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diff --git a/13956-0.txt b/13956-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4299617 --- /dev/null +++ b/13956-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8748 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13956 *** + +Note: The Table of Contents and the list of illustrations were added +by the transcriber. + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE OF POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE + +May, 1876. + +Vol. XVII, No. 101. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + THE CENTURY--ITS FRUITS AND ITS FESTIVAL. + + V.--MINOR STRUCTURES OF THE EXHIBITION. [Illustrated] + + GLIMPSES OF CONSTANTINOPLE by SHEILA HALE. + + TWO PAPERS.--I. [Illustrated] + + THE BALLAD OF THE BELL-TOWER by MARGARET J. PRESTON. + + BERLIN AND VIENNA by JAMES MORGAN HART. + + THE ATONEMENT OF LEAM DUNDAS. + By MRS. E. LYNN LINTON, AUTHOR OF "PATRICIA KEMBALL." + + CHAPTER XXXIII. OUR MARRIAGE. + + CHAPTER XXXIV. IS THIS LOVE? + + CHAPTER XXXV. DUNASTON CASTLE. + + CHAPTER XXXVI. IN LETTERS OF FIRE. + + ROSE-MORALS by SIDNEY LANIER. + + AN OLD HOUSE AND ITS STORY by K. T. T. + + THE WATCH: AN OLD MAN'S STORY by IVAN TOURGUENEFF. + + TRANSLATIONS FROM HEINE by EMMA LAZARUS. + + I.--CHILDE HAROLD. + + II.--SPRING FESTIVAL. + + LETTERS FROM SOUTH AFRICA by LADY BARKER. + + THE LIFE OF GEORGE TICKNOR by T. S. PERRY. + + OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + + A REMINISCENCE OF MACAULAY by E. Y. + + UNVEILING KEATS'S MEDALLION by T. A. T. + + GINO CAPPONI by T. A. T. + + A DINNER WITH ROSSI by L. H. H. + + "FOUNDERS DAY" AT RAINE'S HOSPITAL by B. M. + + NOTES. + + LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + _Books Received._ + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + FOUNTAIN OF THE CATHOLIC TOTAL ABSTINENCE UNION. + + JUDGES' PAVILION. + + WOMEN'S PAVILION. + + UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BUILDING. + + OHIO BUILDING. + + NEW JERSEY BUILDING. + + NEW YORK BUILDING. + + PENNSYLVANIA BUILDING. + + PLAN OF EXHIBITION GROUNDS. + + JAPANESE BUILDING. + + SWEDISH SCHOOL-HOUSE. + + SPANISH BUILDING. + + BRITISH BUILDINGS. + + GERMAN BUILDING. + + HORTICULTURAL HALL--INTERIOR. + + AMMALE. + + TURKISH LADY. + + THE SULTAN'S NEW PALACE ON THE BOSPHORUS. + + MARBLE STAIRCASE, PALACE OF BESKIK-TASCH. + + MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA. + + INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA. + + HAREM SCENE. + + MOUNT PLEASANT. + + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE + +OF + +_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE_. + +MAY, 1876. + + + + +THE CENTURY--ITS FRUITS AND ITS FESTIVAL. + +V.--MINOR STRUCTURES OF THE EXHIBITION. + + +[Illustration: FOUNTAIN OF THE CATHOLIC TOTAL ABSTINENCE UNION.] + +Compress it as you may, this globe of ours remains quite a bulky +affair. The world in little is not reducible to a microscopic point. +The nations collected to show their riches, crude and wrought, bring +with them also their wants. For the display, for its comfort and good +order, not only space, but a carefully-planned organization and a +multiplicity of appliances are needed. Separate or assembled, men +demand a home, a government, workshops, show-rooms and restaurants. +For even so paternal and, within its especial domain, autocratic +a sway as that of the Centennial Commission to provide all these +directly would be impossible. A great deal is, as in the outer world, +necessarily left to private effort, combined or individual. + +Having in our last paper sketched the provision made by the management +for sheltering and properly presenting to the eye the objects on +exhibition, we shall now turn from the strictly public buildings to +the more numerous ones which surround them, and descend, so to speak, +from the Capitol to the capital. + +Our circuit brought us back to the neighborhood of the principal +entrance. Standing here, facing the interval between the Main Building +and Machinery Hall, our eyes and steps are conducted from great to +greater by a group of buildings which must bear their true name of +offices, belittling as a title suggestive of clerks and counting-rooms +is to dimensions and capacity exceeding those of most churches. Right +and left a brace of these modest but sightly and habitable-looking +foot-hills to the Alps of glass accommodate the executive and staff +departments of the exposition. They bring together, besides the +central administration, the post, police, custom-house, telegraph, +etc. A front, including the connecting verandah, of five hundred feet +indicates the scale on which this transitory government is organized. +Farther back, directly opposite the entrance, but beyond the north +line of the great halls, stands the Judges' Pavilion. In this +capacious "box," a hundred and fifty-two by a hundred and fifteen +feet, the grand and petit juries of the tribunal of industry and taste +have abundant elbow--room for deliberation and discussion. The same +enlightened policy which aimed at securing the utmost independence and +the highest qualifications of knowledge and intelligence in the two +hundred men who determine the awards, recognized also the advantage +of providing for their convenience. Their sessions here can be neither +cramped nor disturbed. So far as foresight can go, there is nothing +to prevent their deciding quietly, comfortably and soundly, after mute +argument from the vast array of objects submitted to their verdict, on +the merits of each. The main hall of this building, or high court as +it may be termed, is sixty by eighty feet, and forty-three feet high. +In the rear of it is a smaller hall. A number of other chambers +and committee-rooms are appropriated to the different branches as +classified. Accommodation is afforded, besides, to purposes of a less +arid nature--fêtes, receptions, conventions, international congresses +and the like. This cosmopolitan forum might fitly have been modeled +after + + the tower that builders vain, + Presumptuous, piled on Shinar's plain. + +Bricks from Birs Nimroud would have been a good material for the +walks. Perhaps, order being the great end, anything savoring of +confusion was thought out of place. + +[Illustration: JUDGES' PAVILION.] + +Fire is an invader of peace and property, defence against whose +destructive forays is one of the first and most constant cares of +American cities, old and new, great and small. Before the foundations +of the Main Building were laid the means of meeting the foe on the +threshold were planned. The Main Building alone contains seventy-five +fire-plugs, with pressure sufficient to throw water over its +highest point. Adjacent to it on the outside are thirty-three more. +Seventy-six others protect Machinery Hall, within which are +the head-quarters of the fire service. A large outfit of steam +fire-engines, hose, trucks, ladders, extinguishers and other +appliances of the kind make up a force powerful enough, one +would think, to put out that shining light in the records of +conflagration--Constantinople. Steam is kept up night and day in the +engines, which, with their appurtenances, are manned by about two +hundred picked men. The houses for their shelter, erected at a cost +of eight thousand dollars, complete, if we except some architectural +afterthoughts in the shape of annexes, the list of the buildings +erected by the commission. + +[Illustration: WOMEN'S PAVILION.] + +_Place aux dames!_ First among the independent structures we must note +the Women's Pavilion. After having well earned, by raising a large +contribution to the Centennial stock, the privilege of expending +thirty-five thousand dollars of their own on a separate receptacle of +products of the female head and hand, the ladies selected for that a +sufficiently modest site and design. To the trait of modesty we +cannot say that the building has failed to add that of grace. In this +respect, however, it does not strike us as coming up to the standard +attained by some of its neighbors. The low-arched roofs give it +somewhat the appearance of a union railway-depot; and one is apt to +look for the emergence from the main entrances rather of locomotives +than of ladies. The interior, however is more light and airy in effect +than the exterior. But "pretty is that pretty does" was a favorite +maxim of the Revolutionary dames; and the remarkable energy shown by +their fair descendants, under the presidency of Mrs. E. D. Gillespie, +in carrying through this undertaking will impart to it new force. The +rule is quite in harmony with it that mere frippery should be avoided +within and without, and the purely decorative architect excluded with +Miss McFlimsey. The ground-plan is very simple, blending the cross and +the square. Nave and transept are identical in dimensions, each being +sixty-four by one hundred and ninety-two feet. The four angles +formed by their intersection are nearly filled out by as many sheds +forty-eight feet square. A cupola springs from the centre to a height +of ninety feet. An area of thirty thousand square feet strikes us as a +modest allowance for the adequate display of female industry. For the +filling of the vast cubic space between floor and roof the managers +are fain to invoke the aid of an orchestra of the sterner sex to keep +it in a state of chronic saturation with music. + +[Illustration: UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BUILDING.] + +Reciprocity, however, obtains here. The votaries of harmony naturally +seek the patronage of woman. Her territorial empire has accordingly +far overstepped the narrow bounds we have been viewing. The Women's +Centennial Music Hall on Broad street is designed for all the musical +performances connected with the exposition save those forming part of +the opening ceremonies. This is assuming for it a large office, and we +should have expected so bold a calculation to be backed by floor-room +for more than the forty-five hundred hearers the hall is able to seat. +A garden into which it opens will accommodate an additional number, +and may suggest souvenirs of _al-fresco_ concerts to European +travelers. + +Nor does the sex extend traces of its sway in this direction alone. A +garden of quite another kind, meant for blossoms other than those of +melody, and still more dependent upon woman's nurture, finds a place +in the exposition grounds near the Pavilion. Of the divers species +of _Garten_--_Blumen-, Thier-, Bier_-, etc.--rife in Vaterland, the +_Kinder_- is the latest selected for acclimation in America. If +the mothers of our land take kindly to it, it will probably become +something of an institution among us. But that is an _If_ of +portentous size. The mothers aforesaid will have first to fully +comprehend the new system. It is not safe to say with any confidence +at first sight that we rightly understand any conception of a German +philosopher; but, so far as we can make it out, the Kindergarten +appears to be based on the idea of formulating the child's physical as +thoroughly as his intellectual training, and at the same time closely +consulting his idiosyncrasy in the application of both. His natural +disposition and endowments are to be sedulously watched, and guided +or wholly repressed as the case may demand. The budding artist +is supplied with pencil, the nascent musician with trumpet or +tuning-fork, the florist with tiny hoe and trowel, and so on. The +boy is never loosed, physically or metaphysically, quite out of +leading-strings. They are made, however, so elastic as scarce to +be felt, and yet so strong as never to break. Moral suasion, +perseveringly applied, predominates over Solomon's system. It is +a very nice theory, and we may all study here, at the point of the +lecture-rod wielded by fair fingers, its merits as a specific for +giving tone to the constitution of Young America. + +At the side of the Kindergarten springs a more indigenous growth--the +Women's School-house. In this reminder of early days we may freshen +our jaded memories, and wonder if, escaped from the dame's school, +we have been really manumitted from the instructing hand of women, or +ever shall be in the world, or ought to be. + +Is the "New England Log-house," devoted to the contrasting of the +cuisine of this and the Revolutionary period, strictly to be assigned +to the women's ward of the great extempore city? Is its proximity to +the buildings just noticed purely accidental, or meant to imply that +cookery is as much a female art and mystery as it was a century ago? +However this may be, the erection of this temple to the viands of +other days was a capital idea, and a blessed one should it aid in the +banishment of certain popular delicacies which afflict the digestive +apparatus of to-day. This kitchen of the forest epoch is naturally +of logs, and logs in their natural condition, with the bark on. +The planking of that period is represented by clap-boards or slabs. +Garnished with ropes of onions, dried apples, linsey-woolsey garments +and similar drapery, the aspect of the walls will remind us of +Lowell's lines: + + Crook-necks above the chimly hung, + While in among 'em rusted + The old Queen's-arm that Gran'ther Young + Brought hack from Concord busted. + +The log-house is not by any means an abandoned feature of antiquity. +It is still a thriving American "institution" North, West and South, +only not so conspicuous in the forefront of our civilization as it +once was. It turns out yet fair women and brave men, and more than +that--if it be not treason to use terms so unrepublican--the highest +product of this world, gentlemen and gentlewomen. + +[Illustration: OHIO BUILDING.] + +Uncle Sam confronts the ladies from over the way, a ferocious battery +of fifty-seven-ton Rodman guns and other monsters of the same family +frowning defiance to their smiles and wiles. His traditional dread of +masked batteries may have something to do with this demonstration. He +need not fear, however. His fair neighbors and nieces have their hands +full with their own concerns, and leave him undisturbed in his stately +bachelor's hall to "illustrate the functions and administrative +faculties of the government in time of peace and its resources as a +war-power." To do this properly, he has found two acres of ground none +too much. The building, business-like and capable-looking, was erected +in a style and with a degree of economy creditable to the officers +of the board, selected from the Departments of War, Agriculture, the +Treasury, Navy, Interior and Post-Office, and from the Smithsonian +Institution. Appended to it are smaller structures for the +illustration of hospital and laboratory work--a kill-and-cure +association that is but one of the odd contradictions of war. + +The sentiments prevalent in this era of perfect peace, harmony and +balance of rights forbids the suspicion of any significance in +the fact that the lordly palace of the Federal government at once +overshadows and turns its back upon the humbler tenements of the +States. A line of these, drawn up in close order, shoulder to +shoulder, is ranged, hard by, against the tall fence that encloses +the grounds. The Keystone State, as beseems her, heads the line by +the left flank. Then come, in due order, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, +Michigan, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts and +Delaware. New Jersey and Kansas stand proudly apart, officer-like, on +the opposite side of the avenue; the regimental canteen, in the shape +of the Southern Restaurant, jostling them rather too closely. Somewhat +in keeping with the over-prominence of the latter adjunct is the +militia-like aspect of the array, wonderfully irregular as are its +members in stature and style. Pennsylvania's pavilion, costing forty +thousand dollars, or half as much as the United States building, plays +the leading grenadier well; but little Delaware, not content with the +obscure post of file-closer, swells at the opposite end of the line +into dimensions of ninety by seventy-five feet, with a cupola that, if +placed at Dover, would be visible from half her territory. + +[Illustration: NEW JERSEY BUILDING.] + +These buildings are all of wood, with the exception of that of Ohio, +which exhibits some of the fine varieties of stone furnished by the +quarries of that State, together with some crumbling red sandstone +which ought, in our opinion, to have been left at home. All have two +floors, save the Massachusetts cottage, a quaint affair modeled after +the homes of the past. Virginia ought to have placed by its side one +of her own old country-houses, long and low, with attic windows, the +roof spreading with unbroken line over a portico the full length of +the front, and a broad-bottomed chimney on the outside of each gable. +The State of New York plays orderly sergeant, and stands in front +of Delaware. She is very fortunate in the site assigned her, at +the junction of State Avenue with several broad promenades, and her +building is not unworthy so prominent a position. + +From the Empire State we step into the domain of Old England. Three +of her rural homesteads rise before us, red-tiled, many-gabled, +lattice-windowed, and telling of a kindly winter with external +chimneys that care not for the hoarding of heat. It is a bit of the +island peopled by some of the islanders. They are colonized here, from +commissioner in charge down to private, in a cheek-by-jowl fashion +that shows their ability to unbend and republicanize on occasion. +Great Britain's head-quarters are made particularly attractive, not +more by the picturesqueness of the buildings than by the extent and +completeness of her exhibit. In her preparations for neither the +French nor the Austrian exposition did she manifest a stronger +determination to be thoroughly well represented. Col. H.B. Sanford, of +the Royal Artillery, heads her commission. + +Japan is a common and close neighbor to the two competitors for her +commercial good-will, England and New York. Modern Anglo-Saxondom and +old Cathay touch eaves with each other. Hemlock and British oak rub +against bamboo, and dwellings which at first sight may impress one as +chiefly chimney stand in sharp contrast with one wholly devoid of that +feature. The difference is that of nails and bolts against dovetails +and wooden pins; of light and pervious walls with heavy sun-repelling +roof against close and dense sides and roofs whose chief warfare is +with the clouds; of saw and plane that work in Mongol and Caucasian +hands in directions precisely reversed. To the carpenters of both +England and Japan our winter climate, albeit far milder than usual, +was alike astonishing. With equal readiness, though not with equal +violence to the _outer man_, the craftsmen of the two nations +accommodated themselves to the new atmospheric conditions. The +moulting process, in point of dress, through which the _Japanese_ +passed was not untypical of the change the _institutions_ of +their country have been undergoing in obedience to similarly stern +requirements. It did not begin at quite so rudimental a stage of +costume as that of the porters and wrestlers presented to us on fans, +admirably adapted as that style might be to our summer temperature. +In preparing for that oscillation of the thermometer the English are +called on for another change, whereas the Orientals may meet it by +simply reverting to first principles. + +[Illustration: NEW YORK BUILDING.] + +The delicacy of the Asiatic touch is exemplified in the wood-carving +upon the doorways and pediments of the Japanese dwelling. Arabesques +and reproductions of subjects from Nature are executed with a +clearness and precision such as we are accustomed to admire on the +lacquered-ware cabinets and bronzes of Japan. With us, wood has almost +completely disappeared as a glyptic material. The introduction of +mindless automatic machinery has starved out the chisel. Mouldings are +run out for us by the mile, like iron from the rolling-mill or tunes +from a musical-box, as cheap and as soulless. Forms innately beautiful +thus become almost hateful, because hackneyed. If all the women we +see were at once faultlessly beautiful and absolute duplicates of +each other in the minutest details of feature, complexion, dress and +figure, we should be in danger of conceiving an aversion to the sex. +So there is a certain pleasure in tracing in a carven object, even +though it be hideous, the patient, faithful, watchful work of the +human hand guided at every instant by the human eye. And this Japanese +tracery is by no means hideous. The plants and animals are well +studied from reality, and truer than the average of popular designs in +Europe a century ago, if not now. It is simple justice to add that for +workmanlike thoroughness this structure does not suffer in comparison +with those around it. + +Besides this dwelling for its employés, the Japanese government has +in a more central situation, close to the Judges' Pavilion, another +building. The style of this is equally characteristic. Together, the +two structures will do what houses may toward making us acquainted +with the public and private ménage of Japan. + +[Illustration: PENNSYLVANIA BUILDING.] + +In the neat little Swedish School-house, of unpainted wood, that +stands next to the main Japanese building, we have another meeting of +antipodes. Northern Europe is proud to place close under the eye of +Eastern Asia a specimen of what she is doing for education. Sweden +has indeed distinguished herself by the interest she has shown in the +exposition. At the head of her commission was placed Mr. Dannfeldt, +who supervised her display at Vienna. His activity and judgment +have obviously not suffered from the lapse of three years. +This school-house is attractive for neatness and peculiarity of +construction. It was erected by Swedish carpenters. The descendants of +the hardy sea-rovers, convinced that their inherited vigor and +thrift could not be adequately illustrated by an exclusively in-doors +exhibition, sent their portable contributions in a fine steamer of +Swedish build, the largest ever sent to sea from the Venice of the +North, and not unworthy her namesake of the Adriatic. To compete in +two of its specialties with the cradle of the common school and the +steamship is a step that tells of the bold Scandinavian spirit. + +The contemporaries and ancient foes of the Northmen, who overthrew the +Goths on land and checkmated the Vikings in the southern seas, have +a memorial in the beautiful Alhambra-like edifice of the Spanish +government. Spain has no architecture so distinctive as that of the +Moors, and the selection of their style for the present purpose was in +good taste. It lends itself well to this class of building, designed +especially for summer use; and many other examples of it will be found +upon the grounds. The Mohammedan arch is suited better to materials, +like wood and iron, which sustain themselves in part by cohesion, than +to stone, which depends upon gravitation alone. Although it stands +in stone in a long cordon of colonnades from the Ganges to the +Guadalquivir, the eye never quite reconciles itself to the suggestion +of untruth and feebleness in the recurved base of the arch. This +defect, however, is obtrusive only when the weight supported is great; +and the Moorish builders have generally avoided subjecting it to that +test. + +[Illustration: PLAN OF EXHIBITION GROUNDS.] + +Spain also has taken the liberty of widening the range of her +contributions. Soldiers, for instance, find no place in the official +classification of subjects for exhibition. She naturally thought it +worth while to show that the famous _infanteria_ of Alva, Gonsalvo, +and Cuesta "still lived." So she sends us specimens of the first, if +not just now the foremost, of all infantry. This microscopic invasion +of our soil by an armed force will be useful in reminding us of the +untiring tenacity which takes no note of time or of defeat, and which, +indifferent whether the struggle were of six, fifty, or seven hundred +years, wore down in succession the Saracens, the Flemings and the +French. + +[Illustration: JAPANESE BUILDING.] + +Samples in this particular walk of competition come likewise from the +battle-ground of Europe, Belgium sending a detachment of her troops +for police duty. We may add that the Centennial has brought back +the red-coats, a detachment of Royal Engineers, backed by part of +Inspector Bucket's men, doing duty in the British division. + +After these first drops of the military shower one looks instinctively +for the gleam of the spiked helmet at the portals of the German +building, seated not far from that of Spain, and side by side with +that of Brazil. It does not appear, however. Possibly, Prince Bismarck +scorns to send his veterans anywhere by permission. Neither does he +indulge us, like Brazil, with the sight of an emperor, or even with +cæsarism in the dilute form of a crown prince. Such exotics do not +transplant well, even for temporary potting, in this republican soil. +It is impossible, at the same time, not to reflect what a capital card +for the treasury of the exposition would have been the catching of +some of them in full bloom, as at the openings of 1867 and 1873. A +week of Wilhelm would have caused "the soft German accent," with its +tender "hochs!" to drown all other sounds between Sandy Hook and the +Golden Gate. + +Let us step over the Rhine, or rather, alas! over the Moselle, and +look up at the tricolor. It floats above a group of structures--one +for the general use of the French commission, another for the special +display of bronzes, and a third for another art-manufacture for which +France is becoming eminent--stained glass. This overflowing from her +great and closely-occupied area in Memorial Hall, hard by, indicates +the wealth of France in art. She is largely represented, moreover, in +another outlying province of the same domain--photography. + +Photographic Hall, an offshoot from Memorial Hall, and lying between +it and the Main Building, is quite a solid structure, two hundred and +fifty-eight feet by one hundred and seven, with nineteen thousand +feet of wall-space. Conceding this liberally to foreign exhibitors, an +association of American photographers erected a hall of their own in +another direction, upon Belmont Avenue beyond the Judges' Pavilion. +This will serve to exhibit the art in operation under an American sun, +and enable our photographers to compare notes and processes with their +European fellows, who treat under different atmospheric conditions a +wider range of subjects. This is the largest studio the sun, in his +capacity of artist on paper, has ever set up, as the hall provided +for him by the exposition is the largest gallery he has ever filled. +Combined, they may reasonably be expected to bear some fruit in the +way of drawing from him the secret he still withholds--the addition +of color to light and shade in the fixed images of the camera. This +further step seems, when we view within the camera the image in +perfect panoply of all its hues, so very slight in comparison with +the original discovery of Daguerre, that we can hardly refer it to a +distant future. + +Questions of finance naturally associate themselves with sitting for +one's portrait, even to the sun. A national bank becomes a necessity +to their readier solution, be they suggested by this or any other item +of expense. Such an institution has consequently a place in the outfit +of the Centennial. Here it stands within its own walls, under its own +roof and behind its own counter. The traditional cashier is at home in +his parlor, the traditional teller observes mankind from his rampart +of wire and glass, and the traditional clerk busy in the rear studies +over his shoulder the strange accent and the strange face. Over and +above the conveniences for exchange afforded by the bank, it +will introduce to foreigners the charms of one of our newest +inventions--the greenback. This humble but heterodox device, not +pleasant in the eyes of the old school of conservative financiers, is +yet unique and valuable as having accomplished the task of absolutely +equalizing the popular currency of so large a country as the Union. +That gap of twelve or thirteen per cent. between greenbacks and gold +is no doubt an _hiatus valde deflendus_--a gulf which has swallowed up +many an ardent and confident Curtius, and will swallow more before it +disappears; but the difference is uniform everywhere, and discounts +itself. Whatever the faults of our paper-money, it claims a prominent +place among the illustrations of the close of the century, for it is +the only currency save copper and Mr. Memminger's designs in blue +that a majority of American youth have ever seen. Should these young +inquirers wish to unearth the money of their fathers, they can find +the eagles among other medals of antiquity in the Mint department of +the United States Government Building. + +[Illustration: SWEDISH SCHOOL-HOUSE.] + +His fiscal affairs brought into comfortable shape, the tourist from +abroad may be desirous of seeing more of the United States than is +included in the view from the great Observatory. The landscape visible +from that point, as he will find after being wound to the top +by steam, is not flecked with buffaloes or even the smoke of the +infrequent wigwam, as the incautious reader of some Transatlantic +books of travel might expect. For the due exploration of at least a +portion of the broad territory that lies inside of the buffalo range +he needs a railway-ticket and information. These are at his command in +the "World's Ticket and Inquiry Office," the abundantly comprehensive +name of a building near the north-east corner of Machinery Hall. In a +central area sixty feet in diameter tickets to every known point are +offered to him by polyglot clerks. Here, too, a wholesome interchange +of ideas in regard to the merits of the various traveling regulations +of different countries may be expected. Baggage-checks or none, +compartment or saloon cars, ventilation or swelter in summer, freezing +or hot-water-pipes in winter, and other like differences of practice +will come under consideration with travelers in general council +assembled. Give and take will prevail between our voyagers and railway +officials and those of the Old World. Both sides may teach and learn. +Should the carriage of goods instead of persons be in question, the +American side of the materials for its discussion will be found in the +building of the Empire Transportation Company, where the economies +of system and "plant," which have for a series of years been steadily +reducing the expenses of railway-traffic until the cost of carrying +a ton one mile now falls within one cent, will be fully detailed. A +further reduction of this charge may result from the exposition if +exhibitors from Europe succeed in explaining to our engineers and +machinists how they manage to lighten their cars, and thereby avoid +carrying the excess of dead weight which contributes so much to the +annihilation of our tracks and dividends. + +[Illustration: SPANISH BUILDING.] + +The telegraph completes the mastery over space in the conveyance of +thought that the railway attains in that of persons and property. Its +facilities here are commensurable with its duty of placing thousands +of all countries in instantaneous communication with their homes. +Those from over-sea will find that, instead of dragging "at each +remove a lengthening chain," they are, on the exposition grounds, in +point of intercourse nearer home than they were when half a day out +from the port of embarkation, and ten days nearer than when they +approached our shores after a sail of three thousand miles. To get out +of call from the wire it is necessary to go to sea--and stay there. +Another hundred years, and even the seafarer will fail of seclusion. +Floating telegraph-offices will buoy the cable. Latitude 40° will +"call" the Equator, and warn Grand Banks that "Sargasso is passing +by." Not only will the march of Morse be _under_ the mountain-wave, +but his home will be on the deep. + +[Illustration: BRITISH BUILDINGS.] + +The submarine and terrestrial progress of the telegraph was in '67 and +'73 already an old story. At the Centennial it presents itself in +a new role--that of interpreter of the weather and general +storm-detector. This application of its powers is due to American +science. Indeed, the requisites for experiments were not elsewhere at +command. A vast expanse of unbroken territory comprising many climates +and belts of latitude and longitude, and penetrated throughout by the +wire under one and the same control, did not offer itself to European +investigators. These singular advantages have been well employed +by the United States Signal Service within the past five years. Its +efforts were materially aided by the antecedent researches of such men +as Espy and Maury, the latter of whom led European savants into the +recognition of correct theories of both air- and ocean-currents. +Daily observations at a hundred stations scattered over the continent, +exactly synchronized by telegraph, yielded deductions that steadily +grew more and more consistent and reliable, until at length those +particularly fickle instruments, the weather-vane, the thermometer, +the barometer and the magnetic fluid, have formed, in combination, +almost an "arm of precision." The predictions put forth in the "small +hours" each morning by the central office in Washington assume only +the modest title of "Probabilities." Some additional expenditure, with +a doubling of the number of stations, would within a few years make +that heading more of a misnomer. Meanwhile, the saving of life and +property on sea and land already effected is a solid certainty and +no mere "probability." At the station on the exposition grounds the +weather of each day, storm or shine, in most of the cities of the Old +and New Worlds will be bulletined. "Storm in Vlaenderlandt" will be as +surely announced to the Dutch stroller on Belmont Avenue as though he +were within hearing of his cathedral bell. Should such a "cautionary +signal" from beyond the ocean reach him, he may ascertain in what, if +any, danger of submergence his home stands, by stepping into one of +the branch telegraph-offices dispersed over the grounds. Or he may +satisfy all possible craving for news from that or any other quarter +in the Press Building. This metropolis of the fourth estate occupies +a romantic site on the south side of the avenue and the north bank of +the lake. Such a focus of the news and newspapers of all nations +was not paralleled at either of the preceding expositions. American +journalism will be additionally represented in the different State +buildings, where files of all the publications of each commonwealth +will be found, embracing in most cases a greater number of journals +than the entire continent boasted in 1776, and in each of the States +of Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania more than the extra-metropolitan +press of either France, Austria, Prussia or Russia can now boast. + +[Illustration: GERMAN BUILDING.] + +The commercial idea is so prominent in this, as in all expositions, +that it is difficult to draw the line between public and private +interest among its different features, and particularly among what +may be called its outgrowths, overflowings or addenda. Here is half +a square mile dotted with a picturesque assemblage of shops and +factories, among which everything may be found, from a soda-fountain +or a cigar-stand up to a monster brewery, all devoted at once to +the exemplification and the rendering immediately profitable of some +particular industry. In one ravine an ornate dairy, trim and Arcadian +in its appurtenances and ministers as that of Marie Antoinette and her +attendant Phillises at the Petit Trianon, offers a beverage presumably +about as genuine as that of '76, and much above the standard of +to-day. A Virginia tobacco-factory checkmates that innocent tipple +with "negrohead" and "navy twist." A bakery strikes the happy medium +between the liquid sustenance and the narcotic luxury by teaching +Cisatlantic victims of baking-powders and salæratus how to make Vienna +bread. Recurring to fluids, we find unconquered soda popping up, or +down, from innumerable fonts--how many, may be inferred from the fact +that a royalty of two dollars on each spigot is estimated to place +thirty-two thousand dollars in the strong box of the exposition. Nor +does this measure the whole tribute expected to be offered at these +dainty shrines of marble and silver. The two firms that bought the +monopoly of them pay in addition the round sum of twenty thousand +dollars. It speaks well for the condition of the temperance cause +that beer is the nearest rival of aerated water. An _octroi_ of three +dollars per barrel is estimated to yield fifty thousand dollars, +or two thousand dollars less than soda-water. Seventy-five thousand +dollars is the aggregate fee of the restaurants. Of these last-named +establishments, the French have two. The historic sign of the Trois +Frères Provençaux is assumed by a vast edifice in one of the most +conspicuous parts of the enclosure, sandwiched between the Press and +the Government. The "Sudreau" affects the fine arts and cultivates +with like intimacy the society of Memorial Hall. The German refectory, +Lauber's, a solid, beery sort of building, shows a fine bucolic +sense by choosing a hermitage in the grove between Agricultural +and Horticultural Halls. A number of others, of greater or less +pretensions, will enable the visitor to exclaim, with more or less +truth, toward the dusty evening, "Fate cannot harm me: I have dined +to-day." + +"Dusty," did we say? The ceaseless sob of engines that rob the +Schuylkill daily of six millions of gallons to sprinkle over +asphaltum, gravel and greensward demands recantation of the word. +Everything has been foreseen and considered, even the dust of the +earth. George's Hill Reservoir can, on occasion, give the pumps +several days' holiday, and keep all fresh and dewy as the dawn. + +Some industries meet us in the Centennial list that are not to be +detected in the United States census or any other return we are +acquainted with. What train of ideas, for example, is suggested to the +average reader by the Roll-Chair Company? The rolling-stock of this +association turns out, on inquiry, to be an in-door variety of the +conveyance wherein Mrs. Skewton was wont to take the air under the +escort of Major Bagstock. It is meant for the relief of those who wish +to see everything in the Main Building without trudging eleven miles. +Given an effective and economical motive-power, the roll-chair system +would seem to meet this want. The reader of _Dombey and Son_ will +recollect the pictorial effect, in print and etching, of the popping +up of the head of the propellent force when Mrs. S. called a halt, and +its sudden disappearance on her directing a resumption of movement. +The bobbing up and down of four hundred and fifty heads, like so +many seals, will impart a unique aspect to the vista from one of the +interior galleries of the great hall. The stipulated tax of forty +dollars on each of these vehicles will necessitate a tolerably active +undulation of polls if the company is to make both ends meet--granting +that a rotatory movement can have an end. + +Another startling item is the pop-corn privilege. A business-man of +Dayton, Ohio, finds himself justified in venturing the heavy sum of +seven thousand dollars on this very light article. Parched corn was +well known in Ohio in 1776. The Miamis and Shawnees had, however, a +monopoly of it. It composed their commissariat for a campaign against +the whites. Such is the progress of the century. + +This explosive cereal does not satiate the proverbially sweet tooth +of our people. Their craving for confectionery is laid under further +contribution by the financial managers of the exposition to the +tune, for instance, of five thousand dollars for the privilege of +manufacturing chocolate and candy. Dyspepsia insists on asserting its +position among the other acquisitions of the century. The treasures of +the American bonbonnière are said to be richer and more varied than in +any other country. Paris gets up her delicacies of this kind in more +tasteful and tempting style, but our consumers care little for +such superficial vanities. They look for solid qualities in +everything--even in their lollipops. + +Another description of fuel, employed for the external and not the +internal feeding of the animal machine, and quite as evanescent as +candy, claims a factory to itself. This is a French invention called +the Loiseau Compressed Fuel. To bring it to Philadelphia, the mart of +the anthracite region, would seem to be carrying coals to Newcastle. +The relation between demand and supply in fuel is happily, for the +present, on too sound a basis to leave much room for artificial +substitutes. Our anthracite deposits are circumscribed, but bid +fair to last until the virtually untouched seams of bituminous and +semibituminous coal shall be made amply accessible to every point of +consumption. We are not yet in the slightest perceptible danger of the +coal-famine that threatens Great Britain. + +In regard to the accommodations provided outside of the exhibition +buildings by individual enterprise for the display of various products +and processes of manufacture, it will here suffice to say that +they notably exceed the corresponding array at any of the European +expositions. Illustrations of the social and industrial life of +different races and nations are, on the other hand, inferior to what +was seen at Vienna and Paris. Mankind and their manners are more +homogeneous within an available circle around Philadelphia than around +either of those capitals. The rude populations of the lower Danube, +the Don, the Caucasus, the Steppes, Albania, Syria, Barbary, etc. +cannot be so fully represented here. That they should be, were it +practicable, would be more to their advantage than to ours perhaps, +the probability being slight that we should deem it desirable to adopt +many of their methods. Nor will the eating and drinking of the nations +be so variously illustrated as in the cordon of restaurants that so +largely contributed to the spectacular effect at Paris. The French +genius for the dramatic was quite at home in arranging that part of +the display; and they did not allow the full effect to suffer for want +of some artificial eking out. The kibaubs, pilau and sherbet that were +served up in fine Oriental style were not in all cases prepared by +Turks, Persians and Tunisians. The materials were abundant in Paris +for these and any other outlandish dainties that might be called for. +So were costumers. There was no reason, therefore, why imitations +should not be got up capable of serving every purpose, and of giving +more amusement than the genuine dishes and divans of Islam would have +done. The negro waiters in the American saloon doubtless outnumbered +all the other representatives of the dark or semi-civilized races that +appeared in a similar character. They proved a success, their genial +bearing and ever-ready smile pleasing the mass of the guests more than +did the _triste_ and impassive Moslem. The theatrical can just as well +be done here, and _quant. suff._ of Cossacks and Turks be manufactured +to order. Then we have John and Sambo in unadulterated profusion; the +former ready at the shortest notice and for very small compensation to +indoctrinate all comers in the art of plying the chopsticks, and the +latter notoriously in his element in the kitchen and the dining-room, +and able to aid the chasse-café with a song--lord alike of the +carving-knife, the cocktail and the castanets. + +Water, the simplest, most healthful and most indispensable of all +refreshments, is provided without stint and without price. Foreigners +are struck with the immense consumption of water as a beverage in this +country. They do not realize the aridity of our summer climate, which +makes it sometimes as much of a luxury here as it is in the desert. A +rill of living water, let it issue from a mossy rift in the hillside +or the mouth of a bronze lion, comes to us often like the shadow of +a great rock in a weary land. We lead fevered lives, too, and this +is the natural relief. Fountains are among the first decorations that +show themselves in public or private grounds. They give an excuse and +a foothold for sculpture, and thus open the way for high art. In the +Centennial grounds and in all the buildings upon them, of whatever +character, the fountain, in more or less pretentious style, plays its +part. Led from the bosom of a thousand hills, drawn from under the +foot of the fawn and the breast of the summer-duck, it springs up +into the midst of this hurly-burly of human toil and pleasure, the +one unartificial thing there, pure and pellucid as when hidden in its +mother rock. + +It is not remarkable, then, that the most ambitious effort of +monumental art upon the exposition grounds should have taken the shape +of a fountain. The erection is due to the energy and public spirit of +the Catholic Total Abstinence Union. The site chosen is at the extreme +western end of Machinery Hall. It looks along Fountain Avenue to the +Horticultural Building. Mated thus with that fine building, it becomes +a permanent feature of the Park. The central figure is Moses--not +the horned athlete we are apt to think of when we associate the +great lawgiver with marble, but staid and stately in full drapery. He +strikes the rock of Meribah, and water exudes from its crevices into +a marble basin. Outside the circular rim of this are equidistantly +arranged the rather incongruous effigies of Archbishop Carroll, his +relative the Signer, Commodore Barry and Father Mathew. Each of +these worthies presides over a small font designed for drinking +purposes--unless that of the old sea-dog be salt. The central basin +is additionally embellished with seven medallion heads of Catholics +prominent in the Revolution, the selections being La Fayette, his +wife, De Grasse, Pulaski, Colonel S. Moylan, Thomas Fitzsimmons and +Kosciusko. The artist is Hermann Kirn, a pupil of Steinhäuser, one of +the first of the modern romantic school of German sculptors. Kirn +is understood to have enjoyed his instructor's aid in completing the +statues in the Tyrol. + +Another religious body ranges itself in the cause of art by the side +of one with which it does not habitually co-operate. Dr. Witherspoon, +the only clerical Signer, is its contribution in bronze. The Geneva +gown supplies the grand lines lacking in the secular costume of +the period, and indues the patriot with the silken cocoon of the +Calvinist. The good old divine had well-cut features, which take +kindly to the chisel. The pedestal is of granite. + +Of other statues we shall take another occasion to speak. The tinkle +of fountains leads us on to Horticultural Hall, where they give life +and charm to the flowers. Painted thus in water-colors, the blossoms +and leaves of the tropics glow with a freshness quite wonderful in +view of the very short time the plants have been in place and the +exposure they unavoidably encountered in reaching it. From the +interior and exterior galleries of this exquisite structure one can +look down, on one side, upon the palms of the Equator and on the other +upon the beech and the fir, which interlock their topmost sprays at +his feet. Beyond and beneath the silvery beeches railway-trains whisk +back and forth, like hares athwart the covert--the tireless locomotive +another foil to the strangers from the land of languor and repose. + +[Illustration: HORTICULTURAL HALL--INTERIOR.] + +The manufacture of a torrid climate on so large a scale will strike +the visitor as one of the most curious triumphs of ingenuity in the +whole exposition. Moisture is an essential only second in importance +to heat. The two must be associated to create the normal atmosphere of +most of the vegetation of the central zone. Art, in securing that end, +reverses the process of Nature. The heat here is supplied from below +and moisture from above, thus transposing the sun and the swamp. In +summer, indeed, the sun of our locality, reinforced by glass, will as +a rule furnish an ample supply of warmth. Very frequently it will be +in excess, and allow the imprisoned strangers the luxury of all the +fresh air they can crave. Our summer climate is in this way more +favorable than that of Kew, which in turn has the advantage in winter. +The inferior amount of light throughout the year and the long nights +of winter in a high latitude again operate against the English +horticulturists, and leave, altogether, a balance in our favor which +ought to make the leading American conservatory the most successful in +the world. + +Standing by the marble fountain in the great hall, with its attendant +vases and statuary, the visitor will not suspect that the pavement +beneath his feet is underlaid by four miles of iron pipe four inches +in diameter and weighing nearly three hundred tons. Through this +immense arterial and venous system circulates the life-blood of +the plants, hot water being the vehicle of warmth in winter. These +invisible streams will flow when the brooks at the foot of the hill +are sealed by frost and the plash of the open-air fountains is heard +no longer. + +Another current, more conspicuous and abounding--that of hurrying +human feet--will make this magnificent conservatory the centre of one +of its principal eddies. A second will be the Japanese head-quarters, +and a third Memorial Hall. The outlandish and the beautiful in Nature +and in art take chief hold of our interest. It wanders elsewhere, but +reverts to what typifies the novel and the charming. From the Mongols +and the palms it will drift to the granite portals that are flanked by +the winged Viennese horses and the colossal figures of Minerva in +the act of bridling them. Pegasus is not very worthily represented +by these bronzes. The horses, however, are the better part of the +two groups; the goddesses being too tall in proportion and heavy and +ungraceful in build. The finer things which they sentinel, in bronze, +marble or canvas, do not belong to the scope of this article. Yet we +cannot postpone to the occasion of their notice in detail a tribute +to him to whose energy and judgment we owe the filling of the Art +Building with works fit to be there. For the accomplishment of this +task the principal credit is due to John Sartain of Philadelphia, +the Nestor of American engravers. But for Mr. Sartain's efforts, the +studios of the best artists of America, especially, would have been +much less adequately represented, while the walls would have been in +danger of defacement by a flood of inferior productions. To secure the +best, and the best only, of what artists and collectors could give, +committees were appointed to inspect the offerings of the principal +cities and select works of real merit. The difficulties in the way are +appreciable only by those familiar with the diversities of feeling and +opinion which are apt to make shipwreck of art-exhibitions. They +have been overcome, and American artists have united in the practical +measures needed to ensure them as fair a position by the side of +foreign competitors as their actual merits can sustain. + +It could hardly have been a recognition of carriage-making as one of +the fine arts that caused the placing of an immense receptacle for +such vehicles in so prominent a position near Memorial Hall. This +structure stands opposite the western half of the Main Building. +Combined with the annex erected for a like purpose by the Bureau of +Agriculture, which covers three acres, it would seem to afford room +for specimens of every construction ever placed on wheels since +Pharaoh's war-chariots limbered up for the Red Sea campaign. These +collections have no trifling significance as a sign of progress. +They are the product of good roads, one of the surest traces of +civilization. A century ago, a really good road was almost an unknown +thing. So recently as half so long since one of the light equipages +now so familiar to us would have been a simple impossibility. What +words of ecstasy Dr. Johnson, who pronounced the height of bliss to be +a drive over a turnpike of his day in a cranky post-chaise, would have +applied to a "spin" in one of these wagons, no imagination can guess. + +Let us not boast ourselves over the sages who had the misfortune of +living too soon. It would be falling into the same blunder Macaulay +ascribed to Johnson in alleging that the philosopher thought the +Athenian populace the inferiors of Black Frank his valet, because they +could not read and Frank could. Our heads are apt to be turned by +our success in throwing together iron, timber, stone and other dead +matter. Let us remember that we are still at school, with no near +prospect of graduating. Many of our contemporary nations, to say +nothing of those who are to come after us, claim the ability to teach +us, as their being here proves. The assumption speaks from the stiff +British chimneys, the pert gables of the Swedes and the laboriously +wrought porticoes of the Japanese. This is well. It would be a bad +thing for its own future and for that of general progress could any +one people pronounce itself satisfied with what it had accomplished +and ready to set the seal to its labors. + + + + +GLIMPSES OF CONSTANTINOPLE. + +TWO PAPERS.--I. + + +We sailed from Trieste in the Venus, one of the Austrian Lloyds, with +a very agreeable captain, who had been all over the world and spoke +English perfectly. There were very few passengers--only one lady +besides myself, and she was a bride on her way to her new home in +Constantinople. She was a very pretty young Austrian, only seventeen, +but such an old "Turk of a husband" as she had! Her mother was a +Viennese, and her father a wealthy Englishman: what could have induced +them to marry their pretty young daughter to such a man? He was a +Greek by descent, but had always lived in Constantinople. Short, +stout, cross-eyed, with a most sinister expression of countenance, +old enough to be her father, the contrast was most striking. His wife +seemed very happy, however, and remarked in a complacent tone that her +husband was _quite_ European. So he was, except that he wore a red +fez cap, which was, to say the least, not "becoming" to his "style of +beauty." + +[Illustration: AMMALE.] + +We had a smooth passage to Corfu, where we touched for an hour or +two. N---- and I went on shore, climbed to the old citadel, and were +rewarded with a glorious view of the island and the harbor at our +feet. We picked a large bouquet of scarlet geraniums and other flowers +which grew wild on the rocks around the old fortress, took a short +walk through the town, and returned to our boat loaded with delicious +oranges fresh from the trees. Several fine English yachts lay in +the harbor. We passed close to one, and saw on the deck three ladies +sitting under an awning with their books and work. The youngest was a +very handsome girl, in a yacht-dress of dark-blue cloth and a jaunty +sailor hat. What a charming way to spend one's winter! After our taste +of the English climate in February, I should think all who could would +spend their winters elsewhere; and what greater enjoyment than, +with bright Italian skies above, to sail over the blue waters of the +Mediterranean, running frequently into port when one felt inclined +for society and sight-seeing, or when a storm came on! for the "blue +Mediterranean" does not always smile in the sunlight, as we found to +our sorrow after leaving Corfu. + +Our state-room was on the main deck, with a good-sized window +admitting plenty of light and air, and the side of the ship was not +so high but we could see over and have a fine view of the high +rocky coast we were skirting--so much pleasanter than the under-deck +state-rooms, where at best you only get a breath of fresh air and a +one-eyed glimpse out of the little port-holes in fine weather, and +none at all in a storm. Imagine, therefore, my disgust when, on +returning from our trip on shore at Corfu, I found twilight pervading +our delightful state-room, caused by an awning being stretched from +the edge of the deck overhead to the side of the ship, and under +this tent, encamped beneath my window, the lesser wives, children and +slaves of an old Turk who was returning to Constantinople with his +extensive family! His two principal wives were in state-rooms down +below, and invisible. Well, if I had lost the view from my state-room +of the grand mountainous coast of Greece, I had an opportunity of +studying one phase of Oriental manners and costume at my leisure. +There were three pale, sallow-looking women of twenty or twenty-five +years of age, with fine black eyes--their only attraction; two old +shriveled hags; four fat, comfortable, coal-black slave-women; and +several children. They had their fingernails colored yellow, and all, +black and white, wore over their faces the indispensable _yashmak_, +and over their dress the _ferraja_, or cloak, without which no Turkish +woman stirs abroad. As it was cold, they wore under their ferrajas +quilted sacques of woolen and calico coming down below the knee, and +trousers that bagged over, nearly covering their feet, which were +cased in slippers, though one of the negresses rejoiced in gorgeous +yellow boots with pointed toes. The children had their hair cut close, +and wore their warm sacques down to their feet, made of the gayest +calico I ever saw--large figures or broad stripes of red, yellow and +green. The boys were distinguished by red fez caps, and the girls wore +a colored handkerchief as a turban. They covered the deck with beds +and thick comforters, and on these they constantly sat or reclined. +When it was absolutely necessary a negress would reluctantly rise and +perform some required act of service. They had their own food, which +seemed to consist of dark-looking bread, dried fish, black coffee +and a kind of confectionery which looked like congealed soapsuds with +raisins and almonds in it. Most of their waking hours were employed in +devouring oranges and smoking cigarettes. + +We had rough weather for several days, and the ship rolled a good +deal. The captain made us comfortable in a snug corner on the +officers' private deck, where, under the shelter of the bridge, we +could enjoy the view. One amusement was to watch the officer of the +deck eat his dinner seated on a hatchway just in front of the wheel, +and waited on by a most obsequious seaman. The sailor, cap under his +arm, would present a plate of something: if the officer ate it the +man would retire behind him, and with the man at the wheel watch the +disappearance of the contents. If the officer left any or refused a +dish, the sailor would go down to the kitchen for the next course, +first slipping what was left or rejected behind the wheel, and after +presenting the next course to the officer would retire and devour with +great gusto the secreted dish; the helmsman sometimes taking a sly +bite when the officer was particularly engaged. + +The Dardanelles were reached very early in the morning. The night +before I had declared my intention to go on deck at daylight and +view the Hellespont, but when I awoke and found it blowing a gale, I +concluded it would not "pay," and turned in for another nap. All that +day we were crossing the Sea of Marmora with the strong current and +wind against us, so it was dark before we reached Constantinople, +and our ship was obliged to anchor in the outer harbor till the next +morning. Seraglio Point rose just before us, and on the left the seven +towers were dimly visible in the starlight. We walked the deck and +watched the lights glimmer and stream out over the Sea of Marmora, and +listened to the incessant barking of the dogs. + +Next morning, bright and early, we entered the Bosphorus, rounded +Seraglio Point and were soon anchored, with hundreds of other vessels, +at the mouth of the Golden Horn. Steam ferryboats of the English +kind were passing to and fro, and caïques flitted in and out with the +dexterity and swiftness of sea-gulls. Quite a deputation of fez caps +came on board to receive the bride and groom, and when we went ashore +they were still smoking cigarettes and sipping at what must have been +in the neighborhood of their twentieth cup of Turkish coffee. Madame +A---- was very cordial when we parted, saying she should call soon +upon me, and that I must visit her. We bade adieu to our captain with +regret. He was a very intelligent and entertaining man. The officers +of the Austrian Lloyd line ought certainly to be very capable seamen. +Educated in the government naval schools, they are obliged to serve as +mates a certain time, then command a sailing vessel for several years, +and finally pass a very strict examination before being licensed as +captains of steamers. Amongst other qualifications, every captain acts +as his own pilot in entering any port to which he may be ordered. +They sail under sealed orders, and our captain said that not until he +reached Constantinople would he know the ship's ultimate destination, +or whether he would retain command or be transferred to another +vessel. It is the policy of the company seldom to send the same +steamer or captain over the same route two successive trips. In time +of war both captains and ships are liable to naval duty. As we passed +the island of Lissa the captain pointed out the scene of a naval +engagement between the Austrians and Italians in 1866, in which he had +participated. The salary of these officers is only about a thousand +dollars a year. + +[Illustration: TURKISH LADY.] + +We embarked with our baggage in a caïque, which is much like an open +gondola, only lighter and narrower, and generally painted in light +colors, yellow being the favorite one, and were soon landed at the +custom-house. A franc satisfied the Turk in attendance that our +baggage was all right, and it was immediately transferred to the back +of an _ammale_, or carrier. These men take the places of horses and +carts with us. A sort of pack-saddle is fastened on their backs, +and the weights they carry are astonishing. Our ammale picked up a +medium-sized trunk as if it was a mere feather: on top of this was +put a hat-box, and with a bag in one hand he marched briskly off as +if only enjoying a morning constitutional. We made our way through +the dirty streets and narrow alleys to the Hôtel de Byzance in the +European quarter. This is a very comfortable hotel, kept in French +style, and most of the attendants speak French. Our chamber_maid_, +however, is a _man_, a most remarkable old specimen in a Turco-Greek +dress--long blue stockings and Turkish slippers, very baggy white +trousers, a blue jacket, white turban twisted around his fez cap and +a voluminous shawl about his waist. His long moustache is quite gray, +but his black eyes are keen as a hawk's, and as he moves quickly and +silently about my room, arranging and dusting, I fancy how he would +look in the same capacity in our house at home. + +Our hotel stands in the Rue de Pera, the principal street of the +European quarter, and as it is narrow the lights from the shops make +it safe and agreeable to walk out in the evening. This is one of +the few streets accessible to carriages, though in some parts it is +difficult for two to pass each other. Most of the shops are French and +display Paris finery, but the most attractive are the fruit-shops with +their open fronts, so you take in their inviting contents at a glance. +Broad low counters occupy most of the floor, with a narrow passage +leading between from the street to the back part of the shop, and +counters and shelves are covered with tempting fruits and nuts. Orange +boughs with the fruit on decorate the front and ceiling of the shop, +and over all presides a venerable Turk. In the evening the shop is +lighted by a torch, which blazes and smokes and gives a still more +picturesque appearance to the proprietor and his surroundings. You +stand in the street and make your purchases, looking well to your +bargains, for the old fellow, with all his dignity, will not hesitate +to cheat a "dog of a Christian" if he can. From every dark alley as +we walked along several dogs would rush out, bark violently, and after +following us a little way slink back to their own quarter again. Each +alley and street of the city has its pack of dogs, and none venture on +the domain of their neighbors. During the day they sleep, lying about +the streets so stupid that they will hardly move; in fact, horses and +donkeys step over them, and pedestrians wisely let them alone. After +dark they prowl about, and are the only scavengers of the city, +all garbage being thrown into the streets. The dogs of Pera have +experienced, I suppose, the civilizing effects of constant contact +with Europeans, as they are not at all as fierce as those of Stamboul. +They soon learn to know the residents of their own streets and +vicinity, and bark only at strangers. + +Quite a pretty English garden has been laid out in Pera, commanding +a fine view of the Bosphorus. There is a coffee-house in the centre, +with tables and chairs outside, where you can sip your coffee +and enjoy the view at the same time. The Turks make coffee quite +differently from us. The berry is carefully roasted and then reduced +to powder in a mortar. A brass cup, in shape like a dice-box with a +long handle, is filled with water and brought to a boil over a brasier +of coals: the coffee is placed in a similar brass dice-box and the +boiling water poured on it. This boils up once, and is then poured +into a delicate little china cup half the size of an after-dinner +coffee-cup, and for a saucer you have what resembles a miniature +bouquet-holder of silver or gilt filigree. If you take it in true +Turkish style, you will drink your coffee without sugar, grounds and +all; but a little sugar, minus the coffee-mud at the bottom, is much +nicer. Coffee seems to be drunk everywhere and all the time by the +Turks. The cafés are frequent, where they sit curled up on the divans +dreamily smoking and sipping their fragrant coffee or hearing stories +in the flowery style of the _Arabian Nights_. At the street corners +the coffee-vender squats before his little charcoal brasier and drives +a brisk business. If you are likely to prove a good customer at the +bazaar, you are invited to curl yourself up on the rug on the floor of +the booth, and are regaled with coffee. Do you make a call or visit +a harem, the same beverage is immediately offered. Even in the +government offices, while waiting for an interview with some grandee, +coffee is frequently passed round. Here it is particularly acceptable, +for without its sustaining qualities one could hardly survive the +slow movements of those most deliberate of all mortals, the Turkish +officials. + +A few days after our arrival my friend of the steamer, Madame A----, +the pretty Austrian bride, invited me to breakfast, and sent her +husband's brother, a fine-looking young Greek, to escort me to +her house. He spoke only Greek and Italian--I neither: however, he +endeavored to beguile the way by conversing animatedly in Italian. As +he gazed up at the sun several times, inhaled with satisfaction the +exhilarating air and pointed to the sparkling waters of the Bosphorus +and the distant hills, I presumed he was dilating on the fine weather +and the glorious prospect. Not to be outdone in politeness, I smiled +a great deal and replied to the best of my ability in good square +English, to which he always assented, "Yes, oh yes!" which seemed to +be all the English he knew. Fortunately, our walk was not long, and +Madame A---- was our interpreter during the breakfast. Her husband was +absent. + +[Illustration: SERAGLIO POINT. GOLDEN HORN.] + +The breakfast was half German, half Turkish. Here is the bill of fare: +Oysters on the shell from the Bosphorus--the smallest variety I have +ever seen, very dark-looking, without much flavor; fried goldfish; a +sort of curry of rice and mutton, without which no Turkish meal +would be complete; cauliflower fritters seasoned with cheese; mutton +croquettes and salad; fruit, confectionery and coffee. With a young +housekeeper's pride, Madame A---- took me over her house, which was +furnished in European style, with an occasional touch of Orientalism. +In the centre of the reception-room was a low brass tripod on which +rested a covered brass dish about the size of a large punch-bowl. +In cold weather this is filled with charcoal to warm the room. "Cold +comfort," I should think, when the snow falls, as it sometimes does +in Constantinople, and the fierce, cold winds sweep down the Bosphorus +from the Black Sea and the Russian steppes. As in all the best houses +in Pera, there were bow-windows in the principal rooms of each +story. A large divan quite fills each window, and there the Greek and +Armenian ladies lean back on their cushions, smoke their cigarettes +and have a good view up and down the street. There was a pretty +music-room with cabinet piano and harp, and opening from that the +loveliest little winter garden. The bow-window was filled with plants, +and orange trees and other shrubs were arranged in large pots along +the side of the room. The wall at one end was made of rock-work, and +in the crevices were planted vines, ferns and mosses. Tiny jets of +water near the ceiling kept the top moist, and dripped and trickled +down over the rocks and plants till they reached the pebbly basin +below. The floor was paved with pebbles--white, gray, black and a +dark-red color--laid in cement in pretty patterns, and in the centre +was a fountain whose spray reached the glass roof overhead. There were +fish in the wide basin around the fountain, which was edged with a +broad border of lycopodium. A little balcony opening out of an upper +room was covered with vines, and close to the balustrade were boxes +filled with plants in full bloom. + +[Illustration: THE SULTAN'S NEW PALACE ON THE BOSPHORUS.] + +But the housetop was my especial admiration. It was flat, with a stone +floor and high parapet. On all four sides close to this were wide, +deep boxes where large plants and shrubs were growing luxuriantly. +Large vases filled with vines and exotics were placed at intervals +along the top of the parapet. Part of the roof was covered with a +light wooden awning, and a dumb-waiter connected with the kitchen, so +that on warm evenings dinner was easily served in the cool fresh air +of the roof. The view from here was magnificent--the Golden Horn, +Stamboul with its mosques and white minarets, and beyond the Sea of +Marmora. Where a woman's life is so much spent in the house, such a +place for air and exercise is much to be prized, but I fear my pretty +Austrian friend will sigh for the freedom of Vienna after the novelty +of the East has worn off. + +[Illustration: MARBLE STAIRCASE, PALACE OF BESKIK-TASCH.] + +Of course we paid a visit to Seraglio Point, whose palmy days, +however, have passed away. The great fire of 1865 burned the palace, +a large district on the Marmora, and swept around the walls of St. +Sophia, leaving the mosque unharmed, but surrounded by ruins. The +sultan never rebuilds: it is not considered lucky to do so. Indeed, +he is said to believe that if he were to stop building he would die. +Seraglio Point has been abandoned by the court, and the sultan lives +in a palace on the Bosphorus, and one of the loveliest spots on earth +is left to decay. We entered through the magnificent gate of the +Sublime Porte, passed the barracks, which are still occupied by +the soldiers, visited the arsenal and saw the wax figures of the +Janizaries and others in Turkish costume. The upper part of the +pleasure-grounds is in a neglected state, and those near the water are +entirely destroyed. In one of the buildings are the crown-jewels and a +valuable collection of other articles. There were elegant toilet sets +mounted in gold; the most exquisitely delicate china; daggers, swords +and guns of splendid workmanship and sparkling with jewels; Chinese +work and carving; golden dishes, cups and vases, and silver pitchers +thickly encrusted with precious stones; horse trappings and velvet +hangings worked stiff with pearls, gold and silver thread, bits +of coral, and jewels; three emeralds as large as small hen's eggs, +forming the handle of a dirk; and in a large glass case magnificent +ornaments for the turban. There must have been thousands of diamonds +in these head-pieces, besides some of the largest pearls I have ever +seen; a ruby three-quarters of an inch square; four emeralds nearly +two inches long; and a great variety of all kinds of precious stones. +The handle and sheath of one sword were entirely covered with diamonds +and rubies. There were rings and clasps, and antique bowls filled +with uncut stones, particularly emeralds. It recalled the tales of the +_Arabian Nights_. The collection is poorly arranged, and the jewels +dusty, so that you cannot examine closely or judge very well of the +quality. Those I have mentioned interested me most, but there were +many elegant articles of European manufacture which had been presented +to the sultan by various monarchs. Near the treasury is a very +handsome pavilion, built of white marble, one story high, with fine +large plate-glass windows. A broad hall runs through the centre, +with parlors on each side. The walls were frescoed, and on the +handsomely-inlaid and highly-polished floors were beautiful rugs. The +divans were gilt and heavy silk damask--one room crimson, one blue and +another a delicate buff. A few large vases and several inlaid Japanese +cabinets completed the furniture: the Koran does not allow pictures +or statuary. The view from the windows, and especially from the marble +terrace in front, is one of the finest I have ever seen. The pavilion +stands on the highest part of Seraglio Point, two hundred feet above +the water: below it are the ruins of the palace, and the gardens +running down to the shore. Just before you the Bosphorus empties +into the Marmora; in a deep bay on the Asiatic shore opposite are the +islands of Prinkipo, Prote and several others; and on the mainland the +view is bounded by the snow-capped mountains of Olympus. On the +right is the Sea of Marmora. To the left, as far as you can see, the +Bosphorus stretches away toward the Black Sea, its shores dotted with +towns, cemeteries and palaces; on the extreme left the Golden Horn +winds between the cities of Stamboul and Pera; while behind you is St. +Sophia and the city of Stamboul. It is a magnificent view, never to +be forgotten. There are several other pavilions near the one just +described. A small one in the Chinese style, with piazza around it has +the outer wall covered with blue and white tiles, and inside blinds +inlaid with mother of pearl. The floor was matted, and the divans +were of white silk embroidered with gilt thread and crimson and green +floss. A third pavilion was a library. + +[Illustration: MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA.] + +From the Seraglio we drove to St. Sophia. Stamboul can boast of one +fine street, and a few others that are wide enough for carriages. When +the government desires to widen a street a convenient fire generally +occurs. At the time they proposed to enlarge this, the principal +street, it is said the fire broke out simultaneously at many points +along the line. As the houses are generally of wood, they burn +quickly, and a fire is not easily extinguished by their inefficient +fire department. Then the government seizes the necessary ground and +widens the street, the owners never receiving any indemnification for +their losses. I need not attempt a minute description of St. Sophia. +We took the precaution to carry over-shoes, which we put on at the +door, instead of being obliged to take off our boots and put on +slippers. A firman from the sultan admitted us without difficulty. +We admired the one hundred and seventy columns of marble, granite and +porphyry, many of which were taken from ancient temples, and gazed up +at the lofty dome where the four Christian seraphim executed in mosaic +still remain, though the names of the four archangels of the Moslem +faith are inscribed underneath them. Behind where the high altar +once stood may still be faintly discerned the figure of our Saviour. +Several little Turks were studying their Korans, and sometimes +whispering and playing much like school-boys at home. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA.] + +The mosques of Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan Achmed and Mohammed +II. were visited, but next to St. Sophia the mosque which interested +me most was one to which we could not gain admittance--a mosque some +distance up the Golden Horn, where the sultan is crowned and where +the friend of Mohammed and mother of a former sultan are buried. It is +considered so very sacred that Christian feet are not allowed to enter +even the outer court. As I looked through the grated gate a stout +negress passed me and went in. The women go to the mosques at +different hours from the men. + +Not far from here is a remarkable well which enables a fortune-teller +to read the fates of those who consult her. Mr. R----, who has lived +for thirty years in Constantinople and speaks Turkish and Arabic as +fluently as his own language, told me he was once walking with an +effendi to whom he had some months before lent a very valuable Arabic +book. He did not like to ask to have it returned, and was wondering +how he should introduce the subject when they reached the well. Half +from curiosity and half for amusement, he proposed that they should +see what the well would reveal to them. The oracle was a wild-looking, +very old Nubian woman, and directing Mr. R---- to look steadily down +into the well, she gazed earnestly into his eyes to read the fate +there reflected. After some minutes she said, "What you are thinking +of is lost: it has passed from the one to whom you gave it, and will +be seen no more." The effendi asked what the oracle had said, and when +Mr. R---- told him he had been thinking of his book, and repeated what +the Nubian had uttered, the effendi confessed that he had lent the +book to a dervish and feared it was indeed lost. It was a lucky hit of +the old darkey's, at any rate. + +An opportunity came at last to gratify a long-cherished wish by +visiting a harem. Madame L----, a French lady who has lived here +many years, visits in the harems of several pashas, and invited me +to accompany her. I donned the best my trunk afforded, and at eleven +o'clock we set out, each in a sedan chair. I had often wondered why +the ladies I saw riding in them sat so straight and looked so stiff, +but I wondered no longer when the stout Cretans stepped into the +shafts, one before and the other behind, and started off. The motion +is a peculiar shake, as if you went two steps forward and one back. It +struck me as so ludicrous, my sitting bolt upright like a doll in my +little house, that I drew the curtains and had a good laugh at my +own expense. Half an hour's ride brought us to the pasha's house in +Stamboul--a large wooden building with closely-latticed windows. We +were received at the door by a tall Ethiopian, who conducted us across +a court to the harem. Here a slave took our wraps, and we passed into +a little reception-room. A heavy rug of bright colors covered the +centre of the floor, and the only furniture was the divans around the +sides. The pasha's two wives, having been apprised of our intended +visit, were waiting to receive us. Madame L---- was an old friend and +warmly welcomed, and as she spoke Turkish the conversation was brisk. +She presented me, and we all curled ourselves up on the divans. +Servants brought tobacco in little embroidered bags and small sheets +of rice paper, and rolling up some cigarettes, soon all were +smoking. The pasha is an "old-style" Turk, and frowns on all European +innovations, and his large household is conducted on the old-fashioned +principles of his forefathers. His two wives were young and very +attractive women. One, with a pale clear complexion, dark hair and +eyes, quite came up to my idea of an Oriental beauty. Not content, +however, with her good looks, she had her eyebrows darkened, while a +delicate black line under her eyes and a little well-applied rouge +and powder (I regret to confess) made her at a little distance a still +more brilliant beauty. I doubt if any women understand the use of +cosmetics as well as these harem ladies. Her dress was a bright-cherry +silk, the waist cut low in front, the skirt reaching to her knees. +Trousers of the same and slippers to match completed her costume. The +other wife was equally attractive, with lovely blue eyes and soft wavy +hair. She was dressed in a white Brousa silk waist, richly embroidered +with crimson and gold braid, blue silk skirt, white trousers and +yellow slippers. They both had on a great deal of jewelry. Several +sets, I should think, were disposed about their persons with great +effect, though not in what we should consider very good taste. Being +only able to wear one pair of earrings, they had the extra pairs +fastened to their braids, which were elaborately arranged about their +heads and hung down behind. There were half a dozen slaves in the +room, who when not waiting on their mistresses squatted on the floor, +smoked, and listened to the conversation. Coffee was brought almost +immediately, the cups of lovely blue and white china in pretty silver +holders on a tray of gilt filigree. + +After sitting here a while exchanging the compliments of the day, we +passed to the next room, a large saloon with windows and door opening +into the court. Here a fountain threw up a sparkling jet of water, +and several trees and flowering shrubs, with a profusion of ivy on the +walls, made it a very attractive place. The child of the eldest wife, +a bright-eyed little boy, was floating chips in the basin of the +fountain, laughing and clapping his hands when the falling water upset +them or wet his face. The floor was covered with large handsome rugs, +and around the sides of the room were luxurious divans: little +other furniture seems necessary in a Turkish house. We followed our +hostesses' example and seated ourselves on the divans, though not, as +they did, with our feet under us, and refreshments were served on a +large gilt salver, in the middle of which was a handsome covered dish +of Bohemian glass filled with sweetmeats, with vases on each side to +match, one holding queer-shaped little spoons with golden bowls. There +were also four glasses of water and four minute glasses of pale yellow +cordial. Fortunately, the tray was passed first to Madame L----; so +I watched her movements and learned what to do. She took a spoon from +one vase, dipped it in the sweetmeats, and after eating placed her +spoon in the empty vase. Then she took some water and drank a glass of +cordial. So we each did (it is polite to taste but once), and placed +the soiled spoon in the vase for that purpose. I did not need to +be told that the sweetmeats were rose-leaves, for the flavor was +perfectly preserved. + +Madame L---- kindly repeated most of the conversation, which, on their +sides, was chiefly composed of questions concerning Madame L----'s +family: Was her husband as kind as ever? had he made her any presents +lately? Was I married? what was my husband's personal appearance? +did I love him? how old was I? where from? and where going? These and +similar questions, which are considered perfectly polite and proper, +they ask with the curiosity of children. + +[Illustration: HAREM SCENE.] + +Then we were invited into a third room, where we were served with +violet sherbet, cake and Turkish paste. After partaking of these the +ladies sent for their jewel-boxes and displayed their treasures, which +consisted of pins, earrings, necklaces, head and belt ornaments--some +very handsome, and all composed of precious stones of more or less +value, for a Turkish woman does not value an ornament that is not set +with precious stones. This was an agreeable change from the former +conversation, and when we had admired their jewels breakfast was +served. The servants brought a scarlet rug of soft shaggy stuff, which +was spread on the floor: a low round brass table, two feet high and +three feet in diameter, was placed in the centre of this rug, and we +four ladies seated ourselves around the table _à la Turque_. A servant +brought a brass basin, which was like an immense wash-bowl with a +cullender in it turned upside down: we washed our hands over this, +water being poured over them from a large coffee-pot (I should call +it) with an unusually long nose, and wiped our hands on handsome +towels embroidered at the ends with gold thread. A dish of fried fish +was placed on the table for the first course: each helped herself to +one, laying it on the table before her (we had no plates, knives or +forks), picking it to pieces and eating it with her fingers. When this +was ended the debris was thrown on the platter and removed, the table +wiped off, and a dish of rice and mutton brought: for this we had +spoons, but all ate from the dish. Then came an immense cauliflower +covered thick with strange-tasting cheese, and the Turkish ladies used +their thumbs and first two fingers in conveying it to their mouths. +I am very fond of cauliflower, but this was not inviting. The next +course was onions cooked in oil: I had to be excused from this also: +the sight of their dripping fingers was enough. Then we washed our +hands and ate oranges; washed again, and lighting fresh cigarettes +(they had smoked nearly all day), retired to our divans; sipped coffee +and listened to an old negress (the story-teller of the harem), who, +squatted before us, related marvelous stories in Eastern style. More +sweetmeats and confectionery were passed with coffee, and our visit +ended. A European woman could not support such a life--at home perfect +inactivity, eating, smoking, gossiping, an occasional visit to or +from a friend, a trip to the bazaar, and a drive--if they possess a +carriage--or a row in a caïque to the Sweet Waters on Sunday. This is +the life of a Turkish woman of rank. + +A note from Madame B---- one morning informed me that the mother and +wives of a rich Turkish merchant were coming to visit her, and invited +me to be present. I reached her house about eleven, but the Turkish +ladies were before me. The appearance of a servant in the hall with +her arms full of yashmaks and ferrajas and several pairs of pattens +apprised me that I was too late to see their street-dresses. In the +reception-room were Madame B----, a lady who acted as interpreter, and +the three Turkish ladies. They were uncontaminated by European customs +or Paris finery. The mother was exceedingly ugly, as are most Turkish +women over forty. A pair of high red morocco boots encased her feet, +which were guiltless of stockings. White, full trousers were gathered +close at the knee and fell over nearly to her ankles. Her dress was +a short purple velvet skirt embroidered round the bottom and up the +front with gilt braid in a showy vine pattern; the same embroidery on +her black silk jacket, which was open in front, but without any lace; +and around her neck was a magnificent string of pearls. Her hair (what +there was of it) was drawn back from her face, braided, and the end of +the little "pig tail" fastened to her head with a diamond pin composed +of four fine diamonds in a clumsy gold setting. Long, pale amber +ear-drops completed her adornments, and she flourished--yes, she +really did--a large red and yellow bandana! The younger of the two +wives was quite pretty. She had brilliant black eyes, good features, +and was very attractive in her gay dress. She wore pink slippers, a +heavy sky-blue silk skirt with trousers to match, and a yellow velvet +sacque open in front, displaying a lace chemisette and a handsome +turquoise necklace. Large gold hoops pulled her pretty ears quite out +of shape, and her long black hair was braided in broad plaits and tied +with a gilt ribbon, which was also wound about her head several times. +Altogether, she was quite gorgeous, and rather threw the other wife +into the shade. Wife No. 2 was arrayed in a dark-green velvet skirt +and a pink silk jacket trimmed with silver braid. She had a garnet +necklace and pretty earrings of small pearls and diamonds. Not to be +outdone by her mother-in-law on the _mouchoir_ question, she displayed +a white muslin handkerchief thickly embroidered with gold thread--more +ornamental than useful. + +They were all curled up on divans sipping coffee and smoking +cigarettes when I entered. Madame B---- presented me, and they +received me very graciously, asked my age, examined my clothes and +inquired if I had any jewels at home. I wore none, and suppose my +black silk walking-suit did not impress them greatly. Dress is of the +first importance in their eyes, and that and their husbands are the +chief topics of interest when they visit each other. Conversation was +not brisk, as the necessity of an interpreter is not favorable for +a rapid exchange of ideas. After sitting in this room for an hour, +Madame B---- informed me that Turkish etiquette required that she +should now invite her guests into another room and offer other +refreshments, then, after sitting there a while, to still another, and +so on through the whole suite of apartments, refreshments (generally +coffee, sweetmeats or sherbet) with cigarettes being offered in each. +As they would probably remain till four or five in the afternoon, I +excused myself, and reached the hotel in time to join a party going +to the bazaar, thankful that I did not reside in Constantinople, and +wondering how long Madame B---- would survive if she had to endure +such visits frequently. + +We started for our first visit to the bazaar, crossing the Golden Horn +to Stamboul by the old bridge, which has sunk so in places that you +feel as if a _ground-swell_ had been somehow consolidated and was +doing service as a bridge; up through the narrow streets of Stamboul, +now standing aside to let a string of donkeys pass loaded with large +stones fastened by ropes to their pack-saddles, or stepping into a +doorway to let a dozen small horses go by with their loads of boards, +three or four planks being strapped on each side, one end sticking +out in front higher than their heads, and the other dragging on the +ground, scraping along and raising such a dust you are not at all sure +some neighboring lumber-yard has not taken it into its head to walk +off bodily. Fruit-venders scream their wares, Turkish officers on +magnificent Arab horses prance by, and the crowd of strange and +picturesque costumes bewilders you; and through all the noise and +confusion glide the silent, veiled women. One almost doubts one's own +identity. I was suddenly recalled to _my_ senses, however, by a +gentle thump on the elbow, and turning beheld the head of a diminutive +donkey. I supposed it to be a donkey: the head, tail and feet, which +were all I could see of it, led me to believe it was one of those +much-abused animals. The rest of its body was lost to sight in the +voluminous robes of a corpulent Turk; and, as if he were not load +enough for one donkey, behind him sat a small boy holding his "baba's" +robe very tight lest he should slide off over the donkey's tail. I +looked around for Bergh or some member of a humane society, but no one +except ourselves seemed to see anything unusual. I thought if I were a +Hindu and believed in the transmigration of souls, I would pray that, +whatever shape my spirit took when it left its present form, it might +not enter that of a much-abused and long-suffering donkey. + +The bazaar! How shall I describe what so many travelers have +made familiar? Some one has called it "a monstrous hive of little +shops--thousands under one roof;" and so it is. Each street is devoted +to a peculiar kind of merchandise. It would take more than one letter +to tell all the beautiful things we saw--cashmere shawls, Brousa +silks, delicate gauzes, elegantly-embroidered jackets, dresses, +tablecloths, cushions, etc., of all textures and the most fashionable +Turkish styles. We looked at antiquities, saw superb precious stones, +the finest of them unset, admired the display of saddles and bridles +and the array of boots and slippers in all colors of morocco. A +Turkish woman never rushes round as we did from one shop to another, +but if she wishes to buy anything--a shawl, for instance--she sits +comfortably down on a rug, selects the one she likes best, and +spends the rest of the day bargaining for it; during which time many +cigarettes are smoked by both customer and merchant, much coffee +drunk, long intervals spent in profound reflection on the subject, +and at last the shawl is purchased for a tenth perhaps of the original +price asked, and they part, each well pleased. It takes several visits +to see the bazaar satisfactorily, and we felt as we left it that we +had but made a beginning. + +SHEILA HALE. + + + + +THE BALLAD OF THE BELL-TOWER. + + "Five years ago I vowed to Heaven upon my falchion blade + To build the tower; and to this hour my vow hath not been paid. + + "When from the eagle's nest I snatched my falcon-hearted dove, + And in my breast shaped her a nest, safe and warm-lined with love, + + "Not all the bells in Christendom, if rung with fervent might, + That happy day in janglings gay had told my joy aright. + + "As up the aisle my bride I led in that triumphant hour, + I ached to hear some wedding-cheer clash from the minster tower. + + "Nor chime nor tower the minster had; so in my soul I sware, + Come loss, come let, that I would set church-bells a-ringing there + + "Before a twelvemonth. But ye know what forays lamed the land, + How seasons went, and wealth was spent, and all were weak of hand. + + "And then the yearly harvest failed ('twas when my boy was born); + But could I build while vassals filled my ears with cries for corn? + + "Thereafter happed the heaviest woe, and none could help or save; + Nor was there bell to toll a knell above my Hertha's grave. + + "Ah, had I held my vow supreme all hinderance to control, + Maybe these woes--God knows! God knows!--had never crushed my soul. + + "Ev'n now ye beg that I give o'er: ye say the scant supply + Of water fails in lowland vales, and mountain-springs are dry. + + "'Here be the quarried stones' (ye grant), 'skilled craftsmen + come at call; + But with no more of water-store how _can_ we build the wall?' + + "Nay, listen: Last year's vintage crowds our cellars, tun on tun: + With wealth of wine for yours and mine, dare the work go undone? + + "Quick! bring them forth, these mighty butts: let none be elsewhere sold, + And I will pay this very day their utmost worth in gold, + + "That so the mortar that cements each stone within the shrine, + For her dear sake whom God did take, may all be mixed with wine." + + * * * * * + + 'Twas thus the baron built his tower; and, as the story tells, + A fragrance rare bewitched the air whene'er they rang the bells. + + A merrier music tinkled down when harvest-days were long: + They seemed to chime at vintage-time a catch of vintage-song; + + And when the vats were foamed with must, if any loitered near + The minster tower at vesper hour, above him he would hear + + Tinglings, as of subsiding trills, athwart the purple gloom, + And every draught of air he quaffed would taste of vineyard bloom. + +MARGARET J. PRESTON. + + + + +BERLIN AND VIENNA. + + +The pre-eminence of London and Paris in the European world is +unquestioned, and, so far as we can foresee, permanent. Although +England is withdrawing herself more and more from the affairs of +the Continent, and becoming a purely insular and quasi-Oriental +power--although France has lost the lead in war and politics, and does +not seem likely to regain it--yet the capitals of these two countries +hold their own. In the accumulation of wealth and population, in +science, letters and the arts, London and Paris seem to be out of +reach of competition. Other cities grow, and grow rapidly, but do +not gain upon them. Even Berlin and Vienna, which have become so +conspicuous of late years, will remain what they are--local centres +rather than world-centres. The most zealous friend of German and +Austrian progress can scarcely claim for Berlin and Vienna, as cities, +more than secondary interest. Nevertheless, these minor capitals are +not to be overlooked, especially at the present conjuncture. One of +them is the residence of the most powerful dynasty in Europe: the +other is the base of an aggressive movement which tends to free at +last the lower Danube from Mohammedanism. If, as is possible, the +courts of Berlin and Vienna should decide to act in concert, if the +surplus vitality and population of the German empire, instead of +finding its outlet in the Western hemisphere, should be reversed +and made to flow to the south-east, we should witness a strange +recuscitation of the past. We should behold the Germanic race, +after two thousand years of vicissitude, of migration, conquest, +subordination and triumph, reverting to its early home, reoccupying +the lands from which it started to overthrow Rome. The Eastern +question, as it is called, forces itself once more upon the attention +of Christendom, and craves an answer. Twenty years ago it was deferred +by the interference of France and England. France is now _hors de +combat_, and England has better work elsewhere. Berlin, Vienna and St. +Petersburg have the decision in their hands. It would be a waste of +time to speculate upon coming events. Even the negotiations plying to +and fro at this moment are veiled in the strictest secrecy. Possibly +no one of the trio, Bismarck, Andrassy and Gortschakoff, dares to look +beyond the hour. The question may be deferred again, but it must be +decided some day upon a lasting basis. Stripped of unessentials, it +is a question of race-supremacy. The downfall of European Turkey being +conceded as a foregone conclusion, which of the two races, the Slavic +or the Germanic, is to oversee and carry out the reconstruction of the +region of the lower Danube? Is Russia, already so immense, to place +herself at the head of Panslavism and extend her borders to the +Dardanelles? Or is Austria, backed by North Germany and aided by +the Hungarians and the Roumanians, to resume her mediæval office as +_marchia orientalis_ and complete the mission for which she was called +into being by Charlemagne? A question which even the most prophetic of +politicians would hesitate to answer. Yet, in any case, it is possible +that Vienna and Berlin may become the centres of a great Pangermanic +reflux not unlike the efflux that swept over Northern Gaul and England +in the fifth century. In view of such a possibility it behooves us to +study these two capitals more closely--to consider their origin and +growth, their influence and their civic character. + +Their history exhibits in many respects a marked parallelism. Each was +founded as a frontier-city, as the outpost of aggressive civilization. +Each has shared to the full the vicissitudes of the dynasty to which +it was attached. Each has ended in becoming the centre and capital of +an extensive empire. On the other hand, the differences between them +are no less significant. Vienna is the older of the two. It can claim, +in fact, a faint reflex of the glory of the old Roman world, for it +was founded as a _castrum_ and military colony by Vespasian in +the first century of our era. This ancient _Vindobona_ was the +head-quarters of the thirteenth legion, which was replaced in the next +century by the more famous tenth, the _pia fidelis_. Until the fifth +century, Vindobona and the neighboring Carnuntum (not far from the +modern Pressburg) were the seats of Roman power along the middle +Danube. But when the empire fell, they fell with it. For centuries all +traces of Vienna are lost. The valley of the Danube was the highway +for Goth and Slave, Avar and Hun, who trampled down and ruined as +they advanced or receded. Not until the Carolingian era do we find +indications of a more stable order of things. The great Carl, having +consolidated all the resources of Western Europe under his autocratic +will, having crushed the Saracens and subdued the Saxons and +Bavarians, resolved to make the Danube as well as the Rhine his own. +The idea was stamped with genius, as all his ideas were, and the +execution was masterly. The Frankish _leudes_, with their Saxon and +Bavarian auxiliaries, routed the Avars in battle after battle, and +drove them back beyond the Raab and the Theiss. The "eastern marches" +became, and have remained to this day, the bulwark of Christendom. +Carl's successors in Germany, the Saxon and Franconian emperors, +continued the work. In the year 996 we find the word Ostar-rîch +(_OEsterreich_) appearing for the first time. From 976 to 1246 the +duchies were in the possession of the Babenberg family. In 1276 +they were annexed by Rudolph of Habsburg. Ever since then they have +constituted the central possession of the house of which he was the +founder. + +Prior to the middle of the twelfth century Vienna appears to have been +a town of little importance. In fact, the precise time when the +name _Wien_ first occurs is in dispute. Giesebrecht discovered it +in documents purporting to date from the beginning of the eleventh +century, but the genuineness of the documents is doubted by +most historians. The town is mentioned several times in the +_Nibelungenlied_, and described as existing in the times of Etzel +(Attila, king of the Huns). But this is undoubtedly the invention of +popular fancy. The _Nibelungenlied_ was put into its present shape +between the middle and the end of the twelfth century. The poet has +changed more than one feature of the original saga, has blended, not +unskillfully, primitive Teutonic myth with historic personages and +events of the early Middle Ages, and has interpolated sayings and +traditions of his own times. The Viennese of the twelfth century +sought, with pardonable vanity, to invest their town with the +sacredness of antiquity. But we can scarcely allow their claims. On +the contrary, we must deny all continuity between the Vindobona of +the fourth and the Wien of the twelfth century. The Roman castrum +disappeared, the Babenberg capital appeared, but between the two there +is an unexplored gulf. Yet this incipient Vienna, although only +the capital of a ducal family that had a hard fight at times for +existence, holds an honorable position in the annals of German +literature. The Babenberg dukes were generous patrons of the Muses. +Their court was frequented by minnesingers and knights-errant. +Their praises were sung by Walther von der Vogelweide, Ulrich von +Lichtenstein and others. Walther, in his ode to Duke Leopold, has +almost anticipated Shakespeare, when he sings-- + + His largess, like the gentle rain, + Refresheth land and folk. + +Vienna and the memorable Wartburg in Thuringia were the acknowledged +centres of taste and good breeding. They were the courts of last +resort in all questions of style, grammar and versification. + +It will not be necessary to follow the growth of Vienna in detail +during the last six hundred years. The dangers to which the city was +exposed from time to time were formidable. They came chiefly from two +quarters--from Bohemia and from Hungaro-Turkey. Charles IV. and Wenzel +favored the Bohemians at the expense of the Germans, and preferred +Prague to Vienna as a residence. The Czechish nation increased rapidly +in wealth and culture until, having embraced the doctrines of Huss, it +felt itself strong enough to assert a quasi-independence. The Hussite +wars which ensued in the fifteenth century ended in the downfall of +Bohemia. But the Austrian duchies, and even Bavaria and Saxony, +did not escape without cruel injuries. More than once the fanatic +Taborites laid the land waste up to the gates of Vienna. The +Reformation, a century later, did not take deep root in Austria. At +best it was only tolerated, and the Jesuit reaction, encouraged by +Rudolph II. and Matthias, made short work of it. The Thirty Years' war +gave Ferdinand II. an opportunity of restoring Bohemia to the Roman +Catholic communion. The victory of the White Hill (1620) prostrated +Bohemia at his feet: the Hussite preachers were executed or banished, +the estates of the nobility who had taken part in the rebellion were +confiscated, and the Catholic worship reinstated by force of arms. So +thoroughly was the work done that Bohemia at the present day is, next +to the Tyrol, the stronghold of Catholicism. But Ferdinand's success, +complete to outward appearance, was in reality a blunder. The Czechish +and the German nationalities were permanently estranged, and the +former, despoiled, degraded, incapacitated for joining the work of +reform upon which the latter has finally entered, now constitutes +an obstacle to progress. While the Austrian duchies are at present +extremely liberal in their religious and political tendencies, Bohemia +and Polish Galicia are confederated with the Tyrol in opposing every +measure that savors of liberalism. Bohemia has been surnamed the +Ireland of the Austrian crown. + +The union of Hungary with the house of Habsburg has always been +personal rather than constitutional. The Hungarians claimed +independence in all municipal and purely administrative matters. +Moreover, during the Thirty Years' war, and even later, a large +portion of the land was in possession of the Turks and their allies, +the Transylvanians, with whom the Hungarians were in sympathy. The +first great siege of Vienna by the Turks was in 1529--the last, and +by far the most formidable, in 1683. The city escaped only through +the timely assistance of the Poles under Sobieski. Ten years later the +tide had changed. The Austrian armies, led by Prince Eugene, defeated +the Turks in a succession of decisive battles, and put an end for ever +to danger from that quarter. Hungary and Transylvania became permanent +Austrian possessions. + +Amid such alternations of fortune the growth of Vienna was necessarily +slow. In 1714, after six centuries of existence, its population +amounted to only 130,000. The city retained all the characteristics +of a fortress and frontier-post. The old part, or core, now called +the "inner town," was a compact body of houses surrounded by massive +fortification-walls and a deep moat. Outside of this was a _rayon_ or +clear space six hundred feet in width, separating the city from +the suburbs. These suburbs, Leopoldstadt, Mariahilf, etc., now +incorporated with the inner city in one municipal government, +were then small detached villages. From time to time the rayon was +encroached upon by enterprising builders, with the connivance of the +emperor or the garrison commander. The disastrous wars with France +at the end of the last century and beginning of the present were in +reality a gain to Vienna. Napoleon's bombardment and capture of the +city in 1809, before the battle of Wagram, demonstrated conclusively +that the fortifications were unable to withstand modern artillery. +Accordingly, after the general European peace had been established +by the Congress of Vienna, the city was declared officially by the +emperor to be no longer a fortification. But the walls and ditch, so +far as they had not been injured by the French, were still suffered +to remain: they were substantially intact as late as 1848, and were +strong enough to enable the revolutionists who had possession of +the city to hold it for forty-eight hours against the army of Prince +Windischgrätz. + +The final reconstruction of the city was not begun in earnest until +1857, and occupied ten years or more. The walls were leveled to +the ground, the moat was filled in, a broad girdle-street (the +Ringstrasse) laid out to encircle the inner city, and the adjacent +ground on either side was converted into building-lots. In this brief +space of time Vienna was changed from a quasi-mediæval town to a +modern capital of the most pronounced type. The Ringstrasse became a +promenade like that of the old Paris boulevards, but broader, grander +and lined with palatial edifices no whit inferior to the French. The +metamorphosis is so startling that a tourist revisiting the city after +an absence of twenty years would have difficulty in persuading himself +that he was indeed in the residence of Maria Theresa, Joseph II. and +Metternich. No American city can exhibit a like change in the same +time. Our cities, although expanding incessantly, have preserved their +original features. Even new Chicago, springing from the ashes of +the old, has not departed from the former ground-plan and style of +building. And no American city can point to a succession of buildings +like the Franz Joseph Barracks, the Cur Salon with its charming park, +the Grand Hôtel and the Hôtel Impérial, the Opera-house, the Votive +Church, the new Stock Exchange, and the Rudolf Barracks. When the +projected House of Deputies, the City Hall, and the University +building are completed, the Ring street will deserve to stand by the +side of the Rue de Rivoli and the Champs Élysées. The quondam suburbs +(_Vorstädte_), eight in number, are now one with the city proper. +Encircling them is the _mur d' octroi_, or barrier where municipal +tolls are levied upon articles of food and drink. Outside of this +barrier, again, are the suburbs of the future, the _Vororte_, such +as Favoriten, Fünfhaus, Hernals, etc. The growth of the population +is rapid and steady. In 1714 it was 130,000, in 1772 only 193,000. +A century later, in 1869, it had risen to 811,000 (including the +Vororte); at the present day it can scarcely fall short of 1,000,000. + +Not in population and adornment alone has Vienna progressed. Much has +been done, or at least projected, for the comfort and health of the +residents and for the increase of trade. The entire city has been +repaved with Belgian pavement, the houses renumbered after the +Anglo-American fashion. The railroads centring in the city are +numerous, and the stations almost luxurious in their appointments. But +the two chief enterprises are the Semmering aqueduct and the Danube +Regulation. The former, begun in 1869 and completed in 1873, would do +honor to any city. It is about fifty miles in length, and has a much +greater capacity than the Croton aqueduct. The pure, cold Alpine water +brought from two celebrated springs near the Semmering Pass, flows +into the distributing reservoir on the South Hill, near the Belvedere +Palace, at an elevation of one hundred and fifty feet above the city. +The pressure is great enough to throw a jet nearly one hundred +feet high from the fountain in the Schwarzenberg Square. The Danube +Regulation, as its name implies, is an attempt to improve the +navigation of the river. The Danube, which in this part of its course +has a general flow from north-west to south-east, approaches within +a few miles of Vienna. Here, at Nussdorf, it breaks into two or three +shallow and tortuous channels, which meander directly away from the +city, as if in sheer willfulness, and reunite at the Lobau, as far +below the city as Nussdorf is above it. The "regulation" consists in +a new artificial channel, cut in a straight line from Nussdorf to +the Lobau. In length it is about nine miles, in breadth about twelve +hundred feet: the average depth of water will be not less than ten +feet. It was begun in 1869 and finished in April, 1875. This new +channel, which passes the Leopoldstadt suburb a short distance outside +the late exhibition grounds, will render unnecessary the transshipment +of goods and passengers at Nussdorf and the Lobau respectively, and +will also, it is hoped, prevent the inundations by which the low +region to the north of the river has been so often ravaged. + +Berlin is inferior to Vienna in antiquity and in variety of incident +and association. The capital of the present German empire consisted +originally of two small rival towns, or rather villages, standing +almost side by side on opposite banks of the Spree. The elder, Cöln, +was incorporated as a municipality in 1232: the other, Berlin, +is mentioned for the first time in 1244. Both names are of Vendic +(Slavic) origin, and designated villages of the hunting and fishing +Vends, who were dispossessed by German colonists. + +Cöln-Berlin, the marches of Brandenburg, East and West Prussia--in +fact, all the now Germanized lands to the east of the Elbe--owe their +Teutonic character to a great reflux, a reconquest so to speak, which +is barely mentioned in the usual textbooks of German history, yet +which is one of the most noteworthy phenomena in the development of +modern Europe. At the beginning of the fourth century German tribes +(German in the widest sense of the term) occupied the broad expanse +from the Rhine to the Dwina and the head-waters of the Dnieper. A +century later they had receded as far as the Vistula. Still another +century later, about 500, the German linguistic domain was bounded on +the east by the Ens, the Bohemian Hills, the upper Main, the Saal and +the Elbe. The downfall of the Thuringian kingdom was the occasion of +Slavic encroachments even on the left bank of the Elbe between Stendal +and Lüneburg. This German recession, which boded the Slavization not +only of Eastern but also of Central Europe, was due to various causes, +many of which are veiled in the impenetrable darkness which still +hangs over the early Middle Ages. The chief causes were undoubtedly +the Germanic migration over the Roman world and the settlement of the +Franks in Northern Gaul and the Saxons in England. + +But with the Carolingian dynasty came a new era. Charles Martel, +Pepin and Charlemagne aspired to universal monarchy. Not content with +France, Northern Spain, Italy and Germany proper, Charlemagne, as we +have already seen, recaptured the middle Danube. His successors in +Germany, the Saxon, Franconian and Swabian emperors, continued the +impulse, but gave it in the main a different direction. Instead +of moving toward the south-east, where they would have encountered +stubborn opposition from the already compact Hungarian nationality, +they chose for their field of colonization (or recolonization) the +east and north-east. Throughout the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth +and fourteenth centuries we observe a strong and unremitting tide +of German peasants, burghers and knights flowing through and over +Brandenburg, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Silesia, the Prussian duchies, +and even into Lithuania, Curland, Livonia and Esthonia. We have here +an explanation of the want of interest taken by the Germans in the +Crusades. While the kings of England and France, the barons and counts +of Brabant and Italy, were wasting their substance and the blood of +their subjects in hopeless attempts to overthrow Mohammedanism on its +own ground, the Germans were laying the foundations--unconsciously, it +is true--of a new empire. The lands wrested from the Slaves were to +be the kingdom of Frederick the Great. The work was done thoroughly, +almost as thoroughly as the Saxon conquest of Britain. The Obotrites, +Wiltzi, Ukern, Prussians, Serbs and Vends were annihilated or +absorbed. The only traces of their existence now to be found are the +scattered remnants of dialects spoken in remote villages or small +districts, and the countless names of towns bequeathed by them +to their conquerors. These names are often recognizable by the +terminations _in_ and _itz_. The most conspicuous factor in this labor +of colonization was the Teutonic order of chivalry, transferred to +the Baltic from Palestine. Königsberg, Dantzic, Memel, Thorn and Revel +were the centres or the advanced posts of the movement. At the end +of the reign of the grand master Winrich von Kniprode (1382) the +Germanization of the region between the Elbe and the Niemen--the +Polish province of Posen perhaps excepted--may be regarded, for all +practical purposes, as finished. The acquisition of Brandenburg by the +Hohenzollerns only solidified the conquest and guaranteed its future. +It is safe to assume that even a large share, perhaps the greater +share, of Poland itself would have been overrun in like manner but for +the Hussite wars and the Thirty Years' war. The unfortunate Peace +of Thorn (1466), whereby the lands of the Teutonic order and of the +Brethren of the Sword became--in name at least--fiefs of the Polish +crown, was due to internal dissensions among the German colonists and +also to the distractions in Bohemia. + +This apparent digression was necessary to a right understanding of the +character of Berlin and its neighborhood in comparison with Vienna. +Berlin was at the start a frontier post, but, unlike Vienna, it soon +ceased to be one. Colonization and conquest left it far to the rear as +an unimportant and thoroughly German town. The border-land of language +and race was advanced from the Spree to the Niemen and Vistula. The +language of these north-eastern districts is worthy of note. The +knights of the Teutonic order were chiefly from South Germany, the +inferior colonists from Low Germany of the Elbe, Weser and Rhine. +Hence the necessity for a _lingua communis_, a mode of expression that +should adapt itself to the needs of a mixed population. The dialect +which proved itself most available was one which stood midway between +High (South) and Low (North) German, and which itself might almost +be called a linguistic compromise--namely, the Thuringian, and more +especially in its Meissen form. This "Middle German,"[1] as it was +styled, became the official language of Prussia, Silesia and the +Baltic provinces. All very marked dialectic peculiarities were +discarded one by one, until the residuum became a very homogeneous, +uniform and correct mode of conventional speech. It will not surprise +us, then, to perceive that the Curlanders, Livonians and Prussians (of +the duchies) speak at the present day a more elegant German than the +Berlinese, whose vernacular is strongly tinged with _Plattdeutsch_ +forms from the lower Elbe. A similar phenomenon is to be observed in +our own country. We Americans, taken as a nation, speak a more correct +English--i.e., an English freer from dialectic peculiarities--than the +English themselves. We have but one conventional form of expression +from Maine to California, and whatever lies outside of this may be bad +grammar or slang, but is certainly not dialect. + +[Footnote 1: The word "Middle" is used here as a geographical term. +German philologists arrange the dialects into two main groups--High +(South) and Low (North), and prefix to each the terms Old, _Middle_ +and New to distinguish epochs in the growth of each. According to this +nomenclature, Old = Early, _Middle_ = Late-Mediæval, New = Modern. +The word _Middle_ is unfortunate, as it may designate either age or +locality. It designates both locality and age in the text above--i.e., +the late-mediæval form of Middle Germany. In full, it should be +"Middle-Middle." The Meissen dialect, it may be added, was the one +adopted by Luther, and is the basis of all modern book-German. (See +Rückert's _Gesch. der neuhochd. Sprache_, pp. 168-178.)] + +The most important event in the history of the twin municipalities, +Cöln-Berlin, was a change of dynasty. In 1415-18, Frederick of +Hohenzollern, burgrave of Nuremberg, was invested with the margravate +of Brandenburg and the electoral dignity. The Hohenzollerns, a few +exceptions aside, have been a thrifty, energetic and successful +family. Slowly, but with the precision of destiny, their motto, "From +rock to sea"--once apparently an idle boast--has realized itself to +the full, until they now stand foremost in Europe. It would pertain +rather to a history of the Prussian monarchy than to a sketch like +the present to trace, even in outline, the steps by which Brandenburg +annexed one after another the Prussian duchies of the Teutonic order, +Pomerania, Silesia, the province of Saxony, Westphalia, and in our own +days Hanover and Hesse-Cassel. So far as Berlin is concerned, it will +suffice to state that its history is not rich in episode or in marked +characters. It long remained the obscure capital of a dynasty which +the Guelfs and Habsburgs were pleased to look down upon as parvenu. +During the Thirty Years' war, in which Brandenburg played such a +pitiable part, Berlin was on the verge of extinction. By 1640 its +population had been reduced to 6000. Even the great elector, passing +his life in warfare, could do but little for his capital. His +successor, Frederick I., the first _king_ of the Prussians, was +more fortunate. To him the city is indebted for most of its present +features. He was the originator of the Friederichsstadt, the +Friederichsstrasse, the Dorotheenstadt,[2] the continuation of the +Linden to the Thiergarten, the arsenal, and the final shaping of the +old castle. In 1712 the population was 61,000. The wars of Frederick +the Great, brought to a triumphal issue, made Berlin more and more a +centre of trade and industry. To all who could look beyond the clouds +of political controversy and prejudice it was evident that Berlin was +destined to become the leading city of North Germany and the worthy +rival of Vienna. Even the humiliation of Jena and the subsequent +occupation by Napoleon were only transitory. Berlin, not being a +fortified city, was spared at least the misery of a siege. After the +downfall of Napoleon, Prussia and its capital resumed their mission of +absorption and expansion. The "Customs Union" accelerated the pace. In +1862 the population was 480,000; in 1867, 702,437; in 1871, 826,341. +At present it is in excess of Vienna. The Austrian and French wars +have given to its growth an almost feverish impulse. + +[Footnote 2: The Friederichsstadt and Dorotheenstadt are those parts +of the town with which the tourist is most familiar as places of +residence and shopping; Cöln is the island on which stand the castle +and the two museums; Old Berlin is the part beyond the Spree.] + +A comparison of Berlin and Vienna in their present state will suggest +many reflections. We have seen that they resemble each other in +origin, rate of growth and actual size. In their composition, however, +they differ widely. The population of Berlin is homogeneous, devotedly +attached to the Hohenzollern dynasty, enterprising in trade and +manufactures, thrifty and economical. It spends far less than it +earns. For upward of half a century it has been subjected to the most +careful military and scientific training. Moreover, Berlin is the +geographical and political centre of a thoroughly homogeneous realm. +We cannot afford to encourage any delusions on this point. It has +become of late the fashion among certain French writers and their +imitators to sneer at the Prussians as semi-Slaves, to call them +Borussians, and contrast them with the so-called Germans proper of +Bavaria, Swabia and the Rhine; whereas the fact of ethnography is that +the Prussians are an amalgamation of the best--that is, the hardiest +and most enterprising--elements of all the German districts. The +purest blood and the most active brains of the old empire left their +homes on the Main and the Weser to colonize and conquer under the +leadership of the Teutonic order. The few drops of Slavic blood are +nothing in comparison. Slavic names of towns and villages do not prove +Slavic descent; else, by like reasoning, we should have to pronounce +"France" and "French" words implying German blood, and "Normandy" an +expression for Norse lineage. So far from being composite, Berlin is +ultra German. It is more national, in this sense, than Dresden, where +the Saxon court was for generations Polish in tastes and sympathies, +and where English and American residents constitute at this day +a perceptible element; more so than Bremen and Hamburg, which are +entrepôts for foreign commerce; more so than Frankfort, with its +French affiliations. The few Polish noblemen and workmen from Posen +only serve to relieve the otherwise monotonous German type of the +city. The French culture assumed by Frederick the Great and his +contemporaries was a mere surface varnish, a passing fashion that left +the underlying structure intact. Furthermore, Berlin is profoundly +Protestant. The Reformation was accepted here with enthusiasm, and its +adoption was more of a folk-movement than elsewhere, Thuringia alone +excepted. By virtue of its Protestantism, then, Berlin is accessible +to liberal ideas and capable of placing itself in the van of progress +without breaking abruptly with the past. Its liberalism, unlike that +of Catholic Paris, does not lead to radicalism or communism. Finally, +it is to be borne in mind that Berlin, having become the official +capital, must of necessity attract more and more the ablest men +from all quarters of the empire--the members of the imperial Diet, +politicians, lobbyists, bankers, speculators and their satellites. +Along with the good, it is true, comes much of the bad. Berlin is +unquestionably the present goal for needy and unscrupulous adventurers +of the worst sort. Not a few pessimists, native and foreign, have +made the fact a text for dismal prognostications of the city's future +degeneracy. Yet this is taking a shortsighted and unjust view of +things. The great mass of the population is still sound to the core. +The unsettled state of monetary and social relations cannot but be +transitory, and compulsory education and military service cannot but +operate in the future as they have done in the past. So long as the +_garde-corps_ remains what it is, the flower of the army, it will be +idle to speak of the degeneracy of Berlin. We must not forget that +only five years ago, at Mars la Tour, Brandenburg and Berlin regiments +fought the most remarkable battle, in many respects, of modern times. + +On almost all the points above indicated Vienna is the direct opposite +of Berlin. It is not homogeneous in itself, neither is it the +centre of a homogeneous empire; its population is not thrifty nor +enterprising; it is Catholic, and not Protestant. The Hohenzollerns +have achieved their success by hard fighting. With the exception of +the original marches of Brandenburg there is scarcely a district in +the kingdom of Prussia that has not been wrested from some enemy +and held as the spoils of war. This policy of forcible annexation +or robbery, as the historian may be pleased to call it--while +inconsistent with principles of equity, has had nevertheless its +marked advantages. Perceiving that the sword alone could keep what the +sword had won, the Hohenzollerns have ever striven to identify their +dynastic interests with the well-being of their people, to make their +régime one of order and improvement, to repress the power of the +nobility without crushing its spirit, to adjust a satisfactory +compromise between centralization and local independence, and to stamp +their own uncompromising spirit upon each individual subject. Hence +their success in creating a nation out of provinces. Every Prussian +has always felt that he was a member of one indissoluble commonwealth. +The Habsburgs, on the contrary, have grown great through marriage. +Their policy is aptly expressed in the oft-quoted phrase, _Bella +gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube_. Regarding their sway as a matter +of hereditary succession and divine right, they have been content +to let each province or kingdom remain as it was when acquired, +an isolated Crown dependency. They have not put forth serious and +persistent efforts to weld the Tyrol, the Austrian duchies, Bohemia, +Galicia, much less Hungary, in one compact realm. They have done +even worse. They have committed repeatedly a blunder which the +Hohenzollerns, even in their darkest days, never so much as dreamed +of--namely, the blunder of hounding down one province or race by means +of another. They have used the Germans to crush the Bohemians, the +Poles to thwart the Germans, the Hungarians to check all the others, +and the Croats to defeat the Hungarians. From this has resulted a +deplorable conflict of races. The present emperor, Francis Joseph, +appears to the eye of the close observer a man bent beneath the +hopeless task of reconciliation. He is called upon to bear the +accumulated evils of centuries of misrule. + +Vienna is a faithful reflex in miniature of Austria in general. The +heedless or untrained tourist, misled by names and language and the +outward forms of intercourse, may pronounce the city a most delightful +German capital: he may congratulate himself upon the opportunity it +gives him of reviving his reminiscences of the old German emperors and +contrasting their times with the present. But the tourist, were he +to go beneath the surface, would discover that he is treading +upon peculiar ground. We have only to scratch the Viennese to find +something that is not German. We shall discover beneath the surface +Hungarian, or Slavic, or Italian blood. A very large portion of the +population, perhaps even the greater portion, speaks two, three or +four languages with equal facility. New York excepted, no great city +will compare with Vienna for medley of speech and race. The truth is, +that the city still retains its early character as a frontier-post, +or, to speak more correctly, it is the focus where the currents from +North-eastern Italy, South-eastern Germany, Bohemia, Galicia and +Hungary converge without thoroughly intermingling. The conventional +German used by the middle and lower classes is interspersed with +terms borrowed from the other languages, with dialectic idioms, +provincialisms and peculiarities of pronunciation that cause it to +sound like an unfamiliar tongue. + +In outward appearance the city is not less diversified than in +population. The gay bustle of the streets, the incessant roll of +fiacres, the style of dress, the crowded cafés remind one more +of Paris than of Germany. The cuisine and ways of living and the +architecture here and there have borrowed freely from Italy and +France. A certain fondness for gorgeous coloring and profuse +ornamentation is due to Hungarian influence. The bulbous cupolas +surmounted with sharply tapering spires, irreverently nicknamed +_Zwiebel-Thürme_ ("onion-towers"), are evidently stragglers from +Byzantium, and contrast sharply with the rich Gothic of St. Stephen's +and the new Votive Church. By the side of Vienna, Berlin is painfully +monotonous. Few of the public buildings can be called handsome, or +even picturesque. The plaster used for the outer coating of the houses +is apt to discolor or flake off, so that the general aspect is that +of premature age. Worthy of note is the new city hall, a successful +effort to make an imposing and elegant structure of brick. In the +neighborhood of the Thiergarten the private residences evince taste +and refinement. Taken all in all, Berlin has not yet shaken off its +provincialism, and is far behind Vienna in drainage, water-supply +and paving. The Berlinese have much to do and undo before they can +rightfully call their city a _Weltstadt_. + +In the matter of economy, at least, they are worthy of all praise. +No other community spends less in proportion to its income. From the +emperor down, each person seems to count his pence. This self-denial, +which borders at times on parsimony, is the result of training and +circumstances. The soil in the eastern part of the kingdom, and +especially around Berlin, is not fertile. It yields its crops only to +the most careful tillage. Moreover, prolonged struggles for political +existence and supremacy, with the necessity of being on the watch for +sudden wars and formidable invasions, have sharpened the wits of the +Berlinese and taught them the advisability of laying by for a rainy +day. The Viennese, on the contrary, live rather for the passing hour. +Austria is favored with an agreeable climate and an extremely fertile +soil. The immediate vicinity of Vienna is highly picturesque and +invites to merrymaking excursions, while life in the city is a hunt +after pleasure. The court and the nobility, once proverbial for +wealth, set an example of profuse expenditure which is followed by the +middle and even the lower classes. + +Were it possible, by passing a magic wand over the Austrian duchies +and Vienna, to transform them into a Brandenburg or a Silesia, the +Eastern question would be much simplified. The entire valley of the +lower Danube, Hungary not excepted, suffers from a want of laborers. +Agriculture, mining and manufactures are in a primitive state unworthy +of the Middle Ages. The exhibition from Roumania at Vienna in 1873, +although arrayed tastefully, was a lamentable confession of poverty +and backwardness. Even Hungary, anxious to display her autonomy to +the best advantage, could show little more than the beginnings of +a change. The actual condition of the lower Danube is a reproach to +European civilization. Everything seems to be lacking--good roads and +tolerable houses, kitchen and farming utensils, workshops of the most +rudimentary sort, clothing, popular education, the first conceptions +of science. Germany is the only source from which to expect assistance +in the spread of material comfort and spiritual enlightenment, for +Germany alone has population and education to spare. Yet that part +of Germany which is nearest at hand is not adequate of itself to +the task. The Austrians have not such a preponderancy of numbers +and influence within their own borders as would qualify them for +conducting successfully a great movement of colonization. Besides, it +must be admitted, with all due respect to the many good qualities of +the Austrians, that colonists should be of "sterner stuff"--should +have more self-denial, greater capacity for work and more talent +for self-government. In these particulars the North Germans are +unquestionably superior. The improved condition of Roumania (Moldavia +and Wallachia) under Prince Charles of Hohenzollern teaches us what +may be accomplished by an energetic administration. During the past +ten years the army has been drilled and equipped after the Prussian +fashion, the finances placed on a tolerable footing, and practical +independence of Turkey asserted. At the Vienna exhibition Roumania was +the only one of the nominally-vassal states that did not display +the star and crescent. Were the prince unrestrained by respect for +Austrian and Prussian diplomacy, and free to lead his well-disciplined +army of fifty thousand men into the field, he would give the signal +for a general uprising in Bosnia and Servia, and thus probably succeed +in severing all the Christian provinces from the Porte. + +In one essential feature the Germanization of Prussia in the Middle +Ages differed necessarily from any like movement now possible along +the Danube. The Vends, Serbs and other Slaves were heathens, and their +overthrow and extermination was a crusade as well as a conquest. The +Church consecrated the sword, the monk labored side by side with the +knight. Such is not the case in the Danube Valley. Whatever value +we may set upon the Christianity of the Slovenes, Herzegovinians, +Bulgarians and Roumanians, we certainly cannot call them heathens. +They belong to the Roman Catholic, to the Greek, or to the Greek +United Church, although their worship and religious conceptions are +strongly tinged with reminiscences of Slavic paganism. Neither is a +conquest, in the military sense, possible. Public opinion in Europe +has learned to look with abhorrence on such violent measures, not to +speak of the mutual jealousies of Austria, Russia and Germany. The +question is rather one of peaceful colonization, of the introduction +of Germans in large numbers, and the gradual adoption of Western +improvements. Without some strong influx of the sort the mere +separation of the Danubian principalities from Turkey would be only a +halfway measure. It would put an end to the outrageous tyranny of the +Turkish governors, but it would not ensure industrial and intellectual +progress. And if Germany does not undertake the work, where else is +aid to be looked for? We see what the Germans have done for us in the +valleys of the upper Ohio and Mississippi. We have only to imagine a +like stream of population rolling for twenty years along the Danube. +Some of the conditions there are even more favorable than they have +been with us. The German colonist in America has been confronted from +the start by a civilization fully equal to his own. In the Danubian +principalities he would rise at once to a position of superiority. +The cessation of German immigration would be undoubtedly a loss to +America, but its diversion to the south-east would be a great gain +to Europe. It would settle, perhaps, for ever, the grave question +of race-supremacy--it would enable Austria to become a really German +power, and Vienna a really German city. Last, but not least, it would +reclaim from Mohammedanism and barbarism lands that were lost to +Christian culture only five centuries ago in a moment of shameful +weakness. + +JAMES MORGAN HART. + + + + +THE ATONEMENT OF LEAM DUNDAS. + +BY MRS. E. LYNN LINTON, AUTHOR OF "PATRICIA KEMBALL." + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +OUR MARRIAGE. + + +Not the youngest or prettiest bride could have excited more interest +on her launch into the unknown shoals and quicksands of matrimony than +did many-fleshed, mature and freckled Josephine on the achievement of +her long-desired union with the twice-told widower. A marriage of one +of their own set was a rare event altogether to the North Astonians, +and the marriage of one of the Hill girls was above all a circumstance +that touched the heart of the place as nothing else could touch +it--one which even Carry Fairbairn on the day of her triumph over +willow-wearing and that faithless Frank had not come near. It was "our +marriage" and "our bride," and each member of the community took +a personal interest in the proceedings, and felt implicated in the +subsequent failure or success of the venture. + +Of course they all confessed that it was a bold thing for Miss +Josephine to be the third wife of a man--some of the more prudish +pursed their lips and said they wondered how she could, and they +wondered yet more how Mrs. Harrowby ever allowed it, and why, if Mr. +Dundas must marry again (but they thought he might be quiet now), he +had not taken a stranger, instead of one who had been mixed up as it +were with his other wives--but seeing that her day was passed, the +majority, as has been said, held that she was in the right to take +what she could get, and to marry even as a third wife was better than +not to marry at all. And then the neighborhood knew Sebastian Dundas, +and knew that although he had been foolish and unfortunate in his +former affairs, there was no harm in him. If his second wife had died +mysteriously, North Aston was generous enough not to suppose that he +had poisoned her; and who could wonder at that dreadful Pepita having +a stroke, sitting in the sun as she did on such a hot day, and so fat +as she was? So that Mr. Dundas was exonerated from the suspicion +of murder in either case, if credited with an amount of folly and +misfortune next thing to criminal; and "our marriage" was received +with approbation, the families sending tribute and going to the church +as the duty they owed a Harrowby, and to show Sebastian that they +considered he had done wisely at last, and chosen as was fitting. + +There was a little mild waggery about the future name of Ford +House, and the bolder spirits offered shilling bets that it would be +rechristened "Josephine Lodge" before the year was out. But save this +not very scorching satire, which also was not too well received by +the majority, as savoring of irreverence to consecrated powers, the +country looked on in supreme good-humor, and the day came in its +course, finding as much social serenity as it brought summer sunshine. + +It was a pretty wedding, and everybody said that everybody looked very +nice; which is always comforting to those whose souls are stitched up +in their flounces, and whose happiness and self-respect rise or +fall according to the becomingness of their attire. The village +school-children lining the churchwalk strewed flowers for the bride's +material and symbolic path. Dressed in a mixture of white, scarlet +and blue, they made a brilliant show of color, and gave a curious +suggestion of so many tricolored flags set up along the path; but they +added to the general gayety of the scene, and they themselves thought +Miss Josephine's wedding surely as grand as the queen's. + +There were five bridesmaids, including little Fina, whom kindly +Josephine had specially desired should bear her part in the pageant +which was to give her a mother and a friend. The remaining four +were the two Misses Harrowby, Adelaide Birkett, as her long-time +confidante, and that other step-daughter, more legitimate if less +satisfactory than Fina--Leam. + +The first three of these four elder maids came naturally and of +course: the last was the difficulty. When first asked, Learn had +refused positively--for her quite vehemently--to have hand or part in +the wedding. It brought back too vividly the sin and the sorrow of the +former time; and she despised her father's inconstancy of heart too +much to care to assist at a service which was to her the service of +folly and wickedness in one. + +She said, "No, no: I will not come. I, bridesmaid at papa's wedding! +bridesmaid to his third wife! No, I will not!" And she said it with +an insistance, an emphasis, that seemed immovable, and all the more so +because it was natural. + +But Josephine pleaded with her so warmly--she was evidently so much in +earnest in her wish, she meant to be so good and kind to the girl, +to lift her from the shadows and place her in the sunshine of +happiness--that Leam was at last touched deeply enough to give way. +She had come now to recognize that fidelity to be faithful need not +be churlish; and perhaps she was influenced by Josephine's final +argument. For when she had said "No, I cannot come to the wedding," +for about the fourth time, Josephine shot her last bolt in these +words: "Oh, dear Leam, do come. I am sure Edgar will be hurt and +displeased if you are not one of my bridesmaids. He will think you do +not like the connection, and you know what a proud man he is: he will +be so vexed with me." + +On which Leam said gravely, "I would not like to hurt or displease +Major Harrowby; and I do not like or dislike the connection;" adding, +after a pause, and putting on her little royal manner, "I will come." + +Josephine's honest heart swelled with the humble gratitude of the +self-abased. "Good Leam! dear girl!" she cried, kissing her with +tearful eyes and wet lips--poor Learn! who hated to be kissed, and who +had by no means intended that her grave caress on the day of betrothal +should be taken as a precedent and acted on unreservedly. And after +she had kissed her frequently she thanked her again effusively, as if +she had received some signal grace that could hardly be repaid. + +Her excess chilled Leam of course, but she held to her promise; and +Josephine augured all manner of happy eventualities from the fact +that her future step-daughter had yielded so sweetly on the first +difference of desire between them, and had let herself be kissed with +becoming patience. It was a good omen for the beginning of things; and +all brides are superstitious--Josephine perhaps more so than most, in +that she was more loving and more in love than most. + +Yes, it was a pretty wedding, as they all said. The bride in the +regulation white and pearls looked, if not girlish, yet comely and +suitable to the bridegroom with his gray hair and sunburnt skin. The +two senior maids had stipulated for a preponderance of warm rose-color +in the costumes, which suited every one. It threw a flush on their +faded elderliness which was not amiss, and did the best for them +that could be done in the circumstances; it brought out into lovely +contrast, the contrast of harmonies, Adelaide Birkett's delicate +complexion, fair flaxen braids and light-blue eyes; it burnt like +flame in Leam's dark hair, and made her large transcendent eyes glow +as if with fire; while the little one looked like a rose, the white +and crimson petals of which enclosed a laughing golden-headed fairy. + +It was admirable all through, and did credit to the generalizing +powers of the Hill, which had thus contrived to harmonize the three +stages of womanhood and to offend none. Even Frank's fastidious taste +was satisfied. So was Mrs. Frank's, who knew how things ought to be +done. And as she was the rather elderly if very wealthy daughter of a +baronet, who considered that she had married decidedly beneath herself +in taking Frank Harrowby, the untitled young barrister not even yet in +silk, she had come down to the Hill prepared to criticise sharply; +so that her approbation carried weight and ensured a large amount +of satisfaction. Edgar, however, who was not so fastidious as his +brother, thought the whole thing a failure and that no one looked even +tolerable. + +As he had his duty to do by his sister, being the father who gave her +away, he was fully occupied; but his eyes wandered more than once to +the younger two of the bridesmaids proper--those two irreconcilables +joined for the first time in a show of sisterhood and likeness--and +whom he examined and compared as so often before, with the same +inability to decide which. + +He paid little or no attention to either. He might have been a +gray-headed old sage for the marvelous reticence of his demeanor, +devoting himself to his duties and the dowagers with a persistency +of good-breeding, to say the least of it, admirable. At the +breakfast-table he was naturally separated from both these fair +disturbers of his lordly peace, Leam having been told off to Alick, +and Adelaide handed over to Frank's fraternal care, with Mrs. Frank, +who claimed more than a fee-simple in her husband, watching them +jealously and interrupting them often. + +That wind which never blows so ill that it brings no good to any one +had brought joy to Alick in this apportionment of partners, if the +sadness of boredom to poor Leam. The natural excitement of a wedding, +which stirs the coldest, had touched even the chastened pulses of the +pale, gaunt curate, and he caught himself more than once wondering if +he could ever win the young queen of his boyish fancy to return +the deep love of his manhood--love which was so true, so strong, so +illimitable, it seemed as if it must by the very nature of things +compel its answer. + +That answer was evidently not in the course of preparation to-day, for +Leam had never been more laconic or more candidly disdainful than she +was now; and what sweetness the pomegranate flower might hold in its +heart was certainly not shaken abroad on the surrounding world. +She answered when she was spoken to, because even Leam felt the +constraining influences of society, but her eyes, like her manner, +said plainly enough, "You tire me: you are stupid." + +Not that either her eyes or her manner repelled her uncomfortable +adorer. Alick was used to her disdain, and even liked it as her way, +as he would have liked anything else that had been her way. He was +content to be her footstool if it was her pleasure to put her foot +on him, and he would have knotted any thong of any lash that she had +chosen to use. Whatever gave her pleasure rejoiced him, and he had no +desire for himself that might be against her wishes. Nevertheless, +he yearned at times, when self would dominate obedience, that those +wishes of hers should coincide with his desires, and that before the +end came he might win her to return his love. + +But what can be hoped from a girl, not a coquette, who is besieged +on the one side by an awkward and ungainly admirer, when directly +opposite to her is the handsome hero for whose love her secret heart, +unknown to herself, is crying, and who has withdrawn himself for +the time from smiles and benevolence? Leam somehow felt as if every +compliment paid to her by Alick was an offence to Edgar; and she +repelled him, blushing, writhing, uncomfortable, but adoring, with +a coldness that nothing could warm, a stony immobility that nothing +could soften, because it was the coldness of fidelity and the +immobility of love. + +Edgar saw it all. It put him somewhat in better humor with himself, +but made him indignant with the Reverend Alexander, as he generally +called Alick when he spoke of him wishing to suggest disrespect. He +held him as a poacher beating up his preserves; and the gentlemen +of England have scant mercy for poachers, conscious or unconscious. +Meanwhile, nothing could be more delightfully smooth and successful +than the whole thing was on the outside. The women looked nice, the +men were gallant, the mature but comely bride was so happy that +she seemed to radiate happiness on all around her, and the elderly +bridegroom was marvelously vitalized for a man whose heart was broken, +and only at the best riveted. Edgar performed his duties, as has been +said, with heroic constancy; Mrs. Harrowby did not weep nor bemoan +herself as a victim because one of her daughters had at last left the +maternal wing for a penthouse of her own; Adelaide talked to Frank +with graceful discretion, mindful of his owner watching her property +jealously from the other side of the way; Leam was--Leam in her more +reserved mood if Alick was too manifestly adoring; and the families +admitted acted like a well-trained chorus, and carried on the main +thread to lower levels without a break. So time and events went +on till the moment came for that fearful infliction--the +wedding-breakfast toast prefaced by the wedding-breakfast speech. + +This naturally fell to the lot of Mr. Birkett to propose and deliver, +and after a concerted signaling with Edgar he rose to his feet and +began his oration. He proposed "the health of the fair bride and her +gallant groom," both of whom, after the manner of such speeches, he +credited with all the virtues under heaven, and of whom each was the +sole proper complement of the other to be found within the four seas. +He was so far generous in that he did not allude to that fascinating +second whom Mr. Dundas had taken to his bosom nearly five years ago +now, and whose tragical death had cut him to the heart almost as much +as it had wounded Sebastian. At one time natural masculine malice had +made him compose a stinging little allusion that should carry poison, +as some flowers do, sheathed and sugared; but the gentleman's better +taste prevailed, and for Josephine's sake he brushed away the gloomy +shadow of the grave which he had thrown for his own satisfaction over +the orange-blossoms. He rose to the joyous height of the occasion, and +his speech was a splendid success and gave satisfaction to every one +alike. But what he did say was, that he supposed the master of the +Hill would soon be following the example of his brother-in-law, and +cause the place to be glad in the presence of a young Mrs. Harrowby, +who would do well if she had half the virtues of the lady who had so +long held the place of mistress there. And when he said this he looked +at Edgar with a paternal kind of roguishness that really sat very well +on his handsome old face, and that every one took to mean Adelaide. + +Edgar laughed and showed his square white teeth while the rector +spoke, blushing like a girl, but in all save that strange, unusual +flush he bore himself as if it was a good joke of Mr. Birkett's own +imagining, and one with which he had personally nothing to do. More +than one pair of eyes watched to see if he would look at Adelaide as +the thong for the rector's buckle; and Adelaide watched on her own +account to see if he would look at Leam or at her. But Edgar kept his +eyes discreetly guided, and no one caught a wandering glance anywhere: +he merely laughed and put it by as a good joke, looking as if he had +devoted himself to celibacy for life, and that the Hill would never +receive another mistress than the one whom it had now. + +"I wonder if the rector means Miss Birkett?" blundered Alick as his +commentary in a low voice to Leam. + +Leam turned pale: then with an effort she answered coldly, "Why wonder +at what you cannot know? It is foolish." + +And Alick was comforted, because if she had rebuked she had at the +least spoken to him. + +The breakfast soon after this came to an end, and in due time the +guests were all assembled in the drawing-room, waiting for the +departure of the newly-married pair. Here Edgar might have made +some amends to the two bridesmaids whom he had neglected with such +impartiality of coldness, such an equal division of doubt, but he did +not. He still avoided both as if each had offended him, and made them +feel that he was displeased and had intentionally overlooked them. + +Each girl bore his neglect in a manner characteristic of herself. +Adelaide showed nothing, unless indeed it was that her voice was +smoother and her speech sharper than usual, while her smiles were +more frequent if less real. But then it was heroic in her to speak +and smile at all when she was verily in torture. Nothing short of +the worship due to the great god Society could have made her control +herself so admirably; but Adelaide was a faithful worshiper of the +divine life of conventionality, and she had her reward. Leam showed +nothing, at least nothing directly overt. Perhaps her demeanor +was stiller, her laconism curter, her distaste to uninteresting +companionship and current small-talk more profound, than usual; but +no one seemed to see the deeper tinge of her ordinary color, and she +passed muster, for her creditably. In her heart she thought it all +weariness of the flesh and spirit alike, and wished that people would +marry without a wedding if they must marry at all. + +She had not the slightest idea why she felt so miserable when every +one else was so full of the silliest laughter. It never occurred to +her that it was because Edgar had not spoken to her; but once she +confessed to herself that she wished she was away out of all this, +riding through the green lanes, with Major Harrowby riding fast to +join her. Even if her chestnut should prance and dance and make her +feel uncomfortable about the pommel and the reins, it would be better +than this. A heavy meal of meat and wine, and that horrible cake in +the middle of the day, were stupid, thought ascetic Leam. She had +never felt anything so dreary before. How glad she would be when her +father and Josephine went away, and she might go back to Ford House +and be alone! As for the evening, she did not know that she would show +herself then at all. There was to be a ball, and though it would be +pleasant to dance, she felt so dull and wretched now she half thought +she would send an excuse. But perhaps Major Harrowby would be more at +liberty in the evening than he was now, and would find it possible to +dance with her, at least once. He danced so well! Indeed, he was the +only partner whom she cared to have, and she hoped therefore that he +would dance with her if she came. + +And thinking this, she resolved in her own mind that she would +come, and unconsciously raised her eyes to Edgar with a look of such +intensity, and as it seemed to him such reproach, that it startled him +as much as if she had called him by his name and asked him sadly, Why? + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +IS THIS LOVE? + + +It seemed as if the evening was to bring no more satisfaction to the +three whom the morning had so greatly disturbed than had that morning +itself. Edgar avoided the two girls at the ball as much as he had +avoided them at the breakfast, dancing only once with each, and +not making even that one dance pleasant. Under cover of brotherly +familiarity he teased Adelaide till she had the greatest difficulty +in keeping her temper; while he was so preternaturally respectful to +Leam, whom he wished he had not been forced to respect at all, that it +seemed as if they had met to-night for the first time, and were not +quite so cordial as sympathetic strangers would have been. + +It was only a quadrille that they were dancing, a stupid, silent, +uninteresting set of figures which people go through out of respect +for ancient usage, and for which no one cares. Leam would have refused +to take part in it at all had any one but Major Harrowby asked her. +But he was different from other men, she thought; and it became her to +say "Yes" when he said "Will you?" if only because he was the master +of the house. + +Leam had made considerable progress in her estimate of the +proprieties. The unseen teacher who had informed her of late was +apparently even more potent than those who had first broken up the +fallow ground at Bayswater, and taught her that _las cosas de España_ +were not the things of the universe, and that there was another life +and mode of action besides that taught by mamma. + +But when Leam thoroughly understood the master's mood, and thus +made it clear to herself that the evening's formality was simply a +continuance of the morning's avoidance, after looking at him once +with one of those profound looks of hers which made him almost beside +himself, she set her head straight, turned her eyes to the floor, and +lapsed into a silence as unbroken as his own. She was too proud and +shy to attempt to conciliate him, but she wondered why he was so +changed to her. And then she wondered, as she had done this morning, +why she was so unhappy to-night. Was it because her father had married +Josephine Harrowby? Why should that make her sad? She did not think +now that her mother was crying in heaven because another woman was in +her place; and for herself it made no difference whether there was a +step-mother at home or no. She could not be more lonely than she +was; and with Josephine at the head of affairs she would have less +responsibility. No, it was not that which was making her unhappy; and +yet she was almost as miserable to-night as she had been when madame +was brought home as papa's wife, and her fancy gave her mamma's +beloved face weeping there among the stars--abandoned by all but +herself, forsaken even by the saints and the angels. + +Everything to-night oppressed her. The lights dazzled her with +what seemed to her their hard and cruel shine; the passing dancers +radiantly clad and joyous made her giddy and contemptuous; the +flower-scents pouring through the room from the plants within and from +the gardens without gave her headache; the number of people at the +ball--people whom she did not know and who stared at her, people +whom she did know and who talked to her--all overwhelmed as well as +isolated her. She seemed to belong to no one, now that Edgar had let +her slip from his hands so coldly--not even to Mrs. Corfield, who had +brought her, nor yet to her faithful friend and guardian Alick, who +wandered round and round about her in circles like a dog, doing his +best to make her feel befriended and to clear her dear face of some of +its sadness. Doing his best too, with characteristic unselfishness, +to forget that he loved her if it displeased her, and to convince her +that he had only dreamed when he had said those rash words when the +lilacs were first budding in the garden at Steel's Corner. + +It was quite early in the evening when Edgar danced this uninteresting +"square" with Leam, whom then he ceremoniously handed back to Mrs. +Corfield, as if this gathering of friends and neighbors in the country +had been a formal assemblage of strangers in a town. + +"I hope you are not tired with this quadrille," he said as he took her +across the room, not looking at her. + +"It was dull, but I am not tired," Learn answered, not looking at him. + +"I am sorry I was such an uninteresting partner," was his rejoinder, +made with mock simplicity. + +"A dumb man who does not even talk on his fingers cannot be very +amusing," returned Learn with real directness. + +"You were dumb too: why did you not talk, if dull, on your fingers?" +he asked. + +She drew herself up proudly, more like the Leam of Alick than of +Edgar. "I do not generally amuse gentlemen," she said. + +"Then I am only in the majority?" with that forced smile which was his +way when he was most annoyed. + +"You have been to-day," answered Leam, quitting his arm as they came +up to her sharp-featured chaperon, but looking straight at him as +she spoke with those heart-breaking eyes to which, Edgar thought, +everything must yield, and he himself at the last. + +Not minded, however, to yield at this moment, fighting indeed +desperately with himself not to yield at all, Edgar kept away from his +sister's step-daughter still more, as if a quarrel had fallen between +them; and Adelaide gained in proportion, for suddenly that butterfly, +undecided fancy of his seemed to settle on the rector's daughter, to +whom he now paid more court than to the whole room beside--court so +excessive and so patent that it made the families laugh knowingly, +and say among themselves evidently the Hill would soon receive its new +mistress, and the rector knew which way things were going when he made +that wedding-speech this morning. + +Only Adelaide herself was not deceived, but read between the lines and +made out the hidden words, which were not flattering to herself. And +to her it was manifest that Edgar's attentions, offered with such +excited publicity, were not so much to gratify her or to express +himself, as to pique Leam Dundas and work off his own unrest. + +Meanwhile, Leam, sad and weary, took refuge in the embrasure of a +bow-window, where she sat hidden from the room by the heavy curtains +which fell before the sidelights, leaving the centre window leading +into the garden open and uncurtained. Here she was at rest. She was +not obliged to talk. She need not see Edgar always with her enemy, +both laughing so merrily--and as it seemed to her so cruelly, so +insolently--as they waltzed and danced square dances, looking really +as if made one for the other--so handsome as they both were; so well +set up, and so thoroughly English. + +It made her so unhappy to watch them; for, as she said to herself, +Major Harrowby had always been so much her friend, and Adelaide +Birkett was so much her enemy, that she felt as if he had deserted her +and gone over to the other side. That was all. It was like losing him +altogether to see him so much with Adelaide. With any one else she +would not have had a pang. He might have danced all the evening, if +he had liked, with Susy Fairbairn or Rosy, or any of the strange girls +about, but she did not like that he should so entirely abandon her for +Adelaide. Wherefore she drew herself away out of sight altogether, +and sat behind the curtain looking into the garden and up to the dark, +quiet sky. + +Presently Alick, who had been searching for her everywhere, spied her +out and came up to her. He too was one of those made wretched by the +circumstances of the evening. Indeed, he was always wretched, more +or less; but he was one of the kind which gets used to its own +unhappiness--even reconciled to it if others are happy. + +"You are not dancing?" he said to Learn sitting behind the curtain. + +"No," said Learn with her old disdain for self-evident propositions. +"I am sitting here." + +"Don't you care for dancing?" he asked. + +He knew that she did, but a certain temperament prefers foolish +questions to silence; and Alick Corfield was one who had that +temperament. + +"Not to-night," she answered, looking into the garden, + +"Why not to-night? and when you dance so beautifully too--just as +light as a fairy." + +"Did you ever see a fairy dance?" was Leam's rejoinder, made quite +solemnly. + +Alick blushed and shifted his long lean limbs uneasily. He knew that +when he said these silly things he should draw down on him Leam's +rebuke, but he never could refrain. He seemed impelled somehow to be +always foolish and tiresome when with her. "No, I cannot say I have +ever seen a fairy," he answered with a nervous little laugh. + +"Then how can you say I dance like one?" she asked in perfect good +faith of reproach. + +"One may imagine," apologized Alick. + +"One cannot imagine what does not exist," she answered. "You should +not say such foolish things." + +"No, you are right, I should not. I do say very foolish things +at times. You are right to be angry with me," he said humbly, and +writhing. + +Leam turned her eyes from him in artistic reprobation of his +awkwardness and ungainly homage. She paused a moment: then, as if by +an effort, she looked at him straight in the face and kindly. "You +are too good to me," she said gently, "and I am too hard on you: it is +cruel." + +"Don't say that," he cried, in real distress now. "You are perfect in +my eyes. Don't scold yourself. I like you to say sharp things to me, +and to tell me in your own beautiful way that I am stupid and foolish, +if really you trust me and respect me a little under it all. But I +should not know you, Leam, if you did not snub me. I should think you +were angry with me if you treated me with formal politeness." + +He spoke with an honest heart, but an uncomfortable body; and Learn, +turning away her eyes once more, said with a heavy sigh--gravely, +sorrowfully, tenderly even, but as if impelled by respect for truth to +give her verdict as she thought it--"It is true if it is hard: you are +often stupid. You are stupid now, twisting yourself about like that +and making silly speeches. But I like you, for all that, and I respect +you. I would as soon expect the sun to go out as for you to do wrong. +But I wish you would keep still and not talk so much nonsense as you +do." + +"Thank you!" cried the poor fellow fervently, his bare bone accepted +as gratefully as if it had been the sweetest fruit that love could +bestow. "You give me all I ask, and more than I deserve, if you say +that. And it is so kind of you to care whether I am awkward or not." + +"I do not see the kindness," returned Learn gravely. + +"Do you see those two spooning?" asked one of the Fairbairn girls, +pointing out Leam and Alick to Edgar, the curtain being now held back +by Leam to show the world that she was there, not caring to look as if +hiding away with Alick. + +"They look very comfortable, and the lady picturesque," he answered +affectedly, but his brows suddenly contracted and his eyes shot +together, as they always did when angry. He had been jealous before +now of that shambling, awkward, ill-favored and true-hearted Alick, +that loyal knight and faithful watchdog whom he despised with such +high-hearted contempt; and he was not pleased to see him paying homage +to the young queen whom he himself had deserted. + +"Poor Alick Corfield!" said Adelaide pityingly. "He has been a very +faithful adorer, I must say. I believe that he has been in love with +Leam all his life, while she has held him on and off, and made use of +him when she wanted him, and deserted him when she did not want him, +with the skill of a veteran." + +"Do you think Miss Dundas a flirt?" asked Edgar as affectedly as +before. + +"Certainly I do, but perhaps not more so than most girls of her kind +and age," was the quiet answer with its pretence of fairness. + +"Including yourself?" + +She smiled with unruffled amiability. "I am an exception," she said. +"I am neither of her kind nor, thank Goodness! of Tier country; and +I have never seen the man I cared to flirt with. I am more particular +than most people, and more exclusive. Besides," with the most +matter-of-fact air in the world, "I am an old maid by nature and +destiny. I am preparing for my _métier_ too steadily to interrupt it +by the vulgar amusement of flirting." + +"You an old maid!--you! nonsense!" cried Edgar with an odd expression +in his eyes. "You will not be an old maid, Adelaide, I would marry you +myself rather." + +She chose to take his impertinence simply. "Would you?" she asked. +"That would be generous!" + +"And unpleasant?" he returned in a lower voice. + +"To you? _chi sa?_ I should say yes." She spoke quite quietly, as if +nothing deeper than the question and answer of the moment lay under +this crossing of swords. + +"No, not to me," he returned. + +"To me, then? I will tell you that when the time comes," she said. +"Things are not always what they seem." + +"You speak in riddles to-night, fair lady," said Edgar, who honestly +did not know what she meant him to infer--whether her present seeming +indifference was real, or the deeper feeling which she had so often +and for so long allowed him to believe. + +"Do I?" She looked into his face serenely, but a little irritatingly. +"Then my spoken riddles match your acted ones," she said. + +"This is the first time that I have been accused of enigmatic action. +Of all men I am the most straightforward, the least dubious." + +Edgar said this rather angrily. By that curious law of self-deception +which makes cowards boast of their courage and hypocrites of their +sincerity, he did really believe himself to be as he said, notably +clear in his will and distinct in his action. + +"Indeed! I should scarcely endorse that," answered Adelaide. "I have +so often known you enigmatic--a riddle of which, it seems to me, the +key is lost, or to which indeed there is no key at all--that I have +come to look on you as a puzzle never to be made out." + +"You mean a puzzle not known to my fair friend Adelaide, which is not +quite the same thing as not known to any one," he said satirically, +his ill-humor with himself and everything about him overflowing beyond +his power to restrain. His knowledge that Miss Birkett was his proper +choice, his mad love for Leam--love only on the right hand, fitness, +society, family, every other claim on the left--his jealousy of +Alick, all irritated him beyond bearing, and made him forget even his +good-breeding in his irritation. + +"Not known to my friend Edgar himself," was Adelaide's reply, her +color rising, ill-humor being contagious. + +"Now, Adelaide, you are getting cross," he said. + +"No, I am not in the least cross," she answered with her sweetest +smile. "I have a clear conscience--no self-reproaches to make me +vexed. It is only those who do wrong that lose their tempers. I know +nothing better for good-humor than a good conscience." + +"What a pretty little sermon! almost as good as one of the Reverend +Alexander's, whose sport, by the way, I shall go and spoil." + +"I never knew you cruel before," said Adelaide quietly. "Why should +you destroy the poor fellow's happiness, as well as Leam's chances, +for a mere passing whim? You surely are not going to repeat with the +daughter the father's original mistake with the mother?" + +She spoke with the utmost contempt that she could manifest. At all +events, if Edgar married Leam Dundas, she would have her soul clear. +He should never be able to say that he had gone over the edge of the +precipice unwarned. She at least would be faithful, and would show him +how unworthy his choice was. + +"Well, I don't know," he drawled. "Do you think she would have me if I +asked her?" + +"Edgar!" cried Adelaide reproachfully. "You are untrue to yourself +when you speak in that manner to me--I, who am your best friend. You +have no one who cares so truly, so unselfishly, for your happiness and +honor as I do." + +She began with reproach, but she ended with tenderness; and Edgar, +who was wax in the hands of a pretty woman, was touched. "Good, dear +Adelaide!" he said with fervor and quite naturally, "you are one of +the best girls in the world. But I _must_ go and speak to Miss Dundas, +I have neglected her so abominably all the evening." + +On which, as if to prevent any reply, he turned away, and the next +moment was standing by Leam sitting in the window-seat half concealed +by the curtain, Alick paying awkward homage as his manner was. + +Leam gave the faintest little start, that was more a shiver than a +start, as he came up. She turned her tragic eyes to him with dumb +reproach; but if she was sorrowful she was not craven, and though she +meant him to see that she disapproved of his neglect--which had indeed +been too evident to be ignored--she did not want him to think that she +was unhappy because of it. + +"Are you not dancing, Miss Dundas?" asked Edgar as gravely as if he +was putting a _bonâ fide_ question. + +"No," said Leam--thinking to herself, "Even he can ask silly +questions." + +"Why not? Are you tired?" + +"Yes," answered laconic Leam with a little sigh. + +"I am afraid you are bored, and that you do not like balls," he said +with false sympathy, but real love, sorry to see the weariness of face +and spirit which he had not been sorry to cause. + +"I am bored, and I do not like balls," she answered, her directness in +nowise softened out of regard for Edgar as the giver of the feast or +for Alick as her companion. + +"Yet you like dancing; so come and shake off your boredom with me," +said Edgar with a sudden flush. "They are just beginning to waltz: let +me have one turn with you." + +"No. Why do you ask me? You do not like to dance with me," said Leam +proudly. + +"No? Who told you such nonsense--such a falsehood as that?" hotly. + +"Yourself," she answered. + +Alick shifted his place uneasily. Something in Leam's manner to Edgar +struck him with an acute sense of distress, and seemed to tell him all +that he had hitherto failed to understand. But he felt indignant with +Edgar, even though his neglect, at which Leam had been so evidently +pained, might to another man have given hopes. He would rather have +known her loving, beloved, hence blessed, than wounded by this man's +coldness, by his indifference to what was to him, poor faithful and +idealizing Alick, such surpassing and supreme delightfulness. + +"I?" cried Edgar, willfully misunderstanding her. "When did I tell you +I did not like to dance With you?" + +"This evening," said Leam, not looking into his face. + +"Oh, there is some mistake here. Come with me now. I will soon +convince you that I do not dislike to dance with you," cried Edgar, +excited, peremptory, eager. + +Her accusation had touched him. It made him resolute to show her that +he did not dislike to dance with her--she, the most beautiful girl +in the room, the best dancer--she, Leam, that name which meant a +love-poem in itself to him. + +"Come," he said again, offering his hand, not his arm. + +Leam looked at him, meaning to refuse. What did she see in his face +that changed hers so wholly? The weariness swept off like clouds from +the sky; her mournful eyes brightened into joy; the pretty little +smile, which Edgar knew so well, stole round her mouth, timid, +fluttering, evanescent; and she laid her hand in his with an +indescribable expression of relief, like one suddenly free from pain. + +"I am glad you do not dislike to dance with me," she said with a happy +sigh; and the next-moment his arm was round her waist and her light +form borne along into the dance. + +As they went off Alick passed through the open window and stole away +into the garden. The pain lost by Leam had been found by him, and it +lay heavy on his soul. + +Dancing was Leam's greatest pleasure and her best accomplishment. She +had inherited the national passion as well as the grace bequeathed by +her mother; and even Adelaide was forced to acknowledge that no one in +or about North Aston came near to her in this. Edgar, too, danced +in the best style of the best kind of English gentleman; and it was +really something for the rest to look at when these two "took the +floor." But never had Leam felt during a dance as she felt now--never +had she shone to such perfection. She was as if taken up into another +world, where she was some one else and not herself--some one radiant, +without care, light-hearted, and without memories. The rapid movement +intoxicated her; the lights no longer dazzled but excited her; she +was not oppressed by the many eyes that looked at her: she was elated, +made proud and glad, for was she not dancing as none of them could, +and with Edgar? Edgar, too, was not the Edgar of the dull, prosaic +every day, but was changed like all the rest. He was like some prince +of old-time romance, some knight of chivalry, some hero of history, +and the poetry, the passion, that seemed to inspire her with more than +ordinary life were reflected in him. + +"My darling!" Edgar said below his breath, pressing her to him warmly, +"do you think now that it is no pleasure for me to dance with you?" + +Leam, startled at the word, the tone, looked up half scared into +his face; then--she herself scarcely knowing what she did, but +instinctively answering what she saw--Edgar felt her little hand on +his shoulder lie there heavily, her figure yield to his arm as it had +never yielded before, while her head drooped like a flower faint with +the heavy sunlight till it nearly touched his breast. + +"My Leam!" he whimpered again, "I love you! I love you! my Leam, my +love!" + +Leam sighed dreamily. "This is like death--and heaven," she murmured +as he stopped by the window where she had sat with Alick, and carried +her half fainting into the garden. + +The cool night-air revived her, and she opened her eyes, wondering +where she was and what had happened. Even now she could not take it +all in, but she knew that something had come to her of which she was +ashamed, and that she must not stay here alone with Major Harrowby. +With an attempt at her old pride she tried to draw herself away, not +looking at him, feeling abashed and humbled. "I will dance no more," +she said faltering. + +Edgar, who had her hands clasped in his, drew her gently to him again. +He held her hands up to his breast, both enclosed in one of his, his +other arm round her waist. "Will you leave me, my Leam?" he said in +his sweetest tones. "Do you not love me well enough to stay with me?" + +"I must go in," said Leam faintly. + +"Before you have said that you love me? Will you not say so, Leam? +I love you, my darling: no man ever loved as I love you, my sweetest +Leam, my angel, my delight! Tell me that you love me--tell me, +darling." + +"Is this love?" said Leam turning away her head, her whole being +penetrated with a kind of blissful agony, where she did not know which +was strongest, the pleasure or the pain: perhaps it was the pain. + +"Kiss me, and then I shall know," whispered Edgar. + +"No," said Leam trembling and hiding her face, "I must not do that." + +"Ah, you do not love me, and we shall never meet again," he cried in +the disappointed lover's well-feigned tone of despair, dropping her +hands and half turning away. + +Leam stood for a moment as if she hesitated: then, with an +indescribable air of self-surrender, she went closer to him and laid +her hands very gently on his shoulders. "I will kiss you rather than +make you unhappy," she said in a soft voice, lifting up her face. + +"My angel! now I know that you love me!" cried Edgar triumphantly, +holding her strained to his heart as he pressed her bashful, tremulous +little lips, Leam feeling that she had proved her love by the +sacrifice of all that she held most dear--by the sacrifice of herself +and modesty. + +The first kiss for a girl whose love was as strong as fire and +as pure--for a girl who had not a weak or sensual fibre in her +nature--yes, it was a sacrifice the like of which men do not +understand; especially Edgar, loose-lipped, amorous Edgar, with his +easy loves, his wide experience, his consequent loss of sensitive +perception, and his holding all women as pretty much alike--creatures +rather than individuals, and created for man's pleasure: especially +he did not understand how much this little action, which was one so +entirely of course to him, cost her--how great the gift, how eloquent +of what it included. But Leam, burning with shame, thought that she +should never bear to see the sun again; and yet it was for Edgar, and +for Edgar she would have done even more than this. "Have you enjoyed +yourself, Leam, my dear?" asked Mrs. Corfield as they drove home in +the quiet moonlight. + +"No--yes," answered Leam, who wished that the little woman would not +talk to her. How could she say that this fiery unrest was enjoyment? +The word was so trivial. But indeed what word could compass the +strange passion that possessed her?--that mingled bliss and anguish of +young love newly born, lately confessed. + +"Have you enjoyed yourself, Alick, my boy?" asked the little woman +again. + +She had had no love-affairs to disturb her with pleasure or with pain, +and she was full of the mechanism of the evening, and wanted to talk +it over. + +"I never enjoy that kind of thing," answered Alick in a voice that was +full of tears. + +He had witnessed the scene in the garden, and his heart was sore, both +for himself and for her. + +"Oh," said Mrs. Corfield briskly, "it was a pretty sight, and I am +sure every one was happy." + +Had she seen Adelaide Birkett sitting before her glass, her face +covered in her hands and shedding hot tears like rain--had she seen +Leam standing by her open window, letting the cool night-air blow upon +her, too feverish and disturbed to rest--she would not have said that +every one had been happy at the ball given in honor of Josephine's +marriage. Perhaps of all those immediately concerned Edgar was the +most content, for now that he had committed himself he had done with +the torment of indecision, and by putting himself finally under the +control of circumstances he seemed to have thrown off the strain of +responsibility. + +So the night passed, and the next day came, bringing toil to the +weary, joy to the happy, wealth to the rich, and sorrow to the +sad--bringing Edgar to Leam, and Leam to the deeper consciousness and +confession of her love. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +DUNASTON CASTLE. + + +It was not a bad idea to continue the wedding-gayeties of yesterday +evening by a picnic to-day. People are always more or less out of +sorts after a ball, and a day spent in the open air soothes the +feverish and braces up the limp. Wherefore the rectory gave a picnic +to blow away the lingering vapors of last evening at the Hill, and the +place of meeting chosen was Dunaston Castle. + +Leam had of course been invited with the rest. Had she been a +different person, and more in accord with the general sentiments of +the neighborhood than she was, she would have been made the "first +young lady" for the moment, because of her connection with the +bridegroom; but being what she was--Leam--she was merely included with +the rest, and by Adelaide with reluctance. + +The day wore on bright and clear. Already it was past two o'clock, but +Leam, irresolute what to do, sat in the garden under the shadow of the +cut-leaved hornbeam, from the branches of which Pepita used to swing +in her hammock, smoking cigarettes and striking her zambomba. One part +of her longed to go, the other held her back. The one was the strength +of love, the other its humiliation. How could she meet Major Harrowby +again? she thought. She had kissed him of her own free will last +night--she, Leam, had kissed him; she had leant against his breast, +he with his arms round her; she had said the sacred and irrevocable +words, "I love you." How could she meet him again without sinking to +the earth for shame? What a strange kind of shame!--not sin and yet +not innocence; something to blush for, but not to repent of; something +not to be repeated, but not to wish undone. And what a perplexed state +of feeling!--longing, fearing to see Edgar again--praying of each +moment as it came that he should not appear; grieved each moment as it +passed that he was still absent. + +So she sat in all the turmoil of her new birth, distracted between +love and shame, and not knowing which was stronger--feeling as if in a +dream, but, every now and then waking to think of Dunaston, and should +she go or stay away--when, just as little Fina came running to her, +ready dressed and loud in her insistence that they should set off at +once, the lodge-gates swung back and Edgar Harrowby rode up to the +door. When she saw him dismount and walk across the lawn to where she +sat--though it was what she had been waiting for all the day, hoping +if fearing--yet now that it had come and he was really there, she +wished that the earth would open at her feet, or that she could flee +away and hide herself like a scared hind in her cover. But she could +not have risen had there been even any place of refuge for her. +Breathing with difficulty, and seeing nothing that was before her, she +was chained to her seat by a feeling that was half terror, half +joy--a feeling utterly inexplicable in its total destruction of her +self-possession to reticent Leam, who hitherto had held herself in +such proud restraint, and had kept her soul from all influence +from the world without. And now the citadel was stormed and she was +conquered and captive. + +Meanwhile, the handsome officer walked over the sunny lawn with his +military step, well set up, lordly, smiling. He liked to see this +bashfulness in Leam. It was the sign of submission in one so unsubdued +that flattered his pride as men like it to be flattered. Now indeed he +was the man and the superior, and this trembling little girl, blushing +and downcast, was no longer his virgin nymph, self-contained and +unconfessed, but the slave of his love, like so many others before +her. + +The child ran up to him joyfully. She and Edgar were "great friends," +as he used to say. He lifted her in his arms, placed her on his +shoulder like a big blue forget-me-not gathered from the grass, then +deposited her by Leam on the seat beneath the cut-leaved hornbeam. +And Leam was grateful that the little one was there. It was somehow a +protection against herself. + +"I came to take you to the castle," said; Edgar, looking down on the +drooping figure with a tender smile on his handsome face as he took +her hand in his; and held it. "Are you ready?" + +Leam's lips moved, but at the first inaudibly. "No," she then said +with an effort. + +"It is time," said Edgar, still holding her hand. + +"I do not think I shall go," she faltered, not raising her eyes from +the ground. + +Edgar, towering above her, always smiling--the child playing with his +beard as she stood on the seat breast-high with himself--still holding +that small burning hand in his, Leam not resisting, then said in +Spanish, "My soul! have pity on me." + +The old familiar words thrilled the girl like a voice from the dead. +Had anything been wanting to rivet the chains in which love had +bound her, it was these words, "My soul," spoken by her lover in her +mother's tongue. She answered more freely, almost eagerly, in the same +language, "Would you be sorry?" and Edgar, whose Castilian was by no +means unlimited, replied in English "Yes" at a venture, and sat down +on the seat by her. + +"Fina, go and ask Jones to tell you pretty stories about the bay," he +then said to the child. + +"And may I ride him?" cried Fina, sure to take the ell when given the +inch. + +"Ask Jones," he answered good-naturedly "I dare say he will put you +up." + +Whereupon Fina ran off to the groom, whom she teased for the next half +hour to give her a ride on the bay. + +But Jones was obdurate. The major's horse was not only three sticks +and a barrel, like some on 'em, he said, and too full of his beans for +a little miss like her to mount. The controversy, however, kept the +child engaged if it made her angry; and thus Edgar was left free to +break down more of that trembling defence-work within which Leam was +doing her best to entrench herself. + +"Do you know, Leam, you have not looked at me once since I came?" +he said, after they had been sitting for some time, he talking on +indifferent subjects to give her time to recover herself, and she +replying in monosyllables, or perhaps not replying at all. + +She was silent, but her eyes drooped a little lower. + +"Will you not look at me, darling?" he asked in that mellifluous voice +of his which no woman had yet been found strong enough to withstand. + +"Why?" said Leam, vainly trying after her old self, and doing her best +to speak as if the subject was indifferent to her, but failing, as how +should she not? The loud beatings of her heart rang in her ears, her +lips quivered so that she could not steady them, and her eyes were so +full of shame, their lids so weighted with consciousness, that truly +she could not have raised them had she tried. + +"Why? Look at me and I will tell you," was his smiling answer. + +She turned to him, and, as once before, bound by the spell of loving +obedience, lifted her heavy lids and raised her dewy eyes slowly till +they came to the level of his. Then they met his, and Edgar laughed--a +happy and abounding laugh which somehow Leam did not resent, though in +general a laugh the cause of which she did not fully understand was an +offence to her or a stupidity. + +"Now I am satisfied," he said in his sweetest voice. "Now I know that +the morning has not destroyed the dream of the night, and that you +love me. Tell it me once more, Leam, sweet Leam! I must hear it in the +open sunshine as I heard it in the starlight: tell me again that you +love me." + +Leam bent her pretty head to hide her crimson cheeks. How hard this +confession was to her, and yet how sweet! How difficult to make, and +yet how sorry she would be if anything came between them so that it +was left unmade! + +"Tell me, my Leam, my darling!" said Edgar again, with that delicious +tyranny of love, that masterful insistence of manly tenderness, which +women prize and obey. + +"I love you," half whispered Leam, feeling as if she had again +forfeited her pride and modesty, and for the second time had committed +that strange sweet sin against herself for which she blushed and of +which she did not repent. + +"And I love you," he answered--"fervently, madly if you like. I never +knew what love was before I knew you, my darling. When you are all my +own I will make you confess that the love of an English gentleman is +worth living for." + +"_You_ are worth living for," said Leam with timid fervor, defending +him against all possible rivalry of circumstance or person. "I do not +care about your English gentlemen. It is only you." + +"That brute of a Jones!" muttered Edgar as he put his arm round her +waist and glanced toward the door. + +"No," said Leam gravely, shrinking back, "you must not do that." + +"What a shy wild bird it is!" he said lovingly, though he was +disappointed. And he did not like this kind of disappointment. "Will +you never be tamed, my Leam?" + +"Not to that," said innocent Leam in the same grave way; and Edgar +smiled behind his golden beard, but not so that she could see the +smile. + +"Ah, but you must obey me now--do as I tell you in everything," he +said with perfect seriousness of mien and accent. "You have given +yourself to me now, and if I ask you to kiss me you must, just as +readily as Fina, and let me caress and pet you as much as I like." + +"Must I? but I do not like it," said Leam simply. + +He laughed outright, and--Jones not looking--took her hand and carried +it to his lips. "Is this unpleasant?" he asked, looking up from under +his eyebrows. + +Leam blushed, hesitated, trembled. "No," she then said in a low voice, +"not from you." + +On which he kissed it again, and Leam had no wish to retract her +confession. + +"Now go and make ready to come to the castle," he said after a +moment's pause. "I told you before that you must obey me, now that you +have promised to be my wife. Command is the husband's privilege, Leam, +and obedience the wife's happiness: don't you know? So come, darling! +They were all to assemble at two," looking at his watch, "and here we +are close on three! You do not wish not to go now, my pet?" + +"No," said Leam, with her happy little fleeting smile: "I am glad to +go. I shall be with you, and you wish it." + +"What an exquisite little creature! In a week she will come to my +hand like a tame bird," was Edgar's thought as he watched her slender, +graceful figure slowly crossing the lawn with that undulating step +of her mother's nation. "In a week's time I shall have tamed her," he +repeated with a difference; and he felt glad that he had bespoken Leam +Dundas betimes, and that fate and fortune had made him her prospective +proprietor. "She will make me happy," he said as his last thought: +he forgot to add either assurance or hope that he should make her the +same. That is not generally part of a man's matrimonial calculations. + +The confidence of love soon grows. When Leam came back to the seat +under the cut-leaved hornbeam, where Edgar still waited for her +to have the pleasure of watching her approach, she was not so much +ashamed and oppressed as when he had first found her there. She did +not want to run away, and she was losing her fear of wrongdoing. She +was beginning instead to feel that delightful sense of dependence on a +strong man's love which--_pace_ the third sex born in these odd latter +times--is the most exquisite sensation that a woman can know. She was +no longer alone--no longer an alien imprisoned in family bonds, but, +though one of a family, always an alien and imprisoned, never homed +and united. Now she was Edgar's as she had been mamma's; and there +was dawning on her the consciousness of the same oneness, the same +intimate union of heart and life and love, as she had had with mamma. +She belonged to him. He loved her, and she--yes, she knew now that she +had always loved him, had always lived for him. He was the secret +god whom she had carried about with her in her soul from the +beginning--the predestined of her life, now for the first time +recognized--the only man whom she could have ever loved. To her +intense and single-hearted nature change or infidelity was an +unimaginable crime, something impossible to conceive. Had she not met +Edgar she would never have loved any one, she thought: having met him, +it was impossible that she should not have loved him, the ideal to her +as he was of all manly nobleness and grace, given to her to love by a +Power higher than that of chance. + +She was dimly conscious of this deep sense of rest in her new-found +joy as she came across the lawn in her pretty summer dress of pearly +gray touched here and there with crimson--the loveliest creature to be +seen for miles around. Her usually mournful face was brightened with +an inner kind of bliss which, from the face of the Tragic Muse, made +it the face of a youthful seraph serene and blessed; her smile was +one of almost unearthly ecstasy, if it still retained that timid, +tremulous, fleeting expression which was so beautiful to Edgar; her +eyes, no longer sad and sorrowful, but dewy, tender, bashful, shone +with the purity, the confidence, the self-abandonment of a young +girl's first and happy love: every gesture, every line, seemed to have +gained a greater grace and richness since yesterday; and as she came +up to her lover, and laid her hand in his when he rose to meet her +and looked for one shy instant into his eyes, then dropped her own in +shame-faced tremor at what they had seen and told, he said again to +himself that he had done well. If even she should call the hounds at +a hunt-dinner _dogs_, and say that hunting was stupid and cruel, what +might not be forgiven to Such beauty, such love as hers? + +Yes, he was satisfied with himself and with her; and with himself +because of her. He had done well, and she was eminently the right kind +of wife for him, let conventional cavilers say what they would. He +never felt more reconciled to fortune and himself than he did to-day +when he rode by the side of the carriage wherein Leam and Fina sat, +and looked through the coming years to the time when he should have a +little Fina of his own with her mother Leam's dark eyes and her mother +Leam's devoted heart. + +The day was perfect, so was the place. Both were all that the day and +place of young love should be. The view from the castle heights, with +the river below, the woods around and the moor beyond, was always +beautiful, but to-day, in the full flush of the early summer, it was +at its best. The golden sunshine, alternating with purple shadows, was +lying in broad tracts on meadow and moor, and lighting up the forest +trees so that the delicate tints and foliage of bough and branch came +out in photographic clearness; the river, where it caught the sun +like a belt of silver, where it was under the shadow like a band of +lapis-lazuli, ran like a vein of life through the scene, and its +music could be heard here where they stood; close at hand the old gray +ivy-covered ruins, with their stories and memories of bygone times, +seemed to add to the vivid fervor of the moment by the force +of contrast--that past so drear and old, the present so full of +passionate hope and love; while the shadows of things that had once +been real trooped among the ruins and flitted in and out the desert +places, chased by laughing girls and merry children, as life chases +death, youth drives out age, and the summer rises from the grave of +winter. It was a day, a scene, to remember for life, even by those to +whom it brought nothing special: how much more, then, by those to whom +it symbolized the fresh fruition of the summer of the heart, the glad +glory of newly-confessed love! + +This was Leam's day. Edgar devoted himself publicly to her--so +publicly that people gathered into shady corners to discuss what +it meant, and to ask each other if the tie already binding the two +families was to be supplemented and strengthened by another? It looked +like it, they said, in whispers, for it was to be supposed that Major +Harrowby was an honorable man and a gentleman, and would not play with +a child like Leam. + +Dear Mrs. Birkett was manifestly distressed at what she saw. Though +Adelaide made her mother no more a confidante than if she had been +a stranger, yet she knew well enough where her daughter's wishes +pointed; and they pointed to where her own were set. She too thought +that Edgar and Adelaide were made for each other, and that Adelaide at +the Hill would be eminently matter in the right place. She would not +have grudged Leam the duke's son, could she have secured him, but she +did grudge her Edgar Harrowby. It would be such a nice match for Addy, +who was getting on now, and whose temper at home was trying; and she +had hoped fervently that this year would see the matter settled. It +was hanging fire a little longer than she quite liked: still, she +always hoped and believed until to-day, when Edgar appropriated Leam +in this strange manner before them all, seeming to present her to them +as his own, so that they should make no further mistake. + +But if Mrs. Birkett looked distressed, Adelaide, who naturally +suffered more than did her mother, kept her own counsel so bravely +that no one could have told how hard she had been hit. If she +betrayed herself in any way, it was in being rather more attentive and +demonstrative to her guests than was usual with her; but she behaved +with the Spartan pride of the English gentlewoman, and deceived all +who were present but herself. + +Even Edgar took her by outside seeming, and put his belief in her love +for him as a fallacy behind him. And it said something for a certain +goodness of heart, with all his faults and vanity, that he was more +relieved than mortified to think that he had been mistaken. Yet he +liked to be loved by women, and the character which he had chiefly +affected on the social side of him was that of the Irresistible. +Nevertheless, he was glad that he had been mistaken in Adelaide's +feelings, and relieved to think that she would not be unhappy because +he had chosen Leam and not herself. + +Yes, this was Leam's day, her one spell of perfect happiness--the day +whereon there was no past and no future, only the glad sufficiency of +the present--a day which seemed as if it had been lent by Heaven, so +great was its exquisite delight, so pure its cloudless, shadowless +sunshine of love. + +Leam neither knew nor noted how the neighbors looked. They had somehow +gone far off from her: when they spoke she answered them mechanically, +and if she passed them she took no more heed than if they had been so +many sheep or dogs lying about the grass. She only knew that she +was with Edgar--that she loved him and that he loved her. It was a +knowledge that made her strong to resist the whole world had the whole +world, opposed her, and that dwarfed the families into insignificant, +almost impersonal, adjuncts of the place, of no more consequence than +the ferns growing about the fallen stones. Not even Adelaide could jar +that rich melodious chord to which her whole being vibrated. It was +all peace, contentment, love; and for the first and only time in her +life Leam Dundas was absolutely happy. + +The two lovers, always together and apart from the rest, wandered +about the ruins till evening and the time for dispersion and +reassembling at the rectory came. The sunset had been in accord with +the day, golden and glorious, but after the last rays had gone heavy +masses of purple clouds that boded ill for the morrow gathered with +strange suddenness on the horizon. Still the lovers lingered about +the ruins. The families had left them alone for the latter part of the +time, and they discussed now Leam's forwardness as they had discussed +before Edgar's intentions. But neither Edgar nor Leam took heed. They +were in love, and the world beyond themselves was simply a world of +shadows with which they had no concern. + +It had been such a day of happiness to both that they were loath to +end it, so they lingered behind the rest, and tried, as lovers do, to +stop time by love. They were sitting now on one of the fallen blocks +of stone of the many scattered about, he talking to her in a low +voice, "I love you, I love you," the burden of his theme; she for the +most part listening to words which made the sweetest music discord, +but sometimes responding as a tender fainter echo. He did not see +the eyes that were watching him from behind the broken wall, nor the +jealous ears that were drinking in their own pain so greedily. He saw +only Leam, and was conscious only that he loved her and she him. + +Presently he said, tempting her with the lover's affectation of +distrust, "I do not think you love me really, my Leam," bending over +her as if he would have folded her to his heart. Had she been any but +Leam he would. But the love-ways that came so easy to him were lessons +all unlearnt as yet by her, and he respected both her reticence and +her reluctance. + +"Not love you!" she said with soft surprise--"I not love you!" + +"Do you?" he asked. + +She was silent for a moment. "I do love you," she said in her quiet, +intense way. "I do not talk--you know that--but if I could make you +happy by dying for you I would. I love you--oh, I cannot say how much! +I seem to love God and all the saints, the sun and the flowers, Spain, +our Holy Mother and mamma in you. You are life to me. I seem to have +loved you all my life under another name. When you are with me I have +no more pain or fear left. You are myself--more than myself to me." + +"My darling! and you to me!" cried Edgar. + +But his voice, though sweet and tender, had not the passionate ring of +hers, and his face, though full of the man's bolder love, had not +the intensity which made her so beautiful, so sublime. It was all the +difference between the experience which knew the whole thing by +heart, and which cared for itself more than for the beloved, and the +wholeness, the ecstasy, of the first and only love born of a nature +single, simple and concentrated. + +Adelaide, watching and listening behind the broken wall, saw and heard +it all. Her head was on fire, her heart had sunk like lead; she could +not stay any longer assisting thus at the ruin of her life's great +hope; she had already stayed too long. As she stole noiselessly away, +her white dress passing a distant opening looked ghastly, seen through +the rising mist which the young moon faintly silvered, + +"What is that?" cried Leam, a look of terror on her pale face as she +rapidly crossed herself. "It is the Evil Sign." + +"No," laughed Edgar, profiting by the moment to take her in his +arms, judging that if she was frightened she would be willing to feel +sheltered. "It is only one of the ladies passing to go down. Perhaps +it is Adelaide Birkett: I think it was." + +"And that would be an evil sign in itself," said Leam, still +shuddering. And yet how safe she felt with his arms about her like +this! + +"Poor dear Addy! why should she be an ill omen to you, you dear little +fluttering, frightened dove?" + +"She hates me--always has, so long as I can remember her," answered +Leam. "And you are her friend," she added. + +"Her friend, yes, but not her lover, as I am yours--not her future +husband," said Edgar. + +Leam's hand touched his softly, with a touch that was as fleeting and +subtle as her smile. + +"A friend is not a wife, you know," he continued. "And you are to be +my wife, my own dear and beloved little wife--always with me, never +parted again." + +"Never parted again! Ah, I shall never be unhappy then," she murmured. + +A flash of summer lightning broke through the pale faint moonlight and +lighted up the old gray towers with a lurid glow. + +Leam was not usually frightened at lightning, but now, perhaps because +her whole being was overwrought and strung, she started and crouched +down with a sense of awe strangely unlike her usual self. + +"Come, we are going to have a storm," said Edgar, whom every +manifestation of weakness claiming his superior protection infinitely +pleased and seemed to endear her yet more to him. "We must be going, +my darling, else I shall have you caught in the rain. We shall just +have time to get to the rectory before it comes on, and they are +waiting for us." + +"I would rather not go to the rectory to-night," said Leam with a +sudden return to her old shy self. + +"No? Why, my sweet?" he said lovingly. "How can I live through the +evening without you?" + +"Can you not? Do you really wish me to go?" she answered seriously. + +"Of course I wish it: how should I not? But tell me why you raise an +objection. Why would you rather not go?" + +"I would rather be alone and think of you than only see you at the +rectory with all those people," she answered simply. + +"But we have had all the people about here, and yet we have been +pretty much alone," he said. + +"We could not be together at the rectory, and"--she blushed, but her +eyes were full of more than love as she raised them to his face--"I +could not bear that any one should come between us to-day. Better be +alone at home, where I can think of you with no one to interrupt me." + +"It is a disappointment, but who could refuse such a plea and made in +such a voice?" said Edgar, who felt that perhaps she was right in +her instinct, and who at all events knew that he should be spared +something that would be a slight effort in Adelaide's own house. "I +shall spoil you, I know, but I cannot refuse you anything when you +look like that. Very well: you shall go home if you wish it, my +beloved, and I will make your excuses." + +"Thank you," said Leam, with the sweetest little air of humbleness and +patience. + +"How could that fool Sebastian Dundas say she was difficult to manage? +and how can Adelaide see in her the possibility of anything like +wickedness? She is the most loving and tractable little angel in the +world. She will give me no kind of trouble, and I shall be able to +mould her from the first and do what I like with her." + +These were Edgar's thoughts as he took Leam's hand on his arm, holding +it there tenderly pressed beneath his other hand, while he said aloud, +"My darling! my delight! if I had had to create my ideal I should have +made _you_. You are everything I most love;" and again he said, as so +often before, "the only woman I have ever loved or ever could love." + +And Learn believed him. + +Adelaide accepted Major Harrowby's excuses for Miss Dundas's sudden +headache and fatigue gallantly, as she had accepted her position +through the day: she showed nothing, expressed nothing, bin: bore +herself with consummate ease and self-possession. She won Edgar's +admiration for her tact and discretion, for the beautiful results of +good-breeding. He congratulated himself on having such a friend as +Adelaide Birkett. She would be of infinite advantage to Learn when his +wife, and when he had persuaded that sweet doubter to believe in her +and accept her as she was, and as he wished her to be accepted. As +it was in the calendar of his wishes at this moment that Adelaide had +never loved him, never wished to marry him, he dismissed the belief +which he had cherished so long as if it had never been, and decided +that it had been a mistake throughout. She was just his friend--no +more, and never had been more. He was not singular in his +determination to find events as his desires ruled them. It is a +pleasant way of shuffling off self-reproach and of excusing one's own +fickleness. + +Edgar just now believed as he wished to believe, and shut out all the +rest. As he lit his last cigar, sitting on the terrace at the Hill +and watching the sheet-lightning on the horizon, he thought with +satisfaction on the success of his life. Specially he congratulated +himself on his final choice. Leam would make the sweetest little +wife in the world, and he loved her passionately. But "spooning" was +exhausting work: he would cut it short and marry her as soon as he +could get things together. Then his thoughts wandered away to some +other of his personal matters; and while Leam was living over the +day hour by hour, word by word, he had settled the terms for Farmer +Mason's new lease, had decided to rebuild the north lodge, which was +ugly and incommodious; and on this, something catching the end of that +inexplicable association of ideas, he wondered how some one whom he +had left in India was going on, and what had become of Violet Cray. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +IN LETTERS OF FIRE. + + +THE storm which had threatened to break last night still held off, +but the spirit of the weather had changed. It was no longer bright and +clear, but sunless, airless, heated, silent--the stillness which seems +to presage as much sorrow to man as it heralds tumult to Nature. Leam, +however--interpenetrated by her love, which gave what it felt and +saw what it brought--always remembered this early day as the ideal of +peace and softness, where was no prophecy of coming evil, no shadow of +the avenging hand stretched out to punish and destroy--only peace and +softness, love, joy and rest. + +The gray background of the heavy sky, which to others was heavy and +gloomy, was to her the loveliest expression of repose, and the absence +of sunlight was as grateful as a veil drawn against the glare. If +not beautiful in itself, it added beauty to other things: witness +the passionate splendor given by it to the flowers, which seemed +by contrast to gain a force and vitality of color, a richness and +significance, they never had before. She specially remembered in days +to come a bed of scarlet poppies that glowed like so many cups of +flame against the dark masses of evergreens behind them; and the +scarlet geraniums, the bold bosses of the blood-red peonies, the fiery +spathes of salvia and gladiolus the low-lying verbenas like rubies +cast on the green leaves and brown earth, the red gold, flame-color +streaked with lines of blood, of the nasturtiums festooning the +bordering wires of the centre beds, all seemed to come out like spires +of flame or rosettes dyed in blood, till the garden was filled with +only those two colors--the one of fire and the other of blood. + +But though Leam remembered this in after-days as the weird prophecy +of what was to come, at the time those burning beds of flowers +simply pleased her with their brilliant coloring; and she sat in her +accustomed place on the garden-chair, under the cut-leaved hornbeam, +and looked at the garden stretching before her with the fresh, +surprised kind of admiration of one who had never seen it before--as +if it told her something different to-day from what it had in times +past; as indeed it did. + +Presently Edgar came down from the Hill. He had not told his people +yet of the double bond which he designed to make between the two +houses. He thought it was only fitting to wait until Sebastian had +returned and he had gained the paternal consent in the orthodox way. +And the false air of secrecy which this temporary reticence gave his +engagement gave it also a false air of romance which exactly suited +his temperament in the matter of love. Perhaps for the woman +destined to be his wife he would have preferred to dispense with +this characteristic of his dealings with those other women, her +predecessors, not destined to be his wives. All the same, it was +delightful, as things were, to come down to Ford House on this sultry +day and sit under the shadow of the hornbeam, with Leam looking her +loveliest by his side, and butterfly-like Fina running in and out in +the joyous way of a lively child fond of movement and not afflicted +with shyness; delightful to feel that he was enacting a little poem +unknown to all the world beside--that he was the magician who had +first wakened this young soul into life and taught it the sweet +suffering of love; and delightful to know that he was king and +supreme, the only man concerned, with not even a father to share, just +yet, his domain. + +Edgar, at all times charming, because at all times good-humored and +not inconveniently in earnest, when specially pleased with himself was +one of the most delightful companions to be found. He had seen much, +and he talked pleasantly on what he had seen, whipping up the surface +of things dexterously and not forcing his hearers to digest the +substance. Hence he was never a bore, nor did he disturb the placid +shallows of ignorance by an unwelcome influx of information. He +had just so much of the histrionic element, born of vanity and +self-consciousness, as is compatible with the impassive quietude +prescribed by good-breeding, whereby his manner had a color that was +an excellent substitute for sincerity, and his speech a pictorial +glow that did duty for enthusiasm when he thought fit to simulate +enthusiasm. He had, too, that sensitive tact which seems to feel weak +places as if by instinct; and when he was at his best his good-nature +led him to avoid giving pain and to affect a sympathetic air, which +was no more true than his earnestness. But it took with the uncritical +and the affectionate, and Major Harrowby was quoted by many as an +eminently kind and tender-hearted man. + +To women he had that manner of subtle deference and flattering +admiration characteristic of men who make love to all women--even to +children in the bud and to matrons more than full-blown--and who are +consequently idolized by the sex all round. And when this natural +adorer of many laid himself out to make special love to one he was, +as we know, irresistible. He was irresistible to-day. He was really in +love with Leam; and if his love had not the intensity, the tenacity of +hers, yet it was true of its kind, and for him very true. + +But he was not so much in love as to be unconscious of the most +graceful way of making it; consequently, he knew exactly what he was +doing and how he looked and what he said, while Leam, sitting there by +his side, drinking in his words as if they were heavenly utterances, +forgot all about herself, and lived only in her speechless, her +unfathomable adoration of the man she loved. Her life at this moment +was one pulse of voiceless happiness: it was one strain of sensation, +emotion, passion, love; but it was not conscious thought nor yet +perception of outward things by her senses. + +If yesterday at Dunaston had been a day of blessedness, this was its +twin sister, and the better favored of the two. There was a certain +flavor of domesticity in these quiet hours passed together in the +garden, interrupted only by the child as she ran hither and thither +breaking in on them, sometimes not unpleasantly when speech was +growing embarrassed because emotion was growing too strong, that +seemed to Leam the sweetest experience which life could give her were +she to live for ever; and the sunless stillness of the day suited her +nature even better than the gayer glory of yesterday. To-day, too, +it was still more peace in her inner being and still less unrest. The +more accustomed she was becoming to the strange fact of loving and +being loved by a man not a Spaniard, and one whom mamma would neither +have chosen nor approved of, the more she was at ease both in heart +and manner, and the more exquisite and profound her blessedness. And +who does not know what happiness can do for a girl of strong emotions, +naturally reserved, by circumstances friendless, by habit joyless, +and how the soul of such a one seems to throw off its husk like the +enchanted victim of a fairy-tale when the true being that has been +hidden is released by love? It is a transformation as entire as any +wrought by magic word or wand; and it was the transformation wrought +with Leam to-day. She was Leam Dundas truly in all the essential +qualities of identity, but Leam Dundas with another soul, an added +faculty, an awakened consciousness--Leam set free from the darkness of +the bondage in which she had hitherto lived. + +"You look like another being: you have looked like this ever since you +told me you loved me," said Edgar, drawing himself a little back and +gazing at her with the critical tenderness of a man's pride and love. +"You are like Psyche wakened out of her sleep, and for the first time +using your wings and living in the upper air." + +The metaphor was a little confused, but that did not signify. The +whole image was essentially Greek to Leam, and she only knew that it +sounded well and did somehow apply to her--that she had just awakened +out of sleep, and was for the first time using her wings and living in +the upper air. + +"I have not really lived till now," she answered. "And now things seem +different." + +"In what way?" asked Edgar, smiling. + +He knew what she meant, but he wanted to hear her reveal herself. + +She smiled too. "More beautiful," she said, a little vaguely. + +"As what? I like to be precise, and I want to know exactly what my +darling thinks and means." + +He said this with his most bewitching smile and in his tenderest +voice. It was so pleasant to him to receive these first shy, confused +confessions. + +"The flowers and the sky," said Leam, raising her eyes and looking +through the garden and on to the gray and narrowed horizon. "I +remember when flowers were weeds and one day was like another. I did +not know if the sun shone or not. But this year seems now to have been +always summer and sunshine. The very weeds are more lovely than the +flowers used to be." + +"Flowers and sunshine since you knew me, my darling?" + +"Yes," she answered shyly. + +Edgar glanced at the heavy clouds hanging over head, but he did not +say that he found this gray day singularly gloomy and oppressive, and +that even love could not set a fairy sun in the sky. He took up the +second clause of her loving speech: "And I am your flower? What +a precious little compliment! I hope I shall be your amaranth, my +Leam--your everlasting flower--if a rough soldier may have such +a pretty comparison made in his favor. Do you think I shall be +everlasting to you?" + +"When God dies my love will die, and not before," said Leam, with her +grave fervor, her voice of concentrated passion. + +Her voice and manner thrilled Edgar. Her words, too, in their very +boldness were more exciting than the most refined commonplaces of +other women. It was this union of more than ordinary womanly reticence +with almost savage passion and directness that had always been Leam's +charm to Edgar; nevertheless, he hesitated for a few minutes, thinking +whether he should correct her manner of speech or not, and while +loving chasten her. Finally, he decided that he would not. She was +only his lover as yet: when she should be his wife it would then +be time enough to teach her the subdued conventionalism of English +feeling as interpreted by the English tongue used commonly by +gentlemen and ladies. Meanwhile, he must give her her head, as he +inwardly phrased it, so as not frighten her in the beginning and thus +make the end more difficult. + +"You love me too much," he said in a low voice, half oppressed, half +excited by her words, for men are difficult to content. The love of +women given in excess of their demand embarrasses and maybe chills +them; and Edgar had a sudden misgiving, discomposing if quite natural, +which appeared, as it were, to check him like a horse in mid-career +and throw him back on himself disagreeably. He asked himself +doubtfully, Should he be able to answer this intense love so as +to make the balance even between them? He loved her dearly, +passionately--better than he had ever loved any woman of the many +before--but he did not love her like this: he knew that well enough. + +"I cannot love you too much," said Leam. "You are my life, and you are +so great." + +"And you will never tire of me?" + +She looked into his face, her beautiful eyes worshiping him. "Do we +tire of the sun?" she answered. + +"Where did you get all your pretty fancies from, my darling?" he +cried. "You have developed into a poet as well as a Psyche." + +"Have I? If I have developed into anything, it is because I love you," +she answered, with her sweet pathetic smile. + +"But, my Leam, sweetheart--" + +"Ah," she interrupted him with a look of passionate delight, "how I +like to hear you call me that! Mamma used to call me her heart. No one +else has since--I would not let any one if they had wanted--till now +you." + +"And you _are_ my heart," he answered fervently--"the heart of my +heart, my very life!" + +"Am I?" she smiled. "And you are mine." + +"But, sweetheart, tell me if, when you know me better, you do not +find me all you think me now, what then? Will you hate me for very +disappointment?" + +He asked the question, but as if he believed in himself and the +impossibility of her hatred or disappointment while he asked it. + +She looked at him with naïve incredulity and surprise. It would have +been a challenge to be kissed from any other woman, but Leam, with her +fire and passion and personal reticence all in one, had no thought +of offering such a challenge, still less of submitting to its +consequences. + +"Find you all I think?" she repeated slowly. "When I know the saints +in heaven, will not they be all I think? Was not Columbus?" + +"But I am neither a saint nor a hero," said Edgar, drawing a sprig of +lemon-plant which he held in his hand lightly across her face. + +"You are both," answered Leam as positively as she used to answer +Alick about the ugliness of England and the want of flowers in the +woods and hedges, and with as much conviction of her case. + +"And you are an angel," he returned. + +"No," said Leam quietly, "I am only the woman who loves you." + +"Ah, but you must not depreciate yourself for my sake," he said. "My +choice, my love, my wife, must be perfect for my own honor. You must +respect me in respecting yourself, and if you were to say yes indeed +you were an angel, that would only be what is due to me. Don't you +see?" pleasantly. + +"Yes," she answered. "And only an angel would be good enough for you." + +"My sweetest, your flattery is too delicious. It will make me vain and +all sorts of bad things," said Edgar with a happy smile, finding this +innocent worship one of the most charming tributes ever brought to the +shrine of his lordly manhood by woman. + +"It is not flattery: you deserve more," said Leam. Then lapsing into +her old manner of checked utterance, she added, "I cannot talk, but +you should be told." + +Edgar thought he had been told pretty often by women the virtues which +they had seen in him. Whether they saw what was or what they imagined +was not to the point. If love creates, so does vanity, and of the two +the latter has the more permanence. + +After this there was a long pause. It was as if one chapter had been +finished, one cup emptied. Then said Edgar suddenly, "And you will +be happy at the Hill?" lightly touching her face again with the +lemon-plant. + +"With you anywhere," she answered. + +"And my mother? Do you remember when you said one day you would not +like to be my mother's daughter? Ah, little puss, you did not know +what you were saying; and now tell me, do you object to be my mother's +daughter?" + +Leam looked grave. "I had not thought of that," she said, a certain +shadow of distress crossing her face. + +"Does the idea displease you?" he asked, in his turn grave. + +"No," she answered after a short silence. "But I only thought of you. +Shall I be Mrs. Harrowby's daughter?" + +"Of course. How should you not?" he laughed. + +"And Miss Josephine's too--two mothers?--mother and daughter both my +mothers? I cannot understand," said poor Leam, a little hopelessly. + +"Never mind the intricacies now. You are to be my wife: that is all we +need remember. Is it not?" bending toward her tenderly. + +"Yes," echoed Leam with a sigh of relief. "That is all we need +remember." + +So the day passed in these broken episodes, these delightful little +scenes of the fooling and flattery of love, till the evening came, +when Edgar was obliged to go up to the seven-o'clock dinner at the +Hill. He might sit with Leam, as he had done, for nearly six hours in +the garden, without more comment than that which servants naturally +make among themselves, but if he remained through the evening he would +publish more than he cared to publish at the present moment. So he had +arranged to go back to the family dinner at seven, and thus keep his +mother and sisters hoodwinked for a few hours longer. + +As the time of parting drew nearer and nearer Leam became strangely +sad and silent. Little caressing as she was by nature or habit, of her +own accord she had laid her small dry feverish hand in Edgar's, and +had gathered herself so much nearer to him that her slight shoulder +touched his broad and powerful arm. It was a very faint caress for an +engaged girl to offer, but it was an immense concession for Leam to +make; and Edgar understood it in its meaning more than its extent. +With the former he was delighted enough: the latter would scarcely +have contented a man with loose moist lips and the royal habit of +taking and having all for which he had a fancy. Nothing that Leam had +said or done through the day had told him so plainly as did this quiet +and by no means fervent familiarity how much she loved him, and how +the power of that love was breaking up her natural reserve. + +"It is as if I should never see you again," she said sadly when, +looking at his watch, he had exclaimed, "Time's up, my darling! I must +be off in five minutes from this. But I shall see you to-morrow," he +answered tenderly. "I shall come down in the morning, as I have done +to-day, and perhaps you will ride with me. We will go over some of the +old ground, where we used to go when I loved you and you did not think +you would ever love me. Ah, fairy that you are, how you have bewitched +me!" + +"That will be good," said Learn, who did not resent it in him that she +was compared to a thing that did not exist, but adding with a piteous +look, "it is taking my life from me when you go." + +"You lovely little darling! I don't like to see you look unhappy, but +I do delight to see how much you love me," said Edgar. "But you will +not have to part with me for very long now. I shall see you every day +till the time comes when we shall never be separated--never, never." + +"Ah, that time!" she sighed. "It is far off." + +He smiled, as his manner was, behind his beard, so that she did not +see it. "It shall not be far off," he said gravely. "And now," looking +again at his watch and then at the sky, "I must go." + +The storm that had been threatening through the day was now gathering +to a head, and even as Edgar spoke the first flash came, the first +distant peal of thunder sounded, the first heavy raindrops fell. There +was evidently going to be a fearful tempest, and Edgar must leave now +at once if he would not be in the thick of it before he reached home. + +"Yes," said Leam, noting the change in the sky, and unselfish always, +"you must go." + +They rose and turned toward the house. Hand in hand they walked slowly +across the lawn and entered the drawing-room by the way of the window, +by the way by which she had entered twice before--once when she had +disclaimed madame, and once when she had welcomed Josephine. + +Tears were in her eyes: her heart had failed her. + +"It is like losing you for ever," she said again. + +"No, not for ever--only till to-morrow," he answered. + +"To-morrow! to-morrow!" she replied. "There will be no to-morrow." + +"Yes, yes: in a very few hours we shall have come to that blessed +day," he said cheerfully. "Kiss me, darling, that I may carry away +your sweetest memory till I see you again. You will kiss me, Leam, +of your own free will to-night, will you not?" He said this a little +tremulously, his arms round her. + +"Yes," she answered, "I will kiss you to-night." + +She turned her face to him and put her hands round his neck frankly: +then with an uncontrollable impulse she flung herself against his +breast and, clasping her arms tight, bent his head down to her +level and kissed him on the forehead with the passionate sorrow, +the reluctant despair of an eternal farewell. It was something that +irresistibly suggested death. + +Edgar was distressed at her manner, distressed to have to leave her; +but he must. Life is made up of petty duties, paltry obligations. +Great events come but rarely and are seldom uninterrupted. A shower +of rain and the dinner-hour are parts of the mosaic and help in the +catastrophe which looks as if it had been the offspring of the +moment. And just now the supreme exigencies to be attended to were the +dinner-hour at the Hill and the rain that was beginning to fall. + +Saddened, surprised, yet gratified too by her emotion, Edgar answered +it in his own way. He kissed her again and again, smoothed her hair, +passed his hand over her soft fresh cheeks, held her to him tightly +clasped; and Leam did not refuse his caresses. She seemed to have +suddenly abandoned all the characteristics of her former self: +the mask had fallen finally, and her soul, released from its long +imprisonment, was receiving its gift, not of tongues, but of fire--not +of healing, but of suffering. + +"My darling," he half whispered, "I shall see you to-morrow. Come, +do not be so cast down: it is not reasonable, my heart. And tears in +those sweet eyes? My Leam, dry them: they are too beautiful for tears. +Look up, my darling. Give me one happy little smile, and remember +to-morrow and for all our lives after." + +But Learn could not smile. Her face was set to its old mask of tragedy +and sorrow. Something, she knew not what, had passed out of her life, +and something had come into it--something that Edgar for the moment +could neither restore nor yet banish. He pressed her to him for the +last time, kissed her passive face again and again, caught the scent +of the lemon-plant in her hair where he had placed it, and left her. +As he passed through the gate the storm burst in all its fury, and +Leam went up into her own room in a voiceless, tearless grief that +made the whole earth a desert and all life desolation. + +She did know herself this evening, nor understand what it was that +ailed her. She had only consciously loved for two days, and this was +the anguish to which she had been brought. No, not even when mamma +died had she suffered as she was suffering now. She felt as if she had +lost him even as she had lost her. She did not believe in to-morrow: +it would never come. She would never be with him again as she had been +to-day. No self-reasoning, feebly aimed at, could calm her or convince +her of the folly of her fears. He had gone, she was left, and they +were parted for ever. + +She sat by the window desolate, deserted, more alone than she had ever +been before, because she had lost more than she had ever either held +or lost before. The storm that was raging in the sky grew gradually +stronger and came still nearer, but she scarcely noticed it: it was +only as the symphony sounding in sad harmony with her unspoken wail. +Flash followed flash, swifter, nearer, more vivid; the thunder crashed +and roared as if it would have beaten the house to the ground and rent +the very earth whereon it stood; the rain fell in torrents that broke +the flowers like hail and ran in turbulent rivulets along the paths. +Never had there been such a furious tempest as this at North Aston +since the days of tradition. It made the people in the village below +quail and cry out that the day of judgment had come upon them: it made +Leam at last forget her sorrow and quail in her solitude as if her day +of judgment too had come upon her. + +Then there came one awful flash that seemed to set the whole room on +fire; and as Leam started up, thinking that the place was indeed in +flames, her eyes fell on the Tables of the Ten Commandments given +her by madame; and there, in letters of blood that seemed to cry out +against her like a voice, she saw by the light of that accusing flash +those words of terrible significance to her: + +THOU SHALT DO NO MURDER! + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +ROSE-MORALS. + + +I.--RED. + + Would that my songs might be + What roses make by day and night--- + Distillments of my clod of misery + Into delight. + + Soul! could'st thou bare thy breast + As yon red rose, and dare the day, + All clean, and large, and calm with velvet rest? + Say yea--say yea! + + Ah, dear my Rose! good-bye! + The wind is up; so drift away. + That songs from me as leaves from thee may fly, + I strive, I pray. + + + II.--WHITE. + + Soul! get thee to the heart + Of yonder tuberose: hide thee there-- + There breathe the meditations of thine art + Suffused with prayer. + + Of spirit grave but light, + How fervent fragrances uprise + Pure-born from these most rich and yet most white + Virginities! + + Mulched with unsavory death, + Grow, Soul! unto such white estate, + Strong art and virginal prayer shall be thy breath, + Thy work, thy fate. + +SIDNEY LANIER. + + + + +AN OLD HOUSE AND ITS STORY. + +[Illustration: MOUNT PLEASANT.] + +It is pleasant, on a warm, sunny afternoon in the spring-time (or, +indeed, at any season of the year, but I love the spring-time +best), to take the broad, well-shaded avenue on the east bank of the +Schuylkill at Fairmount Park, and, passing the pretty little club +boat-houses already green with their thick overhanging vines, to +saunter slowly along the narrow roadway on the water's edge to the +great Girard Avenue Bridge, and so on through the cool dark tunnel, +coming out on the steep railed path that winds up and away from the +river to bury itself for a while in rich deep woodlands, only to bring +you presently to the water-side again, where stands the fine old Mount +Pleasant mansion, the country-seat of Benedict Arnold nearly a hundred +years ago, and bestowed by him as a marriage-gift upon his new-made +bride in April, 1779. A sweet, cool air blows up to you from the +river, purple and white violets, buttercups and Quaker ladies are set +thickly about your feet, the newly-arrived orioles are piping their +pert little tunes nigh at hand, and you can spend a meditative hour or +two sitting in the shifting specks of yellow sunshine filtered +through the tender young leaves overhead, undisturbed by the shades of +departed revelers that may be wandering behind the close shutters of +the silent old house you have come so far to see. There is a curious +and distinct flavor of antiquity about the place; for the woodwork +around the doors and windows, which has so bravely withstood the +corroding tooth of Time and the wearing rain-drip from the great +tree-branches creaking above the roof, is of a quaint but excellent +pattern, of which we see too little in these days of hideous sawed +scrollery and gimcrack ornament--the masonry of such an honest +solidity as may well cause the dweller in modern brick and sandy +mortar to sigh enviously for the "good old times." Although the house +appears to be extremely large, it contains very few rooms, and none +of these are so spacious as might be reasonably expected from the +outside. The staircases are singularly ill-contrived, the landings +upon the upper floors occupying a space quite sufficient for +goodly-sized chambers. The ceilings and a chimney-panel or two are set +out bravely with the usual stucco imitation of wood-carving we almost +invariably find (and sigh over) in old American houses--a piteous +attempt on the part of our honest ancestors to reproduce in some sort +the rare wood-sculpture of their own old English manor-houses: it is +a satisfaction, too, to note what little progress we have contrived +to make in this unworthy branch of decorative art in the lapse of a +century. + +In two of the rooms are queer corner fireplaces, where, doubtless, +many pairs of dainty high-heeled slippers and great military +jack-boots have been toasted at the huge hickory fires, long since +extinguished. In one of the upper chambers is an odd sort of closet, +the shelves of which are furnished with low railings, presumably a +protection for the handsome and valuable china that women have always +loved to store up--a check upon the ravages of careless housemaids. It +is quite worth while to climb the breakneck garret-stairs, which must +have bruised many a shin in their day, and the short flight leading +to the roof, in order to get the glorious view of the Park stretching +away down to the city of Philadelphia, and of the beautiful Schuylkill +River winding in and out among the trees and flashing so silvery white +in the afternoon sunshine. + +In the cellarage, where we disturb many busy spiders and stealthy +centipedes, is a large, solidly-floored apartment, where possibly the +house-servants were used to congregate in the old slave days. There is +no chimney-place in this room, nor, indeed, is there any convenience +whatever for cooking purposes in the main building, which omission +inclines me to the opinion that one of the detached wings was used +for the kitchen offices, there being large fireplaces in both of them, +very suitable for the getting up of good dinners.[3] The grounds about +the house have been much altered of late years--the gardens long +since destroyed. A smug, close-shaven turf replaces the old-fashioned +flower-beds and shrubbery, amid which I love to fancy sweet Peggy +Arnold trailing her French brocades and flowered chintzes, her rosy +ear attuned to the high-flown compliments of the men of fashion whom +her beauty and her husband's lavish hospitality drew about her--her +husband the traitor who a few months afterward was flying, a detected +felon, from justice, leaving his fair young wife, with her babe in her +arms, to face the awful wrath of Washington. + +[Footnote 3: A proposition has been recently made to the Fairmount +Park Commissioners by Colonel Frank W. Etting, a Philadelphia lawyer +of well-known taste and culture, to fit up the Mount Pleasant +mansion in the fashion of Colonial times, he having at his command a +sufficient quantity of furniture, pictures, china, etc. for the proper +representation of a house of the best sort in those days. It is to +be hoped that this generous offer may meet with the attention it +deserves, as such a memorial could scarcely fail to prove a great +attraction to our Centennial visitors. Mount Pleasant is fortunately +associated with the memories of better men than Benedict Arnold. The +brave Major Macpherson built the house for his own occupancy before +the Revolutionary war, and General Baron Von Steuben passed a part +of his honorable retirement there, dating his letters humorously from +"Belisarius Hall, on the Schuylkill."] + +Doubtless, many a stately minuet and frolicsome country-dance has been +trod in those now dark and empty rooms by the Philadelphia belles +and beaux of 1780, when, the rich furniture all set back against the +walls, the general's blacks were had up from the negro quarters with +blaring horns and shrill fiddles to play for the quality. Alas! the +horns and fiddles sound no more, the merry, grinning players are but +a pinch of dust like their betters, their haughty master but a scorned +memory where once he reigned so royally, while the modish guests who +frisked it so gayly in satin and velvet have long, long ago shaken the +powder out of their locks, tied up their jaws and packed themselves +away in their scant winding-sheets, resigned to the mournful company +of the worm. + +Brief tenure held the fair châtelaine of this castle: a year and +a half after the date inscribed upon her title-deeds the republic +claimed the traitor's possessions, and pretty Peggy was driven forth +by the Executive Council to find a home with strangers, but fourteen +days being granted her in which to prepare for her doleful journey. +Our excellent forefathers were made of stern stuff to suit the humor +of those trying times, and doubtless they did but their duty in +ridding their country of the "traitor's brood;" but for my part I can +scarcely think, even at this late day, without a pang of indignant +pity, of this innocent and forlorn young creature hounded forth from +her father's peaceful home in Philadelphia, with her child in her +arms--driven almost to the protection of the man whose crime she +abhorred, and from whom in her first frenzied grief she was even +willing to be for ever separated. There have not been wanting certain +persons, headed by that noble patriot and veracious gentleman, Colonel +Aaron Burr, who from time to time have busied themselves in putting +stray hints together with the intent to make Arnold's wife an +accomplice, if not the direct instigator, of his infamous design; +but there is not in existence, so far as I have been able to learn, +a particle of evidence sufficient to justify the casting of ever so +small a stone at the memory of this most unfortunate lady, whose name +is so pitilessly linked with that of the traitor. + +She must have been extremely beautiful. I have had the good fortune to +see her portrait, painted about 1795 at Bath, England, by Sir Thomas +Lawrence, and now in the possession of her grand-niece, a lady to +whom I am indebted for much that I have been able to gather of the +character of Mrs. Arnold. The picture is taken in crayons, and the +colors are wonderfully fresh and lovely after eighty years and a +voyage across the sea, the delicate flesh-tints being especially well +preserved. Besides real beauty of feature, there is an enchanting +softness in the character of the face that seems to belong only to +temperaments the most feminine and refined. A pale pink gown falls +back from her gracious neck and shoulders, liberally and innocently +displayed according to the fashion of the time, and is tied about +her waist with a broad sky-blue ribbon: her hair, lightly dashed with +powder and rolled away from her face, strays in rich curls about her +throat. A child of two or three years leans upon her knee, and pulls +at one of her ringlets with a roguish smile upon his chubby face. + +The century that has nearly elapsed since Arnold's defection has not +served to lighten in any degree the load of obloquy that rests +upon his name. In the whole world no man has been found willing +to undertake his defence; yet a believer in the dark old Calvinist +doctrine might urge in the traitor's favor the thousand invisible +influences which from the very birth of the wretched man seem to have +goaded him on in the downward path that led to his final disgrace and +ruin. His home-training, if such it might be called, was of the +very worst. His mother an ignorant, uncultured woman, his father a +defaulter in middle life, in his age a sot, the boy was left to follow +the promptings of his own will, naturally strong and turbulent. His +youth was stormy and insubordinate, his young manhood not without the +reproach of dishonorable mercantile dealings, and even the splendor of +his military achievements in the service of his country could scarcely +blind the judgment of his warmest admirers to the suspicious +stains upon his moral character. That the last link in the chain +of influences might not be wanting, Arnold, while in command of +Philadelphia in 1778, fell deeply in love with and married the +youngest daughter of Mr. Edward Shippen (afterward chief-justice), a +distinguished lawyer of well-known Tory proclivities, although he +was entirely acquitted of any share in the treasonable design of +his son-in-law. It does not appear that there was any very serious +objection made in the Shippen household to the rebel general's suit +for the hand of the lovely Peggy. Arnold was at this time about +thirty-eight years of age, in the vigorous prime of a life whose +declining years were destined to be passed in a sort of contemptuous +tolerance among those with whom he had been at bargain and sale for +the liberties of his country. Covered with well-earned glory from +his brilliant feats of bravery at the battles of Bemis Heights and +Stillwater, and slightly lame from a severe wound in the leg received +at Quebec, he was at last accorded his full rank in the army, +and entered upon the military command of Philadelphia with every +conceivable circumstance in his favor. The stories of his courage and +daring which had preceded him, aided by his handsome person and fine +military bearing, combined to ensure his success in society, and he +was at once given the entrée to the best city families, from one of +which he soon singled out the lady who became his wife. Her father +writes to Colonel Burd in January, 1779, that "General Arnold, a fine +gentleman, lays close siege to Peggy," and goes on to hint that a +wedding may soon be expected. If the traitor's tongue was only half +as persuasive as his pen, small wonder that the damsel capitulated.[4] +"Dear Peggy," sighs the ardent lover upon paper, "suffer that +heavenly bosom (which cannot know itself the cause of pain without a +sympathetic pang) to expand with a sensation more soft, more tender +than friendship.... I have presumed to write to your papa, and have +requested his sanction to my addresses. Consult your own happiness, +and, if incompatible, forget there is so unhappy a wretch. May I +perish before I would give you one moment's inquietude to procure the +greatest possible felicity to myself! Whatever my fate may be, my most +ardent wish is for your happiness, and my latest breath will be to +implore the blessing of Heaven on the idol and only wish of my soul." +And yet the writer of these fine sentiments presently sells her +peace and happiness and his own honor for a sum of money almost too +pitifully small to be named! They were married in April, 1779. By this +union with the daughter of a loyalist, however professing neutrality, +Arnold must have been thrown much into the society of the enemies of +his country's cause--men whose principles were entirely at variance +with his own--and doubtless his defection may be indirectly laid to +the subtle influence of Tory companionship: certainly, his reckless +intimacy with well-known if not openly-avowed foes of American +independence caused his military superiors to look askance at his +movements, and more than justified the caution of a Congress jealous +of the least shadow that menaced the struggling cause of liberty. + +[Footnote 4: See _Letters and Papers relating to the Provincial +History of Pennsylvania_, by Mr. Thomas Balch.] + +The newly-wedded pair set up their household in the old Penn mansion +(long since torn down) on a scale of magnificence in no way warranted +by Arnold's means. Their great coach-and-four was seen thundering back +and forth through the streets of the quiet little town, and a motley +throng of guests, Whig and Tory, were entertained at a table where +nothing was thought too choice and costly for their delectation. +Matters were carried with such extravagance that debt soon pressed +upon the thoughtless pair, and prudent people began to inquire +curiously into Arnold's administration of public affairs. Whispers +soon grew into loud complaints, and a court-martial was presently +convened to investigate certain charges brought against him by the +Executive Council, comprising peculation, misappropriation of public +funds, etc. During the tedious deliberation of this body of his +fellow-officers, and in the almost certain event of the day going +against him, Arnold laid his plan for the grand coup, which, if +successful, would at once gratify his deep longing for revenge and +place him, as he fondly hoped, at the very summit of his ambition--the +equal of the proudest noble, the lauded servant of a grateful prince. +It seems almost incredible that he should have persevered in his +design after the very lenient decision of his judges, who acquitted +him of all save the most trifling of the charges against him, +and decreed that he should merely receive a reprimand from the +commander-in-chief. Every one knows the encouraging and beautiful +advice with which this slight censure was tempered, and must recognize +the fine manly spirit that prompted it: it should have sunk deeply +into the culprit's heart and made of him the grateful friend of +Washington for ever. It did indeed sink deeply, but it was into a +traitor's heart, and it rankled there. + +It is very possible that here, in this lovely retreat on the banks +of the Schuylkill, in the long summer days of 1780, was matured the +slowly-ripening plot, which but for its timely discovery must have +seriously imperiled, if not altogether lost to us, the glorious +inheritance we have held these hundred years. One can fancy the +martial figure of the brave, bad man pacing back and forth beneath +these very trees perhaps, absorbed in bitter reflections on his real +and fancied wrongs--the rapid promotion of men younger than himself +both in years and services, whilst his own bold deeds had met with but +tardy acknowledgment from a cold and cautious Congress; the long array +of debts which arose like spectres to harass him even in this peaceful +Eden; and, worst of all, the humiliating remembrance of Washington's +rebuke. It cannot be denied that the temptation to free himself from +the toils in which his own dishonest course had entangled him must +have beset the unhappy man with almost resistless power. With his +hopelessly impaired character, and weighed down by debts he had +no means of discharging--for he could scarcely hope for an early +settlement of his accounts from a Congress already impoverished by an +expensive war--to remain in the army was, to a man of Arnold's proud, +selfish nature, almost out of the question. By going over to the +enemy he could at once shake off associations which were now become +intolerable to him, gain perpetual immunity from his liabilities, and +secure for himself a life of distinction and luxury. He grasped at the +delusive vision and was lost for ever. + +In August of this year he received the coveted appointment to the +command of West Point, and Philadelphia saw him no more. He took up +his residence in Beverley Robinson's lately-vacated house on the +east bank of the Hudson and nearly opposite the entrenchments at West +Point. The story of the discovered plot and Major André's detention +is too well known to be more than glanced at here: everything was in +readiness for the surrender of the post into the hands of Sir Henry +Clinton when the unfortunate young adjutant was taken, and the papers +criminating Arnold found upon his person. No one, I am sure, can read +unmoved Dr. Thacher's eye-witness account of the execution of this +officer, lost through Arnold's cowardly blundering. The gravity of his +offence against a flag of truce need not prevent our admiration of his +soldierly conduct after his arrest, the perfect truthfulness to which +he adhered during his examination, and the noble resignation with +which he met his dreadful fate. Arnold had here a fine opportunity to +retrieve in some degree the bitter mischief of which he had been the +occasion. Had he but come forth and suffered in André's place, the +blackness of his crime would have almost disappeared in the brilliancy +of his atonement; but he chose a living death instead, and his hapless +victim went to his doom accompanied by the pity of every honest +American heart. His manly figure affords a fine contrast to that of +the traitor skulking down the lane (still shown as "Arnold's Path") +at the back of the Robinson House in his flight to the British frigate +moored out in the stream fifteen miles below the fort. A few hasty +words had put his innocent wife in possession of the horrid story, +and she had fallen, as if struck by his hand, in a swoon to the floor, +where he left her unconscious of his frantic farewell. In her sad +interview with Washington next day she manifested such frenzied grief +and horror at her husband's guilt, such tender concern for the future +of her helpless babe, that the stern commander was melted to the +heart's core, and left her entirely convinced of her innocence. He +gave orders that her comfort should be fully attended to, and offered +her an escort to protect her from insult on the journey to her +father's house in Philadelphia. Further, he sent her word in a day or +two that, however sorely he must regret the escape of a traitor, he +was glad to be able to assure her of her husband's safety with the +British. Then came the mournful pilgrimage to the loving home in +Philadelphia. She set out at the time when poor André was making his +preparations for the still longer journey whence he was nevermore to +return--the brilliant young officer with whom she had danced at the +great fête, the "Mischianza," given by the British army to Sir William +Howe only two years before in Philadelphia--the gay man of fashion who +had written versicles in her honor, and whose graceful pen-portrait +of the fair girl is still in the possession of the Shippen family--her +thickly-powdered hair drawn up into a tower above her forehead and +bedecked with ribbons and strings of pearls in the fashion then newly +imported out of France, the last modish freak of Marie Antoinette +before she laid her own stately head under the axe of the guillotine. + +One can easily picture the terror and anguish she bore with her to +her old home; the uncertainty regarding her own fate and that of her +child; the haunting thought of young André's approaching doom, and, +more piteous than all else, the ever--recurring temptation that sorely +beset her to see no more the author of her undoing, the still beloved +father of her babe. It is difficult to imagine a more awful situation, +and one can almost forgive her first hasty sentence against the man +who had wrought her such ill. She forgot for a while that she had +taken upon her those sacred vows "for better, for worse:" the worst +indeed had come, and for my part I own I am glad that she chose the +nobler part. He was a traitor, but she, alas! was the traitor's wife. +She accompanied him to England, where her dignity and sweetness helped +to sustain her husband in the doubtful position he held in society. +Her letters to her family bear witness to his unfailing love for her +and anxious care of her welfare, but breathe a spirit of resignation +incompatible with perfect happiness. Once only did she return to +America. After peace was proclaimed she visited her beloved old home, +but meeting with much unkindness from her former friends, soon left +for England again. She died in 1804, surviving Arnold but three years. + +A lady of this city, the granddaughter of our first republican +governor, told me that two of Arnold's grandsons came to America some +years ago, and to their great surprise found themselves unable to +make any figure in Philadelphia society, where they were quietly but +persistently ignored, so strong was the public prejudice against their +name. + +Arnold died in London in the winter of 1801. We shrink away almost +appalled from the awful picture of that death-bed--the neglected, +despised old man, with the gloom closing in about him and left to face +it almost alone. The great people to whom he had sold his honor had +long ago paid him his price, and, washing their hands of him, had +passed over to the other side of the way with averted faces; the stout +old king who had protected him from insult as long as he could was +already in the clutch of the fatal malady which was soon to consign +his intellect to eternal night; and it is said that but one creature +stood beside the dying traitor in that supreme hour--the fond woman +who had so lightened the burden of shame he had borne for twenty long +years of splendor and misery, and whose own deliverance was so nigh at +hand. + +A singular story is told of Arnold's last moments, which if true (and +pray God it may be!) should be linked with the memory of his crime for +ever. It is said that he ordered to be brought from the garret of his +house the old Continental uniform and sword he had worn for the +last time on the memorable day of his escape from West Point. With +trembling hands he unfolded the coat, and, drawing it painfully over +his shoulders, sat lost in long and deep reflection: then, rousing +himself with a sigh, he drew the sword from its scabbard, and +clenching one hand upon the rich hilt, passed the other absently along +the blade; then with a wild look of regret in his fast-glazing eyes he +let the weapon drop from his grasp, his head sank upon his breast and +he remained motionless until he died, drawing each breath longer and +longer until all were spent. I love to think that he died with the +Continental coat upon his shoulders, nor was it again dishonored by +the contact: it even seems to have lent a ray of its own untarnished +lustre to brighten the last dark, remorseful hours of a ruined life. + +K.T.T. + + + + +THE WATCH: AN OLD MAN'S STORY. + +BY IVAN TOURGUENEFF. + + +I. + + +I will tell you my story about the watch. A singular story! The whole +thing at the very beginning of the century, in the year 1801. I was +just sixteen. I lived at Riasan with my father, aunt and cousin, in +a little wooden house not far from the banks of the Oka. I don't +remember my mother: she died when she had been only three years +married, and my father had no child but me. My father's name was +Porphyr Petrovitch: he was a quiet man with feeble health, who +occupied himself with managing law-business, and--in other ways. In +old times they used to call such people sowers of discord: he called +himself an attorney. His sister, my aunt, kept the house. She was an +old maid of fifty: my father had already left his fortieth year behind +him. She was a very pious woman. In fact, to tell the truth, she was a +great hypocrite, gossiping and meddlesome, and she did not have a kind +heart like my father. We were not poor, but we had no more than we +really needed. My father had also a brother, named Gregory, but he had +been accused of seditious actions and Jacobinical sentiments (so it +ran in the _ukase_), and he had been sent to Siberia in 1797. + +Gregory's son David, my cousin, was left on my father's hands, and he +lived with us. He was only a year older than I, but I gave way to him +and obeyed him as if he had been a most important personage. He was a +bright boy of a good deal of character, sturdy and broad-shouldered, +with a square, freckled face, red hair, small gray eyes, thick lips, a +short nose and short fingers, and of a strength far beyond his years. +My aunt could not endure him, and my father was afraid of him, or +perhaps had a consciousness of guilt before him. There had been a +rumor that if my father had not told too much and left his brother in +the lurch, David's father would not have been sent to Siberia. We +were both in the same class in the gymnasium, and we both made good +progress--I somewhat better than David. My memory was stronger than +his, but boys, as every one knows, do not appreciate that advantage: +they are not proud of it; and in spite of it I always looked up to +David. + + + + +II. + + +My name, as you know, is Alexis. I was born on the seventh of March, +and celebrate my birthday on the seventeenth. They gave me, according +to the old custom, the name of one of those saints whose anniversary +fell ten days after my birth. My godfather was a certain Anastasius +Anistasiovitch Putschkow, or Nastasa Nastasaitch, as he was always +called. He was a fearful liar and slanderer and cheat--a thoroughly +bad man: he had been turned out of a government office, and had been +brought before the court more than once; but my father needed him: +they "worked" together. In appearance he was stout and bloated, with a +face like a fox, a nose as sharp as a needle, little dark, glistening +eyes, like a fox's eyes, and he kept them always moving from side to +side; and he moved his nose too, as if he were sniffing something in +the air. He wore high-heeled shoes, and he powdered his hair every +day, which was considered strange conduct in the provinces in +those days. He assured people he could not do otherwise, as he was +acquainted with so many generals and generals' wives. And my birthday +came, and Nastasa Nastasaitch appeared at our house and said, "I have +never yet given you anything, but see what I have brought you to-day." +And he took from his pocket an old-fashioned silver watch, with a rose +painted on the face, and a bronze chain. + +I stood motionless with joy, and my aunt screamed out, "Kiss his hand, +kiss his hand, stu--, boy!" + +I kissed my godfather's hand, but my aunt added, "Oh, Nastasa, why do +you spoil him so? What should he want of a watch? He will be sure to +lose it or break it." + +My father came in, looked at the watch, and having thanked Nastasa +somewhat coolly, called him into his office. I heard my father say, as +if he were talking to himself, "If you hope to get off in that way--" +But I could not wait a moment longer: I stuck the watch in my pocket +and rushed off to show it to David. + + + + +III. + + +David took the watch, opened it and examined it carefully. He had +a great talent for mechanics: he could work in iron, copper and all +kinds of metals. He had got himself several kinds of tools, and he +could easily repair or make anew a screw, a key, and so on. David +turned the watch about in his hands, and muttered between his +teeth--he was not talkative--"Old--poor," and asked, "Where did you +get it?" + +I told him my godfather gave it to me. + +"Nastasa?" + +"Yes, Nastasa Nastasaitch." + +David set the watch down on the table and walked off without a word. + +"You don't like it?" I asked. + +"No: that's not it; but in your place I would not have taken any +present from Nastasa." + +"Why not?" + +"Because he is a contemptible creature, and I would not be under any +obligations to him, or have to thank him for anything if I could help +it. You kissed his hand, I suppose?" + +"Yes: my aunt made me." + +David smiled with a singular expression. That was his way. He never +laughed aloud: he considered it a sign of weakness. David's words and +his quiet smile pained me much. "He is blaming me in his heart," I +thought. "In his eyes I am contemptible. He would never have lowered +himself in that way: he would never accept a present from Nastasa. But +what shall I do now?" + +To give back the watch was impossible. + +I tried to talk it over with David and get his advice, but he answered +that he never gave any one advice, and that I must do what I thought +best. I remember I could not sleep all that night, so great was my +anxiety. It was hard to part with the watch. I put it on the table at +my bedside, and it ticked so pleasantly! But then to feel that David +despised me--and there was no doubt that he did--was unendurable. By +morning I had come to a determination. It made me cry, but I went to +sleep as soon as I had made it, and when I awoke I put on my clothes +quickly and ran out in the street. I had determined to give my watch +to the first poor person I met. + + + + +IV. + + +I had not gone far from the house when I met what I wanted. A boy +about ten years old ran across my path--a ragged, barefooted little +fellow, who was often idling in front of our windows. I sprang toward +him, and without giving him or myself time for reflection I offered +him my watch. The boy stared at me, and raised one hand to his mouth +as if he was afraid of burning his fingers, while he held out the +other. + +"Take it, take it!" I murmured: "it's mine--I give it to you. You +can sell it and get something with the money, whatever you want. +Good-bye!" + +I thrust the watch into his hand, and ran quickly home. I stood for a +minute behind the door of our common bedroom, and when I had recovered +my breath I went up to David, who had nearly dressed himself and was +combing his hair. "Do you know, David," I began with as calm a voice +as I could muster, "I have given Nastasa's watch away?" + +David looked at me and went on arranging his hair. + +"Yes," I added in the same business-like tone, "I have given it away. +There's a little boy very poor and miserable, and I've given it to +him." + +David put the brush down on the washstand. + +"For the money he will get for it he can buy himself something useful. +He will certainly get something for it." I was silent. + +"Well, that's good," said David at last; and he went into our study, I +following him. + +"And if they ask you what you have done with it?" he suggested. + +"I shall say I have lost it," I answered, as if that did not trouble +me a bit. We spoke no more about the watch that day, but it seemed to +me that David not only approved of what I had done, but that he really +admired it to some extent. I was sure he did. + + + + +V. + + +Two days went by. It happened that no one in the house thought about +the watch. My father had some trouble with his clients, and did not +concern himself with me or my watch. I, on the contrary, was thinking +of it all the time. Even the supposed approval of David comforted me +but little. He had not openly expressed it; only he had said once when +we were talking together that he would not have expected it of me. +Decidedly, my sacrifice was of but little use, since the satisfaction +of my vanity did not compensate me for it. As luck would have it, +there came a schoolmate of ours, the son of the city physician, who +kept bragging of not even a silver, but of a pinchbeck watch his +grandmother had given him. At last I could bear it no longer, and one +day I slunk quietly out of the house, determined to find the boy to +whom I had given my watch. I soon came across him: he was playing +jackstones with some other boys in the church-porch. I called him +aside, and, hardly waiting to take breath, I stammered out that my +parents were very angry with me for giving the watch away, and that if +he was willing to give it back to me I would gladly pay him for it. I +had brought an Elizabeth ruble with me, which was all my savings. + +"But I haven't got your watch," answered the boy with a tearful voice. +"My father saw me have it and took it away from me: he did, and he +wanted to whip me too. He said I must have stolen it somewhere. He +said, 'Who would be such a fool as to give you a watch?'" + +"And who is your father?" + +"My father? Trofimytsch." + +"But what is he? what's his business?" + +"He is a discharged soldier, a sergeant, and he has no business. He +mends and soles old shoes. That's all the business he has. He supports +himself by that, too." + +"Where does he live? Take me to him." + +"Yes, I'll show you the way. You'll tell him you gave me the watch, +won't you? He keeps calling me names about it, and my mother keeps +asking, 'Who do you take after, that you're such a scamp?'" + +The boy and I went together to his house. It was merely a rickety +hut built in the back yard of a factory that had been burned down and +never built up again. We found Trofimytsch and his wife at home. The +discharged sergeant was a tall old man, straight and strong, with +grayish-yellow whiskers, unshaven chin, a network of wrinkles on his +forehead and cheeks. His wife looked older than he: her eyes shone +dimly from the midst of a somewhat swollen face, into which they +seemed to have been driven. Both wore dirty rags for clothes. I +explained to Trofimytsch what I wanted and why I had come. He listened +in silence, without even winking or turning his dull, attentive, +soldierlike glance away from me. + +"How foolish!" he said at last with a rough, toothless bass voice. +"Do fine young men behave like that? If Petka did not steal the watch, +that is one thing; but if he did, then I'll give it to him with the +stick, as they used to do in the regiment. What is that? 'What a +pity!' The stick, that's all. Pshaw!" Trofimytsch uttered these +incoherent exclamations in falsetto: he had apparently understood +nothing. + +"If you will give me back the watch," I explained--I did not venture +to say "thou" to him, although he was but a common soldier--"I'll +willingly give you a ruble for it. I don't think it's worth more." + +"Humph!" muttered Trofimytsch, who still did not understand, but +continued to gaze at me attentively as if I were his superior officer. +"So that's the way the matter stands? Well, then, take it.--Be still, +Uliana!" he screamed angrily at his wife, who opened her mouth as if +she were about to speak.--"There is the watch," he continued, opening +a drawer: "if it's yours, be kind enough to take it, but why should I +take the ruble?" + +"Take the ruble, Trofimytsch, you fool!" sobbed his wife. "Have you +gone crazy, old man? Not a single farthing have we left in our pockets +if we were to turn them inside out, and here you are putting on airs! +They've cut off your pigtail, but you're an old woman still. How can +you act so? Take the money! Would you give the watch away?" + +"Be still, you chatterbox!" repeated Trofimytsch. "When did one ever +see such a sight? A woman reasoning! ha! Her husband is the head, and +she--disputes!--Petka, don't mutter, or I'll kill you.--There's the +watch." Trofimytsch held out the watch toward me, but would not let go +of it. He considered for a moment: then he lowered his eyes and fixed +that dull, straightforward glance upon me, and then suddenly screamed +as loud as he could, "Where is it? where is the ruble?" + +"Here, here!" I said hastily, and pulled the money out of my pocket. +He did not take it, however, but continued to stare at me. I put the +ruble on the table. He pushed it with one shove into the table-drawer, +threw the watch to me, turned to the right about, and hissed at his +wife and boy, "Away with you! get out!" + +Uliana tried to stammer out a few words, but I was already outside the +door on the street. I dropped the watch into the bottom of my pocket, +held it tight with my hand and hastened homeward. + + + + +VI. + + +I was again in possession of my watch, and yet it gave me no pleasure. +I could not wear it, and above everything I had to hide from David +what I had done. What would he have thought of me and of my lack of +character? I could not even put my watch in the drawer, for we kept +all our things there in common. I had to hide it--at one time on the +top of the wardrobe, at another under the mattress, again behind the +stove; and yet I did not succeed in deceiving David. + +Once I had taken the watch from under the planks of our floor, and was +trying to polish its silver case with an old leather glove. David +had gone somewhere down town, and I did not think he was back when +suddenly there he stood in the doorway! I was so confused that I +almost let the watch drop, and, my face hot with blushes, I felt +despairingly for my waistcoat pocket to put my watch into it. David +looked at me and smiled in his silent way. "What are you after?" he +said at last. "Did you think I didn't know you'd got the watch again? +I saw it the first day you brought it back." + +"I assure you--" I began with tears. + +David shrugged his shoulders: "The watch is yours: you can do what you +please with it." + +When he had said those hard words he went out. I was overcome with +mortification. This time there was no doubt that David despised me. +That could not be borne. "I will show him," I said to myself, setting +my teeth hard. With a firm step I walked into the next room, where our +servant Juschka was, and gave him the watch. At first Juschka would +not take it, but I declared to him that if he would not take the watch +I would break it into pieces, trample it to powder, crush it to atoms. +He thought for a moment, and finally consented to take it. When I came +back to our room I found David reading a book. I told him what I +had done. He did not lift his eyes from the page he was reading, but +shrugged his shoulders again and said, "The watch is yours to do what +you like with it." But it seemed to me as if he despised me a little +less. I was fully determined not again to lay myself open to the +charge of having no character, for this watch, this hateful present +of my hateful godfather, had become so detestable that I could not +understand how I could ever have been sorry to lose it, how I could +have brought myself to begging it from a man like Trofimytsch, and +give him the right to believe that he had behaved generously to me in +regard to it. + +Some days passed by. I remember that on one of them there came a great +piece of news: the emperor Paul was dead, and his son Alexander, of +whose generosity and humanity much had been said, had ascended the +throne. This news greatly excited David, and awoke in him the hope +of again seeing his father, and of seeing him soon. My father too was +very glad. "All the exiles will now be allowed to return from Siberia, +and they won't forget my brother Jegor," he repeated, rubbing his +hands, but with a somewhat anxious expression. David I and I +stopped working, and we did not even make a pretence of going to the +gymnasium; indeed, we did not even go out to walk, but we used to hang +about the house and conjecture and reckon in how many months, how many +weeks, how many days "brother Jegor" would return--where we should +write to him, how we would receive him, and how we should live then. +"Brother Jegor" was an architect, and we both decided that he should +move to Moscow and build there great schools for the poor, and +we should be his assistants. The watch meanwhile we had entirely +forgotten, but it was determined to recall itself to our memory. + + + + +VII. + + +One morning, just after breakfast, I was sitting alone in the window +thinking of my uncle's return. The April thaw was dripping and +sparkling without, when my aunt, Pulcheria Petrovna, rushed suddenly +into the room. She was always very excitable and complaining, and she +always spoke with a shrill voice, gesticulating a great deal; but this +time she pounced upon me. "Come, come, go to your father this minute, +young sir," she sputtered out. "What tricks you've been up to, you +shameless boy! But you'll catch it, both of you. Nastasa Nastasaitch +has discovered all your goings on. Go! Your father has sent for you: +go this moment." + +I mechanically followed my aunt, without in the least understanding +what it was all about, and as I crossed the thresh-hold I saw my +father with his hair on end walking up and down the room with long +strides. Juschka was in tears near the door, and my godfather was +sitting on a stool in the corner with a very malicious expression in +his open nostrils and wandering eyes. My father flew at me as soon as +I entered the room: "Did you give Juschka the watch? What?" + +I looked at Juschka. + +"Tell me," repeated my father, stamping with his feet. + +"Yes," I answered, and immediately received a violent box on the ear, +which gave my aunt a great deal of satisfaction. I heard her smack +her lips with pleasure, as if she had just taken a good swallow of hot +tea. My father rushed from me to Juschka. "You rascal! you ought not +to have taken the watch," he cried, seizing him by the hair; "and you +sold it to the watchmaker, you good-for-nothing fellow!" + +Juschka, in fact, as I afterward learned, had in the simplicity of his +heart sold my watch to a neighboring watchmaker. The watchmaker had +hung it up in his window, where Nastasa had seen it. He bought it and +brought it back to us. Juschka and I were not detained long: my father +got out of breath and began to cough, and besides it was not his way +to be cross. + +"Brother," said my aunt, who noticed with regret that he was getting +over his wrath, "don't trouble yourself any more about this matter: +it's not worth dirtying your hands about. And listen to my proposal: +if Nastasa consents, in view of your son's great ingratitude, I +will take charge of the watch myself, and since he has shown by his +behavior that he is no longer worthy of wearing it, I will give it in +your name to a person who will know how to value your kindness as it +deserves." + +"Who is that?" asked my father. + +"Christian Lukitsch," answered my aunt with a little hesitation. + +"Christian?" asked my father; and then added with a wave of the hand, +"It's all the same to me: you may throw it into the fire, for all I +care." + +He buttoned his waistcoat, which had come undone, and went out, +doubled up with coughing. + +"And you, cousin, do you agree?" said my aunt, turning to Nastasa. + +"Entirely," he answered. During the whole scene he had not stirred +from his stool, but there he sat, breathing audibly, rubbing the tips +of his fingers together, and turning his fox eyes by turns on me, my +father and Juschka. We gave him a great deal of amusement. + +My aunt's proposal stirred me to the depths of my soul. I did not care +for the watch, but I had a great dislike for the person to whom she +proposed giving it. This Christian Lukitsch, whose family name was +Trankwillitatin, a lanky blockhead of a student, had the habit of +coming to see us, the deuce knows why. To see about the children's +education, my aunt used to say; but he could not do anything of the +sort, because he was very ignorant and as stupid as a horse. He was +like a horse, too, in other ways: he used to stamp his feet like +hoofs, he neighed rather than laughed, and opened his jaws when he did +so till you could see down his throat; and he had a long face with +a curved nose and large, flat check-bones: he wore a rough coat and +smelt of raw meat. My aunt called him a respectable man, a cavalier, +and even a grenadier. He had a way of tapping children on the forehead +with the hard nails of his long fingers (he used to do it to me when +I was younger) and saying, "Hear how empty your head sounds," and then +laughing at his own wit. And this idiot was to have my watch? Never! +was what I determined as I rushed from the room and flung myself at +full length on my bed, my cheeks burning with the box on the ear I had +just received. But in my heart was burning the bitterness of outraged +dignity and thirst for revenge. Never would I let him triumph over +me--wear the watch, hang the chain over his waistcoat, and neigh with +joy. That was all very well, but how prevent it? I determined to steal +the watch from my aunt. + + + + +VIII. + + +Fortunately, Trankwillitatin was just at this time out of town. He +could not come to see us before the next day: advantage must be +taken of the intervening night. My aunt did not sleep with her door +locked--indeed, throughout the house we had no keys in the doors--but +where did she hide the watch? Until evening she carried it about in +her pocket, and so ensured its safety, but at night where will she put +it? Well, that's just what I must find out, I thought, and clenched my +fist. I was glowing with audacity and fear and joy at the idea of the +crime I was about to commit. I kept nodding my head, I wrinkled my +forehead, I whispered to myself, "Just wait!" I kept threatening every +one: I was cross, I was dangerous; and I even avoided David. No one, +and particularly not he, should have any suspicion of what I was about +to do. I would act alone, and bear the whole responsibility. Slowly +the day crept by, then the evening: at last night came. I did nothing: +I scarcely moved. One thought filled my head. At supper my father, +whose anger never lasted very long, and who was already a little +sorry for his violence, tried to bring me back to my good-humor, but I +repelled his advances--not, as he thought, because I could not conquer +my wrath, but simply because I feared becoming sentimental. I must +preserve undiminished the whole glow of my indignation, the whole +vigor of an unalterable determination. I went to bed early, but you +may well believe I did not close my eyes. I kept them wide open, +although I had pulled the bed-clothes over my head. I had not thought +over beforehand what I should do: I had no fixed plan. I was only +waiting for the house to get quiet. The only precaution I took was +to keep on my stockings. My aunt's chamber was in the second story. I +should have to go through the dining-room, the ante-room, up a flight +of stairs, along an entry, and on the right was the door. It was not +necessary to take a candle or lantern: I knew that in the corner of my +aunt's chamber there was a shrine with a light always burning before +it, so I should be able to see well enough. I lay with my eyes wide +open, my mouth open and dry: the blood throbbing in my temples, my +ears, throat, back, throughout my whole body. I waited, but it seemed +to me as if a demon were tormenting me. Time went by, but the house +did not get quiet. + + + + +IX. + + +Never, it seemed to me, had David been so long in going to sleep: +David, the taciturn David, even talked to me. Never did the people in +the house clatter and walk about and talk so late. And what are they +talking about now? thought I. Haven't they had time enough since +morning? Outdoors, too, the noise kept up very late. A dog would bark +with long-protracted howls; then a drunken man would go by with a +racket; then a rattling wagon would seem as if it took for ever to +get past the house. But these outdoor noises did not vex me: on the +contrary, I was glad to hear them. They would make the people in the +house indifferent to sounds. But at last it seems as if everything +were quiet. Only the pendulum of an old clock ticks loudly and +solemnly in the dining-room: one can hear the heavy, long-drawn, even +breathing of the sleepers. I am just going to get up when something +buzzes in my ears: suddenly there is a creaking sound, and something +soft falls, and the sound spreads itself in waves along the walls of +the room. Or was it nothing, after all, but fancy? At last it has all +died away, and the darkness and churchyard stillness of night descend. +Now is the time! Cold with anticipation, I throw off the bed-clothes, +let my feet glide down to the floor, stand up: one step--a second--I +creep along; the soles of my feet don't seem to belong to me; they are +heavy and my steps are weak and uncertain. Stop! what is that noise? +Is it some one filing, scraping or snoring? I listen with a feeling as +if ants were running over my cheeks, my eyes filling with cold tears. +It is nothing. I creep along again. It is dark, but I know the way. +Suddenly I hit against a chair. What a racket! and how it hurts! I hit +just on my knee-pan. I shall die here. Now will they wake up? Well, +let them! Boldness and crossness come to my aid. Forward! Now I have +passed through the dining-room: I reach the door and shove it open, +but the confounded hinge creaks. Never mind! Now I'm going up the +stairs--one! two! one! two! One step creaks beneath my tread: I look +down angrily, as if I could see it. Now the second door! I seize the +handle: it does not rattle. It swings softly open. Thank Heaven! I'm +in the entry at last. In the upper entry is a little window beneath +the roof. The faint light of the night-sky shines through the dim +panes, and by the uncertain light I make out our maid-servant lying on +a fur robe on the floor, her tangled head supported by both hands. She +sleeps soundly, with light, quick breathing, and just behind her head +is the fatal door. I step over the robe, over the girl. Who was it +opened the door? I don't know, but I am in my aunt's room. There +is the lamp in one corner and the bed in the other, and my aunt in +night-gown and cap in bed with her face toward me. She is asleep; she +does not stir; even her breathing is inaudible. The flame of the lamp +wavers slightly with the fresh draught, and the shadows dance through +the whole room and on my aunt's yellow, waxen hair. + +And there is the watch! It is hanging behind the bed in an embroidered +watch-pocket on the wall. That's lucky! I hesitate, but there is no +use in delaying. But what are these--soft, quick footsteps behind me? +Oh no, it is only my heart beating. I take a step forward. Heavens! +Something round and quite large touches me just below the knee once +and then again. I am on the point of crying out: I am near sinking to +the ground with terror. A striped cat, our cat, stands before me +with her back curved and her tail in the air. Now she jumps on the +bed--heavily but softly--turns round and sits without purring, looking +at me with her yellow eyes as grave as a judge. "Puss! puss!" I +whisper hardly above my breath, and leaning over her and over my aunt, +I take hold of the watch. Suddenly my aunt raises herself, and opens +her eyes wide. Heavens! what is going to happen now? But the lids +quiver and close, and with a gentle murmur her head sinks back on the +cushion. Another moment and I am back in my own room, in bed, with the +watch in my hand. I come back lighter than a feather. I am a man; I am +a thief; I am a hero. I am breathless with joy; I glow with pride; +I am happy, and I will wake up David and tell him all about it; and +then, strange to say, I fall asleep and sleep like the dead. At last +I open my eyes; it is light in my room; the sun has already risen. +Fortunately, no one is yet awake. I spring up as if I were shot: I +wake David and confide the whole story to him. He listens and smiles. + +"Do you know what we'll do?" he said at last: "we'll bury this stupid +watch in the ground, so that there shall be nothing left of it." + +I consider this an admirable plan, and in a few minutes we dress +ourselves, run into the orchard behind the house, and when we have dug +a deep hole in the soft earth with David's knife, we bury beneath an +old apple tree my godfather's hated present, which now will never fall +into the hands of the disagreeable Trankwillitatin. We throw back the +earth, sprinkle rubbish over the spot, and, proud and happy, without +being seen, we return to the house, go back to bed, and enjoy for +another hour a light, happy sleep. + + + +X. + + +You can imagine what a row there was the next morning when my aunt +woke up and missed the watch. To this day her piercing cry resounds in +my ears. "Help! robbers!" she shrieked, and alarmed the whole house. +But David and I only smiled quietly to ourselves, and our smiles were +sweet. "Every one must be punished," screamed my aunt. "The watch +has been taken from beneath my head--from beneath my pillow!" We +were prepared for everything, for the worst, but, contrary to our +expectations, it all blew over. + +At first my father was very angry: he even spoke of the police, but +the trial of the day before must have tired him a good deal, and +suddenly, to my aunt's indescribable astonishment, he vented his wrath +on her instead of us. "You have given me enough trouble already +about the watch, Pulcheria Petrovna," he cried: "I don't want to hear +anything more about it. It did not take itself off by magic, and what +do I care if it did? They stole it from you? That was your lookout. +'What will Nastasa say?' Confound Nastasa! He does nothing but cheat +and practice dirty tricks. Don't dare to bother me any more with this: +do you hear?" + +My father then went to his room, slamming the door behind him. David +and I did not at first understand what his last words referred to: +we found out later that my father was at that time much vexed with +Nastasa, who had snapped up some paying piece of business which had +belonged to him. So my aunt had to withdraw with a long face. She was +nearly bursting with rage, but there was nothing to do, and she was +obliged to content herself with whispering hoarsely, "Rascal! rascal! +jailbird! thief!" whenever she passed me. My aunt's reproaches were a +great delight to me, and it was also very pleasant whenever we went by +the garden fence to throw an apparently indifferent glance at the spot +beneath the apple tree where the watch rested, and also, if David was +by, to exchange with him a knowing wink. + +My aunt first tried to set Trankwillitatin against me, but I made +David help me. He spoke up to the tall student, and told him he'd cut +him open with a knife if he didn't leave me alone. Trankwillitatin +was frightened, for, although my aunt called him a grenadier and a +cavalier, he was not remarkable for bravery. + +But you don't suppose I have come to the end of my story yet? No, it's +not yet finished; only, in order to continue it, I must introduce a +new person, and to introduce this new person I must go back a little. + + + + +XI. + + +My father was for a long time on very friendly and even intimate terms +with a former official, named Latkin, a poor man, slightly lame, with +shy, queer manners--one of those beings of whom people say the hand of +God is upon them. He had the same business as my father and Nastasa: +he was also a private "agent" and commissioner, but as he had neither +an imposing exterior nor a fluent tongue, nor much self-confidence, +he could not make up his mind to act independently, and so formed a +partnership with my father. His handwriting was wonderful, he had a +thorough knowledge of law, and was perfectly at home in all the ins +and outs of lawsuits and office-practice. He was connected with my +father in several business operations, and they shared their gains and +losses, so that it seemed as if nothing could impair their friendship. +But one day it was brought to an abrupt conclusion once for all: my +father quarreled irreconcilably with his former associate. If Latkin +had snapped a profitable bit of my father's business, as Nastasa did +afterward, he would have been no more angry with him than he was with +Nastasa, perhaps even less. But Latkin, under the influence of some +unexplained, incomprehensible feeling of envy or greed, and perhaps +also moved by a momentary feeling of honesty, had played him false in +exposing him to their patron, a rich young merchant, by opening the +careless young man's eyes to some sharp practice by which my father +expected to make a very pretty sum. It was not the loss of the +money, however much it may have been--no, it was the treachery--which +embittered and enraged my father. He could not forgive swindling. + +"See there! we have discovered a new saint," said he, trembling with +rage and his teeth chattering as if he had a chill. (I happened to be +in the room, a witness of this painful scene.) "Very well, from this +day forth all is over between us. The heavens are above us, and there +is the door. I have nothing more to do with you, nor you with me. You +are too honest for me, sir: how could we get along together? But you +sha'n't have a bit of ground to stand on, nor a roof over your head." + +In vain did Latkin beg for mercy and fling himself on the ground +before him: in vain did he try to explain what had filled his own soul +with painful astonishment. "Just consider, Porphyr Petrovitch," he +stammered forth. "I did it without any hope of gain: I cut my own +throat." + +My father was immovable, and Latkin never more set foot in the house. +It seemed as if fate had determined to fulfill my father's last evil +wishes. Soon after the breach between them, which took place about two +years before my story began, Latkin's wife died: it is true, however, +that she had for a long time been ill. His second daughter, a child of +three years, became deaf and dumb one day from fright: a swarm of bees +lit on her head. Latkin himself had a stroke of paralysis and fell +into the most extreme misery. How he managed to scrape along at all, +what he lived on, it was hard to imagine. He dwelt in a tumbledown +hovel but a short distance from our house. His eldest daughter, +Raissa, lived with him and managed for him as well as she could. This +very Raissa is the new person whom I must introduce into my story. + + + + +XII. + + +So long as her father was on friendly terms with mine we used to see +her continually: she would sometimes spend whole days at our house, +sewing or knitting with her swift, delicate fingers. She was a tall, +somewhat slender girl, with thoughtful gray eyes in a pale oval face. +She spoke little, but what she said was sensible, and she uttered +it in a low, clear voice, without opening her mouth much and without +showing her teeth: when she laughed--which was seldom--she showed them +all suddenly, large and white as almonds. I also remember her walk, +which was light and elastic, with a little spring in every step: it +seemed to me always as if she were going up stairs, even when she was +on level ground. She held herself erect, with her hands folded, and +whatever she did, whatever she undertook--if she only threaded a +needle or smoothed her dress--was well and gracefully done. You will +hardly believe it, but there was something touching in her way of +doing things. Her baptismal name was Raissa, but we called her "Little +Black-Lip," for she had a little mole, like a berry-stain, on her +upper lip, but this did not disfigure her; indeed, it had the contrary +effect. She was just a year older than David. I had for her a feeling +akin to reverence, but she had very little to do with me. Between her +and David, on the other hand, there existed a friendship--a childish +but warm if somewhat strange friendship. They suited one another well: +sometimes for hours they would not exchange a word, but every one felt +that they were enjoying themselves merely because they were together. +I have really never met another girl like her. There was in her +something questioning, yet decided--something honest, and sad, +and dear. I never heard her say anything clever, and also nothing +commonplace, and I have never seen anything more intelligent than her +eyes. When the breach between her family and mine came I began to see +her seldom. My father positively forbade my seeing the Latkins, and +she never appeared at our house; but I used to meet her in the street, +at church, and Little Black-Lip used to inspire me with the same +feeling--esteem, and even a sort of admiration, rather than pity. +She bore her misfortunes well. "The girl is a stone," the coarse +Trankwillitatin once said of her. But in truth one could not help +sympathizing with her. Her face wore a troubled, wearied expression, +and her eyes grew deeper: a burden beyond her strength was laid on +her young shoulders. David used to see her much oftener than I did. +My father troubled himself very little about him: he knew that David +never listened to him. And Raissa used to appear from time to time at +the gate between our garden and the street, and meet David there. She +did not chatter with David, but merely told him of some new loss or +misfortune that had happened to them, and begged for his advice. + +The after-consequences of Latkin's paralysis were very strange: his +hands and feet became weak, but still he could use them. Even his +brain worked normally, but his tongue was confused and used to utter +one word in the place of another: you had to guess at what he really +meant to say. "Choo, choo, choo," he would with difficulty stammer +forth--he always began with "Choo, choo, choo"--"the scissors, the +scissors," but the scissors meant "bread." He hated my father with +all the strength that was left him: he ascribed his sufferings to my +father's curses, and called him sometimes "the butcher," and sometimes +the "jeweler." "Choo, choo, don't you dare to go to the butcher, +Wassilievna:" by this name he called his daughter. Every day he +grew more exacting: his needs increased; and how should his needs be +satisfied? where get the money? Sorrows soon make people old, but +it was painful to hear these questions from the lips of a +sixteen-year-old girl. + + + + +XIII. + + +I remember I happened to be present at her conversation with David by +the hedge on the day her mother died. + +"Mother died this morning," first letting her dark, expressive eyes +wander around and then fall on the ground. "The cook has undertaken +to buy a cheap coffin, but she is not to be trusted: she may spend the +money in drink. You must come and look after her, David: she is afraid +of you." + +"I will come," answered David: "I will see to it. And your father?" + +"He cries and says, 'You'll spoil me, too!'--he means bury him. Now +he has gone to sleep." Raissa suddenly drew a deep sigh: "Oh, David! +David!" She drew her half-closed hand across her brow and eyes, a +gesture graceful and sad, like all her movements. + +"But you must take care of yourself," said David. "You can't have +slept at all; and why cry? It won't help matters." + +"I have no time to cry," answered Raissa. + +"The rich can indulge themselves in the luxury of crying," said David. + +Raissa started to go, but she turned back: "We are thinking of +selling the yellow shawl: you know the one that belonged to mother's +trousseau. We have been offered twelve rubles for it. I think that is +too little." + +"Yes, indeed, much too little." + +"We wouldn't sell it," said Raissa after a short pause, "if we didn't +need money for the funeral." + +"Yes, of course, but you mustn't throw money away. These priests--it's +a shame! But wait: I'll be there. Are you going? I'll be there soon. +Good-bye, little dove!" + +"Good-bye, brother, dear heart!" + +"And don't cry." + +"Cry? Cook or cry, one of the two." + +"What! does she do the cooking?" I asked of David when Raissa had +gone. "Does she do the cooking herself?" + +"You heard what she said: the cook has gone out to buy the coffin." + +She cooks, I thought to myself, and she always has such clean hands +and dresses so neatly! I should like to see her in the kitchen. She's +a strange girl. + +I remember another conversation by the hedge. This time Raissa had +her little deaf-and-dumb sister with her. She was a pretty child, +with great, startled eyes, and a wilderness of short, dark hair on her +little head: Raissa had also dark, lustreless hair. It was soon after +Latkin's attack of paralysis. + +"I don't know what to do," began Raissa: "the doctor has prescribed +something for father, and I must go to the apothecary's'; and our +serf" (Latkin had still one serf left) "has brought us some wood from +the village, and also a goose. But the landlord has taken it away. +'You are in my debt,' he said." + +"Did he take the goose?" asked David. + +"No, he did not take the goose. 'It's too old,' he said, 'and it's +worth nothing: that's the reason the man brought it to you.'" + +"But he had no right to it," cried David. + +"He had no right to it, but he took it all the same. I went into the +garret--we have an old chest there--and I hunted through it; and see +what I found." She took out from under her shawl a great spy-glass, +finished in copper and yellow morocco. + +David, as an amateur and connoisseur of every kind of instrument, +seized it at once. "An English glass," he said, holding it first at +one eye and then at the other--"a marine telescope." + +"And the glasses are whole," continued Raissa. "I showed it to father, +and he said, 'Take it to the jeweler.' What do you think? Will they +give me money for it? Of what use is a telescope to us? If we could +see in the glass how beautiful we are! but we have no looking-glass, +unfortunately." + +And when she had said these words she suddenly laughed aloud. Her +little sister could not have heard her, but probably she felt the +shaking of her body: she had hold of Raissa's hand, and raising her +great eyes, she made up a frightened face and began to cry. + +"She's always like that," said Raissa: "she doesn't like to have +people laugh.--Here, then, darling, I won't," she added, stooping +down to the child and running, her fingers through its hair. "Do you +see?" + +The laughter died away from Raissa's face, and her lips, with the +corners prettily turned up, again became immovable: the child was +quiet. + +Raissa stood up: "Here, David, take care of the telescope: it's too +bad about the wood, and the goose, if it is too old." + +"We shall certainly get ten rubles for it," said David, turning the +telescope over. "I will buy it of you; and here are fifteen kopecks +for the apothecary: is it enough?" + +"I will borrow them of you," whispered Raissa, taking the fifteen +kopecks. + +"Yes, indeed; with interest, perhaps? I have a pledge--a very heavy +one. These English are a great people." + +"And yet people say we are going to war with them." + +"No," answered David: "now we are threatening the French." + +"Well, you know best. Don't forget. Good-bye!" + + + + +XIV. + + +One more conversation which I heard at the hedge. Raissa seemed more +than usually troubled. "Five kopecks for the very smallest head of +cabbage!" she said, supporting her head on her hand. "Oh, how dear! +and I have no money from my sewing!" + +"Who owes you any?" asked David. + +"The shopkeeper's wife, who lives behind the city wall." + +"That fat woman who always wears a green sontag?" + +"Yes." + +"How fat she is!--too fat to breathe. She lights plenty of candles in +church, but she won't pay her debts." + +"Oh, she'll pay them--but when? And then, David, I have other +troubles. My father has begun to narrate his dreams; and you know +what trouble he had with his tongue--how he tried to say one word and +uttered another. About his food and things around the house we have +got used to understanding him, but even ordinary people's dreams can't +be understood; and you may judge what his are. He said, 'I am very +glad. I was walking to-day with the white birds, and the Lord +handed me a bouquet, and in the bouquet was Andruscha with a little +knife.'--He always calls my little sister Andruscha.--'Now we shall +both get well: we only need a little knife, and just one cut. That's +the way.' And he pointed to his own throat. I didn't understand +him, but I said, 'All right, father!' but he grew angry and tried to +explain what he meant. At last he burst into tears." + +"Yes, but you ought to have made up something--told him some trifling +lie," I interrupted. + +"I can't lie," answered Raissa, raising her hands. + +True, thought I to myself, _she_ cannot lie. + +"There's no need of lying," said David, "nor is there any need of your +killing yourself in this way. Do you suppose any one will thank you +for it?" + +Raissa looked at him: "What I wanted to ask you, David, was how do you +spell _should_?" + +"What?--_should_?" + +"Yes, for instance, 'Should you like to live?'" + +"Oh!---_s-h-o-u-d_?" + +"No," I interrupted again, "that's not right: not _o-u-d_, but +_o-u-l-d_" + +"Well, it's all the same," said David: "spell it with an _l_. The most +important thing is that you should live yourself." + +"I wish I knew how to spell and write properly," said Raissa, blushing +slightly. + +When she blushed she became at once amazingly pretty. + +"It may be of use. Father in his time wrote a beautiful hand: he +taught me it, too. Now he can hardly scrawl the letters." + +"You must live for me," answered David, lowering his voice and gazing +at her steadily. Raissa looked up quickly and blushed more deeply. +"Live and spell as you please.--The devil! here's that old witch +coming." (By the witch David meant my aunt.) "What brings her this +way? Run off, my dear." + +With one more look at David, Raissa hastened away. + +It was only seldom and with great reluctance that David used to talk +with me about Raissa and her family, especially since he had begun to +expect his father's return. He could think of nothing but him, and how +we should then live. He remembered him clearly, and used to describe +him to me with great satisfaction: "Tall, strong: with one hand he +could lift two hundred pounds. If he called, 'I say, boy!' the whole +house could hear him. And such a man as he is--good and brave! I don't +believe there's anything he's afraid of. We lived pleasantly until our +misfortunes came upon us. They say his hair is become perfectly gray, +but it used to be light red like mine. He's a powerful man." + +David would never agree that we were going to live in Riasan. + +"You'll go away," I used to say, "but I shall stay here." + +"Nonsense! we'll take you with us." + +"And what'll become of my father?" + +"You'll leave him. If you don't, it will be the worse for you." + +"How so?" + +David merely frowned and made no answer. + +"See here: if we go with my father," he resumed, "he will get some +good position: I shall marry--" + +"Not so soon as that?" I interrupted. + +"Why not? I shall marry soon." + +"You?" + +"Yes, I; and why not?" + +"Have you chosen your wife yet?" + +"Of course." + +"And who is it?" + +David smiled: "How stupid you are! Who but Raissa?" + +"Raissa?" I repeated in my amazement. "You're joking." + +"I never make jokes: I don't know how to." + +"But she's a year older than you?" + +"What difference does that make? But we won't talk any more about it." + +"Just one question," I persisted. "Does she know that you want to +marry her?" + +"Probably." + +"But you haven't told her?" + +"What is there to tell her? When the time comes I'll tell her. Now, +that's enough." David rose and left the room. + +When I was alone I thought it over, and, at last came to the +conclusion that David was acting like a wise and practical man, and I +felt a glow of pride at being the friend of such a practical man. +And Raissa in her eternal black woolen dress suddenly seemed to me +charming and deserving of the most devoted affection. + + + + +XV. + + +But still David's father neither came nor wrote. The year advanced; we +were well into the summer; it was near the end of June. We grew tired +of waiting. Meanwhile, rumors grew thick that Latkin was growing +worse, and that his family, as might have been expected, were +starving, and that their hovel might at anytime fall to pieces and +bury them all in its ruins. David's expression altered, and grew so +fierce and gloomy that every one kept away from him. He also began to +go out more frequently. I no longer met Raissa. At times I saw her in +the distance, hastily walking in the street with light, graceful step, +straight as an arrow, her hands folded, with a sad, thoughtful look in +her eyes, and an expression on her pale face--that was all. My aunt, +with Trankwillitatin for an ally, still kept tormenting me, and +perpetually whispered tauntingly in my ear, "Thief! thief!" But I paid +no attention to her, and my father was very busy and kept traveling in +every direction, without knowing what was going on at home. + +Once, as I was going by the well-known apple tree, and more from habit +than intentionally happened to glance at the familiar spot, it seemed +to me suddenly as if the surface of the earth above our treasure +looked different from usual I--as if there were a mound where there +had been a hollow, and as if the place had been disturbed. "What's +the meaning of this?" thought I to myself. "Has any one discovered our +secret and taken the watch?" + +I wanted to make sure with my own eyes. I did not care for the watch, +which was rusting in the damp earth, but I didn't want any one else to +have it. So the next day I got up early, went into the garden equipped +with a knife, found the place beneath the apple tree, and began to +dig. I dug a hole almost a yard deep, when I was convinced that the +watch was gone--that some one had found it, taken it, stolen it. + +But who could have taken it except David? Who else knew where it was? + +I put back the earth and went into the house. I felt aggrieved. +Supposing, I thought, David needs the watch to save his future wife or +her father from starvation--for, say what you will, the watch has some +value--ought he not to have come to me and said, "Brother" (in David's +place I should have certainly said "Brother")--"Brother, I'm in need +of money: you have none, I know, but give me leave to make use of the +watch which we both hid beneath the old apple tree. It's of no use to +any one. I shall be so grateful to you, brother," how gladly I should +have agreed! But to act in this secret, treacherous way, to have no +confidence in one's friend--no passion, no necessity could excuse it. + +I repeat it, I was aggrieved. I began to show a coolness, to sulk; but +David was not one to notice anything of that sort and be disturbed +by it. I began to make references to it, but David did not seem to +understand them. I said in his presence, "How contemptible in my +eyes is the human being who has a friend, and who comprehends all +the significance of that sacred feeling, friendship, and yet is not +magnanimous enough to hold himself aloof from slyness! As if anything +could be hidden!" As I said these last words I smiled contemptuously. +But David paid no attention. At last I asked him directly whether our +watch had run long after we buried it, or whether it had stopped at +once. He answered, "How the deuce should I know? Shall I think the +matter over?" + +I did not know what to think. David doubtless had something on his +mind, but not the theft of the watch. An unexpected incident convinced +me of his innocence. + + + + +XVI. + + +I was once coming home through a narrow little street which I +generally avoided, because on it was the wing of; a building in which +my enemy Trankwillitatin lived, but this time Fate led me that way. As +I was passing beneath the open window of a drinking-house I suddenly +heard the voice of our servant Wassily, a young, careless fellow, a +big good-for-nothing and a rascal, as my father used to call him, but +also a great conqueror of female hearts, which he attacked by his wit, +his skill in dancing and his music. + +"Just hear what they planned between them!" said Wassily, whom I +could not see, though I heard him distinctly: he was probably sitting +drinking tea with a friend close by the window, and, as people in +a closed room often do, spoke loud, without thinking that every +passer-by could hear each word. "What did they plan? They buried it in +the earth." + +"You lie!" said the other voice. + +"I tell you, that's the sort of boy they are, especially that David. +He's a sharp one. At daybreak I rose and went to the window, and I saw +our two little doves go into the garden, carrying the watch, and under +the apple tree they dug a hole, and there they laid it like a baby; +and then they smoothed the earth, the crazy fellows!" + +"The deuce take 'em!" said Wassily's comrade. "Well, what else? You +dug up the watch?" + +"Of course I dug it up: I have it now. Only, I can't show it to you. +There was a dreadful row about it. David had taken it that very night +from his aunt's bed. I tell you, he's a great fellow. So I can't show +it to you. But stop: the officers will soon be back. I'll sell it to +one of them, and lose the money at cards." + +I listened no longer: at full speed I rushed home and went straight +to David. "Brother," I began--"Brother, forgive me! I have done you +a wrong. I have suspected you: I have blamed you. You see how moved I +am: forgive me." + +"What's the matter with you?" asked David: "explain yourself." + +"I suspected that you had dug up our watch from under the apple tree." + +"That watch again! Isn't it there?" + +"It is not there. I thought you'd taken it to help your friends, and +it was that Wassily." + +I told David what I had heard beneath the window. But how describe +my astonishment? I thought David would be vexed, but I could not have +expected what really happened, I had hardly finished my story when +he burst into the most ungovernable rage. David, who held this whole +miserable affair, as he called it, of the watch in utter contempt--the +same David who had assured me more than once that it was not worth an +empty egg-shell--he suddenly sprang up, his face aflame, grinding +his teeth and clenching his fist. "That can't be allowed," he said at +last. "How does he dare to take another's property? I'll give him a +lesson. Only wait: I never forgive a rascal." + +To this day I don't see what made David so angry. Was he already full +of wrath, and had Wassily's conduct only thrown oil on the flame? Was +he vexed at my suspecting him? I cannot say, but I never saw him so +aroused. I stood before him open-mouthed, and only wondered why he +breathed so hard and heavily. + +"What have you decided to do?" I asked finally. + +"You'll see after dinner. I'll find that fellow and I'll have a talk +with him." + +"Well," thought I, "I should not like to be in that fellow's shoes. +What in the world is going to happen?" + +The following happened. As soon as that sleepy, heavy quiet came which +even now falls like a hot feather comforter on a Russian house after +dinner, David went, I following him with a beating heart, into the +servants' hall and called Wassily out. At first he did not want to +come, but finally he concluded to obey and to follow us into the +garden. David stood squarely before him: Wassily was a whole head the +taller. + +"Wassily Tarentiev," began my comrade with a firm voice, "six weeks +ago you took from under this apple tree a watch which we had placed +there. You had no right to do that: it was not yours. Give it to me at +once." + +Wassily was somewhat amazed, but he soon collected himself: "What +watch? What are you talking about? God knows I haven't any watch." + +"I know what I'm saying: don't lie. You have the watch: give it to +me." + +"No. I haven't got your watch." + +"And in the drinking-house you--" I began, but David held me back. + +"Wassily Tarentiev," he said in a low, threatening voice, "we know for +certain that you have the watch. I am in earnest. Give me the watch, +and if you don't give it to me--" + +Wassily sniffed insolently: "And what will you do with me, then?" + +"What? We will both fight with you until you beat us or we beat you." + +Wassily laughed: "Fight? It's not the thing for young gentlemen to +fight with a servant." + +David quickly took hold of Wassily's waistcoat. "True, we are not +going to fight with our fists," he said, grinding his teeth. "Listen! +I shall give you a knife and take one myself, and we shall see +who--Alexis!" he called to me, "go and bring me my large knife: you +know--the one with the bone handle: it is lying on the table. I have +the other in my pocket." + +Wassily nearly fell to the ground. David still held him by the +waistcoat. "Have mercy on me, David," he stammered forth, the tears +coming into his eyes. "What does this mean? What are you doing? Oh, +let me go!" + +"I sha'n't let you go, and you need not expect any mercy. If you're +afraid to-day, we'll try again to-morrow.--Alexis, where's the knife?" + +"David," roared Wassily, "don't commit a murder. What do you mean? And +the watch! Well, I was joking. I--I'll fetch it this minute. What a +fellow you are! First you want to cut open Chrisauf Lukitsch; then me. +Leave me, David. Be good enough to take the watch; only say nothing +about it." + +David let go of Wassily's waistcoat. I looked at his face. Really, +any one would have been frightened, he looked so fierce and cold and +angry. Wassily ran into the house, and at once returned, bringing the +watch. Without a word he gave it to David, and only when he had got +back again to the house he shouted out from the threshold, "Fie! +what a row!" David shook his head and went into our chamber. I still +followed him. "Suwarow, just like Suwarow," I thought to myself. At +that time, in the year 1801, Suwarow was our first national hero. + + + + +XVIII. + + +David closed the door behind him, laid the watch down on the table, +folded his hands, and, strange to say, burst out laughing. I looked at +him and laughed too. "It's a most extraordinary thing," he began: "we +can't get rid of this watch in any way. It's really bewitched. And why +did I suddenly get so angry?" + +"Yes, why?" I repeated. "If you'd left it with Wassily---" + +"No, no," interrupted David: "that would have been foolish. But what +shall we do with it now?" + +"Yes, what shall we?" + +We both looked at the watch and considered, Adorned with a blue string +of pearls (the unhappy Wassily in his terror had not been able to +remove this decoration, which belonged to him), it was going quietly. +It ticked--to be sure somewhat unevenly--and the minute-hand was +slowly advancing. + +"Shall we bury it again, or throw it into the river?" I asked at last. +"Or shall we not give it to Latkin?" + +"No," answered David, "none of those things. But do you know? At +the governor's office there is a committee to receive gifts for the +benefit of those who were burnt out at Kassimow. They say that the +town of Kassimow, with all its churches, has been burned to the +ground; and I hear they receive everything--not merely bread and +money, but all sorts of things. We'll give the watch, eh?" + +"Yes, indeed," I assented. "A capital idea! But I thought since your +friend's family was in need---" + +"No, no--to the committee! The Latkins will pull through without that. +To the committee!" + +"Well, to the committee--yes, to the committee. Only, I suppose we +must write a line to the governor." + +David looked at me: "You suppose?" + +"Yes, of course we must write something. Just a few words." + +"For example?" + +"Well, for example, we might begin, 'Sympathizing,' or, 'Moved by'---" + +"'Moved by' will do very well." + +"And we must add, 'this mite of ours.'" + +"'Mite' is good, too. Now take your pen and sit down and write." + +"First a rough draft," I suggested. + +"Well, first a rough draft; only write. Meanwhile, I'll polish it up a +little with chalk." + +I took a sheet of paper, cut a pen, but had not yet written at the +head of the page, "To his Excellency, to his Highness Prince" (Prince +X---- was the governor of our district), when I started, alarmed by a +strange uproar which suddenly arose in the house. David also noticed +the noise and started, holding the watch in his left hand and the rag +covered with chalk in his right. What was that shrill shriek? It was +my aunt screaming. And that? That is my father's voice, hoarse +with anger. "The watch! the watch!" some one cries, probably +Trankwillitatin. The stamping of feet, the creaking of the stairs, the +rush of the crowd, are all coming straight toward us. I am nearly dead +with fright, and even David is as pale as a sheet, but his eye is as +bold as an eagle's. "That wretched Wassily has betrayed us," he +hisses between his teeth. The door opens wide, and my father in +his dressing-gown, without a cravat, my aunt in a dressing-sack, +Trankwillitatin, Wassily, Juschka, another young fellow, Agapit the +cook, all hustle into the room. + +"You fiends!" cries my father almost breathless, "at last we have +found you out!" And, catching a glimpse of the watch in David's hand, +he cries out, "Give me the watch--give it to me!" + +But David without a word springs to the open window, from that into +the yard, and thence into the street. Since I always, in everything I +do, follow my model, also jump from the window and run after David. + +"Stop them! hold them!" confused voices cry after us. + +But we tear along the street, bareheaded, David in front, I a few +steps behind, and in the distance we hear the clatter of their feet +and their cries. + + + + +XIX. + + +Many years have passed since this happened, and I have often thought +it over, and to this day I cannot comprehend the fury which possessed +my father, who not long before had forbidden any one's speaking about +the watch because it bored him, any more than I can David's wrath when +he heard that Wassily had taken it. I can't help thinking it had some +mysterious power. Wassily had not told about us, as David supposed--he +did not want to do that, he had been too badly frightened--but one +of the servant-girls had seen the watch in his hands and had told my +aunt. Then all the fat was in the fire. + +So we ran along the street in the carriage-way. The people who met us +stood still or got out of our way, without knowing what was going +on. I remember an old retired major, who was a great hunter, suddenly +appeared at his window, and, his face crimson, leaning halfway out, he +cried aloud, "Tally ho!" as if he were at a chase. "Stop them!" they +kept crying behind us. David ran, swinging the watch over his head, +only seldom jumping: I also jumped at the same places. + +"Where?" I cried to David, seeing him turn from the street into a +little lane, into which I also turned. + +"To the Oka," he answered. "Into the water with it! into the river!" +"Stop! stop!" they roared behind us. But we were already running along +the lane. A puff of cool air meets us, and there is the river, and the +dirty steep bank, and the wooden bridge with a long train of wagons, +and the sentinel armed with a pike stands at the toll-gate. In those +days the soldiers used to carry pikes. David is already on the bridge: +he dashes by the sentinel, who tries to trip him up with his pike, +and instead hits a calf coming the other way. David jumps on the rail, +utters a great cry, and something white and something blue flash and +sparkle through the air: they are the silver watch and Wassily's +row of pearls flying into the water. But then something incredible +happens. After the watch fly David's feet and his whole body, head +downward, hands foremost: his coat, flying in the air, describes a +curve through the air--in hot days frightened frogs jump just that way +from a height into the water--and disappears over the railing of the +bridge, and then, flash! and a great shower of water is dashed up from +below. What I did I am sure I do not know. I was only a few steps from +David when he sprang from the railing, but I can't remember whether +I cried out. I don't think I was even frightened: it was as if I had +been struck by lightning. I lost all consciousness: my hands and feet +were powerless. People ran and pushed by me: some of them it seemed as +if I knew. Suddenly Trofimytsch appeared. The sentinel ran off to one +side: the horses walked hastily over the bridge, their heads in the +air. Then everything grew green, and some one was beating my neck +and down my back. I had fainted. I remember that I rose, and when +I noticed that no one was paying any attention to me, I went to the +railing, but not on the side from which David had jumped--to go there +seemed to me terrible--but to the other side, and looked down into the +blue, swollen stream. I remember noticing by the shore, not far from +the bridge, a boat was lying, and in the boat were some people, and +one of them, all wet and glistening in the sun, leaned over the side +of the boat and pulled something out of the water--something not very +large--a long, dark thing, which I at first took for a trunk or a +basket; but on looking more carefully I made out that this thing was +David. Then I began to tremble: I cried out as loud as I could, and +ran toward the boat, forcing my way through the crowd. But as I came +near I lost my courage and began to look behind me. Among the people +standing about I recognized Trankwillitatin, the cook Agapit with a +boot in his hand, Juschka, Wassily. The wet man was lifting David out +of the boat. Both of David's hands were raised as high as his face, as +if he wanted to protect himself from strangers' eyes. He was laid on +his back in the mud on the shore. He did not move. Perfectly straight, +like a soldier on parade, with his heels together and his chest out. +His face had a greenish hue, his eyes were closed, and the water was +dripping from his hair. The man who had pulled him out was, judging +from his dress, a mill-hand: shivering with cold and perpetually +brushing his hair from his brow, he began to tell us how he had +succeeded. He spoke slowly and clearly: "You see, gentlemen, how it +was. As this young man falls from the bridge, well, I run down stream, +for I know if he has fallen into the current it will carry him under +the bridge; and then I see something--what is it?--something like a +rough cap is floating down: it's his head. Well, I jump into the water +and take hold of him: there's nothing remarkable in that." + +I could hear scattered remarks of the crowd. "You must warm yourself: +we'll take something hot together," said some one. + +Then some one forces his way to the front--it is Wassily. "What are +you all doing here?" he cries piteously. "We must bring him to life. +He's our young master." + +"Bring him to life! bring him to life!" is heard in the ever-growing +crowd. + +"We must hold him up by the feet." + +"Hold him up by the feet! That's the best thing." + +"And roll him up and down on a barrel until---Here, take hold of him." + +"Don't touch him," the sentinel interrupts: "he must go to the +guard-house." + +"Nonsense!" is heard in Trofimytsch's deep bass, no one knows whence. + +"But he's alive!" I cried suddenly, almost alarmed. + +I had put my face near his. I was thinking, "That's the way drowned +people look," and my heart was near breaking, when all at once I saw +David's lips quiver and some water flowing from them. Immediately I +was shoved away and everybody crowded about him. "Swing him I swing +him!" some cry. + +"No, no, don't!" cried Wassily: "take him home." + +"Take him home," even Trankwillitatin cried. + +"He'll be there in a moment: then he'll be better," continued Wassily. +(I loved him from that day.) "Friends, is there no mat there? If not, +I'll take him by the head and some one else by the heels." + +"Hold on! here's a mat: lay him on it. All right: it's as comfortable +as a carriage." + +And a few minutes later, David, lying on a litter, made his entrance +into the house. + + + + +XX. + + +He was undressed and put into bed. Already, while carried through the +street, he had given signs of life, sighing and moving his hands: in +his chamber he came to full consciousness. But as soon as he was out +of danger and was no longer in need of their care, dissatisfaction +asserted itself. Every one withdrew from him as from a leper. "May +Heaven punish him, the red-headed devil!" roared my aunt through the +whole house. "Send him away somewhere, Porphyr Petrovitch, or he'll be +the ruin of you yet." + +"He is indeed a viper, and the devil is in him," added Trankwillitatin +sympathetically. + +"And such viciousness!" shouted my aunt, passing close by our door, so +that David could not help hearing her. "First he stole the watch, and +then into the water with it, so that no one should have it. Yes, yes, +redhead!" + +"David," asked I as soon as we were alone, "why did you do that?" + +"And you too!" he answered, still with a feeble voice. His lips were +blue, and he looked all puffed up. "What did I do?" + +"Why did you jump into the water?" + +"Jump? I couldn't stand on the railing, that's all. If I had known how +to swim--if I had jumped on purpose--I shall learn at once. But the +watch is gone." + +But my father entered the room with a solemn step. "As for you, my +young sir," he said to me, "you can expect a sound thrashing, even if +you are too big for me to take you across my knee." Then he walked up +to the bed on which David lay, "In Siberia," he began in an earnest +and serious tone--"in Siberia, in the house of correction, in the +mines, live and die people who are less guilty, who are less criminal, +than you. Are you a suicide, or only a thief, or a perfect fool? Just +tell me that, if you please." + +"I am neither a suicide nor a thief," answered David, "but what is +true is true: in Siberia there are good people, better than you and I. +Who knows that better than you do?" + +My father uttered a little cry, took a step back, looked at David, +spat on the floor, crossed himself and went out. + +"Didn't you like that?" asked David, sticking out his tongue. Then he +tried to rise, but he was still too weak. "I must have hit something," +he said, groaning and frowning. "I remember the current carried me +against a pier.--Have you seen Raissa?" he asked suddenly. + +"No I have not seen her. Stop! I remember now. Wasn't she standing on +the shore near the bridge? Yes--a black dress, a yellow handkerchief +on her head--that was she." + +"Well, you did see her?" + +"I don't know. After that--I--you jumped in then." + +David became restless: "Alexis, my dear friend, go to her at once: +tell her I'm well--that there's nothing the matter. To-morrow I'll go +and see hen Go at once, please, to oblige me." He stretched out +both arms toward me. His red hair had dried into all sorts of funny +ringlets, but his look of entreaty was only the more genuine. I took +my hat and left the house, trying to avoid my father's eye lest I +should remind him of his promise. + + + + +XXI. + + +And indeed I thought on my way to the Latkins how it was possible that +I did not notice Raissa. Where had she disappeared to? She must have +seen--Suddenly I remembered that at the very moment David was falling +a heartrending shriek had sounded in my ears. Was it not she? But +in that case why did I not see her? Before the hovel in which Latkin +lived was an empty space covered with nettles and surrounded by a +broken, tottering fence. I had hardly got over this fence--for there +was no gate or entrance--before my eyes were greeted with this sight: +On the lowest step in front of the house sat Raissa, her elbows on +her knees and holding her chin in her folded hands: she was looking +straight out into vacancy. Near her stood her little dumb sister, +playing quietly with a whip, and before the steps, with his back to +me, was Latkin in a shabby, torn jacket, his feet in felt slippers, +bending over her and brandishing his elbows and stalking about. When +he heard my steps he turned round, leant down on the tips of his toes, +and then suddenly sprang at me and began to speak with unusual speed +in a quivering voice and with an incessant "Choo, choo, choo!" I was +amazed. It was long since I had seen him, and I should scarcely +have known him if I had met him anywhere else. This wrinkled, red, +toothless face, these small, round, dull eyes, this tangled gray hair, +these contortions and motions, this senseless, wandering talk,--what +does it all mean? What cruel suffering torments this unhappy being? +What a dance of death is this! + +"Choo, choo, choo," he muttered, bending over continually: "see them, +the Wassilievna--she's just come, with a trou--a trough on the roof" +(he struck his head with his hand), "and she sits there like a shovel, +and cross, cross as Andruscha, the cross Wassilievna" (he meant, +probably, "mute"). "Choo; my cross Wassilievna! Now they are both on +one last--just see her! I have only these two doctors." + +Latkin was evidently aware that he was not saying what he meant, and +he made every effort to explain matters to me. Raissa, apparently, did +not hear what he was saying, and her little sister went on snapping +her whip. My head grew confused. "What does it all mean?" I asked of +an old woman who was looking out of the window of the house. + +"What does it mean, sir?" answered she in a sing-song voice. "They say +some one--Heaven knows who it was--tried to drown himself, and she saw +him. That frightened her, but she managed to get home: no one noticed +anything strange, and she sat down there on the threshold, and since +then she's sat there like an image, whether one speaks to her or not. +It's as if she had no tongue." + +"Good-bye! good-bye!" repeated Latkin, still with the same gestures. + +I walked to Raissa and stood just before her. "Raissa," I cried, "what +is the matter?" + +She made no answer: it was as if she had not heard me. Her face was no +paler, nor in any way different, except that it had a stony look and +an expression of slight fatigue. + +"She is cross too," Latkin whispered to me. + +I took Raissa by the hand. "David is alive." I cried louder than +before--"alive and unhurt. David is alive: do you understand? They +have taken him out of the water, he is now at home, and he has sent +word that he will come to-morrow to see you. He is alive." + +Raissa turned her eyes toward me slowly, as if it hurt her: she winked +them two or three times, opened them wider: then she turned her head +to one side, flushed suddenly, parted her lips, drew a full breath, +frowned as if from pain and with great effort, bringing out the words, +"Da--Dav--is--al--alive," and rose hastily from the steps and rushed +away. + +"Where are you going?" I inquired. + +But, laughing gently, she flew over the ground. I of course hastened +after her, while behind us was a sound of voices--the aged one that +of Latkin, and the childish cry that of the deaf mute. Raissa went +straight to our house. + +"What a day this has been!" I thought to myself as I tried to keep up +with the black dress that flew along in front of me. + +Raissa ran past Wassily, my aunt, and even Trankwilhtatin, into the +room in which David was lying, and threw herself on his breast. "Oh, +oh, David!" came her voice forth from under her loosened hair. +And raising his arms he embraced her and let his head rest on her +shoulder. + +"Forgive me, dear," I heard him say, and both nearly died with joy. + +"But why did you go home, Raissa? Why didn't you wait?" I asked. She +still did not raise her head. "You might have seen that he was saved." + +"Oh, I don't know, I don't know: don't ask me. I don't know: I can't +recall how I got home. I only remember I was looking into the air, and +a blow hit me; but that was--" + +"A blow?" repeated David, and we all three burst out laughing, for we +were very happy. + +"But what's going on here?" roared a threatening voice behind us, +the voice of my father. He was standing in the doorway. "Will these +monkey-tricks come to an end or not? Where are we living? In the +Russian empire or in the French republic?" He came into the room. "Let +any one who is turbulent and vicious begone to France.--And how do +you dare to enter here?" he asked of Raissa, who, rising a little +and turning her face toward him, was evidently alarmed, although she +continued to smile gently. "The daughter of my sworn enemy! How have +you dared? And to embrace him too! Away with you at once, or--" + +"Uncle," said David, raising himself in bed, "don't insult Raissa: she +will go, but don't insult her." + +"Will you order me about? I am not insulting her, I'm not _insulting_ +her: I merely order her out of the house. I shall yet call you to +account. You have made away with another's property: you have laid +violent hands upon yourself; you have damaged--" + +"What have I damaged?" interrupted David. + +"What have you damaged? You have ruined your clothes: do you consider +that nothing? I had to give money to the people who brought you here. +You frightened the whole family, and you still put on your airs. And +this girl, who has lost all sense of shame and honor--" + +David tried to spring from the bed: "Don't you insult her, I tell +you." + +"Silence!" + +"Don't you dare--" + +"Silence!" + + +"Don't you dare to insult the woman I am going to marry, my future +wife," cried David with all his might. + +"Going to marry! your wife!" repeated my father, his eyes rolling. +"Your wife! ho! ho! ho!" ("Ha! ha! ha!" echoed my aunt outside the +door.) "How old are you? A year less one week has he been in this +world--he's hardly weaned yet--and he wants to get married! I shall--" + +"Let me go! let me go!" whispered Raissa, turning to the door. + +"I shall not ask your permission," shouted David, supporting himself +on his hands, "but my own father's, who will be back to-day or +to-morrow. He can command me, not you; and as for my age, both Raissa +and I can wait. You can say what you please: we shall wait." + +"David, think a moment," interrupted my father: "take care what you +say. You are beside yourself: you have forgotten all respect." + +David grasped his shirt where it lay across his breast. "Whatever you +may say," he repeated. + +"Stop his mouth, Porphyr Petrovitch--silence him!" hissed my aunt from +the door; "and as for this baggage, this--" + +But something strange cut my aunt's eloquence short: her voice became +suddenly silent, and in its place was heard another, weak and hoarse +from age. "Brother!" exclaimed this weak voice--"Christian souls!" + + + + +XXIII. + + +We all turned round. Before us, in the same dress in which I had just +seen him, stood Latkin, looking like a ghost, thin, haggard and sad. +"God," he said in a somewhat childish way, raising his trembling, bent +figure and gazing feebly at my father--"God has punished, and I have +come for Wa--for Ra--yes, yes, for Raissa. What--choo--what ails +me? Soon I shall be laid--what do you call that thing? a +staff--straight--and that other thing?--a prop. That's all I need, and +you, brother jeweler, see: I too am a man." + +Raissa crossed the room without a word, and while she supported her +father she buttoned his jacket. + +"Let us go, Wassilievna," he said. "All here are saints: don't go near +them; and he who lies there in a case," pointing to David, "is also +a saint. But we, brother, you and I, are sinners. Choo, gentlemen: +excuse an old, broken-down man. We have stolen together," he cried +suddenly--"stolen together, stolen together," he repeated with evident +joy: at last he had control of his tongue. + +All of us in the room were silent. "But where is your picture of the +saints?" he inquired, gazing about: "we must cleanse ourselves." + +In one corner he began to pray, crossing himself humbly, so that he +touched first one shoulder, then another. "Have mercy, Lord! on my, +on my--" My father, who had watched closely without speaking a word, +suddenly started, came near him, and began to cross himself. Then he +turned and bowed so low that his hand nearly touched the floor, and +said, "Do you also forgive me, Martinian Gavrilitsch," and he kissed +his shoulder. Latkin answered by kissing in the air and winking his +eyes: he evidently hardly knew what he was doing. Then my father +turned to all who were in the room--to David, Raissa and me. "Do what +you please, do whatever you think you may," he said in a low, sad +voice, and he left the room, completely broken down. + +"Lord my! Lord my! have mercy on me!" repeated Latkin. "I am a man." + +"Good-bye, David," said Raissa, leaving the room with her father. + +"I'll be with you to-morrow," shouted David after her; and turning his +face to the wall he muttered, "I am very tired: I should like to go to +sleep;" and he became quiet. + +For a long time I lingered there. I could not forget my father's +threat. But my fears proved groundless. He met me, but he uttered no +word. He too seemed uncomfortable. Besides, it soon was night and all +in the house went to rest. + + + + +XXIV. + + +The next day David got up as if nothing had happened, and not long +afterward, on one and the same day, two important events took place: +in the morning died the old Latkin, Raissa's father, and in the +evening Jegor, David's father, arrived. Since he had not sent any +letter or told any one, he took us all by surprise. My father exerted +himself actively to give him a warm reception. He flew about as if he +were crazy, and was as attentive as if he owed him money. But all his +brother's efforts seemed to leave my uncle cold: he kept saying, "Why +do you do that?" or, "I don't need anything." He was even cooler with +my aunt; besides, he paid very little attention to her. In her eyes +he was an atheist, a heretic, a Voltairian (in fact, he had learned +French in order to read Voltaire in the original). I found Uncle Jegor +as David had described him. He was a large, heavy man, with a broad, +pock-marked face, grave and serious. He always wore a hat with a +feather in it, frills and ruffles, and a tobacco-colored jacket, with +a steel sword by his side. David took a great deal of pleasure in him: +he even grew more cheerful and better-looking, and his eyes changed: +they became merry, quick and brilliant. But he always tried to +moderate his joy and not to give it expression: he was afraid of +appearing weak. The first evening after my uncle's return they two, +father and son, shut themselves! up in a separate room and talked +together in a low voice for a long time. The next morning I noticed +that my uncle looked at David with great confidence and affection: he +appeared very well pleased with him. David carried; him to Latkin's +funeral services at the church. I also went: my father made no +objection, but he remained at home. Raissa's calm surprised me: she +had grown pale and thin, but she shed no tears, and her words and +actions were very simple. In everything she did I noticed, strangely +enough, a certain majesty--the majesty of grief, which forgets itself. +At the entrance of the church Uncle Jegor was introduced to her. It +was evident from his manner that David had spoken to him of her. She +pleased him as much as did his son. I could see that in David's face +when I next looked at it. I remember how it glowed when his father +said of her in his presence, "She's an intelligent girl: she will be +a good housewife." At Latkin's house they told me that the old man +had gone quietly, like a burned-out taper, and that so long as he had +strength and consciousness he had stroked his daughter's hair, +had said something unintelligible, but not sad, and had smiled +continually. At the burial my father went to the church and to the +graveyard. + +Even Trankwillitatin sang in the choir. At the grave' Raissa burst +suddenly into sobs and threw herself, face downward, on the ground, +but she rose immediately. Her little sister, the deaf mute, looked at +everything with great, bright, somewhat dull eyes: from time to time +she drew near Raissa, but she did not seem at all afraid. The second +day after the funeral, Uncle Jegor, who, apparently, had not come back +from Siberia empty-handed (he had paid all the funeral expenses and +given David's preserver a generous reward)--who had said nothing of +his life there nor of his plans for the future--Uncle Jegor, I say, +said to my father that he had determined not to stay in Riasan, but +to go with his son to Moscow. My father politely expressed his regret, +and even tried, though very gently, to alter my uncle's decision, but +in the depths of his soul I fancy he was very glad. The presence +of his brother--with whom he had too little in common, who had not +honored him with even a single reproach, who did not even despise him, +who simply took no pleasure in him--was wearisome to him, and parting +from David gave him no especial uneasiness. This separation, of +course, nearly broke my heart: at first I was really bereaved, and I +felt as if I had lost every comfort and joy in life. + +So my uncle went off and took with him not only David, but, to our +great surprise, and even to the great dissatisfaction of our street, +Raissa and her little sister. When my aunt heard of this she called +him a Turk, and a Turk she called him till her death. + +And I was left alone, alone, but it makes no difference about me. + + + + +XXV. + + +That is the end of my story about the watch. What shall I add to it? +Five years later David married "Little Black-lip," and in the year +1812 he died, a lieutenant in the artillery, the death of a hero at +the battle of Borodino, defending the redoubt of Schewardino. Since +then a great deal of water has run into the sea, and I have had many +watches: I have even been so magnificent as to have a real Breguet +repeater with second-hand and the day of the month. But in the secret +drawer of my desk lies an old silver watch with a rose on the case: I +bought it of a Jew peddler, struck by its resemblance to the watch my +godfather gave me. From time to time, when I am alone and expect no +visitor, I take it out of its case, and when I look at it I think +of my youth and the companions of those days which are gone never to +return. + + + + +TRANSLATIONS FROM HEINE. + + + I.--CHILDE HAROLD. + + Lo, a large, black-shrouded barge + Sadly moves with sails outspread, + And mute creatures' muffled features + Hold grim watch above the dead. + + Calm below it lies the poet, + With his fair face bare and white, + Still with yearning ever turning + Azure eyes toward heaven's light. + + As he saileth, sadly waileth + Some bereaven Undine bride: + O'er the springing waves outringing, + Hark! a dirge floats far and wide. + + + II.--SPRING FESTIVAL. + + This is the springtide's mournful feast: + The frantic troops of blooming girls + Are rushing hither with flying curls: + Moaning they smite their bare white breast, + Adonis! Adonis! + + The night hath come. By the torches' gleams + They search the forest on every side, + That echoes with anguish far and wide, + With tears, mad laughter, and sobs and screams, + Adonis! Adonis! + + The mortal youth, so strangely fair, + Lies on the cold turf pale and dead: + His heart's blood staineth the flowers red, + And a wild lament fulfills the air, + Adonis! Adonis! + +EMMA LAZARUS. + + + + +LETTERS FROM SOUTH AFRICA. + +BY LADY BARKER. + + +D'URBAN, January 3, 1876. + +I must certainly begin this letter by setting aside every other +topic for the moment and telling you of our grand event, our national +celebration, our historical New Year's Day. We have "turned the first +sod" of our first inland railway, and, if I am correctly informed, at +least a dozen sods more, but you must remember, if you please, that +our navvies are Kafirs, and that they do _not_ understand what Mr. +Carlyle calls the beauty and dignity of labor in the least. It is +all very well for you conceited dwellers in the Old and New Worlds to +laugh at us for making such a fuss about a projected hundred miles of +railway--you whose countries are made into dissected maps by the magic +iron lines--but for poor us, who have to drag every pound of sugar and +reel of sewing-cotton over some sixty miles of vile road between this +and Maritzburg, such a line, if it be ever finished, will be a boon +and a blessing indeed. + +I think I can better make you understand _how_ great a blessing if +I describe my journeys up and down--journeys made, too, under +exceptionally favorable circumstances. The first thing which had to +be done, some three weeks before the day of our departure, was to +pack and send down by wagon a couple of portmanteaus with our smart +clothes. I may as well mention here that the cost of the transit +came to fourteen shillings each way for three or four small, light +packages, and that on each occasion we were separated from our +possessions for a fortnight or more. The next step to be taken was to +secure places in the daily post-cart, and it required as much mingled +firmness and persuasion to do this as though it had reference to +a political crisis. But then there were some hundreds of us +Maritzburgians all wanting to be taken down to D'Urban within the +space of a few days, and there was nothing to take us except the open +post-cart, which occupied six hours on the journey, and an omnibus, +which took ten hours, but afforded more shelter from possible rain and +probable sun. Within the two vehicles some twenty people might, at a +pinch, find places, and at least a hundred wanted to go every day of +that last week of the old year. I don't know how the others managed: +they must have got down somehow, for there they were in great force +when the eventful day had arrived. + +This first journey was prosperous, deceitfully prosperous, as though +it would fain try to persuade us that after all there was a great deal +to be said in favor of a mode of traveling which reminded one of the +legends of the glories of the old coaching days. No dust--for there +had been heavy rain a few days before--a perfect summer's day, hot +enough in the sun, but not disagreeably hot as we bowled along, fast +as four horses could go, in the face of a soft, balmy summer breeze. +We were packed as tightly as we could fit--two of us on the coach-box, +with the mail-bags under our feet and the driver's elbows in our ribs. +The ordinary light dog-cart which daily runs between Maritzburg and +D'Urban was exchanged for a sort of open break, strong indeed, but +very heavy, one would fancy, for the poor horses, who had to scamper +along up and down veldt and berg, over bog and spruit, with this +lumbering conveyance at their heels. Not for long, though: every seven +miles, or even less, we pulled up--sometimes at a tidy inn, where a +long table would be set in the open verandah laden with eatables +(for driving fast through the air sharpens even the sturdy colonial +appetite), sometimes at a lonely shanty by the roadside, from whence +a couple of Kafir lads emerged tugging at the bridles of the fresh +horses. But I am bound to say that although each of these teams did +a stage twice a day, although they were ill-favored and ill-groomed, +their harness shabby beyond description, and their general appearance +most forlorn, they were one and all in good condition and did their +work in first-rate style. The wheelers were generally large, gaunt and +most hideous animals, but the leaders often were ponies who, one could +imagine, under happier circumstances might be handsome little horses +enough, staunch and willing to the last degree. They knew their +driver's cheery voice as well as possible, and answered to every cry +and shout of encouragement he gave them as we scampered along. Of +course, each horse had its name, and equally of course "Sir Garnet" +was there in a team with "Lord Gifford" and "Lord Carnarvon" for +leaders. Did we come to a steep hillside, up which any respectable +English horse would certainly expect to walk in a leisurely, sober +fashion, then our driver shook out his reins, blew a ringing blast +on his bugle, and cried, "Walk along, Lord Gifford! think as you've +another Victoriar Cross to get top o' this hill! Walk along, Lord +Carnarvon! you ain't sitting in a cab'net council _here_, you know. +Don't leave Sir Garnet do all the work, you know. Forward, my lucky +lads! creep up it!" and by the time he had shrieked out this and a +lot more patter, behold! we were at the top of the hill, and a fresh, +lovely landscape was lying smiling in the sunshine below us. It was +a beautiful country we passed through, but, except for a scattered +homestead here and there by the roadside, not a sign of a human +dwelling on all its green and fertile slopes. How the railway is to +drag itself up and round all those thousand and one spurs running into +each other, with no distinct valley or flat between, is best known to +the engineers and surveyors, who have declared it practicable. To the +non-professional eye it seems not only difficult, but impossible. But +oh how it is wanted! All along the road shrill bugle-blasts warned the +slow, trailing ox-wagons, with their naked "forelooper" at their head, +to creep aside out of our way, I counted one hundred and twenty wagons +that day on fifty miles of road. Now, if one considers that each of +these wagons is drawn by a span of some thirty or forty oxen, one has +some faint idea of how such a method of transport must waste and use +up the material of the country. Something like ten thousand oxen toil +over this one road summer and winter, and what wonder is it not only +that merchandise costs more to fetch up from D'Urban to Maritzburg +than it does to bring it out from England, but that beef is dear and +bad! As transport pays better than farming, we hear on all sides of +farms thrown out of cultivation, and as a necessary consequence milk, +butter, and so forth are scarce and poor, and in the neighborhood of +Maritzburg, at least, it is esteemed a favor to let you have either at +exorbitant prices and of most inferior quality. When one looks round +at these countless acres of splendid grazing-land, making a sort of +natural park on either hand, it seems like a bad dream to know that we +have constantly to use preserved milk and potted meat as being cheaper +and easier to procure than fresh. + +No one was in any mood, however, to discuss political economy that +beautiful day, and we laughed and chatted, and ate a great many +luncheons, chiefly of tea and peaches, all the way along. Our driver +enlivened the route by pointing out various spots where frightful +accidents had occurred to the post-cart on former occasions: "You see +that big stone? Well, it war jest there that Langabilile and Colenso, +they takes the bits in their teeth, those 'osses do, and they sets off +their own pace and their own way. Jim Stanway, he puts his brake down +hard and his foot upon the reins, but, Lord love you! them beasts +would ha' pulled his arms and legs both off afore they'd give in. So +they runs poor Jim's near wheel right up agin that bank and upsets the +whole concern, as neat as needs be, over agin that bit o' bog. Anybody +hurt? Well, yes: they was all what you might call shook. Mr. Bell, he +had his arm broke, and a foreign chap from the diamond-fields, he gets +killed outright, and Jim himself had his head cut open. It was a bad +business, you bet, and rough upon Jim. Ja!" + +All the driver's conversation is interlarded with "Ja," but he never +says a worse word than that, and he drinks nothing but tea. As for +a pipe, or a cigar even, when it is offered to him he screws up his +queer face into a droll grimace and says, "No--thanks. I want all +my nerves, I do, on this bit of road.--Walk along, Lady Barker: I'm +ashamed of you, I am, hanging your head like that at a bit of a hill!" +It was rather startling to hear this apostrophe all of a sudden, but +as my namesake was a very hard-working little brown mare, I could only +laugh and declare myself much flattered. + +Here we are at last, amid the tropical vegetation which makes a green +and tangled girdle around D'Urban for a dozen miles inland: yonder is +the white and foaming line of breakers which marks where the strong +current, sweeping down the east coast, brings along with it all the +sand and silt it can collect, especially from the mouth of the Umgeni +River close by, and so forms the dreaded bar, which divides the +outer from the inner harbor. Beyond this crisp and sparkling line of +heaving, tossing snow stretches the deep indigo-blue of the Indian +Ocean, whilst over all wonderful sunset tints of opal and flame-color +are hovering and changing with the changing, wind-driven clouds. +Beneath our wheels are many inches of thick white sand, but the +streets are gay and busy, with picturesque coolies in their bright +cotton draperies and swiftly-passing Cape carts and vehicles of all +sorts. We are in D'Urban indeed--D'Urban in unwonted holiday dress and +on the tippest tiptoe of expectation and excitement. A Cape cart, with +a Chinese coolie driver, and four horses apparently put in harness +together for the first time, was waiting for us and our luggage at the +post-office. We got into it, and straight-way began to plunge through +the sandy streets once more, turning off the high-road and beginning +almost immediately to climb with pain and difficulty the red sandy +slopes of the Berea, a beautiful wooded upland dotted with villas. The +road is terrible for man and beast, and we had to stop every few yards +to breathe the horses. At last our destination is reached, through +fields of sugar-cane and plantations of coffee, past luxuriant fruit +trees, rustling, broad-leafed bananas and encroaching greenery of +all sorts, to a clearing where a really handsome house stands, with +hospitable, wide-open doors, awaiting us. Yes, a good big bath first, +then a cup of tea, and now we are ready for a saunter in the twilight +on the wide level terrace (called by the ugly Dutch name "stoop") +which runs round three sides of the house. How green and fragrant and +still it all is! Straight-way the glare of the long sunny day, the +rattle and jolting of the post-cart, the toil through the sand, all +slip away from mind and memory, and the tranquil delicious present, +"with its-odors of rest and of love," slips in to soothe and calm our +jaded senses. Certainly, it is hotter here than in Maritzburg--that +assertion we are prepared to die in defence of--but we acknowledge +that the heat at this hour is _not_ oppressive, and the tropical +luxuriance of leaf and flower all around is worth a few extra degrees +of temperature. Of course, our talk is of to-morrow, and we look +anxiously at the purpling clouds to the west. + +"A fine day," says our host; and so it ought to be with five thousand +people come from far and wide to see the sight. Why, that is more +than a quarter of the entire white population of Natal! Bed and sleep +become very attractive suggestions, though made indecently soon after +dinner, and it is somewhere about ten o'clock when they are carried +out, and, like Lord Houghton's famous "fair little girl," we + + Know nothing more till again it is day. + +A fine day, too, is this same New Year's Day of 1876--a glorious +day--sunny of course, but with a delicious breeze stealing among the +flowers and shrubs in capricious puffs, and snatching a differing +scent from each heavy cluster of blossom it visits. By mid-day F---- +has got himself into his gold-laced coat and has lined the inside of +his cocked hat with plaintain-leaves. + +He has also groaned much at the idea of substituting this futile +head-gear for his hideous but convenient pith helmet. I too have +donned my best gown, and am horrified to find how much a smart bonnet +(the first time I have needed to wear one since I left England) sets +off and brings out the shades of tan in a sun-browned face; and for +a moment I too entertain the idea of retreating once more to the +protecting depths of my old shady hat. But a strong conviction of the +duty one owes to a "first sod," and the consoling reflection that, +after all, everybody will be equally brown (a fallacy, by the way: +the D'Urban beauties looked very blanched by this summer weather), +supported me, and I followed F---- and his cocked hat into the waiting +carriage. + +No need to ask, "Where are we to go?" All roads lead to the first +sod to-day. We are just a moment late: F---- has to get out of the +carriage and plunge into the sand, madly rushing off to find and fall +into his place in the procession, and we turn off to secure our seats +in the grand stand. But before we take them I must go and look at +the wheelbarrow and spade, and above all at the "first sod." For some +weeks past it has been a favorite chaff with us Maritzburgians to +offer to bring a nice fresh, lively sod down with us, but we were +assured D'Urban could furnish one. Here it is exactly under the +triumphal arch, looking very faded and depressed, with a little +sunburned grass growing feebly on it, but still a genuine sod and no +mistake. The wheelbarrow was really beautiful, made of native woods +with their astounding names. All three specimens of the hardest and +handsomest yellow woods were there, and they were described to me as, +"stink-wood, breeze-wood and sneeze-wood." The rich yellow of the wood +is veined by handsome dark streaks, with "1876" inlaid in large black +figures in the centre. The spade was just a common spade, and could +not by any possibility be called anything else. But there is no time +to linger and laugh any longer beneath all these fluttering streamers +and waving boughs, for here are the Natal Carbineers, a plucky little +handful of light horse clad in blue and silver, who have marched, at +their own charges, all the way down from Maritzburg to help keep the +ground this fine New Year's Day. Next come a strong body of Kafir +police, trudging along through the dust with odd shuffling gait, +bended knees, bare legs, bodies leaning forward, and keeping step and +time by means of a queer sort of barbaric hum and grunt. Policemen +are no more necessary than my best bonnet: they are only there for the +same reason--for the honor and glory of the thing. The crowd is kept +in order by somebody here and there with a ribboned wand, for it is +the most orderly and respectable crowd you ever saw. In fact, such +a crowd would be an impossibility in England or any highly-civilized +country. There are no dodging vagrants, no slatternly women, no +squalid, starving babies. In fact, our civilization has not yet +mounted to effervescence, so we have no dregs. Every white person on +the ground was well clad, well fed, and apparently well-to-do. The +"lower orders" were represented by a bright fringe of coolies and +Kafirs, sleek, grinning and as fat as ortolans, especially the babies. +Most of the Kafirs were dressed in snow-white knickerbockers and +shirts bordered by gay bands of color, with fillets of scarlet ribbon +tied round their heads, while as for the coolies, they shone out like +a shifting bed of tulips, so bright were the women's _chuddahs_ and +the men's jackets. All looked smiling, healthy and happy, and the +public enthusiasm rose to its height when to the sound of a vigorous +band (it is early yet in the day, remember, O flute and trombone!) a +perfect liliputian mob of toddling children came on the ground. These +little people were all in their cleanest white frocks and prettiest +hats: they clung to each other and to their garlands and staves of +flowers until the tangled mob reminded one of a May-Day fete. Not that +any English May Day of my acquaintance could produce such a lavish +profusion of roses and buds and blossoms of every hue and tint, to +say nothing of such a sun and sky. The children's corner was literally +like a garden, and nothing could be prettier than the effect of their +little voices shrilling up through the summer air, as, obedient to a +lifted wand, they burst into the chorus of the national anthem when +the governor and mayor drove up. Cheers from white throats; gruff, +loud shouts all together of _Bayete!_ (the royal salute) and _Inkosi!_ +("chieftain") from black throats; yells, expressive of excitement and +general good-fellowship, from throats of all colors. Then a moment's +solemn pause, a hushed silence, bared heads, and the loud, clear tones +of a very old pastor in the land were heard imploring the blessing of +Almighty God on this our undertaking, Again the sweet childish trebles +rose into the sunshine in a chanted Amen, and then there were salutes +from cannon, feux-de-joie from carbines, and more shoutings, and all +the cocked hats were to be seen bowing; and then one more tremendous +burst of cheering told that _the_ sod was cut and turned and trundled, +and finally pitched out of the new barrow back again upon the dusty +soil--all in the most artistic and satisfactory fashion. "There are +the Kafir navvies: they are _really_ going to work now." (This latter +with great surprise, for a Kafir _really_ working, now or ever, +would indeed have been the raree-show of the day.) But this natural +phenomenon was left to develop itself in solitude, for the crowd began +to reassemble into processions, and generally to find its way under +shelter from sun and dust. The five hundred children were heralded +and marched off to the tune of one of their own pretty hymns to where +unlimited buns and tea awaited them, and we elders betook ourselves to +the grateful shade and coolness of the flower-decked new market-hall, +open to-day for the first time, and turned by flags and ferns and +lavish wealth of what in England are costliest hot-house flowers into +a charming banqueting-hall. All these exquisite ferns and blossoms +cost far less than the string and nails which fastened them against +the walls, and their fresh fragrance and greenery struck gratefully on +our sun-baked eyes as we found our way into the big room. + +Nothing could be more creditable to a young colony than the way +everything was arranged, for the difficulties in one's culinary path +in Natal are hardly to be appreciated by English housekeepers. At one +time there threatened to be almost a famine in D'Urban, for besides +the pressure of all these extra mouths of visitors to feed, there was +this enormous luncheon, with some five hundred hungry people to be +provided for. It seems so strange that with every facility for rearing +poultry all around it should be scarce and dear, and when brought to +market as thin as possible. The same may be said of vegetables: they +need no culture beyond being put in the ground, and yet unless you +have a garden of your own it is very difficult to get anything like a +proper supply. I heard nothing but wails from distracted housekeepers +about the price and scarcity of food that week. However, _the_ +luncheon showed no sign of scarcity, and I was much amused at the +substantial and homely character of the _menu_, which included cold +baked sucking pig among its delicacies. A favorite specimen of the +confectioner's art that day consisted of a sort of solid brick of plum +pudding, with, for legend, "The First Sod" tastefully picked out in +white almonds on its dark surface. But it was a capital luncheon, and +so soon as the mayor had succeeded in impressing on the band that they +were not expected to play all the time the speeches were being made, +everything went on very well. Some of the speeches were short, but oh! +far, far too many were long, terribly long, and the whole affair was +not over before five o'clock. The only real want of the entertainment +was ice. It seems so hard not to have it in a climate which +can produce such burning days, for those tiresome cheap little +ice-machines with crystals are of no use whatever. I got one which +made ice (under pressure of much turning) in the ship, but it has +never made any here, and my experience is that of everybody else. Why +there should not be an ice-making or an ice-importing company no one +knows, except that there is so little energy or enterprise here that +everything is dawdly and uncomfortable because it seems too much +trouble to take pains to supply wants. It is the same everywhere +throughout the colony: sandy roads with plenty of excellent materials +for hardening them close by; no fish to be bought because no one will +take the trouble of going out to catch them. But I had better stop +scribbling, for I am evidently getting tired after my long day of +unwonted festivity. It is partly the oppression of my best bonnet, +and partly the length of the speeches, which have wearied me out so +thoroughly. + + +MARITZBURG, January 6. + +Nothing could afford a greater contrast than our return journey. It +was the other extreme of discomfort and misery, and must surely have +been sent to make us appreciate and long for the completion of this +very railway. We waited a day beyond that fixed for our return, in +order to give the effects of a most terrific thunderstorm time to pass +away, but it was succeeded by a perfect deluge of rain. Rain is not +supposed to last long at this season of the year, but all I can say is +that this rain did last. When the third day came and brought no sign +of clearing up with it, and very little down to speak of, we agreed to +delay no longer; besides which our places in the post-cart could not +be again exchanged, as had previously been done, for the stream of +returning visitors was setting strongly toward Maritzburg, and +we might be detained for a week longer if we did not go at once. +Accordingly, we presented ourselves at the D'Urban post-office a few +minutes before noon and took our places in the post-cart. My seat was +on the box, and as I flattered myself that I was well wrapped up, I +did not feel at all alarmed at the prospect of a cold, wet drive. Who +would believe that twenty-four hours ago one could hardly endure a +white muslin dressing-gown? Who would believe that twenty-four hours +ago a lace shawl was an oppressive wrap, and that the serious object +of my envy and admiration all these hot days on the Berea has been a +fat Abyssinian baby, as black as a coal, and the strongest and +biggest child one ever saw. That sleek and grinning infant's toilette +consisted of a string of blue beads round its neck, and in this cool +and airy costume it used to pervade the house, walking about on all +fours exactly like a monkey, for of course it could not stand. Yet, +how cold that baby must be to-day! But if it is, its mother has +probably tied it behind her in an old shawl, and it is nestling close +to her fat broad back fast asleep. + +But the baby is certainly a most unwarrantable digression, and we +must return to our post-cart. The discouraging part of it was that +the vehicle itself had been in all the storm and rain of yesterday. Of +course no one had dreamed of washing or wiping it out in any fashion, +so we had to sit upon wet cushions and put our feet into a pool of red +mud and water. Now, if I must confess the truth, I, an old traveler, +had done a very stupid thing. I had been lured by the deceitful beauty +of the weather when we started into leaving behind me everything +except the thinnest and coolest garments I possessed, and I therefore +had to set out on this journey in the teeth of a cold wind and driving +rain clad in a white gown. It is true, I had my beloved and most +useful ulster, but it was a light waterproof one, and just about +half enough in the way of warmth. Still, as I had another wrap, a big +Scotch plaid, I should have got along very well if it had not been for +the still greater stupidity of the only other female fellow-passenger, +who calmly took her place in the open post-cart behind me in a brown +holland gown, without scarf or wrap or anything whatever to shelter +her from the weather, except a white calico sunshade. She was a +Frenchwoman too, and looked so piteous and forlorn in her neat +toilette, already drenched through, that of course I could do nothing +less than lend her my Scotch shawl, and trust to the driver's friendly +promises of empty corn-bags at some future stage. By the time the bags +came--or rather by the time we got to the bags--I was indeed wet and +cold. The ulster, did its best, and all that could be expected of it, +but no garment manufactured in a London shop could possibly cope with +such wild weather, tropical in the vehemence of its pouring rain, +wintry in its cutting blasts. The wind seemed to blow from every +quarter of the heavens at once, the rain came down in sheets, but +I minded the mud more than either wind or rain: it was more +demoralizing. On the box-seat I got my full share and more, but yet +I was better off there than inside, where twelve people were squeezed +into the places of eight. The horses' feet got balled with the stiff +red clay exactly as though it had been snow, and from time to time as +they galloped along, six fresh ones at every stage, I received a good +lump of clay, as big and nearly as solid as a croquet-ball, full in my +face. It was bitterly cold, and the night was closing in when we drove +up to the door of the best hotel in Maritzburg, at long past eight +instead of six o'clock. It was impossible to get out to our own place +that night, so there was nothing for it but to stay where we were, and +get what food and rest could be coaxed out of an indifferent bill +of fare and a bed of stony hardness, to say nothing of the bites of +numerous mosquitoes. The morning light revealed the melancholy state +of my unhappy white gown in its full horror. All the rivers of Natal +will never make it white again, I fear. Certainly there is much to +be said in favor of railway-traveling, after all, especially in wet +weather. + + +JANUARY 10. + +Surely, I have been doing something else lately besides turning this +first sod? Well, not much. You see, no one can undertake anything in +the way of expeditions or excursions, or even sight-seeing, in +summer, partly on account of the heat, and partly because of the +thunderstorms. We have had a few very severe ones lately, but we hail +them with joy on account of the cool clear atmosphere which succeeds +to a display of electrical vehemence. We walked home from church a few +evenings ago on a very wild and threatening night, and I never shall +forget the weird beauty of the scene. We had started to go to church +about six o'clock: the walk was only two miles, and the afternoon was +calm and cloudless. The day had been oppressively hot, but there were +no immediate signs of a storm. While we were in church, however, a +fresh breeze sprang up and drove the clouds rapidly before it. The +glare of the lightning made every corner of the church as bright +as day, and the crash of the thunder shook the wooden roof over our +heads. But there was no rain yet, and when we came out--in fear and +trembling, I confess, as to how we were to get home--we could see that +the violence of the storm had either passed over or not yet reached +the valley in which Maritzburg nestles, and was expending itself +somewhere else. So F---- decided that we might venture. As for +vehicles to be hired in the streets, there are no such things, and +by the time we could have persuaded one to turn out for us--a very +doubtful contingency, and only to be procured at the cost of a +sovereign or so--the full fury of the storm would probably be upon us. +There was nothing for it, therefore, but to walk, and so we set out +as soon as possible to climb our very steep hill. Instead of the +soft, balmy twilight on which we had counted, the sky was of an inky +blackness, but for all that we had light enough and to spare. I never +saw such lightning. The flashes came literally every second, and lit +up the whole heavens and earth with a blinding glare far brighter than +any sunshine. So great was the contrast, and so much more intense +the darkness after each flash of dazzling light, that we could only +venture to walk on _during_ the flashes, though one's instinct was +rather to stand still, awestricken and mute. The thunder growled and +cracked incessantly, but far away, toward the Inchanga Valley. If the +wind had shifted ever so little and brought the storm back again, our +plight would have been poor indeed; and with this dread upon us we +trudged bravely on and breasted the hillside with what haste and +courage we could. During the rare momentary intervals of darkness we +could perceive that the whole place was ablaze with fireflies. Every +blade of grass held a tiny sparkle of its own, but when the lightning +shone out with its yellow and violet glare the modest light of the +poor little fireflies seemed to be quite extinguished. As for the +frogs, the clamorous noise they kept up sounded absolutely deafening, +and so did the shrill, incessant cry of the cicalas. We reached home +safely and before the rain fell, but found all our servants in the +verandah in the last stage of dismay and uncertainty what to do for +the best. They had collected waterproofs, umbrellas and lanterns; but +as it was not actually raining yet, and we certainly did not require +light on our path--for they said that each flash showed them our +climbing, trudging figures as plainly as possible--it was difficult +to know what to do, especially as the Kafirs have, very naturally, an +intense horror and dislike to going out in a thunderstorm. This storm +was not really overhead at all, and scarcely deserves mention except +as the precursor of a severe one of which our valley got the full +benefit. It was quite curious to see the numbers of dead butterflies +on the garden-paths after that second storm. Their beautiful plumage +was not dimmed or smirched nor their wings broken: they would have +been in perfect order for a naturalist's collection; yet they were +quite dead and stiff. The natives declare it is the lightning which +kills them thus. + +My own private dread--to return to that walk home for a moment--was of +stepping on a snake, as there are a great many about, and one especial +variety, a small poisonous brown adder, is of so torpid and lazy a +nature that it will not glide out of your way, as other snakes do, +but lets you tread on it and then bites you. It is very marvelous, +considering how many snakes there are, that one hears of so few bad +accidents. G---- is always poking about in likely places for them, as +his supreme ambition is to see one. I fully expect a catastrophe some +day, and keep stores of ammonia and brandy handy. Never was such +a fearless little monkey. He is always scampering about on his old +Basuto pony, and of course tumbles off now and then; but he does not +mind it in the least. When he is not trying to break his neck in this +fashion he is down by himself at the river fishing, or he is climbing +trees, or down a well which is being dug here, or in some piece of +mischief or other. The sun and the fruit are my _bêtes noires_, but +neither seems to hurt him, though I really don't believe that any +other child in the world has ever eaten so many apricots at one time +as he has been doing lately. This temptation has just been removed, +however, for during our short absence at D'Urban every fruit tree +has been stripped to the bark--every peach and plum, every apple and +apricot, clean gone. Of course, no one has done it, but it is very +provoking all the same, for it used to be so nice to take the baby out +very early, and pick up the fallen apricots for breakfast. The +peaches are nearly all pale and rather tasteless, but the apricots are +excellent in flavor, of a large size and in extraordinary abundance. +There was also a large and promising crop of apples, but they have +all been taken in their unripe state. As a rule, the Kafirs are +scrupulously honest, and we left plate and jewelry in the house under +Charlie's care whilst we were away, without the least risk, for such +things they would never touch; but fruit or mealies they cannot be +brought to regard as personal property, and they gather the former +and waste the latter without scruple. It is a great objection to the +imported coolies, who make very clean and capital servants, that they +have inveterate habits of pilfering and are hopelessly dishonest about +trifles. For this reason they are sure to get on badly with Kafir +fellow-servants, who are generally quite above any temptation of that +kind. + + +JANUARY 14. + +A few days ago we took G---- to see the annual swimming sports in the +small river which runs through the park. It was a beautiful afternoon, +for a wonder, with no lowering thunder-clouds over the hills, so +the banks of the river were thronged for half a mile and more with +spectators. It made a very pretty picture, the large willow trees +drooping into the water on either shore, the gay concourse of people, +the bright patch of color made by the red coats of the band of the +regiment stationed across the stream, the tents for the competitors to +change in, the dark wondering faces of Kafirs and coolies, who cannot +comprehend _why_ white people should take so much trouble and run so +much risk to amuse themselves. We certainly must appear to them to +be possessed by a restless demon of energy, both in our work and our +play, and never more so than on this hot afternoon, when, amid +much shouting and laughing, the various water-races came off. The +steeplechase amused us a great deal, where the competitors had to swim +over and under various barriers across the river; and so did the race +for very little boys, which was a full and excellent one. The monkeys +took to the water as naturally as fishes, and evidently enjoyed the +fun more than any one. Indeed, the difficulty was to get them out of +the water and into the tents to change their swimming costume after +the race was over. But the most interesting event was one meant to +teach volunteers how to swim rivers in case of field service, and +the palm lay between the Natal Carbineers and a smart body of mounted +police. At a given signal they all plunged on horseback into the muddy +water, and from a very difficult part of the bank too, and swam, fully +accoutred and carrying their carbines, across the river. It was very +interesting to watch how clever the horses were, and how some of their +riders slipped off their backs the moment they had fairly entered the +stream and swam side by side with their steeds until the opposite bank +was reached; and then how the horses paused to allow their dripping +masters to mount again--no easy task in heavy boots and saturated +clothes, with a carbine in the left hand which had to be kept dry at +all risks and hazards. When I asked little G---- which part he liked +best, he answered without hesitation, "The assidents" (angliçè, +accidents), and I am not sure that he was not right; for, as no one +was hurt, the crowd mightily enjoyed seeing some stalwart citizen +in his best clothes suddenly topple from his place of vantage on the +deceitfully secure-looking but rotten branch of a tree and take an +involuntary bath in his own despite. When that citizen further chanced +to be clad in a suit of bright-colored velveteen the effect was +much enhanced. It is my private opinion that G---- was longing to +distinguish himself in a similar fashion, for I constantly saw him +"lying out" on most frail branches, but try as he might, he could not +accomplish a tumble. + + +JANUARY 17. + +I have had an opportunity lately of attending a Kafir _lit de +justice_, and I can only say that if we civilized people managed our +legal difficulties in the same way it would be an uncommonly good +thing for everybody except the lawyers. Cows are at the bottom of +nearly all the native disputes, and the Kafirs always take their +grievance soberly to the nearest magistrate, who arbitrates to +the best of his ability between the disputants. They are generally +satisfied with his award, but if the case is an intricate one, or they +consider that the question is not really solved, then they have the +right of appeal, and it is this court of appeal which I have been +attending lately. It is held in the newly-built office of the minister +for native affairs--the prettiest and most respectable-looking +public office which I have seen in Maritzburg, by the way. Before the +erection of this modest but comfortable building the court used to be +held out in the open air under the shade of some large trees--a +more picturesque method of doing business, certainly, but subject to +inconveniences on account of the weather. It is altogether the most +primitive and patriarchal style of business one ever saw, but all the +more delightful on that account. + +It is inexpressibly touching to see with one's own eyes the +wonderfully deep personal devotion and affection of the Kafirs for the +kindly English gentleman who for thirty years and more has been their +real ruler and their wise and judicious friend. Not a friend to pamper +their vices and give way to their great fault of idleness, but a true +friend to protect their interests, and yet to labor incessantly for +their social advancement and for their admission into the great field +of civilized workers. The Kafirs know little and care less for all +the imposing and elaborate machinery of British rule; the queen on +her throne is but a fair and distant dream-woman to them; Sir Garnet +himself, that great inkosi, was as nobody in their eyes compared to +their own chieftain, their king of hearts, the one white man to whom +of their own free will and accord they give the royal salute whenever +they see him. I have stood in magnificent halls and seen king and +kaiser pass through crowds of bowing courtiers, but I never saw +anything which impressed me so strongly as the simultaneous springing +to the feet, the loud shout of _Bayete!_ given with the right hand +upraised (a higher form of salutation than _Inkosi!_ and only accorded +to Kafir royalty), the look, of love and rapture and satisfied +expectation in all those keen black faces, as the minister, quite +unattended, without pomp or circumstance of any sort or kind, quietly +walked into the large room and sat himself down at his desk with some +papers before him. There was no clerk, no official of any sort: no +one stood between the people and the fountain of justice. The +extraordinary simplicity of the trial which commenced was only to be +equaled by the decorum and dignity with which it was conducted. First +of all, everybody sat down upon the floor, the plaintiff and defendant +amicably side by side opposite to the minister's desk, and the other +natives, about a hundred in number, squatted in various groups. Then, +as there was evidently a slight feeling of surprise at my sitting +myself down in the only other chair--they probably considered me a +new--fashioned clerk--the minister explained that I was the wife of +another inkosi, and that I wanted to see and hear how Kafirmen +stated their case when anything went wrong with their affairs. This +explanation was perfectly satisfactory to all parties, and they +regarded me no more, but immediately set to work on the subject in +hand. A sort of _prècis_ of each case had been previously prepared +from the magistrate's report for Mr. S----'s information by his clerk, +and these documents greatly helped me to understand what was going on. +No language can be more beautiful to listen to than either the Kafir +or Zulu tongue: it is soft and liquid as Italian, with just the same +gentle accentuation on the penultimate and antepenultimate syllables. +The clicks which are made with the tongue every now and then, and +are part of the language, give it a very quaint sound, and the proper +names are excessively harmonious. + +In the first cause which was taken the plaintiff, as I said before, +was not quite satisfied with the decision of his own local magistrate, +and had therefore come here to restate his case. The story was +slightly complicated by the plaintiff having two distinct names by +which he had been known at different times of his life. "Tevula," he +averred, was the name of his boyhood, and the other, "Mazumba," the +name of his manhood. The natives have an unconquerable aversion +to giving their real names, and will offer half a dozen different +aliases, making it very difficult to trace them if they are "wanted," +and still more difficult to get at the rights of any story they may +have to tell. However, if they are ever frank and open to anybody, it +is to their own minister, who speaks their language as well as they +do themselves, and who fully understands their mode of reasoning and +their habits of mind. + +Tevula told his story extremely well, I must say--quietly, but +earnestly, and with, the most perfectly respectful though manly +bearing. He sometimes used graceful and natural gesticulation, but not +a bit more than was needed to give emphasis to his oratory. He was a +strongly-built, tall man, about thirty-five years of age, dressed in +a soldier's great-coat--for it was a damp and drizzling day--had bare +legs and feet, and wore nothing on his head except the curious ring +into which the men weave their hair. So soon as a youth is considered +old enough to assume the duties and responsibilities of manhood +he begins to weave his short crisp hair over a ring of grass which +exactly fits the head, keeping the woolly hair in its place by means +of wax. In time the hair grows perfectly smooth and shining and +regular over this firm foundation, and the effect is as though it were +a ring of jet or polished ebony worn round the brows. Different tribes +slightly vary the size and form of the ring; and in this case it was +easy to see that the defendant belonged to a different tribe, for +his ring was half the size, and worn at the summit of a cone of +combed-back hair which was as thick and close as a cap, and indeed +looked very like a grizzled fez. Anybody in court may ask any +questions he pleases, and in fact what we should call "cross-examine" +a witness, but no one did so whilst I was present. Every one listened +attentively, giving a grunt of interest whenever Tevula made a point; +and this manifestation and sympathy always seemed to gratify him +immensely. But it was plain that, whatever might be the decision of +the minister, who listened closely to every word, asking now and then +a short question--which evidently hit some logical nail right on the +head--they would abide by it, and be satisfied that it was the fairest +and most equitable solution of the subject. + +Here is a _résumé_ of the first case, and it is a fair sample of the +intricacies of a Kafir lawsuit: Our friend Tevula possesses an aged +relative, a certain aunt, called Mamusa, who at the present time +appears to be in her dotage, and consequently her evidence is of very +little value. But once upon a time--long, long ago--Mamusa was young +and generous: Mamusa had cows, and she _gave_ or _lent_--there was the +difficulty--a couple of heifers to the defendant, whose name I can't +possibly spell on account of the clicks. Nobody denies that of her +own free will these heifers had been bestowed by Mamusa on the +withered-looking little old man squatting opposite, but the question +is, Were they a loan or a gift? For many years nothing was done about +these heifers, but one fine day Tevula gets wind of the story, is +immediately seized with a fit of affection for his aged relative, and +takes her to live in his kraal, proclaiming himself her protector and +heir. So far so good: all this was in accordance with Kafir custom, +and the narration of this part of the story was received with grunts +of asseveration and approval by the audience. Indeed, Kafirs are as +a rule to be depended upon, and their minds, though full of odd +prejudices and quirks, have a natural bias toward truth. Two or three +years ago Tevula began by claiming, as heir-at-law, though the old +woman still lives, twenty cows from the defendant as the increase of +these heifers: _now_ he demands between thirty and forty. When asked +why he only claimed twenty, as nobody denies that the produce of the +heifers has increased to double that number, he says naively, but +without hesitation, that there is a fee to be paid of a shilling +a head on such a claim if established, and that he only had twenty +shillings in the world; so, as he remarked with a knowing twinkle in +his eye, "What was the use of my claiming more cows than I had money +to pay the fee for?" But times have improved with Tevula since then, +and he is now in a position to claim the poor defendant's whole herd, +though he generously says he will not insist on his refunding those +cows which do not resemble the original heifers, and are not, as they +were, dun and red and white. This sounded magnanimous, and met +with grunts of approval until the blear-eyed defendant remarked, +hopelessly, "They are all of those colors," which changed the +sympathies of the audience once more. Tevula saw this at a glance, and +hastened to improve his position by narrating an anecdote. No words +of mine could reproduce the dramatic talent that man displayed in his +narration. I did not understand a syllable of his language, and yet I +could gather from his gestures, his intonation, and above all from +the expression of his hearers' faces, the sort of story he was telling +them. After he had finished, Mr. S---- turned to me and briefly +translated the episode with which Tevula had sought to rivet the +attention and sympathy of the court. Tevula's tale, much condensed, +was this: Years ago, when his attention had first been directed to +the matter, he went with the defendant out on the veldt to look at the +herd. No sooner did the cattle see them approaching than a beautiful +little dun-colored heifer, the exact counterpart of her grandmother +(Mamusa's cow), left the others and ran up to him, Tevula, lowing and +rubbing her head against his shoulder, and following him all about +like a dog. In vain did her reputed owner try to drive her away: she +persisted in following Tevula all the way back to his kraal, right up +to the entrance of his hut. "I was her master, and the inkomokazi knew +it," cried Tevula triumphantly, looking round at the defendant with a +knowing nod, as much as to say, "Beat that, if you can!" Not knowing +what answer to make, the defendant took his snuff-box out of his left +ear and solaced himself with three or four huge pinches. I started the +hypothesis that Mamusa might once have had a _tendresse_ for the old +gentleman, and might have bestowed these cows upon him as a love-gift; +but this idea was scouted, even by the defendant, who said gravely, +"Kafir women don't buy lovers or husbands: we buy the wife we want." +A Kafir girl is exceedingly proud of being bought, and the more she +costs the prouder she is. She pities English women, whose bride-grooms +expect to receive money instead of paying it, and considers a dowry as +a most humiliating arrangement. + +I wish I could tell you how Mamusa's cows have finally been disposed +of, but, although it has occupied three days, the case is by no +means over yet. I envy and admire Mr. S----'s untiring patience and +unfailing good-temper, but it is just these qualities which make +his Kafir subjects (for they really consider him as their ruler) so +certain that their affairs will not be neglected or their interests +suffer in his hands. + +Whilst I was listening to Tevula's oratory my eyes and my mind +sometimes wandered to the eager and silent audience, and I amused +myself by studying their strange head-dresses. In most instances the +men wore their hair in the woven rings to which I have alluded, but +there were several young men present who indulged in purely fancy +head-dresses. One stalwart youth had got hold of the round cardboard +lid of a collar-box, to which he had affixed two bits of string, and +tied it firmly but jauntily on one side of his head. Another lad had +invented a most extraordinary decoration for his wool-covered pate, +and one which it is exceedingly difficult to describe in delicate +language. He had procured the intestines of some small animal, a lamb +or a kid, and had cleaned and scraped them and tied them tightly, at +intervals of an inch or two, with string. This series of small clear +bladders he had then inflated, and arranged them in a sort of bouquet +on the top of his head, skewering tufts of his crisp hair between, so +that the effect resembled a bunch of bubbles, if there could be such +a thing. Another very favorite adornment for the head consisted of a +strip of gay cloth or ribbon, or of even a few bright threads, +bound tightly like a fillet across the brows and confining a tuft of +feathers over one ear; but I suspect all these fanciful arrangements +were only worn by the gilded youth of a lower class, because I noticed +that the chieftains and _indunas_, or headmen of the villages, never +wore such frivolities. They wore indeed numerous slender rings +of brass or silver wire on their straight, shapely legs, and also +necklaces of lions' or tigers' claws and teeth round their throats, +but these were trophies of the chase as well as personal ornaments. + + + + +THE LIFE OF GEORGE TICKNOR.[5] + + +[Footnote 5: _Life, Letters and Journals of George Ticknor._ Boston: +James R. Osgood & Co.] + +It is a long time since a more interesting biography has been +published than this of Mr. Ticknor. No American book of the same kind +can be compared with it, and very few have appeared in England that +give the reader as varied glimpses of society and as many details in +regard to interesting people as may be found in these two entertaining +volumes. Its fullness in this respect is what makes the charm of the +book. Mr. Ticknor's life was a long one: from his youth he saw a great +deal of the best society both of this country and of Europe, and he +always had the custom of recording the impressions made upon him by +the people he met. Hence this _Life_, which is for the most part +made up of extracts from his letters and journals, is almost an +autobiography, but an autobiography, one might almost say, without a +hero, in which the writer keeps himself in the background and gives +his main attention to other people. The editors have, however, given a +full account of those parts of his life of which his own record is but +brief. + +He was born in Boston in 1791. His father, to judge from his letters, +which are full of sensible advice, was a man of more than common +ability, and he very carefully trained his son to put his talents to +their best use. He had no stubborn material for his hands, for even in +his youth Mr. Ticknor showed many of those traits which most clearly +marked him in after life; among others, an intelligent, unimaginative, +but also unmalicious observation of his kind for his relaxation, and +for his work in life warm devotion to the study of letters. How scanty +were the opportunities in this way at that period may be seen from his +difficulties in getting any knowledge of German after his graduation +from Dartmouth College, and when he had just given up his brief +practice of the law. His teacher was an Alsatian, who knew his own +pronunciation was bad; he was able to borrow a grammar from Mr. +Everett, but he had to send to New Hampshire for a dictionary; and +the only book he had to read was a copy of _Werther_ belonging to +John Quincy Adams, then in Europe, which he managed to borrow from the +gentleman who had Mr. Adams's books under his care at the Athenæeum. +This was in 1814, and already he had made up his mind to go to Germany +and profit by the advantages offered by the universities of that +country. With regard to the education he had already acquired, it is +evident that he had learned more by private study than by following +the courses of the college which had given him a degree. But before +visiting other countries he determined to make himself familiar with +his own, and for that purpose he made a journey to Washington and +Virginia, seeing on his way, at New York, one of the earliest ships of +war moved by steam, and in Philadelphia meeting John Randolph, whom he +describes carefully in one of his letters to his father. At Washington +he dined with President Madison, who was in considerable anxiety at +the time (January 21, 1815) about the fate of New Orleans. He gives +a dreary picture of the state festivities. The President, he says, +"sometimes laughed, and I was glad to hear it, but his face was always +grave. He talked of religious sects and parties, and was curious to +know how the cause of liberal Christianity stood with us, and if the +Athanasian creed was well received by our Episcopalians.... He talked +of education and its prospects, of the progress of improvement among +us, and once or twice he gave it a political aspect, though with great +caution." In Virginia he visited Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, +and this eminent man seems to have taken a great fancy to his young +visitor, who gave his father a full account of his host and his ways. +The details are too long to quote, but those who turn to the book +will find that Mr. Ticknor began early to observe people, and +that, although his descriptions, even in his youth, show a lack of +imagination, they are yet made lifelike by his patient, unwearying +elaboration of details. How full, for instance, is his account of Lord +Jeffrey, written to one of his friends in 1814. Such letters have gone +out of fashion now, when it is more frequent to sum up the characters +of our visitors in epigrams than in long essays, as Mr. Ticknor +has here done. This first star, who in comparison with many of Mr. +Ticknor's later acquaintances was one of very modest magnitude, made +his unexpected, comet-like appearance in Boston on his way to New York +to marry an American woman. It is easy to believe what Mr. Ticknor +says in his long account of him, that "while he flatters by his +civility those who are little accustomed to attention from his +superiors, he disappoints the reasonable expectations of those who +have received the homage of all around them until it has become a part +of their just expectations and claims." + +In April, 1815, Mr. Ticknor set sail for England in company with his +friend Edward Everett, and at the end of four weeks they arrived at +Liverpool, just in time to hear of Napoleon's escape from Elba. There +was at least one man in England who was pleased with that turn of +fate, and that was Dr. Parr, whom Mr. Ticknor stopped to see on his +way to London, and who told his young guest, "I should not think I +had done my duty if I went to bed any night without praying for the +success of Napoleon Bonaparte." Lord Byron, it should be added, on +hearing the news of Waterloo, said, "I am d----d sorry for it.... I +didn't know but I might live to see Lord Castlereagh's head on a pole. +But I suppose I sha'n't now." Of this last-named admirer of Bonaparte, +Mr. Ticknor saw a good deal during his stay in England. Byron was then +a newly-married man, and on better terms with the world at large than +he was at other times of his life. His American visitor recorded that +he "found his manners affable and gentle, the tones of his voice low +and conciliating, his conversation gay, pleasant and interesting in an +uncommon degree." + +Of the older men, he saw Dr. Rees, editor of the _Encyclopædia_, who +had dined with Dr. Johnson and John Wilkes at Dilly's--not at the +first dinner probably, for Boswell gives a list of the guests which +does not include his name, but doubtless at the second, in 1781. Dr. +Rees said that Wilkes won his way to Johnson's heart not, as Boswell +reports, by his wit, but by the grossest flattery; and he added that +Johnson always courted Boswell more than any one else, that he might +be exhibited to posterity in a favorable light. A mere list of the +names of the people he saw during this short stay in England will show +how full of interest this part of his diary is. Campbell, Gifford, +West, Sir Humphry Davy he saw most frequently, but no one so often as +he did Byron. His penchant for "lions" always led him to prefer the +lordliest among them. + +It was a great change from the excitement and succession of novelties +of London to the monotonous routine of Göttingen, where he arrived, +after a journey of about five weeks, early in August, 1815. Göttingen +at that time was the seat of the leading German university. It has +never been full of distracting temptations: indeed, it is a town which +seems to have been so arranged that the student should find in +study alone relief from its manifold discomforts. The advantages it +possessed were very great, and they were fully appreciated by the +young American, who came from what in comparison was almost an +intellectual wilderness to the rich stores of learning this university +contained. It was at this time that he fairly began serious literary +study and laid the foundation of his extensive knowledge of books. +In one of his vacations he made a little tour in Germany, visiting +Goethe, who made a characteristic speech about Byron's recent +separation from his wife--namely, that in its circumstances and the +mystery involving it it was so poetical that if Byron had invented it +he could hardly have found a more fortunate subject for his genius. + +After another winter in Göttingen he set out for Paris, which city he +reached early in April, 1817. One of the first things he did was to +go to the theatre, where he saw Talma and Mademoiselle Mars play +together. But stronger tastes drew him more frequently into the best +society that capital afforded him. One of the persons he was most +anxious to meet was Madame de Staël, but although he presented his +letters, her illness prevented her seeing him for some time, and her +daughter, the Duchesse de Broglie, received him in her mother's stead. +It was there that he met Humboldt, of whom he has recorded that he +"sleeps only when he is weary and has leisure, and if he wakes at +midnight he rises and begins his work as he would in the morning. He +eats when he is hungry, and if he is invited to dine at six o'clock, +this does not prevent him from going at five to a restaurant, because +he considers a great dinner only as a party of pleasure and amusement. +But all the rest of the time, when he is not in society, he locks his +door and gives himself up to study, rarely receiving visits but those +which have been announced the day previous, and never, I believe, +refusing these." These habits are not commonly supposed to promote +longevity. Before he left Paris Madame de Staël was able to see him, +and with her he had an interesting conversation in which she said of +America, "_Vous êtes l'avant garde du genre humain, vous êtes l'avenir +du monde_," and made two or three brilliant speeches, at which +he noticed her glow of animation. At the same place he also met +Chateaubriand and Madame Récamier, between whom he sat at dinner. The +romantic reader will be disappointed with his meagre statements here, +which hardly bring these two people more distinctly before us than are +Solomon and the queen of Sheba. We read that Madame Récamier's figure +was fine, her mild eyes full of expression, and her arm and hand +beautiful, her complexion fair, her expression cheerful and her +conversation vivacious; of Chateaubriand, that he was a short man with +a dark complexion, black hair and eyes, and a marked countenance; +but exacter details of their characteristics or mutual relations are +wholly wanting. While it is to be remembered that we who read Mr. +Ticknor's diary and letters have also read a great many other letters +that have given us much more knowledge about Madame Récamier than her +companion at that dinner could have had, it is yet fair to say that +in general the book contains no traces of acute observation or quick +social sensibility, but is rather marked by the faithfulness of his +report of the more obvious incidents that occurred when he met these +interesting people. This does not diminish the value of the book: it +should only prepare the reader to find the anecdotes constituting +the really important part of it, with but little sign of any study +of character, and of little sympathetic insight into the feelings of +others. + +He remained in Paris until September, working hard at the languages +and literatures of France and Italy, and neglecting no opportunity +to improve himself. At that date he started for Geneva on his way to +Italy, crossing the Alps by the Simplon. At Venice he again saw +Byron, who was busy, or professed to be, with a plan of visiting this +country. Thence he made his way south to Rome and Naples, spending +most of the winter in the former city among very interesting people, +such as Bunsen, Niebuhr and Madame de Humboldt. In the spring of +1818 he went to Spain, and it is interesting to notice how much more +vivacious his journal becomes with his entrance into that country. It +seems to have been with real enjoyment that he changed the ease of his +earlier journeyings for the hardships of traveling in this comfortless +land; and although the inns were miserable, the fare uncertain and +meagre at the best, and there were many other afflictions to vex the +tourist, he evidently enjoyed this expedition to the full. On his way +from Barcelona to Madrid he had for companions a painter of repute and +two officers, and to these he used to read aloud _Don Quixote_, and, +he says, "I assure you this was a pleasure to me such as I have seldom +enjoyed, to witness the effect this extraordinary book produces on the +people from whose very blood and character it is drawn.... All of +them used to beg me to read it to them every time we got into our +cart--like children for toys and sugar-plums." In Madrid he studied +carefully the language and literature, his tastes and opportunities +leading him to lay the solid foundation of what was to be the main +work of his life. The society that he met here was mainly that of the +foreign diplomatists, but, agreeable as it was, it did not distract +him from his studies or from his observation of the people among whom +he was placed. In a letter to this country he said, "What seems mere +fiction and romance in other countries is matter of observation +here, and in all that relates to manners Cervantes and Le Sage are +historians; for when you have crossed the Pyrenees you have not only +passed from one country and climate to another, but you have gone back +a couple of centuries in your chronology, and find the people still +in that kind of poetical existence which we have not only long since +lost, but which we have long since ceased to credit on the reports of +our ancestors." + +Although it would be interesting to linger over the passages dealing +with Spain, it is perhaps better to turn to his account of leaving it, +which he did under the most singular circumstances--namely, as one +of a band of contrabandistas. Not that he wore a mask and filled his +purse by robbing unoffending travelers; instead, he joined this +party of accomplished smugglers, who used to carry on the business of +smuggling dollars from Seville to Lisbon and bring back English goods +in the same way. For eight days he was in their company, and he says, +"I have seldom passed eight more interesting days, for by the very +novelty and strangeness of everything--sleeping out every night but +one, and then in the house of the chief of our band; dining +under trees at noon; living on a footing of perfect equality and +good-fellowship with people who are liable every day to be shot or +hanged by the laws of their country; indeed, leading for a week as +much of a vagabond life as if I were an Arab or a Mameluke,--I came +soon to have some of the gay recklessness that marked the character of +my companions." This certainly would be a curious episode in the +life of any law-abiding citizen, and in Mr. Ticknor's case it was +peculiarly astonishing, for his life, this week excepted, could +certainly never be called, with any show of justice, "vagabond." + +Before returning to America he revisited London and Paris, in this +last-named city seeing Talleyrand, of whom an interesting anecdote is +recorded. In London he met Sydney Smith, Brougham, Frere; in Scotland, +where he made a short tour, he visited Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford; +on his way back to London he visited Southey and Wordsworth; and +once again in that city he saw Hazlitt, living in Milton's house, and +Godwin, who, he said, "is as far removed from everything feverish +and exciting as if his head had never been filled with anything but +geometry,... When I looked at [him], and saw with what cool obstinacy +he adhered to everything he had once assumed, and what a cold +selfishness lay at the bottom of his character, I felt a satisfaction +in the thought that he had a wife who must sometimes give a start to +his blood and a stir to his nervous system." The feeling which betrays +itself in this passage makes a still bolder and more amusing exhibit +in one that follows: "The true way to see these people was to meet +them all together, as I did once at dinner at Godwin's, and once at +a convocation or 'Saturday Night Club' at Hunt's, when they felt +themselves bound to show off and produce an effect; for there Lamb's +gentle humor, Hunt's passion and Curran's volubility, Hazlitt's +sharpness and point and Godwin's great head full of cold brains, all +coming into contact and agreeing in nothing but their common hatred +of everything that has been more successful than their own works, made +one of the most curious and amusing _olla podridas_ I ever met. The +contrast between these persons ... and the class I was at the same +time in the habit of meeting at Sir Joseph Banks's on Sunday evening, +at Gifford's, at Murray's Literary Exchange, and especially at Lord +Holland's, was striking enough." In regard to the last statement we +can feel no doubt, nor is it surprising that Mr. Ticknor found +the society of Gifford and his friends more congenial than that of +"persons" like Lamb and Hunt. + +He reached home June 6, 1819, after an absence of four years, during +which time he had seen many "cities and manners," had accomplished +himself in the modern languages and literatures, and become well +fitted for the position which was awaiting him--that of professor of +the French and Spanish languages and of the belles-lettres at Harvard +College. These chairs were held by Mr. Ticknor until 1835, during the +most active years of his mature life, and the record of what he did is +not without importance in the history of education in this country. He +had himself profited by the liberal system of the German universities, +and he was naturally anxious to introduce such changes into the rather +narrow curriculum of Harvard College as should give its students real +zeal in their work and greater opportunities for improvement. At +the beginning he found himself much hampered by old traditions and +a general lack of sympathy with new methods; but he devoted himself +earnestly to the task of introducing a course of instruction which +should take the place of the dull routine of recitation. To accomplish +this he set the example of giving a series of lectures on the +literatures and literary histories of France and Spain, and he +struggled hard to drive away the old routine from the rest of the +college. He wrote a pamphlet containing most urgent and powerful +arguments in defence of these amendments, which he proved to be +possible by the example of his own success; but he was opposed by the +most stubborn conservatism, and his efforts remained almost without +apparent result. What he wanted was the abolition of the system of +classes; the division of the college into _departments_; the election +of studies by the students; the separation of the students into +divisions according to their proficiency; and the opening of the +college to those who cared to follow only certain courses without +applying for a degree. The first of these changes he forebore +to press, but all the others he urged most warmly. He was so far +successful that the experiment was tried, but it was considered +impracticable for the classes to be divided into sections, and by +a vote of the faculty it was determined that the law requiring +such division should be repealed: permission was given Mr. Ticknor, +however, to continue in the new method if he cared so to do. +Naturally, he persisted in his plan, and in his own department he was +perfectly successful. When he left the college, although he had not +accomplished all he had hoped when he accepted his professorship, he +was able to look back upon an honorable and gratifying record so far +as the management of his own department was concerned. + +After resigning his position in Cambridge he again went abroad in +1835, accompanied by his wife and family. It would take many pages to +give the reader an exact account, in however brief a form, of all +the interest of this journey. A few notes taken almost at random must +suffice. Of Southey, Mr. Ticknor notes: "His conversation was very +various, sometimes quite remarkable, but never rich or copious like +Wordsworth's, and never humorous or witty. It was rather abundant in +matters of fact, and often in that way quite striking and effective." +The first winter he spent in Dresden, meeting Tieck frequently, and +enjoying the agreeable and highly-cultivated society of the court. +The next summer, during a visit to Vienna, he had some interesting +conversations with Prince Metternich, which are given in full. +The winter of 1836-37 he passed in Rome, finding there Bunsen and +Thorwaldsen, whom he had seen on his first visit. The next winter +found him in Paris, where he saw Thierry, Lamartine, Thiers, Mignet, +Guizot and others. Of Lamartine he says: "Only two things struck +me--his complete ignorance of the present English literature, and the +strong expression of his poetical faith that the recent improvements +in material life, like steam and railroads, have their poetical sides, +and will be used for poetical purposes with success." In the spring +he crossed to England, where he roamed from one interesting spot to +another, seeing every one of whom one cares to hear, and putting down +in his journal faithful accounts of all that he saw and heard. + +He returned to this country in June, 1838, and began at once to +occupy himself busily with the preparation of his _History of Spanish +Literature_. After this book had been published he began to busy +himself with a very important scheme--namely, preparing the Public +Library of his native city. As soon as Mr. Bates had made his generous +gift, which secured the establishment of the library, Mr. Ticknor, +with the aid of experts in the different professions, prepared a list +of forty thousand books which were needed as the foundation. He was +absent in Europe for fifteen months in 1856-57 busy with choosing and +buying books for this institution. The debt which the city of Boston +owes him is a great one: thanks to his care and energy, the Public +Library already has become a most valuable aid to study, and perhaps +the best library in the country, besides promising to be one of the +few great ones of the world. During his lifetime Mr. Ticknor gave many +valuable collections to the library, and in his will he left it his +own unique Spanish library and a generous bequest for the further +purchase of books. From the first he was quite as generous with his +time and knowledge. The diary he kept during his last stay abroad is +full of references to his interest in the library and to the constant +attention he gave to its affairs. He returned to Boston in September, +1857. The remaining years of his life he spent at home, enjoying +the company of his friends, corresponding with those abroad, and +encouraging interest in letters in every way. He died in the full +possession of his faculties, in his eightieth year, January 26, 1871. + +The editors of these memoirs appear to have performed their task with +great discretion and good taste. It has probably not been a difficult +one, consisting mainly in selecting from abundant and well-ordered +material, while suppressing what was too private or too trivial for +publication. What they have had to say of Mr. Ticknor's character +is expressed with a proper warmth of feeling, but without any +extravagance of eulogy. His life, as they justly remark, was +distinguished by "an unusual consistency in the framework of mind and +character" and "an unusually steady development of certain elements +and principles." What he from the first set himself to attain lay +within the compass of his capacity as well as of his means and +opportunities. Thus he had no external hinderances to contend against, +and no inward misgivings to struggle with. No man, we imagine, was +ever less troubled with self-dissatisfaction. He felt the limits of +his faculties and qualities, if he felt them at all, only as useful +and secure defences. Within them there was all the completeness that +could be gained by persevering exercise and culture. There is not a +page of his journals and letters that does not bear testimony to his +earnest, careful and profitable study of men and books, while we doubt +if a remark can be found in them that shows either sympathetic insight +or subtle discrimination. His intellect had all its resources at +command, but it had more of rigor than of vigor, more of formal +precision in its methods than of well-directed force in its +performances. Hence the semblance exceeded the reality, and it might +have been said of him, as it was said of Guizot, "Il impose et il en +impose." This biography of him makes, consequently, no appeal to the +deeper feelings and awakens no train of higher thought. But it has an +interest which, though of an ordinary kind, is scarcely surpassed in +degree by that of any similar work; and it forms a worthy memorial +of a man whose wide attainments, strict integrity and warm affections +endeared him to his intimates and made him respected by all. + +T.S. PERRY. + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + +A REMINISCENCE OF MACAULAY. + + +It was in June, 1857, that I had the good fortune to meet Macaulay +at dinner at the house of my dear friend, the Rev. Derwent Coleridge, +then principal of St. Mark's College, Chelsea. The brilliant career +of the great talker and essayist was drawing to its close, and it is +partly on this account that I make now what record I can of my single +meeting with him. He was beginning to give up society, so that only at +the houses of his oldest friends was there any chance of seeing him. +Besides the especial attraction of Macaulay's presence it was an +interesting company that was gathered that evening around my friend's +hospitable board. One felt that the English dinner, that choicest of +all opportunities for exchange of thought, was here to be enjoyed +in high perfection. Among the guests were Mr. Blore, an elderly +gentleman, one of whose distinctions was that he had been a friend +of Sir Walter Scott and the architect of Abbotsford; Mr. Helmore, the +well-known writer on choral music; Mr. Tremenheere, who had traveled +in America and had written on the subject of education in our country; +and Mr. Herbert Coleridge, the gifted son of Sara Coleridge--young man +of the highest promise, who had taken a double first-class at Oxford. +Alas! that his mother, herself of such brilliant powers, had not +lived to know of this high achievement of her son!--she whose love and +thought for her children, and unwearied efforts for their intellectual +advancement, are so abundantly shown in the _Memoir and Letters_ which +her daughter has lately published! Alas! too, that the son for whom +such high hopes had been cherished, and whose opening manhood was of +such promise, was himself cut off three years after the time of which +I now write! Miss Edith Coleridge, the other child of Sara Coleridge, +was also present. She was even then meditating the memoir of +her mother, that work of filial duty which three years ago she +accomplished with a grace and propriety beyond all praise. + +Of my host, Mr. Derwent Coleridge, and of Mrs. Coleridge, my dear and +honored friends of so many years, I must not permit myself to speak. I +may note only the brilliant conversational power of Mr. Coleridge, and +the fact that as I listen to him I perfectly understand the marvelous +gifts in this way of his father, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Again and +again I have been held as if under a spell by the flowing stream +of his delightful monologue. He had been the friend in boyhood of +Macaulay, and almost the first published words of the afterward famous +writer had appeared in conjunction with a like youthful effort of +Derwent Coleridge. Mr. Coleridge has been the biographer of Winthrop +Praed and the editor of his poems, and only a year ago he published +a touching tribute to John Moultrie. These two poets were also the +companions in youth of Macaulay, and each was in a way a stimulus to +the others in their first intellectual efforts. My place at the table +was just opposite to Macaulay, and I need not say with what keen +interest I looked at him and watched his countenance as he became +animated in conversation. His face was round, and his complexion was +colorless, one might almost say pallid: his hair, which appeared to +have been of a brownish hue, had become almost white. He was no doubt +then beginning to break in health, and perhaps this, which could only +be called a premature decay, was the penalty he was at length paying +for the years he had spent in India. His neck was short, and his +figure was short and ungainly. His eye had a quick flash, and his +change of expression was rapid; his head, too, had a quick movement; +and altogether there was a look of vivacity which showed that his +intellect was as keen as ever. He was always ready to speak, whatever +the subject, but he showed no disposition to take all the talk. There +was no moment of pause in the flowing after-dinner discussions, for +our host, as well as several of his guests, was abundantly able to +hold his own with this marvelous and every way delightful talker--this +prince in the domain of London social life. + +There was some conversation about Nollekens the sculptor, whose +inordinate love of money was such a curious blemish in his character. +Macaulay told one or two stories illustrating his parsimony. Then he +came to speak of art in general, and said he did not think the faculty +for it a high gift of mind. This opinion was strongly combated by Mr. +Blore the architect and others, but I remember Macaulay gave, as +in some sort an illustration of his theory, a story of Grant the +portrait-painter, then of chief eminence in London. Cornewall Lewis +was to sit to him, and Grant, knowing he had written books, desired to +get at least a smattering of them before the sittings began. But some +one, perhaps mischievously, told him Lewis was the author of _The +Monk_, and this book he accordingly read. He took an early opportunity +to refer to it to his sitter, who to his no small discomfiture +disclaimed it. As conclusive proof of the truth of this denial, Lewis +stated further that the book was written before he was born. Everybody +was amused that Cornewall Lewis, so famous for abstruse learning, +should have deemed it necessary to appeal thus to dates to show he was +not the author of a novel. + +Macaulay persisted in his theory that artistic power was not an +intellectual faculty, but I could not quite determine whether he was +not putting it forth as mere paradox. One could fancy the paroxysm of +rage into which Haydon would have been thrown had such a theory +been advanced in his presence; or Fuseli, who, as Haydon reports, +exclaimed, on first seeing the Elgin Marbles, with his strange accent, +"Those Greeks, they were _godes_." But the thought of Michel Angelo +and of Lionardo was a sufficient answer to the theory. + +Macaulay, in further support of his general proposition, maintained +that a man might be a great musical composer and yet not in the true +sense a man of genius. He instanced Mozart, who, he said, was not +claimed to have been of high intellectual ability. Mr. Herbert +Coleridge said he thought this a mistake, but he urged that full +details were wanting in regard to his mental capacity as shown in +other ways than in music. Macaulay replied that Mozart was the Raphael +of music, and was both a composer and a wonderful performer at the age +of six. "Now," said he, "we cannot conceive of any one being a great +poet at the age of six: we hear nothing of Shakespeare or Milton at +the age of six." + +The conversation turned to Homer and the question whether the Homeric +poems were the product of one mind. Macaulay maintained they were. It +was inconceivable, he said, that there could have been at the Homeric +period five or six poets equal to the production of the _Iliad_ and +the _Odyssey_. Great poets appeared at long intervals. As he reckoned +them, there had been but six given to the world--Homer, Shakespeare, +Dante, Milton, Sophocles and Æschylus. With the exception of the last +two, there had been great spaces of time between these. Could it be +supposed that at the very dawn of history there was a group, as it +were, of men each in the highest degree gifted with "the vision and +the faculty divine"? Then as to the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ being both +the production of Homer: if we admitted one to be, that the other was +would follow as a matter of course. It was the old test of Paley over +again--the finding the watch, and the presumption from it of a maker; +and in this case there was the watchmaker's shop close by. He urged, +too, that Homer was the only great poet who did not in narrating past +events use the present tense--speak of them as if happening at the +moment. He quoted long passages from _Paradise Lost_ to show how +Milton would fall into the present tense, though he might have begun +in the past. The fact that throughout the many thousand lines of Homer +no instance of the sort could be found seemed to make it clear that +but one mind produced them. It was very interesting to hear Macaulay +recite Milton, for whom he had such passionate admiration. He made +quotations also from Burns and from old ballads in illustration of +some theory which I do not recall, but showing his wonderful memory. +He had, indeed, an altogether marvelous facility in producing +passages as he might need them for whatever subject he was discussing. +Greville, writing of him in 1836, says that he displayed feats of +memory unequaled by any other human being, and that he could repeat +all Milton and all Demosthenes and a great part of the Bible. "But +his great _forte_," Greville adds, "is history, especially English +history. Here his superhuman memory, which appears to have the faculty +of digesting and arranging, as well as of retaining, has converted +his mind into a mighty magazine of knowledge, from which, with the +precision and correctness of a kind of intellectual machine, he pours +forth stores of learning, information, precept, example, anecdote and +illustration with a familiarity and facility not less astonishing than +delightful." + +Our evening was all too short. The talk had never flagged, and so the +time had gone quickly by. I may note that in the discussions about +Homer, Mr. Herbert Coleridge had shown the utmost familiarity with +the subject, making him seem in this respect quite on a level with +Macaulay. + +The time came for us to join the ladies in the drawing-room, but +Macaulay's carriage was announced, and he declined going up stairs +again, saying that his shortness of breath warned him it was dangerous +to do so. This symptom was doubtless due to that affection of the +heart which two years and a half later ended his life. As I have +said, he was beginning to give up dining out on account of his failing +health. But his delight was as great as ever in the society of his +near friends among men of letters, and these he continued to gather at +the breakfasts he had long been in the habit of giving--Dean Milman, +Lord Stanhope, the bishop of St. Davids (Thirlwall), our host, Mr. +Coleridge, and others. Occasionally he gave dinners to two persons. +His apartments were in Piccadilly, at what is known as the Albany. +His emoluments from his Indian appointment were ten thousand pounds a +year, and though he held the position little more than three years, +it was understood that his savings from it gave him an income of a +thousand pounds. This was before his English _History_ brought him in +its great returns. His Parliamentary life, Mr. Coleridge said, had not +been a success: he did good to neither party--indeed, was dangerous to +both. I may note a characteristic remark of his which was mentioned to +me by Mr. Coleridge: it was to the effect that what troubled us most +in life were the lesser worries and vexations: great perplexities and +calamities we somehow nerved ourselves to contend with. "If a thousand +megatheriums were let loose upon the world, in twenty-four hours they +would all be in museums." + +E.Y. + + + + +UNVEILING KEATS'S MEDALLION. + + +I have just returned from a little ceremony of which I think that +the readers of these pages will be pleased to have some permanent +record--the uncovering of the medallion portrait of Keats, which Mr. +Warrington Wood, the well-known sculptor, has generously given for the +purpose of adorning his tomb. I have recorded in a previous number +of this Magazine the steps which were taken last year for putting the +poet's celebrated grave and gravestone in a proper state of repair, +and the singular circumstances that showed how on both sides of the +Atlantic a similar thought had with truly curious simultaneousness +occurred to the lovers of the poet's memory. The very striking scene +which took place to-day marked the completion of the purposes which +were then inaugurated. + +A printed notice had invited all English and Americans in Rome, +interested in the subject, to attend at the English cemetery at +three o'clock, the day having been fixed by the fact that it was the +anniversary of the day of Keats's death. It was also, as it happened, +the second day of our boisterous and rollicking Carnival, and those +who attended had to absent themselves from the attractions of the +Corso. Nevertheless, the gathering was a large one, and the contrast +between the scene passing in that remote and quiet corner of old Rome +under the cypresses and in the shade of the pyramid of Caius Cestius, +and that which was at the same time being enacted in the Corso, was +about as great as can well be conceived. We had it all to ourselves. +With the exception of the coachmen, who remained lazily dozing on the +boxes of the carriages which had brought us from the living Rome of +to-day to this far-away spot, there was not a soul on the ground save +English and Americans. + +It must be quite needless to remind those who have ever seen it of +the features of that most poetically suggestive spot, and I can hardly +hope to enable any who have not seen it to form an adequate idea of +its exceeding beauty. It is just within the city wall, niched in an +angle of it, in the immediate vicinity of the Porta San Sebastiano, +but it is difficult to imagine that one is within the limits of a +great city; and it was especially so when the noise and racket of a +city in Carnival time had just been left behind one. But the fact is, +that large tracts of space, utterly uninhabited and unoccupied save +by scattered masses of the ruins of ancient Rome, lie between the +inhabited parts of the modern city and this far corner. The most +marked characteristic of the spot is its perfect quietude. The +ivy-grown city-wall, a group of fine cypresses, a few stone-pines +with their lovely velvet-like verdure, the gray old pyramid of +Caius Cestius immediately behind the cemetery, and a glimpse of the +dreamy-looking Alban Hills on the farther side of the Campagna, make +up a landscape which no artistic eye can rest on without being deeply +penetrated by the charm of it. February as it was, the day might have +been deemed a summer day anywhere to the northward of the Alps. It was +the very perfection of weather--warm, genial, still, and breathing the +sweet breath of a thousand wild flowers. The violets which abundantly +covered the grave were in full blossom, even as they had bloomed +beneath those old walls when the sight of them there had induced the +poet, prescient of his coming end, to wish that he might sleep his +long sleep beneath them. + +When we had all taken our places, and a eucalyptus plant, sent for the +purpose by Mr. Marsh, the American minister, had been planted on the +turf just behind the grave, the sheet which covered the medallion was +withdrawn, and a murmur of pleasure and admiration ran through +the crowd as they looked on the strikingly characteristic and +individualized presentment of the young poet's very remarkable and +striking features. I had seen the medallion before, and was therefore +at liberty to watch the effect which it produced on others; and I was +struck by the evidences in the faces of those around me that it spoke +very clearly to the hearts and imaginations of the spectators. + +General Sir Vincent Eyre, who had chiefly undertaken the trouble +of directing all that had been done for putting the gravestone into +perfect repair, adorning it with flowers and plants, and putting up +the medallion, was on the ground together with Miss Clarke, who had +been entrusted with a similar labor of love from America, and who had +co-operated "heart and hand," as Sir Vincent said, with him throughout +the whole business. As soon as the pleased murmur of the crowd had +subsided he stepped in front of the persons assembled and gave +a succinct account of what had been done, and a narrative of the +singular coincidence which had led to our co-heirs in the legacy +bequeathed to us by the poet being co-operators in the work. He +concluded a very neat and appropriate address by stating that the +subscriptions sent in for the restoration of the grave had left a sum +of about sixty pounds sterling in his hands, and that he proposed that +this should be augmented by about as much more, which would suffice to +place a bust of the poet in Westminster Abbey. The proposal met with +the warm approval of the assembly, and it was determined that Dr. +Stanley, the dean of Westminster, should at once be communicated with +on the subject. + +An interesting and affecting letter from Mr. Severn, the loving and +faithful friend of Keats, was read by Sir Vincent Eyre with much +feeling. It contained a few simple words to the effect that the writer +would much have wished to be present on the occasion of the unveiling +of the medallion, but that he feared to be overcome by the pathos of +the circumstances, strong emotions not being easily borne at the age +of eighty-two years. There were many moistened eyes in the assembly +as Sir Vincent read the communication from the poet's venerable friend +and survivor. + +T.A.T. + + + + +GINO CAPPONI. + + +GINO CAPPONI, whose death, on the 3d of February last, has been +noticed in all the principal journals of Europe and America, belonged +to a family that has been honored in Florence for more than five +hundred years, and whose name occurs on almost every page of its +history. He was born in that city on the 14th of September, 1792. His +name in full was Gino Alessandro Giuseppe Gaspero, but no one ever +heard of him save as Gino. At seven years of age he shared the +exile of his parents, who followed their sovereign, the grand duke +Ferdinand, when he was driven from his dominions by the victorious +arms of France. He was little more than twenty when he went as a +member of the embassy sent to Napoleon I. immediately after the +battle of Leipsic, on which occasion he is recorded to have had a long +conversation with the emperor. After the restoration of the Tuscan +sovereign at the fall of Napoleon he traveled extensively in England, +Germany and France. Returning to his country, he was continually eager +in using his large hereditary wealth for the promotion of education +among all classes of his countrymen. He was one of the principal +founders and supporters of the celebrated periodical, the _Antologia_, +which played so large and conspicuous a part in preparing the public +mind for the awakening which finally issued in that resuscitation of +Italy which we have all witnessed. + +In 1841 he mainly contributed to the foundation of the _Archivio +Storico Italiano_, the fruitful parent of various other publications +of the same kind which have within the last thirty years done +infinitely more for students of Italian history than all the three +centuries which preceded them. The famous bookseller Vieusseux, who +himself did much and suffered much in the cause of the nascent Italian +liberties, undertook the material portion of this enterprise, which +was rewarded by a large measure of literary success, and by the fear +and enmity of the oppressors of Italy throughout the Peninsula. + +Capponi, however, would fain have avoided _revolution_ could it have +been avoided without sacrificing liberty. In July, 1847, when the +general state of Europe was bringing home to the minds of rulers the +cogent necessity of becoming reformers or of vanishing, Capponi was +made a councillor of state, and at the close of that year was employed +by the grand duke to draw up a scheme of representative institutions +for Tuscany. To give anything approaching to a complete account of +Capponi's activity during the troubled period which followed would +be to write the history of Tuscany during that period. The general +progress of affairs was precisely that which history has had so often +to recount. The sovereign, frightened, obstinate, and little able to +appreciate the forces opposed to him, was wavering, fickle, timid, +yet stubborn, and, above all, untrustworthy. The people were bent on +pushing matters to extremes to which those who had so far been their +leaders were unwilling to go, and, as usual, the best of those leaders +were shunted from the road, happy if they were able, as Capponi was, +to retire in safety to the tranquil seclusion of studious life. +When, after the flight of the grand duke from his dominions and his +subsequent restoration by Austrian bayonets, a regular government was +once more established in Florence, Capponi was constant, though wholly +unconnected with public life officially, in tendering counsel to the +grand duke which, had it been listened to, might have saved his throne +and changed all the future of Italy. But he was disregarded, and even +suspected; and, as we all know, the end came in the memorable 1859. +After the union of Italy under Victor Emmanuel, Capponi was at once +named a senator and decorated with all the honors the sovereign had +to bestow. But, alas! they were bestowed on a blind old man, whose +misfortune incapacitated him from taking any part in public life. From +the time when the Italian revolution was consummated the life of Gino +Capponi was that of a retired and laborious student. The loss of his +sight by no means involved in his case the abandonment of literary +labor; and his last great work, published but a year or two ago, +the _History of the Republic of Florence_, is the _second_ great +historical work which in our own time has been produced by an author +deprived of eyesight. + +Capponi began his literary life at twenty by the publication in 1812 +of _Observations on a Critical Examination of Amerigo Vespucci's +First Voyage to the New World_: he ended it, as has been said, by the +publication at eighty of his Florentine _History_. To give even the +titles of all the works he published in the interim would occupy more +than two of these columns. He has left in manuscript a _History of the +Church during the First Centuries_ and _Records of the Years_ 1814-16, +1821, 1831, 1847-49. It is to be hoped that the latter of these +works will see the light: Capponi's account of the memorable years in +question would be no small boon to the historian. + +It is needless to say that the funeral, and obsequies of this great +citizen were surrounded by every observance that could help to mark +the nation's sense of the greatness of the loss it had sustained. It +would be hardly possible to name a corner of Italy that has not by +deputation or special official message sought to associate itself with +the task of doing him honor. + +T.A.T. + + + + +A DINNER WITH ROSSI. + + +"Come and dine with us next Thursday," said an American literary lady +now residing in Paris to a friend or two recently. "We expect Rossi on +that day, and I think you would like to meet him." + +The company was but a small one, the intention of the hostess being +not to show off her distinguished guest, but to bring together a few +congenial spirits to pass a pleasant hour in his society. Punctual to +the minute, the hero of the occasion entered, his superb physique +and majestic presence showing to even greater advantage in the +irreproachable evening garb of a finished gentleman than in the velvet +and tinsel of his stage attire. As is the case with almost all really +handsome actors or actresses, Rossi is finer-looking off the stage +than on it. The simplicity and refinement of his manners, totally +free from anything like affectation or posing for effect, are very +noticeable. His head is noble, both in form and carriage, and he has +a way, when eager in conversation, of pushing back the masses of his +profuse chestnut hair which gives a sort of leonine look to the broad +massive brow and intelligent features. + +Once seated at table, the conversation naturally turned upon the +dramatic art and upon Shakespeare. Every person present except the +king of the feast was an American, and a Shakespeare fanatic as well. +Rather to the surprise of even his most ardent admirers, the great +tragedian proved to be a keen and intelligent Shakespearian scholar, +not only of the roles that he has made his own, but also of the whole +of the works of the world's greatest dramatist. + +"I date my love for Shakespeare," said Rossi, "from the time that +I was a little child. My grandfather possessed a set of his plays +translated into Italian, and whenever I was restless and unable to go +to sleep he would take me into his arms and lull me to rest with tales +from these treasured volumes. + +"It was I who first introduced Shakespeare in his veritable form on +the Italian stage. Up to that time the classic form had been alone +considered admissible for tragedy. The first play that I produced was +_Othello_. When in the first scene Brabantio came to the window, +the audience began to laugh. 'Is this a tragedy?' they cried--'a man +talking out of a window!' They laughed all through the first acts. +But," continued Rossi, looking round with a sudden flash from his +expressive eyes, "when the scene with Iago came they ceased to laugh; +and henceforward they laughed no more. At the present time Shakespeare +is thoroughly appreciated in Italy. Our audiences would not endure +the altered and garbled versions of the French stage. Rouvière once +undertook to play in Italy the version of _Hamlet_ constructed by the +elder Dumas and M. V----. When, in the last act, the Ghost appeared +to tell Hamlet _Tu vivras_, the audience rose _en masse_ and fairly +shouted and jeered the performers off the stage. It is in Germany, +however, that Shakespeare is best known and understood. The very +bootblacks in the street know all about him and his greatest works." + +The fact now came out that Rossi is an accomplished linguist. He reads +and understands both English and German, though he speaks neither +language. French he speaks as fluently as he does Italian, and he +is also versed in Spanish. He spoke rapturously of the German +_Shakespeare_ (Schlegel's translation), declaring that he considered +it nearly equal to the original. + +"Next to Shakespeare, but at a great distance below him, I would rank +Moliere," said Rossi in answer to a query from one of the guests. +"Moliere has given us real types of character and real humor. But he +was the man of his epoch, not for all time. He has painted for us +the men and manners of his day and generation: he did not take all +humanity for a study. Therefore, his works appear old-fashioned on the +modern stage, while those of Shakespeare will never seem faded or out +of date." + +"What a wonder, what a marvel was Shakespeare! He was an Englishman +born and bred, yet he turns to Italy and paints for us a picture of +Italian life and love such as no Italian hand has ever drawn. His +heart throbs, his imagination glows, with all the fire and fervor of +the South. He depicts for us a Moor, an African, and the sun of Africa +scorches his brain and inflames his passions." + +"And Hamlet," I remarked, "is thoroughly of the North--a German even, +rather than Englishman." + +"To me," answered Rossi, "Hamlet represents no nationality and no one +type of character. He is the image of humanity. Hamlet is to me not a +man, but Man. The sufferings, the doubts, the vague mysteries of life +are incarnate in his person. He is ever checked by the Unknown. He is +tortured by the phantasm of Doubt. Is the spectre indeed his father's +shade? has it spoken truth? is it well to live? is it best to +die?--such are the problems that perplex his brain." + +"To be or not to be--that is the question; but it is only one of the +questions that haunt his soul." + +"A distinguished English actor who had come to Paris to see me act +once asked me why, in the first scene with the Ghost, I betray no +terror, while in the scene with the Queen I crouch in affright behind +a chair, wild with alarm, the moment the phantom appears. I answered +that in the first scene the Ghost comes before Hamlet as the image of +a beloved and lamented parent, while in the second-named instance he +appears as an embodiment of conscience. For Hamlet has disobeyed +the mandate of the spectre: he has dared to threaten and upbraid his +mother. + +"The reason why the Ghost is visible to Marcellus, Bernardo and +Horatio In the first act, and not to the Queen in the third, has +always appeared to me very simple. The phantom appears only to those +who loved and mourned the dead king. Not to his false wife, not to her +who, if not cognizant of his murder, is yet wedded to his murderer, +will the pale Shape appear. + +"_Hamlet_, above all tragedies, is independent of the accessories +of scenery and costume. With a slight change of surroundings the +character might be performed in modern dress without injury to its +marvelous individuality." + +Rossi was much surprised when he learned that most of the +stage-business in _Hamlet_ which he had studied out for himself formed +part and parcel of the traditions of the play on the American and +English boards. Among the points that he specified as having been thus +thought out was the reference to the two miniatures in the scene with +the Queen-- + + Look here, upon this picture, and on this; + +and he strongly deprecated the idea of two life-sized portraits +hanging against the wall, as is sometimes the usage. + +Mention was made of Bulwer's _Richelieu_ by one of the guests as a +part peculiarly fitted to the powers of the great tragedian, and he +was asked if he knew the play. + +"No," answered Rossi, "and I should scarcely care to add it to +my repertoire, which is already rather an extensive one. I have +personated in my time over four hundred characters, including all the +prominent personages of Alfieri, Molière and Goldoni." + +"Then you play comedy as well as tragedy? Have you ever appeared as +Shakespeare's Benedick?" + +"Never, but I may perhaps study the character for my approaching tour +in the United States. My other Shakespearian characters, besides those +in which I have already appeared in Paris, are Coriolanus, Shylock, +and Timon of Athens. Once I began to study Richard III., but chancing +to see Bogumil Dawison in that character, I was so delighted with +his personation that I gave up all thoughts of performing the part +myself." + +At this juncture our host attempted to fill Rossi's glass with some +peculiarly choice wine, but the tragedian stopped him with a smile. "I +am very temperate in my habits," he said, "and drink nothing but light +claret. I am not one of those that think that an actor can never play +with proper fire unless he is half drunk, like Kean in _Désordre et +Genie_. I may have very little genius--" + +But here a universal outcry interrupted the speaker. That proposition +was evidently wholly untenable, in that company at least. + +"Well, then," added Rossi laughing, "whatever genius I may possess, I +do not believe in disorder." + +This little incident turned the conversation on the modern French +drama, whereof Rossi spoke rather slightingly, stigmatizing it as +mechanical, being composed of plays written to be performed and not +to live. "In Victor Hugo's dramas," he remarked, "there are some fine +lines and noble passages, but the characters are always Victor Hugo +in a mask: they are never real personages. It is always the author +who speaks--never a new individuality. As to the classic dramatists of +France, they are intolerable. Corneille is perhaps a shade better than +Racine, but both are stiff, pompous and unnatural: their characters +are a set of wooden puppets that are pulled by wires and work in a +certain fixed manner, from which they never deviate. + +"It was Voltaire that taught the French to despise Shakespeare. He +called him a barbarian, and the French believe that saying true to +the present time. Yet he did not hesitate to steal _Othello_ when he +wanted to write _Zaïre_, or, rather, he went out on the boulevards, +picked out the first good-looking barber he could find, dressed him +up in Eastern garments, and then fancied that he had created a French +Othello." + +"I saw Mounet-Sully at one of the performances of your _Othello_" I +remarked. "I wonder what he thought of his own personation of Orosmane +when he witnessed the real tragedy?" + +"Had Mounet-Sully been able to appreciate _Othello_" answered Rossi, +"he never could have brought himself to personate Orosmane." + +Some one then asked Rossi what he thought of the Comédie Frarçaise. + +"The Comédie Française," said Rossi, "like every school of acting that +is founded on art, and not on Nature, is falling into decadence. It +is ruled by tradition, not by the realities of life and passion. One +incident that I beheld at a rehearsal at that theatre in 1855 revealed +the usual process by which their great performers study their art. I +was then fulfilling an engagement in Paris with Ristori, and, though +only twenty-two years of age, I was her leading man and stage-manager +as well. The Italian troupe was requested to perform at the Comédie +Française on the occasion of the benefit of which I have spoken, and +we were to give one act of _Maria Stuart_, When we arrived at the +theatre to commence our rehearsal the company was in the act of +rehearsing a scene from _Tartuffe_ which was to form part of the +programme on the same occasion. M. Bressant was the Tartuffe, and +Madeleine Brohan was to personate Elmire. They came to the point where +Tartuffe lays his hand on the knee of Elmire. Thereupon, Mademoiselle +Brohan turned to the stage-manager and asked, 'What am I to do now?' +'Well,' said that functionary, 'Madame X---- used to bite her lips and +look sideways at the offending hand; Madame Z---- used to blush +and frown, etc.' But neither of them said, What would a woman like +Elmire--a virtuous woman--do if so insulted by a sneaking hypocrite? +They took counsel of tradition, not of Nature. In fact, the French +stage is given over to sensation dramas and the opéra bouffe, and such +theatres as the Comédie Française and the Odéon have but a forced and +artificial existence." + +"Not a word against the opéra bouffe!" remarked one of the +lady-guests, laughing. "Did I not see you enjoying yourself immensely +at the second representation of _La Boulangère a des Écus?_" + +Whereupon Rossi assumed an air of conscious guilt most comical to see. + +Some one then asked him at what age and in what character he had +made his début. His reply was: "I was just fourteen, and I played the +soubrette characters in an amateur company--a line that I could hardly +assume with any degree of vraisemblance now." And he put his head on +one side, thrust his hands into a pair of imaginary apron-pockets and +looked around with a pert, chambermaid-like air so absurdly unsuited +to his noble features and intellectual brow--to say nothing of his +stalwart physique--that all present shrieked with laughter. + +The evening was now drawing to a close, and the guests began to take +their departure. When Rossi came to say farewell his hostess asked him +if he would do her the favor of writing his autograph in her copy of +Shakespeare. He assented at once, and taking up the pen, he wrote in +Italian these lines: "O Master! would that I could comprehend thee +even as I love thee!" and then appended his name. + +A peculiar brightness and geniality of temperament, a childlike +simplicity of manner, united to a keen and cultivated intellect and +to a thorough knowledge of social conventionalities,--such was the +impression left by Signor Rossi on the minds of those present. There +was a total absence of conceit or of self-assertion that was very +remarkable in a member of his profession, and one, too, of such +wide-spread celebrity. The general verdict of Europe is that he is as +great an actor as Salvini, while his répertoire is far more important +and varied: it remains to be seen whether the United States will +endorse the verdict of Italy and of Paris. + +L.H.H. + + + + +"FOUNDER'S DAY" AT RAINE'S HOSPITAL. + + +MAY DAY in London would not seem at first sight to realize the +traditionary associations connected with its name, but in a certain +parish of the city a more solid interest attaches to this day, and +young girls look forward to the ceremony which marks it with more +anxiety than ever did village-lass to her expected royalty of a +day. Twice a year (the Fifth of November being the other occasion) +a wedding-portion of one hundred pounds is given by lot to one girl +among the many whose antecedents, as prescribed by the founder's will, +entitle them to become candidates. This endowment is connected +with what is known as Raine's Asylum in the parish of St. +George's-in-the-East, London. The parish is populous and +unfashionable, and proportionately poor and interesting. Among its +members in the last century was Henry Raine, a brewer, who in 1719 +founded two schools for the free education of fifty girls and fifty +boys, respectively. In 1736 he founded and endowed a new school, +called the Asylum, for teaching, clothing and training forty girls to +domestic service, the girls to be chosen from among the children of +the lower school. In this latter school each girl stays four years, +and the system has worked so well that the scholars are greatly sought +after as servants. At the age of twenty-two any girl, educated there, +who can produce good testimonials while in service, may become a +candidate for a marriage-portion of one hundred pounds. Six girls draw +for it on May Day, and six on the Fifth of November, the unsuccessful +ones being entitled to draw again from time to time until they get it. +The drawing is preceded by a special service in the parish church, +the boys and girls from the lower schools being present, and going +in procession from the school to the church arrayed in quaint, +old-fashioned costume. The former wear a half-nautical costume, the +neighborhood being in many ways connected with sea-pursuits: +the latter are dressed in blue stuff gowns, a white apron and a +handkerchief folded over the breast, and a small white cap bound +round with a Blue ribbon. Every one, from the gorgeous beadle to the +youngest child, has also a bouquet of flowers on this occasion. The +beadle is an "institution" that has disappeared in America, but which +still looms in awful official grandeur before the mind's eye of every +London-bred child. On these occasions he is in all his glory: his +military costume and silver-headed staff are the very embodiment of +dignity, and to the less awed spectator of riper years he fills in a +niche of old-time conventionality very picturesquely. The service is +followed by the wedding of the successful candidate of the previous +occasion, so that each of the two memorable days becomes a double +festival. The bells strike a merry peal, and the procession forms once +more and goes back to the Asylum, where, in a curious apartment, the +walls of which are covered with the names of donors to the charity, +the drawing takes place. The girls of the Asylum enter the room and +begin by singing a short hymn, accompanied by an old-fashioned +organ. The treasurer of the Asylum Fund, in exact compliance with the +explicit directions of the founder's charter, takes a half sheet of +white paper and writes the words "One Hundred Pounds" on it, then five +other blank half sheets, and wraps each tight round a little roller of +wood tied with a narrow green ribbon. The knot of each is then firmly +sealed with red sealing-wax, and all the rolls formally deposited in +a large canister placed on a small table in the middle of the +room. There is nothing else on the table except a candle in a small +candlestick, to be used in sealing the rolls. The treasurer stands by +as each candidate draws, and when all the rolls are drawn the girls go +up to the chairwoman (generally the rector's wife), at the upper end +of the room. She then cuts the ribbon of each and returns the roll to +its owner. It is not long before the fortunate one is recognized. The +scene is full of interest even to a stranger, and was evidently one of +great pleasure to the founder himself, as appears from the wording of +his will, in which he exhorts his nephews to buy four thousand pounds +of stock for the permanent provision of these portions. "I doubt not," +he says, "but my nephews would cheerfully purchase the said stock if +they had seen, as I have, six poor innocent maidens come trembling to +draw the prize, and the fortunate maiden that got it burst into tears +with excess of joy." It is likely that even before he had founded +and endowed the Asylum, Henry Raine had often given away portions to +deserving young girls. That drawn on May Day is not given until after +the wedding on November 5, and that drawn in November is given in May. +The dowry consists of gold pieces in an old-fashioned silk purse, +and is formally presented to the young couple at the committee +dinner which takes place after the drawing. Of course, the husband's +character is quite as strictly inquired into as that of the bride, +and unless this is perfectly satisfactory to the rector, treasurer +and trustees the portion is withheld--a wise provision against +fortune-hunting. A wedding-repast is also provided for the bridal +party at the same time, but in a separate room, and to neither of +these banquets are the public admitted: a few personal friends of the +trustees are sometimes asked. The dinner is a pretty sight, the girls +of the lower school waiting on the committee. The treasurer, the +rector and a few others accompany the presentation of the portion with +kind and congratulatory speeches, and the girls sing appropriate hymns +in the intervals. + +The building called Raine's Asylum (or sometimes Hospital) is a +plain, ugly, square mass, as all specimens of the so-called Georgian +"architecture" are apt to be. The London atmosphere has rather +blackened than mellowed its crude tone of red brick and white +stone till the whole is of the uniform color of India ink. Over the +projecting portico stands the bust of the founder in wig and bands, +looking more like a scholar or a divine than a brewer, and leaving the +impression of a good, truthful, thoughtful face, with a long slender +nose, thin mouth and broad and massive forehead. Behind the Asylum +stretches a garden--not a small one for such a locality--and, though +London gardens are not apt to be cheery places, this one has at +least the merit of standing as evidence of the kind-hearted founder's +intention to bestow as much fresh air as possible on his _protégées_. + +B.M. + + + + +NOTES. + + +TURKEY is the _pièce de résistance_ of European politics. It has +lasted through the sitting of a century. At intervals the assembled +gourmands would simultaneously bend their eyes upon it; and an +energetic sharpening of carving-knives and poising of forks would +spring up with a synchronous shuffling of plates. Slashing would +sometimes follow, and slices were served round with more or less +impartiality and contentment. But the choice cuts remain, and never +was the interest or anxiety of the guests more highly strung than at +present. The excitement, pleasurable in itself, has become more so +from habit. Were the dish to be finally cleared, how sadly it would be +missed! "What shall we do with it?" would have lost its perplexities +in favor of "What shall we do without it?" It may be well doubted if +the latter question will soon become troublesome. Empires are, like +the Merry Monarch, an unconsciously long time in dying. Atrophy +appears to spin out their existence. The process lasted with the +Turk's predecessor at Byzantium six or eight centuries. For barely +two, if we date from Sobieski instead of Don John of Austria, has +it been going on with him. He bids fair to live long enough to see a +great deal of change disturb, if not prostrate, his physicians before +it comes in its final shape to him. + + * * * * * + +This land of law, lawyers and lawmakers is badly in want of a jurist +or two. Advocates, special pleaders, log-rollers, and codes that +are recodified every twelvemonth are poor substitutes for a few men +capable of perceiving the principles of equity, systematizing their +expression and making them simple, uniform and absolute in practice. +When a judge in one of the largest and most enlightened States of the +Union grants a writ of error to a convict whom he has twice sentenced +to be hanged, it is plain to the dullest unprofessional eye that +something is radically and mischievously wrong with bench, bar, +or legislature, or with all three. It makes the administration of +justice, in its best aspect, a lottery; the goddess blindfolded, it +may be, but only for drawing from the wheel. In the worst aspect it +makes of it a hideous mockery. With the proverbial uncertainty of the +law we have been long familiar. It is measurably curable. We are now +confronted by its proverbial certainty to go wrong. Whether the cause +lie in the mode of election and tenure of judges, a tendency of the +bar to limit its responsibility by the title and the ethics of the +attorney, or the endless tinkering of forty legislatures, or in all +of these combined with other influences that might be suggested, it is +evident that we are ripe for law reform, and that our Romilly cannot +appear too soon. + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + + Sonnets, Songs and Stories. By Cora Kennedy Aitken. London: + Hodder & Stoughton. + +This little book is one of that numerous class which is the despair of +the critic. Its spirit is so much better than its letter that one is +left in doubt whether its author is incapable of more careful finish, +or is simply disdainful of it. Mrs. Aitken is apparently a lesser +Mrs. Browning, cast in a Scotch mould. She is fond of writing upon +patriotic or historic themes, and through all her poems runs a current +of strong religious feeling. Without being in any sense an imitator of +Mrs. Browning, there is a certain trick of phrase here and there which +recalls her style, while the choice of subjects continually reminds +one of Mrs. Browning's favorite themes. One of her sonnets, called +"Unless" (an awkward title enough, by the by) begins thus: + + Sweetheart, I tell thee, I, a woman born + To live by music, and to soar and sing, + As stars for shining, flowers for blossoming, + Could never sit beneath the stars and mourn + With missing aught from such high destinies. + +That is very suggestive of Mrs. Browning's style, and it were easy to +multiply instances; such as this, for example, from the poem called +"In York:" + + The broad vaulted aisles are so still we can hear + The silences bend thro' the loneliness, listening + To the eloquent brasses that burn at our feet, + With holy signs glistening. + +This is the worst form of Browningese. Exactly what Mrs. Aitken meant +by it she probably knows as little as any of us; but we would humbly +suggest to her that one does not _hear_ anything bend, unless it be +of a creaking nature, like an old tree, and that is rather opposed +to one's idea of "silences," vague as our notions of that plural +noun are. Why one "silence" could not serve her turn is one of those +Dundrearyan conundrums that no fellow can find out. And, while we are +about it, we should like to know whether it is the silences or the +loneliness or "we" that listen to the eloquent brasses, and to inquire +mildly why the poet threw away the opportunity to say the "brazen +eloquences," which would have been novel and striking, and quite +in the vein of her great original. If Mrs. Browning can talk about +"broken sentiency" and "elemental strategies," why should not Mrs. +Aitken aspire to hear the silences bend? To do her justice, she does +not use such expressions very often--her style is usually simple and +comprehensible--but she does sometimes make the mistake of confounding +incomprehensibility and power. She has some pretty descriptions of +Nature here and there, and one or two of her ballads are very good, +especially that called "A Story of Tours;" but her sonnets are none +of them constructed after the genuine Italian model, and generally +end with a couplet. Her blank verse is the worst of all. The most +ambitious poem in the book is that called "A Day in the Life of Mary +Stuart," a dramatic poem in three scenes, dated the last of January, +1567. It contains a scene between the queen and her maidens, a scene +with the Presbyterian deputies, and a scene with Bothwell, wherein she +incites him to the murder of Darnley. It is unfortunate that the poem +should have appeared in the same year with Swinburne's _Bothwell_, +that magnificent study of the character of Mary Stuart. The characters +in Mrs. Aitken's sketch are weak and thin, and the verse intolerable. +She divides the most inseparable phrases to make out her measure, +and constantly ends the lines with a preposition. No torturing of the +voice can make verse of such sentences as these: + + He bids + Your grace deny Lord Bothwell's wish to be + Made member of the council, and if so + Be you delay, he-- + +In the scene with Bothwell the queen declares her love to him thus: + + Wait you for love? 'Tis worth the waiting for. + God put a power of closer tenderness + In mine than in most women's souls. Who thrills + The senses, holds the heart, in all inspiring + Ways sweetens and magnifies to good + Love's life, conceiving colder estimate + Of love? So will I love you, without stint. + +Compare this feeble and disjointed utterance with the corresponding +speech in Swinburne's play. Mary says: + + O my fair lord! + How fairer is this warrior face, and eyes + With the iron light of battle in them, left + As the after-fire of sunset left in heaven + When the sun sinks, than any fool's face made + Of smiles and courtly color! Now I feel + As I were man too, and had part myself + In your great strength; being one with you as I, + How should I not be strong? + + + Cartoons. By Margaret J. Preston. Boston: Roberts Brothers. + +If Mrs, Aitken's poems suggest Mrs. Browning's, these _Cartoons_ of +Mrs. Preston's have a slight flavor of Robert Browning's _Men and +Women_ in their subjects and in their mode of thought. A cartoon is +usually supposed to be a design for tapestry or mosaic, but we suppose +that Mrs. Preston has taken the significance given the word by our +illustrated papers, where it is held to mean a large outline sketch. +The title is not a very happy one, but the poems, are much better than +the title. They are strong, simple and well-written, and the subjects +are usually very well chosen. They are divided into "Cartoons from the +Life of the Old Masters," "Cartoons from the Life of the Legends" and +"Cartoons from the Life of To-day." Of these, the second division is +perhaps the weakest, the first the most interesting, while the third +makes up in religious sentiment what it lacks in poetic strength and +beauty. It contains more commonplace verses and ideas than either +of the other two. Of the stories of the old masters, "Mona Lisa's +Picture," "The Duke's Commission" and "Woman's Art" are perhaps the +best, and the last poem especially is very spirited and terse. +Mrs. Preston's style has the rare merit in these days of uniting +conciseness and directness to grace and beauty of expression. Her +greatest failing is a lack of the sense of climax. There are several +of these poems, like the two on the Venerable Bede and that called +"Bacharach Wine," that rather disappoint one by the insignificance +of their closing stanzas or the gradual dwindling of their interest +toward the end. There is a great deal of art in knowing when to stop, +and there are many stories, like some of those in this book, that are +very impressive told in a few words, but elaborated into a long poem +lose all their power to move us. At the same time, we realize that it +is not from any poverty of ideas that Mrs. Preston sometimes dwells +too long upon a subject: her poetry is not diluted with a mere +harmonious jingle of words, as destitute of any meaning as the silver +chime of sleigh-bells. "The Legend of the Woodpecker" is remarkable +for its simplicity and terseness: it is one of the best of all the +poems; only we wish that in the last verse but one she had not thought +it necessary to use the word "chode" for "chided." So in the fine +ballad called "The Reapers of Landisfarne" it is a pity to mar a good +stanza by using the queer participle "strawed" as a rhyme to _sod_ and +_abroad_, especially as the latter words do not rhyme either, save in +New England parlance. But such blemishes as these in Mrs. Preston's +work are rare, and therefore it is worth while to point them out. +Poems of so much vigor as these give fair promise for the future, and +deserve something more than merely general commendation. + + + Among my Books. (Second Series.) By James Russell Lowell. + Boston: James R. Osgood & Co. + +The essays in this volume have an advantage over the former series +published under the same title in the greater homogeneousness of the +subjects. These are all poets, and with one exception English poets. +They are poets, too, so to speak, of one family, unequal in rank, but +having that resemblance of character which marks the higher and lower +peaks of the same mountain-chain. All are epic and lyric, none in a +proper sense dramatic. All are poets _de pur sang_, endowed by nature +with the special qualities which cannot be confounded with those of a +different order, and which forbid all doubt as to a true "vocation." +Dante, Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth, Keats, differing as they do +in intellectual greatness and imaginative power, have all, as a +distinguishing characteristic, that magic mastery over the harmonies +of language which renders them responsive to subtle thoughts and +ethereal conceptions. We find, however, no intimation that it is from +any view of this kind that these essays have been collected, in a +single group. It seems indeed more probable that they have simply been +reprinted, in the order in which they first appeared, on being found +of sufficient bulk to fill a volume of the desired size. Nor is it to +be supposed that they indicate a particular course of study pursued +with reference to their production. Though the author has had the +works on which he comments beside him while he wrote, his long and +close familiarity with them, as well as with the range of literature +to which they belong, and with the principles and necessary details +which help to illustrate them, is apparent throughout. Seldom, indeed, +except in the case of a specialist devoting himself to some single +field, has a critical panoply been more complete than that with which +Mr. Lowell has armed himself. He discusses with equal learning and +enthusiasm the profoundest and the minutest questions, mysteries of +consciousness and niceties of metre and accent. Yet this laboriousness +is curiously conjoined with something of a sybaritic tone, as of a +taste cultivated to hyper-fastidiousness and courting a languorous +enjoyment of flavors rather than the satisfaction of a keen appetite. +There are in this book some passages in which the thought is so +attenuated in the process of elaboration and figurative adornment that +we are tempted to regard the whole as a mere effort of fancy, not as +the expression of a serious conviction. It might have been appropriate +and suggestive to characterize the poetry of Spenser by some allusions +to the splendors and bizarreries of Venetian art; but when it is +asserted as a proposition logically formulated and supported that "he +makes one think always of Venice; for not only is his style Venetian, +but as the gallery there is housed in the shell of an abandoned +convent, so his in that of a deserted allegory; and again, as at +Venice you swim in a gondola from Gian Bellini to Titian, and from +Titian to Tintoret, so in him, where other cheer is wanting, the +gentle sway of his measure, like the rhythmical impulse of the oar, +floats you lullingly along from picture to picture,"--we are rather +reminded of Venetian filigree than struck by the force and truth +of the analogy. The statement that Spenser's style is Venetian is a +puzzling one, and we are not much helped by the explanation given in +a foot note, where Mr. Lowell, citing from the _Muiopotmos_ a +description of the rape of Europa, asks, "Was not this picture painted +by Paul Veronese, for example?" and then adds, "Spenser begins a +complimentary sonnet prefixed to the 'Commonwealth and Government of +Venice' (1599) with this beautiful verse, + + Fair Venice, flower of the last world's delight. + +Perhaps we should read 'lost.'" + +We fail to get any light from these quotations, and we should be +glad to have been spared the doubt as to Mr. Lowell's accuracy and +authority as a verbal critic suggested by his off-hand emendation of a +phrase which he has remembered for its alliterative sweetness while +he has missed its sense and forgotten the context. In the line "Fayre +Venice," etc., which occurs not at the beginning, but near the end, +of the sonnet, "lost" would be so contradictory to the sense that +any editor who had found the word thus printed and had failed to +substitute "last" would have betrayed inexcusable negligence. +Spenser, writing while Venice, though declined from the height of her +greatness, was still flourishing as well as fair, considers her as the +marvel of his own age--the "last," i.e., latest, world--as Babylon and +Rome, with which he compares her, had been the marvels of antiquity, +of worlds that were indeed lost.[6] Slips of this kind are probably +rare, but a prevailing tendency to put forward loose or fanciful +conjectures as _ex-cathedrâ_ rulings detracts from the pleasure and +instruction to be derived from these essays. + +[Footnote 6: Here is the sonnet, that the reader may judge for +himself: + + "The antique Babel, Empresse of the East, + Upreard her buildinges to the threatned skie; + And second Babell, Tyrant of the West, + Her ayry towers upraised much more high. + But, with the weight of their own surquedry, + They both are fallen, that all the earth did feare, + And buried now in their own ashes ly: + Yet shewing, by their heapes, how great they were. + But in their place doth now a third appeare, + Fayre Venice, flower of the last world's delight; + And next to them in beauty draweth neare, + But far exceedes in policie of right. + Yet not so fayre her buildinges to behold + As Lewkenor's stile that hath her beautie told."] + + + + +_BOOKS RECEIVED._ + + +The Excavation of Olympia, by Ernst Curtius; and Ernst Curtius, by +Prof. Robert P. Keep, Ph. D. Republished from _International Review_. +New York: A.S. Barnes & Co. + +History of the United States. By J.A. Doyle, with Maps by Francis A. +Walker. (Freeman's Historical Course for Schools.) New York: Henry +Holt & Co. + +Our National Currency and the Money Problem. By Hon. Amasa Walker, +LL.D. New York: A.S. Barnes & Co. + +A Hundred Years Ago, and other Poems. By Charles W.E. Siegel, A.B. +Lancaster: Daily and Weekly Examiner. + +History of the United States. (Centenary Edition.) Vol.I. By George +Bancroft. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. + +The Christ of Paul; or, The Enigmas of Christianity. By George Reber. +New York: Charles P. Somerby. + +Percy Bysshe Shelley as a Philosopher and Reformer. By Charles +Sotheran. New York: Charles P. Somerby. + +The Summerfield Imbroglio: A Tale. By Mortimer Collins. Boston: +Loring. + +Dear Lady Disdain. By Justin McCarthy. New York: Sheldon & Co. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular +Literature and Science, Vol. XVII. No. 101. May, 1876., by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13956 *** |