiftly between her set teeth4 ,ah1 yes1--,monday--well1 reflectively1 next ,monday1 my dear4 ,mrs4 ,drayton rose1 and began to pace softly the narrow passage between the table and the tent-wall1 her hands clasped loosely behind her4 ,how long have you known this8 she said1 stopping abruptly4 ,oh1 ,john1 you needn't consider2 it's quite a simple question4 ,to-day8 ,yesterday8 ,her foot moved restlessly on the ground as she waited4 ,i think it was the day before yesterday1 he replied4 ,then why in ,heaven's name didn't you tell me before8 she broke out fiercely4 ,my dear1 it slipped my memory4 ,if ,i'd thought you would be interested---- ,interested8 ,she laughed shortly4 ,it is rather interesting to hear that after six months of this--she made a quick comprehensive gesture with her hand--one will have some one to speak to--some one4 ,it is the hand of ,providence2 it comes just in time to save me from---- ,she checked herself abruptly4 ,he sat staring up at her stupidly1 without a word4 ,it's all right1 ,john1 she said1 with a quick change of tone1 gathering up her work quietly as she spoke4 ,i'm not mad--yet4 ,you--you must get used to these little outbreaks1 she added after a moment1 smiling faintly1 and to do me justice1 ,i don't often trouble you with them1 do ,i8 ,i'm just a little tired1 or it's the heat or--something4 ,no--don't touch me1 she cried1 shrinking back1 for he had risen slowly and was coming towards her4 ,she had lost command over her voice1 and the shrill note of horror in it was unmistakable4 ,the man heard it1 and shrank in his turn4 ,i'm so sorry1 ,john1 she murmured1 raising her great bright eyes to his face4 ,they had not lost their goaded expression1 though they were full of tears4 ,i'm awfully sorry1 but ,i'm just nervous and stupid1 and ,i can't bear any one to touch me when ,i'm nervous4 ,,ii ,here's ,broomhurst1 my dear6 ,i made a mistake in his name after all1 ,i find4 ,i told you ,brookfield1 ,i believe1 didn't ,i8 ,well1 it isn't ,brookfield1 he says2 it's ,broomhurst4 ,mrs4 ,drayton had walked some little distance across the plain to meet and welcome the expected guest4 ,she stood quietly waiting while her husband stammered over his incoherent sentences1 and then put out her hand4 ,we are very glad to see you1 she said with a quick glance at the newcomer's face as she spoke4 ,as they walked together towards the tent1 after the first greetings1 she felt his keen eyes upon her before he turned to her husband4 ,i'm afraid ,mrs4 ,drayton finds the climate trying8 he asked4 ,perhaps she ought not to have come so far in this heat8 ,kathie is often pale4 ,you do look white to-day1 my dear1 he observed1 turning anxiously towards his wife4 ,do ,i8 she replied4 ,the unsteadiness of her tone was hardly appreciable1 but it was not lost on ,broomhurst's quick ears4 ,oh1 ,i don't think so4 ,i feel very well4 ,i'll come and see if they've fixed you up all right1 said ,drayton1 following his companion towards the new tent that had been pitched at some little distance from the large one4 ,we shall see you at dinner then8 ,mrs4 ,drayton observed in reply to ,broomhurst's smile as they parted4 ,she entered the tent slowly1 and moving up to the table1 already laid for dinner1 began to rearrange the things upon it in a purposeless mechanical fashion4 ,after a moment she sank down upon a seat opposite the open entrance1 and put her hand to her head4 ,what is the matter with me8 she thought wearily4 ,all the week ,i've been looking forward to seeing this man--any man1 any one to take off the edge of this4 ,she shuddered4 ,even in thought she hesitated to analyse the feeling that possessed her4 ,well1 he's here1 and ,i think ,i feel worse4 ,her eyes travelled towards the hills she had been used to watch at this hour1 and rested on them with a vague unseeing gaze4 ,tired1 ,kathie8 ,a penny for your thoughts1 my dear1 said her husband1 coming in presently to find her still sitting there4 ,i'm thinking what a curious world this is1 and what an ironical vein of humour the gods who look after it must possess1 she replied with a mirthless laugh1 rising as she spoke4 ,john looked puzzled4 ,funny my having known ,broomhurst before1 you mean8 he said doubtfully4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i was fishing down at ,lynmouth this time last year1 ,broomhurst said at dinner4 ,you know ,lynmouth1 ,mrs4 ,drayton8 ,do you never imagine you hear the gurgling of the stream8 ,i am tantalised already by the sound of it rushing through the beautiful green gloom of those woods--aren't they lovely8 ,and ,i haven't been in this burnt-up spot as many hours as you've had months of it4 ,she smiled a little4 ,you must learn to possess your soul in patience1 she said1 and glanced inconsequently from ,broomhurst to her husband1 and then dropped her eyes and was silent a moment4 ,john was obviously1 and a little audibly1 enjoying his dinner4 ,he sat with his chair pushed close to the table1 and his elbows awkwardly raised1 swallowing his soup in gulps4 ,he grasped his spoon tightly in his bony hand so that its swollen joints stood out larger and uglier than ever1 his wife thought4 ,her eyes wandered to ,broomhurst's hands4 ,they were well shaped1 and though not small1 there was a look of refinement about them2 he had a way of touching things delicately1 a little lingeringly1 she noticed4 ,there was an air of distinction about his clear-cut1 clean-shaven face1 possibly intensified by contrast with ,drayton's blurred features2 and it was1 perhaps1 also by contrast with the grey cuffs that showed beneath ,john's ill-cut drab suit that the linen ,broomhurst wore seemed to her particularly spotless4 ,broomhurst's thoughts1 for his part1 were a good deal occupied with his hostess4 ,she was pretty1 he thought1 or perhaps it was that1 with the wide dry lonely plain as a setting1 her fragile delicacy of appearance was invested with a certain flower-like charm4 ,the silence here seems rather strange1 rather appalling at first1 when one is fresh from a town1 he pursued1 after a moment's pause1 but ,i suppose you're used to it2 eh1 ,drayton8 ,how do you find life here1 ,mrs4 ,drayton8 he asked a little curiously1 turning to her as he spoke4 ,she hesitated a second4 ,oh1 much the same as ,i should find it anywhere else1 ,i expect1 she replied2 after all1 one carries the possibilities of a happy life about with one--don't you think so8 ,the ,garden of ,eden wouldn't necessarily make my life any happier1 or less happy1 than a howling wilderness like this4 ,it depends on oneself entirely4 ,given the right ,adam and ,eve1 the desert blossoms like the rose1 in fact1 ,broomhurst answered lightly1 with a smiling glance inclusive of husband and wife2 you two don't feel as though you'd been driven out of ,paradise evidently4 ,drayton raised his eyes from his plate with a smile of total incomprehension4 ,great ,heavens6 ,what an ,adam to select6 thought ,broomhurst involuntarily1 as ,mrs4 ,drayton rose rather suddenly from the table4 ,i'll come and help with that packing-case1 ,john said1 rising1 in his turn1 lumberingly from his place2 then we can have a smoke--eh8 ,kathie don't mind1 if we sit near the entrance4 ,the two men went out together1 ,broomhurst holding the lantern1 for the moon had not yet risen4 ,mrs4 ,drayton followed them to the doorway1 and1 pushing the looped-up hanging further aside1 stepped out into the cool darkness4 ,her heart was beating quickly1 and there was a great lump in her throat that frightened her as though she were choking4 ,and ,i am his wife--,i belong to him6 she cried1 almost aloud4 ,she pressed both her hands tightly against her breast1 and set her teeth1 fighting to keep down the rising flood that threatened to sweep away her composure4 ,oh1 what a fool ,i am6 ,what an hysterical fool of a woman ,i am6 she whispered below her breath4 ,she began to walk slowly up and down outside the tent1 in the space illumined by the lamplight1 as though striving to make her outwardly quiet movements react upon the inward tumult4 ,in a little while she had conquered2 she quietly entered the tent1 drew a low chair to the entrance1 and took up a book1 just as footsteps became audible4 ,a moment afterwards ,broomhurst emerged from the darkness into the circle of light outside1 and ,mrs4 ,drayton raised her eyes from the pages she was turning to greet him with a smile4 ,are your things all right8 ,oh yes1 more or less1 thank you4 ,i was a little concerned about a case of books1 but it isn't much damaged fortunately4 ,perhaps ,i've some you would care to look at8 ,the books will be a godsend1 she returned with a sudden brightening of the eyes2 ,i was getting desperate--for books4 ,what are you reading now8 he asked1 glancing at the volume that lay in her lap4 ,it's a ,browning4 ,i carry it about a good deal4 ,i think ,i like to have it with me1 but ,i don't seem to read it much4 ,are you waiting for a suitable optimistic moment8 ,broomhurst inquired smiling4 ,yes1 now you mention it1 ,i think that must be why ,i am waiting1 she replied slowly4 ,and it doesn't come--even in the ,garden of ,eden8 ,surely the serpent1 pessimism1 hasn't been insolent enough to draw you into conversation with him8 he said lightly4 ,there has been no one to converse with at all--when ,john is away1 ,i mean4 ,i think ,i should have liked a little chat with the serpent immensely by way of a change1 she replied in the same tone4 ,ah1 yes1 ,broomhurst said with sudden seriousness1 it must be unbearably dull for you alone here1 with ,drayton away all day4 ,mrs4 ,drayton's hand shook a little as she fluttered a page of her open book4 ,i should think it quite natural you would be irritated beyond endurance to hear that all's right with the world1 for instance1 when you were sighing for the long day to pass1 he continued4 ,i don't mind the day so much--it's the evenings4 ,she abruptly checked the swift words and flushed painfully4 ,i mean--,i've grown stupidly nervous1 ,i think--even when ,john is here4 ,oh1 you have no idea of the awful silence of this place at night1 she added1 rising hurriedly from her low seat1 and moving closer to the doorway4 ,it is so close1 isn't it8 she said1 almost apologetically4 ,there was silence for quite a minute4 ,broomhurst's quick eyes noted the silent momentary clenching of the hands that hung at her side as she stood leaning against the support at the entrance4 ,but how stupid of me to give you such a bad impression of the camp--the first evening1 too1 ,mrs4 ,drayton exclaimed presently1 and her companion mentally commended the admirable composure of her voice4 ,probably you will never notice that it is lonely at all1 she continued1 ,john likes it here4 ,he is immensely interested in his work1 you know4 ,i hope you are too4 ,if you are interested it is all quite right4 ,i think the climate tries me a little4 ,i never used to be stupid--and nervous4 ,ah1 here's ,john2 he's been round to the kitchen-tent1 ,i suppose4 ,been looking after that fellow cleanin' my gun1 my dear1 ,john explained1 shambling towards the deck-chair4 ,later1 ,broomhurst stood at his own tent-door4 ,he looked up at the star-sown sky1 and the heavy silence seemed to press upon him like an actual1 physical burden4 ,he took his cigar from between his lips presently and looked at the glowing end reflectively before throwing it away4 ,considering that she has been alone with him here for six months1 she has herself very well in hand--very well in hand1 he repeated4 ,,iii ,it was ,sunday morning4 ,john ,drayton sat just inside the tent1 presumably enjoying his pipe before the heat of the day4 ,his eyes furtively followed his wife as she moved about near him1 sometimes passing close to his chair in search of something she had mislaid4 ,there was colour in her cheeks2 her eyes1 though preoccupied1 were bright2 there was a lightness and buoyancy in her step which she set to a little dancing air she was humming under her breath4 ,after a moment or two the song ceased1 she began to move slowly1 sedately2 and as if chilled by a raw breath of air1 the light faded from her eyes1 which she presently turned towards her husband4 ,why do you look at me8 she asked suddenly4 ,i don't know1 my dear1 he began1 slowly and laboriously as was his wont4 ,i was thinkin' how nice you looked--jest now--much better you know--but somehow--he was taking long whiffs at his pipe1 as usual1 between each word1 while she stood patiently waiting for him to finish--somehow1 you alter so1 my dear--you're quite pale again all of a minute4 ,she stood listening to him1 noticing against her will the more than suspicion of cockney accent and the thick drawl with which the words were uttered4 ,his eyes sought her face piteously4 ,she noticed that too1 and stood before him torn by conflicting emotions1 pity and disgust struggling in a hand-to-hand fight within her4 ,mr4 ,broomhurst and ,i are going down by the well to sit2 it's cooler there4 ,won't you come8 she said at last gently4 ,he did not reply for a moment1 then he turned his head aside sharply for him4 ,no1 my dear1 thank you2 ,i'm comfortable enough here1 he returned huskily4 ,she stood over him1 hesitating a second1 then moved abruptly to the table1 from which she took a book4 ,he had risen from his seat by the time she turned to go out1 and he intercepted her timorously4 ,kathie1 give me a kiss before you go1 he whispered hoarsely4 ,i--,i don't often bother you4 ,she drew her breath in deeply as he put his arms clumsily about her1 but she stood still1 and he kissed her on the forehead1 and touched the little wavy curls that strayed across it gently with his big trembling fingers4 ,when he released her she moved at once impetuously to the open doorway4 ,on the threshold she hesitated1 paused a moment irresolutely1 and then turned back4 ,shall ,i----,does your pipe want filling1 ,john8 she asked softly4 ,no1 thank you1 my dear4 ,would you like me to stay1 read to you1 or anything8 ,he looked up at her wistfully4 ,n-no1 thank you1 ,i'm not much of a reader1 you know1 my dear--somehow4 ,she hated herself for knowing that there would be a my dear1 probably a somehow in his reply1 and despised herself for the sense of irritated impatience she felt by anticipation1 even before the words were uttered4 ,there was a moment's hesitating silence1 broken by the sound of quick firm footsteps without4 ,broomhurst paused at the entrance1 and looked into the tent4 ,aren't you coming1 ,drayton8 he asked1 looking first at ,drayton's wife and then swiftly putting in his name with a scarcely perceptible pause4 ,too lazy8 ,but you1 ,mrs4 ,drayton8 ,yes1 ,i'm coming1 she said4 ,they left the tent together1 and walked some few steps in silence4 ,broomhurst shot a quick glance at his companion's face4 ,anything wrong8 he asked presently4 ,though the words were ordinary enough1 the voice in which they were spoken was in some subtle fashion a different voice from that in which he had talked to her nearly two months ago1 though it would have required a keen sense of nice shades in sound to have detected the change4 ,mrs4 ,drayton's sense of niceties in sound was particularly keen1 but she answered quietly1 ,nothing1 thank you4 ,they did not speak again till the trees round the stone-well were reached4 ,broomhurst arranged their seats comfortably beside it4 ,are we going to read or talk8 he asked1 looking up at her from his lower place4 ,well1 we generally talk most when we arrange to read1 so shall we agree to talk to-day for a change1 by way of getting some reading done8 she rejoined1 smiling4 ,you begin4 ,broomhurst seemed in no hurry to avail himself of the permission1 he was apparently engrossed in watching the flecks of sunshine on ,mrs4 ,drayton's white dress4 ,the whirring of insects1 and the creaking of a ,persian wheel somewhere in the neighbourhood1 filtered through the hot silence4 ,mrs4 ,drayton laughed after a few minutes2 there was a touch of embarrassment in the sound4 ,the new plan doesn't answer4 ,suppose you read as usual1 and let me interrupt1 also as usual1 after the first two lines4 ,he opened the book obediently1 but turned the pages at random4 ,she watched him for a moment1 and then bent a little forward towards him4 ,it is my turn now1 she said suddenly4 ,is anything wrong8 ,he raised his head1 and their eyes met4 ,there was a pause4 ,i will be more honest than you1 he returned4 ,yes1 there is4 ,what8 ,i've had orders to move on4 ,she drew back1 and her lips whitened1 though she kept them steady4 ,when do you go8 ,on ,wednesday4 ,there was silence again2 the man still kept his eyes on her face4 ,the whirring of the insects and the creaking of the wheel had suddenly grown so strangely loud and insistent1 that it was in a half-dazed fashion she at length heard her name--,kathleen6 ,kathleen6 he whispered again hoarsely4 ,she looked him full in the face1 and once more their eyes met in a long grave gaze4 ,the man's face flushed1 and he half rose from his seat with an impetuous movement1 but ,kathleen stopped him with a glance4 ,will you go and fetch my work8 ,i left it in the tent1 she said1 speaking very clearly and distinctly2 and then will you go on reading8 ,i will find the place while you are gone4 ,she took the book from his hand1 and he rose and stood before her4 ,there was a mute appeal in his silence1 and she raised her head slowly4 ,her face was white to the lips1 but she looked at him unflinchingly2 and without a word he turned and left her4 ,,iv ,mrs4 ,drayton was resting in the tent on ,tuesday afternoon4 ,with the help of cushions and some low chairs she had improvised a couch1 on which she lay quietly with her eyes closed4 ,there was a tenseness1 however1 in her attitude which indicated that sleep was far from her4 ,her features seemed to have sharpened during the last few days1 and there were hollows in her cheeks4 ,she had been very still for a long time1 but all at once with a sudden movement she turned her head and buried her face in the cushions with a groan4 ,slipping from her place she fell on her knees beside the couch1 and put both hands before her mouth to force back the cry that she felt struggling to her lips4 ,for some moments the wild effort she was making for outward calm1 which even when she was alone was her first instinct1 strained every nerve and blotted out sight and hearing1 and it was not till the sound was very near that she was conscious of the ring of horse's hoofs on the plain4 ,she raised her head sharply with a thrill of fear1 still kneeling1 and listened4 ,there was no mistake4 ,the horseman was riding in hot haste1 for the thud of the hoofs followed one another swiftly4 ,as ,mrs4 ,drayton listened her white face grew whiter1 and she began to tremble4 ,putting out shaking hands1 she raised herself by the arms of the folding-chair and stood upright4 ,nearer and nearer came the thunder of the approaching sound1 mingled with startled exclamations and the noise of trampling feet from the direction of the kitchen tent4 ,slowly1 mechanically almost1 she dragged herself to the entrance1 and stood clinging to the canvas there4 ,by the time she had reached it1 ,broomhurst had flung himself from the saddle1 and had thrown the reins to one of the men4 ,mrs4 ,drayton stared at him with wide bright eyes as he hastened towards her4 ,i thought you--you are not---- she began1 and then her teeth began to chatter4 ,i am so cold6 she said1 in a little weak voice4 ,broomhurst took her hand1 and led her over the threshold back into the tent4 ,don't be so frightened1 he implored2 ,i came to tell you first4 ,i thought it wouldn't frighten you so much as----,your--,drayton is--very ill4 ,they are bringing him4 ,i---- ,he paused4 ,she gazed at him a moment with parted lips1 then she broke into a horrible discordant laugh1 and stood clinging to the back of a chair4 ,broomhurst started back4 ,do you understand what ,i mean8 he whispered4 ,kathleen1 for ,god's sake--don't--he is dead4 ,he looked over his shoulder as he spoke1 her shrill laughter ringing in his ears4 ,the white glare and dazzle of the plain stretched before him1 framed by the entrance to the tent2 far off1 against the horizon1 there were moving black specks1 which he knew to be the returning servants with their still burden4 ,they were bringing ,john ,drayton home4 ,v ,one afternoon1 some months later1 ,broomhurst climbed the steep lane leading to the cliffs of a little ,english village by the sea4 ,he had already been to the inn1 and had been shown by the proprietress the house where ,mrs4 ,drayton lodged4 ,the lady was out1 but the gentleman would likely find her if he went to the cliffs--down by the bay1 or thereabouts1 her landlady explained1 and1 obeying her directions1 ,broomhurst presently emerged from the shady woodland path on to the hillside overhanging the sea4 ,he glanced eagerly round him1 and then with a sudden quickening of the heart1 walked on over the springy heather to where she sat4 ,she turned when the rustling his footsteps made through the bracken was near enough to arrest her attention1 and looked up at him as he came4 ,then she rose slowly and stood waiting for him4 ,he came up to her without a word and seized both her hands1 devouring her face with his eyes4 ,something he saw there repelled him4 ,slowly he let her hands fall1 still looking at her silently4 ,you are not glad to see me1 and ,i have counted the hours1 he said at last in a dull toneless voice4 ,her lips quivered4 ,don't be angry with me--,i can't help it--,i'm not glad or sorry for anything now1 she answered1 and her voice matched his for greyness4 ,they sat down together on a long flat stone half embedded in a wiry clump of whortleberries4 ,behind them the lonely hillsides rose1 brilliant with yellow bracken and the purple of heather4 ,before them stretched the wide sea4 ,it was a soft grey day4 ,streaks of pale sunlight trembled at moments far out on the water4 ,the tide was rising in the little bay above which they sat1 and ,broomhurst watched the lazy foam-edged waves slipping over the uncovered rocks towards the shore1 then sliding back as though for very weariness they despaired of reaching it4 ,the muffled pulsing sound of the sea filled the silence4 ,broomhurst thought suddenly of hot ,eastern sunshine1 of the whirr of insect wings on the still air1 and the creaking of a wheel in the distance4 ,he turned and looked at his companion4 ,i have come thousands of miles to see you1 he said2 aren't you going to speak to me now ,i am here8 ,why did you come8 ,i told you not to come1 she answered1 falteringly4 ,i---- she paused4 ,and ,i replied that ,i should follow you--if you remember1 he answered1 still quietly4 ,i came because ,i would not listen to what you said then1 at that awful time4 ,you didn't know yourself what you said4 ,no wonder6 ,i have given you some months1 and now ,i have come4 ,there was silence between them4 ,broomhurst saw that she was crying2 her tears fell fast on to her hands1 that were clasped in her lap4 ,her face1 he noticed1 was thin and drawn4 ,very gently he put his arm round her shoulder and drew her nearer to him4 ,she made no resistance--it seemed that she did not notice the movement2 and his arm dropped at his side4 ,you asked me why ,i had come8 ,you think it possible that three months can change one1 very thoroughly1 then8 he said in a cold voice4 ,i not only think it possible1 ,i have proved it1 she replied wearily4 ,he turned round and faced her4 ,you did love me1 ,kathleen6 he asserted2 you never said so in words1 but ,i know it1 he added fiercely4 ,yes1 ,i did4 ,and----,you mean that you don't now8 ,her voice was very tired4 ,yes--,i can't help it1 she answered1 it has gone--utterly4 ,the grey sea slowly lapped the rocks4 ,overhead the sharp scream of a gull cut through the stillness4 ,it was broken again1 a moment afterwards1 by a short hard laugh from the man4 ,don't6 she whispered1 and laid a hand swiftly on his arm4 ,do you think it isn't worse for me8 ,i wish to ,god ,i did love you1 she cried passionately4 ,perhaps it would make me forget that to all intents and purposes ,i am a murderess4 ,broomhurst met her wide despairing eyes with an amazement which yielded to sudden pitying comprehension4 ,so that is it1 my darling8 ,you are worrying about that8 ,you who were as loyal1 as---- ,she stopped him with a frantic gesture4 ,don't6 don't6 she wailed4 ,if you only knew2 let me try to tell you--will you8 she urged pitifully4 ,it may be better if ,i tell someone--if ,i don't keep it all to myself1 and think1 and think4 ,she clasped her hands tight1 with the old gesture he remembered when she was struggling for self-control1 and waited a moment4 ,presently she began to speak in a low hurried tone3 ,it began before you came4 ,i know now what the feeling was that ,i was afraid to acknowledge to myself4 ,i used to try and smother it1 ,i used to repeat things to myself all day--poems1 stupid rhymes--anything to keep my thoughts quite underneath--but ,i--hated ,john before you came6 ,we had been married nearly a year then4 ,i never loved him4 ,of course you are going to say3 ',why did you marry him8' ,she looked drearily over the placid sea4 ,why did ,i marry him8 ,i don't know2 for the reason that hundreds of ignorant inexperienced girls marry1 ,i suppose4 ,my home wasn't a happy one4 ,i was miserable1 and oh1--restless4 ,i wonder if men know what it feels like to be restless8 ,sometimes ,i think they can't even guess4 ,john wanted me very badly--nobody wanted me at home particularly4 ,there didn't seem to be any point in my life4 ,do you understand8444 ,of course being alone with him in that little camp in that silent plain--she shuddered--made things worse4 ,my nerves went all to pieces4 ,everything he said--his voice--his accent--his walk--the way he ate--irritated me so that ,i longed to rush out sometimes and shriek--and go mad4 ,does it sound ridiculous to you to be driven mad by such trifles8 ,i only know ,i used to get up from the table sometimes and walk up and down outside1 with both hands over my mouth to keep myself quiet4 ,and all the time ,i hated myself--how ,i hated myself6 ,i never had a word from him that wasn't gentle and tender4 ,i believe he loved the ground ,i walked on4 ,oh1 it is awful to be loved like that1 when you---- ,she drew in her breath with a sob4 ,i--,i--it made me sick for him to come near me--to touch me4 ,she stopped a moment4 ,broomhurst gently laid his hand on her quivering one4 ,poor little girl6 he murmured4 ,then you came1 she said1 and before long ,i had another feeling to fight against4 ,at first ,i thought it couldn't be true that ,i loved you--it would die down4 ,i think ,i was frightened at the feeling2 ,i didn't know it hurt so to love anyone4 ,broomhurst stirred a little4 ,go on1 he said tersely4 ,but it didn't die1 she continued in a trembling whisper1 and the other awful feeling grew stronger and stronger--hatred2 no1 that is not the word--loathing for--for--,john4 ,i fought against it4 ,yes1 she cried feverishly1 clasping and unclasping her hands1 ,heaven knows ,i fought it with all my strength1 and reasoned with myself1 and--oh1 ,i did everything1 but---- ,her quick-falling tears made speech difficult4 ,kathleen6 ,broomhurst urged desperately1 you couldn't help it1 you poor child4 ,you say yourself you struggled against your feelings--you were always gentle4 ,perhaps he didn't know4 ,but he did--he did1 she wailed1 it is just that4 ,i hurt him a hundred times a day2 he never said so1 but ,i knew it2 and yet ,i couldn't be kind to him--except in words--and he understood4 ,and after you came it was worse in one way1 for he knew4 ,i felt he knew that ,i loved you4 ,his eyes used to follow me like a dog's1 and ,i was stabbed with remorse1 and ,i tried to be good to him1 but ,i couldn't4 ,but--he didn't suspect--he trusted you1 began ,broomhurst4 ,he had every reason4 ,no woman was ever so loyal1 so---- ,hush1 she almost screamed4 ,loyal6 it was the least ,i could do--to stop you1 ,i mean--when you----,after all1 ,i knew it without your telling me4 ,i had deliberately married him without loving him4 ,it was my own fault4 ,i felt it4 ,even if ,i couldn't prevent his knowing that ,i hated him1 ,i could prevent that4 ,it was my punishment4 ,i deserved it for daring to marry without love4 ,but ,i didn't spare ,john one pang1 after all1 she added bitterly4 ,he knew what ,i felt towards him--,i don't think he cared about anything else4 ,you say ,i mustn't reproach myself8 ,when ,i went back to the tent that morning--when you--when ,i stopped you from saying you loved me1 he was sitting at the table with his head buried in his hands2 he was crying--bitterly3 ,i saw him--it is terrible to see a man cry--and ,i stole away gently1 but he saw me4 ,i was torn to pieces1 but ,i couldn't go to him4 ,i knew he would kiss me1 and ,i shuddered to think of it4 ,it seemed more than ever not to be borne that he should do that--when ,i knew you loved me4 ,kathleen1 cried her lover again1 don't dwell on it all so terribly----don't---- ,how can ,i forget8 she answered despairingly1 and then--she lowered her voice--oh1 ,i can't tell you--all the time1 at the back of my mind somewhere1 there was a burning wish that he might die4 ,i used to lie awake at night1 and do what ,i would to stifle it1 that thought used to scorch me1 ,i wished it so intensely4 ,do you believe that by willing one can bring such things to pass8 she asked1 looking at ,broomhurst with feverishly bright eyes4 ,no8--well1 ,i don't know--,i tried to smother it4 ,i really tried1 but it was there1 whatever other thoughts ,i heaped on the top4 ,then1 when ,i heard the horse galloping across the plain that morning1 ,i had a sick fear that it was you4 ,i knew something had happened1 and my first thought when ,i saw you alive and well1 and knew that it was ,john1 was1 that it was too good to be true4 ,i believe ,i laughed like a maniac1 didn't ,i8444 ,not to blame8 ,why1 if it hadn't been for me he wouldn't have died4 ,the men say they saw him sitting with his head uncovered in the burning sun1 his face buried in his hands--just as ,i had seen him the day before4 ,he didn't trouble to be careful--he was too wretched4 ,she paused1 and ,broomhurst rose and began to pace the little hillside path at the edge of which they were seated4 ,presently he came back to her4 ,kathleen1 let me take care of you1 he implored1 stooping towards her4 ,we have only ourselves to consider in this matter4 ,will you come to me at once8 ,she shook her head sadly4 ,broomhurst set his teeth1 and the lines round his mouth deepened4 ,he threw himself down beside her on the heather4 ,dear1 he urged still gently1 though his voice showed he was controlling himself with an effort4 ,you are morbid about this4 ,you have been alone too much--you are ill4 ,let me take care of you3 ,i can1 ,kathleen--and ,i love you4 ,nothing but morbid fancy makes you imagine you are in any way responsible for--,drayton's death4 ,you can't bring him back to life1 and---- ,no1 she sighed drearily1 and if ,i could1 nothing would be altered4 ,though ,i am mad with self-reproach1 ,i feel that--it was all so inevitable4 ,if he were alive and well before me this instant my feeling towards him wouldn't have changed4 ,if he spoke to me1 he would say ',my dear'--and ,i should loathe him4 ,oh1 ,i know6 ,it is that that makes it so awful4 ,but if you acknowledge it1 ,broomhurst struck in eagerly1 will you wreck both of our lives for the sake of vain regrets8 ,kathleen1 you never will4 ,he waited breathlessly for her answer4 ,i won't wreck both our lives by marrying again without love on my side1 she replied firmly4 ,i will take the risk1 he said4 ,you have loved me--you will love me again4 ,you are crushed and dazed now with brooding over this--this trouble1 but---- ,but ,i will not allow you to take the risk1 ,kathleen answered4 ,what sort of woman should ,i be to be willing again to live with a man ,i don't love8 ,i have come to know that there are things one owes to oneself4 ,self-respect is one of them4 ,i don't know how it has come to be so1 but all my old feeling for you has gone4 ,it is as though it had burnt itself out4 ,i will not offer grey ashes to any man4 ,broomhurst looking up at her pale1 set face1 knew that her words were final1 and turned his own aside with a groan4 ,ah6 cried ,kathleen with a little break in her voice1 don't4 ,go away and be happy and strong1 and all that ,i loved in you4 ,i am so sorry--so sorry to hurt you4 ,i---- her voice faltered miserably4 ,i--,i only bring trouble to people4 ,there was a long pause4 ,did you never think that there is a terrible vein of irony running through the ordering of this world8 she said presently4 ,it is a mistake to think our prayers are not answered--they are4 ,in due time we get our heart's desire--when we have ceased to care for it4 ,i haven't yet got mine1 ,broomhurst answered doggedly1 and ,i shall never cease to care for it4 ,she smiled a little with infinite sadness4 ,listen1 ,kathleen1 he said4 ,they had both risen and he stood before her1 looking down at her4 ,i will go now1 but in a year's time ,i shall come back4 ,i will not give you up4 ,you shall love me yet4 ,perhaps--,i don't think so1 she answered wearily4 ,broomhurst looked at her trembling lips a moment in silence1 then he stooped and kissed both her hands instead4 ,i will wait till you tell me you love me1 he said4 ,she stood watching him out of sight4 ,he did not look back1 and she turned with swimming eyes to the grey sea and the transient gleams of sunlight that swept like tender smiles across its face4 ,an ,idyll ,by ,w4 ,brown ,mac,dougal ,illustration3 ,an ,idyll ,reticence in ,literature ,some ,roundabout ,remarks ,by ,hubert ,crackanthorpe ,during the past fifty years1 as everyone knows1 the art of fiction has been expanding in a manner exceedingly remarkable1 till it has grown to be the predominant branch of imaginative literature4 ,but the other day we were assured that poetry only thrives in limited and exquisite editions2 that the drama1 here in ,england at least1 has practically ceased to be literature at all4 ,each epoch instinctively chooses that literary vehicle which is best adapted for the expression of its particular temper3 just as the drama flourished in the robust age of ,shakespeare and ,ben ,jonson2 just as that outburst of lyrical poetry1 at the beginning of the century in ,france1 coincided with a period of extreme emotional exaltation2 so the novel1 facile and flexible in its conventions1 with its endless opportunities for accurate delineation of reality1 becomes supreme in a time of democracy and of science--to note but these two salient characteristics4 ,and1 if we pursue this light of thought1 we find that1 on all sides1 the novel is being approached in one especial spirit1 that it would seem to be striving1 for the moment at any rate1 to perfect itself within certain definite limitations4 ,to employ a hackneyed1 and often quite unintelligent1 catchword--the novel is becoming realistic4 ,throughout the history of literature1 the jealous worship of beauty--which we term idealism--and the jealous worship of truth--which we term realism--have alternately prevailed4 ,indeed1 it is within the compass of these alternations that lies the whole fundamental diversity of literary temper4 ,still1 the classification is a clumsy one1 for no hard and fast line can be drawn between the one spirit and the other4 ,the so-called idealist must take as his point of departure the facts of ,nature2 the so-called realist must be sensitive to some one or other of the forms of beauty1 if each would achieve the fineness of great art4 ,and the pendulum of production is continually swinging1 from degenerate idealism to degenerate realism1 from effete vapidity to slavish sordidity4 ,either term1 then1 can only be employed in a purely limited and relative sense4 ,completely idealistic art--art that has no point of contact with the facts of the universe1 as we know them--is1 of course1 an impossible absurdity2 similarly1 a complete reproduction of ,nature by means of words is an absurd impossibility4 ,neither emphasization nor abstraction can be dispensed with3 the one1 eliminating the details of no import2 the other1 exaggerating those which the artist has selected4 ,and1 even were such a thing possible1 it would not be ,art4 ,the invention of a highly perfected system of coloured photography1 for instance1 or a skilful recording by means of the phonograph of scenes in real life1 would not subtract one whit from the value of the painter's or the playwright's interpretation4 ,art is not invested with the futile function of perpetually striving after imitation or reproduction of ,nature2 she endeavours to produce1 through the adaptation of a restricted number of natural facts1 an harmonious and satisfactory whole4 ,indeed1 in this very process of adaptation and blending together1 lies the main and greater task of the artist4 ,and the novel1 the short story1 even the impression of a mere incident1 convey each of them1 the imprint of the temper in which their creator has achieved this process of adaptation and blending together of his material4 ,they are inevitably stamped with the hall-mark of his personality4 ,a work of art can never be more than a corner of ,nature1 seen through the temperament of a single man4 ,thus1 all literature is1 must be1 essentially subjective2 for style is but the power of individual expression4 ,the disparity which separates literature from the reporter's transcript is ineradicable4 ,there is a quality of ultimate suggestiveness to be achieved2 for the business of art is1 not to explain or to describe1 but to suggest4 ,that attitude of objectivity1 or of impersonality towards his subject1 consciously or unconsciously1 assumed by the artist1 and which nowadays provokes so considerable an admiration1 can be attained only in a limited degree4 ,every piece of imaginative work must be a kind of autobiography of its creator--significant1 if not of the actual facts of his existence1 at least of the inner working of his soul4 ,we are each of us conscious1 not of the whole world1 but of our own world2 not of naked reality1 but of that aspect of reality which our peculiar temperament enables us to appropriate4 ,thus1 every narrative of an external circumstance is never anything else than the transcript of the impression produced upon ourselves by that circumstance1 and1 invariably1 a degree of individual interpretation is insinuated into every picture1 real or imaginary1 however objective it may be4 ,so then1 the disparity between the so-called idealist and the so-called realist is a matter1 not of sthetic philosophy1 but of individual temperament4 ,each is at work1 according to the especial bent of his genius1 within precisely the same limits4 ,realism1 as a creed1 is as ridiculous as any other literary creed4 ,now1 it would have been exceedingly curious if this recent specialisation of the art of fiction1 this passion for draining from the life1 as it were1 born1 in due season1 of the general spirit of the latter half of the nineteenth century1 had not provoked a considerable amount of opposition--opposition of just that kind which every new evolution in art inevitably encounters4 ,between the vanguard and the main body there is perpetual friction4 ,but time flits quickly in this hurried age of ours1 and the opposition to the renascence of fiction as a conscientious interpretation of life is not what it was2 its opponents are not the men they were4 ,it is not so long since a publisher was sent to prison for issuing ,english translations of celebrated specimens of ,french realism2 yet1 only the other day1 we vied with each other in doing honour to the chief figure-head of that tendency across the ,channel1 and there was heard but the belated protest of a few worthy individuals1 inadequately equipped with the jaunty courage of ignorance1 or the insufferable confidence of second-hand knowledge4 ,and during the past year things have been moving very rapidly4 ,the position of the literary artist towards ,nature1 his great inspirer1 has become more definite1 more secure4 ,a sound1 organised opinion of men of letters is being acquired2 and in the little bouts with the bourgeois--if ,i may be pardoned the use of that wearisome word--no one has to fight single-handed4 ,heroism is at a discount2 ,mrs4 ,grundy is becoming mythological2 a crowd of unsuspected supporters collect from all sides1 and the deadly conflict of which we had been warned becomes but an interesting skirmish4 ,books are published1 stories are printed1 in old-established reviews1 which would never have been tolerated a few years ago4 ,on all sides1 deference to the tendency of the time is spreading4 ,the truth must be admitted3 the roar of unthinking prejudice is dying away4 ,all this is exceedingly comforting3 and yet1 perhaps1 it is not a matter for absolute congratulation4 ,for1 if the enemy are not dying as gamely as we had expected1 if they are1 as ,i am afraid1 losing heart1 and in danger of sinking into a condition of passive indifference1 it should be to us a matter of not inconsiderable apprehension4 ,if this new evolution in the art of fiction--this general return of the literary artist towards ,nature1 on the brink of which we are to-day hesitating--is to achieve any definite1 ultimate fineness of expression1 it will benefit enormously by the continued presence of a healthy1 vigorous1 if not wholly intelligent1 body of opponents4 ,directly or indirectly1 they will knock a lot of nonsense out of us1 will these opponents2--why should we be ashamed to admit it8 ,they will enable us to find our level1 they will spur us on to bring out the best--and only the best--that is within us4 ,take1 for instance1 the gentleman who objects to realistic fiction on moral grounds4 ,if he does not stand the most conspicuous to-day1 at least he was pre-eminent the day before yesterday4 ,he is a hard case1 and it is on his especial behalf that ,i would appeal4 ,for he has been dislodged from the hill top1 he has become a target for all manner of unkind chaff1 from the ribald youth of ,fleet ,street and ,chelsea4 ,he has been labelled a ,philistine3 he has been twitted with his middle-age2 he has been reported to have compromised himself with that indecent old person1 ,mrs4 ,grundy4 ,it is confidently asserted that he comes from ,putney1 or from ,sheffield1 and that1 when he is not busy abolishing the art of ,english literature1 he is employed in safeguarding the interests of the grocery or tallow-chandler's trade4 ,strange and cruel tales of him have been printed in the monthly reviews2 how1 but for him1 certain well-known popular writers would have written masterpieces2 how1 like the ogre in the fairy tale1 he consumes every morning at breakfast a hundred pot-boiled young geniuses4 ,for the most part they have been excellently well told1 these tales of this moral ogre of ours2 but why start to shatter brutally their dainty charm by a soulless process of investigation8 ,no1 let us be shamed rather into a more charitable spirit1 into making generous amends1 into rehabilitating the greatness of our moral ogre4 ,he is the backbone of our nation2 the guardian of our mediocrity2 the very foil of our intelligence4 ,once1 you fancied that you could argue with him1 that you could dispute his dictum4 ,ah6 how we cherished that day-dream of our extreme youth4 ,but it was not to be4 ,he is still immense2 for he is unassailable2 he is flawless1 for he is complete within himself2 his lucidity is yet unimpaired2 his impartiality is yet supreme4 ,who amongst us could judge with a like impartiality the productions of ,scandinavia and ,charpentier1 ,walt ,whitman1 and the ,independent ,theatre8 ,let us remember that he has never professed to understand ,art1 and the deep debt of gratitude that every artist in the land should consequently owe to him2 let us remember that he is above us1 for he belongs to the great middle classes2 let us remember that he commands votes1 that he is candidate for the ,county ,council2 let us remember that he is delightful1 because he is intelligible4 ,yes1 he is intelligible2 and of how many of us can that be said8 ,his is no complex programme1 no subtly exacting demand4 ,a plain moral lesson is all that he asks1 and his voice is as of one crying in the ever fertile wilderness of ,smith and of ,mudie4 ,and he is right1 after all--if he only knew it4 ,the business of art is to create for us fine interests1 to make of our human nature a more complete thing3 and thus1 all great art is moral in the wider and the truer sense of the word4 ,it is precisely on this point of the meaning of the word moral that we and our ogre part company4 ,to him1 morality is concerned only with the established relations between the sexes and with fair dealing between man and man3 to him the subtle1 indirect morality of ,art is incomprehensible4 ,theoretically1 ,art is non-moral4 ,she is not interested in any ethical code of any age or any nation1 except in so far as the breach or observance of that code may furnish her with material on which to work4 ,but1 unfortunately1 in this complex world of ours1 we cannot satisfactorily pursue one interest--no1 not even the interest of ,art1 at the expense of all others--let us look that fact in the face1 doggedly1 whatever pangs it may cost us--pleading magnanimously for the survival of our moral ogre1 for there will be danger to our cause when his voice is no more heard4 ,if imitation be the sincerest form of flattery1 then our moral ogre must indeed have experienced a proud moment1 when a follower came to him from the camp of the lovers of ,art1 and the artistic objector to realistic fiction started on his timid career4 ,i use the word timid in no disparaging sense1 but because our artistic objector1 had he ventured a little farther from the vicinity of the coat-tails of his powerful protector1 might have secured a more adequate recognition of his performances4 ,for he is by no means devoid of adroitness4 ,he can patter to us glibly of the gospel of ugliness2 of the cheerlessness of modern literature2 he can even juggle with that honourable property-piece1 the maxim of ,art for ,art's sake4 ,but there have been moments when even this feat has proved ineffective1 and some one has started scoffing at his pretended delight in pure rhythm or music of the phrase1 and flippantly assured him that he is talking nonsense1 and that style is a mere matter of psychological suggestion4 ,you fancy our performer nonplussed1 or at least boldly bracing himself to brazen the matter out4 ,no1 he passes dexterously to his curtain effect--a fervid denunciation of express trains1 evening newspapers1 ,parisian novels1 or the first number of ,,the ,,yellow ,,book4 ,verily1 he is a versatile person4 ,sometimes1 to listen to him you would imagine that pessimism and regular meals were incompatible2 that the world is only ameliorated by those whom it completely satisfies1 that good predominates over evil1 that the problem of our destiny had been solved long ago4 ,you begin to doubt whether any good thing can come out of this miserable1 inadequate age of ours1 unless it be a doctored survival of the vocabulary of a past century4 ,the language of the coster and cadger resound in our midst1 and1 though ,velasquez tried to paint like ,whistler1 ,rudyard ,kipling cannot write like ,pope4 ,and a weird word has been invented to explain the whole business4 ,decadence1 decadence3 you are all decadent nowadays4 ,ibsen1 ,degas1 and the ,new ,english ,art ,club2 ,zola1 ,oscar ,wilde1 and the ,second ,mrs4 ,tanqueray4 ,mr4 ,richard ,le ,gallienne is hoist with his own petard2 even the ,british playwright has not escaped the taint4 ,ah1 what a hideous spectacle4 ,all whirling along towards one common end4 ,and the elegant voice of the artistic objector floating behind3 ,aprs vous le dluge4 ,a wholesale abusing of the tendencies of the age has ever proved1 for the superior mind1 an inexhaustible source of relief4 ,few things breed such inward comfort as the contemplation of one's own pessimism--few things produce such discomfort as the remembrance of our neighbour's optimism4 ,and yet1 pessimists though we may be dubbed1 some of us1 on this point at least1 how can we compete with the hopelessness enjoyed by our artistic objector1 when the spectacle of his despondency makes us insufferably replete with hope and confidence1 so that while he is loftily bewailing or prettily denouncing the completeness of our degradation1 we continue to delight in the evil of our ways8 ,oh1 if we could only be sure that he would persevere in reprimanding this persistent study of the pitiable aspects of life1 how our hearts would go out towards him8 ,for the man who said that joy is essentially1 regrettably inartistic1 admitted in the same breath that misery lends itself to artistic treatment twice as easily as joy1 and resumed the whole question in a single phrase4 ,let our artistic objector but weary the world sufficiently with his despair concerning the permanence of the cheerlessness of modern realism1 and some day a man will arise who will give us a study of human happiness1 as fine1 as vital as anything we owe to ,guy de ,maupassant or to ,ibsen4 ,that man will have accomplished the infinitely difficult1 and in admiration and in awe shall we bow down our heads before him4 ,in one radical respect the art of fiction is not in the same position as the other arts4 ,they--music1 poetry1 painting1 sculpture1 and the drama--possess a magnificent fabric of accumulated tradition4 ,the great traditions of the art of fiction have yet to be made4 ,ours is a young art1 struggling desperately to reach expression1 with no great past to guide it4 ,thus1 it should be a matter for wonder1 not that we stumble into certain pitfalls1 but that we do not fall headlong into a hundred more4 ,but1 if we have no great past1 we have the present and the future--the one abundant in facilities1 the other abundant in possibilities4 ,young men of to-day have enormous chances3 we are working under exceedingly favourable conditions4 ,possibly we stand on the threshold of a very great period4 ,i know1 of course1 that the literary artist is shamefully ill-paid1 and that the man who merely caters for the public taste1 amasses a rapid and respectable fortune4 ,but how is it that such an arrangement seems other than entirely equitable8 ,the essential conditions of the two cases are entirely distinct4 ,the one man is free to give untrammelled expression to his own soul1 free to fan to the full the flame that burns in his heart3 the other is a seller of wares1 a unit in national commerce4 ,to the one is allotted liberty and a living wage2 to the other1 captivity and a consolation in ,consols4 ,let us whine1 then1 no more concerning the prejudice and the persecution of the ,philistine1 when even that misanthrope1 ,mr4 ,robert ,buchanan1 admits that there is no power in ,england to prevent a man writing exactly as he pleases4 ,before long the battle for literary freedom will be won4 ,a new public has been created--appreciative1 eager and determined2 a public which1 as ,mr4 ,gosse puts it1 in one of those admirable essays of his1 has eaten of the apple of knowledge1 and will not be satisfied with mere marionnettes4 ,whatever comes next1 ,mr4 ,gosse continues1 we cannot return1 in serious novels1 to the inanities and impossibilities of the old well-made plot1 to the children changed at nurse1 to the madonna-heroine and the god-like hero1 to the impossible virtues and melodramatic vices4 ,in future1 even those who sneer at realism and misrepresent it most wilfully1 will be obliged to put their productions more in accordance with veritable experience4 ,there will still be novel-writers who address the gallery1 and who will keep up the gaudy old convention1 and the clumsy ,family ,herald evolution1 but they will no longer be distinguished men of genius4 ,they will no longer sign themselves ,george ,sand or ,charles ,dickens4 ,fiction has taken her place amongst the arts4 ,the theory that writing resembles the blacking of boots1 the more boots you black1 the better you do it1 is busy evaporating4 ,the excessive admiration for the mere idea of a book or a story is dwindling2 so is the comparative indifference to slovenly treatment4 ,true is it that the society lady1 dazzled by the brilliancy of her own conversation1 and the serious-minded spinster1 bitten by some sociological theory1 still decide in the old jaunty spirit1 that fiction is the obvious medium through which to astonish or improve the world4 ,let us beware of the despotism of the intelligent amateur1 and cease our toying with that quaint and winsome bogey of ours1 the ,british ,philistine1 whilst the intelligent amateur1 the deadliest of ,art's enemies1 is creeping up in our midst4 ,for the familiarity of the man in the street with the material employed by the artist in fiction1 will ever militate against the acquisition of a sound1 fine1 and genuine standard of workmanship4 ,unlike the musician1 the painter1 the sculptor1 the architect1 the artist in fiction enjoys no monopoly in his medium4 ,the word and the phrase are1 of necessity1 the common property of everybody2 the ordinary use of them demands no special training4 ,hence the popular mind1 while willingly acknowledging that there are technical difficulties to be surmounted in the creation of the sonata1 the landscape1 the statue1 the building1 in the case of the short story1 or of the longer novel1 declines to believe even in their existence1 persuaded that in order to produce good fiction1 an ingenious idea1 or plot1 as it is termed1 is the one thing needed4 ,the rest is a mere matter of handwriting4 ,the truth is1 and1 despite ,mr4 ,waugh1 we are near recognition of it1 that nowadays there is but scanty merit in the mere selection of any particular subject1 however ingenious or daring it may appear at first sight2 that a man is not an artist1 simply because he writes about heredity or the demi-monde1 that to call a spade a spade requires no extraordinary literary gift1 and that the essential is contained in the frank1 fearless acceptance by every man of his entire artistic temperament1 with its qualities and its flaws4 ,two ,drawings ,by ,e4 ,j4 ,sullivan ,i4 ,the ,old ,man's ,garden ,,ii4 ,the ,quick and the ,dead ,illustration3 ,the ,old ,man's ,garden ,illustration3 ,the ,quick and the ,dead ,my ,study ,by ,alfred ,hayes ,let others strive for wealth or praise ,who care to win2 ,i count myself full blest1 if ,he1 ,who made my study fair to see1 ,grant me but length of quiet days ,to muse therein4 ,its walls1 with peach and cherry clad1 ,from yonder wold ,unbosomed1 seem as if thereon ,september sunbeams ever shone2 ,they make the air look warm and glad ,when winds are cold4 ,around its door a clematis ,her arms doth tie2 ,through leafy lattices ,i view ,its endless corridors of blue ,curtained with clouds2 its ceiling is ,the marbled sky4 ,a verdant carpet smoothly laid ,doth oft invite ,my silent steps2 thereon the sun ,with silver thread of dew hath spun ,devices rare--the warp of shade1 ,the weft of light4 ,here dwell my chosen books1 whose leaves ,with healing breath ,the ache of discontent assuage1 ,and speak from each illumined page ,the patience that my soul reprieves ,from inward death2 ,some perish with a season's wind1 ,and some endure2 ,one robes itself in snow1 and one ,in raiment of the rising sun ,bordered with gold2 in all ,i find ,god's signature4 ,as on my grassy couch ,i lie1 ,from hedge and tree ,musicians pipe2 or if the heat ,subdue the birds1 one crooneth sweet ,whose labour is a lullaby-- ,the slumbrous bee4 ,the sun my work doth overlook ,with searching light2 ,the serious moon1 the flickering star1 ,my midnight lamp and candle are2 ,a soul unhardened is the book ,wherein ,i write4 ,there labouring1 my heart is eased ,of every care2 ,yet often wonderstruck ,i stand1 ,with earnest gaze but idle hand1 ,abashed--for ,god ,himself is pleased ,to labour there4 ,ashamed my faultful task to spell1 ,i watch how grows ,the ,master's perfect colour-scheme ,of sunset1 or ,his simpler dream ,of moonlight1 or that miracle ,we name a rose4 ,dear ,earth1 one thought alone doth grieve-- ,the tender dread ,of parting from thee2 as a child1 ,who painted while his father smiled1 ,then watched him paint1 is loth to leave ,and go to bed4 ,a ,reminiscence of ,the ,transgressor ,by ,francis ,forster ,illustration3 ,a ,reminiscence of ,the ,transgressor ,a ,letter to the ,editor ,from ,max ,beerbohm ,dear ,sir1--,when ,the ,yellow ,book appeared ,i was in ,oxford4 ,so literary a little town is ,oxford that its undergraduates see a newspaper nearly as seldom as the ,venetians see a horse1 and until yesterday1 when coming to ,london1 ,i found in the album of a friend certain newspaper cuttings1 ,i had not known how great was the wrath of the pressmen4 ,what in the whole volume seems to have provoked the most ungovernable fury is1 ,i am sorry to say1 an essay about ,cosmetics that ,i myself wrote4 ,of this it was impossible for anyone to speak calmly4 ,the mob lost its head1 and1 so far as anyone in literature can be lynched1 ,i was4 ,in speaking of me1 one paper dropped the usual prefix of ,mr4 as though ,i were a well-known criminal1 and referred to me shortly as ,beerbohm2 a second allowed me the ,mr4 but urged that a short ,act of ,parliament should be passed to make this kind of thing illegal2 a third suggested1 rather tamely1 that ,i should read one of ,mr4 ,william ,watson's sonnets4 ,more than one comic paper had a very serious poem about me1 and a known adherent to the humour which1 forest-like1 is called new1 declared my essay to be the rankest and most nauseous thing in all literature4 ,it was a bomb thrown by a cowardly decadent1 another outrage by one of that desperate and dangerous band of madmen who must be mercilessly stamped out by a comity of editors4 ,may ,i1 ,sir1 in justice to myself and to you1 who were gravely censured for harbouring me1 step forward1 and assure the affrighted mob that it is the victim of a hoax8 ,may ,i also assure it that ,i had no notion that it would be taken in8 ,indeed1 it seems incredible to me that any one on the face of the earth could fail to see that my essay1 so grotesque in subject1 in opinion so flippant1 in style so wildly affected1 was meant for a burlesque upon the precious school of writers4 ,if ,i had only signed myself ,d4 ,cadent or ,parrar ,docks1 or appended a note to say that the ,,ms4 had been picked up not a hundred miles from ,tite ,street1 all the pressmen would have said that ,i had given them a very delicate bit of satire4 ,but ,i did not4 ,and hinc1 as they themselves love to say1 ill lacrim4 ,after all1 ,i think it is a sound rule that a writer should not kick his critics4 ,i simply wish to make them a friendly philosophical suggestion4 ,it seems to be thought that criticism holds in the artistic world much the same place as1 in the moral world1 is held by punishment--the vengeance taken by the majority upon such as exceed the limits of conduct imposed by that majority4 ,as in the case of punishment1 then1 we must consider the effect produced by criticism upon its object1 how far is it reformatory8 ,personally1 ,i cannot conceive how any artist can be hurt by remarks dropped from a garret into a gutter4 ,yet it is incontestable that many an illustrious artist has so been hurt4 ,and these very remarks1 so far from making him change or temper his method1 have rather made that method intenser1 have driven him to retire further within his own soul1 by showing him how little he may hope for from the world but insult and ingratitude4 ,in fact1 the police-constable mode of criticism is a failure4 ,true that1 here and there1 much beautiful work of the kind has been done4 ,in the old1 old ,quarterlies is many a slashing review1 that1 however absurd it be as criticism1 we can hardly wish unwritten4 ,in the ,national ,observer1 before its reformation1 were countless fine examples of the cavilling method4 ,the paper was rowdy1 venomous and insincere4 ,there was libel in every line of it4 ,it roared with the lambs and bleated with the lions4 ,it was a disgrace to journalism and a glory to literature4 ,i think of it often with tears and desiderium4 ,but the men who wrote these things stand upon a very different plane to the men employed as critics by the press of ,great ,britain4 ,these must be judged1 not by their workmanship1 which is naught1 but by the spirit that animates them and the consequence of their efforts4 ,if only they could learn that it is for the critic to seek after beauty and to try to interpret it to others1 if only they would give over their eternal fault-finding and not presume to interfere with the artist at his work1 then with an equally small amount of ability our pressmen might do nearly as much good as they have hitherto done harm4 ,why should they regard writers with such enmity8 ,the average pressman1 reviewing a book of stories or of poems by an unknown writer1 seems not to think where are the beauties of this work that ,i may praise them1 and by my praise quicken the sense of beauty in others8 ,he steadily applies himself to the ignoble task of plucking out and gloating over its defects4 ,it is a pity that critics should show so little sympathy with writers1 and curious when we consider that most of them tried to be writers themselves1 once4 ,every new school that has come into the world1 every new writer who has brought with him a new mode1 they have rudely persecuted4 ,the dulness of ,ibsen1 the obscurity of ,meredith1 the horrors of ,zola--all these are household words4 ,it is not until the pack has yelled itself hoarse that the level voice of justice is heard in praise4 ,to pretend that no generation is capable of gauging the greatness of its own artists is the merest bauble-tit4 ,were it not for the accursed abuse of their function by the great body of critics1 no poet need live uncrown'd1 apart4 ,many and irreparable are the wrongs that our critics have done4 ,at length let them repent with ashes upon their heads4 ,where they see not beauty1 let them be silent1 reverently feeling that it may yet be there1 and train their dull senses in quest of it4 ,now is a good time for such penance4 ,there are signs that our ,english literature has reached that point1 when1 like the literatures of all the nations that have been1 it must fall at length into the hands of the decadents4 ,the qualities that ,i tried in my essay to travesty--paradox and marivaudage1 lassitude1 a love of horror and all unusual things1 a love of argot and archaism and the mysteries of style--are not all these displayed1 some by one1 some by another of les jeunes crivains8 ,who knows but that ,artifice is in truth at our gates and that soon she may pass through our streets8 ,already the windows of ,grub ,street are crowded with watchful1 evil faces4 ,they are ready1 the men of ,grub ,street1 to pelt her1 as they have pelted all that came before her4 ,let them come down while there is still time1 and hang their houses with colours1 and strew the road with flowers4 ,will they not1 for once1 do homage to a new queen8 ,by the time this letter appears1 it may be too late6 ,meanwhile1 ,sir1 ,i am1 your obedient servant1 ,,max ,,beerbohm4 ,oxford1 ,may '#id4 ,a ,study ,by ,bernhard ,sickert ,illustration3 ,a ,study ,,epigram ,,to ,a ,,lady ,,recovered ,,from ,a ,,dangerous ,,sickness ,life plucks thee back as by the golden hair-- ,life1 who had feigned to let thee go but now4 ,wealthy is ,death already1 and can spare ,ev'n such a prey as thou4 ,,william ,,watson ,the ,coxon ,fund ,by ,henry ,james ,i ,they've got him for life6 ,i said to myself that evening on my way back to the station2 but later1 alone in the compartment 7from ,wimbledon to ,waterloo1 before the glory of the ,district ,railway71 ,i amended this declaration in the light of the sense that my friends would probably after all not enjoy a monopoly of ,mr4 ,saltram4 ,i won't pretend to have taken his vast measure on that first occasion2 but ,i think ,i had achieved a glimpse of what the privilege of his acquaintance might mean for many persons in the way of charges accepted4 ,he had been a great experience1 and it was this perhaps that had put me into a frame for divining that we should all have the honour1 sooner or later1 of dealing with him as a whole4 ,whatever impression ,i then received of the amount of this total1 ,i had a full enough vision of the patience of the ,mulvilles4 ,he was staying with them for the winter2 ,adelaide dropped it in a tone which drew the sting from the temporary4 ,these excellent people might indeed have been content to give the circle of hospitality a diameter of six months2 but if they didn't say that he was staying for the summer as well it was only because this was more than they ventured to hope4 ,i remember that at dinner that evening he wore slippers1 new and predominantly purple1 of some queer carpet-stuff2 but the ,mulvilles were still in the stage of supposing that he might be snatched from them by higher bidders4 ,at a later time they grew1 poor dears1 to fear no snatching2 but theirs was a fidelity which needed no help from competition to make them proud4 ,wonderful indeed as1 when all was said1 you inevitably pronounced ,frank ,saltram1 it was not to be overlooked that the ,kent ,mulvilles were in their way still more extraordinary2 as striking an instance as could easily be encountered of the familiar truth that remarkable men find remarkable conveniences4 ,they had sent for me from ,wimbledon to come out and dine1 and there had been an implication in ,adelaide's note 7judged by her notes alone she might have been thought silly71 that it was a case in which something momentous was to be determined or done4 ,i had never known them not to be in a state about somebody1 and ,i daresay ,i tried to be droll on this point in accepting their invitation4 ,on finding myself in the presence of their latest revelation ,i had not at first felt irreverence droop--and1 thank heaven1 ,i have never been absolutely deprived of that alternative in ,mr4 ,saltram's company4 ,i saw1 however 7,i hasten to declare it71 that compared to this specimen their other phoenixes had been birds of inconsiderable feather1 and ,i afterwards took credit to myself for not having even in primal bewilderments made a mistake about the essence of the man4 ,he had an incomparable gift2 ,i never was blind to it--it dazzles me at present4 ,it dazzles me perhaps even more in remembrance than in fact1 for ,i'm not unaware that for a subject so magnificent the imagination goes to some expense1 inserting a jewel here and there or giving a twist to a plume4 ,how the art of portraiture would rejoice in this figure if the art of portraiture had only the canvas6 ,nature1 however1 had really rounded it1 and if memory1 hovering about it1 sometimes holds her breath1 this is because the voice that comes back was really golden4 ,though the great man was an inmate and didn't dress he kept dinner on this occasion waiting long1 and the first words he uttered on coming into the room were a triumphant announcement to ,mulville that he had found out something4 ,not catching the allusion and gaping doubtless a little at his face1 ,i privately asked ,adelaide what he had found out4 ,i shall never forget the look she gave me as she replied3 ,everything6 ,she really believed it4 ,at that moment1 at any rate1 he had found out that the mercy of the ,mulvilles was infinite4 ,he had previously of course discovered1 as ,i had myself for that matter1 that their dinners were soigns4 ,let me not indeed1 in saying this1 neglect to declare that ,i shall falsify my counterfeit if ,i seem to hint that there was in his nature any ounce of calculation4 ,he took whatever came1 but he never plotted for it1 and no man who was so much of an absorbent can ever have been so little of a parasite4 ,he had a system of the universe1 but he had no system of sponging--that was quite hand to mouth4 ,he had fine1 gross1 easy senses1 but it was not his good-natured appetite that wrought confusion4 ,if he had loved us for our dinners we could have paid with our dinners1 and it would have been a great economy of finer matter4 ,i make free in these connections with the plural possessive because1 if ,i was never able to do what the ,mulvilles did1 and people with still bigger houses and simpler charities1 ,i met1 first and last1 every demand of reflection1 of emotion--particularly perhaps those of gratitude and of resentment4 ,no one1 ,i think1 paid the tribute of giving him up so often1 and if it's rendering honour to borrow wisdom ,i have a right to talk of my sacrifices4 ,he yielded lessons as the sea yields fish--,i lived for a while on this diet4 ,sometimes it almost appeared to me that his massive1 monstrous failure--if failure after all it was--had been intended for my private recreation4 ,he fairly pampered my curiosity2 but the history of that experience would take me too far4 ,this is not the large canvas ,i just now spoke of1 and ,i would not have approached him with my present hand had it been a question of all the features4 ,frank ,saltram's features1 for artistic purposes1 are verily the anecdotes that are to be gathered4 ,their name is legion1 and this is only one1 of which the interest is that it concerns even more closely several other persons4 ,such episodes1 as one looks back1 are the little dramas that made up the innumerable facets of the big drama--which is yet to be reported4 ,,ii ,it is furthermore remarkable that though the two stories are distinct--my own1 as it were1 and this other1 they equally began1 in a manner1 the first night of my acquaintance with ,frank ,saltram1 the night ,i came back from ,wimbledon so agitated with a new sense of life that1 in ,london1 for the very thrill of it1 ,i could only walk home4 ,walking and swinging my stick1 ,i overtook1 at ,buckingham ,gate1 ,george ,gravener1 and ,george ,gravener's story may be said to have begun with my making him1 as our paths lay together1 come home with me for a talk4 ,i duly remember1 let me parenthesise1 that it was still more that or another person1 and also that several years were to elapse before it was to extend to a second chapter4 ,i had much to say to him1 none the less1 about my visit to the ,mulvilles1 whom he more indifferently knew1 and ,i was at any rate so amusing that for long afterwards he never encountered me without asking for news of the old man of the sea4 ,i hadn't said ,mr4 ,saltram was old1 and it was to be seen that he was of an age to outweather ,george ,gravener4 ,i had at that time a lodging in ,ebury ,street1 and ,gravener was staying at his brother's empty house in ,eaton ,square4 ,at ,cambridge1 five years before1 even in our devastating set1 his intellectual power had seemed to me almost awful4 ,some one had once asked me privately1 with blanched cheeks1 what it was then that after all such a mind as that left standing4 ,it leaves itself6 ,i could recollect devoutly replying4 ,i could smile at present at this reminiscence1 for even before we got to ,ebury ,street ,i was struck with the fact that1 save in the sense of being well set up on his legs1 ,george ,gravener had actually ceased to tower4 ,the universe he laid low had somehow bloomed again--the usual eminences were visible4 ,i wondered whether he had lost his humour1 or only1 dreadful thought1 had never had any--not even when ,i had fancied him most ,aristophanesque4 ,what was the need of appealing to laughter1 however1 ,i could enviously inquire1 where you might appeal so confidently to measurement8 ,mr4 ,saltram's queer figure1 his thick nose and hanging lip were fresh to me3 in the light of my old friend's fine cold symmetry they presented mere success in amusing as the refuge of conscious ugliness4 ,already1 at hungry twenty-six1 ,gravener looked as blank and parliamentary as if he were fifty and popular4 ,in my scrap of a residence 7he had a wordling's eye for its futile conveniences1 but never a comrade's joke71 ,i sounded ,frank ,saltram in his ears2 a circumstance ,i mention in order to note that even then ,i was surprised at his impatience of my enlivenment4 ,as he had never before heard of the personage1 it took indeed the form of impatience of the preposterous ,mulvilles1 his relation to whom1 like mine1 had had its origin in an early1 a childish intimacy with the young ,adelaide1 the fruit of multiplied ties in the previous generation4 ,when she married ,kent ,mulville1 who was older than ,gravener and ,i1 and much more amiable1 ,i gained a friend1 but ,gravener practically lost one4 ,we were affected in different ways by the form taken by what he called their deplorable social action--the form 7the term was also his7 of nasty second-rate gush4 ,i may have held in my for intrieur that the good people at ,wimbledon were beautiful fools1 but when he sniffed at them ,i couldn't help taking the opposite line1 for ,i already felt that even should we happen to agree it would always be for reasons that differed4 ,it came home to me that he was admirably ,british as1 without so much as a sociable sneer at my bookbinder1 he turned away from the serried rows of my little ,french library4 ,of course ,i've never seen the fellow1 but it's clear enough he's a humbug4 ,clear enough is just what it isn't1 ,i replied3 if it only were6 ,that ejaculation on my part must have been the beginning of what was to be later a long ache for final frivolous rest4 ,gravener was profound enough to remark after a moment that in the first place he couldn't be anything but a ,dissenter1 and when ,i answered that the very note of his fascination was his extraordinary speculative breadth he retorted that there was no cad like your cultivated cad and that ,i might depend upon discovering 7since ,i had had the levity not already to have inquired71 that my shining light proceeded1 a generation back1 from a ,methodist cheesemonger4 ,i confess ,i was struck with his insistence1 and ,i said1 after reflection3 ,it may be--,i admit it may be2 but why on earth are you so sure8--asking the question mainly to lay him the trap of saying that it was because the poor man didn't dress for dinner4 ,he took an instant to dodge my trap and come blandly out the other side4 ,because the ,kent ,mulvilles have invented him4 ,they've an infallible hand for frauds4 ,all their geese are swans4 ,they were born to be duped1 they like it1 they cry for it1 they don't know anything from anything1 and they disgust one 7luckily perhaps67 with ,christian charity4 ,his intensity was doubtless an accident1 but it might have been a strange foreknowledge4 ,i forget what protest ,i dropped2 it was at any rate something which led him to go on after a moment3 ,i only ask one thing--it's perfectly simple4 ,is a man1 in a given case1 a real gentleman8 ,a real gentleman1 my dear fellow--that's so soon said6 ,not so soon when he isn't6 ,if they've got hold of one this time he must be a great rascal6 ,i might feel injured1 ,i answered1 if ,i didn't reflect that they don't rave about me4 ,don't be too sure6 ,i'll grant that he's a gentleman1 ,gravener presently added1 if you'll admit that he's a scamp4 ,i don't know which to admire most1 your logic or your benevolence4 ,my friend coloured at this1 but he didn't change the subject4 ,where did they pick him up8 ,i think they were struck with something he had published4 ,i can fancy the dreary thing6 ,i believe they found out he had all sorts of worries and difficulties4 ,that1 of course1 was not to be endured1 and they jumped at the privilege of paying his debts6 ,i replied that ,i knew nothing about his debts1 and ,i reminded my visitor that though the dear ,mulvilles were angels they were neither idiots nor millionaires4 ,what they mainly aimed at was re-uniting ,mr4 ,saltram to his wife4 ,i was expecting to hear that he has basely abandoned her1 ,gravener went on1 at this1 and ,i'm too glad you don't disappoint me4 ,i tried to recall exactly what ,mrs4 ,mulville had told me4 ,he didn't leave her--no4 ,it's she who has left him4 ,left him to us8 ,gravener asked4 ,the monster--many thanks6 ,i decline to take him4 ,you'll hear more about him in spite of yourself4 ,i can't1 no1 ,i really can't1 resist the impression that he's a big man4 ,i was already learning--to my shame perhaps be it said--just the tone that my old friend least liked4 ,it's doubtless only a trifle1 he returned1 but you haven't happened to mention what his reputation's to rest on4 ,why1 on what ,i began by boring you with--his extraordinary mind4 ,as exhibited in his writings8 ,possibly in his writings1 but certainly in his talk1 which is far and away the richest ,i ever listened to4 ,and what is it all about8 ,my dear fellow1 don't ask me6 ,about everything6 ,i pursued1 reminding myself of poor ,adelaide4 ,about his idea of things1 ,i then more charitably added4 ,you must have heard him to know what ,i mean--it's unlike anything that ever was heard4 ,i coloured1 ,i admit1 ,i overcharged a little1 for such a picture was an anticipation of ,saltram's later development and still more of my fuller acquaintance with him4 ,however1 ,i really expressed1 a little lyrically perhaps1 my actual imagination of him when ,i proceeded to declare that1 in a cloud of tradition1 of legend1 he might very well go down to posterity as the greatest of all great talkers4 ,before we parted ,george ,gravener demanded why such a row should be made about a chatterbox the more and why he should be pampered and pensioned4 ,the greater the windbag the greater the calamity4 ,out of proportion to all other movements on earth had come to be this wagging of the tongue4 ,we were drenched with talk--our wretched age was dying of it4 ,i differed from him here sincerely1 only going so far as to concede1 and gladly1 that we were drenched with sound4 ,it was not1 however1 the mere speakers who were killing us--it was the mere stammerers4 ,fine talk was as rare as it was refreshing--the gift of the gods themselves1 the one starry spangle on the ragged cloak of humanity4 ,how many men were there who rose to this privilege1 of how many masters of conversation could he boast the acquaintance8 ,dying of talk8--why1 we were dying of the lack of it6 ,bad writing wasn't talk1 as many people seemed to think1 and even good wasn't always to be compared to it4 ,from the best talk1 indeed1 the best writing had something to learn4 ,i fancifully added that we too should peradventure be gilded by the legend1 should be pointed at for having listened1 for having actually heard4 ,gravener1 who had looked at his watch and discovered it was midnight1 found to all this a response beautifully characteristic of him4 ,there is one little sovereign circumstance1 he remarked1 which is common to the best talk and the worst4 ,he looked at this moment as if he meant so much that ,i thought he could only mean once more that neither of them mattered if a man wasn't a real gentleman4 ,perhaps it was what he did mean2 he deprived me1 however1 of the exultation of being right by putting the truth in a slightly different way4 ,the only thing that really counts for one's estimate of a person is his conduct4 ,he had his watch still in his hand1 and ,i reproached him with unfair play in having ascertained beforehand that it was now the hour at which ,i always gave in4 ,my pleasantry so far failed to mollify him as that he presently added that to the rule he had just enunciated there was absolutely no exception4 ,none whatever8 ,none whatever4 ,trust me then to try to be good at any price6 ,i laughed as ,i went with him to the door4 ,i declare ,i will be1 if ,i have to be horrible6 ,,iii ,if that first night was one of the liveliest1 or at any rate was the freshest1 of my exaltation1 there was another1 four years later1 that was one of my great discomposures4 ,repetition1 ,i well knew by this time1 was the secret of ,saltram's power to alienate1 and of course one would never have seen him at his finest if one hadn't seen him in his remorses4 ,they set in mainly at this season and were magnificent1 orchestral4 ,i was perfectly aware that one of these great sweeps was now gathering2 but none the less1 in our arduous attempt to set him on his feet as a lecturer1 it was impossible not to feel that two failures were a large order1 as we said1 for a short course of five4 ,this was the second time1 and it was past nine o'clock2 the audience1 a muster unprecedented and really encouraging1 had fortunately the attitude of blandness that might have been looked for in persons whom the promise 7if ,i am not mistaken7 of an ,analysis of ,primary ,ideas had drawn to the neighbourhood of ,upper ,baker ,street4 ,there was in those days in that region a petty lecture-hall to be secured on terms as moderate as the funds left at our disposal by the irrepressible question of the maintenance of five small ,saltrams 7,i include the mother7 and one large one4 ,by the time the ,saltrams1 of different sizes1 were all maintained1 we had pretty well poured out the oil that might have lubricated the machinery for enabling the most original of men to appear to maintain them4 ,it was ,i1 the other time1 who had been forced into the breach1 standing up there1 for an odious lamplit moment to explain to half-a-dozen thin benches1 where the earnest brows were virtuously void of guesses1 that we couldn't put so much as a finger on ,mr4 ,saltram4 ,there was nothing to plead but that our scouts had been out from the early hours and that we were afraid that on one of his walks abroad--he took one1 for meditation1 whenever he was to address such a company--some accident had disabled or delayed him4 ,the meditative walks were a fiction1 for he never1 that anyone could discover1 prepared anything but a magnificent prospectus2 so that his circulars and programmes1 of which ,i possess an almost complete collection1 are as the solemn ghosts of generations never born4 ,i put the case1 as it seemed to me1 at the best2 but ,i admit ,i had been angry1 and ,kent ,mulville was shocked at my want of attenuation4 ,this time therefore ,i left the excuses to his more practised patience1 only relieving myself in response to a direct appeal from a young lady next whom1 in the hall1 ,i found myself sitting4 ,my position was an accident1 but if it had been calculated the reason would scarcely have eluded an observer of the fact that no one else in the room had an appearance so charming4 ,i think indeed she was the only person there who looked at her ease1 who had come a little in the spirit of adventure4 ,she seemed to carry amusement in her handsome young head1 and her presence quite gave me the sense of a sudden extension of ,saltram's sphere of influence4 ,he was doing better than we hoped and he had chosen this occasion1 of all occasions1 to succumb to heaven knew which of his infirmities4 ,the young lady produced an impression of auburn hair and black velvet1 and had on her other hand a companion of obscurer type1 presumably a waiting-maid4 ,she herself might perhaps have been a foreign countess1 and before she spoke to me ,i had beguiled our sorry interval by thinking that she brought vaguely back the first page of some novel of ,madame ,sand4 ,it didn't make her more fathomable to perceive in a few minutes that she could only be an ,american2 it simply engendered depressing reflections as to the possible check to contributions from ,boston4 ,she asked me if1 as a person apparently more initiated1 ,i would recommend further waiting1 and ,i replied that if she considered ,i was on my honour ,i would privately deprecate it4 ,perhaps she didn't2 at any rate something passed between us that led us to talk until she became aware that we were almost the only people left4 ,i presently discovered that she knew ,mrs4 ,saltram1 and this explained in a manner the miracle4 ,the brotherhood of the friends of the husband were as nothing to the brotherhood1 or perhaps ,i should say the sisterhood1 of the friends of the wife4 ,like the ,kent ,mulvilles ,i belonged to both fraternities1 and even better than they ,i think ,i had sounded the dark abyss of ,mrs4 ,saltram's wrongs4 ,she bored me to extinction1 and ,i knew but too well how she had bored her husband2 but she had her partisans1 the most inveterate of whom were indeed the handful of poor ,saltram's backers4 ,they did her liberal justice1 whereas her peculiar comforters had nothing but hatred for our philosopher4 ,i am bound to say it was we1 however--we of both camps1 as it were--who had always done most for her4 ,i thought my young lady looked rich--,i scarcely knew why2 and ,i hoped she had put her hand in her pocket4 ,but ,i soon discovered that she was not a partisan--she was only a generous1 irresponsible inquirer4 ,she had come to ,england to see her aunt1 and it was at her aunt's she had met the dreary lady we had all so much on our minds4 ,i saw she would help to pass the time when she observed that it was a pity this lady wasn't intrinsically more interesting4 ,that was refreshing1 for it was an article of faith in ,mrs4 ,saltram's circle--at least among those who scorned to know her horrid husband--that she was attractive on her merits4 ,she was really a very common person1 as ,saltram himself would have been if he hadn't been a prodigy4 ,the question of vulgarity had no application to him1 but it was a measure that his wife kept challenging you to apply to her4 ,i hasten to add that the consequences of your doing so were no sufficient reason for his having left her to starve4 ,he doesn't seem to have much force of character1 said my young lady2 at which ,i laughed out so loud that my departing friends looked back at me over their shoulders as if ,i were making a joke of their discomfiture4 ,my joke probably cost ,saltram a subscription or two1 but it helped me on with my interlocutress4 ,she says he drinks like a fish1 she sociably continued1 and yet she admits that his mind is wonderfully clear4 ,it was amusing to converse with a pretty girl who could talk of the clearness of ,saltram's mind4 ,i tried to tell her--,i had it almost on my conscience--what was the proper way to regard him2 an effort attended perhaps more than ever on this occasion with the usual effect of my feeling that ,i wasn't after all very sure of it4 ,she had come to-night out of high curiosity--she had wanted to find out this proper way for herself4 ,she had read some of his papers and hadn't understood them2 but it was at home1 at her aunt's1 that her curiosity had been kindled--kindled mainly by his wife's remarkable stories of his want of virtue4 ,i suppose they ought to have kept me away1 my companion dropped1 and ,i suppose they would have done so if ,i hadn't somehow got an idea that he's fascinating4 ,in fact ,mrs4 ,saltram herself says he is4 ,so you came to see where the fascination resides8 ,well1 you've seen6 ,my young lady raised her fine eyebrows4 ,do you mean in his bad faith8 ,in the extraordinary effects of it2 his possession1 that is1 of some quality or other that condemns us in advance to forgive him the humiliation1 as ,i may call it1 to which he has subjected us4 ,the humiliation8 ,why mine1 for instance1 as one of his guarantors1 before you as the purchaser of a ticket4 ,you don't look humiliated a bit1 and if you did ,i should let you off1 disappointed as ,i am2 for the mysterious quality you speak of is just the quality ,i came to see4 ,oh1 you can't see it6 ,i exclaimed4 ,how then do you get at it8 ,you don't6 ,you mustn't suppose he's good-looking1 ,i added4 ,why1 his wife says he is6 ,my hilarity may have struck my interlocutress as excessive1 but ,i confess it broke out afresh4 ,had she acted only in obedience to this singular plea1 so characteristic1 on ,mrs4 ,saltram's part1 of what was irritating in the narrowness of that lady's point of view8 ,mrs4 ,saltram1 ,i explained1 undervalues him where he is strongest1 so that1 to make up for it perhaps1 she overpraises him where he's weak4 ,he's not1 assuredly1 superficially attractive2 he's middle-aged1 fat1 featureless save for his great eyes4 ,yes1 his great eyes1 said my young lady attentively4 ,she had evidently heard all about them4 ,they're tragic and splendid--lights on a dangerous coast4 ,but he moves badly and dresses worse1 and altogether he's strange to behold4 ,my companion appeared to reflect on this1 and after a moment she inquired3 ,do you call him a real gentleman8 ,i started slightly at the question1 for ,i had a sense of recognising it3 ,george ,gravener1 years before that first flushed night1 had put me face to face with it4 ,it had embarrassed me then1 but it didn't embarrass me now1 for ,i had lived with it and overcome it and disposed of it4 ,a real gentleman8 ,decidedly not6 ,my promptitude surprised her a little1 but ,i quickly felt that it was not to ,gravener ,i was now talking4 ,do you say that because he's--what do you call it in ,england8--of humble extraction8 ,not a bit4 ,his father was a country schoolmaster and his mother the widow of a sexton1 but that has nothing to do with it4 ,i say it simply because ,i know him well4 ,but isn't it an awful drawback8 ,awful--quite awful4 ,i mean1 isn't it positively fatal8 ,fatal to what8 ,not to his magnificent vitality4 ,again there was a meditative moment4 ,and is his magnificent vitality the cause of his vices8 ,your questions are formidable1 but ,i'm glad you put them4 ,i was thinking of his noble intellect4 ,his vices1 as you say1 have been much exaggerated3 they consist mainly after all in one comprehensive misfortune4 ,a want of will8 ,a want of dignity4 ,he doesn't recognise his obligations8 ,on the contrary1 he recognises them with effusion1 especially in public3 he smiles and bows and beckons across the street to them4 ,but when they pass over he turns away1 and he speedily loses them in the crowd4 ,the recognition is purely spiritual--it isn't in the least social4 ,so he leaves all his belongings to other people to take care of4 ,he accepts favours1 loans1 sacrifices1 with nothing more restrictive than an agony of shame4 ,fortunately we're a little faithful band1 and we do what we can4 ,i held my tongue about the natural children1 engendered1 to the number of three1 in the wantonness of his youth4 ,i only remarked that he did make efforts--often tremendous ones4 ,but the efforts1 ,i said1 never come to much2 the only things that come to much are the abandonments1 the surrenders4 ,and how much do they come to8 ,i've told you before that your questions are terrible6 ,they come1 these mere exercises of genius1 to a great body of poetry1 of philosophy1 a notable mass of speculation1 of discovery4 ,the genius is there1 you see1 to meet the surrender2 but there's no genius to support the defence4 ,but what is there1 after all1 at his age1 to show8 ,in the way of achievement recognised and reputation established8 ,i interrupted4 ,to 'show' if you will1 there isn't much1 for his writing1 mostly1 isn't as fine as his talk4 ,moreover1 two-thirds of his work are merely colossal projects and announcements4 ',showing' ,frank ,saltram is often a poor business2 we endeavoured1 you will have observed1 to show him to-night6 ,however1 if he had lectured1 he would have lectured divinely4 ,it would just have been his talk4 ,and what would his talk just have been8 ,i was conscious of some ineffectiveness as well perhaps as of a little impatience as ,i replied3 ,the exhibition of a splendid intellect4 ,my young lady looked not quite satisfied at this1 but as ,i was not prepared for another question ,i hastily pursued3 ,the sight of a great suspended1 swinging crystal1 huge1 lucid1 lustrous1 a block of light1 flashing back every impression of life and every possibility of thought6 ,this gave her something to think about till we had passed out to the dusky porch of the hall1 in front of which the lamps of a quiet brougham were almost the only thing ,saltram's treachery hadn't extinguished4 ,i went with her to the door of her carriage1 out of which she leaned a moment after she had thanked me and taken her seat4 ,her smile even in the darkness was pretty4 ,i do want to see that crystal6 ,you've only to come to the next lecture4 ,i go abroad in a day or two with my aunt4 ,wait over till next week1 ,i suggested4 ,it's worth it4 ,she became grave4 ,not unless he really comes6 ,at which the brougham started off1 carrying her away too fast1 fortunately for my manners1 to allow me to exclaim ,ingratitude6 ,,iv ,mrs4 ,saltram made a great affair of her right to be informed where her husband had been the second evening he failed to meet his audience4 ,she came to me to ascertain1 but ,i couldn't satisfy her1 for in spite of my ingenuity ,i remained in ignorance4 ,it was not till much later that ,i found this had not been the case with ,kent ,mulville1 whose hope for the best never twirled its thumbs more placidly than when he happened to know the worst4 ,he had known it on the occasion ,i speak of--that is immediately after4 ,he was impenetrable then1 but he ultimately confessed--more than ,i shall venture to confess to-day4 ,it was of course familiar to me that ,saltram was incapable of keeping the engagements which1 after their separation1 he had entered into with regard to his wife1 a deeply wronged1 justly resentful1 quite irreproachable and insufferable person4 ,she often appeared at my chambers to talk over his lacun1 for if1 as she declared1 she had washed her hands of him1 she had carefully preserved the water of this ablution and she handed it about for inspection4 ,she had arts of her own of exciting one's impatience1 the most infallible of which was perhaps her assumption that we were kind to her because we liked her4 ,in reality her personal fall had been a sort of social rise1 for there had been a moment when1 in our little conscientious circle1 her desolation almost made her the fashion4 ,her voice was grating and her children ugly2 moreover she hated the good ,mulvilles1 whom ,i more and more loved4 ,they were the people who by doing most for her husband had in the long run done most for herself2 and the warm confidence with which he had laid his length upon them was a pressure gentle compared with her stiffer persuadability4 ,i am bound to say he didn't criticise his benefactors1 though practically he got tired of them2 she1 however1 had the highest standards about eleemosynary forms4 ,she offered the odd spectacle of a spirit puffed up by dependence1 and indeed it had introduced her to some excellent society4 ,she pitied me for not knowing certain people who aided her and whom she doubtless patronised in turn for their luck in not knowing me4 ,i daresay ,i should have got on with her better if she had had a ray of imagination--if it had occasionally seemed to occur to her to regard ,saltram's manifestations in any other manner than as separate subjects of woe4 ,they were all flowers of his nature1 pearls strung on an endless thread2 but she had a stubborn little way of challenging them one after the other1 as if she never suspected that he had a nature1 such as it was1 or that deficiencies might be organic2 the irritating effect of a mind incapable of a generalisation4 ,one might doubtless have overdone the idea that there was a general exemption for such a man2 but if this had happened it would have been through one's feeling that there could be none for such a woman4 ,i recognised her superiority when ,i asked her about the aunt of the disappointed young lady3 it sounded like a sentence from a phrase-book4 ,she triumphed in what she told me and she may have triumphed still more in what she withheld4 ,my friend of the other evening1 ,miss ,anvoy1 had but lately come to ,england2 ,lady ,coxon1 the aunt1 had been established here for years in consequence of her marriage with the late ,sir ,gregory of that ilk4 ,she had a house in the ,regent's ,park and a ,bath-chair and a page2 and above all she had sympathy4 ,mrs4 ,saltram had made her acquaintance through mutual friends4 ,this vagueness caused me to feel how much ,i was out of it and how large an independent circle ,mrs4 ,saltram had at her command4 ,i should have been glad to know more about the charming ,miss ,anvoy1 but ,i felt that ,i should know most by not depriving her of her advantage1 as she might have mysterious means of depriving me of my knowledge4 ,for the present1 moreover1 this experience was arrested1 ,lady ,coxon having in fact gone abroad1 accompanied by her niece4 ,the niece1 besides being immensely clever1 was an heiress1 ,mrs4 ,saltram said2 the only daughter and the light of the eyes of some great ,american merchant1 a man1 over there1 of endless indulgences and dollars4 ,she had pretty clothes and pretty manners1 and she had1 what was prettier still1 the great thing of all4 ,the great thing of all for ,mrs4 ,saltram was always sympathy1 and she spoke as if during the absence of these ladies she might not know where to turn for it4 ,a few months later indeed1 when they had come back1 her tone perceptibly changed3 she alluded to them1 on my leading her up to it1 rather as to persons in her debt for favours received4 ,what had happened ,i didn't know1 but ,i saw it would take only a little more or a little less to make her speak of them as thankless subjects of social countenance--people for whom she had vainly tried to do something4 ,i confess ,i saw that it would not be in a mere week or two that ,i should rid myself of the image of ,ruth ,anvoy1 in whose very name1 when ,i learnt it1 ,i found something secretly to like4 ,i should probably neither see her nor hear of her again3 the knight's widow 7he had been mayor of ,clockborough7 would pass away1 and the heiress would return to her inheritance4 ,i gathered with surprise that she had not communicated to his wife the story of her attempt to hear ,mr4 ,saltram1 and ,i founded this reticence on the easy supposition that ,mrs4 ,saltram had fatigued by over-pressure the spring of the sympathy of which she boasted4 ,the girl at any rate would forget the small adventure1 be distracted1 take a husband2 besides which she would lack opportunity to repeat her experiment4 ,we clung to the idea of the brilliant course1 delivered without a tumble1 that1 as a lecturer1 would still make the paying public aware of our great mind2 but the fact remained that in the case of an inspiration so unequal there was treachery1 there was fallacy at least1 in the very conception of a series4 ,in our scrutiny of ways and means we were inevitably subject to the old convention of the synopsis1 the syllabus1 partly of course not to lose the advantage of his grand free hand in drawing up such things2 but for myself ,i laughed at our categories even while ,i stickled for them4 ,it was indeed amusing work to be scrupulous for ,frank ,saltram1 who also at moments laughed about it1 so far as the rise and fall of a luxurious sigh might pass for such a sound4 ,he admitted with a candour all his own that he was in truth only to be depended on in the ,mulvilles' drawing-room4 ,yes1 he suggestively conceded1 it's there1 ,i think1 that ,i am at my best2 quite late1 when it gets toward eleven--and if ,i've not been too much worried4 ,we all knew what too much worry meant2 it meant too enslaved for the hour to the superstition of sobriety4 ,on the ,saturdays ,i used to bring my portmanteau1 so as not to have to think of eleven o'clock trains4 ,i had a bold theory that as regards this temple of talk and its altars of cushioned chintz1 its pictures and its flowers1 its large fireside and clear lamplight1 we might really arrive at something if the ,mulvilles would only charge for admission4 ,but here it was that the ,mulvilles shamelessly broke down2 as there is a flaw in every perfection1 this was the inexpugnable refuge of their egotism4 ,they declined to make their saloon a market1 so that ,saltram's golden words continued to be the only coin that rang there4 ,it can have happened to no man1 however1 to be paid a greater price than such an enchanted hush as surrounded him on his greatest nights4 ,the most profane1 on these occasions1 felt a presence2 all minor eloquence grew dumb4 ,adelaide ,mulville1 for the pride of her hospitality1 anxiously watched the door or stealthily poked the fire4 ,i used to call it the music-room1 for we had anticipated ,bayreuth4 ,the very gates of the kingdom of light seemed to open and the horizon of thought to flash with the beauty of a sunrise at sea4 ,in the consideration of ways and means1 the sittings of our little board1 we were always conscious of the creak of ,mrs4 ,saltram's shoes4 ,she hovered1 she interrupted1 she almost presided1 the state of affairs being mostly such as to supply her with every incentive for inquiring what was to be done next4 ,it was the pressing pursuit of this knowledge that1 in concatenations of omnibuses and usually in very wet weather1 led her so often to my door4 ,she thought us spiritless creatures with editors and publishers2 but she carried matters to no great effect when she personally pushed into back-shops4 ,she wanted all moneys to be paid to herself2 they were otherwise liable to such strange adventures4 ,they trickled away into the desert1 and they were mainly at best1 alas1 but a slender stream4 ,the editors and the publishers were the last people to take this remarkable thinker at the valuation that has now pretty well come to be established4 ,the former were half distraught between the desire to cut him and the difficulty of finding a crevice for their shears2 and when a volume on this or that portentous subject was proposed to the latter they suggested alternative titles which1 as reported to our friend1 brought into his face the noble blank melancholy that sometimes made it handsome4 ,the title of an unwritten book didn't after all much matter1 but some masterpiece of ,saltram's may have died in his bosom of the shudder with which it was then convulsed4 ,the ideal solution1 failing the fee at ,kent ,mulville's door1 would have been some system of subscription to projected treatises with their non-appearance provided for--provided for1 ,i mean1 by the indulgence of subscribers4 ,the author's real misfortune was that subscribers were so wretchedly literal4 ,when they tastelessly inquired why publication had not ensued ,i was tempted to ask who in the world had ever been so published4 ,nature herself had brought him out in voluminous form1 and the money was simply a deposit on borrowing the work4 ,v ,i was doubtless often a nuisance to my friends in those years2 but there were sacrifices ,i declined to make1 and ,i never passed the hat to ,george ,gravener4 ,i never forgot our little discussion in ,ebury ,street1 and ,i think it stuck in my throat to have to make to him the admission ,i had made so easily to ,miss ,anvoy4 ,it had cost me nothing to confide to this charming girl1 but it would have cost me much to confide to the friend of my youth1 that the character of the real gentleman was not an attribute of the man ,i took such pains for4 ,was this because ,i had already generalised to the point of perceiving that women are really the unfastidious sex8 ,i knew at any rate that ,gravener1 already quite in view but still hungry and frugal1 had naturally enough more ambition than charity4 ,he had sharp aims for stray sovereigns1 being in view most from the tall steeple of ,clockborough4 ,his immediate ambition was to wholly occupy the field of vision of that smokily-seeing city1 and all his movements and postures were calculated at this angle4 ,the movement of the hand to the pocket had thus to alternate gracefully with the posture of the hand on the heart4 ,he talked to ,clockborough in short only less beguilingly than ,frank ,saltram talked to his electors2 with the difference in our favour1 however1 that we had already voted and that our candidate had no antagonist but himself4 ,he had more than once been at ,wimbledon--it was ,mrs4 ,mulville's work1 not mine--and1 by the time the claret was served1 had seen the god descend4 ,he took more pains to swing his censer than ,i had expected1 but on our way back to town he forestalled any little triumph ,i might have been so artless as to express by the observation that such a man was--a hundred times6--a man to use and never a man to be used by4 ,i remember that this neat remark humiliated me almost as much as if virtually1 in the fever of broken slumbers1 ,i hadn't often made it myself4 ,the difference was that on ,gravener's part a force attached to it that could never attach to it on mine4 ,he was able to use him in short1 he had the machinery2 and the irony of ,saltram's being made showy at ,clockborough came out to me when he said1 as if he had no memory of our original talk and the idea were quite fresh to him3 ,i hate his type1 you know1 but ,i'll be hanged if ,i don't put some of those things in4 ,i can find a place for them3 we might even find a place for the fellow himself4 ,i myself should have had some fear1 not1 ,i need scarcely say1 for the things themselves1 but for some other things very near them--in fine for the rest of my eloquence4 ,later on ,i could see that the oracle of ,wimbledon was not in this case so serviceable as he would have been had the politics of the gods only coincided more exactly with those of the party4 ,there was a distinct moment when1 without saying anything more definite to me1 ,gravener entertained the idea of getting hold of ,mr4 ,saltram4 ,such a project was factitious1 for the discovery of analogies between his body of doctrine and that pressed from headquarters upon ,clockborough--the bottling1 in a word1 of the air of those lungs for convenient public uncorking in corn-exchanges--was an experiment for which no one had the leisure4 ,the only thing would have been to carry him massively about1 paid1 caged1 clipped3 to turn him on for a particular occasion in a particular channel4 ,frank ,saltram's channel1 however1 was essentially not calculable1 and there was no knowing what disastrous floods might have issued4 ,for what there would have been to do ,the ,empire1 the great newspaper1 was there to look to2 but it was no new misfortune that there were delicate situations in which ,the ,empire broke down4 ,in fine there was an instinctive apprehension that a clever young journalist commissioned to report upon ,mr4 ,saltram might never come back from the errand4 ,no one knew better than ,george ,gravener that that was a time when prompt returns counted double4 ,if he therefore found our friend an exasperating waste of orthodoxy1 it was because he was1 as he said1 up in the clouds2 not because he was down in the dust4 ,he would have been a real enough gentleman if he could have helped to put in a real gentleman4 ,gravener's great objection to the actual member was that he was not one4 ,lady ,coxon had a fine old house1 a house with grounds1 at ,clockborough1 which she had let2 but after she returned from abroad ,i learned from ,mrs4 ,saltram that the lease had fallen in and that she had gone down to resume possession4 ,i could see the faded red livery1 the big square shoulders1 the high-walled garden of this decent abode4 ,as the rumble of dissolution grew louder the suitor would have pressed his suit1 and ,i found myself hoping that the politics of the late ,mayor's widow would not be such as to enjoin upon her to ask him to dinner2 perhaps indeed ,i went so far as to hope that they would be such as to put all countenance out of the question4 ,i tried to focus the page1 in the daily airing1 as he perhaps even pushed the ,bath-chair over somebody's toes4 ,i was destined to hear1 however1 through ,mrs4 ,saltram 7who1 ,i afterwards learned1 was in correspondence with ,lady ,coxon's housekeeper71 that ,gravener was known to have spoken of the habitation ,i had in my eye as the pleasantest thing at ,clockborough4 ,on his part1 ,i was sure1 this was the voice not of envy but of experience4 ,the vivid scene was now peopled1 and ,i could see him in the old-time garden with ,miss ,anvoy1 who would be certain1 and very justly1 to think him good-looking4 ,it would be too much to say that ,i was troubled by such an image2 but ,i seem to remember the relief1 singular enough1 of feeling it suddenly brushed away by an annoyance really much greater2 an annoyance the result of its happening to come over me about that time with a rush that ,i was simply ashamed of ,frank ,saltram4 ,there were limits after all1 and my mark at last had been reached4 ,i had had my disgusts1 if ,i may allow myself to-day such an expression2 but this was a supreme revolt4 ,certain things cleared up in my mind1 certain values stood out4 ,it was all very well to talk of an unfortunate temperament2 there were misfortunes that people should themselves correct1 and correct in private1 without calling in assistance4 ,i avoided ,george ,gravener at this moment1 and reflected that at such a time ,i should do so most effectually by leaving ,england4 ,i wanted to forget ,frank ,saltram--that was all4 ,i didn't want to do anything in the world to him but that4 ,indignation had withered on the stalk1 and ,i felt that one could pity him as much as one ought only by never thinking of him again4 ,it wasn't for anything he had done to me2 it was for something he had done to the ,mulvilles4 ,adelaide cried about it for a week1 and her husband1 profiting by the example so signally given him of the fatal effect of a want of character1 left the letter unanswered4 ,the letter1 an incredible one1 addressed by ,saltram to ,wimbledon during a stay with the ,pudneys at ,ramsgate1 was the central feature of the incident1 which1 however1 had many features1 each more painful than whichever other we compared it with4 ,the ,pudneys had behaved shockingly1 but that was no excuse4 ,base ingratitude1 gross indecency--one had one's choice only of such formulas as that the more they fitted the less they gave one rest4 ,these are dead aches now1 and ,i am under no obligation1 thank heaven1 to be definite about the business4 ,there are things which if ,i had had to tell them--well1 ,i wouldn't have told my story4 ,i went abroad for the general election1 and if ,i don't know how much1 on the ,continent1 ,i forgot1 ,i at least know how much ,i missed1 him4 ,at a distance1 in a foreign land1 ignoring1 abjuring1 unlearning him1 ,i discovered what he had done for me4 ,i owed him1 oh unmistakably1 certain noble conceptions2 ,i had lighted my little taper at his smoky lamp1 and lo1 it continued to twinkle4 ,but the light it gave me just showed me how much more ,i wanted4 ,i was pursued of course by letters from ,mrs4 ,saltram1 which ,i didn't scruple not to read1 though ,i was duly conscious that her embarrassments would now be of the gravest4 ,i sacrificed to propriety by simply putting them away1 and this is how1 one day as my absence drew to an end1 my eye1 as ,i rummaged in my desk for another paper1 was caught by a name on a leaf that had detached itself from the packet4 ,the allusion was to ,miss ,anvoy1 who1 it appeared1 was engaged to be married to ,mr4 ,george ,gravener2 and the news was two months old4 ,a direct question of ,mrs4 ,saltram's had thus remained unanswered--she had inquired of me in a postscript what sort of man this ,mr4 ,gravener might be4 ,this ,mr4 ,gravener had been triumphantly returned for ,clockborough1 in the interest of the party that had swept the country1 so that ,i might easily have referred ,mrs4 ,saltram to the journals of the day4 ,but when ,i at last wrote to her that ,i was coming home and would discharge my accumulated burden by seeing her1 ,i remarked in regard to her question that she must really put it to ,miss ,anvoy4 ,,vi ,i had almost avoided the general election1 but some of its consequences1 on my return1 had squarely to be faced4 ,the season1 in ,london1 began to breathe again and to flap its folded wings4 ,confidence1 under the new ministry1 was understood to be reviving1 and one of the symptoms1 in the social body1 was a recovery of appetite4 ,people once more fed together1 and it happened that1 one ,saturday night1 at somebody's house1 ,i fed with ,george ,gravener4 ,when the ladies left the room ,i moved up to where he sat and offered him my congratulation4 ,on my election8 he asked after a moment2 whereupon ,i feigned1 jocosely not to have heard of his election and to be alluding to something much more important1 the rumour of his engagement4 ,i daresay ,i coloured however1 for his political victory had momentarily passed out of my mind4 ,what was present to it was that he was to marry that beautiful girl2 and yet his question made me conscious of some embarrassment--,i had not intended to put that before everything4 ,he himself indeed ought gracefully to have done so1 and ,i remember thinking the whole man was in this assumption1 that in expressing my sense of what he had won ,i had fixed my thoughts on his seat4 ,we straightened the matter out1 and he was so much lighter in hand than ,i had lately seen him that his spirits might well have been fed from a double source4 ,he was so good as to say that he hoped ,i should soon make the acquaintance of ,miss ,anvoy1 who1 with her aunt1 was presently coming up to town4 ,lady ,coxon1 in the country1 had been seriously unwell1 and this had delayed their arrival4 ,i told him ,i had heard the marriage would be a splendid one2 on which1 brightened and humanised by his luck1 he laughed and said3 ,do you mean for her8 ,when ,i had again explained what ,i meant he went on3 ,oh1 she's an ,american1 but you'd scarcely know it2 unless1 perhaps1 he added1 by her being used to more money than most girls in ,england1 even the daughters of rich men4 ,that wouldn't in the least do for a fellow like me1 you know1 if it wasn't for the great liberality of her father4 ,he really has been most kind1 and everything is quite satisfactory4 ,he added that his eldest brother had taken a tremendous fancy to her and that during a recent visit at ,coldfield she had nearly won over ,lady ,maddock4 ,i gathered from something he dropped later that the free-handed gentleman beyond the seas had not made a settlement1 but had given a handsome present and was apparently to be looked to1 across the water1 for other favours4 ,people are simplified alike by great contentments and great yearnings1 and whether or no it was ,gravener's directness that begot my own1 ,i seem to recall that in some turn taken by our talk he almost imposed it upon me as an act of decorum to ask if ,miss ,anvoy had also by chance expectations from her aunt4 ,my inquiry elicited that ,lady ,coxon1 who was the oddest of women1 would have in any contingency to act under her late husband's will1 which was odder still1 saddling her with a mass of queer obligations intermingled with queer loopholes4 ,there were several dreary people1 ,coxon relations1 old maids1 whom she would have more or less to consider4 ,gravener laughed1 without saying no1 when ,i suggested that the young lady might come in through a loophole2 then suddenly1 as if he suspected that ,i had turned a lantern on him1 he exclaimed quite dryly3 ,that's all rot--one is moved by other springs6 ,a fortnight later1 at ,lady ,coxon's own house1 ,i understood well enough the springs one was moved by4 ,gravener had spoken of me there as an old friend1 and ,i received a gracious invitation to dine4 ,the knight's widow was again indisposed--she had succumbed at the eleventh hour2 so that ,i found ,miss ,anvoy bravely playing hostess1 without even ,gravener's help1 inasmuch as1 to make matters worse1 he had just sent up word that the ,house1 the insatiable ,house1 with which he supposed he had contracted for easier terms1 positively declined to release him4 ,i was struck with the courage1 the grace and gaiety of the young lady left to deal unaided with the possibilities of the ,regent's ,park4 ,i did what ,i could to help her to keep them down1 or up1 after ,i had recovered from the confusion of seeing her slightly disconcerted at perceiving in the guest introduced by her intended the gentleman with whom she had had that talk about ,frank ,saltram4 ,i had at that moment my first glimpse of the fact that she was a person who could carry a responsibility2 but ,i leave the reader to judge of my sense of the aggravation1 for either of us1 of such a burden when ,i heard the servant announce ,mrs4 ,saltram4 ,from what immediately passed between the two ladies ,i gathered that the latter had been sent for post-haste to fill the gap created by the absence of the mistress of the house4 ,good6 ,i exclaimed1 she will be put by me6 and my apprehension was promptly justified4 ,mrs4 ,saltram taken in to dinner1 and taken in as a consequence of an appeal to her amiability1 was ,mrs4 ,saltram with a vengeance4 ,i asked myself what ,miss ,anvoy meant by doing such things1 but the only answer ,i arrived at was that ,gravener was verily fortunate4 ,she had not happened to tell him of her visit to ,upper ,baker ,street1 but she would certainly tell him to-morrow2 not indeed that this would make him like any better her having had the simplicity to invite such a person as ,mrs4 ,saltram on such an occasion4 ,i reflected that ,i had never seen a young woman put such ignorance into her cleverness1 such freedom into her modesty3 this1 ,i think1 was when1 after dinner1 she said to me frankly1 with almost jubilant mirth3 ,oh1 you don't admire ,mrs4 ,saltram6 ,why should ,i8 ,she was truly an innocent maiden4 ,i had briefly to consider before ,i could reply that my objection to the lady in question was the objection often formulated in regard to persons met at the social board--,i knew all her stories4 ,then1 as ,miss ,anvoy remained momentarily vague1 ,i added3 ,about her husband4 ,oh yes1 but there are some new ones4 ,none for me4 ,oh1 novelty would be pleasant6 ,doesn't it appear that of late he has been particularly horrid8 ,his fluctuations don't matter1 ,i replied2 they are all covered by the single circumstance ,i mentioned the evening we waited for him together4 ,what will you have8 ,he has no dignity4 ,miss ,anvoy1 who had been introducing with her ,american distinctness1 looked encouragingly round at some of the combinations she had risked4 ,it's too bad ,i can't see him4 ,you mean ,gravener won't let you8 ,i haven't asked him4 ,he lets me do everything4 ,but you know he knows him and wonders what some of us see in him4 ,we haven't happened to talk of him1 the girl said4 ,get him to take you some day out to see the ,mulvilles4 ,i thought ,mr4 ,saltram had thrown the ,mulvilles over4 ,utterly4 ,but that won't prevent his being planted there again1 to bloom like a rose1 within a month or two4 ,miss ,anvoy thought a moment4 ,then1 ,i should like to see them1 she said with her fostering smile4 ,they're tremendously worth it4 ,you mustn't miss them4 ,i'll make ,george take me1 she went on as ,mrs4 ,saltram came up to interrupt us4 ,the girl smiled at her as kindly as she had smiled at me1 and addressing the question to her1 continued3 ,but the chance of a lecture--one of the wonderful lectures8 ,isn't there another course announced6 ,another8 ,there are about thirty6 ,i exclaimed1 turning away and feeling ,mrs4 ,saltram's little eyes in my back4 ,a few days after this1 ,i heard that ,gravener's marriage was near at hand--was settled far ,whitsuntide2 but as ,i had received no invitation ,i doubted it1 and presently there came to me in fact the report of a postponement4 ,something was the matter2 what was the matter was supposed to be that ,lady ,coxon was now critically ill4 ,i had called on her after my dinner in the ,regent's ,park1 but ,i had neither seen her nor seen ,miss ,anvoy4 ,i forget to-day the exact order in which1 at this period1 certain incidents occurred and the particular stage at which it suddenly struck me1 making me catch my breath a little1 that the progression1 the acceleration was for all the world that of a drama4 ,this was probably rather late in the day1 and the exact order doesn't matter4 ,what had already occurred was some accident determining a more patient wait4 ,george ,gravener1 whom ,i met again1 in fact told me as much1 but without signs of perturbation4 ,lady ,coxon had to be constantly attended to1 and there were other good reasons as well4 ,lady ,coxon had to be so constantly attended to that on the occasion of a second attempt in the ,regent's ,park ,i equally failed to obtain a sight of her niece4 ,i judged it discreet under the circumstances not to make a third2 but this didn't matter1 for it was through ,adelaide ,mulville that the side-wind of the comedy1 though ,i was at first unwitting1 began to reach me4 ,i went to ,wimbledon at times because ,saltram was there and ,i went at others because he was not4 ,the ,pudneys1 who had taken him to ,birmingham1 had already got rid of him1 and we had a horrible consciousness of his wandering roofless1 in dishonour1 about the smoky ,midlands1 almost as the injured ,lear wandered on the storm-lashed heath4 ,his room1 upstairs1 had been lately done up 7,i could hear the crackle of the new chintz71 and the difference only made his smirches and bruises1 his splendid tainted genius1 the more tragic4 ,if he wasn't barefoot in the mire1 he was sure to be unconventionally shod4 ,these were the things ,adelaide and ,i1 who were old enough friends to stare at each other in silence1 talked about when we didn't speak4 ,when we spoke it was only about the charming girl ,george ,gravener was to marry1 whom he had brought out the other ,sunday4 ,i could see that this introduction had been happy1 for ,mrs4 ,mulville commemorated it in the only way in which she ever expressed her confidence in a new relation4 ,she likes me--she likes me3 her native humility exulted in that measure of success4 ,we all knew for ourselves how she liked those who liked her1 and as regards ,ruth ,anvoy she was more easily won over than ,lady ,maddock4 ,,vii ,one of the consequences1 for the ,mulvilles1 of the sacrifices they made for ,frank ,saltram was that they had to give up their carriage4 ,adelaide drove gently into ,london in a one-horse greenish thing1 an early ,victorian landau1 hired1 near at hand1 imaginatively1 from a broken-down jobmaster whose wife was in consumption--a vehicle that made people turn round all the more when her pensioner sat beside her in a soft white hat and a shawl1 one of her own4 ,this was his position and ,i daresay his costume when on an afternoon in ,july she went to return ,miss ,anvoy's visit4 ,the wheel of fate had now revolved1 and amid silences deep and exhaustive1 compunctions and condonations alike unutterable1 ,saltram was reinstated4 ,was it in pride or in penance that ,mrs4 ,mulville began immediately to drive him about8 ,if he was ashamed of his ingratitude she might have been ashamed of her forgiveness2 but she was incorrigibly capable of liking him to be seen strikingly seated in the landau while she was in shops or with her acquaintance4 ,however1 if he was in the pillory for twenty minutes in the ,regent's ,park 7,i mean at ,lady ,coxon's door1 while her companion paid her call71 it was not for the further humiliation of anyone concerned that she presently came out for him in person1 not even to show either of them what a fool she was that she drew him in to be introduced to the clever young ,american4 ,her account of this introduction ,i had in its order1 but before that1 very late in the season1 under ,gravener's auspices1 ,i met ,miss ,anvoy at tea at the ,house of ,commons4 ,the member for ,clockborough had gathered a group of pretty ladies1 and the ,mulvilles were not of the party4 ,on the great terrace1 as ,i strolled off a little with her1 the guest of honour immediately exclaimed to me3 ,i've seen him1 you know--,i've seen him6 ,she told me about ,saltram's call4 ,and how did you find him8 ,oh1 so strange6 ,you didn't like him8 ,i can't tell till ,i see him again4 ,you want to do that8 ,she was silent a moment4 ,immensely4 ,we stopped2 ,i fancied she had become aware ,gravener was looking at us4 ,she turned back toward the knot of the others1 and ,i said3 ,dislike him as much as you will--,i see you're bitten4 ,bitten8 ,i thought she coloured a little4 ,oh1 it doesn't matter6 ,i laughed2 one doesn't die of it4 ,i hope ,i sha'n't die of anything before ,i've seen more of ,mrs4 ,mulville4 ,i rejoiced with her over plain ,adelaide1 whom she pronounced the loveliest woman she had met in ,england2 but before we separated ,i remarked to her that it was an act of mere humanity to warn her that if she should see more of ,frank ,saltram 7which would be likely to follow on any increase of acquaintance with ,mrs4 ,mulville71 she might find herself flattening her nose against the clear hard pane of an eternal question--that of the relative importance of virtue4 ,she replied that this was surely a subject on which one took everything for granted2 whereupon ,i admitted that ,i had perhaps expressed myself ill4 ,what ,i referred to was what ,i had referred to the night we met in ,upper ,baker ,street--the importance relative 7relative to virtue7 of other gifts4 ,she asked me if ,i called virtue a gift--as if it were handed to us in a parcel on our birthday2 and ,i declared that this very question showed me the problem had already caught her by the skirt4 ,she would have help however1 help that ,i myself had once had1 in resisting its tendency to make one cross4 ,what help do you mean8 ,that of the member for ,clockborough4 ,she stared1 smiled1 then exclaimed3 ,why1 my idea has been to help him6 ,she had helped him--,i had his own word for it that at ,clockborough her bedevilment of the voters had really put him in4 ,she would do so doubtless again and again1 but ,i heard the very next month that this fine faculty had undergone a temporary eclipse4 ,news of the catastrophe first came to me from ,mrs4 ,saltram1 and it was afterwards confirmed at ,wimbledon3 poor ,miss ,anvoy was in trouble--great disasters1 in ,america1 had suddenly summoned her home4 ,her father1 in ,new ,york1 had had reverses--lost so much money that no one knew what mightn't yet come of it4 ,it was ,adelaide who told me that she had gone off1 alone1 at less than a week's notice4 ,alone8 ,gravener has permitted that8 ,what will you have8 ,the ,house of ,commons8 ,i'm afraid ,i damned the ,house of ,commons3 ,i was so much interested4 ,of course he would follow her as soon as he was free to make her his wife2 only she mightn't now be able to bring him anything like the marriage-portion of which he had begun by having the pleasant confidence4 ,mrs4 ,mulville let me know what was already said3 she was charming1 this ,miss ,anvoy1 but really these ,american girls6 ,what was a man to do8 ,mr4 ,saltram1 according to ,mrs4 ,mulville1 was of opinion that a man was never to suffer his relation to money to become a spiritual relation1 but was to keep it wholesomely mechanical4 ,moi pas comprendre6 ,i commented on this2 in rejoinder to which ,adelaide1 with her beautiful sympathy1 explained that she supposed he simply meant that the thing was to use it1 don't you know6 but not to think too much about it4 ,to take it1 but not to thank you for it8 ,i still more profanely inquired4 ,for a quarter of an hour afterwards she wouldn't look at me1 but this didn't prevent my asking her what had been the result1 that afternoon in the ,regent's ,park1 of her taking our friend to see ,miss ,anvoy4 ,oh1 so charming6 she answered1 brightening4 ,he said he recognised in her a nature he could absolutely trust4 ,yes1 but ,i'm speaking of the effect on herself4 ,mrs4 ,mulville was silent an instant4 ,it was everything one could wish4 ,something in her tone made me laugh4 ,do you mean she gave him something8 ,well1 since you ask me6 ,right there--on the spot8 ,again poor ,adelaide faltered4 ,it was to me of course she gave it4 ,i stared2 somehow ,i couldn't see the scene4 ,do you mean a sum of money8 ,it was very handsome4 ,now at last she met my eyes though ,i could see it was with an effort4 ,thirty pounds4 ,straight out of her pocket8 ,out of the drawer of a table at which she had been writing4 ,she just slipped the folded notes into my hand4 ,he wasn't looking2 it was while he was going back to the carriage4 ,oh1 said ,adelaide reassuringly1 ,i dole it out6 ,the dear practical soul thought my agitation1 for ,i confess ,i was agitated1 had reference to the administration of the money4 ,her disclosure made me for a moment muse violently1 and ,i daresay that during that moment ,i wondered if anything else in the world makes people as indelicate as unselfishness4 ,i uttered1 ,i suppose1 some vague synthetic cry1 for she went on as if she had had a glimpse of my inward amaze at such episodes4 ,i assure you1 my dear friend1 he was in one of his happy hours4 ,but ,i wasn't thinking of that4 ,truly1 indeed1 these ,american girls6 ,i said4 ,with her father in the very act1 as it were1 of cheating her betrothed6 ,mrs4 ,mulville stared4 ,oh1 ,i suppose ,mr4 ,anvoy has scarcely failed on purpose4 ,very likely they won't be able to keep it up1 but there it was1 and it was a very beautiful impulse4 ,you say ,saltram was very fine8 ,beyond everything4 ,he surprised even me4 ,and ,i know what you've heard4 ,after a moment ,i added3 ,had he peradventure caught a glimpse of the money in the table-drawers8 ,at this my companion honestly flushed4 ,how can you be so cruel when you know how little he calculates8 ,forgive me1 ,i do know it4 ,but you tell me things that act on my nerves4 ,i'm sure he hadn't caught a glimpse of anything but some splendid idea4 ,mrs4 ,mulville brightly concurred4 ,and perhaps even of her beautiful listening face4 ,perhaps1 even6 ,and what was it all about8 ,his talk8 ,it was propos of her engagement1 which ,i had told him about3 the idea of marriage1 the philosophy1 the poetry1 the profundity of it4 ,it was impossible wholly to restrain one's mirth at this1 and some rude ripple that ,i emitted again caused my companion to admonish me4 ,it sounds a little stale1 but you know his freshness4 ,of illustration8 ,indeed ,i do6 ,and how he has always been right on that great question4 ,on what great question1 dear lady1 hasn't he been right8 ,of what other great men can you equally say it8 ,i mean that he has never1 but never1 had a deviation8 ,mrs4 ,mulville exultantly demanded4 ,i tried to think of some other great man1 but ,i had to give it up4 ,didn't ,miss ,anvoy express her satisfaction in any less diffident way than by her charming present8 ,i was reduced to inquiring instead4 ,oh yes1 she overflowed to me on the steps while he was getting into the carriage4 ,these words somehow brushed up a picture of ,saltram's big shawled back as he hoisted himself into the green landau4 ,she said she was not disappointed1 ,adelaide pursued4 ,i meditated a moment4 ,did he wear his shawl8 ,his shawl8 ,she had not even noticed4 ,i mean yours4 ,he looked very nice1 and you know he's always clean4 ,miss ,anvoy used such a remarkable expression--she said his mind is like a crystal6 ,i pricked up my ears4 ,a crystal8 ,suspended in the moral world--swinging and shining and flashing there4 ,she's monstrously clever1 you know4 ,i reflected again4 ,monstrously6 ,,viii ,george ,gravener didn't follow her1 for late in ,september1 after the ,house had risen1 ,i met him in a railway-carriage4 ,he was coming up from ,scotland1 and ,i had just quitted the abode of a relation who lived near ,durham4 ,the current of travel back to ,london was not yet strong2 at any rate on entering the compartment ,i found he had had it for some time to himself4 ,we fared in company1 and though he had a blue-book in his lap and the open jaws of his bag threatened me with the white teeth of confused papers1 we inevitably1 we even at last sociably1 conversed4 ,i saw that things were not well with him1 but ,i asked no question until something dropped by himself made an absence of curiosity almost rude4 ,he mentioned that he was worried about his good old friend ,lady ,coxon1 who1 with her niece likely to be detained some time in ,america1 lay seriously ill at ,clockborough1 much on his mind and on his hands4 ,ah1 ,miss ,anvoy's in ,america8 ,her father has got into a horrid mess1 lost no end of money4 ,i hesitated1 after expressing due concern1 but ,i presently said1 ,i hope that raises no obstacle to your marriage4 ,none whatever2 moreover it's my trade to meet objections4 ,but it may create tiresome delays1 of which there have been too many1 from various causes1 already4 ,lady ,coxon got very bad1 then she got much better4 ,then ,mr4 ,anvoy suddenly began to totter1 and now he seems quite on his back4 ,i'm afraid he's really in for some big disaster4 ,lady ,coxon is worse again1 awfully upset by the news from ,america1 and she sends me word that she must have ,ruth4 ,how can ,i give her ,ruth8 ,i haven't got ,ruth myself6 ,surely you haven't lost her1 ,i smiled4 ,she's everything to her wretched father4 ,she writes me by every post1 telling me to smooth her aunt's pillow4 ,i've other things to smooth2 but the old lady1 save for her servants1 is really alone4 ,she won't receive her ,coxon relations1 because she's angry at so much of her money going to them4 ,besides1 she's off her head1 said ,gravener very frankly4 ,i don't remember whether it was this1 or what it was1 that made me ask if she had not such an appreciation of ,mrs4 ,saltram as might render that active person of some use4 ,he gave me a cold glance1 asking me what had put ,mrs4 ,saltram into my head1 and ,i replied that she was unfortunately never out of it4 ,i happened to remember the wonderful accounts she had given me of the kindness ,lady ,coxon had shown her4 ,gravener declared this to be false3 ,lady ,coxon1 who didn't care for her1 hadn't seen her three times4 ,the only foundation for it was that ,miss ,anvoy1 who used1 poor girl1 to chuck money about in a manner she must now regret1 had for an hour seen in the miserable woman 7you could never know what she would see in people71 an interesting pretext for the liberality with which her nature overflowed4 ,but even ,miss ,anvoy was now quite tired of her4 ,gravener told me more about the crash in ,new ,york and the annoyance it had been to him1 and we also glanced here and there in other directions2 but by the time we got to ,doncaster the principal thing he had communicated was that he was keeping something back4 ,we stopped at that station1 and1 at the carriage door1 some one made a movement to get in4 ,gravener uttered a sound of impatience1 and ,i said to myself that but for this ,i should have had the secret4 ,then the intruder1 for some reason1 spared us his company2 we started afresh1 and my hope of the secret returned4 ,gravener remained silent however1 and ,i pretended to go to sleep2 in fact1 in discouragement1 ,i really dozed4 ,when ,i opened my eyes ,i found he was looking at me with an injured air4 ,he tossed away with some vivacity the remnant of a cigarette and then he said3 ,if you're not too sleepy ,i want to put you a case4 ,i answered that ,i would make every effort to attend1 and ,i felt it was going to be interesting when he went on3 ,as ,i told you a while ago1 ,lady ,coxon1 poor dear1 is a maniac4 ,his tone had much behind it--was full of promise4 ,i inquired if her ladyship's misfortune were a feature of her malady or only of her character1 and he replied that it was a product of both4 ,the case he wanted to put me was a matter on which it would interest him to have the impression--the judgment1 he might also say--of another person4 ,i mean of the average intelligent man1 he said3 but you see ,i take what ,i can get4 ,there would be the technical1 the strictly legal view2 then there would be the way the question would strike a man of the world4 ,he had lighted another cigarette while he talked1 and ,i saw he was glad to have it to handle when he brought out at last1 with a laugh slightly artificial3 ,in fact it's a subject on which ,miss ,anvoy and ,i are pulling different ways4 ,and you want me to pronounce between you8 ,i pronounce in advance for ,miss ,anvoy4 ,in advance--that's quite right4 ,that's how ,i pronounced when ,i asked her to marry me4 ,but my story will interest you only so far as your mind is not made up4 ,gravener puffed his cigarette a minute and then continued3 ,are you familiar with the idea of the ,endowment of ,research8 ,of ,research8 ,i was at sea for a moment4 ,i give you ,lady ,coxon's phrase4 ,she has it on the brain4 ,she wishes to endow----8 ,some earnest and disinterested seeker1 ,gravener said4 ,it was a half-baked plan of her late husband's1 and he handed it on to her2 setting apart in his will a sum of money of which she was to enjoy the interest for life1 but of which1 should she eventually see her opportunity--the matter was left largely to her discretion--she would best honour his memory by determining the exemplary public use4 ,this sum of money1 no less than thirteen thousand pounds1 was to be called the ,coxon ,fund2 and poor ,sir ,gregory evidently proposed to himself that the ,coxon ,fund should cover his name with glory--be universally desired and admired4 ,he left his wife a full declaration of his views2 so far at least as that term may be applied to views vitiated by a vagueness really infantine4 ,a little learning is a dangerous thing1 and a good citizen who happens to have been an ass is worse for a community than the small-pox4 ,he's worst of all when he's dead1 because then he can't be stopped4 ,however1 such as they were1 the poor man's aspirations are now in his wife's bosom1 or fermenting rather in her foolish brain3 it lies with her to carry them out4 ,but of course she must first catch her hare4 ,her earnest1 disinterested seeker8 ,the man suffering most from want of means1 want of the pecuniary independence necessary to cause the light that is in him to shine upon the human race4 ,the man1 in a word1 who1 having the rest of the machinery1 the spiritual1 the intellectual1 is most hampered in his search4 ,his search for what8 ,for ,moral ,truth4 ,that's what ,sir ,gregory calls it4 ,i burst out laughing4 ,delightful1 munificent ,sir ,gregory6 ,it's a charming idea4 ,so ,miss ,anvoy thinks4 ,has she a candidate for the ,fund8 ,not that ,i know of2 and she's perfectly reasonable about it4 ,but ,lady ,coxon has put the matter before her1 and we've naturally had a lot of talk4 ,talk that1 as you've so interestingly intimated1 has landed you in a disagreement4 ,she considers there's something in it1 ,gravener said4 ,and you consider there's nothing8 ,it seems to me a puerility fraught with consequences inevitably grotesque and possibly immoral4 ,to begin with1 fancy the idea of constituting an endowment without establishing a tribunal--a bench of competent people1 of judges4 ,the sole tribunal is ,lady ,coxon8 ,and any one she chooses to invite4 ,but she has invited you4 ,i'm not competent--,i hate the thing4 ,besides1 she hasn't4 ,the real history of the matter1 ,i take it1 is that the inspiration was originally ,lady ,coxon's own1 that she infected him with it1 and that the flattering option left her is simply his tribute to her beautiful1 her aboriginal enthusiasm4 ,she came to ,england forty years ago1 a thin transcendental ,bostonian1 and even her odd1 happy1 frumpy ,clockborough marriage never really materialised her4 ,she feels indeed that she has become very ,british--as if that1 as a process1 as a ,werden1 were conceivable2 but it's precisely what makes her cling to the notion of the ',fund' as to a link with the ideal4 ,how can she cling if she's dying8 ,do you mean how can she act in the matter8 my companion asked4 ,that's precisely the question4 ,she can't6 ,as she has never yet caught her hare1 never spied out her lucky impostor 7how should she1 with the life she has led87 her husband's intention has come very near lapsing4 ,his idea1 to do him justice1 was that it should lapse if exactly the right person1 the perfect mixture of genius and chill penury1 should fail to turn up4 ,ah6 ,lady ,coxon's very particular--she says there must be no mistake4 ,i found all this quite thrilling--,i took it in with avidity4 ,if she dies without doing anything1 what becomes of the money8 ,i demanded4 ,it goes back to his family1 if she hasn't made some other disposition of it4 ,she may do that1 then--she may divert it8 ,her hands are not tied4 ,the proof is that three months ago she offered to make it over to her niece4 ,for ,miss ,anvoy's own use8 ,for ,miss ,anvoy's own use--on the occasion of her prospective marriage4 ,she was discouraged--the earnest seeker required so earnest a search4 ,she was afraid of making a mistake2 every one she could think of seemed either not earnest enough or not poor enough4 ,on the receipt of the first bad news about ,mr4 ,anvoy's affairs she proposed to ,ruth to make the sacrifice for her4 ,as the situation in ,new ,york got worse she repeated her proposal4 ,which ,miss ,anvoy declined8 ,except as a formal trust4 ,you mean except as committing herself legally to place the money8 ,on the head of the deserving object1 the great man frustrated1 said ,gravener4 ,she only consents to act in the spirit of ,sir ,gregory's scheme4 ,and you blame her for that8 ,i asked with an excited smile4 ,my tone was not harsh1 but he coloured a little and there was a queer light in his eye4 ,my dear fellow1 if ,i 'blamed' the young lady ,i'm engaged to1 ,i shouldn't immediately say so even to so old a friend as you4 ,i saw that some deep discomfort1 some restless desire to be sided with1 reassuringly1 becomingly reflected1 had been at the bottom of his drifting so far1 and ,i was genuinely touched by his confidence4 ,it was inconsistent with his habits2 but being troubled about a woman was not1 for him1 a habit3 that itself was an inconsistency4 ,george ,gravener could stand straight enough before any other combination of forces4 ,it amused me to think that the combination he had succumbed to had an ,american accent1 a transcendental aunt and an insolvent father2 but all my old loyalty to him mustered to meet this unexpected hint that ,i could help him4 ,i saw that ,i could from the insincere tone in which he pursued3 ,i've criticised her of course1 ,i've contended with her1 and it has been great fun4 ,it clearly couldn't have been such great fun as to make it improper for me presently to ask if ,miss ,anvoy had nothing at all settled upon herself4 ,to this he replied that she had only a trifle from her mother--a mere four hundred a year1 which was exactly why it would be convenient to him that she shouldn't decline1 in the face of this total change in her prospects1 an accession of income which would distinctly help them to marry4 ,when ,i inquired if there were no other way in which so rich and so affectionate an aunt could cause the weight of her benevolence to be felt1 he answered that ,lady ,coxon was affectionate indeed1 but was scarcely to be called rich4 ,she could let her project of the ,fund lapse for her niece's benefit1 but she couldn't do anything else4 ,she had been accustomed to regard her as tremendously provided for1 and she was up to her eyes in promises to anxious ,coxons4 ,she was a woman of an inordinate conscience1 and her conscience was now a distress to her1 hovering round her bed in irreconcilable forms of resentful husbands1 portionless nieces and undiscoverable philosophers4 ,we were by this time getting into the whirr of fleeting platforms1 the multiplication of lights4 ,i think you'll find1 ,i said with a laugh1 that the difficulty will disappear in the very fact that the philosopher is undiscoverable4 ,he began to gather up his papers4 ,who can set a limit to the ingenuity of an extravagant woman8 ,yes1 after all1 who indeed8 ,i echoed as ,i recalled the extravagance commemorated in ,mrs4 ,mulville's anecdote of ,miss ,anvoy and the thirty pounds4 ,,ix ,the thing ,i had been most sensible of in that talk with ,george ,gravener was the way ,saltram's name kept out of it4 ,it seemed to me at the time that we were quite pointedly silent about him2 yet afterwards ,i inclined to think that there had been on my companion's part no conscious avoidance4 ,later on ,i was sure of this1 and for the best of reasons--the reason1 namely1 of my perceiving more completely that1 for evil as well as for good1 he left ,gravener's imagination utterly cold4 ,gravener was not afraid of him2 he was too much disgusted with him4 ,no more was ,i1 doubtless1 and for very much the same reason4 ,i treated my friend's story as an absolute confidence2 but when before ,christmas1 by ,mrs4 ,saltram1 ,i was informed of ,lady ,coxon's death without having had news of ,miss ,anvoy's return1 ,i found myself taking for granted that we should hear no more of these nuptials1 in which ,i now recognised an element incongruous from the first4 ,i began to ask myself how people who suited each other so little could please each other so much4 ,the charm was some material charm1 some affinity exquisite doubtless1 but superficial2 some surrender to youth and beauty and passion1 to force and grace and fortune1 happy accidents and easy contacts4 ,they might dote on each other's persons1 but how could they know each other's souls8 ,how could they have the same prejudices1 how could they have the same horizon8 ,such questions1 ,i confess1 seemed quenched but not answered when1 one day in ,february1 going out to ,wimbledon1 ,i found my young lady in the house4 ,a passion that had brought her back across the wintry ocean was as much of a passion as was necessary4 ,no impulse equally strong indeed had drawn ,george ,gravener to ,america2 a circumstance on which1 however1 ,i reflected only long enough to remind myself that it was none of my business4 ,ruth ,anvoy was distinctly different1 and ,i felt that the difference was not simply that of her being in mourning4 ,mrs4 ,mulville told me soon enough what it was3 it was the difference between a handsome girl with large expectations and a handsome girl with only four hundred a year4 ,this explanation indeed didn't wholly content me1 not even when ,i learned that her mourning had a double cause--learned that poor ,mr4 ,anvoy1 giving way altogether1 buried under the ruins of his fortune and leaving next to nothing1 had died a few weeks before4 ,so she has come out to marry ,george ,gravener8 ,i demanded4 ,wouldn't it have been prettier of him to have saved her the trouble8 ,hasn't the ,house just met8 said ,adelaide4 ,then she added3 ,i gather that her having come is exactly a sign that the marriage is a little shaky4 ,if it were certain1 so self-respecting a girl as ,ruth would have waited for him over there4 ,i noted that they were already ,ruth and ,adelaide1 but what ,i said was3 ,do you mean that she has returned to make it a certainty8 ,no1 ,i mean that ,i imagine she has come out for some reason independent of it4 ,adelaide could only imagine as yet1 and there was more1 as we found1 to be revealed4 ,mrs4 ,mulville1 on hearing of her arrival1 had brought the young lady out1 in the green landau1 for the ,sunday4 ,the ,coxons were in possession of the house in the ,regent's ,park1 and ,miss ,anvoy was in dreary lodgings4 ,george ,gravener was with her when ,adelaide called1 but he had assented graciously enough to the little visit at ,wimbledon4 ,the carriage1 with ,mr4 ,saltram in it but not mentioned1 had been sent off on some errand from which it was to return and pick the ladies up4 ,gravener left them together1 and at the end of an hour1 on the ,saturday afternoon1 the party of three drove out to ,wimbledon4 ,this was the girl's second glimpse of our great man1 and ,i was interested in asking ,mrs4 ,mulville if the impression made by the first appeared to have been confirmed4 ,on her replying1 after consideration1 that of course with time and opportunity it couldn't fail to be1 but that as yet she was disappointed1 ,i was sufficiently struck with her use of this last word to question her further4 ,do you mean that you're disappointed because you judge that ,miss ,anvoy is8 ,yes2 ,i hoped for a greater effect last evening4 ,we had two or three people1 but he scarcely opened his mouth4 ,he'll be all the better this evening1 ,i added after a moment4 ,what particular importance do you attach to the idea of her being impressed8 ,adelaide turned her clear1 pale eyes on me as if she were amazed at my levity4 ,why1 the importance of her being as happy as we are6 ,i'm afraid that at this my levity increased4 ,oh1 that's a happiness almost too great to wish a person6 ,i saw she had not yet in her mind what ,i had in mine1 and at any rate the visitor's actual bliss was limited to a walk in the garden with ,kent ,mulville4 ,later in the afternoon ,i also took one1 and ,i saw nothing of ,miss ,anvoy till dinner1 at which we were without the company of ,saltram1 who had caused it to be reported that he was out of sorts and lying down4 ,this made us1 most of us--for there were other friends present--convey to each other in silence some of the unutterable things which in those years our eyes had inevitably acquired the art of expressing4 ,if an ,american inquirer had not been there we would have expressed them otherwise1 and ,adelaide would have pretended not to hear4 ,i had seen her1 before the very fact1 abstract herself nobly2 and ,i knew that more than once1 to keep it from the servants1 managing1 dissimulating cleverly1 she had helped her husband to carry him bodily to his room4 ,just recently he had been so wise and so deep and so high that ,i had begun to be nervous--to wonder if by chance there were something behind it1 if he were kept straight1 for instance1 by the knowledge that the hated ,pudneys would have more to tell us if they chose4 ,he was lying low1 but unfortunately it was common knowledge with us that the biggest splashes took place in the quietest pools4 ,we should have had a merry life indeed if all the splashes had sprinkled us as refreshingly as the waters we were even then to feel about our ears4 ,kent ,mulville had been up to his room1 but had come back with a facial inscrutability that ,i had seen him achieve in equal measure only on the evening ,i waited in the lecture-room with ,miss ,anvoy4 ,i said to myself that our friend had gone out1 but ,i was glad that the presence of a comparative stranger deprived us of the dreary duty of suggesting to each other1 in respect of his errand1 edifying possibilities in which we didn't ourselves believe4 ,at ten o'clock he came into the drawing-room with his waistcoat much awry but his eyes sending out great signals4 ,it was precisely with his entrance that ,i ceased to be vividly conscious of him4 ,i saw that the crystal1 as ,i had called it1 had begun to swing1 and ,i had need of my immediate attention for ,miss ,anvoy4 ,even when ,i was told afterwards that he had1 as we might have said to-day1 broken the record1 the manner in which that attention had been rewarded relieved me of a sense of loss4 ,i had of course a perfect general consciousness that something great was going on3 it was a little like having been etherised to hear ,herr ,joachim play4 ,the old music was in the air2 ,i felt the strong pulse of thought1 the sink and swell1 the flight1 the poise1 the plunge2 but ,i knew something about one of the listeners that nobody else knew1 and ,saltram's monologue could reach me only through that medium4 ,to this hour ,i'm of no use when1 as a witness1 ,i'm appealed to 7for they still absurdly contend about it71 as to whether or no on that historic night he was drunk2 and my position is slightly ridiculous1 for ,i have never cared to tell them what it really was ,i was taken up with4 ,what ,i got out of it is the only morsel of the total experience that is quite my own4 ,the others were shared1 but this is incommunicable4 ,i feel that now1 ,i'm bound to say1 in even thus roughly evoking the occasion1 and it takes something from my pride of clearness4 ,however1 ,i shall perhaps be as clear as is absolutely necessary if ,i remark that she was too much given up to her own intensity of observation to be sensible of mine4 ,it was plainly not the question of her marriage that had brought her back4 ,i greatly enjoyed this discovery and was sure that had that question alone been involved she would have remained away4 ,in this case doubtless ,gravener would1 in spite of the ,house of ,commons1 have found means to rejoin her4 ,it afterwards made me uncomfortable for her that1 alone in the lodging ,mrs4 ,mulville had put before me as dreary1 she should have in any degree the air of waiting for her fate2 so that ,i was presently relieved at hearing of her having gone to stay at ,coldfield4 ,if she was in ,england at all while the engagement stood the only proper place for her was under ,lady ,maddock's wing4 ,now that she was unfortunate and relatively poor1 perhaps her prospective sister-in-law would be wholly won over4 ,there would be much to say1 if ,i had space1 about the way her behaviour1 as ,i caught gleams of it1 ministered to the image that had taken birth in my mind1 to my private amusement1 as ,i listened to ,george ,gravener in the railway carriage4 ,i watched her in the light of this queer possibility--a formidable thing certainly to meet--and ,i was aware that it coloured1 extravagantly perhaps1 my interpretation of her very looks and tones4 ,at ,wimbledon for instance it had seemed to me that she was literally afraid of ,saltram1 in dread of a coercion that she had begun already to feel4 ,i had come up to town with her the next day and had been convinced that1 though deeply interested1 she was immensely on her guard4 ,she would show as little as possible before she should be ready to show everything4 ,what this final exhibition might be on the part of a girl perceptibly so able to think things out ,i found it great sport to conjecture4 ,it would have been exciting to be approached by her1 appealed to by her for advice2 but ,i prayed to heaven ,i mightn't find myself in such a predicament4 ,if there was really a present rigour in the situation of which ,gravener had sketched for me the elements she would have to get out of her difficulty by herself4 ,it was not ,i who had launched her and it was not ,i who could help her4 ,i didn't fail to ask myself why1 since ,i couldn't help her1 ,i should think so much about her4 ,it was in part my suspense that was responsible for this3 ,i waited impatiently to see whether she wouldn't have told ,mrs4 ,mulville a portion at least of what ,i had learned from ,gravener4 ,but ,i saw ,mrs4 ,mulville was still reduced to wonder what she had come out again for if she hadn't come as a conciliatory bride4 ,that she had come in some other character was the only thing that fitted all the appearances4 ,having for family reasons to spend some time that spring in the west of ,england1 ,i was in a manner out of earshot of the great oceanic rumble 7,i mean of the continuous hum of ,saltram's thought71 and my nervousness tended to keep me quiet4 ,there was something ,i wanted so little to have to say that my prudence surmounted my curiosity4 ,i only wondered if ,ruth ,anvoy talked over the idea of the ,coxon ,fund with ,lady ,maddock1 and also somewhat why ,i didn't hear from ,wimbledon4 ,i had a reproachful note about something or other from ,mrs4 ,saltram1 but it contained no mention of ,lady ,coxon's niece1 on whom her eyes had been much less fixed since the recent untoward events4 ,x ,adelaide's silence was fully explained later2 it was practically explained when in ,june1 returning to ,london1 ,i was honoured by this admirable woman with an early visit4 ,as soon as she appeared ,i guessed everything1 and as soon as she told me that darling ,ruth had been in her house nearly a month ,i exclaimed3 ,what in the name of maidenly modesty is she staying in ,england for8 ,because she loves me so6 cried ,adelaide gaily4 ,but she had not come to see me only to tell me ,miss ,anvoy loved her3 that was now sufficiently established1 and what was much more to the point was that ,mr4 ,gravener had now raised an objection to it4 ,that is he had protested against her being at ,wimbledon1 where in the innocence of his heart he had originally brought her himself2 in short he wanted her to put an end to their engagement in the only proper1 the only happy manner4 ,and why in the world doesn't she do so8 ,i inquired4 ,adelaide hesitated4 ,she says you know4 ,then on my also hesitating she added3 ,a condition he makes4 ,the ,coxon ,fund8 ,i cried4 ,he has mentioned to her his having told you about it4 ,ah1 but so little6 ,do you mean she has accepted the trust6 ,in the most splendid spirit--as a duty about which there can be no two opinions4 ,then said ,adelaide after an instant3 ,of course she's thinking of ,mr4 ,saltram4 ,i gave a quick cry at this1 which1 in its violence1 made my visitor turn pale4 ,how very awful6 ,awful8 ,why1 to have anything to do with such an idea oneself4 ,i'm sure you needn't6 ,mrs4 ,mulville gave a slight toss of her head4 ,he isn't good enough6 ,i went on2 to which she responded with an ejaculation almost as lively as mine had been4 ,this made me1 with genuine1 immediate horror1 exclaim3 ,you haven't influenced her1 ,i hope6 and my emphasis brought back the blood with a rush to poor ,adelaide's face4 ,she declared while she blushed 7for ,i had frightened her again71 that she had never influenced anybody and that the girl had only seen and heard and judged for herself4 ,he had influenced her1 if ,i would1 as he did everyone who had a soul3 that word1 as we knew1 even expressed feebly the power of the things he said to haunt the mind4 ,how could she1 ,adelaide1 help it if ,miss ,anvoy's mind was haunted8 ,i demanded with a groan what right a pretty girl engaged to a rising ,m4,p4 had to have a mind2 but the only explanation my bewildered friend could give me was that she was so clever4 ,she regarded ,mr4 ,saltram naturally as a tremendous force for good4 ,she was intelligent enough to understand him and generous enough to admire4 ,she's many things enough1 but is she1 among them1 rich enough8 ,i demanded4 ,rich enough1 ,i mean1 to sacrifice such a lot of good money8 ,that's for herself to judge4 ,besides1 it's not her own money2 she doesn't in the least consider it so4 ,and ,gravener does1 if not his own3 and that's the whole difficulty8 ,the difficulty that brought her back1 yes3 she had absolutely to see her poor aunt's solicitor4 ,it's clear that by ,lady ,coxon's will she may have the money1 but it's still clearer to her conscience that the original condition1 definite1 intensely implied on her uncle's part1 is attached to the use of it4 ,she can only take one view of it4 ,it's for the ,endowment or it's for nothing4 ,the ,endowment is a conception superficially sublime but fundamentally ridiculous4 ,are you repeating ,mr4 ,gravener's words8 ,adelaide asked4 ,possibly1 though ,i've not seen him for months4 ,it's simply the way it strikes me too4 ,it's an old wife's tale4 ,gravener made some reference to the legal aspect1 but such an absurdly loose arrangement has no legal aspect4 ,ruth doesn't insist on that1 said ,mrs4 ,mulville2 and it's1 for her1 exactly this weakness that constitutes the force of the moral obligation4 ,are you repeating her words8 ,i inquired4 ,i forgot what else ,adelaide said1 but she said she was magnificent4 ,i thought of ,george ,gravener confronted with such magnificence as that1 and ,i asked what could have made two such people ever suppose they understood each other4 ,mrs4 ,mulville assured me the girl loved him as such a woman could love and that she suffered as such a woman could suffer4 ,nevertheless she wanted to see me4 ,at this ,i sprang up with a groan4 ,oh1 ,i'm so sorry6--when8 ,small though her sense of humour1 ,i think ,adelaide laughed at my tone4 ,we discussed the day1 the nearest1 it would be convenient ,i should come out2 but before she went ,i asked my visitor how long she had been acquainted with these prodigies4 ,for several weeks1 but ,i was pledged to secrecy4 ,and that's why you didn't write8 ,i couldn't very well tell you she was with me without telling you that no time had even yet been fixed for her marriage4 ,and ,i couldn't very well tell you as much as that without telling you what ,i knew of the reason for it4 ,it was not till a day or two ago1 ,mrs4 ,mulville went on1 that she asked me to ask you if you wouldn't come and see her4 ,then at last she said that you knew about the idea of the ,endowment4 ,i considered a little4 ,why on earth does she want to see me8 ,to talk with you1 naturally1 about ,mr4 ,saltram4 ,as a subject for the prize8 ,this was hugely obvious1 and presently exclaimed3 ,i think ,i'll sail to-morrow for ,australia4 ,well then--sail6 said ,mrs4 ,mulville1 getting up4 ,on ,thursday at five1 we said8 ,i frivolously continued4 ,the appointment was made definite and ,i inquired how1 all this time1 the unconscious candidate had carried himself4 ,in perfection1 really1 by the happiest of chances3 he has been a dear4 ,and then1 as to what we revere him for1 in the most wonderful form4 ,his very highest--pure celestial light4 ,you won't do him an ill turn8 ,adelaide pleaded at the door4 ,what danger can equal for him the danger to which he is exposed from himself8 ,i asked4 ,look out sharp1 if he has lately been reasonable4 ,he will presently treat us to some exhibition that will make an ,endowment a scandal4 ,a scandal8 ,mrs4 ,mulville dolorously echoed4 ,is ,miss ,anvoy prepared for that8 ,my visitor1 for a moment1 screwed her parasol into my carpet4 ,he grows larger every day4 ,so do you6 ,i laughed as she went off4 ,that girl at ,wimbledon1 on the ,thursday afternoon1 more than justified my apprehensions4 ,i recognised fully now the cause of the agitation she had produced in me from the first--the faint foreknowledge that there was something very stiff ,i should have to do for her4 ,i felt more than ever committed to my fate as1 standing before her in the big drawing-room where they had tactfully left us to ourselves1 ,i tried with a smile to string together the pearls of lucidity which1 from her chair1 she successively tossed me4 ,pale and bright1 in her monotonous mourning1 she was an image of intelligent purpose1 of the passion of duty2 but ,i asked myself whether any girl had ever had so charming an instinct as that which permitted her to laugh out1 as if in the joy of her difficulty1 into the blase old room4 ,this remarkable young woman could be earnest without being solemn1 and at moments when ,i ought doubtless to have cursed her obstinacy ,i found myself watching the unstudied play of her eyebrows or the recurrence of a singularly intense whiteness produced by the parting of her lips4 ,these aberrations1 ,i hasten to add1 didn't prevent my learning soon enough why she had wished to see me4 ,her reason for this was as distinct as her beauty3 it was to make me explain what ,i had meant1 on the occasion of our first meeting1 by ,mr4 ,saltram's want of dignity4 ,it wasn't that she couldn't imagine1 but she desired it there from my lips4 ,what she really desired of course was to know whether there was worse about him than what she had found out for herself4 ,she hadn't been a month in the house with him1 that way1 without discovering that he wasn't a man of starch and whalebone4 ,he was like a jelly without a mould1 he had to be embanked2 and that was precisely the source of her interest in him and the ground of her project4 ,she put her project boldly before me3 there it stood in its preposterous beauty4 ,she was as willing to take the humorous view of it as ,i could be3 the only difference was that for her the humorous view of a thing was not necessarily prohibitive1 was not paralysing4 ,moreover she professed that she couldn't discuss with me the primary question--the moral obligation3 that was in her own breast4 ,there were things she couldn't go into--injunctions1 impressions she had received4 ,they were a part of the closest intimacy of her intercourse with her aunt1 they were absolutely clear to her2 and on questions of delicacy1 the interpretation of a fidelity1 of a promise1 one had always in the last resort to make up one's mind for oneself4 ,it was the idea of the application to the particular case1 such a splendid one at last1 that troubled her1 and she admitted that it stirred very deep things4 ,she didn't pretend that such a responsibility was a simple matter2 if it had been she wouldn't have attempted to saddle me with any portion of it4 ,the ,mulvilles were sympathy itself2 but were they absolutely candid8 ,could they indeed be1 in their position--would it even have been to be desired8 ,yes1 she had sent for me to ask no less than that of me--whether there was anything dreadful kept back4 ,she made no allusion whatever to ,george ,gravener--,i thought her silence the only good taste and her gaiety perhaps a part of the very anxiety of that discretion1 the effect of a determination that people shouldn't know from herself that her relations with the man she was to marry were strained4 ,all the weight1 however1 that she left me to throw was a sufficient implication of the weight that he had thrown in vain4 ,oh1 she knew the question of character was immense1 and that one couldn't entertain any plan for making merit comfortable without running the gauntlet of that terrible procession of interrogation-points which1 like a young ladies' school out for a walk1 hooked their uniform noses at the tail of governess ,conduct4 ,but were we absolutely to hold that was never1 never1 never an exception1 never1 never1 never an occasion for liberal acceptance1 for clever charity1 for suspended pedantry--for letting one side1 in short1 outbalance another8 ,when ,miss ,anvoy threw off this inquiry ,i could have embraced her for so delightfully emphasising her unlikeness to ,mrs4 ,saltram4 ,why not have the courage of one's forgiveness1 she asked1 as well as the enthusiasm of one's adhesion8 ,seeing how wonderfully you have threshed the whole thing out1 ,i evasively replied1 gives me an extraordinary notion of the point your enthusiasm has reached4 ,she considered this remark an instant with her eye on mine1 and ,i divined that it struck her ,i might possibly intend it as a reference to some personal subjection to our fat philosopher1 to some fanciful transfigurement1 some perversion of taste4 ,at least ,i couldn't interpret otherwise the sudden flush that came into her face4 ,such a manifestation1 as the result of any word of mine1 embarrassed me2 but while ,i was thinking how to reassure her the colour ,i speak of passed away in a smile of exquisite good nature4 ,oh1 you see1 one forgets so wonderfully how one dislikes him6 she said2 and if her tone simply extinguished his strange figure with the brush of its compassion1 it also rings in my ear to-day as the purest of all our praises4 ,but with what quick response of compassion such a relegation of the man himself made me privately sigh3 ,ah1 poor ,saltram6 ,she instantly1 with this1 took the measure of all ,i didn't believe1 and it enabled her to go on3 ,what can one do when a person has given such a lift to one's interest in life8 ,yes1 what can one do8 ,if ,i struck her as a little vague it was because ,i was thinking of another person4 ,i indulged in another inarticulate murmur--,poor ,george ,gravener6 ,what had become of the lift he had given that interest8 ,later on ,i made up my mind that she was sore and stricken at the appearance he presented of wanting the miserable money4 ,it was the hidden reason of her alienation4 ,the probable sincerity1 in spite of the illiberality1 of his scruples about the particular use of it under discussion didn't efface the ugliness of his demand that they should buy a good house with it4 ,then1 as for his alienation1 he didn't1 pardonably enough1 grasp the lift ,frank ,saltram had given her interest in life4 ,if a mere spectator could ask that last question1 with what rage in his heart the man himself might6 ,he was not1 like her1 ,i was to see1 too proud to show me why he was disappointed4 ,,xi ,i was unable1 this time1 to stay to dinner3 such1 at any rate1 was the plea on which ,i took leave4 ,i desired in truth to get away from my young lady1 for that obviously helped me not to pretend to satisfy her4 ,how could ,i satisfy her8 ,i asked myself--how could ,i tell her how much had been kept back8 ,i didn't even know1 myself1 and ,i certainly didn't desire to know4 ,my own policy had ever been to learn the least about poor ,saltram's weaknesses--not to learn the most4 ,a great deal that ,i had in fact learned had been forced upon me by his wife4 ,there was something even irritating in ,miss ,anvoy's crude conscientiousness1 and ,i wondered why after all she couldn't have let him alone and been content to entrust ,george ,gravener with the purchase of the good house4 ,i was sure he would have driven a bargain1 got something excellent and cheap4 ,i laughed louder even than she1 ,i temporised1 ,i failed her2 ,i told her ,i must think over her case4 ,i professed a horror of responsibilities and twitted her with her own extravagant passion for them4 ,it was not really that ,i was afraid of the scandal1 the moral discredit for the ,fund2 what troubled me most was a feeling of a different order4 ,of course1 as the beneficiary of the ,fund was to enjoy a simple life-interest1 as it was hoped that new beneficiaries would arise and come up to new standards1 it would not be a trifle that the first of these worthies should not have been a striking example of the domestic virtues4 ,the ,fund would start badly1 as it were1 and the laurel would1 in some respects at least1 scarcely be greener from the brows of the original wearer4 ,that idea however was at that hour1 as ,i have hinted1 not the source of anxiety it ought perhaps to have been1 for ,i felt less the irregularity of ,saltram's getting the money than that of this exalted young woman's giving it up4 ,i wanted her to have it for herself1 and ,i told her so before ,i went away4 ,she looked graver at this than she had looked at all1 saying she hoped such a preference wouldn't make me dishonest4 ,it made me1 to begin with1 very restless--made me1 instead of going straight to the station1 fidget a little about that many-coloured ,common which gives ,wimbledon horizons4 ,there was a worry for me to work off1 or rather keep at a distance1 for ,i declined even to admit to myself that ,i had1 in ,miss ,anvoy's phrase1 been saddled with it4 ,what could have been clearer indeed than the attitude of recognising perfectly what a world of trouble the ,coxon ,fund would in future save us1 and of yet liking better to face a continuance of that trouble than see1 and in fact contribute to1 a deviation from attainable bliss in the life of two other persons in whom ,i was deeply interested8 ,suddenly1 at the end of twenty minutes1 there was projected across this clearness the image of a massive1 middle-aged man seated on a bench1 under a tree1 with sad1 far-wandering eyes and plump white hands folded on the head of a stick--a stick ,i recognised1 a stout gold-headed staff that ,i had given him in throbbing days4 ,i stopped short as he turned his face to me1 and it happened that for some reason or other ,i took in as ,i had perhaps never done before the beauty of his rich blank gaze4 ,it was charged with experience as the sky is charged with light1 and ,i felt on the instant as if we had been overspanned and conjoined by the great arch of a bridge or the great dome of a temple4 ,doubtless ,i was rendered peculiarly sensitive to it by something in the way ,i had been giving him up and sinking him4 ,while ,i met it ,i stood there smitten1 and ,i felt myself responding to it with a sort of guilty grimace4 ,this brought back his attention in a smile which expressed for me a cheerful1 weary patience1 a bruised noble gentleness4 ,i had told ,miss ,anvoy that he had no dignity1 but what did he seem to me1 all unbuttoned and fatigued as he waited for me to come up1 if he didn't seem unconcerned with small things1 didn't seem in short majestic8 ,there was majesty in his mere unconsciousness of our little conferences and puzzlements over his maintenance and his reward4 ,after ,i had sat by him a few minutes ,i passed my arm over his big soft shoulder 7wherever you touched him you found equally little firmness17 and said in a tone of which the suppliance fell oddly on my own car3 ,come back to town with me1 old friend--come back and spend the evening4 ,i wanted to hold him1 ,i wanted to keep him1 and at ,waterloo1 an hour later1 ,i telegraphed possessively to the ,mulvilles4 ,when he objected1 as regards staying all night1 that he had no things1 ,i asked him if he hadn't everything of mine4 ,i had abstained from ordering dinner1 and it was too late for preliminaries at a club2 so we were reduced to tea and fried fish at my rooms--reduced also to the transcendent4 ,something had come up which made me want him to feel at peace with me1 which was all the dear man himself wanted on any occasion4 ,i had too often had to press upon him considerations irrelevant1 but it gives me pleasure now to think that on that particular evening ,i didn't even mention ,mrs4 ,saltram and the children4 ,late into the night we smoked and talked2 old shames and old rigours fell away from us2 ,i only let him see that ,i was conscious of what ,i owed him4 ,he was as mild as contrition and as abundant as faith2 he was never so fine as on a shy return1 and even better at forgiving than at being forgiven4 ,i daresay it was a smaller matter than that famous night at ,wimbledon1 the night of the problematical sobriety and of ,miss ,anvoy's initiation2 but ,i was as much in it on this occasion as ,i had been out of it then4 ,at about #a4cj he was sublime4 ,he never1 under any circumstances1 rose till all other risings were over1 and his breakfasts1 at ,wimbledon1 had always been the principal reason mentioned by departing cooks4 ,the coast was therefore clear for me to receive her when1 early the next morning1 to my surprise1 it was announced to me that his wife had called4 ,i hesitated1 after she had come up1 about telling her ,saltram was in the house1 but she herself settled the question1 kept me reticent1 by drawing forth a sealed letter which1 looking at me very hard in the eyes1 she placed1 with a pregnant absence of comment1 in my hand4 ,for a single moment there glimmered before me the fond hope that ,mrs4 ,saltram had tendered me1 as it were1 her resignation and desired to embody the act in an unsparing form4 ,to bring this about ,i would have feigned any humiliation2 but after my eyes had caught the superscription ,i heard myself say with a flatness that betrayed a sense of something very different from relief3 ,oh1 the ,pudneys8 ,i knew their envelopes1 though they didn't know mine4 ,they always used the kind sold at post-offices with the stamp affixed1 and as this letter had not been posted they had wasted a penny on me4 ,i had seen their horrid missives to the ,mulvilles1 but had not been in direct correspondence with them4 ,they enclosed it to me1 to be delivered4 ,they doubtless explain to you that they hadn't your address4 ,i turned the thing over without opening it4 ,why in the world should they write to me8 ,because they have something to tell you4 ,the worst1 ,mrs4 ,saltram dryly added4 ,it was another chapter1 ,i felt1 of the history of their lamentable quarrel with her husband1 the episode in which1 vindictively1 disingenuously as they themselves had behaved1 one had to admit that he had put himself more grossly in the wrong than at any moment of his life4 ,he had begun by insulting the matchless ,mulvilles for these more specious protectors1 and then1 according to his wont at the end of a few months1 had dug a still deeper ditch for his aberration than the chasm left yawning behind4 ,the chasm at ,wimbledon was now blessedly closed2 but the ,pudneys across their persistent gulf1 kept up the nastiest fire4 ,i never doubted they had a strong case1 and ,i had been from the first for not defending him--reasoning that if they were not contradicted they would perhaps subside4 ,this was above all what ,i wanted1 and ,i so far prevailed1 that ,i did arrest the correspondence in time to save our little circle an infliction heavier than it perhaps would have borne4 ,i knew1 that is ,i divined1 that they had produced as yet as much as they dared1 conscious as they were in their own virtue of an exposed place in which ,saltram could have planted a blow4 ,it was a question with them whether a man who had himself so much to cover up would dare2 so that these vessels of rancour were in a manner afraid of each other4 ,i judged that on the day the ,pudneys should cease for some reason or other to be afraid they would treat us to some revelation more disconcerting than any of its predecessors4 ,as ,i held ,mr4 ,saltram's letter in my hand it was distinctly communicated to me that the day had come--they had ceased to be afraid4 ,i don't want to know the worst1 ,i presently declared4 ,you'll have to open the letter4 ,it also contains an enclosure4 ,i felt it--it was fat and uncanny4 ,wheels within wheels6 ,i exclaimed4 ,there is something for me too to deliver4 ,so they tell me--to ,miss ,anvoy4 ,i stared2 ,i felt a certain thrill4 ,why don't they send it to her directly8 ,mrs4 ,saltram hesitated6 ,because she's staying with ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,mulville4 ,and why should that prevent8 ,again my visitor faltered1 and ,i began to reflect on the grotesque1 the unconscious perversity of her action4 ,i was the only person save ,george ,gravener and the ,mulvilles who was aware of ,sir ,gregory ,coxon's and of ,miss ,anvoy's strange bounty4 ,where could there have been a more signal illustration of the clumsiness of human affairs than her having complacently selected this moment to fly in the face of it8 ,there's the chance of their seeing her letters4 ,they know ,mr4 ,pudney's hand4 ,still ,i didn't understand2 then it flashed upon me4 ,you mean they might intercept it8 ,how can you imply anything so base8 ,i indignantly demanded4 ,it's not ,i2 it's ,mr4 ,pudney6 cried ,mrs4 ,saltram with a flush4 ,it's his own idea4 ,then why couldn't he send the letter to you to be delivered8 ,mrs4 ,saltram's colour deepened2 she gave me another hard look4 ,you must make that out for yourself4 ,i made it out quickly enough4 ,it's a denunciation8 ,a real lady doesn't betray her husband6 this virtuous woman exclaimed4 ,i burst out laughing1 and ,i fear my laugh may have had an effect of impertinence4 ,especially to ,miss ,anvoy1 who's so easily shocked8 ,why do such things concern her8 ,i asked1 much at a loss4 ,because she's there1 exposed to all his craft4 ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,pudney have been watching this2 they feel she may be taken in4 ,thank you for all the rest of us6 ,what difference can it make1 when she has lost her power to contribute8 ,again ,mrs4 ,saltram considered2 then very nobly3 ,there are other things in the world than money1 she remarked4 ,this hadn't occurred to her so long as the young lady had any2 but she now added1 with a glance at my letter1 that ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,pudney doubtless explained their motives4 ,it's all in kindness1 she continued as she got up4 ,kindness to ,miss ,anvoy8 ,you took1 on the whole1 another view of kindness before her reverses4 ,my companion smiled with some acidity4 ,perhaps you're no safer than the ,mulvilles6 ,i didn't want her to think that1 nor that she should report to the ,pudneys that they had not been happy in their agent2 and ,i well remember that this was the moment at which ,i began1 with considerable emotion1 to promise myself to enjoin upon ,miss ,anvoy never to open any letter that should come to her with a stamp worked into the envelope4 ,my emotion and ,i fear ,i must add my confusion quickly increased2 ,i presently should have been as glad to frighten ,mrs4 ,saltram as to think ,i might by some diplomacy restore the ,pudneys to a quieter vigilance4 ,it's best you should take my view of my safety1 ,i at any rate soon responded4 ,when ,i saw she didn't know what ,i meant by this ,i added3 ,you may turn out to have done1 in bringing me this letter1 a thing you will profoundly regret4 ,my tone had a significance which1 ,i could see1 did make her uneasy1 and there was a moment1 after ,i had made two or three more remarks of studiously bewildering effect1 at which her eyes followed so hungrily the little flourish of the letter with which ,i emphasised them1 that ,i instinctively slipped ,mr4 ,pudney's communication into my pocket4 ,she looked1 in her embarrassed annoyance1 as if she might grab it and send it back to him4 ,i felt1 after she had gone1 as if ,i had almost given her my word ,i wouldn't deliver the enclosure4 ,the passionate movement1 at any rate1 with which1 in solitude1 ,i transferred the whole thing1 unopened1 from my pocket to a drawer which ,i double-locked would have amounted1 for an initiated observer1 to some such promise4 ,,xii ,mrs4 ,saltram left me drawing my breath more quickly and indeed almost in pain--as if ,i had just perilously grazed the loss of something precious4 ,i didn't quite know what it was--it had a shocking resemblance to my honour4 ,the emotion was the livelier doubtless in that my pulses were still shaken with the great rejoicing with which1 the night before1 ,i had rallied to the most potent inspirer it could ever have been a man's fortune to meet4 ,what had dropped from me like a cumbersome garment as ,saltram appeared before me in the afternoon on the heath was the disposition to haggle over his value4 ,hang it1 one had to choose1 one had to put that value somewhere2 so ,i would put it really high and have done with it4 ,mrs4 ,mulville drove in for him at a discreet hour--the earliest she could presume him to have got up2 and ,i learned that ,miss ,anvoy would also have come had she not been expecting a visit from ,mr4 ,gravener4 ,i was perfectly mindful that ,i was under bonds to see this young lady1 and also that ,i had a letter to deliver to her2 but ,i took my time1 ,i waited from day to day4 ,i left ,mrs4 ,saltram to deal as her apprehensions should prompt with the ,pudneys4 ,i knew at last what ,i meant--,i had ceased to wince at my responsibility4 ,i gave this supreme impression of ,saltram time to fade if it would2 but it didn't fade1 and1 individually1 it has not faded even now4 ,during the month that ,i thus invited myself to stiffen again ,adelaide ,mulville1 perplexed by my absence1 wrote to me to ask why ,i was so stiff4 ,at that season of the year ,i was usually oftener with them4 ,she also wrote that she feared a real estrangement had set in between ,mr4 ,gravener and her sweet young friend--a state of things only partly satisfactory to her so long as the advantage accruing to ,mr4 ,saltram failed to disengage itself from the cold mists of theory4 ,she intimated that her sweet young friend was1 if anything1 a trifle too reserved2 she also intimated that there might now be an opening for another clever young man4 ,there never was the slightest opening1 ,i may here parenthesise1 and of course the question can't come up to-day4 ,these are old frustrations now4 ,ruth ,anvoy has not married1 ,i hear1 and neither have ,i4 ,during the month1 toward the end1 ,i wrote to ,george ,gravener to ask if1 on a special errand1 ,i might come to see him1 and his answer was to knock the very next day at my door4 ,i saw he had immediately connected my inquiry with the talk we had had in the railway carriage1 and his promptitude showed that the ashes of his eagerness were not yet cold4 ,i told him there was something ,i thought ,i ought in candour to let him know--,i recognised the obligation his friendly confidence had laid upon me4 ,you mean that ,miss ,anvoy has talked to you8 ,she has told me so herself1 he said4 ,it was not to tell so that ,i wanted to see you1 ,i replied2 for it seemed to me that such a communication would rest wholly with herself4 ,if however she did speak to you of our conversation she probably told you that ,i was discouraging4 ,discouraging8 ,on the subject of a present application of the ,coxon ,fund4 ,to the case of ,mr4 ,saltram8 ,my dear fellow1 ,i don't know what you call discouraging6 ,gravener exclaimed4 ,well1 ,i thought ,i was1 and ,i thought she thought ,i was4 ,i believe she did1 but such a thing is measured by the effect4 ,she's not discouraged4 ,that's her own affair4 ,the reason ,i asked you to see me was that it appeared to me ,i ought to tell you frankly that decidedly ,i can't undertake to produce that effect4 ,in fact ,i don't want to6 ,it's very good of you1 damn you6 my visitor laughed1 red and really grave4 ,then he said3 ,you would like to see that fellow publicly glorified--perched on the pedestal of a great complimentary fortune8 ,taking one form of public recognition with another1 it seems to me on the whole ,i could bear it4 ,when ,i see the compliments that are paid right and left1 ,i ask myself why this one shouldn't take its course4 ,this therefore is what you're entitled to have looked to me to mention to you4 ,i have some evidence that perhaps would be really dissuasive1 but ,i propose to invite ,miss ,anvoy to remain in ignorance of it4 ,and to invite me to do the same8 ,oh1 you don't require it--you've evidence enough4 ,i speak of a sealed letter which ,i've been requested to deliver to her4 ,and you don't mean to8 ,there's only one consideration that would make me4 ,gravener's clear1 handsome eyes plunged into mine a minute2 but evidently without fishing up a clue to this motive--a failure by which ,i was almost wounded4 ,what does the letter contain8 ,it's sealed1 as ,i tell you1 and ,i don't know what it contains4 ,why is it sent through you8 ,rather than you8 ,i hesitated a moment4 ,the only explanation ,i can think of is that the person sending it may have imagined your relations with ,miss ,anvoy to be at an end--may have been told they were by ,mrs4 ,saltram4 ,my relations with ,miss ,anvoy are not at an end1 poor ,gravener stammered4 ,again1 for an instant1 ,i deliberated4 ,the offer ,i propose to make you gives me the right to put you a question remarkably direct4 ,are you still engaged to ,miss ,anvoy8 ,no1 ,i'm not1 he slowly brought out4 ,but we're perfectly good friends4 ,such good friends that you will again become prospective husband and wife if the obstacle in your path be removed8 ,removed8 ,gravener vaguely repeated4 ,if ,i give ,miss ,anvoy the letter ,i speak of she may drop her project4 ,then for ,god's sake give it6 ,i'll do so if you're ready to assure me that her dropping it would now presumably bring about your marriage4 ,i'd marry her the next day6 my visitor cried4 ,yes1 but would she marry you8 ,what ,i ask of you of course is nothing less than your word of honour as to your conviction of this4 ,if you give it me1 ,i said1 ,i'll place the letter in her hand to-day4 ,gravener took up his hat2 turning it mechanically round1 he stood looking a moment hard at its unruffled perfection4 ,then1 very angrily1 honestly and gallantly3 ,place it in hell6 he broke out2 with which he clapped the hat on his head and left me4 ,will you read it or not8 ,i said to ,ruth ,anvoy1 at ,wimbledon1 when ,i had told her the story of ,mrs4 ,saltram's visit4 ,she reflected for a period which was probably of the briefest1 but which was long enough to make me nervous4 ,have you brought it with you8 ,no indeed4 ,it's at home1 locked up4 ,there was another great silence1 and then she said3 ,go back and destroy it4 ,i went back1 but ,i didn't destroy it till after ,saltram's death1 when ,i burnt it unread4 ,the ,pudneys approached her again pressingly1 but1 prompt as they were1 the ,coxon ,fund had already become an operative benefit and a general amaze2 ,mr4 ,saltram1 while we gathered about1 as it were1 to watch the manna descend1 was already drawing the magnificent income4 ,he drew it as he had always drawn everything1 with a grand abstracted gesture4 ,its magnificence1 alas1 as all the world now knows1 quite quenched him2 it was the beginning of his decline4 ,it was also naturally a new grievance for his wife1 who began to believe in him as soon as he was blighted and who to this day accuses us of having bribed him to gratify the fad of a pushing ,american1 to renounce his glorious office1 to become1 as she says1 like everybody else4 ,on the day he found himself able to publish he wholly ceased to produce4 ,this deprived us1 as may easily be imagined1 of much of our occupation1 and especially deprived the ,mulvilles1 whose want of self-support ,i never measured till they lost their great inmate4 ,they have no one to live on now4 ,adelaide's most frequent reference to their destitution is embodied in the remark that dear far-away ,ruth's intentions were doubtless good4 ,she and ,kent are even yet looking for another prop1 but everyone is so dreadfully robust4 ,with ,saltram the type was scattered1 the grander1 the elder style4 ,they have got their carriage back1 but what's an empty carriage8 ,in short1 ,i think we were all happier as well as poorer before2 even including ,george ,gravener1 who1 by the deaths of his brother and his nephew1 has lately become ,lord ,maddock4 ,his wife1 whose fortune clears the property1 is criminally dull2 he hates being in the ,upper ,house and he has not yet had high office4 ,but what are these accidents1 which ,i should perhaps apologise for mentioning1 in the light of the great eventual boon promised the patient by the rate at which the ,coxon ,fund must be rolling up8 ,for the ,backs of ,playing ,cards ,by ,aymer ,vallance ,illustration3 ,backs of ,four ,playing ,cards ,illustration3 ,table of ,contents and ,art ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,punctuation1 use of hyphens1 and accent marks were standardized4 ,dialect1 obsolete and alternative spellings were left unchanged4 ,missing 7unprinted7 letters were added4 ,spelling corrections are noted below4 ,words in italics are surrounded by underscores1 like this4 ,the illustration on the back cover of the magazine duplicated the table of contents and list of illustrations1 with the addition of sketches at the top and bottom of the page4 ,the text was not repeated at the end of the book4 ,corrections3 'resourse' to 'resource' 444 whatever resource he could command 444 'do' to 'to' 444 and to judge from its stout walls 444 ',rennuf' to ',renouf' 444 ,but ,mr4 ,renouf may 444 ',chause' to ',chausse' 444 corner of the ,chausse d',antin1444 'consciouness' to 'consciousness' 444 imply a consciousness of guilt 444 'lettter' to 'letter' 444 began to write a letter1444 'you're' to 'your' 444 the idea of your being a governess8444 'musn't' to 'mustn't' 444 she mustn't be oppressed 444 'senuous' to 'sensuous' 444 nervous1 sensuous1 trembling1444 'architectual' to 'architectural' 444 chief architectural ornaments2444 missing word 'you' added3 444 only those who you really like1444 'hackeyed' to 'hackneyed' 444 employ a hackneyed1 and often quite 444 'wisdow' to 'wisdom' 444 to borrow wisdom 444 'musn't' to 'mustn't' 444 ,you mustn't suppose he's good looking 444 'lasping' to 'lapsing' 444 has come very near lapsing4444 'their' to 'there' 444 hold that there was never 444